The exchange of hostages, ransom of defeated opponents, oath-taking and creation of new bonds of friendship, all helped to re-establish stable relations between former opponents. With peace came a change in the balance of power within a region. Relationships between adversaries were restructured and redefined as treaties were concluded and new agreements made. Peace rituals allowed the new status quo to be publicly proclaimed and understood. By studying the restraint of violence and the imposition of peace, we can examine both the long and short term implications of conflict, and improve our understanding of how violence shaped the elite community in medieval Europe.

From 22nd – 23rd February 2018, the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo and the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo will host a two-day conference on the practices and behaviours related to peacemaking and the restraint of violence in high medieval Europe. Participants will address a variety of diverse topics, from peace treaties and rituals, to the conventions which restrain violence during warfare.

Programme

22nd February 2018

  • 10.00 - 10.20 – Arrival and Registration
  • 10.20 - 10.30 – Welcome
  • 10.30 - 11.15 Hermann Kamp (Paderborn University) – The Submission of Rebellious Cities in the Roman-German Empire
  • 11.15 - 12.00 Iain MacInnes (University of the Highlands and Islands) – ‘Be at peace with God and me’: Violence, War and Royal Responses to Insurrection in Medieval Scotland, c.1100-1286

12.00 - 13.30 – Lunch

  • 13.30 - 14.15 Lars Kjær (New College of the Humanities) – Gift giving: ‘Surrogate Warfare’ or ‘Social Glue’?
  • 14.15 - 15.00 Yvonne Friedman (Bar-Ilan University) – Food and Clothing in Rituals of Peacemaking in Medieval Europe and the Latin East
  • 15.00 - 15.30 – Refreshment break
  • 15.30 - 16.15 Betty Binysh (Cardiff University) – How Did the Crusaders’ Peace-making Strategies in Europe Compare with their Negotiations with Muslims in the Levant?
  • 16.15 - 17.00 Harald Endre Tafjord (Volda University College) – Conflicts and the Use of Exile as a Restraint of Violence in Twelfth-Century Castile – The Conflicts Between King Alfonso VI and Rodrigo Díaz del Vivar
  • 17.00 - 18.00 – Wine Reception

23rd February 2018

  • 10.00 - 10.30 – Reception
  • 10.30 - 11.15 Stephen D. White (Emory University) – Peace or Punishment in Medieval England: From 1215 to 1322
  • 11.15 - 12.00 Sean McGlynn (Plymouth University at Strode College) – Chivalry and the Laws of Siege Warfare: Restrictions on Violence Against Besieged Non-combatants in Twelfth and Thirteenth-Century Europe

12.00 - 13.30 – Lunch

  • 13.30 - 14.15 Tobias Boestad (Paris-Sorbonne University) – ‘The Old Peace on which the Cross was kissed’. The Negotiation and Enforcement of the Thirteenth-Century German-Gotlandic-Russian Trade and Peace Agreements
  • 14.15 - 15.00 Philippa Mesiano (University of Kent) – Pope Alexander IV, King Henry III and the Treaty of Paris (1259): Papal Mediation in Thirteenth Century Europe

15.00 - 15.30 – Refreshment break

  • 15.30 - 16.15 David Brégaint (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) – God's Peace and the King's Peace in Medieval Norway
  • 16.15 - 17.00 Auður Magnúsdóttir (University of Gothenburg) – Women, Violence and Peacemaking in Thirteenth-Century Iceland
  • 17.00 - 17.15 – Conclusion

Contact and Practical Information

Registration is open between 12 - 26 January 2018:

Organisers

Simon Lebouteiller and Louisa Taylor