Conclusions

Abstract

Through the study of diplomatic exchange between England and the papacy this book explores how a ‘shared language of diplomacy’ came into existence in the first half of the fourteenth century, by examining whether comparable administrative and diplomatic practices developed in England and the papal curia as the result of mutual influences or because of an autonomous logic and who was responsible for their implementation. These questions are based on the assumption that later Medieval diplomacy developed and took the form that it did because of the increasing bureaucratization of polities across Europe, especially insofar as chancery practices and financial offices were concerned. Although the word ‘bureaucracy’ has to be used with extreme care with regard to the late Medieval milieu and stands for what Weber defined as ‘imperfect’ bureaucracy typical of ‘patrimonial bureaucratic states’, it has to be noted that the bureaucratization of the English and papal chanceries in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries led especially to the formation of in-house styles and administrative practices. These specific procedures deeply influenced the diplomatic discourse among polities, which essentially relied on written documentation, archival organization, and the expertise of diplomatic representatives. This was especially the case for Anglo-papal diplomacy, which was fundamentally influenced by the sophisticated set of procedures and ceremonies, known as the ...