The Most Unconquerable King

Tucker Million, PhD, will examine the paradoxical nature of kingship that tugged at the Angevin royal family in medieval Naples. He will reveal in his lecture that the culture of violence — at the heart of chivalric identity in the Angevin Kingdom of Naples — had always been a crucial pillar of royal identity in southern Italy. But kings, for all the emphasis placed on fulfilling a martial ideal, still had to keep peace within their kingdoms. He will describe generations of monarchs who had to reconcile the knightly desire to protect and vindicate their private honor with the royal need to secure public peace.

Million teaches history at the Hammond School in Columbia, South Carolina. He earned his PhD in history from the University of Rochester in 2021. He has published on topics ranging from chivalry and kingship to mercy and Italian literature. He currently is completing his book, The Most Unconquerable King: Chivalric Kingship in Angevin Naples, c. 1250-1382.