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The Medieval Week in Visby

Taxing Visby 2011

The Medieval Week in Visby suffers in a time of crisis
Each August for the last 29 years, the city of Visby at Gotland is home to a Medieval Week inviting thousands of reenactors, craftsmen and volunteers to dress up and take part in the festivities.

This year, however, they missed out on its traditional opening ceremony, where the “Danish King, Valdemar Atterdag” traditionally rides into town in order to tax the locals – mimicking (the myths) about the actual events in 1361, when he attacked the island with a modern and very well-equipped army. After having killed off the peasants with their billhooks in front of the wall at Visby, the city opened its gates in order to avoid despoiling. Exactly how much the good citizens in the end coughed up with is unknown. But it is believed to have been significant sums of mint, jewels and other values.

However, this year the rather famous show was called off. The reason was lack of funding, more precisely the pitiful sum of €35.000. How come?

Valdemar Atterdag taxes Visby
National Romantic painting from 1882 by Hellquist

Budget
The Medieval Week at Gotland has existed since 1983 and has a budget of €465.000, of which € 350.000 represent savings from last year, while the rest is paid for by the local government and sponsors. The event is organised by a company – Medeltidsveckan AB. This year (2012) has seen approximately the same number of visitors as last year. This has once more raised the hopes amongst the organisers for 2013, when the festival will celebrate its 30-year anniversary. Hopefully the traditional show at the beginning plus a huge re-enactment of the battle of Visby will take place, as was the case in 2011.

It is the most important tourist festival at Gotland, an island off the Swedish Coast in the Baltic Sea. Designated World Heritage, Visby was once a Hansetic city. It boasts of a nearly complete medieval wall, eight church-ruins in the middle of the city plus a very significant number of medieval houses.

In 2007 a major survey was done by “Turismens Utrednings Institut” – Medeltidsveckan 5 – 12 augusti 2007 Visby.  According to this the festival was visited by at least 40.000 people (computed from the numbers of fee-paying guests). Of these, 80% stayed three days or more. During the festival 2007, 331 personal interviews were conducted. From the information gathered from these interviews it appears that 75% were tourists deriving from outside Gotland, 2/3 of which came solely for experiencing or working at the medieval week. These more than 20.000 persons – who would not have visited Gotland if the medieval Week had not lured them – generated a total turnover of €14.5 Million. All in all the Medieval Week that year generated a turnover 44 times that of the initial investment (€20.5 /0.465 Mill).

Why then is the festival experiencing economic troubles of this magnitude? Especially since it seems that €35.000 should be but a drop in the ocean of the regional budget of nearly half a billion €?

Calendar
One reason is the time of the year. Originally the festival was planned as an initiative to prolong the tourist season at Gotland. However, the festival is placed right at the end of the school holidays and in the first week of August. The reason is that it actually begins on a Sunday morning with a solemn commemorative service in the cathedral of Visby with a procession afterwards out to the battlefield, where the local army of peasants were slaughtered in 1361 on the 27^thof July. Another reason for the timing is the fact that the festival is dependant on a huge staff of volunteers and just plain medieval buffs; all of which prefer to work or dress up in the last week of the school-holidays. Finally a lot of the professional traders in the market – which is the main event – prefer to keep the traditional date. Rescheduling it might collide with the later medieval events in Finland and Denmark of which they do a “tour”. And as they are to some extent professional business-entrepreneurs, they will decide whether it is worth their while to travel to Visby. According to a new study by Thomas A. Michel this decision will be based on such matters as the cost of traveling, the price of the market-stall and finally whether the competition in the market is to steep.

On the other hand, local and more traditional tourist entrepreneurs on the rest of the island have for a long time lobbied for a reschedule. They claim that they experience a loss of up to 70% while the festival is on and wish to have it moved to late August.

This story about the financial woes of the local company, which organises this highly significant event, is not unique. Reports abound from other places as is witnessed by a recently published report on the “Tourism, Festivals and Cultural Events in Times of Crisis” . Well worth a read…
Tourism, Festivals and Cultural Events in Times of Crisis.
Ed. by Lise Lyck, Phil Long and Allan Xenisu Grige.
Copenhagen Business School 2012.

Leicester Cathedral

Leicester Cathedral is the obvious choice. Nevertheless two rival societies are fighting over what may be the bones of Richard III

While scientists are busy trying to extract and analyse the DNA of the presumed skeleton of Richard III, two organisations are fighting to have their say about the future place for the reburial of the remains – Leicester, where the king was taken after his death at the battle of Bosworth, or York Minster, where it is presumed he planned to be buried together with his wife and their only son.

