Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses: Dynastic Cults in Medieval Central Europe

by Gábor Klaniczay, Eva Pálmai (Translator)

Medieval dynasties relied frequently upon the cult of royal saints for legitimacy, and in the central middle ages most royal dynasties included saints in their family. Within this context, the saints of the Hungarian ruling dynasty constitute a remarkable sequence, and provide a unique example of the late medieval evolution of royal and dynastic sainthood. Building upon a series of case studies from Hungary and central Europe, Gábor Klaniczay proposes an original new synthesis of the multiple forms and transformations of royal and dynastic sainthood.

Genres: History

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Klaniczay is University Professor of Medieval Studies and Fellow of the Centre for Religious Studies at the Central European University (CEU), in Budapest, Hungary.

He was born in 1950.

He graduated in History, Medieval Studies, and English Philology in 1974 from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and completed his postgraduate studies in 1976 in Paris with Jacques Le Goff (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) and Michel Mollat (Sorbonne). He received his Dr.Phil. at ELTE (Hungary) in 1983, and was Cand. Sci. at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1994. In 2001 he was awarded Dr. Habil. at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and then Dr. Sci. of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2005.

In 2014 he was Correspondant étranger de l‘Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris.