The minor rural aristocracy and great lords in thirteenth-century Tuscany: three cases from the entourage of the Guidi counts

This article examines relations in thirteenth-century Tuscany between the minor rural aristocracy and great rural lords, that is, those based outside cities. The subject is approached through a study based on three families, with special emphasis on the way they were bound to the extended family of the Guidi counts, who were prominent at the highest level in the thirteenth-century kingdom of Italy. In the thirteenth century, attendance on the counts was not attractive to families of the minor aristocracy: it was universally acknowledged that the great rural lords of Tuscany had little to offer their adherents in terms of wealth, power and prestige, incentives which could be obtained from the cities of the region. Minor aristocrats who chose to live as professional soldiers were particularly attracted to the cities, which were always in need of soldiers for their armies.     

明代勋爵承袭与勋臣宗族活动初探

明代公、侯、伯勋爵承袭遵照一套完整的勘验制度,以诰券、宗图为准,由五府、吏部执行。在这种制度的整肃下,勋贵家族组织在形式上向上古封建宗法礼制靠拢,部分族众的宗族意识不断提高,明皇朝的统治秩序与政权合理性亦借此彰显。但随着明代中后期勋臣家族生齿日繁,兼之勋爵袭封制度出现纰漏与畸变,勋贵子弟争袭爵位的现象频繁发生,宗族的秩序性受到冲击,勋臣宗族组织僵化复古,依附于国家强权而缺乏自我调节功能的特性暴露无遗。     

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Recreational Angling Effort in a Warm‐Temperate Australian Estuary

Among the critical issues for the management of estuarine fish resources is the need to adequately identify the extent of use by recreational fishers, and the allocation of the resource between recreational and commercial users. Recreational anglers in estuaries often target a similar range of estuarine fish species to commercial fishers. Prior to the declaration of ‘recreational fishing havens’ (estuarine waters closed to commercial netting but remaining open to recreational angling) in many New South Wales (NSW) estuaries in May 2002, the estuary of the Manning River on the central NSW coast supported the tenth most productive commercial estuarine net fishery in the State. To quantify the recreational angling effort in the Manning River estuary, progressive counts were made of shore‐based and boat‐based anglers from a small power boat from June 2001 to May 2002. Sample days (eight per month) were chosen in a stratified random fashion, taking into account the proportions of weekends, public holidays and school holidays in each month. The total recreational angling effort exerted on the estuary for the 12‐month period was 144 892 ± 3248 angler‐hours, indicating a low to medium effort compared to other NSW estuaries of similar size. Over half of the effort was exerted in the section nearest the northern entrance at Harrington. There was relatively little variation in shore‐based angling effort throughout the year, whereas boat‐based fishing increased markedly in summer. Months that coincided with NSW school holidays were most popular, especially January. More recreational fishing effort was exerted in the afternoons than in the mornings during winter, but this trend was reversed in summer. Although daily effort was much higher on weekends than weekdays, the total cumulative effort was generally similar, due to the greater number of weekdays in the year. Pilot studies of catch per unit effort indicate that the recreational catch in the Manning River estuary is probably small compared to the pre‐closure commercial catch. Therefore management strategies aimed at limiting the recreational catch are likely to have minimal impact on fish stocks in the estuary when compared with regulation of the commercial sector.     

The minor rural aristocracy and great lords in thirteenth-century Tuscany: three cases from the entourage of the Guidi counts

This article examines relations in thirteenth-century Tuscany between the minor rural aristocracy and great rural lords, that is, those based outside cities. The subject is approached through a study based on three families, with special emphasis on the way they were bound to the extended family of the Guidi counts, who were prominent at the highest level in the thirteenth-century kingdom of Italy. In the thirteenth century, attendance on the counts was not attractive to families of the minor aristocracy: it was universally acknowledged that the great rural lords of Tuscany had little to offer their adherents in terms of wealth, power and prestige, incentives which could be obtained from the cities of the region. Minor aristocrats who chose to live as professional soldiers were particularly attracted to the cities, which were always in need of soldiers for their armies.     

The archaeology of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: a review of work 1947-97

The mid- to late tenth century has been seen as a period in which the kings of León saw their ability to project their power throughout their regnum challenged by the emergence of a magnate class increasingly disinclined to co-operate with public authority. This article aims to re-examine this premise via the following approach: first, a discussion of common problems and misconceptions related to notions of public power and government as these terms are used in an early medieval Spanish historiographical context; second, a case study which examines the roles of political actors in one relatively well-documented region of the kingdom. It argues that structures designed to deliver justice and maintain order in the region depended much more on the participation of local actors than they did on the king's official agents; the wider implications for our understanding of public authority are then considered anew.     

Commons and the construction of power in the early Middle Ages: tenth-century León and Castile

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role played by the control of common lands (commons) in the configuration of power in the northern Iberian Peninsula during the early Middle Ages. Although there were marked differences between them, the kings of León and the counts of Castile consolidated their power over local society by guaranteeing the defence and correct management of commons. Their example provides the basis for this study, which investigates whether these higher levels of commons protection and management could have been a way of building and consolidating power (whether as lords, royalty, counts, or in urban areas) during the Middle Ages.     

The person‐years construct: ageing and the prevalence of health related phenomena from skeletal samples

Age has the ability to confound prevalence data. Yet, the effects of length of exposure and age‐structure on such prevalence data are seldom directly measured in osteological studies. Here we describe a simple method that addresses both issues through the use of person‐years, and treatment of data in the case of rare events as Poisson counts. We advocate use of person‐years as a denominator when comparing skeletal data that involves the cumulative insults of ageing (e.g. fractures, dental caries, and other chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis). Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.