Power and Persuasion: Essays on the Art of State Building in Honour of W.P. Blockmans

The transformation of the myriad of medieval kingdoms, principalities, local lordships, city-'states' and peasant 'republics' into 'modern' states claiming some measure of sovereignty remains one of the core themes of European history, because it gets down to the very root of the (idea of) modern Europe. Some 20 leading experts cast new light on various aspects of this process, such as political communication, foreign diplomacy, dynastic self-representation, political economy, national identities, and military resources. The articles are a tribute to the prominent medieval historian, Wim Blockmans, on the occasion of his retirement as professor of medieval history at Leiden University and dean of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) at Wassenaar.