Session208
TitleRegarding Henries?: Representing Kingship in Medieval and Modern Sources
Date/TimeMonday 4 July 2022: 14.15-15.45
 
OrganiserIMC Programming Committee
 
Moderator/ChairDavid Green, Centre for British Studies, Harlaxton College, University of Evansville
 
Paper 208-a John of Salisbury: The Mirrored Tyrannies of King and Archbishop
(Language: English)
Grace Nicoll, Department of History, Classics & Religion, University of Alberta
Index Terms: Ecclesiastical History; Philosophy; Political Thought
Paper 208-b A (Mostly) Unknown Text Arguing for the Sanctity of Henry the Young King
(Language: English)
Moreed Arbabzadah, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Hugh M. Thomas, Department of History, University of Miami
Index Terms: Ecclesiastical History; Hagiography; Historiography - Medieval; Politics and Diplomacy
 
AbstractPaper -a:
John of Salisbury analyses the powers of church and state and the differences between godly and wicked rulers in his political treatise the Policraticus. Thomas Becket and King Henry II, who respectively meet John's criteria of church and state tyranny, are used as case studies. This paper discusses his categorisation of secular and ecclesiastical princes, focusing on his analogy of the state and Church as body and soul. John's views on the justification of tyrannicide will be examined along with an analysis of the contradictory nature of his non-hierocratic views.

Paper -b:
In 1875, in his Rolls Series edition of Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicon Anglicanum, Joseph Stevenson published an additional text, 'Thomas Agnellus De Morte et Sepultura Henrici Regis Angliae Junioris'. Unfortunately, Stevenson gave no hint that he was including only about 30 percent of the text, covering Henry's death and some subsequent miracles but excluding most of Thomas's remarkable arguments about why the young king should be considered a saint despite committing adultery, rebelling against his father, and seizing treasure from churches to do so. The presenters will discuss the unpublished sections of this work, of which they are preparing the first full edition.