One of these organizations, Richard III Society, which is responsible for the archaeological initiative, recently paid tribute to chief instigator Phillipa Langley, who is secretary of the Scottish Branch of the Society. According to The History Blog Philippa Langley, secretary of the Scottish Branch of the Richard III Society, who has spent years working to make the dig happen, is firmly on Leicester’s side, both for historical and practical reasons.

“When I started the process everybody said the remains should stay in Leicester. There’s a huge case for that because he’s been here for the past 527 years and it’s the Leicester authority which has paid for the dig and provided assistance from the start.” She says, York Minster waited 15 years before agreeing to house a stained-glass window dedicated to Richard. “It worries me to think the same will happen with the remains,” she says to the History Blog. “The problem is that York Minster is full and there might not be anywhere for him. I don’t want the body sitting around for more than decade before they decide where they’re going to put him”.

Two petitions
But the society is not the only player in the field. Although it took a few days after the find was announced for the Richard III Foundation, a competing organisation, to find a suitable way of reacting, they were quick to act. Soon the Foundation issued a press release congratulating the Society, while at the same time launching an online petition in order to gather support for a future reburial at York. So far 573 have signed this, many from overseas.

Now, as a counter move, a pensioner, Roy Shakespeare, living in Hinckley near Bosworth in Leicestershire  has launched an alternative petion on the internet. So far more than 140 people have signed up. According to the Hinckley Times, he was “a bit annoyed at all the polls and petitions from people from America and all sorts of places clambering for the bones to be buried at York”. He further voiced it as his opinion that “York is a great place, but there is such a lot going on and it’s very expensive for a day out because there is so much to do”. In his opinion, “Leicester has not got a great deal for the general public and it would be a real boost for the economy there”.

York Minster

Tourism
In this he might very well be right. Much is at stake in terms of tourism. Already at the Press Conference announcing the find, the Mayor of Leicester noted the future value of turning Leicester into a pilgrim-site for Richardians – people fascinated by this king, his moral fibre (or lack thereof). This matter was even later raised in the Parliament.

Recently a series of reports have been presented, reviewing the tourism business in Leicestershire County. Each year the County invests nearly £200.000 in supporting tourism (down 30% from 2011). According to a report  from May 2012 tourism in Leicestershire has performed slightly worse from 2008 – 10 than expected compared to the rest of Britain. The value of the sector in Leicestershire was in 2010 £872 million (down from £902 million in 2009) with a corresponding reduction in the number of jobs at 13.5%.  The research behind the brings a list of objectives, one of which is the need to transform day visitors to overnight guests.

In this perspective it is interesting to review the facts and figures for Bosworth Battlefield. Apart from Melton Mowbray with the food market, Bosworth is in fact the location par excellence, whither people might travel from afar. Further it is the place in Leicestershire (in a survey from 2008) where most people are willing to travel on “a day out”. No doubt there is room for a concerted effort to develop the Richardian tourist trail by adding a final resting place to the itinerary. In the end it might turn out to be highly advantageous for Leicester in the long run, if the local authorities invest properly. What Richard III himself might have thought of being turned into a tourist asset is 527 years after his death is quite another matter.

Who decides?
In the end, the decision about the re-interment will have to be made by someone. The chances are however that neither of the two polls will play any role at all in the decision.

According to an interview with the Bishop of Leicester, local views are likely to determine the outcome, because the man – whatever his identity – was buried at Greyfriars in what was and still is the Parish of Leicester Cathedral; this implies that it is legally a local decision to be made at the level there – though of course as stated by the Bishop after consultation with the proper organisations and institutions, including the Palace.

As to the state funeral, the question according to the Bishop remains whether there was a proper funeral back in 1485 or not; (which definitely seems to be the case); if so the service in connection with a re-interment will necessary have the character of a memorial service and less that of a funeral as such. As stated by the Bishop there are definitely liturgical precedents for such a service, which should be carefully considered.

Read other articles about Richard III and the dilemmas and politics in connection with the reburial.

Karlsjahr in Aachen 2014

814 Charlemagne died in his bed in Aachen and was buried there. Unusual for his time he got to be 72 Years old after having reigned first as king and later emperor for 46 years. 2014 Aachen is planning huge festivities, not least three extraordinary exhibitions:

The first one – Places of Power – will be housed in the coronation hall and focus will be on the palaces of Charlemagne. The second – the Art of Charlemagne – will be organised at a new exhibition venue, the Centre Charlemagne. The last one – Lost Treasures – will be located at the treasury of the Cathedral and showcase all the lost trinkets, souvenirs, bones etc.

