European history: medieval period, middle ages Books

Book SynopsisWhat has the small nation of Wales given to the wide world?Well, to name but a few examples: the NHS, magical drama, mail order, sleeping bags, the basis of the internet, the Town of Books', the first powered flight, presidents, prime ministers and Nobel prize-winners.People of Welsh heritage have helped shape the culture and constitution of the United States; they have enriched British culture in innumerable ways through writing, acting, painting, poetry, singing and architecture; they have amassed a fantastic range of sporting achievements; and they made their own unique mark on history.Welsh history deserves to be rewritten in a manner that highlights and celebrates its achievements both past and present. The 100 reasons in this book do just that. They are pathfinders to a confident tomorrow as the Royal Badge of Wales reads in translation: The Red Dragon points the way'.

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Book SynopsisEuropean Empires from Conquest to Collapse is a vivid anticolonial reckoning with the history of imperial warfare. Global in scope, it deftly surveys the fighting forces and military engagements of the Great Powers, from the British in India to the scramble for Africa. Victor Kiernan lays bare the doctrines and realities of colonial fighting, dispelling official legends. Europe often boasted that coloni- alism was ‘civilised’, but the facts show it could be barbaric. Kiernan traces how guerrilla insurgency against colonial oppression developed into one of the most sophisticated branches of the art of war.With a foreword by Tariq Ali, author of Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes.

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Book SynopsisAn offbeat meander through the streets and histories of the great Italian capital, where the past is always present.

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Book SynopsisTraditionally, Germany has been considered a minor player in Pacific history: its presence there was more limited than that of other European nations, and whereas its European rivals established themselves as imperial forces beginning in the early modern era, Germany did not seriously pursue colonialism until the nineteenth century. Yet thanks to recent advances in the field emphasizing transoceanic networks and cultural encounters, it is now possible to develop a more nuanced understanding of the history of Germans in the Pacific. The studies gathered here offer fascinating research into German missionary, commercial, scientific, and imperial activity against the backdrop of the Pacific's overlapping cultural circuits and complex oceanic transits.

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Book SynopsisFirst full translation of an important treatise on chivalric horsemanship. Written around 1430, Duarte of Portugal's remarkable treatise on chivalric horsemanship, the Livro do Cavalgar (Book on Riding), is the sole substantial contemporary source to survive on the definitive physical skill of themedieval knight. It also stands out from the body of technical writings of the Middle Ages for its intelligence, insight, and intellectual versatility, ranging from psychological reflections on horsemanship and its implications for human ethics, to the details of how to couch a lance under the arm without getting it caught on armour. Under the general rubric of horsemanship Duarte covers a range of topics that include jousting, tourneying, and hunting, aswell as the physical apparatus of equestrianism and various cultural styles of riding. However, despite its importance for scholarship, its language and technical content have so far resisted proper translation, a need whichthis book fills. The introduction provides not only the background to make Duarte's text comprehensible, but for the first time offers modern audiences a systematic point of access to the subject of medieval equestrianism in general. JEFFREY L. FORGENG is curator of Arms and Armor and Medieval Art at the Worcester Art Museum, and Adjunct Professor of History at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.Trade ReviewThis excellent little book will charm readers and provide a view into a medieval mind's perspective on animals, sports, fitness, overall well-being. * MEDIEVAL WARFARE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Translation The Book of Horsemanship by Duarte I of Portugal Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe later Middle Ages in Europe c.1150–c.1500 can be viewed as an extensive scientific laboratory, with scholars and other writers producing texts that sought to define and redefine the human body – in relation to its daily work and environment, and in relation to God. This volume draws on written and visual evidence from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, placing gender at the centre of its enquiries, addressing the relationship between the human and the ‘natural’ (including the non-human) at a time when new worlds, new texts and new religious experiences were reshaping the individual and collective relationship with the cosmos, and challenging as well as reinforcing established hierarchies.Table of ContentsForeword Laura Kalas 1. Introduction: Considering Nature Patricia Skinner and Theresa L. Tyers WOMEN’S SPACES 2. Intersections of [Un]Nature, Power, and [Dis]Order: The Presentation of Elite Women in Medieval Chronicles Linda E. Mitchell 3. Gendering Treatment: Cupping by Female Practitioners in Late Medieval Visual Culture Jennifer Borland 4. Fracturing Boundaries: Domesticity and Agriculture Practices in a LateFourteenth Century Manuscript Theresa L. Tyers 5. Distilling Nature: Raw Materials, ‘Artificial’ Remedies and the Human Body in the Later Middle Ages Elma Brenner QUEER BODIES 6. Recreating the ‘Natural World’: The Medieval Oyster and her Pearl Diane Heath 7. Amazed and Ravished in the Medieval Garden: The Space of Lesbian Desire in The Assembly of Ladies and The Floure and the Leafe Michelle M. Sauer 8. Monstrous Hybrids, Maternal Sin, and the Concept of Species in Nicole Oresme’s De causis mirabilium Tess Wingard BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED

