whenever a new episode is released My
partner and I make time in the evening
to watch it seriously it is a remarkably
well made TV series with a versatile
well told story about some universal
human passions such as the passion for
power I also love history especially
late medieval history from which
apparently George Martin borrowed some
of the plot elements of The Game of
Thrones
but I have bad news for you today
medieval politics was not like the game
of Thrones
first for all its flavor of family drama
with royalty and nobility playing a huge
role medieval history was much more
about institutions then it was about
personalities it was about guilds city
councils and courts of law much more
than it was about kings and queens like
Cersei or Robert Baratheon it was not
about leaders claiming to bring change
like Daenerys but about leaders
pretending that nothing has changed
indeed to call something a novelty in
late medieval politics meant to say it’s
a totally useless idea
so leaders who wish to bring change had
to mask change and innovation as
continuity and tradition most
importantly unlike in the game of
Thrones in late medieval Europe the
greatest devastation was brought not by
wars for inheritance the Middle Ages
ended with a conflict over ideas not
over some kind of an Iron Throne this
particular conflict was brought about by
the quest for the moral politics I will
explain in a moment what I mean but
first let me try to answer a very basic
question why does it matter to me
personally that we should understand
something about how late we
society and politics worked this is the
question many people actually asked me
when I said I’m giving this talk I see
around us today many things that remind
me of the time when the secular states
of late medieval West were declining and
when identity politics based on religion
was on the rise so I can think of at
least two ways how knowing something
about medieval history may help us to
understand something about our politics
today reason 1 our society operates on
the assumption that countries are stable
entities their borders and political
institutions are more or less fixed and
they have permanent representation in
the United Nations when an international
order which is based on States is
frightened
we’re overwhelmed with a sense of crisis
this is because states give us a sense
of security sometimes true in other
cases false but they do so what can be
more stable than a country obviously
this is a delusion in each of our
countries in Europe today there are some
institutions that are older than the
state many of these institutions were
founded in the Middle Ages the
University of Paris is much older than
the Republic of France in its current
borders not to mention its political
institutions the University of Tartu is
older than the state of Estonia the a
steadily majora Hospital in Milan is
much much older than the state of Italy
and organized market exchanges like the
exchange of Bruges having total existed
much longer than the current kingdoms of
Belgium and the Netherlands at the time
when these institutions were created
they lived in a totally different
landscape with different political
institutions different borders and
vastly different laws so how can this
knowledge help us well in the time of
new global instability we can learn what
it takes
to create robust and resilient
institutions that can serve the needs of
people like the universities and
hospitals of medieval Europe that were
run by public minded collectivities of
individuals and outlived many countries
with their borders and laws serving the
needs of society as it changed for an
institution to set goals that go beyond
the current national benchmarks of
whatever government is in power is
actually a good idea
for a government to be sufficiently
humble to recognize that some
institutions are too important to be
meddled with on a daily basis is an even
better idea
moreover we should strive to create
institutions that serve the needs of
people that could possibly outlive our
current States reason too in our society
and in our politics like in the politics
of late medieval cities and
principalities we are guided by some
idea of the good life sometimes it’s a
pretty general idea for example
partitions think that a country with a
rising GDP is much better than a country
with a falling GDP but sometimes it’s a
much more specific idea some leaders
think that a country with stringent
controls of migration or sexuality or
religion is a much better country so in
late medieval Europe in some countries
some governments also had what I would
call a fairly general and even
materialist idea of the good life
for instance peace trade and prosperity
where the idea of the good life
in the Netherlands in the 15th century
on the one hand the world the prosperous
cities like Gant and Bruges with their
own self-government which proclaimed
these values on the other hand the where
the dukes of burgundy who were the Lords
of those cities who ruled the territory
of today’s Belgium and the Netherlands
who also had advisors that proclaimed
that protection of peace
trade are very important so when those
two elites were at war with each other
which was often they still continued to
maintain that protection of peace and
trade is important this was a very
general nonspecific idea of the good
life for the community of course they
also assumed that everybody is Christian
that went without saying religion was a
big business but it didn’t dictate
politics on everyday basis and in fact
in the 15th century the Burgundian
Netherlands were remarkably prosperous
now already the next generation had a
much more specific idea of the good life
what happened the generation of leaders
and advisors born at the turn of the
15th to the 16th century championed a
new religious culture they believed that
instead of donating to a church
occasionally or going on a pilgrimage
you should live your Christian beliefs
in your daily life now one of these
people was Erasmus how many people in
Europe know by name because there is a
scholarship scheme named after him
Erasmus criticized the ruling elites of
his time for being too secular rather
like some populist today criticized the
establishment he believed that rulers
should not rely on institutions or
lawyers and other experts but only on
their conscience Erasmus even thought
that among Christians signing contracts
was not a good idea because you do not
cheat your Christian brothers so signed
contracts are not necessary now this
kind of naivete was attractive the whole
idea of good what got politics means was
rewritten this was the new sincerity in
politics the next generation went one
step further they basically proclaimed
that in order for a country to live well
all its people had to follow the right
religious principles now unfortunately
for them that was exactly the time when
different parts of society today we call
them Protestants and
Felix started having different religious
principles so the people in power took
it upon themselves to decide which set
of religious principles was right and to
impose their vision of the good life
with arms the effect this very specific
idea of the good life had on life as
such was devastating today many people
who know European history think that the
war in the Netherlands in the 16th
century was about independence from
Spain maybe but for those who started it
and especially for those who tried to
defend the status quo this war was about
which religious principles should be
followed by the community about the idea
of the good life and it was a very
bloody war in a single episode in
Antwerp about seven thousand people were
killed only think of it the Middle Ages
in Europe ended with mass murder not for
the sake of inheritance or some kind of
an iron throne people killed for a
narrowly understood idea of the good
life in some parts of the world this is
still happening today and in terms of
economic prosperity the age of religious
wars was the steep downturn for most of
Europe so what can we learn from this no
it’s not only about secularism though
secularism does help when you have
groups of people with different
sometimes clashing ideas in your society
but importantly for us today we can also
learn that when politics becomes a quest
for a narrowly understood idea of the
good life it ends badly trying to
implement a very inflexible stringent
idea of the good life with political
power can lead to devastating
consequences making politics more moral
maybe a slogan that leads to less
competent
and ultimately to more conflict and less
prosperity thank [Applause]