History and Archaeology Books

Book SynopsisFirst comprehensive study of English artillery in the late Middle Ages, bringing out its full impact on areas beyond the military. One of the most important technological developments of the Middle Ages was the adoption of gunpowder weapons in medieval Europe. From the fourteenth century onwards, this new technology was to eventually transform the conduct ofwarfare beyond all recognition with important implications for European and global history. Guns came to be used in all aspects of military operations, with kings, nobles and burgesses all spending large sums of money on these prestigious weapons. The growing effectiveness of gunpowder artillery prompted major changes in the design of fortifications, the composition of armies, the management of logistics and administrative systems. This book is the first full-length study of the unique English experience of gunpowder weapons, tracing their development from their introduction in the reign of Edward III to the end of the fifteenth century. The rich records of the English Exchequer and urban accounts are used to explore their role in campaigns, in sieges, on the battlefield, at sea and their role in the defence of towns, royal castles and the fortifications of the Pale of Calais. It provides a comprehensive framework for the speed of technological advances and the factors responsible for these changes, as well as an in-depth discussion of individual gun types. DAN SPENCER obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton.Trade ReviewFor anyone interested in the history of artillery, of the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses, or in the administrative history of England in these years, this is a valuable, specialized work. [...] The book is a solid foundation for more work in this field. -- H-NET REVIEWSThis is original and high-level scholarship that breaks genuinely new ground and deserves to be read beyond the field of medieval military history. * MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *A clear, comprehensive, and detailed study that will no doubt prove influential in encouraging the further examination of these weapons and their use. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction Royal Guns on Land The Expeditions of 1430-2 and 1497 English Royal Ships Calais Garrison Royal Castles and Guns Towns Southampton Analysis of Guns Conclusion Appendices Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst English translation of the chivalric biography of one of France's leading figures of the middle ages. Jean le Meingre, Maréchal Boucicaut (1364-1421), was the very flower of chivalry. From his earliest years at the royal court in Paris, he distinguished himself in knightly pursuits: sorties against seditious French nobles, ceremonial jousts against the English enemy, crusading in Tunisia and Prussia, the composition of courtly verses, and the establishment of a chivalric order for the defence of ladies, the Order of the Enterprise of the White Lady of the Green Shield. He was named Marshal of France at the age of only 27. His chivalric biography, finished in 1409, is one of the most important accounts of the life of a knight from the Middle Ages. Whilst full of praise, it is also highly partisan and carefully selective; it glosses over the darker, much less successful, side of his career - in particular his participation in the catastrophic Nicopolis crusade (1396) and his governorship of Genoa, which came to an end shortly after the completion of the biography, when a rebellion forced him to leave the city, five years before his capture at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and death in England in 1421. This first English translation makes available to a wider audience a text that sheds light on the history of France, on crusading in Prussia and the Mediterranean, and on the complicated politics of Italy and the papacy during the Great Schism. It is a highly important contribution to our understanding of chivalric mentalities and attitudes in late-medieval France. It is presented with an introduction and notes.Trade ReviewThis is an accessible . . . translation, with informative introduction and notes, which will be of great interest to anyone who wishes to study or teach medieval chivalry, tournaments or the crusades. * FRENCH HISTORY *[C]aptures the spirit of the Middle French original and presents it in an agreeable way for a present-day reader. * SPECULUM *A welcome addition to the available in-translation literature of the European Middle Ages, not only for what it offers English readers about the life and times of its continental subject, but also by serving as a pointed reminder that the ideology of chivalry went beyond fantasy and ideal..It makes for fascinating reading, and is to be recommended for personal edification or educational deployment. * PARERGON *Clear, lively and deeply engaging..An important addition to the growing range of later medieval chivalric texts available to Anglophone students and scholars and which, because of its extensive supplementary material, will also provide an ideal teaching resource. * FRANCIA *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe links between Cornwall, a county frequently considered remote and separate in the Middle Ages, and the wider realm of England are newly discussed. Winner of The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies (FOCS) Holyer an Gof Cup for non-fiction, 2020. Stretching out into the wild Atlantic, fourteenth-century Cornwall was a land at the very ends of the earth. Within itsboundaries many believed that King Arthur was a real-life historical Cornishman and that their natal shire had once been the home of mighty giants. Yet, if the county was both unusual and remarkable, it still held an integral place in the wider realm of England. Drawing on a wide range of published and archival material, this book seeks to show how Cornwall remained strikingly distinctive while still forming part of the kingdom. It argues that myths,saints, government, and lordship all endowed the name and notion of Cornwall with authority in the minds of its inhabitants, forging these people into a commonalty. At the same time, the earldom-duchy and the Crown together helped to link the county into the politics of England at large. With thousands of Cornishmen and women drawn east of the Tamar by the needs of the Crown, warfare, lordship, commerce, the law, the Church, and maritime interests, connectivity with the wider realm emerges as a potent integrative force. Supported by a cast of characters ranging from vicious pirates and gentlemen-criminals through to the Black Prince, the volume sets Cornwall in the latest debates about centralisation, devolution, and collective identity, about the nature of Cornishness and Englishness themselves. S.J. DRAKE is a Research Associate at the Institute of Historical Research. He was born and brought up in Cornwall.Trade ReviewOverall, this is an interesting and useful volume which offers a substantial amount of historical flesh to clothe the archaeological bones for this intriguing period of Cornwall's history. * CORNISH ARCHAEOLOGY *[A] comprehensive study -- PARLIAMENTARY HISTORYSam Drake has produced a masterful and compelling work on Cornwall in the high medieval period, the first 'overarching study' in 60 years. [...] This book should be a must buy for all interested in medieval regional history and Cornwall. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN *Dr Sam J. Drake's Cornwall, Connectivity and Identity in the Fourteenth Century is a most notable contribution [...] Drake offers a wide-ranging and richly researched portrait of life in fourteenth-century Cornwall which takes 'connectivity' as its theme. This allows Drake to make a scholarly contribution of great value not only for those primarily interested in Cornish history but also for those who work on the more general social and political history of England in the late middle ages: put simply, this is a book that will need to be added to a great many reading lists. * REVIEWS IN HISTORY *A well-written and engaging book. