This dissertation is a comparative study of children who succeeded as kings of England, Scotland, France, and Germany as boys under the age of fifteen in the central Middle Ages. Children are often disregarded in the historical record, even those divinely-ordained as king. The research undertaken in this thesis aims to uncover a more human aspect to medieval kingship by combining social aspects of childhood and gender studies with a political and legal approach to the study of the nature of rulership and royal administrative practices. Part I provides vital context of how royal fathers prepared their underage sons for kingship. I argue for the importance of maternal involvement in association, demonstrate the significant benefits a comparative approach brings to our understanding of anticipatory actions, and reveal the impact which changes in the circumstances and documentation of royal death had on preparations for child kingship. In Part II, I focus on vice-regal guardianship to expose how structural legal, social, political, and cultural changes affected the provisions for a child king. The symbolic meaning of knighthood, which had been a clear rite of passage to adulthood in the eleventh century, later became a precursor to kingship. The child’s progression to maturity was increasingly directed by legalistic ideas. These developments meant that, by the first half of the thirteenth century, queen mothers faced greater challenges to their involvement in royal governance alongside their sons. Part III presents a challenge to the idea that periods of child kingship were necessarily more violent than when an adult came to the throne through an analysis of instances of child kidnap, maternal exclusion from guardianship and departure from the kingdom, dynastic challenge, and opportunistic violence. Children often appear as passive actors controlled by the adults around them but accepting this unquestioningly is too simplistic. Child kings could make an impact on the political landscape even if they could not do so alone. Through an innovative comparative analysis of a child’s preparation for rulership, the care of king and kingdom, and the vulnerabilities and challenges of child kingship, I demonstrate far greater political continuity across medieval monarchies than is usually appreciated. This constitutes a fresh and original contribution towards the study of medieval rulership in northwestern Europe.

Du XIe au XIIIe siècle, l'abbaye de Marmoutier a constitué un important réseau de dépendances monastiques – ou prieurés – dans l'Ouest de la France et notamment en Anjou. Dans cette région, le processus de fondation s'étend des années 1040 à 1150 et les moines font preuve d'un réel savoir-faire en ce domaine, sachant s'adapter aux contraintes et aux acteurs locaux. Chaque prieuré est à la tête d'un patrimoine à la structure complexe, accumulé, organisé et défendu par les moines dans les dépendances, avec le soutien et la surveillance de l'abbaye-mère. Les liens entre abbaye et prieurés sont constants, ce que l'étude de la production écrite des moines permet de mettre en valeur. La fin du XIIe siècle et le début du XIIIe siècle sont marqués par des remaniements du réseau monastique. En Anjou, certains prieurés disparaissent, d'autres se renforcent, ce qui est le signe de la capacité d'adaptation de l'abbaye aux difficultés rencontrées, afin de maintenir durablement ses possessions. / From the 11th century to the 13th century the abbey of Marmoutier established a significant network of monastic dependencies – or priories – in Western France and especially in the area of Anjou. In this region the foundation movement flourished between the years 1040 and 1150, the monks of Anjou being well-skilled in navigating the often intricate local constraints and power relationships. Each priory managed its own complex set of lands, the acquisition, organization and legal defense of which were undertaken by the monks, with the support and supervision of the mother-abbey. A study of the monastic writings attests to these strong ties between the Abbey and its priories. Finally, major modifications of this prioral system characterized the end of the Twelfth century through the beginning of the Thirteenth : in Anjou some houses disappeared while others continued to grow, yet another sign of the Abbey's ability to adapt to difficult circumstances in order to persevere.

