Kingship and Political Culture in the Visigothic Kingdom
Königtum und politische Kultur im Westgotenreich
Realeza y Cultura Política en el Reino Visigodo
June 29-30, 2023, Freie Universität Berlin
The publication of On Kings, by anthropologists David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins (2017) has raised numerous questions about kingship and its relation to state formation, political theology, and state-society relations. In particular, the concluding chapter in Graeber and Sahlins’s book, “Notes on the politics of divine kingship: Or, elements for an archaeology of sovereignty” (On Kings, pp. 377-464), offers a model to understand the “politics of kingship” in early societies. Briefly, politics fluctuated between two models of kingship: divine-like, unrestricted power and sacralized, contained power.
This model potentially offers new opportunities to study the Visigothic kingdom, a period rich in political literature despite the documentary dearth in other areas. What does Visigothic political theory or political theology reveal about the politics of kingship? How did different actors in Visigothic society envisioned limits to and powers of royal authority? Do discussions over kingship reveal a particularly Visigothic political culture beyond the traditional concepts of “Roman”, “Christian”, or “Germanic”? Were Visigothic kings the only locus of sovereignty in Visigothic society? What role did religious and non-religious ritual play in limiting or expanding kingly authority?
Location
Kollegforschungsgruppe 2615 „Rethinking Oriental Despotism“
Fabeckstr. 15 („Despoten-Villa“), Raum 013
14195 Berlin, Germany
Thursday June 29, 2023
9.30 h Jörg Klinger (Freie Universität Berlin)
Welcome address
9.45 h Stefan Esders (Freie Universität Berlin)
Damián Fernández (Northern Illinois University – Freie Universität Berlin)
Sabine Panzram (Universität Hamburg)
Welcome and Introduction
10.00 h Courtney Booker (University of British Columbia)
Sacred Kingdom, Penitential State: A Short History of L‘Augustunisme politique
10.45 h Coffee
Kingship and Literary Culture
Chair: Stefan Esders (Freie Universität Berlin)
11.15 h Wolfram Drews (Universität Münster)
Observations on „Tyranny“ in Julian of Toledo
12.00 h Julia Aguilar (Universitat de València)
Political Theology in Taio of Saragossa‘s Sentences
12.45 h Lunch
Kingship between Theory and Practice
Chair: Sabine Panzram (Universität Hamburg)
15.00 h Paulo Pachá (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
Fragile kings? Royal Authority and Visigothic Political Culture between Theory and Practice
15.45 h Pablo C. Díaz (Universidad de Salamanca)
Regia potestas/iudicandi potestas: The Visigothic King and The Monopoly of the Law in the Liber Iudiciorum
16.30 h Coffee
17.00 h Damián Fernández (Northern Illinois University)
Kingship, Property Law, and the Visigotihc Politics of Land
17.45 h Stefan Esders and Gerda Heydemann (Freie Universität Berlin)
The Visigothic Oath of Fidelity and the Power to Bind and Release
20.30 h Dinner
Friday June 30, 2023
Kingship and the Sacred
Chair: Benjamin Savill (Freie Universität Berlin)
9.30 h Céline Martin (Université Bordeaux-Montaigne)
El monarca hispanovisigodo: ¿un rey obispo?
10.15 h Molly Lester (US Naval Academy)
Setting and Resetting the Boundaries of Royal Religious Authority in Visigothic Iberia
11.00 h Coffee
11.30 h Óscar Perdomo Ceballos (Freie Universität Berlin)
Narratives of Tension between Local Forms of Piety and Representations of Kingship around the Marian Cult in the Visigothic Kingdom
12.15 h Caroline Goodson (Cambridge University)
Reifying rex: Votive Crowns and Early Medieval Kingship
13.00 h Lunch
Kingship, Cities, and Political Culture
Chair: Damián Fernández (Northern Illinois University – Freie Universität Berlin)
15.30 h Sabine Panzram (Universität Hamburg)
„The Power of Cities“? Local Government in Visigothic Hispania
16.15 h Lauro Olmo Enciso (Universidad de Alcalá)
State Formation and Visigothic Kingship: An Interpretation through Materiality
17.00 h Coffee
17.30 h Ruth Pliego (Universidad de Sevilla)
Visigothic Divine Sovereignty: Evidence from Coinage
18.15 h Stefan Esders (Freie Universität Berlin)
Damián Fernández (Northern Illinois University – Freie Universität Berlin
Sabine Panzram (Universität Hamburg)
Conclusions
20.30 h Dinner