Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I GOVERNMENT
- 1 Politics: Theory and Practice
- 2 Representation (Since the Thirteenth Century)
- 3 Popes and Councils
- PART II ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
- PART III SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC LIFE
- PART IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN STATES
- Appendix Genealogical Tables
- Primary Sources and Secondary Works Arranged by Chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece
- Plate section
- Map 1 European towns in the late Middle Ages
- Map 2 European commerce and trade
- Map 4 Winds and currents facilitating the discoveries
- Map 5 The universities o f Europe in 1400 and 1500
- Map 6 Germany and the Empire
- Map 20 The Roman Orthodox and Ottoman worlds in the fifteenth century
- References
2 - Representation (Since the Thirteenth Century)
from PART I - GOVERNMENT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- PART I GOVERNMENT
- 1 Politics: Theory and Practice
- 2 Representation (Since the Thirteenth Century)
- 3 Popes and Councils
- PART II ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
- PART III SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC LIFE
- PART IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN STATES
- Appendix Genealogical Tables
- Primary Sources and Secondary Works Arranged by Chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece
- Plate section
- Map 1 European towns in the late Middle Ages
- Map 2 European commerce and trade
- Map 4 Winds and currents facilitating the discoveries
- Map 5 The universities o f Europe in 1400 and 1500
- Map 6 Germany and the Empire
- Map 20 The Roman Orthodox and Ottoman worlds in the fifteenth century
- References
Summary
political representation, based on the mandate bestowed on elected and responsible delegates, and applied at regional and national levels, can be considered as one of the major contributions of the western Middle Ages to world history. Some representative institutions, such as the English parliament, which developed from the thirteenth century onwards have functioned without interruption until the present day. The names given to others, such as the Spanish cortes, the Polish sejm, the German Reichstag, the Norwegian stender-møte or the Dutch staten-generaal, were applied to modern reformed institutions, obviously with the intention of justifying their new legitimacy. The connection of parliamentary with national history has therefore always been a very strong one, and has hampered attempts to explain the phenomenon on a general European basis. Where such endeavours have been undertaken, generally one national example, usually the English parliament, or a concept based on a more or less stabilised situation in the early modern period, has been too easily considered as the ‘normal’ pattern. Comparative history has largely remained a mere juxtaposing of national developments, with a strong emphasis on the large western states.
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- Information
- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 29 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
References
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