Forests, parks, palaces and the power of place in early medieval kingship

Rollason, D.

Abstract

Forests, parks and palaces were closely associated, so that palaces could not only have their own parks, but often occupied liminal positions between the forest and the more intensively cultivated land, or were surrounded by the forest. The power which forests and parks gave to palaces is here analysed in terms of categories of power derived from Max Weber's work: bureaucratic, personal and ideological. The first involved the forest administration and the revenues deriving from it; the second the relationship between the king and forest communities, and the role of hunting in enhancing the king's power; and the third the ideological statements about power which parks and forests could make, whether in terms of the similarity of the palace's situation to the heavenly kingdom, the symbolic representation of the king's power over the land, or the powerful traditions, ideas and literary constructs which the landscape could embody.

Citation

Rollason, D. (2012). Forests, parks, palaces and the power of place in early medieval kingship. Early Medieval Europe, 20(4), 428-429. https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Oct 24, 2012
• Publication Date: 2012-11
• Deposit Date: Sep 24, 2012
• Journal: Early Medieval Europe
• Print ISSN: 0963-9462
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-0254
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 428-429
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12003
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1495961