Princely Brothers and Sisters

Jonathan R. Lyon is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago.

• Introduction1. The Origins of Twelfth-Century Princely Lineages2. Forging the Bonds between Siblings: Succession, Inheritance, and Church Careers3. Baby Boomers: The First Generation of the Staufen Upper Aristocracy4. Frederick Barbarossa and Henry the Lion: Cousins in an Age of Brothers5. Cooperation, Conflict, and the Rise of a New Generation, ca. 1180–12106. From Bamberg to Budapest: Four Brothers and Four Sisters in the Early Thirteenth Century7. The Uncertain Future of Lineages: Siblings during the Reign of Frederick IIConclusionAppendix: Genealogical ChartsThe Andechs lineageThe Ascanian lineageThe Babenberg lineageThe Ludowing lineageThe Staufen lineageThe Welf lineageThe Wettin lineage (part 1)The Wettin lineage (part 2)The Wittelsbach lineageThe Zähringen lineageWorks CitedIndex

"Jonathan Lyon's outstanding new book turns several scholarly trends of the past several decades on their head. Taking insights about family and sibling relationships from current historical and social science literaturehe applies them not to a micro-historical case studybut to the high nobility of the German empire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Lyon has offered here a substantial and tremendously important reappraisal of our models of kinshipthe familyand noble power relations in the medieval German empire." —John EldevikHamilton CollegeGerman Studies ReviewThe results of Lyon's study are impressive, and they are clear.... The rarity of serious fraternal dispute is striking, and clearly contradicts what Duby and others have asserted concerning conflicts between brothers. Thanks to the large scope of Lyon's study, this negative finding has considerable weight and cannot be dismissed as exceptional. Lyon's Princely Brothers and Sisters is an important and interesting book that offers a refreshing view of both medieval politics and medieval kinship.- Christof Rolker (German History) This book is useful for those interested in twelfth- and thirteenth-century nobility and family ties because it convincingly demonstrates the importance of sibling bonds in the formation of power. As a consequence Lyon touches upon matters important for the study of lordship in the Middle Ages, such as the division of patrimony, the proximity to the emperor, the absence of heirs and the effects of mobility.- Jitske Jasperse (The Medieval Review)