Herrschaft über fremde Völker und Reiche

This volume treats conquests for the first time as a phenomenon that decisively shaped political history, the formation of spaces of dominion and power techniques as well as the development of politically and culturally determined identities in the Middle Ages. Its chapters look, often with a comparative approach, at the most important European conquests from late antiquity to the 15th century and traces motives, aims and means with which the conquerors, from Theoderic to Charlemagne to Edward I, from the Normans in southern Italy to the Teutonic Order, established their rule over foreign peoples and dealt with their resistance. Special attention is also paid to the justification of conquests, i. e. to their religious charging in Byzantium and in the seizure of non-Christian territories, but also to ambivalent legitimation in law and literature. In this way, a multifaceted picture of practices of medieval conquests and the discourses involved emerges.