Lectio praecursoria: The Good Noblemen Who Conquered the Kingdom: Islam, Historiography, and Aristocratic Legitimation in Late-Medieval Portugal

Abstract

<p> This text consists of the 'lectio praecursoria' given at the defense of my doctoral dissertation "The Good Noblemen Who Conquered the Kingdom: Islam, Historiography, and Aristocratic Legitimation in Late-Medieval Portugal". This dissertation deals with aristocratic historiography and political legitimation in late-medieval Portugal (late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries). It offers a perspective into the historical imaginary of the late-medieval Portuguese aristocracy; an imaginary that underlay the argumentation of members of this social class in defence of their traditional rights and jurisdictions against political<br>centralisation. It examines how the medieval Portuguese aristocracy utilized memories of past interactions with Islam to justify its privileged social status and defend its traditional prerogatives at a time when this social group opposed the royalist policy of political centralization. This research is included into wider debates on the role of culture — in this case, historical culture — as a resource to justify, reinforce, reproduce, and transform an existing social order. <br></p>