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar o sistema de ordenação do mundo e o lugar social do magister nas correspondências trocadas entre o Mestre Pedro Abelardo (1079-1142) e sua esposa Heloísa (1090-1164), abadessa do Paracleto. O corpus documental utilizado nesta pesquisa consiste na Historia calamitatum, as sete epístolas trocadas entre Abelardo e Heloísa e os problemata, uma carta escrita por Heloísa e respondida por Abelardo sobre diversas questões teológicas. Entendem-se como sistemas de ordenação do mundo os modelos ideológicos de ordenação social. A análise deste conjunto documental permite compreender como se produziram os discursos que visavam autorizar a forma que a sociedade toma ou deveria tomar para melhor funcionar. Estes modelos ideológicos são projetos políticos e, por definirem graus de hierarquia, também justificam qual grupo social deveria manter preponderância na sociedade. Pesquisar a ordenação divina ou os modelos de ordenação divina significa estudar, nas exposições de clérigos e letrados, os projetos políticos daqueles que constroem ou seguem estes discursos, suas mudanças através do tempo em razão das necessidades impostas pelo período e pela sociedade analisada. Significa, também, o esforço de entender qual o papel de cada categoria hierárquica dentro destes sistemas e as funções, modelos de comportamento e tentativas de enquadramento das pessoas que a eles são sujeitados. / The objective of this work is to identify the system of ordering of the world and the social magister in letters exchanged between the Master Peter Abelard (1079-1142) and his wife Heloise (1090-1164), abbess of the Paracleto. The documentary corpus used in this study consists of the Historia calamitatum the seven epistles exchanged between Abelard and Heloise and problemata, a letter written by Heloise and Abelard answered by on various theological issues. Understood as ordering systems of the world the ideological models of social ordering. The analysis of this set of documents provides insight into how it produced the discourses trying to authorize the form that society takes or should take to best work. These models are ideological and political projects, for defining degrees of hierarchy, which also justifies social group should keep the preponderance in society. Search the divine ordination or models of divine ordination means studying, exhibitions of clerics and scholars, the political projects that build or follow these speeches, their changes over time because of the requirements imposed by society and the period analyzed. It also means the effort to understand the role of each hierarchical category within these systems and functions, role models and attempted framing of people who are subjected to them.

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar o sistema de ordenação do mundo e o lugar social do magister nas correspondências trocadas entre o Mestre Pedro Abelardo (1079-1142) e sua esposa Heloísa (1090-1164), abadessa do Paracleto. O corpus documental utilizado nesta pesquisa consiste na Historia calamitatum, as sete epístolas trocadas entre Abelardo e Heloísa e os problemata, uma carta escrita por Heloísa e respondida por Abelardo sobre diversas questões teológicas. Entendem-se como sistemas de ordenação do mundo os modelos ideológicos de ordenação social. A análise deste conjunto documental permite compreender como se produziram os discursos que visavam autorizar a forma que a sociedade toma ou deveria tomar para melhor funcionar. Estes modelos ideológicos são projetos políticos e, por definirem graus de hierarquia, também justificam qual grupo social deveria manter preponderância na sociedade. Pesquisar a ordenação divina ou os modelos de ordenação divina significa estudar, nas exposições de clérigos e letrados, os projetos políticos daqueles que constroem ou seguem estes discursos, suas mudanças através do tempo em razão das necessidades impostas pelo período e pela sociedade analisada. Significa, também, o esforço de entender qual o papel de cada categoria hierárquica dentro destes sistemas e as funções, modelos de comportamento e tentativas de enquadramento das pessoas que a eles são sujeitados. / The objective of this work is to identify the system of ordering of the world and the social magister in letters exchanged between the Master Peter Abelard (1079-1142) and his wife Heloise (1090-1164), abbess of the Paracleto. The documentary corpus used in this study consists of the Historia calamitatum the seven epistles exchanged between Abelard and Heloise and problemata, a letter written by Heloise and Abelard answered by on various theological issues. Understood as ordering systems of the world the ideological models of social ordering. The analysis of this set of documents provides insight into how it produced the discourses trying to authorize the form that society takes or should take to best work. These models are ideological and political projects, for defining degrees of hierarchy, which also justifies social group should keep the preponderance in society. Search the divine ordination or models of divine ordination means studying, exhibitions of clerics and scholars, the political projects that build or follow these speeches, their changes over time because of the requirements imposed by society and the period analyzed. It also means the effort to understand the role of each hierarchical category within these systems and functions, role models and attempted framing of people who are subjected to them.