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *It will be essential reading on its subject. It will be used for a hundred years or more. It is substantial. * MEDIEAVISTIK *Thanks to the careful research and convincing argument presented in Cornwall, Connectivity and Identity, we should now regard Cornwall's distinctiveness not as separateness, but as holding an important place in the project of governing a heterogeneous polity, the history of which dates back to the fourteenth century and the Plantagenet project of creating an English kingdom. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsPreface: a Little Understood Land Part I: Cornwall: Its Gentlemen, Government and Identity The Very Ends of the Earth: an Overview of Fourteenth-Century Cornwall Office-Holding in a Wild Spot Since the Time of King Arthur: Gentry Identity and the Commonalty of Cornwall An Extraordinary Folk: the Cornish People Part II: Distant Dominium: Comital, Ducal and Regnal Lordship The Final Tempestuous Years of the Earldom, 1300-1336 The Black Prince and his Duchy, 1337-1376 Richard of Bordeaux: Duke of Cornwall and King of England, 1376-1399 Part III: Connectivity: Cornwall and the Wider Realm Communication, Movement, and Exchange: Connectivity Frameworks Sovereign Kings and Loyal Subjects: Regnal Connectivity Pillagers with Long Knives: Military Connectivity Formidable Lords and True Tenants: Lordly Connectivity Gold, Tin, and Terrible Ale: Commercial Connectivity Lawless Judges and Litigious Cornishmen: Legal Connectivity God and Cornwall: Ecclesiastical Connectivity Of Shipmen, Smugglers, and Pirates: Maritime Connectivity Connecting Cornwall Conclusion: Cornish Otherness and English Hegemony? Epilogue: Contesting Cornwall Appendix I. Cornwall's Office-holders, c. 1300-c. 1400 Appendix II. Cornish Men-at-Arms and Mounted Archers who Served the King between c. 1298 and c. 1415 Appendix III. Cornish Ports that Sent Ships to Royal Fleets between c. 1297 and c. 1420 Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first translation of Baldric's Historia Ierosolimitana, a spirited account of the First Crusade, into modern English. The Historia Ierosolimitana is a prose narrative of the events of the First Crusade written at the abbey of Bourgueil in the Loire Valley around 1105. Its author, the abbot Baldric, used the anonymous Gesta Francorumfor much of the factual material presented, but provided literary enhancements and amplifications of the historical narrative and the characters found therein, in order, as Baldric says, to make the Historia a more worthy account of the miraculous events it describes. This volume provides the first modern-language translation of the Historia, with a full introduction setting out its historical, social, political and manuscript contexts, and notes. It will contribute to a revised exploration of the First Crusade, and facilitate much wider debates about the place of history writing in medieval culture, textuality and manuscript transmission.Trade Review[This] volume makes a strong contribution to crusader studies, and will be extremely valuable both for students and scholars. * THE JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Life and Career of Baldric of Bourgueil The French Historians of the First Crusade Comparisons between the Three French Historians Manuscript Transmission and Reception The 'History of the Jerusalemites' Prologue and Book One Book Two Book Three Book Four Appendix 1 - Additions found in Paris, BNF, MS Latin 5513 Appendix 2 - People and Places Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst study of the origins of the lordship courts that dominated the lives of the peasantry of medieval England. About the year 1000, hundreds and shires were the dominant and probably the only local assemblies for doing legal and other business in England. However, this simple pattern did not last long, for lords established separate courts which allowed them to manage and discipline their dependents without external interference, and therefore to intensify and redefine their claims over their dependents. These can be seen clearly by the early twelfth century, and were the basis from which the later manorial courts, courts leet and honour courts originated. The appearance of these courts has long been recognised; what is novel about this book is that it shows how they came into being. It argues that lordship courts ultimately originated through subtracting business from the public courts of Anglo-Saxon England, not from the rights inherent in land ownership. It also shows how and when royal justices appeared for the first time as a response to these changes, and how the earliest generation of judges differed from their successors in their roles and functions, which has considerable consequences for how we understand the changing roles of justices in shaping English law. Overall, the changing pattern of assemblies and courts helped to redefine lordship, peasant status and royal authority, and to expectations about how business should be transacted, with widespread implications across Anglo-Norman society, culture and politicsTrade Review[This] work deserves considerable praise and ought to be widely read. * HISTORY *Karn's volume is a triumph, both a major contribution to our understanding of Anglo-Norman politics and valuable analysis of the legal practices that laid the foundation for the emergence of Common Law. He is to be congratulated on a book that will certainly shape the discussion of this topic for years to come. -- JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIESThis is an important book, filling a significant gap in scholarship on late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law, lordship, and administration. . . . [A] highly stimulating study of a neglected topic. -- John Hudson * Speculum *Table of ContentsIntroduction Lords and their Dependents in Court: the Later Anglo-Saxon Paradigm The Aspirations of Lords in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century England Private Claims and Hundreds in the Later Eleventh and Earlier Twelfth Centuries The Division of Hundreds and the Proliferation of Courts From Debate within Courts to Debate between Courts: the Origins of Jurisdictional Debate Courts, Pleas and Kings in the Early Twelfth Century Pleas and Justices in the Early Twelfth Century Conclusion Appendix: the Evidence for Justices, 1100-1154 Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first modern edition of a text which shows the suspicion with which Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain was received two decades after it first appeared. The history of the Yorkshire secular clerk, Alfred of Beverley (c.1148 x c.1151), an important primary source in Anglo-Norman historiography, supplies a history of Britain from its supposed foundation by Brutus down to the death of Henry I in 1135. Alfred's history is of particular interest in that it is the first Insular Latin chronicle to incorporate the legendary British history of Geoffrey of Monmouth (published c.mid 1130s) within a continuous account of the island's past. In attempting to fuse the radically new Galfridian account of the past with that of the conventional twelfth-century (Bedan) view, Alfred's use and manipulation of his sources is highly revealing and suggests a quite critical reception of Geoffrey's history, a mindset which by the end of the twelfth century appears almost entirely to have disappeared amongst chroniclers. Alfred's history is also an important, and presently undervalued, witness to the reception and dissemination of three of the most important Anglo-Norman histories: Symeon of Durham Historia Regum, The Chronicle of John of Worcester and Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, from which works it borrows extensively. In the manner of use of these sources, the author tells us much about the ecclesiastical and intellectual interests and outlook of the period.Trade ReviewIt is this