ABSTRACT
The chapter deals primarily not with strife and war of the high order that played out on battlefields, but rather with its several kinds of inter-personal or inter-group tension which include ‘threats, promises, negotiation, ritual, use of force’, and disputing. And it is especially about the latter – disputing – a type of conflict that could very much be about politics, and could involve power-holding kings, magnates, bishops, town governments, or groups of nobles, clergy, or of townspeople or others of lower social status who gained a political voice by coordinating their actions. This sort of conflict has come to be much better understood in recent decades as a result of attention to cultural patterns, ideas, and norms, and as such it comprehends disputes originating among kinsmen, neighbours, or political or business relations which could expand in scope to include other more powerful parties, or to activate various social and jurisdictional frameworks.
