Medieval Englishmen were treacherous, rebellious and killed their
kings, as their French contemporaries repeatedly noted. In the
thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, ten kings faced serious
rebellion, in which eight were captured, deposed, and/or murdered.
One other king escaped open revolt but encountered vigorous
resistance. In this book, Professor Valente argues that the crises
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were crucibles for
change; and their examination helps us to understand medieval
political culture in general and key developments in later medieval
England in particular. The Theory and Practice of Revolt takes a
comparative look at these crises, seeking to understand medieval
ideas of proper kingship and government, the role of political
violence and the changing nature of reform initiatives and the
rebellions to which they led. It argues that rebellion was an
accepted and to a certain extent legitimate means to restore good
kingship throughout the period, but that over time it became
increasingly divorced from reform aims, which were satisfied by
other means, and transformed by growing lordly dominance,
arrogance, and selfishness. Eventually the tradition of legitimate
revolt disappeared, to be replaced by both parliament and dynastic
civil war. Thus, on the one hand, development of parliament, itself
an outgrowth of political crises, reduced the need for and
legitimacy of crisis reform. On the other hand, when crises did
arise, the idea and practice of the community of the realm, so
vibrant in the thirteenth century, broke down under the pressures
of new political and socio-economic realities. By exploring
violence and ideas of government over a longer period than is
normally the case, this work attempts to understand medieval
conceptions on their own terms rather than with regard to modern
assumptions and to use comparison as a means of explaining events,
ideas, and developments.
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