last feature of Alfred's History which is Dr Slevin's argument as to why his work deserves a lot more attention. -- David Crouch * Northern History *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations List of plates, figures and maps INTRODUCTION Alfred of Beverley - Man, Milieu & Memory Date and Circumstances of the History Sources i. Introduction ii. Henry of Huntingdon iii. Geoffrey of Monmouth iv. John of Worcester v. The Durham Historia Regum The Afterlife of Alfred Historical place, purpose and value Manuscripts Editions i. Previous Edition ii. This Edition TEXT AND TRANSLATION Appendices General Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis innovative book reveals how Enlightened writers in England, both lay and clerical, proclaimed public support for Christianity by transforming it into a civil religion, despite the famous claim of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that Christians professed an uncivil faith. This innovative book reveals how Enlightened writers in England, both lay and clerical, proclaimed public support for Christianity by transforming it into a civil religion, despite the famous claim of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that Christians professed an uncivil faith. In the aftermath of the seventeenth-century European wars of religion, civil religionists such as David Hume, Edward Gibbon, the third earl of Shaftesbury, and William Warburton sought to reconcile Christian ecclesiology with the civil state and Christian practice with civilized society. They built their arguments in the context of England's long Reformation, syncretizing 'primitive' gospel Christianity with ancient paganism as they attempted to render Christianity a modern version of Roman republican civil religion. They believed that outward observance of the reformed Protestant faith was vital for belonging to the Christian commonwealth of Hanoverian England. Uncovering a major theme in eighteenth-century intellectual and religious history that connected classical Rome with Italian Renaissance humanism and the Enlightenment, this deeply interdisciplinary book draws from recent post-secular trends in social and political theory. Combining intellectual history with the political and ecclesiastical history of the Church of England, it will prove as indispensable for historians as studentsof political theory, theology, and literature.Trade Review[This] an excellent book and will become essential reading for all scholars of the Enlightenment and eighteenth-century religion. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, LITERATURE AND CULTURE *[Walsh's] research has opened up a new angle on the age-old question of the relationship between religion and Enlightenment and deserves to be read widely. * THE JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *This impressive new book...succeeds in covering broad ground while maintaining clarity and focus, with complex ecclesiological arguments swiftly explained in clear and often entertaining prose * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *Well-researched and clearly written...this book has deftly unearthed a vein of opinion in the eighteenth century which gives further meaning to the increasingly prevalent phrase, the English Enlightenment. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY *Professor Walsh has written an important book. His defense of Hanoverian civil religion is original, thoughtful, and provocative in the best sense of the term. Historians, philosophers, and political theorists will be forced to rethink standard interpretations of canonical thinkers, reexamine the relationship between elite intellectuals and political society, and constantly remind themselves that God was not dead in the eighteenth-century English Enlightenment. * Eighteenth-Century Studies *Walsh's outstanding tour of the creation of English civil religion, and a navigation of tradition and change, is recommended to anyone interested in the changes that confronted the Church of England in the eighteenth century. * Anglican and Episcopal History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Hanoverian Civil Religion and its Intellectual Resources 1: Building Athens from Jerusalem: Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury 2: The Politics of Priestcraft: John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon 3: The Church-State Alliance: Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, and William Warburton 4: The Civil Faith of Common Sense: David Hume 5: The Legacy of Ancient Rome: Edward Gibbon and Conyers Middleton 6: Subscription, Reform, and Dissent: Civil Religion and Enlightened Divinity during the Late Eighteenth Century Conclusion: Hanoverian Civil Religion and its Aftermath Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdition of documents from an important medieval East Anglian ecclesiastical institution. The charters and other documents recorded in the thirteenth-century Cartulary of the Augustinian priory of Sts Peter and Paul, Ipswich, donated to the public library of Lexington, Kentucky, in 1806, and purchased for Ipswich Record Office in 1970, throw light on an institution whose early history was mostly shrouded in obscurity. They are an important source for the study both of the expansion of the priory estates and the consolidation of its holdings bythe gift or purchase of adjoining parcels of land in common fields, and a mine of information for the student of place-names. The charters presented here, with full explanatory notes, complement the contents of the priory'scartulary published in 2018. They illuminate the religious life of the priory, its community, spiritual rewards for its benefactors, steps taken to safeguard its assets, and the circumspection sometimes shown by the convent in itsdealings with the powerful.Trade ReviewThe texts throughout are an invaluable source for students of palaeography, Latin and local history. Understanding the difference between cartularies and charters, the function they performed and interpretation of the evidence they provide allows a proper appreciation of their purpose. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN *Part II is a splendid work of dedicated scholarship, as is particularly evident from the trouble that David Allen has taken to locate and transcribe the documents, to establish plausible dates for the many undated ones and to make available succinct, detailed physical descriptions of each of the individual items. It has been handsomely produced by the Boydell Press. * ARCHIVES AND RECORDS *[B]oth this and Allen's first volume on the priory make invaluable additions to a growing corpus. -- Proceedings of the SIAHThis Part II is a welcome addition to the range of charter publications already in circulation, and it will be a valuable reference text that will be studied for many years to come. It is of great benefit to have another resource that highlights the wealth of information charters contain. -- The Medieval Review (TMR)Table of ContentsThe Charters Appendix 1: Concordance of Original Charters in the Edition Appendix 2: Corrigenda to Part I Index of Persons and Places Index of Subjects

