Interventus: The politics and ideology of intercession in the early Middle Ages

This dissertation examines intercession in the early Middle Ages, approaching it as a discrete form of political action, and arguing that intercession forged and maintained bonds of amity and consensus rather than simply asserting hierarchical differences. After surveying the sources for medieval intercession, in particular epistolary collections and Carolingian and post-Carolingian diplomata, and evaluating how these sources have been approached by diplomatists, historians, and social theorists, I analyze intercession and intercessors in terms of their relationships both to the ruler and to those seeking their services. I begin by discussing the critical role of Nahe (nearness) in enabling intercession, and the intercessory prominence of groups that enjoyed "nearness" to the ruler: those who served him at court, his kin, and his spouse. Even when the ruler's superiority was emphasized, intercession depended upon the intercessor's strategic finesse and ability to leverage not only personal relationships but also norms and values. I then turn to the relationships between intercessors and petitioners, arguing that intercession must be understood not only as an instantiation of hierarchical social relationships, but also as a beneficium proffered by social equals to one another. In particular, the way that intercessors were recruited and employed reveals the negotiated, interpersonal nature of intercession, and its role within the "horizontal" field of social relationships. My next chapter focuses upon the intercessory activity of the early medieval episcopacy. I argue that the bishop's activities as intercessor and mediator were rooted in longstanding ideological imperatives and expectations particular to the episcopal office, expressed in the context of a variety of local and supra-regional communities, and conclude that the bishop was the practitioner par excellence of mediatory politics. Finally, I address the role of intercession in the later eleventh century and beyond, and in particular the rapid disappearance of intercessors from royal diplomata during that period. I suggest that this resulted from demographic changes as well as changes in the style and substance of rulership, which by the reign of Henry IV was moving towards a new and more trans-personal model epitomized by the self-consciously "imperial" figure of Frederick Barbarossa.