Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050–1250, Volume III

Legitimacy and Glory

Wojtek Jezierski, Kim Esmark, Hans Jacob Orning, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Wojtek Jezierski, Kim Esmark, Hans Jacob Orning, Jón Viðar Sigurðsson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367562816
• eBook ISBN: 9781000200119
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Didattica nell'arte e nelle discipline umanistiche

This book explores the practical and symbolic resources of legitimacy which the elites of medieval Scandinavia employed to establish, justify, and reproduce their social and political standing between the end of the Viking Age and the rise of kingdoms in the thirteenth century. Geographically the chapters cover the Scandinavian realms and Free State Iceland. Thematically the authors cover a wide palette of cultural practices and historical sources: hagiography, historiography, spaces and palaces, literature, and international connections, which rulers, magnates or ecclesiastics used to compete for status and to reserve haloing glory for themselves. The volume is divided in three sections. The first looks at the sacral, legal, and acclamatory means through which privilege was conferred onto kings and ruling families. Section Two explores the spaces such as aristocratic halls, palaces, churches in which the social elevation of elites took place. Section Three explores the traditional and novel means of domestic distinction and international cultural capital which different orders of elites – knights, powerful clerics, ruling families etc. – wrought to assure their dominance and set themselves apart vis-à-vis their peers and subjects. A concluding chapter discusses how the use of symbolic capital in the North compared to wider European contexts.

Section III
Elevating Social Orders

8Moderation and Restraint During Conflict as Ideal Behavior in High Medieval Scandinavia and Iceland

Louisa Taylor

It has been argued that across the medieval period, European elites increasingly attempted to distinguish themselves from those of a lower status not only on the basis of their political and material power, but also through the adoption of social markers.¹ This chapter will address one social marker which has been of particular interest to those working on medieval elite warrior culture, namely the expression of virtuous personal qualities and exemplary behaviors. The high medieval period has been seen as heralding a shift in the kinds of characteristics and behaviors regarded as positive for elite warriors to display. The development of norms of conduct which served to constrain the more violent excesses of the medieval elite both at court and on the battlefield has been viewed as an important aspect of these changes.² A number of scholars working on Norway and Denmark have noted that kings and other elite men were praised within contemporary texts for their restrained and magnanimous behavior.³ However, there is still much work to be done in developing a comprehensive image of the characteristics viewed as prestigious for elite men within Norden. This is particularly the case in relation to Iceland.⁴ This article will provide a new perspective on the personal characteristics and behaviors seen as exemplary for elite warriors in high medieval Norden by comparing how elite men in Norway, Denmark and Iceland are shown to behave during periods of conflict in contemporary narratives. This comparative approach will expand existing work into the behavioral ideals and norms of this region by providing an opportunity to reflect upon why certain ideals and norms become established in one place but not another. In this way, it will be possible to test existing arguments about the factors which are said to have influenced the development of these ideals and norms.

Norbert Elias’s suggestion that Europe experienced a “civilizing process” from the medieval period onwards has had a significant influence on the way scholars have approached the study of the norms and behavioral ideals of the medieval elite. Elias believed that medieval elite warriors’ extensive use of violence to further their own cause was a sign that there were no existing social norms which would encourage these men to moderate and restrain their naturally unruly conduct. It was only with the increased centralization of governmental processes, and the emergence of the court as the main arena in which elite men could compete for favor and prestige, that the behavior of these elites was finally modified and their violent conduct curbed.⁵ Influenced by Elias’s work, C. Stephen Jaeger has similarly suggested that it was within the court environment that the European elite was raised “from an archaic and primitive stage of social and civil life to a higher stage” as a result of the education they received in ethical ideals such as moderation, modesty and restraint.⁶ Other scholars, such as Richard Kaeuper, have been motivated by Elias’s work to ask when and why the use of violence decreased within European societies.⁷

However, we must be careful when taking Elias’s questions as a starting point from which to consider medieval behavioral norms and ideals, not least because they are predicated on the belief that medieval elites were, by nature, irrational, impulsive, and violent.⁸ By beginning with the assumption that the use of violence by elite men is evidence for a lack of norms which served to moderate or restrain elite conduct, we are at risk of viewing historical behavior through a modern lens. We cannot assume that violence was always perceived to be a negative form of behavior in the medieval period. Instead, we must ask how particular personal qualities and kinds of behavior were viewed within each specific context. Scholars working on expressions of anger within medieval Europe have convincingly shown that we can only understand the meaning conveyed by this emotion by studying how it is used within a specific cultural context.⁹ This is also the case when investigating behavioral ideals and norms.