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Book SynopsisThe book consists of three parts: I. Introduction, including the history of research, detailed paleographical and codicological analysis, and discussion of the other Anglo-Saxon Chronicle manuscripts, and their textual relations; II. The Critical Edition, presenting the text in its immediate seventeenth-century manuscript context, with notes; III. The Modern English Translation, including detailed historical and philological notes. A bibliography, indexes and extensive comparanda complete the book. This edition, translation and commentary greatly enhance the accessibility and research potential of one of the most important primary sources for the history, language and culture of Anglo-Saxon England.Trade Review"This book is not just the first edition with a translation of the Peterborough Chronicle, it is a magnificently produced work of scholarship. Lavishly illustrated, it will become the basis for all future work, not just on the Chronicle, but on the worlds that produced it and the history that it records" — David Bates, Emeritus Professor in Medieval History, University of East Anglia."This welcome edition of The Peterborough Chronicle presents a wealth of information and analysis, opening up an important text for the study of early English history, language, and culture" — Susan E. Deskis, Professor of English, emerita, Northern Illinois University."Muir is a generous and careful editor who has always paid equal attention to text, manuscript, language, and history; he and Sparks present the Peterborough Chronicle in its many contexts, crafting a bountiful resource that will serve readers for many years to come" — R. M. Liuzza, University of Tennessee–Knoxville.Table of ContentsTranslation; Indexes; Personal Names; Place names, People Names and Events; Plate Captions; Plates

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Book SynopsisNorman Scarfe explores place names, the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the coming of Christianity, and the abbey at Bury St Edmunds, concluding with an evocative study of five Suffolk places - Southwold, Dunwich, Yoxford, and Wingfield and Fressingfield. The modern landscape of Suffolk is still essentially a medieval one, though much of it is even earlier: the five hundred medieval churches and ten thousand 'listed' houses 'of historic or architectural interest', and the 'Hundred'lanes going back at least to the tenth century, are often found to be set in a landscape created before the Roman conquest. Suffolk in the Middle Ages opens with a discussion of the earliest written records, the place-names, as a guide to settlement-patterns, including the setting of Sutton Hoo. Among the grave-goods found in that celebrated ship and discussed here was the whetstone-sceptre; asked to carry it from its showcase in the British Museum to the laboratory, the author acknowledges a closer feeling of involvement even than helping to re-open the ship in its mound in 1966. His explanation of the presence of the whetstone-sceptre, printed here, has never been challenged. The identification of a carved Anglo-Saxon cross at Iken in 1977 prompted the essay here on St Botolph and the coming of East Anglian Christianity. This leads to a consideration of the Danish invasion of East Anglia, and a reexamination of the posthumous victory of King Edmund and Christianity as portrayed in an imaginary Breckland warren on the front of this book. Scarfe's carefully reasoned argument that the Metropolitan Museum's famous walrusivory cross was made for the monks' choir at Bury has never been refuted. Life in Bury abbey is vividly reconstructed: it was the most richly documented flowering of the work of East Anglia's apostles, Felix and Fursa, which alsoled to the phenomenal establishment in Suffolk by 1086 of four hundred of the five hundred medieval churches. In four East Suffolk essays, Southwold, Dunwich, Yoxford and Wingfield are exposed to Norman Scarfe's interpretativeskills. He reveals a past few could have guessed at, often quite as curious as the 'Two Strange Tales' unravelled in his concluding pages.Trade ReviewVery well illustrated, and the 25 plates are of outstanding quality. * NOMINA *Scarfe is the doyen of Suffolk's landscape historians and this forms a very useful collection of some of his writings that are both informative and entertaining. * JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *A fascinating book...history as it should be written. -- R.H.C. DAVIS

