Medieval Politics Quotes
This quotation illustrates two things. First, the enmity between the Protestants and the Catholic Church which the Lutherans had recently left. See for another anti-Catholic example of the Eastern Orthodox—{635099}. Second, the Muslim Ottoman Turks had recently conquered Constantinople and were very far from Iceland which was safe from their aggression. None the less, the hatred and fear of the Muslims had spread so far and fast in the Christian world, that even Christians who were in no danger prayed to be saved from them. Islamophobia was already well established in the middle of the 15th century.
West Saxons had a bad experience with a “Queen” who was not very good. This quotation illustrates that the institutions of monarchy varied from time to time and place to place, just like democracies that have many differences among them.
Europe has had a tradition of communes—communities of like-minded people who wanted to live apart and differently from the majority of society. Most of the early communes were religious in nature—monasteries and abbeys being the most common example. The civil government–in this case the King of France—would grant the commune independent status and the residents would not have the duties (or get the benefits) of citizens at large. This particular commune began interacting with the major society and the commune offended others somehow. The King of France. Ended the commune at the request of both the church and civil authorities. However, it was reinstated later and today is a tourist attraction in Paris. The quote also gives us an idea of the military service requirements of the period as there is not a great deal of material about this period.
At the time of the writing she was an ex-queen. See {618099} for Frederick’s own view of the Greeks. The Crusades were going badly for the Christians at this point. The Greek Emperor had, after promising to be a part of the Christian alliance, made a separate treaty with Saladin and the Muslims, making him an outcast and sewing the seeds of the schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches. In a year, the Western Christians would sack Constantinople, and murder and plunder their fellow Eastern Christians. The two previous Greek Emperors were suspect from the Western point of view, but the treaty with Saladin “proved” what had been suspected about the Greeks who were now allied with the hated Muslims.