There is no doubt: The city of Aachen hopes for a resuscitation of the former Aachen-success in 1968 as well as that of Paderborn in 1999, when this city mounted an exhibition on the “Art and Culture of the Carolingians, celebrating the meeting between Charlemagne and the Pope Leo III in this outpost of his kingdom. With more than 2000 press articles, 280 pieces of priceless art from European collections and 311.287 visitors this exhibition became a virtual boost for this charming small city in the middle of Northern Germany. The planners in Aachen will probably not be satisfied with less, although 100.000 visitors will make it into a success.

Presently, however, the curators are running out of time. Although the German President, Joachim Gauck has already promised to open the exhibition, the project lacks €2 mill in order to meet the expectations. As of now the Mayor and Magistrate in Aachen has decided to slash all other cultural projects in the city in order to have a reserve in case promises from sponsors and foundations are not fulfilled.

Further the organisers have to build the largest and most complicated of the planned exhibitions, which is located at the City Hall in less than 18 days, as the setting, the Coronation Hall, is the traditional place for the handing over of the so-called Karls-Preiss; this takes place less than three weeks before the grand opening of the exhibitions.

When it comes to lending the priceless artefacts, the agenda is fulfilled. 33 fragile pieces have been promised for the exhibition of at the Treasury of the Cathedral, while 260 pieces for the exhibition at the Town Hall have been confirmed.

Coordination and organisation of all this plus the visual program has been allocated to a new organisation, but the economy is still the matter for the city. Mid 2013 the money has to start flowing.

READ MORE:

Culture must downsize in order to finance the “Karlsjahr”

Preliminary introduction to the exhibitions

Report about the exhibition in Paderborn in 1999

Medieval Teaching

Teaching the Middle Ages – in the Middle Ages and today…

What was school like in the Middle Ages? How did children (or un-lettered adolescents) learn anything? What tutorial and didactic instruments were available? And how might knowledge of these matters enrich the teaching in schools and universities anno 2012?

These questions are tackled in the latest issue of “Das Mittelalter” – the journal published by the German Mediävistenverband.

Primarily the issue presents a series of (very interesting) cases about Medieval Teaching, amongst others on the interplay between the praxis of recruiting and teaching youngsters in feudal Champagne compared with the formation of Perceval in the “Conte du Graal” by Chrétien de Troyes. Other articles focus on the use of images in the Cronicles of Matthew Paris or the combination of verses, comments and images in the fencing books of the Later Middle Ages.

As an extra feature the articles are accompanied by teaching material and suggestions. Finally the collection is rounded off with an article by Meike Hensel-Grobe, about the general challenges of teaching Medieval History in Schools. Here she ponders the quandary that on one hand the teaching of Medieval History is more and more reduced in terms of time-slots and resources, while at the same time pupils and people in general have this obsession with the Middle Ages as is witnessed by the proliferation of more and more historical novels, computer-games, films, events and reenactments.

One of the challenges here seems that while the teaching of Medieval History is characterised by an old-fashioned sociological-historical approach (also called the daily-life-approach), children and grown-ups demands stories of active and inventive persons or they wish themselves to be active pursuing different handcrafts. One reason for this is the historical syllabus in schools, which – having been written by modern historians – continues to require in a subtle way that The Middle Ages keeps being taught as a primitive prolegomenon to the “real history” = the history of enlightenment and modernity.

Thus, while popular medieval history is filled with active combatants and participators, the teaching of Medieval History is being fenced off in an “a-historical” reservation.

The solution? Interdisciplinary involvement with other teachers and the world of “living history”, claims Mieke Hensel-Grobe.

Das Mittelalter. Zeitschrift des Mediävistenverbandes. Band 17, 2012, heft 1.
Lehre und Schule im Mittelalter. Mittelalter in Schule und Lehre.

Leicester Cathedral obvious choice
Leicester Cathedral is obvious choice, although two rival societies are fighting over where to re-inter the presumed bones of Richard III…

Misconstrued Modesty?

Is it misconstrued modesty to deny the public photos of the alleged skeleton of Richard III?

On the 30^th of August archaeologists found a well-preserved skeleton of a middleaged male of normal height with an articulated scoliosis. The man appeared to have been slain in battle as witnessed by a series of wounds to the skull plus an iron arrowhead lodged between his upper vertebras. The skeleton was in all probability identified as that of Richard III and a request was sent to the Ministry of Justice in order to obtain the right to commence exhumation.