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Book SynopsisA survey of attitudes to marriage as represented in medieval legal and literary texts. Medieval marriage has been widely discussed, and this book gives a brief and accessible overview of an important subject. It covers the entire medieval period, and engages with a wide range of primary sources, both legal and literary. It draws particular attention to local English legislation and practice, and offers some new readings of medieval English literary texts, including Beowulf, the works of Chaucer, Langland's Piers Plowman, the Book of Margery Kempe and the Paston Letters. Focusing on a number of key themes important across the period, individual chapters discuss the themes of consent, property, alliance, love, sex, family, divorce and widowhood. CONOR MCCARTHY gained his PhD from Trinity College Dublin.Trade ReviewAn ambitious, careful and well-researched account that introduces a new level of juridical subtlety to the analysis of a wide range of medieval marriage texts and provides an insightful characterization of specific tensions within marriage laws and theology. * MEDIEVAL REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisMargaret of Anjou was a vengeful and violent woman, or so we have been told, whose vindictive spirit fuelled the fifteenth-century dynastic conflict, the Wars of the Roses. In Shakespeare's rendering she becomes an adulterous queen who mocks her captive enemy, Richard, duke of York, before killing him in cold blood. Shakespeare's portrayal has proved to be remarkably resilient, because Margaret's queenship lends itself to such an assessment. In 1445, at the age of fifteen, she was married to the ineffectual Henry VI, a move expected to ensure peace with France and an heir to the throne. Eight years later, while she was in the later stages of her only pregnancy, Henry suffered a complete mental collapse that left him catatonic for roughly a year and a half: Margaret came to the political forefront. In the aftermath of the king's illness, she became an indefatigable leader of the Lancastrian loyalists in their struggle against their Yorkist opponents. Margaret's exercise of power was always fraught with difficulty: as a woman, her effective power was dependent upon her invocation of the authority of her husband or her son. Her enemies lost no opportunity to charge her with misconduct of all kinds. More than five hundred years after Margaret's death this examination of her life and career allows a more balanced and detached view.Trade ReviewWe are in Maurer's debt for providing new perspectives on her subject, which no student of later Lancastrian politics or medieval queenship should neglect. * HISTORY *Maurer illuminates medieval queenship in a male-dominated world, and convincingly re-interprets the full records of Margaret that have survived, including a wonderful cache of her letters... She draws a picture of a highly intelligent, conscientious woman, powerless without her husband's authority, and much maligned in contemporary rumour. * BBC HISTORY *Maurer tells a very readable and engaging story.... Such a significant and long overdue reappraisal must be welcomed. * REVIEWS IN HISTORY *The most cogent, effective and convincing account of Margaret's political career yet available. * EHR *