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst full-length account of St Stephen's Chapel, bringing out its full importance and influence throughout the Middle Ages. In St Stephen's College, the royally-favoured religious institution at the heart of the busy administrative world of the Palace of Westminster, church and state met and collaborated for two centuries, from its foundation to pray for the royal dead by Edward III in 1348, until it was swept away by the second wave of the Reformation in 1548. Monarchs and visitors worshipped in the distinctive chapel on the Thames riverfront. Even when the king and his household were absent, the college's architecture, liturgy and musical strength proclaimed royal piety and royal support for the Church to all who passed by. This monograph recreates a lost institution, whose spectacular cloister still survives deep within the modern Houses of Parliament. It examines its relationship with every English king from Edward III to Edward VI, how it defined itself as the "king's chief chapel" through turbulent dynastic politics,and its contributions to the early years of the English Reformation. It offers a new perspective on the workings of political, administrative and court life in medieval and early modern Westminster.Trade ReviewBiggs handles the limited material with deftness, on the way evoking the business and bustle of an institution that has remained largely unknown until now. She is to be congratulated on making a significant contribution to the history of the palace of Westminster and its complex workings. * ECCLESIOLOGY TODAY *Not only tells the story of this important institution, but [also] offers a compelling analysis of comparative royal piety. * LONDON JOURNAL *This examination of St Stephen's gains immensely from the author's research of multiple sources, negating the disadvantages of a paucity of direct documentation. It departs from the traditional approaches to a college's story - and is all the better for it. What emerges is the unique role that St Stephen's was able to play, over two centuries, in foregrounding the liminal space between church and state. * Peregrinations *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One: Finding a Place Within Westminster, 1348-1394 Chapter Two: Magnificence and Difficulties under Richard II, 1377-1399 Chapter Three: Weathering Political and Economic Storms, 1399-1485 Chapter Four: A New Kind of Court? Display, Pageantry and Worship, 1471-1536 Chapter Five: Responding to the Reformation, 1527-1548 Conclusions Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Hitchcock Medallion. A ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach to the medieval manor pre- and post-Conquest. SHORTLISTED for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Hitchcock Medallion. Medieval manors have long been the subject of academic study, though the ways in which these houses reflected and shaped - and were shaped by - their occupants to express social authority have not yet been fully explored. This book undertakes a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination of them, aiming to provide a fuller account of how concepts of space and domestic place were understood, represented, and used by their occupants in England and Normandy from c. 900 to c. 1200, and how this illuminates aspects of gender and authority in the period. Blending approaches from archaeology and history, it uses evidence from Anglo-Saxon wills, standing and excavated manorial sites in England and Normandy, and a variety of written texts from vitae to history to poetry, in order to delve into, deconstruct and reconstruct gendered notions of authority in the period. This book ultimately challenges ideas of gendered objects and places through the medieval construction of authoritative personae, and the use and representation of medieval manors, focusing on the household as a place and space of performance in the age of the Norman Conquest.Trade ReviewThis work succeeds in proving that the wealthy showed off their abundance and power through the objects they collected and the spaces where they and their objects were displayed. It is clearly and often cleverly written. [...] It neatly confirms the importance of interdisciplinary works and should easily find a home with both historians and archaeologists. -- SPECULUMFascinating and illuminating. * FACHRS NEWSLETTER *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Whys and Wherefores Chapter One: Acting with Objects Chapter Two: Experiencing Spaces I - People and Privacy Chapter Three: Experiencing Spaces II - Buildings and Spaces Chapter Four: Writing Places Conclusions: The Curated Space

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst in-depth investigation of the genealogies of medieval Wales, bringing out their full significance. Genealogy was a central element of life in medieval Wales. It was the force that held society together and the framework for all political action. For these reasons, genealogical writing in medieval Wales, as elsewhere in Europe,became a fundamental tool for representing and manipulating perceptions of the socio-political order across historical and literary time. From its beginnings within an early medieval Insular genre of genealogical writing, Welsh genealogy developed across the Middle Ages as a unique and pervasive phenomenon. This book provides the first integrated study of and comprehensive introduction to genealogy in medieval Wales, setting it in the context of genealogical writing from Ireland, England and beyond and tracing its evolution from the eighth to the sixteenth century. The three most important collections of secular genealogies are carefully analysed and their composition is considered in relation to medieval Welsh politics. Particular attention is devoted to the pedigrees of the kings and princes of Gwynedd, which were subject to many intricate alterations over time. The book also includes fresh criticaleditions of the most significant extant collections of secular genealogy.Trade ReviewThere is no doubt that Medieval Welsh Genealogy is a major scholarly achievement. [...] This is a book for historians of insular Britain and Ireland, for manuscript historians, and for anyone interested in genealogy as a means of making sense of a political and social order. Here is scholarship of the highest order, detailed, rigorous, suggestive, and rich in possibility. [...] Guy's Medieval Welsh Genealogy will undoubtedly stand as one of the great reference books of medieval Welsh scholarship. * SPECULUM *Medieval Welsh Genealogy is a major contribution to a vital but neglected field. * REVIEWS IN HISTORY *Wholly admirable work -- CAMBRIAN MEDIEVAL CELTIC STUDIESThe scholarship deployed by Dr Guy is first-rate, and the level of argument, closely related to relevant sources, is consistently high throughout the book. * ARCHAEOLOGIA CAMBRENSIS *Constitutes a comprehensive review of genealogy in medieval Wales. * TRANSACTIONS, DENBIGHSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY *Table of Contents1. Medieval Welsh Genealogy and its Contexts 2. The Earliest Welsh Genealogical Collections: The St Davids Recension and the Gwynedd Collection of Genealogies 3. A Southern Genealogical Anthology: The Jesus 20 Genealogie 4. Reframing the Welsh Past in Early Thirteenth-Century Gwynedd: The Llywelyn ab Iorwerth Genealogies 5. The Pedigrees of the Kings of Gwynedd Coda Appendix A: Supporting Material Appendix B: Editions Acknowledgements Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. Following the Journal's tradition of drawing on a range of disciplines, the essays here also extend chronologically from the tenth through the sixteenth century and cover a wide geography: from Scandinavia to Spain, with stops in England and the Low Countries. They include an examination of the lexical items for banners in Beowulf, evidence of the use of curved template for the composition in the Bayeux Tapestry, a discussion of medieval cultivation of hemp for use in textiles in Sweden, a reading of the character of Lady Mede (Piers Plowman) in the context of costume history, the historical context of the Spanish verdugados (in English, the farthingale)and its use as political propaganda, an analysis of the sartorial imagery on a tabletop painting (attributed to Bosch) depicting the Seven Deadly Sins, and the reconstruction of one of the sixteenth-century London Livery companies' crowns.Trade ReviewTogether these papers provide varied and thoughtful insights into many aspects of medieval clothing and textiles and, as such, this volume is a must for those interested in all these facets. * MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *Table of ContentsPreface - Monica L. Wright Anglo-Saxon Banners and Beowulf - M. Wendy Hennequin The Use of Curved Templates in the Drawing of the Bayeux Tapestry - Maggie Kneen and Gale R. Owen-Crocker Construction and Reconstruction of the Past: The Medieval Nordic Textile Heritage of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) - Git Skoglund Historicizing the Allegorical Eye: Reading Lady Mede - John B. Slefinger Sex, Lies, and Verdugados: Juana of Portugal and the Invention of Hoopskirts - Mark D. Johnston Fashion and Material Culture in the Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins Attributed to Hieronymus Bosch - John Block Friedman Fashion and Material Culture in the Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins Attributed to Hieronymus Bosch - Melanie Schuessler Bond The Broderers' Crown: The Examination and Reconstruction of a Sixteenth-Century City of London Livery Company Election Garland - Cynthia Jackson Recent Books of Interest Author Index of Previous Volumes

