Gerd Althoff, Ph.D. (1974), Münster, has been Full and Senior Professor of Medieval History at that university from 1997-2018. His many publications include Spielregeln der Politik im Mittelalter (WBG, 1997); Die Macht der Rituale (WBG, 2003); and Family, Friends and Followers (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

"This volume is a welcome contribution. Gerd Althoff is a major German historian of the early Middle Ages whose generation of scholars developed a new perspective on German political history [...] The value of the cultural turn as found in the work of Gerd Althoff and his generationof historians has provided a signal service – most especially in German historiography – of separating medieval German history from the awfully destructive legacy of an intense nationalistic modern historiography centered on the German state. For helping provide this specific »German Perspective« we are in his debt and can appreciate the import of this volume in his honor." Joseph P. Huffman, in Francia 2020 (4).

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsOriginal PublicationsPart 1: Introduction1 What Exactly Are Spielregeln?2 Spielregeln and Rituals3 Spielregeln, Order of Rank and ConflictsPart 2: Rules4 Authority and Violence of Kings in Tenth and Eleventh Century Germany5 Rules of Conflict among the Warrior Aristocracy of the High Middle Ages6 Openness and Secrecy: Two Fundamental Categories of Medieval Communication7 Saxon Bishops in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries: Strategies and Rules of Their Political Activities8 The Perspective of an Expert: Gislebert of MonsPart 3: Rituals9 Rituals and Their “Spielregeln” in the Middle Ages10 The Variability of Rituals11 Rituals as Lingua Franca? Joint Cultural Practises at the Eastern Borders of the Realm12 Symbolic Communication and Medieval Order: Strengths and Weaknesses of Ambiguous SignsPart 4: Gregorian Revolution13 Papal Authority in the High Middle Ages14 Communicating Papal Primacy: the Impact of Gregory VII’s Ideas (11th–13th Century)15 Examples of Justifying and Rejecting Churchly Violence at the Time of the Gregorian RevolutionPart 5: History in Literature16 Do Poets Play with the Rules of Society?17 Heroes Who Break the Mould: Duke Ernst and the Emperor OttoConclusionWorks CitedIndex