The coming meeting takes stock of the state-formation in medieval Europe debate and its changing scholarly conceptions, in order to question diplomacy as one of its building blocks. Having in the background the transformation and gradual definition of geo-politicial borders and sovereignties in Europe, two key questions arise: How demanding were external affairs on political communities and governments as they became more structured? In turn, how did the growing need for more comprehensive diplomacy impact on the development of such structures?

Presentation

The Research in Medieval Studies (RiMS) is conceived of as an ongoing series of yearly meetings whose aim is to bring scholars of different academic and geographical backgrounds together to open, or otherwise continue and direct, historiographical debate on key issues in medieval studies, while helping to establish outstanding research that is both innovative and comparative.

Argument

We invite the submission of unpublished, original research papers to be read at RiMS 2022. The third RiMS meeting will gather around the subject of diplomacy and diplomatic relations in their contribution to the shaping of the polities of Europe between the twelfth and the early sixteenth centuries. Building upon a pre-existing theroretical foundation, historical approaches to the European medieval state came to their fullest probably in the 1990s, this development certainly aided by an atmosphere of Euro-optimism and integration. A generation of scholars — including Wim Blockmans, Giorgio Chittolini, Jean-Philippe Genet, or Charles Tilly — led the way in looking for and amply discussing the constituents of the “medieval state”, inspiring a mass of related research. 

Statebuilding narratives as applied to the medieval polity have not been without critique since, a common criticism being the anachronism of concepts. Another, which has long been highlighted (Joseph Strayer, On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State, 1970), but hardly followed through, is arguably the slowness with which medieval government branches dealing with external affairs and diplomacy came into being. 

The coming RiMS meeting takes stock of the state-formation in medieval Europe debate and its changing scholarly conceptions, in order to question diplomacy as one of its building blocks. Having in the background the transformation and gradual definition of geo-politicial borders and sovereignties in Europe, two key questions arise: How demanding were external affairs on political communities and governments as they became more structured? In turn, how did the growing need for more comprehensive diplomacy impact on the development of such structures?

The call for papers is open to any scholar working on medieval Europe, particularly those who have produced, or potentially will produce, ground-breaking research. Proposals may cover longer-term examinations or focus more narrowly on a period and/or setting. Papers will be committed to double-blind peer review and a selection will be published by the Coimbra University Press both in print and as an open-access, database indexed e-monograph.

We suggest the following core themes, insofar as they bring out the intersections between state-growth and diplomacy:

1. Political structures

• Social forces (princes, aristocracy, clergy, landowners, urban elites)
• Principals (sovereigns, dominant households, councils) 
• Entwined political axes (municipalities, leagues, factions)
• Representative bodies (guilds, corporations, legislative assemblies)
• Tiered polities (church, empire, kingdom, principality, city-state…)

2. Agency – individual and collective

• Specialisation, professionalisation and permanent diplomatic roles
• Coexisting roles (social, political, administrative…)
• Range of action of diplomatic agents
• Experience, training, trust, familiaritas and other criteria
• Advice and counsel

3. Administration and resources

• Integration in the institutional apparatus: chancery, treasury, justice
• Development of agencies (semi-permanent embassies?)
• Forms, norms and language; schooling of officials
• Loans, subsidies, taxes and finance
• Expenditure vs income from diplomacy 

4. Information management

• Documentary production
• Strategies of information gathering
• Filing and archival organisation 

5. Foreign relations and the rule of law

• Warfare and litigation
• Mediation and arbitration
• Shared legislative bodies/practices
• Identity and self-representation
• Collective consciousness

Submission guidelines

Researchers are invited to send to rimsmeeting@gmail.com a 500-word proposal and an up to two-page curriculum vitæ

by 15 April 2022.

Important dates

• Call for papers open from 3 March 2022 thru 15 April 2022
• Applicants will be informed of decisionby 15 May 2022
• Papers submitted by 30 September 2022
• Seminar in Coimbra on the 3-4 November 2022
• Post-seminar manuscript submitted for peer-review by 31 January 2023
• Final version of the manuscript submitted for publication by 30 April 2023

Scientific committte

• Tiago Viúla de Faria (IEM, Nova University of Lisbon)
• Joana Sequeira (Lab2PT – Univerity of Minho)
• Flávio Miranda (CITCEM, University of Porto)
• Maria Amélia Álvaro de Campos (CHSC, University of Coimbra)

Registration fees

Th­e registration fee of €80 includes coffee break and meals (2 lunches and 2 dinners).

A list of affordable hotels will be provided on our website. Keynote speakers are to be announced shortly.