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Book SynopsisA full and accessibly-written survey of Bede and his works, including a chapter on his legacy for subsequent history. The Venerable Bede is a crucial figure for Anglo-Saxonists, arguably the most important, known character from the period. A scholar of international standing from an early period of the Anglo-Saxon church [c.672-732], he was the author not only of the well-known Ecclesiastical History of the English People, but also of scriptural commentaries, hagiographies, scientific works, admonitory letters, and poetry. This book provides an informative, comprehensive, and up-to-date guide to Bede and his writings, underlining in particular his importance in the development of European history and culture. It places Bede in his contemporary Northumbria and early Anglo-Saxon England, dedicates individual chapters to his works, and includes a chapter on Bede's legacy for subsequent history. GEORGE HARDIN BROWN is Professor of English emeritus, Stanford University.Trade ReviewAn excellent addition to the bookshelves of scholars working on Bede. * SPECULUM *Pack[s] in an extraordinary quantity of comment ranging across the whole of Bede's output., offering guidance to the reader of each of his numerous works. . Brown is an ideal guide to the whole corpus: this is a book of great scholarship. * EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE *This is a fine introduction both to the works and to the scholarship on them. * THEOLOGY *An excellent handbook that summarizes each of Bede's writings, puts it in the context of his output, and locates editions and translations. Recommended. * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisFirst book to deal with de Vere's life and extraordinary career, during the Wars of the Roses and beyond. Earl of Oxford for fifty years, and subject of six kings of England during the political strife of the Wars of the Roses, John de Vere's career included more changes of fortune than almost any other. He recovered his earldom afterthe execution of his father and brother for treason, but his resistance to Edward IV led to a decade in prison. He escaped in time to lead Henry Tudor's vanguard at Bosworth in 1485 and subsequently enjoyed twenty-five years as perhaps "the foremost man of the kingdom", virtually ruling East Anglia for the king. This is the first full-length study of de Vere's life and career. Through this lens it also tackles a number of broader themes. It reconsiders the role of the nobility under Henry VII, challenging the common perception of Henry as an anti-aristocratic king. It also explores East Anglian political society in the second half of the fifteenth century, how the earl came to dominate it, how successfully he exercised his power, and the personnel, including the Paston family, he used to run the region. James Ross holds his doctorate from the University of Oxford.Trade ReviewOffers a rounded and nuanced picture of a man whom Ross rightly calls 'the last great medieval nobleman', and is a valuable contribution to the scholarship of the end of the middle ages and of the late medieval nobility. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *A well-written, well-researched and extremely engaging look at an influential player during a pivotal time in British history. * H-WAR *Drawing on a multiplicity of sources and presented in an attractive volume by the Boydell Press, [the book] adds much to our understanding of the period and the dilemmas confronting noblemen at a time of civil war. * HISTORY *[A] notable work. * THE RICARDIAN *A fine book that gives us a keenly nuanced appraisal of the workings of high politics during Henry VII's pivotal reign. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *This study of a nobleman who has not been seriously treated before is a welcome addition to the shelf. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Earl's Familial Inheritance The Thirteenth Earl: Sedition, the Readeption, and Imprisonment, 1462-85 Estates and Wealth 'His principal servant both for war and peace': Political life under Henry VII Oxford's 'Satrapy' - East Anglia, 1485-1513 'My retainers...come to do me service' - The Earl's Affinity Private and Public Conclusion Appendix Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOver 400 recent finds associated with horses and excavated in London, from the utilitarian to the highly decorated, illustrated and discussed. Whether knight's charger or beast of burden, horses played a vital role in medieval life. The wealth of medieval finds excavated in London in recent years has, not surprisingly, included many objects associated with horses. This catalogue illustrates and discusses over four hundred such objects, among them harness, horseshoes, spurs and curry combs, from the utilitarian to highly decorative pieces. London served by horse traffic comes vividly in view. The introductory chapter draws on historical as well as archaeological sources to consider the role of the horse in medieval London. It looks at the price of horses and the costs of maintaining them, the hiring of 'hackneys' forriding, the use of carts in and around London, and the work of the 'marshal' or farrier. It discusses the evidence for the size of medieval horses and includes a survey of finds of medieval horse skeletons from London. It answersthe key questions, how large a 'Great Horse' was, and why it took three horses to pull a cart. This is a basic work of reference for archaeologists and those studying medieval artefacts, and absorbing reading for everyone interested in the history of the horse and its use by humankind. JOHN CLARK is Curator (Medieval) at the Museum of London.Trade ReviewA fascinating book. This is a basic work of reference for archaeologists and those studying medieval artefacts. * TREASURE HUNTING *Provides a thorough insight into the horse, its work and the people who depended on it in the city of London. * THE RICARDIAN *This volume provides many paths into the intricate history of the medieval world. Such a book, focused on the object, reminds us of the evocative power of certain otherwise-humble finds. ... A worthy reference book, one which in its presentation of both commonplace and unusual objects increases our knowledge of the physical reality in which the medieval individual lived. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *A very highly recommended book that should be a required reading for living history or equestrian followers everywhere. * WWW.RANDLESREVIEWS.CO.UK *

