Former Fellows

It is generally accepted that during the Middle Ages brigandage was widespread throughout the Balkans. Several sources provide numerous references to this phenomenon, especially for the period between the 9th and 14th centuries. Despite their fragmentary nature and their bias towards bandits, these sources prompt a series of important questions that this project will try to address. One such question concerns the reasons for the extended rise in Balkan brigandage between the 9th and the 14th centuries. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that conditions throughout the Balkans in this era encouraged or forced many men to take up arms. Most of them simply sought even marginal profit; small though the rewards often were, they nevertheless offered an escape from the often dreadful poverty and living conditions found in the brigands' homelands.

Another reason that seems to have contributed to the rise of banditry during the period in question was administrative inefficiency, especially in the provinces, that is, far away from the political and administrative centres of the medieval Balkan states. In many cases, the social network within which bandits operated may have complicated the situation. To be sure, Balkan bandits depended for survival on broader networks of local support, which was usually seen as divided into two basic types: the kinship links in which the bandits were enmeshed and, outside this, the broader community in which they lived.

An essential part of this investigation concerns the measures taken by the authorities to enforce law and order in these 'islands' of autonomy. Overall, it appears that during the Middle Ages Balkan states were unwilling to devote substantial resources, whether human or financial, to restore peace and security in the affected areas. However, at the same time, their ability to provide adequate policing at a local level was clearly limited. How, then, did the authorities attempt to control banditry? To what extend did they rely on local men and how effective could the latter prove given the, often, complex social networks within which they –as well as the bandits– operated? My research aims at addressing these questions, thereby shedding fresh light on the conditions attendant in the Balkan countryside during the period in question.