Kin and Kith: Keeping Friends and Placating Enemies

Abstract

Penelope Nash shows how medieval rulers valued good relationships with family and with others unrelated by blood. Female rulers, whose roles were less formally defined, depended especially on close familial ties. Empress Adelheid’s son, Otto II, and grandson, Otto III, quarreled with her over property. Despite some disagreements Adelheid and her daughter-in-law, Theophanu, collaborated to steady the empire. Adelheid’s brother-in-law Duke Henry of Bavaria and his son, Henry the Wrangler, promoted their claims for the throne. Others such as Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) and abbots from Cluny strongly supported the Ottonian court and empire. In the late eleventh century Countess Matilda of Tuscany’s vassals acted as witnesses to and signatories of her charters at her castle of Canossa and elsewhere in Italy. Her spiritual and philosophical supporters included Pope Gregory VII but not her cousin Emperor Henry IV, who fought her in battle.