Of huge historical interest, the skeleton was at this point thus identified as that of an innate object ready to be made available for a series of scientific investigations, through which it would hopefully be possible to gather an endless amount of information about such things as height, physical condition, diet etc.

Nevertheless the University of Leicester, which will be responsible for this research, later claimed at the press conference (12.09.2012), that photos of the remains had not been released since the skeleton would be “treated in full accordance with the University of Leicester’s ethical policy for dealing with human remains”. Probably knowing full well that the public might be fuming, it appeared the University had as a poor substitute contracted with an artist – Emma Vieceli – who had been commissioned to draw an artistic rendering of the actual exhumation.

All this is of course fabulously interesting for not just anthropologists, who love to study such cultural dilemmas, but hopefully also a source of hilarious entertainment for the enlightened public. The question, we have to pose, is of course why an aesthetically inspired drawing is more ethically correct than a beautiful, professional photo? One might be entitled to think that a proper artist used to working with the photographic medium might be able to secure a similar respectful rendering of this skeleton, which is obviously of huge international interest. But nay…

And further: why no photos, when a man is dug out,  who was buried in consecrated earth at the entrance to the choir in a church, albeit long since dismantled? Why not let him “rest in peace”? But if one digs him out, because the cultural context deems such a procedure quite all right insofar as we are handling nothing but an innate object (which is what we do in a Christian cultural context, where body and soul are regarded in a dualistic manner); why then balk at taking photos?

All these questions are not easily dealt with. For this reason the University of Leicester has, as mentioned, a guideline, which is hopefully akin to the one, published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2005 : “Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums”. Here it says: “The photography of human remains for research, educational and general museum use will be acceptable in the vast majority of cases, although in considering any photography, views of cultural communities and genealogical descendants should be considered where known.”

Now, no proper genealogical descendants of Richard III exist, except for the individual, who carries the female mitochondrial DNA, who was identified by the historian, Dr John Ashdown Hill. Might this descendant in the 17th generation be entitled to object? If not him, what about the “cultural community”? Who are they? Is it not the “cultural community”  of  us Christianised Westerners, characterised by our dualistic worldview, which have already exhumed a skeleton – albeit that of an anointed king – 527 years after his death? In order to examine how he died and whether he was a hunchback or not? In short: to see him?

Are we not entitled to photos?

Karen Schousboe

Read more about the dilemmas posed by the exhumation and exhibition of human remains in
Archaeological Knowledge, Animist Knowledge and Appropriation of the Ancient Dead
By Piotr Bienkowski.
In: Heritage from below. Ed. by ‪Iain J. M. Robertson
Ashgate 2012

Dressing Up

In August 1524 Luther had a livid row with local artisans and burghers in the small town of Orlamünde, where Karlstadt, his former friend and comrade in arms had set up shop. Karlstadt, who was of noble origin, was highly egalitarian in his leanings plus harboured iconoclastic and other extreme views, which Luther regarded as heretical.

On that particular morning Luther arrived to sort out some of the views held by the local elders, who had sent a letter addressing him as “our spiritual teacher Martin Luther, our brother in Christ”.

Luther was flaming mad. He could only see this as a gross attack on his superior scholarly authority as a doctor of theology. As the burghers proceeded with their lack of reverence, Luther threw a tantrum and demanded the horses to be hitched to the wagon. In the end he was somewhat mollified, but resisted in taking off his doctor’s beret, which was flaming red – same colour as the traditional beret of the pope.

Luther was never painted with a red beret, and later paintings by Cranach actually shows him habitually dressed in a black beret. That red mattered to him, however, is apparent from the fact that he habitually was shown with a white shirt with black edges, a red vest or jacket and a black coat. In the end this is how he and his “visual designer”, Cranach the Elder, decided he should look. Dressed in black as the rest of the reformers and with a black beret, but always with a slight purple tinge around his neck, signifying that although Luther was not pope, he was definitely on par.

Such is how we envision him: Preaching to his congregation or celebrating baptism, communion and  penitence; and thus crafting the new church, materialized through the people showing of their sense of moral indignity, honour and reliability through their comportment – be it as members of the local council, in their homes, in the bosom of their families,while gardening or in church.

The beautiful small vignette about Luther in Orlamünde is brought to us in a recent book about “dressing up”, which tells us how cultural identity in Renaissance Europe was formed through a spectacular new obsession with clothes, their colours and form. In the book the author, Ulinka Rublack presents us with a cornucopia of 156 fascinating illustrations and countless stories about Renaissance people, and to what extent they regarded their clothes as markers of not only social, but also personal, national and religious identity.

The book, which won the Roland H. Bainton Prize for History 2011, is hereby highly recommended.