| dc.description.abstract | This master’s thesis will present social networks from the period of the Second Baron’s War in England, dated 1258-1267, focusing on how the baron’s leader Simon de Montfort attempted to establish contacts in said networks. The thesis will portray Montfort’s relationship with the separate networks and why these connections were significant at different times throughout the period. The application of a quantitative analysis of the sources will enable a depiction of how alterations in the networks affected the outcomes of the turning points of the conflict. Several analytical models related to social networks have formerly been applied with the intention of answering the above questions. Mark Granovetter’s theory of weak and strong ties have been the focus of this thesis. The following analysis of networks will be a dialogue with previous research on shifts in alliances and networks during the Second Baron’s War, and there will be brought into question some of the conclusions of the subject’s principal historians, J.R. Maddicott and David Carpenter. The results show us that, whereas Simon de Montfort had several strong ties to the people within his own network’s circuit, he failed at expanding these ties sufficiently enough to influence the outcome in favor of the barons during their conflict with the English king. | en_US |