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst comprehensive study of miracles in Crusade narrative, showing how and why they were deployed by their authors. The medieval Latin Christian narratives of the crusades are replete with references to miracles, visions and signs. Mysterious white-clad knights lead crusader armies to victory in battle, Christ and the saints offer guidance in visions, and great signs are seen in the skies. However, despite the frequent appearance of these themes in the sources, and the evident importance of these ideas to the narratives which describe them, scholars have often analysed examples in isolation. This book represents the first far-reaching examination of the miraculous in crusade narrative, offering an analysis of the role of miracles, marvels, visions, dreams, signs and augury in narratives of the crusades of 1096 to 1204 and produced between c.1099 and c.1250. It argues that the miraculous and its related themes represented a powerful tool for the authors of crusade narrative because of its ability to convey divine agency and will, ideas which were central to the belief held among Latin Christian contemporaries that crusade was divinely inspired and spiritually salvific. Overall, the volume demonstrates how the authors of crusade narrative drew upon various intellectual authorities on the miraculous in the service of their narrative agendas and reveals how the use of the miraculous changed as authors were forced to respond to the challenges of narrating crusade during this period.Trade Review[This] is a book that should become compulsory reading for anyone studying crusading literature or the use of miracles in medieval narratives. * HISTORY *Will doubtless become a point of first reference for those investigating the relationship between the miraculous and crusading. * SEHEPUNKTE *The Miraculous and the Writing of Crusade Narrative draws key critical attention to the much-neglected workings of the miraculous in crusade narratives and constitutes an accessible and invaluable resource for those studying crusading literatures. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Miracles and Marvels 1. Divine Agency 2. Writing Failure Part II: Visions and Dreams 3. The Mockery of Dreams 4. Intercession and Insurance Part III: Signs and Augury 5. Ways of Knowing 6. Signs of the Times Conclusion Appendix: The Sources Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnalyses of different aspects of the history of warfare in the Mediterranean in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The kingdom of Sicily plays a huge part in the history of the Norman people; their conquest brought in a new era of invasion, interaction and integration in the Mediterranean, However, much previous scholarship has tended to concentrate on their activities in England and the Holy Land. This volume aims to redress the balance by focusing on the Hautevilles, their successors and their followers. It considers the operational, tactical, technical and logistical aspects of the conduct of war in the South throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries, looking also at its impact on Italian and Sicilian multi-cultural society. Topics include the narratives of the Norman expansion, exchanges and diffusion between the "military cultures" of the Normans and the peoples they encountered in the South, and their varied policies of conquest, consolidation and expansion in the different operational theatres of land and sea.Trade Review[T]he editor has brought together an interesting set of essays which have a close focus on warfare, and he has grouped them into sensible categories. . . . This is a very well-produced volume with an impressive range of pictures, a combined Bibliography and a useful index. * De Re Militari *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Georgios Theotokis Greek and Latin sources for the Norman expansion in the South: their value as "military histories" of the warfare in the Mediterranean Sea - Georgios Theotokis "Conquest in Their Blood": Hauteville Ambition, Authorial Spin and Interpretive Challenges in the Narrative Sources - Francesca Petrizzo "The Arts of Guiscard": Trickery and Deceit in the Norman Conquests of Southern Italy and Outremer, 1000-1120 - James Titterton A Gift to the Normans - The Military Legacy of Sicilian Islam - David Nicolle Norman battle tactics in the Mediterranean theatre of operations: fighting Lombards, greeks, Arabs, and Turks c.1050-c.1100 - Matthew Bennett Venetian Reactions to the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard - from Enmity to Congeniality - Serban V. Marin The Norman Kingdom of Sicily: Projecting Power by Sea - Charles D. Stanton Norman Participation in the First Crusade: a re-examination - Luigi Russo Strategy, the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy, and the First Crusade - Daniel P. Franke Disaster in the Delta? Sicilian support for the Crusades and the Siege of Alexandria, 1174 - Michael S. Fulton Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis series [pushes] the boundaries of knowledge and [develops] new trends in approach and understanding. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW The essays collected here cast light on the factors that made or defined an individual, and the ways in which the men and women concerned gave expression to their individuality. Facets of the characters of English kings emerge from the varying contents of their wills, and the use of propaganda in their personal letters. By contrast, Margaret of Anjou's early years are explored for the roots of her conduct as queen consort, and how she matched up to contemporary expectations following Henry VI's mental collapse. The law courts and the legal profession provide the stage and cast for several papers: individual lawyers, of dubious integrity and adept at manipulating legal processes intheir own interests, provoked the violence that led to their own deaths, while a member of the same profession is shown to have orchestrated civic riots in which he and his neighbours sought to give expression to their own statusas they perceived it. Finally, in their frustrated search for justice, strong-minded women asserted their individual rights by taking their grievances to Henry VII's star chamber. Contributors: Chris Given-Wilson, Anthony Gross, David Grummitt, Samuel Lane, Simon Payling, Alice Raw, Anne F. Sutton, Deborah Youngs.Trade Review[An] engaging volume full of interesting papers and will, like the other volumes in the series, provide helpful references for scholars for many years to come. * THE RICARDIAN *Table of ContentsPreface - Linda Clark Royal Wills, 1376-1475 - Christopher Given-Wilson Propaganda, Piety and Politics in the Fifteenth Century: Henry V's Vernacular War Letters to the City of London, 1417-21 - Samuel Lane 'To Be of Oon Demeanyng and Unite for the Wele of Your Self and of the Contre There': Yorkist Plans for the Lordship of Ireland, the Last Phase - Anne F. Sutton A Mirror for a Princess: Antoine de la Sale and the Political Psyche of Margaret of Anjou - Anthony Gross Margaret of Anjou and the Language of Praise and Censure - Alice Raw On 'Peyne of their Lyfes ... they Shuld no Verdit gif, but if they Wold Endite the Seid William Tresham of his Owen Deth': the Murder of Lawyers in Fifteenth-Century England - S.J. Payling 'Stond Horeson and Yelde thy Knyff': Urban Politics, Language and Litigation in Late Medieval Canterbury - David Grummitt 'In to the Sterre Chambre': Female Plaintiffs Before the King's Council in the Reign of Henry VII - Deborah Youngs