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Book SynopsisWarwick the Kingmaker was a fifteenth-century celebrity; a military hero, self-publicist and populist. For twelve years, he was the arbiter of English politics, not hesitating to set up and put down kings. In the dominant strand of recent English historical writing, Warwick is condemned as a man who hindered the development of the modern state, and yet in earlier centuries he was admired as an exemplar of true nobility who defied the centralising tendencies of the crown. A. J. Pollard offers a fresh assessment, to which neither approach is entirely appropriate, of the man whose nickname has become synonymous with power broking.Trade Review"Splendid" - Southern History"No wonder the 'Warwick phenomenon' so facinates A.J.Pollard and analysis its origins, nature and significance provide the central core of his splendidly readable book." - The Ricardian -- Keith Dockray"an illuminating and thought-provoking volume" BBC History Magazine, 1 December 2007 -- Ian Mortimer"...Pollard lucidly and succinctly illuminates many topics, challenges many presumptions, brings out why Warwick mattered, goes far towards explaining his amazing success, and reveals why for two hundred years his reputation stood so high. We are all in his debt." Northern History, 2009Table of ContentsPreface; List of illustrations; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part One: Politics; Chapter 1: Premier Earl, 1428-55; Chapter 2: York's Lieutenant, 1455-60; Chapter 3: England's Caesar, 1460-65; Chapter 4: The Third King, 1465-71; Part Two: Power; Chapter 5: Estates and Finances; Chapter 6: Lordship and Loyalty: East Anglia and the West Midlands; Chapter 7: Lordship and Loyalty: the north; Chapter 8: Calais and the Keeping of the Seas; Part Three: Fame; Chapter 9: The Idol of the Multitude; Chapter 10: The Flower of Chivalry; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThese essays offer a detailed insight into the planning of English campaigns in France in the late 14th century and into the structure and financing of the English armies and navies. James Sherborne's scholarship went beyond military matters and focused also on the wider political and cultural scene.

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Book SynopsisThe literature of chivalry and of courtly love has left an indelible impression on western ideas. What is less clear is how far the contemporary warrior aristocracy took this literature to heart and how far its ideals had influence in practice, especially in war. These are questions that Maurice Keen is uniquely qualified to answer. This book is a collection of Maurice Keen's articles and deals with both the ideas of chivalry and the reality of warfare. He discusses brotherhood-in-arms, courtly love, crusades, heraldry, knighthood, the law of arms, tournaments and the nature of nobility, as well as describing the actual brutality of medieval warfare and the lure of plunder. While the standards set by chivalric codes undoubtedly had a real, if intangible, influence on the behaviour of contemporaries, chivalry's idealisation of the knight errant also enhanced the attraction of war, endorsing its horrors with a veneer of acceptability.

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Book SynopsisFollowing the demise of the Carolingian dynasty in 987 the French lords chose Hugh Capet as their king. He was the founder of a dynasty that lasted until 1328. Although for much of this time, the French kings were weak, and the kingdom of France was much smaller than it later became, the Capetians nevertheless had considerable achievements and also produced outstanding rulers, including Philip Augustus and St Louis. This wide-ranging book throws fascinating light on the history of Medieval France and the development of European monarchy.Trade Review"Bradbury's text is a delightful read ... Bradbury has a wonderful sense of humour ... The text is complete. It fleshes out the important, or lack thereof, of each Capetian." Richard CusimanoReviewed 27/07/07 -- Times Higher Education Supplement * TES *Table of ContentsPreface; List of Illustrations; 1. Carolingian Francia; 2. The Rise of the Robertians; 3. The New Principalities, 800-1000; 4. The First Capetian Kings, 987-1108; 5. Successful Failures, 1031-1108; 6. The Fat and the Young, 1108-80; 7. Philip the Great; 8. King and Saint, Louis IX, 1226-70; 9. The Bold and the Fair, 1270-1314; 10. The End of the Line, 1314-1328; 11. Achievements and Legacy.

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Book SynopsisBeatrice Teissier explores Britain's travellers the eyes of visitors, consuls and other observers who travelled from the Black Sea coast to the Caucasus mountain chains, to Chechnya, Dagestan and even the Caspian.

