一一世紀ポワトゥーの一史料に見る世俗領主たちの紛争 : 和解・戦争・君臣関係・身体

Abstract

Studies of conflicts and their resolution in medieval European society have proliferated recently. One can, however, point out that these studies display two problems. One concerns documentation : prior studies have focused almost exclusively upon monastic documents, which have led them to stress the importance of amicable settlements or compromises in feudal disputes. The other is a theoretical one : those studies have viewed the judicial system only in terms of its function in eliminating disputes or military confrontations and restoring social order. The author believes that this presupposition is in need of re-evaluation. For this reason, this paper analyzes a rare historical document from early eleventh-century Poitou, a region in Western France. The document closely depicts conflicts between secular lords from a worldly perspective. This document, entitled "le conventum, " is something of an apology whose writer attempts to support and justify the claims of one of the antagonists, Hugh of Lusignan, against other secular lords, and above all, William V, Duke of Aquitaine. The paper also argues that those compromises concluded in the course of conflicts between the secular lords are closely connected to factors considered outside the sphere of justice, such as warfare or feudal contracts. Firstly, the conflicts observed between castellans in this region were never free from intervention from their superior, Duke William. Importantly, his intervention was far from the neutral mediation stressed by previous researchers who relied on monastic documents. William is depicted, for example, requesting that Hugh cancel a pact of amicable settlement that he had concluded with another castellan and instead sign another which was more politically favorable to the duke himself. At first glance, some pacts or conventions concluded between secular lords, including the Duke of Aquitaine, seem to be compromises between them. Actually, in most cases, they are at the same time designed to advance preparations for war against some other lord. Those compromises also included contracts of vassalage, thereby playing a determining role in regulating the relationships between secular lords. It can be said, therefore, that the relations of power in this society were largely determined by its conflictual structure. Secondly, the conventions concluded during the process of the conflicts often prescribed the handing over of hostages as security from one party to the other or to the Duke of Aquitaine. Those deals can be considered as representing a linkage between settlements, act of the legal system of justice in its broadest sense, and warfare, action outside the system, because prisoners of war were sometimes used as hostages in compromises, or because hostages were handed over in preparation for war in place of fiefs. Thirdly, the last scenes of "le conventum, " in which Hugh of Lusignan declares the breaking of his vow of fealty to Duke William, which leads to open warfare between them and finally to the signing of another pact for an amicable settlement, are interesting in that we can see that unwritten rules govern the prosecution of war and proceedings of the court. In conclusion, the relations of power between secular lords in early eleventh century Poitou seem to have been based upon a permanent state of conflict. This dose not mean that this society had fallen into a state of anarchy. Instead, the pacts and conventions concluded in the process of resolving conflicts helped to create, or recreate, vassal relations at times and justified war at others, thereby determining how secular lords dealt with each other in this society.