The Processes of Politics and the Rule of Law

This text indicates the course that the author's historical interests have followed since "Past and Present in Medieval Spain". It is a combination of Spanish and Portuguese history and historiography spiced up with the history of canon law.

---

This third volume of essays by Peter Linehan deals with matters of perennial interest to all historians of medieval Church and State, and in particular to students of the history of medieval Spain and Portugal and of the papacy in the 12th and 13th centuries. Amongst those discussed and explored are the question of feudalism in the 11th and 12th century, the rise and fall of a royal capital, the city of León, the ritual of king-making, focusing on Castile and Portugal, the interplay of royal influence and papal authority, and the impact of the mendicant orders. A previously unpublished study provides a cautionary tale of a particular bishop in politics. Four essays are devoted to the investigation of individuals and issues central to the history of late 13th-century papal Rome, while two look at medieval and modern historiography.