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The New Solomon: Robert of Naples (1309-1343) And Fourteenth Century Kingship
The first full-length study of Robert of Naples' reign in over 70 years, this volume analyzes Robert's policies and image in the context of larger shifts in rulership from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Treating kingship as a joint enterprise of king and court, it draws on an interdisciplinary range of sources from chronicles, sermons, and works of art to diplomatic and archival records, to reassess the major issues of his reign.
378 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2003
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February 27, 2012
Less a biography of Robert of Naples then a study in changing ideals of kingship in the 14th century, The New Solomon presents the fascinating argument that Robert and his court illustrate a moment of historical transition. After recognizing a wide variety of contemporary opinion - Petrarch thought Robert was the best king in Europe, Dante thought he was avaricious and ineffectual - Samantha Kelly suggests that this divergence was derived from the fact that Robert presented himself as a 'wise' king, a persona based on 'new' values of intellect and prudence more than the traditional kingly values of prowess and personal justice, and that this new conceptualization was not fully embraced until after Robert's death.
Kelly's work examines what kind of public persona Robert cultivated, and how that persona was received. She explores Robert's extensive patronage, which presented him as an intellectual and provided him with a broad network of friendly connections across Europe. Piety was also very important to Robert - over 250 of his sermons survive - and he especially utilized it to promote his dynasty within and without his kingdom. Robert's justice was based on delegation and flexibility, a system that led to a relatively balanced and just kingdom, but also resulted in complaints that Robert's justice wasn't as personal as the traditional model. Foreign policy was defined by prudence and negotiation rather than military conquest, which again met with mixed response. Finally, Kelly declares that the central virtue of Robert's self-conception was wisdom, and all his other virtues were said to spring from that. Kelly's Robert is a mix of old and new, and she emphasizes how this mix makes labels like medieval or modern pretty unhelpful.
It's a really fun argument, and I enjoyed the book a lot. It assumes a general background knowledge of Robert's reign (and that of his predecessors), but it's still fairly easy to follow even if you aren't too familiar with the Angevins. My only issue with it is that it occasionally over-polticizes Robert, assuming every action he took or sermon he delivered was part of a carefully crafted propaganda message. While Robert's actions had to have been informed by politics, it seems like Kelly's book kind of undervalues Robert himself as as person, or at least eclipses him sometimes. It's a book about ideals and image-creation, so that's understandable, but it might have given the book a bit more balance if some of Robert's actions and systems were at least partially rooted in Robert's own ideas and beliefs, instead of entirely shaped by outside forces.
Kelly's work examines what kind of public persona Robert cultivated, and how that persona was received. She explores Robert's extensive patronage, which presented him as an intellectual and provided him with a broad network of friendly connections across Europe. Piety was also very important to Robert - over 250 of his sermons survive - and he especially utilized it to promote his dynasty within and without his kingdom. Robert's justice was based on delegation and flexibility, a system that led to a relatively balanced and just kingdom, but also resulted in complaints that Robert's justice wasn't as personal as the traditional model. Foreign policy was defined by prudence and negotiation rather than military conquest, which again met with mixed response. Finally, Kelly declares that the central virtue of Robert's self-conception was wisdom, and all his other virtues were said to spring from that. Kelly's Robert is a mix of old and new, and she emphasizes how this mix makes labels like medieval or modern pretty unhelpful.
It's a really fun argument, and I enjoyed the book a lot. It assumes a general background knowledge of Robert's reign (and that of his predecessors), but it's still fairly easy to follow even if you aren't too familiar with the Angevins. My only issue with it is that it occasionally over-polticizes Robert, assuming every action he took or sermon he delivered was part of a carefully crafted propaganda message. While Robert's actions had to have been informed by politics, it seems like Kelly's book kind of undervalues Robert himself as as person, or at least eclipses him sometimes. It's a book about ideals and image-creation, so that's understandable, but it might have given the book a bit more balance if some of Robert's actions and systems were at least partially rooted in Robert's own ideas and beliefs, instead of entirely shaped by outside forces.
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