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Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis investigates the role of queens in ninth and tenth century Italy. During the Carolingian period the Italian kingdom saw significant involvement of royal women in political affairs. This trend continued after the Carolingian empire collapsed in 888, as Italy became the theatre of struggles for the royal and imperial title, which resulted in a quick succession of local rulers. By investigating Italian queens, my work aims at reassessing some aspects of Italian royal politics. Furthermore, it contributes to the study of medieval queenship, exploring a context which has been overlooked with regard to female authority. The work which has been done on queens over the last decades has attempted to build a coherent model of early medieval queenship; scholars have often privileged the analysis of continuities and similarities in the study of queens' prerogatives and resources. This thesis challenges this model and underlines the peculiarities of individual queens. My analysis demonstrates that, by deconstructing the coherent model established by historiography, it is possible to underline the individual experiences, resources and strengths of each royal woman, and therefore create a new way to look at the history of queens and queenship. The thesis is divided into four main thematic sections. After having introduced the subject and the relevant historiography on the topic in the introduction, in Chapter 2 I consider ideas about queenship as expressed by narrative and normative sources. Chapter 3 deals with royal diplomas, which are a valuable resource for the understanding of queens' reigns. Chapter 4 analyses queens' dowers and monastic patronage. Chapter 5 examines the experience of Italian royal widows. Finally, the conclusive chapter outlines the significance of this thesis for the broader understanding of medieval queenship.

Thesis (MDiv (Old and New Testament))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / One of the challenging questions for the religious people is whether theocracy is still relevant in a pluralistic society like the South African society. In this assignment I argue that theocracy is relevant for all times. It can just change form as the context changes to adapt to new circumstances. To test this assertion, this study concentrates on the study of Old Testament views regarding theocracy in different contexts. This is done by comparing the narratives of kings Saul, David, Solomon and Rehoboam as told by the Deuteronomist and the Chronicler. The focus is on how contextual influences are reflected in their telling of the stories of these kings and thereby also purport a certain form of theocracy befitting their particular contexts. The study then concludes that theocracy is relevant for all times but the change in context should be taken into consideration.

This thesis discusses the sources of royal power in the kingdoms of Argead Makedonia and early Ptolemaic Egypt. The overarching aim is to assess the degree of change and continuity between the structures and networks that framed Argead and Ptolemaic royal power. Viewing power not as an abstraction but as the outcome of the real and observable interrelations between individuals and groups, this thesis builds upon the historical sociology of Michael Mann in order to identify four main sources of royal power: dynastic, courtly, military and economic. In their capacity to enhance or limit royal power, the social networks that are formed between the king and representatives of these groups in each context, as well as the structures that produce and reproduce their behaviour, form the focal points of this research. As such, this thesis distances itself from that segment of socio-historical tradition, which grants ultimate primacy to human agency. The Introduction presents the main scholarly debates surrounding the nature of Ptolemaic and Argead kingship and highlights the fact that although both have received considerable attention separately, they have not yet been the focus of a systematic, comparative analysis. At the same time, this chapter brings in the theoretical and methodological framework employed in the thesis. Chapter One discusses the structural organisation of the dynasty, focusing on patterns of marriage and succession, and the manipulation of dynastic connections, real or constructed, as instruments of legitimation. It is argued that the colonial circumstances in early Ptolemaic Egypt led to an amplification of the importance of the dynasty as a source of power. Chapter Two examines the interrelations of the ruler with his extended circle of friends and associates, i.e. the courtiers. A discussion of the physical and social structure of the courts in Aigai, Pella and Alexandria in the early Ptolemaic period confirms that administration at the highest level continued to be organised around personal relations. Chapter Three identifies the enabling mechanisms, which sustained the military power of the Makedonian king. It is argued that royal military leadership and the integration of facets of military organisation (e.g. the institution of klerouchia) and values (through education) in society remained integral to the social organisation of early Ptolemaic Egypt. Finally, Chapter Four examines the economic power of the ruler, as revealed by the organisation of property rights. The absence of the Makedones and the prominence of temples as economically significant groups in early Ptolemaic Egypt underline the structural discontinuities that arise from the necessary adaptation to different local conditions. This thesis concludes that the structures that framed Argead royal power were in their majority remembered and instantiated in the organisational practices of the early Ptolemaic rulers. Deviations from the Argead paradigm occurred when pragmatism led to the introduction of corrective practices, such as the co-regency principle aimed at eradicating the dynastic instability that had plagued the Argead monarchy, and when ecological and political considerations, such as the needs of their non-Hellenic, non-Makedonian audience, dictated a greater degree of accommodation to local conditions, especially in the field of economic organisation. Even there, however, one can discern the influence of the flexible, all-inclusive model of Argead administration of its New Lands as an organisational template.