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Book SynopsisTrees are now in the public eye as never before. The threat of tree diseases, the felling of street trees and the challenge of climate change are just some of the issues that have put trees in the media spotlight. At the same time, the trees in our parks, gardens and streets are a vital resource that can deliver environmental, social and economic benefits that make our towns and cities attractive, green and healthy places.Ever since Roman times when amenity trees were first planted in Britain, caring for those trees has required specialist skills. This is mainly because of the challenges of successfully integrating large trees into the urban environment and the risks involved in working with them, often at height and in close proximity to people, buildings and roads. But who are the people with the specialist expertise to care for our amenity trees? While professionals such as horticulturists, landscape architects, conservationists and foresters have a role to play, it is the arboriculturists who are the ‘tree experts’. For centuries arboriculture was often synonymous with forestry or considered an aspect of horticulture, until it emerged in the nineteenth century as a separate discipline. There are now some 22,000 people employed in Britain’s arboricultural industry, including practical tree surgeons and arborists, local authority tree officers and arboricultural consultants.This is the first book to trace the history of Britain’s professional tree experts, from the Roman arborator to the modern chartered arboriculturist. It also discusses the influences from continental Europe and North America that have helped to shape British arboriculture over the centuries. The Tree Experts will have particular appeal to those interested in the natural and built environment, heritage landscapes, social history and the history of gardening.Trade ReviewOverall this splendid book provides an illuminating and complete history of the practical management of trees and is to be strongly recommended to all those with an interest in garden, woodland and landscape history. * Landscape History *Overall, this is a clear and confident volume … and the depth of learning, meticulous research and hard work underpinning its creation is evident. Though detailed and authoritative, this is no dry academic text, and in many ways Johnston has written a love letter to his profession, but not one over-sweet with uncritical adulation, and it was a pleasure to read and review it. * Garden History *I, for one, have enjoyed the [book] immensely and wholehearted recommend it to anyone interested in where we started and what we had to go through in order to end up here, now, as arborists. -Donald F. Blair in Tree Care Industry Magazine * Tree Care Industry Magazine *''Outstanding in both depth and detail. ... It’s all there in Mark Johnston’s large but tight and tidy text, big on information and detail, interest and intrigue.'' * Forestry Journal and Essential Arb *To describe this book as a gallop through time would not only be a disservice to the sheer volume of research that Dr Johnston has undertaken, it would also be misleading, as its pages cover both broad concepts and detailed minutiae. … A must read for anyone interested in the promotion and evolution of the [arboriculture] sector. Nick Bolton, Quarterly Journal of Forestry * Quarterly Journal of Forestry *What a great way to explore the fascinating history of professional arboriculture in Britain. Navigating chronologically, [the author] provides a clearly constructed narrative that is brimming with historical references providing endless details to immerse yourself in time and time again. It was an absolute pleasure to read and review this book and it was a fascinating read from cover to cover. * Trees magazine (Institute of Chartered Foresters) *We can all marvel at the completeness of what is for me the most important book on the subject and which will never be equalled – let alone bettered. * Kew Guild Journal *[A]nyone with an interest in trees and how their use evolved to contribute to the gardens and landscapes of past and present would benefit from reading The Tree Experts. * The Horticulturalist *This weighty book contains a huge amount of information and will rightly find a place on many bookshelves. * The Arb Magazine (Arboricultural Association) *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. The Romans Bring Arboriculture to Britain 3. Keeping the Flame Alight in the Dark Ages 4. Green Shoots in Tudor and Early Stuart Times 5. Arboriculture in the Age of the Formal Garden 6. Arboriculture in the English Landscape Garden 7. Heroic Arboriculture in the Nineteenth Century 8. The Rise of the Tree Experts, 1900–1945 9. Professional Arboriculture ‘Comes of Age’, 1946–Present Index

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Book SynopsisThis book narrates the tumultuous era of total war through the fate of AachenImperial Germany's seat of power for 600 years, site of Charlemagne's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, and a place with greater geopolitical significance for Adolf Hitler in 1944 than Stalingrad in 1943.This was a stark contrast with the events of the Great War: in 1918, the Imperial German Army had abandoned Aachen in a rout-like flight. In the Nazi period, however, Aachen became a major symbol of Germany's defiance against the Allies. For Hitlerhis mind warped after surviving the Stauffenberg bomb plotGermany's westernmost city became pivotal in his last-ditch defence of the thousand-year Reich'.War Comes to Aachen weaves together the city's story from 1900, tracing its entrenched Catholic orthodoxy, its growth as an industrial urban centre, the demise of democracy, the rise of Nazism, the two world wars, and the Holocaust. The book surveys Churchill's wartime

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Book SynopsisThe Price of Scotland covers a well-known episode in Scottish history, the ill-fated Darien Scheme. It recounts for the first time in almost forty years, the history of the Company of Scotland, looking at previously unexamined evidence and considering the failure in light of the Company''s financial records. Douglas Watt offers the reader a new way of looking at this key moment in history, from the attempt to raise capital in London in 1695 through to the shareholder bail-out as part of the Treaty of Union in 1707. With the tercentenary of the Union in May 2007, The Price of Scotland provides a timely reassessment of this national disaster.