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new investigation into the twelfth-century accounts of the First Crusade, showing their complex relationship with the Bible. The Bible exerted an enormous influence on the crusading movement: it provided medieval Christians with language to describe holy war, spiritual models for crusaders, and justifications for conquests in the East. This book adds tothe growing body of scholarship on the biblical underpinnings of crusading, offering a reappraisal of the early twelfth-century narratives of the First Crusade as works of biblical exegesis rather than simply historical texts. Itrestores these works and their authors to the context of the monastic and cathedral schools where the curricula centred on biblical study, and demonstrates how the crusade's narrators applied familiar methods of scriptural commentary to the crusade, treating it as a text which could, like the Bible, be understood through historical, allegorical, and mystical lenses. These glosses of the First Crusade, which collectively constitute one of the greatintellectual achievements of their age, drew upon the Scriptures and earlier Christian theology, pilgrimage guides, and polemic to construct the crusade as a new chapter of sacred history. Within this story, the first crusaders played various biblically inspired roles: as new Israelites, they wrested the promised land from Muslims cast as new Canaanites and Babylonians; as new apostles, they reenacted some of the greatest miracles of the Gospels. By reconstructing the interpretive processes that made such readings possible, this study allows us to better appreciate the crusading movement's relationship to church reform, the apostolic revival, and the growth of anti-Jewish sentiment in twelfth-century Europe. KATHERINE ALLEN SMITH is professor of history at the University of Puget Sound.Trade ReviewAs Katherine Allen Smith convincingly demonstrates in this thorough and fascinating book, we stand to learn a significant amount about the authors of crusade texts, their audiences, and what it meant to write crusade narrative, if we take the time to tap into this rich seam. This book should be required reading for any student or scholar of the medieval historiography of crusading, or of medieval Latin Christian historiography in general. -- SPECULUM[A] highly interesting work that should be essential reading for anyone who teaches or studies the crusades. -- JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL RELIGIOUS CULTURES[This] rich study opens the door to further investigations of the relationships between different literary genres and between exegesis, theology, and history. * SEHEPUNKTE *Table of ContentsIntroduction History and Biblical Exegesis in the Latin West The Bible in the Chronicles of the First Crusade Into the Promised Land Babylon and Jerusalem Conclusion Appendix 1: Tables and Charts of Biblical References Appendix 2: List of Biblical References in the Texts Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisA series which is a model of its kind: Edmund King The wide-ranging articles collected here represent the cutting edge of recent Anglo-Norman scholarship. There is a particular focus on historical sources for the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and especially on the key texts which are used by historians in understanding the past. There are articles on Eadmer's Historia Novorum, Dudo of Saint-Quentin's Historia Normannorum, the historical profession at Durham, and the use of charters to understand the role of women in the Norman march of Wales. Other contributions examine canon law in late twelfth-century England, and Angevin rule in Normandy in the time of Henry fitz Empress. The Old English world is also represented in the volume: there is a fresh investigation into Harold Godwineson's posthumous reputation, and a new interpretation of the reign of Aethelred the Unready. S.D. CHURCH is Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia. Contributors: Emma Cavell, Catherine Cubitt, John Gillingham, Mark Hagger, Fraser McNair, Charles C. Rozier, Nicholas Ruffini-Ronzani, Danica Summerlin, Ann WilliamsTrade Review[The book has] a wide range of topics and [the essays] are consistently of excellent academic quality. -- H-SOZ-KULTTable of ContentsReassessing the Reign of King Æthelred the Unready - Katy Cubitt The Art of Memory: The Posthumous Reputation of King Harold II Godwineson - Ann Williams Women, Memory and the Genesis of a Priory in Norman Monmouth - Emma Cavell The Sins of a Historian: Eadmer of Canterbury, Historia Novorum in Anglia. Books I-IV - John B Gillingham Angevin Rule in the West of Normandy, 1154-1186: The View from Mont-Saint-Michel - Mark Hagger 'A girly man like you can't rule us real men any longer': Sex, Violence and Masculinity in Dudo of Saint-Quentin's Historia Normannorum - Fraser McNair Compiling Chronicles in Anglo-Norman Durham, c. 1100-1130 - Charles C. Rozier The Counts of Louvain and the Anglo-Norman World, c. 1100-c. 1215 - Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani England, Normandy, and the Ecclesiastical 'New Law' in the Later Twelfth-Century - Danica Summerlin

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamination of the role played by key figures around the monarchy in the Wars of the Roses. The reigns of Edward IV and Richard III have long engendered fascination and debate, not least concerning the extent of the authority and power of key individuals surrounding the court at the time. This book examines the most influential men and women at the centre of their regimes: the political power-brokers. They served the king in matters of diplomacy, warfare, court ceremony, local government, and the attempt to keep order amid the ongoing crisis of kingship sparked by the Wars of the Roses. Their close royal association to the king led to rapid increases in their power and fortune. Among their ranks are well-documented figures such as the tragic "Kingmaker", Richard Neville,earl of Warwick, and the steadfast baron William, Lord Hastings. This volume however is also concerned to bring to the forefront lesser discussed figures, including Sir Thomas Montgomery, Edward's close friend whose career was remade by the Yorkist usurpation, and Sir John Fogge, one of the leading men of Kent who prospered under Yorkist rule, yet risked everything by rejecting Richard's right to rule. Grounded on extensive archival research, this book offers a more detailed and nuanced image of the influence the power-brokers wielded and their place in the Yorkist state. It analyses the manifestation of their power and the manner in which they exercised their influence publicly and privately; and establishes their importance in the foundation, maintenance, and downfall of the Yorkist dynasty.Trade Review[This] book is well-written and draws on an impressive range of sources, both secondary and archival. * THE RICARDIAN *Table of ContentsIntroduction Clientelism and the Spheres of Power Domus et Familia: Power-Brokers and the Royal Affinity Public Sentiment and Status Women as Power-Brokers The Prelates Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst full English translation of a major text, narrating the adventures of the Jouvencel whilst interweaving them with advice on military tactics and strategies. Le Jouvencel is one of the most important and revealing sources for the study of medieval warfare and chivalry. It tells the story of a poor young soldier whose skill at arms enables him to rise through the ranks and eventually marry a foreign princess. Jean de Bueil (1406-1477 wrote the book around 1466, following his retirement from military service, drawing heavily upon his own experiences as one of the most prominent