The decision making process on political assemblies of the late middle ages.

• Applicant: Dr. Michiel Anton Decaluwé
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2009 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 150038630

The project examines decision making processes on political assemblies of the late middle ages as intellectual processes. It widens the scope of scholarship on these processes, that have until now been considered to be principally political. By means of six case studies of decision making processes and their notional context, an answer will be proposed to the question: How did members of political assemblies in the late middle ages come to decisions or to a consensus on important decisions?. This means that I am not just concerned with what decision makers were thinking, but also with how they thought. For this purpose I use the concept of a frame of thought, with which the notional context of a decision process can be described and that allows to make clear the inevitable limitation of thinking. The cases are chosen from three political spheres. Two cases derive from the ecclesiastical sphere: the decision on the election procedure in conclaves of the second Council of Lyon (1274) and the agreement on the decree Haec sancta of the Council of Constance (1415). Two other cases have been taken from the Empire. These are the agreement between Emperor Charles IV and the Princes of the Empire on the Golden Bull on the Diets of Metz and Nurnberg (1356) and the decision on the structure and the constitutional order of the Empire at the Diet of Worms (1495). Finally I have chosen two cases in the urban sphere: decision processes in Florence in the late 13th century and among the Members of Flanders in the 14th-15th century. For every decision process, that can be traced in the acts, it is established what the elements were that influenced the process on an intellectual level. The elements are examined on the backdrop of their historical conditions and preconditions. These conditions, together with the elements, allow a comparison of the different cases of decision making on a notional level. The elements have been bundled in topics: (1) ritualization, (2) redaction of the decision, (3) techniques used to overcome disagreement and (4) decision making authority. The comparison between the different cases is sought on the level of the intellectual decision process itself, from the analysis of the problem to the acceptance of the decision, but also on the level of the assemblies, that have been gathered to make these processes possible. The assemblies are understood as spaces of action. These are relational constructs of active actors and concepts that capacitate (inter)action. As a result of differently orientated actions they develop, independently of a specific time or physical place, into the point of intersection of political, social and intellectual networks. Finally the project aims at clarifying general phenomena, that have emerged in the considerations of the four mentioned topics, by trying to establish typical ways of thinking, that have an impact on decision making in the different examined spheres (Church, city, Empire).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants