A Gallery of Kings: Uses and Abuses of Power ca. 1300

Songs and stories of powerful Kings, both good and bad, abound in the Middle Ages. “May he reign forever!” sings the crowd, but the monarch’s power is limited: by his fallible judgement, his formidable adversaries, his love of power, and his own, precarious mortality. These ancient songs, in Latin, German, Galician, Old English, and French, of kingship and its snares resonate strongly down the centuries, into our own, turbulent time.

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