The favor of friends : : intercession and aristocratic politics in Carolingian and Ottonian Europe / / Sean Gilsdorf.

• Superior document: Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages, Volume 23
• VerfasserIn: Gilsdorf, Sean J., 1966-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's series on the early Middle Ages ; Volume 23.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (226 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Understanding Intercession: Sources and Approaches /; Courting Intercession: Amici, Allies, and Advocacy /; Making Intercession: Companions, Kin, and Consorts /; Embodying Intercession: The Mediatory Politics of the Episcopacy /; The End(s) of Intercession: Consolidations and Conclusions /; Appendix 1 Diplomatic intercession, Conrad I to Conrad II (911–1039) /; Appendix 2 Excluded diplomata, Conrad I to Conrad II /; Bibliography /; Index /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 9004264590
• ISSN: 1878-4879
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Sean Gilsdorf.

The Favor of Friends offers the first book-length exploration of intercession—aid and advocacy by one individual or group in behalf of another—within early medieval aristocratic societies. Drawing upon a variety of disciplines and historiographical traditions, Sean Gilsdorf demonstrates how this process operated, and how it was ideologically elaborated, in Carolingian and Ottonian Europe, allowing individuals and groups to leverage their own, limited interpersonal networks to the fullest, produce new relationships, gain access to previously closed spaces, and generate interest in their agendas from those able to effect change. The Favor of Friends enriches our understanding of early medieval politics and rulership, offering a model of political interaction in which hierarchy and comity do not stand in ideological and pragmatic tension, but instead work in integrated and mutually-reinforcing ways.