Death at Court

Karl-Heinz Spieß war bis zu seiner Emeritierung am Ende des Sommersemesters 2014 Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Allgemeine Geschichte des Mittelalters und Historische Hilfswissenschaften. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind die Geschichte des Lehnswesens, die Historische Familienforschung, die Geschichte der Fürsten und Höfe sowie die Geschichte der Universität Greifswald.

Death plays a significant role in any society. In fact, it often serves as a prime indicator of numerous cultural phenomena such as religious devotion and perceptions of the afterlife, commemorative strategies, community sense, family bonds, social hierarchies, and many others. This was even more so at medieval courts, where representation and symbolism were an integral part of everyday life. A comparison of approaches to death therefore sheds bright light on the difference of the underlying (courtly) societies. For this purpose, the present volume assembles twelve articles by scholars of English, French, German, Burgundian, Portuguese, Byzantine, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese court culture on various aspects of Death at court, ranging from narrative strategies to genres of texts, staging of funerals, dynastic considerations and succession, death of favourites, separate burial, the women's role, and deifications.