Graduate Program

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2008

Thesis Director

Joshua Birk

Thesis Committee Member

Ed Wehrle

Thesis Committee Member

Unknown

Abstract

This thesis is essentialy a study of two groups of documents: the Cartulaire de l'ordredu Temple 1119? - 115 0. Recueil de chart es et des bull es relatives a l 'ordre du Temple, which contains a rich source of donations and wills left to the Knights Templar, and one very few such collections of records left concerning the Templars in Southern France; the Cartulaire general de l'ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint Jean de Jerusalem (1100-1310), which acts as the source of the same kind of documents for the Knights Hospitaller. This study examines the emerging social groups who are connected by their common patronage of the Military Orders. The people who appear in these wills, both as donors and as witnesses, make up only a small portion of the total population of Toulouse, yet many names reappear with enough frequency to suggest more than just a chance inclusion. Social and religious differences divided Toulouse at this time for a number of reasons. 1 While the information at hand makes it difficult to discern if one's choice in patronage mirrored some larger factional affiliation, the relatively few number of names which appear in both sets of documents versus the high rate of reoccurrence within the separate source groups clearly argues that a kind of larger sense of affiliation existed, influencing the decisions of these people. In an already divided city like Toulouse, identifying the presence of these informal social networks can help provide insight into how this regional center of power functioned, and how it fell apart.

Download

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS