Medieval dynasties frequently relied upon the cult of royal saints for legitimacy. After the early medieval emergence of this type of sainthood, in the central Middle Ages most royal dynasties had saints in their family: Edward the Confessor, Olaf, Canute, Louis IX, Charlemagne, the Emperor Henry II, and Wenceslas are some of the best-known examples. Within this context the saints of the Hungarian ruling dynasty - the Arpadians - constitute a remarkable sequence: St Stephen, St Emeric, St Ladislas, St Elizabeth, St Margaret and other central European blessed princesses, whose convents mirrored the Court of Heaven. This sequence of dynastic saints provide an example of the late medieval evolution of royal and dynastic sainthood. Building upon a series of case studies from Hungary and central Europe, Gabor Klaniczay proposes a synthesis of the multiple forms and transformations of royal and dynastic sainthood in medieval Europe.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of genealogical tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. From god-king to sacral kingship; 2. Martyr kings and blessed queens of the Early Middle Ages; 3. Rex iustus: the saintly institutor of Christian kingship; 4. The chaste prince and the athleta patriae; 5. Saintly princesses and their 'heavenly courts'; 6. The cult of dynastic saints as propaganda: the Angevin-Luxemburg synthesis; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.