Grim Look and Teeth-Gnashing: Conditions of Constructing John and Henry III’s Emotions in Chronicles and Letters (1199–1272)

This dissertation project aims to investigate and identify the different reasons and conditions for descriptions of the emotions of rulers in historiography using the example of two English kings, John and Henry III. One of the key questions is whether these descriptions allow us to draw conclusions about the habitus of a particular ruler. To this end, the influence of textual and extra-textual factors on emotions and expressions of emotions mentioned in letters and chronicles, such as the grim look, the gnashing of teeth, but also on descriptions such as anger and grief understood as emotions, will be collected and classified. This approach, which compares behavioural patterns in different source genres, intends to determine whether the same affective or emotional behaviours are reproduced across genre boundaries and different social milieus of the writers and independently of specific literary topoi, and thus whether an expectable or plausible pattern of behaviour can be established for these rulers in certain situations. It can then be asked to what extent these behaviours were understood as habitual or even individual.