Peace and Negotiation

The desire for peace was the driving force behind most medieval foreign policies and diplomatic skills developed to new levels. As these papers illustrate, peace and war were viewed differently by the medieval world; they took on a symbolic, almost religious character and peace was viewed as a consequence of war.The thirteen essays begin with a study of the dialogue between early Christian and pagan communities in Ireland during the 5th to 7th centuries which enabled two hundred years of peaceful coexistence and land division. Other subjects include: the role of women as peacemakers in early medieval Scandinavia; peace agreements of Anglo-Saxon England; the ante- and pro-war factions who advised Aethelred II; Wulfstan's ambitions for peace between Christian and pagan following Christian massacres of Vikings; 14th-century letters between a nun and her spiritual advisor as they overcome their differences; Pierre de Ronsard's 16th-century poems; the resolution of disputes through marriage in Renaissance France and Jewish and Christian co-existence and friendship in 16th-century Prague.