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Book SynopsisIn the waning years of the fourteenth century, the household of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster was scandalized when twelve petulant English knights publicly mocked the twelve ladies-in-waiting to the Duke's wife, calling them ugly to their faces. Outraged, the ladies sought immediate redress, but so fearsome were the knights' reputations that none would step forward. Desperate for help, the Duke appealed to his son-in-law King Joao I of Portugal to find champions ready to fight for the ladies' honor. Enter the 'Twelve of England,' a band of battle-hardened Portuguese knights. Led by the redoubtable Alvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, known as 'Magriço,' or 'The Lean One,' these twelve fearless men set out for England to fight the English knights in judicial combat, prepared to shed their blood to save the honour of ladies they had never met. Such tales of valour and derring-do, which often hinge on the notion of a team of warriors venturing into hostile territory on a quest for vengeance or redress set against a sweeping historical backdrop, have captured the imagination of audiences through the ages, from Jason and the Argonauts to Lieutenant Aldo Raine and the 'Inglorious Basterds.' Although undoubtedly a fictional tale inserted into historical reality, the action does not end at the household of the Duke of Lancaster, and other adventures ensue in France, Germany and Burgundy, as the twelve heroes spread the fame of Portuguese chivalry throughout the great courts of Europe. The third volume of the Deeds of Arms series presents a complete translation of the earliest known version of the Twelve of England, which has survived in only one manuscript. Professor Fallows presents the text in both the medieval Portuguese and an accompanying English translation. A facsimile of the original manuscript and an extensive introduction covering the historical context of both the text and the deeds it discusses are also included. An overview of the arms and armour used by the combatants, colour illustrations, genealogical tables, maps and a comprehensive bibliography further complement the text. Trade Review Table of ContentsForeword Preface 1.Introduction Text and Context The Cast of Characters Deeds of Arms Conclusion 2. A Note on Armor 3. A Note on the Edition and Translation 4. The Deeds of the Twelve of England: Portuguese Text 5. The Deeds of the Twelve of England: English Translation Appendix 1: Facsimile of Ms. 87, fols. 260r-265v Appendix 2: Genealogical Tables Appendix 3: Maps Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book explores why Ethiopian kings pursued long-distance diplomatic contacts with Latin Europe in the late Middle Ages. It traces the history of more than a dozen embassies dispatched to the Latin West by the kings of Solomonic Ethiopia, a powerful Christian kingdom in the medieval Horn of Africa. Drawing on sources from Europe, Ethiopia, and Egypt, it examines the Ethiopian kings’ motivations for sending out their missions in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries – and argues that a desire to acquire religious treasures and foreign artisans drove this early intercontinental diplomacy. Moreover, the Ethiopian initiation of contacts with the distant Christian sphere of Latin Europe appears to have been intimately connected to a local political agenda of building monumental ecclesiastical architecture in the North-East African highlands, and asserted the Ethiopian rulers’ claim of universal kingship and rightful descent from the biblical king Solomon. Shedding new light on the self-identity of a late medieval African dynasty at the height of its power, this book challenges conventional narratives of African-European encounters on the eve of the so-called ‘Age of Exploration'.Trade Review“This extremely well written book will be the point of reference on this subject. It provides sagacious treatment of the many documents that can be brought to bear on the exchanges, and it places Ethiopia’s part in a new frame of reference.” (Andrew Kurt, Speculum, Vol. 97 (4), October, 2022)“This is a remarkable and fascinating book that opens up entirely new vistas on the cultural and political history of the fifteenth-century Mediterranean. To someone who is not an expert in Ethiopian history, the book conveys a great sense of authority; it is backed up by a formidable array of footnotes.” (David Abulafia, Al-Masāq, March 28, 2022)“Krebs has produced an impressive survey of Ethiopian-European relations and her volume will cer­tainly find a place in the library of … Ethiopianists. To be sure, in light of Krebs’s masterful discussion of relics and material culture, readers will certainly look forward to her announced second monograph … .” (Matteo Salvadore, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Vol. 116 (4), 2021)Table of Contents1. Introduction2. All the King's Treasures3. The Sons of Dawit4. The Rule of the Regents5. King Solomon’s Heirs6. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisEnglish Women’s Spiritual Utopias, 1400-1700: New Kingdoms of Womanhood uncovers a tradition of women’s utopianism that extends back to medieval women’s monasticism, overturning accounts of utopia that trace its origins solely to Thomas More. As enclosed spaces in which women wielded authority that was unavailable to them in the outside world, medieval and early modern convents were self-consciously engaged in reworking pre-existing cultural heritage to project desired proto-feminist futures. The utopianism developed within the English convent percolated outwards to unenclosed women's spiritual communities such as Mary Ward's Institute of the Blessed Virgin and the Ferrar family at Little Gidding. Convent-based utopianism further acted as an unrecognized influence on the first English women’s literary utopias by authors such as Margaret Cavendish and Mary Astell. Collectively, these female communities forged a mode of utopia that drew on the past to imagine new possibilities for themselves as well as for their larger religious and political communities. Tracking utopianism from the convent to the literary page over a period of 300 years, New Kingdoms writes a new history of medieval and early modern women’s intellectual work and expands the concept of utopia itself.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Mirrors of our Lady: Utopia in the Medieval Convent.- Chapter 2: These Most Afflicted Sisters: Old and New Futures in Exiled English Convents.- Chapter 3: Not Yet: Aspirational Women’s Communities Beyond the Convent.- Chapter 4: Convents of Pleasure: English Women’s Literary Utopias.