The sustained interaction of local elites and British administrators in the West Himalayas over the decades that surrounded the early colonial encounter (c. 1790-1840) saw the emergence of a distinctly new understanding of communal identity among the leaders of the region. This eventful period saw the mountain ('Pahari') kingdoms transform from fragmented, autonomous polities on the fringes of the Indian subcontinent to subjects of indigenous (Nepali, Sikh) and, ultimately, foreign (British) empires, and dramatically altered the ways Pahari leaders chose to remember and represent themselves. Using a wide array of sources from different locales in the hills (e.g., oral epics, archival records and local histories), this thesis traces the Pahari elite's transition from a nebulous group of lineage-based leaders to a cohesive unitary milieu modelled after contemporary interpretations of Hindu kingship. This nascent ideal of kingship is shown to have fed into concurrent understandings of Rajput society in the West Himalayas and ultimately to have sustained the alliance between indigenous rulers and British administrators.

'William Cecil and the British succession crisis of the 1560s' reconsiders the nature of the early Elizabethan polity and Cecil's place in it. Conventional historiography maintains that as principal secretary Cecil was a moderate, cautious, and religiously neutral politician, content to follow Elizabeth I's direction in policy. More recently, Professors Patrick Collinson and John Guy have challenged this interpretation of the Elizabethan polity. Based on a thorough survey of the archives, my thesis explores Cecil's political creed in the 1560s. Three years of research have helped to paint a radically different picture of Cecil to the one traditionally represented: he was a councillor prepared to redefine his relationship with a monarch who refused to abide by the rules of monarchy and select a successor. The eight chapters of the thesis blend two complementary themes. First, that Elizabethan in the 1560s experienced a British succession crisis and not, as Professor Collinson has maintained, an English domestic succession crisis. And second, that the political situation in Britain and Europe - the determination of the continental catholic powers to use Mary Stuart's claim to the English throne as a weapon against protestant England - had a profound impact on the mentality of protestant Englishmen and debate in England. It persuaded Cecil to press for a pre-emptive strike against the French in Scotland (chapter two), which he defended by appealing to the feudal-imperial power of the English monarch; he used the same argument to justify the 'first trial' of Mary Stuart in 1568 (chapter seven). In this British context, Elizabeth's refusal to secure England's future led to parliamentary action in 1563 and a Cecil plan for interregnum by privy council in the event of Elizabeth's death, twenty-two years before its re-emergence in 1585 (chapter four). The régime could not find a diplomatic solution to the marriage between Mary and Lord Darnley in 1565 (chapter five): parliament debated the succession in 1566 and Cecil disobeyed the queen by pressing for a settlement (chapter six). Cecil's approach to the crisis was innovative, and his political creed is profoundly important to any assessment of politics in Elizabeth I's reign.

The following study examined leadership characteristics of a modern leader of the Cherokee Nation, Ross O. Swimmer, during his three elections as Principal Chief, 1975-1985. Few Western scholars paid attention to the Cherokee Tribe after the break-up of institutions legislated by the federal Indian policy of Allotment. The position of the government was, the Cherokee Tribe no longer existed. For almost seventy years, no form of Cherokee leadership was visible; no Cherokee government existed. Federal Indian policy changed again, allowing tribes to elect their own leaders. This study began filling in gaps of missing information on modern Cherokee leadership by examining Swimmer’s leadership characteristics. The study attempted to add to the body of leadership knowledge by mining minds and memories, searching for the meaning of leadership from a modern Cherokee perspective. The three questions guiding the study were: what were the leadership characteristics of Principal Chief Ross O. Swimmer; to what extent did these leadership characteristics reflect traditional Cherokee leadership characteristics; and from a tribal perspective, did these make a difference, and to what extent? The data indicate seven Swimmer leadership characteristics: Visionary, Goal Oriented, Bureaucratic, Top-Down, Authoritarian, Delegator, and Communicator. There was inconsistency with Swimmer’s use of traditional leadership practices. Swimmer used a combination of traditional Cherokee, traditional Native American, and Anglo-European-American leadership characteristics during his three terms as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Two possible explanations for Swimmer’s blending leadership characteristics from varying models were suggested. First, given his bi-cultural heritage, Swimmer could navigate back and forth between the mainstream White culture and the traditional Cherokee culture, to pick and choose various types of leadership characteristics. Second, adaptability has always been a unique characteristic of the Cherokee people. Cherokee leaders frequently applied the feature of borrowing from White culture in order to adapt and survive. Swimmer accomplished many of his goals for the Cherokee people and set the Nation on a path of growth and stability. His methods were not without criticism from traditional Cherokees. However, Swimmer built the foundation for a corporate government that instilled pride in the Cherokee people and provided opportunity for self-sufficiency. / text

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