Dirks Florian. Konfliktaustragung im norddeutschen Raum des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts: Untersuchungen zu Fehdewesen und Tagfahrt

Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2015. — 342 p. — (Nova Mediaevalia Quellen und Studien zum europäischen Mittelalter 14).How did towns and nobles use communication in their feuds in the Northwestern part of the Holy Roman Empire of the later Middle Ages between 1380 and 1480? Florian Dirks follows this question by analyzing six feuds of the towns of Bremen, Lüneburg and Hildesheim against members of the nobility of the region. In these feuds, the conflicting parties often met to discuss possibilities of settlement of their disputes. The sources speak of these meetings as „Tagfahrt“. For the first time, this book describes the chosen feuds as complete case-studies and analyzes how the extensive negotiation meetings were used in the conflicts. Thus, categories of knowledge and competence clearly emerge. By analyzing the „Tagfahrt“ as a mean in conflicts, light is shed on one of the versatile facettes of political gatherings in late medieval times.