French soldiers of the fifteenth century. The pages of Le Jouvencel are filled with unusually detailed descriptions of military campaigns, sieges and battles, capturing the tactics, weapons and everyday life of the soldier with a vivid eye for detail. Many of the characters, places and events described in the apparently fictional story were actually inspired by recent history, as was revealed in a Commentary written just a few years after Bueil's death by one of his squires, Guillaume Tringant. Jean de Bueil wrote Le Jouvencel to provide future generations of soldiers and military leaders with advice on chivalry, knighthood and the art of warfare. As a result, this remarkable chivalric narrative offers a window into the martial culture of French soldiers during the final stages of the Hundred Years War. This first English translation is presented with an introduction to the text and to Jean de Bueil, and explanatory notes.Trade ReviewThis translation will be enjoyed and read with profit by a wide range of audiences: from the general reader interested in warfare in the Middle Ages to the specialist student and scholar who will have at their disposal a key work of late medieval chivalric biography. -- SPECULUMTable of ContentsIntroduction Le Jouvencel: Table of rubrics Le Jouvencel: Part I Le Jouvencel: Part II Le Jouvencel: Part III The Commentary by Guillaume Tringant Select bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDetailed research into documentary sources offers an exciting new identification of the "real" Robin Hood. For over a century and a half scholars have debated whether or not the legend of Robin Hood was based on an actual outlaw and, if so, when and where he lived. One view is that he was not a legend as such but a myth: an idea, rather than a person who could possibly be identified in historical records and placed in a real historical and geographical context. Other writers have gone even further, arguing that he is a literary concoction, with no traceable original, and that seeking to pin him down to a particular time and location is futile and unnecessary. This survey begins by tracing the development of the legend, and contemporary views about it, between the thirteenth and early twenty-first centuries, taking account both of new interpretative literature on the subject and fresh discoveries from the author's own research in the early records of the English royal administration and common law. It then gives a detailed account of the places that came to be associated with the legend, and of evidence illustrating the importance of the outlaw's name in the development of English surnames. The concluding chapters deal with the administration of criminal law in medieval England, and the evidence that points to the possible origins of the legend in the activities of a notorious Yorkshire criminal, tracked down and beheaded in the county in 1225.Trade Review[Essential] reading for anyone interested in the matter of greenwood. * THE RICARDIAN *[R]einjects a much-needed dose of reality into the academic study of the Robin Hood legend. . . Crook's monograph should be standard reading for any scholar who is interested in the origins of the historical Robin Hood. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *[An] excellent reference and bibliography for the primary material that makes up the Robin Hood canon, Cook has presented an approach that takes joy in the process of investigation [...]. -- COMITATUSDavid Crook's new study is probably the fullest account of the development of the legend of Robin Hood, and of its sundry interpreters, ever attempted. [...] Crook, then, has achieved considerable success in his quest for the historical Robin Hood -- SPECULUMThis is more than just a detailed survey; it is an overview of the entire culture of Robin and who he might have been...This book is a delight. * INTERNATIONAL TIMES *[Crook] provides a significant contribution to the ongoing scholarship and scholarly debates regarding the "real" Robin Hood(s) and persons associated with him that are found within historical records. Crook places that archival material in dialogue with the extant literature and other late-medieval historical sources, especially those on crime and criminality in Yorkshire. In doing so, he reveals two strong contenders for the "original" Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham. * CHOICE *The bibliography is impressive. Crook plumbs the depths of archival sources to uncover various place and personal names, criminal accounts, and outlaw activities that provide context for the evolution of Robin's story. A useful resource for those new to the field and for those well versed in the critical historical materials. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES *This elegantly written and informative monograph is an essential read for anyone interested in the legend of Robin Hood. The author, a distinguished archivist [...] demonstrates both an unrivalled knowledge of the sources for Hood's historicity and a thorough understanding of the existing corpus of scholarship. Attractively produced and well-indexed, the volume also contains several useful maps and illustrations. -- Adrian Jobson * NORTHERN HISTORY *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction The Medieval Tales of Robin Hood Chroniclers, Revellers, Playwrights and Antiquarians, c1420-1765 Editors, The Folklorist and The Archivist, 1765-1889 Folklorists, Literary Scholars and Historians: Robin Hood in the Twentieth Century The Robin Hood Places The Robin Hood Names Robin Hood and Criminality Law and Disorder in Yorkshire, 1215-1225 The Sheriff, The Fugitive and The Civil Servant Conclusion Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA valuable resource on the social and economic life of medieval England Inquisitions post mortem are the single most important source for the history of medieval English landed society and are indispensable to social, economic, and political historians of the later middle ages; they were compiled with the help of jurors from the area, as a county-by-county record of a deceased individual's land-holdings and associated rights, where the individual held land directly of the crown. It is this explicit connection with land and locality - in economic, social, political, and topographical terms - that makes these documents of such comprehensive interest. This volume calendars the inquisitions and related documents from the short reigns of Edward V and Richard III, from the protectorate to the battle of Bosworth (1483-1485). It looks at 101 individuals across 181 inquisitions and includes valuable information and detailed returns on the estates of the greater aristocracy, among them Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex and William Lord Hastings [d. 1483], alongside lesser landholders, jurors' names and full manorial extents. The volume incorporates not only inquisitions post mortem but also assignments of dower and a proof of age from across the counties of England and the Marches of Wales. It is especially rich in inquisitions relating to the lands of the royal justices and widowed dowagers and documents how many landholders had conveyed lands to trustees, thus escaping royal wardship and prompting remedial legislation by Richard's parliament. Standard information includes medieval descriptions of towns and villages and the charting of land and its descent at all social levels. The volume also provides comprehensive indexes of jurors, persons, places, and subjects.Trade ReviewA useful resource for those interested in both the reign of Richard III and the history of landholding and conveyancing. * PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY *

Read more less