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades the concept of Mediterranean has been cited with increasing frequency in relation to the study of medieval literatures. And yet, in what sense would Dante’s Comedy be ‘Mediterranean’? Is it because of its Greek-Arabic and Islamic sources? Dante and the Mediterranean Comedy analyzes the ideological function of references to the sea in the study of the Comedy undertaken by Enrico Cerulli, a scholar of Somali-Ethiopian languages, and a colonial governor of ‘Italian East Africa.’ Then it presents novel lines of inquiry on the reception and appropriation of the poem, such as the presence of Islamic sources in early commentaries of the Comedy, and cross-cultural allusions to Dante’s Hell in some graffiti on the walls of the Spanish Inquisition prison in Palermo. The image of the Mediterranean that seeps through the poem and through the history of its circulation is vivid yet hardly idyllic.Table of Contents1 Introduction: A Mediterranean ComedyPart I History of Criticism 2 A Post-Colonial Comedy: Enrico Cerulli on Dante 3 Beyond Good and Evil? More on Cerulli and Italian Orientalism Part II Exercises in Criticism 4 Exposing Maometto’s Contrapasso: The Arabic Sources from Spain and the Early Commentators on the Commedia 5 A Transreligious Hell: Dante in the Prisons of the Inquisition in Palermo 6 The City Lament: Mediterranean Microecologies of Courtly Love 7 Conclusion: A Sea of Differences

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Book Synopsis​Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England: A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th-13th Century) advances a model for historical study of courtly literature by foregrounding the personal aims, networks, and careers as the impetus for much of the period’s literature. The book takes two authors as case studies – Gerald of Wales and Walter Map – to show how authors not only built their own stories but also used popular narratives and the tools of propaganda to achieve their own, personal goals. The purpose of this study is to overturn the top-down model of political patronage, in which patrons – and particularly royal patrons – set the cultural agenda and dictate literary tastes. Rather, Fabrizio De Falco argues that authors were often representative of many different interests expressed by local groups. To pursue those interests, they targeted specific political factions in the changeable political scenario of Angevin England. Their texts reveal a polycentric view of cultural production and its reception. The study aims to model a heuristic process which is applicable to other courtly texts besides the chosen case-studies.Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction. But What is the Point of Courtly Writing?Part 1 The Hydra: The Court’s Body and Its Wandering HeadsChapter 2 Re-thinking Literature at the English Royal Court, Its Protagonists and ContextsChapter 3 Starting at the Bottom: The Authors Part 2 The Messages Between the Lines. A Political Reading of Courtly TextsChapter 4 An Accurate Curriculum: Walter Map’s De Nugis CurialiumChapter 5 A Family Business: Gerald of Wales’ Topographia HibernicaPart 3 The Real World is Here. The Role of Courtly Literature between Factions and CrisisChapter 6 Surviving in the Upside-Down. Henry II’s Courtiers under Richard I’s Reign (1189-1199)Chapter 7 Moving Text into Action. Local Careerism and International CrisisConclusion: Contingently Situated Literature and Courts Dynamics

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