An elegant apologia for the humanities and a reminder of why history is relevant for the present. Albrecht Classen sounds a warning about the consequences of incompetence in the corridors of power. The narrative is a shrewd and scholarly interpretation of medieval perceptions about leadership models that are deficient both in honor and in character. Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages is a sobering analysis of unstable and collapsing political structures that remains pertinent for the modern age everywhere.

Thomas A. Fudge, University of New England, Australia

Albrecht Classen’s Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages explores how medieval poets warned against rulers who abused power or turned into tyrants. By consulting literary works from a variety of European sources and genre, including Latin and German epic, Norse saga, Old French chason de geste and courtly romance, and Boccaccio’s Decameron, Classen demonstrates that the pre-modern political landscape was much more dynamic and tumultuous than commonly portrayed. A close reading of literary texts from the period reveals popular, as well as philosophical and theological, objections to royal misbehavior and abuse of power. While the writers that Classen studies do not advocate for democracy as currently defined, they reacted to and criticized what they viewed as power scenarios harmful to the good of the citizens. This is a unique approach to texts that hold valuable clues to medieval opposition to dangerous rulers and conceived injustices.

Connie L. Scarborough, Texas Tech University

Albrecht Classen’s marvelous new book is remarkable in its scope as well as depth. Displaying magnificent vision, he surveys vernacular poetry and prose composed throughout Europe between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in order to weave together seamlessly the common threads of veiled (and sometimes not so hidden) critiques of the mores and misbehavior of myriad royals and the courtly class that surrounded them., Classen masterfully reveals how the shared political discourse of the Middle Ages (especially the language of tyranny) received wide dissemination in the literary expressions of the time. More extraordinarily still, the guiding themes of Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages are linked to the political ills of our own day, yet without lapsing into anachronism. Classen brings to this multifaceted interdisciplinary endeavor the erudition of an experienced scholar steeped in a dazzling range of primary sources, many of them relatively unfamiliar, and of relevant secondary research. This volume is sure to interest not only students of medieval literature, but also those of intellectual history and cultural studies.

Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M University

This is a timely study of the representation of rulership in medieval literary sources. It shows how authors vividly, intelligently and obsessively addressed the problem of bad government. In recounting their efforts, Classen’s book parallels attempts to understand medieval ways of thinking about evil rulership, its prevention and, when all else failed, its correction that historians of political theory and political theology have made. It is altogether a bravura performance.

William Chester Jordan, Princeton University

Is the king evil, or does he just have bad advisers? In either case, do his subjects offer resistance or stay loyal? Albrecht Classen now gives fresh analysis of these questions and medieval answers to them. Including texts as varied as Egil's Saga or Boccaccio's Decameron, the Lais of Marie de France or The Nibelungenlied, his Criticism of the Court and the Evil King will be the essential guide to how pre-modern writers saw the problem of royal tyranny and found solutions to it.

Andrew Breeze, University of Navarre, Pamplona