When exploring the behavior of historical figures, we must also take care to allow for the agency these individuals had to choose in how to behave in particular situations. Although societal ideals and norms undoubtedly exert an influence over individual behavior, people still ultimately have a choice in how they act. Individuals can choose to follow or disregard social norms, even though their decision might have negative consequences. Societal ideals and norms are standards by which behavior is measured; they are not hard and fast rules of conduct which must be followed at all times. They are expectations: a measure by which individuals can be judged by others within a society.¹⁰ This is an important point, as it means that we are able to understand the kind of personal qualities and behavior viewed as positive and negative within the medieval period by examining contemporary descriptions of the conduct of elite warriors. It is this approach which will be taken in this chapter.

Elite Ideals in High Medieval Denmark

The so-called Lex Castrensis provides a good starting point from which to consider the kind of behavior and personal characteristics viewed as exemplary for elite warriors to display in high medieval Denmark. The Lex Castrensis, which was composed in the late twelfth century, claims to be a law code for Knud the Great’s household warriors. However, the earliest known version of this text was composed by Svend Aggesen in the 1180s. This means that Knud’s code is likely to be a twelfth-century construction which uses an historical example to explore contemporary ideas of exemplary behavior. Saxo Grammaticus also includes a version of this code in his Gesta Danorum, which was completed at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Although these versions of the code differ in their style and tone, they both emphasize the importance of moderation and restraint as personal qualities for elite warriors to possess. According to Svend, Knud’s code was intended to restrain the unruly and undisciplined conduct of some of Knud’s followers by providing a standard of behavior for them to follow. The aim of the code was thus not only to establish unity and peaceful relations within the court, but also to educate these warriors in a particular form of virtuous conduct.¹¹ However, Svend does not suggest that the behaviors encouraged within this code were only considered exemplary within Knud’s time. He also suggests that restraint and self-control among warriors was viewed positively within his own society. In a particularly telling comment, Svend notes that the greater moderation of men in his time had led to the softening of the law regarding the striking, with weapons or otherwise, of fellow warriors.¹² This suggests that the idea that moderation was a positive personal quality had become fairly well established by the later twelfth century and was viewed as having some effect on the actual conduct of elite warriors.

There are also clear similarities between the attributes Saxo praises as exemplary within his version of the Lex Castrensis and the conduct he holds up as ideal in the rest of the Gesta Danorum. This is particularly evident in Saxo’s discussions of how elite men should conduct themselves when punishing those who have acted against them. In his version of Knud’s code, Saxo highlights Knud’s moderation in dealing with those who broke the rules he had set out for his men.

The monarch thereby wished his followers to be punished by outlawry sooner than by death and conceded the option of exile instead of taking violent measures against them.¹³

Saxo notes that Knud did not wish for those who broke his code to lose their lives, only for them to be reprimanded for their misdeeds.¹⁴ The idea that a virtuous elite man tempered his use of punishments as a result of his self-control and moderation is similarly evident in Saxo’s portrayal of the patron of his text, Absalon, bishop of Roskilde and later archbishop of Lund.¹⁵ Saxo praises his patron by extolling his exemplary personal qualities and behavior throughout the Gesta, even referring to him as patrie columen, the pillar of our fatherland.¹⁶ It is thus instructive that Saxo emphasizes Absalon’s moderation and emotional restraint in his description of Absalon’s response to a series of rebellions in Scania which bega...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Editors’ Preface
• General Editors’ Preface
• Introduction: Nordic Elites in Transformation, c. 1050–1250, Legitimacy and Glory
• Section I Glorifying Kings
• Section II Spaces of Elevation
• Section III Elevating Social Orders
• List of Contributors
• Index