ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way in which King Solomon was employed as royal exempla in the medieval west between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. It focuses on the early instances of so-called ‘new Solomons’, particularly among Carolingian and Byzantine rulers. The chapter analysis a thirteenth-century group of kings: Saint Louis IX of France, Henry III of England and Alfonso X the Wise of Castile. It considers a quintessentially Solomonic king, the fourteenth-century French ruler Charles V the Wise in contrast with one of his near contemporaries, the English king, Richard II. The highlighted aspects of the Solomonic ideal varied through the ages as Solomon was intermittently associated with peace, justice, wealth, wisdom and, not without potentially negative connotations, involvement in magical practices. The parallel between a Carolingian ruler and Solomon was employed in the case of Louis’s successor, as well. Louis’s contemporary, Henry III of England, showed a greater personal predilection for the figure of Solomon.