Book SynopsisMulti-disciplinary approaches shed fresh light on the Frisian people and their changing cultures. Frisian is a name that came to be identified with one of the territorially expansive, Germanic-speaking peoples of the Early Middle Ages, occupying coastal lands south and south-east of the North Sea. Highly varied manifestations of Frisian-ness can be traced in and around the north-western corner of the European continent in cultural, linguistic, ethnic and political forms across two thousand years to the present day. The thematic studies in this volume foreground how diverse "Frisians" in different places and contexts could be. They draw on a range of multi-disciplinary sources and methodologies to explore a comprehensive range of social, economic and ideological aspects of early Frisian culture, from the Dutch province of Zeeland in the south-west to the North Frisian region in the north-east. Chronologically, there is an emphasis on the crucial developments of the seventh and eighth centuries AD, alongside demonstrations of how later evidence can retrospectively clarify long-term processes of group formation.The essays here thus add substantial new evidence to our understanding of a crucial stage in the evolution of an identity which had to develop and adapt to changing influences and pressures.Trade ReviewFrisians of the Early Middle Ages is certainly worth purchasing. A nice 'extra' are the transcripts of the discussions at the symposium, which sometimes are as insightful as the chapters themselves. In essence, it is an excellent volume to dip in and out of. * ANTIQUITY *This handsome tome does much to underscore the dynamic and adaptive nature of this extensive coastal territory and its resident peoples during the early medieval period. It should be considered one of the most-if not the most-significant collection of scholarship on the early medieval Frisians to emerge in many a year. Its meticulous but approachable nature has much to offer both seasoned scholars and newcomers alike. * SPECULUM *Interesting and well informed. * CANADIAN JOURNAL OF NETHERLANDIC STUDIES *[S]plendid book. -- MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGYTable of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Frisians of the Early Middle Ages: An Archaeoethnological Perspective Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, John Hines and Ian Wood 2. For Daily Use and Special Moments: Material Culture in Frisia, AD 400-1000 Egge Knol 3. The Frisians and their Pottery: Social Relations before and after the Fourth Century AD Annet Nieuwhof 4. Landscape, Trade and Power in Early-medieval Frisia Gilles de Langen and J. A. Mol 5. Law and Political Organisation of the Early Medieval Frisians (c. AD 600-800) Han Nijdam 6. Recent Developments in Early-medieval Settlement Archaeology: The North Frisian Point of View Bente Sven Majchczack 7. Franks and Frisians Ian Wood 8. Mirror Histories: Frisians and Saxons from the First to the Ninth Century AD Robert Flierman 9. Structured by the Sea: Rethinking Maritime Connectivity of the Early-medieval Frisians Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm 10. Art, Symbolism and the Expression of Group Identities in Early-medieval Frisia J. A. W. Nicolay 11. Religion and Conversion amongst the Frisians John Hines 12. Traces of a North Sea Germanic Idiom in the Fifth-Seventh Centuries AD Arjen P. Versloot 13. Runic Literacy in North-West Europe, with a Focus on Frisia Tineke Looijenga Final Discussion List of Contributors

Read more less

Book SynopsisEssays on crucial aspects of late medieval history. The essays collected here, offered by three generations of his friends and pupils, celebrate the outstanding career of Professor A.J. Pollard and pay tribute to his scholarship and enduring influence in furthering our understanding of late medieval England and France. Drawing inspiration from his own research interests and writing, which illuminated military, political and social interactions of the period, they focus on three main themes. The contrasting styles of governance adopted by English monarchs from Richard II to Henry VII; the differing responses to civil conflict revealed in a variety of localities; and the lives of men recruited to fight overseas during the Hundred Years' War, and beyond the border with Scotland in later years, are all explored here. These topics take us across England from the far north to the Channel, to London, the south-west and the Welsh lordship of Gower, while on the way also examining how townsmen resisted taxation, the gentry administered their estates and the western marches were ruled.Trade ReviewThis festschrift is a most fitting tribute to one of our leading medieval historians and is very well deserved. * THE RICARDIAN *Table of ContentsPreface - Linda Clark Tyranny and Affinity: The Public and Private Authority of Richard II and Richard III - Gwilym Dodd The Commission to ensure Good Governance of 11 May 1402: A Case-Study of Lancastrian Counter-Propaganda - Douglas Biggs A Failure in Foresight: the Lancastrian Kings and the Lancastrian Dukes - Michael Hicks The Strothers: A Tale of Northern Gentle Folk, Social Mobility and Stagnation in Late Medieval Northumberland - Andy King 'No Good unto our said King at this Time' - Rosemary Horrox Contemporary and Near-Contemporary Chroniclers: The North of England and the Wars of the Roses, c.1450-1471 - Keith Dockray England, 1461: Predominantly Provincial Perspectives on the Early Months of the Reign of Edward IV - Hannes Kleineke Greater Landowners and the Management of their Estates in Late Medieval England - James Ross Lordship and the Social Elite in the Lordship of Gower during the Wars of the Roses - Ralph A Griffiths A Yorkist Legacy for the Tudor Prince of Wales on the Welsh Marches: Affinity-Building, Regional Government and National Politics, 1471-1502 - Sean Cunningham Southern England and Campaigns to France, 1415-1453 - Anne Curry Last Men Standing: Lancashire Soldiers in the Wars in France - Michael J Bennett Northern Pride goes Before a Fall: The 'Horrorable' History of Adelston Attysle - Carole Rawcliffe Professor Tony Pollard: An Appreciation - Anne Curry The Published Works of A.J. (Tony) Pollard, 1972-2019 - Sandra Pollard

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst extended survey of the subject, looking at the knights' activities, roles, background and service. It was common for the kings of medieval England to retain a small number of knights in their personal service, as part of the royal household. These knights provided a core of loyal and talented men on whom each king could rely for military and political support. Household knights were a part of almost all aspects of the reign: they assisted in the raising and equipping of royal armies; they offered leadership for these armies once on campaign; they acted as trusted councillors and administrators at the centre of government; and they maintained the king's authority and landed interests throughout his kingdom. This book - the first full-length study of the household knight in late medieval England - takes as its focus those men serving during the successful reign of Edward III. It asks how and why household knights were retained, who was chosen to serve in such a capacity, what functions these men performed, and what rewards they received in return for their time in service. In doing so, it enables a more detailed picture of Edward III's kingship to be gained, and allows important questions to be answered about the ways in which wars were fought and kingdoms ruled in late medieval Europe.Trade ReviewMatthew Hefferan's book is a welcome and timely addition to the scholarship of both the history of the household knight and that of the reign of Edward III. * SPECULUM *This is an erudite, detailed, and impressive first monograph, which will be of interest to both political and military historians of later medieval England. -- ROYAL STUDIES JOURNAL[A] thoroughly researched and engagingly written contribution by Matthew Hefferan to the study of both the reign of Edward III and the subject of the place of royal retaining in the practice of kingship in late medieval England more widely. -- PARLIAMENTARY HISTORYTable of ContentsIntroduction The Mechanics of Retaining Recruiting Household Knights Preparing for War In the Field of Combat Diplomacy and Defensive Warfare At the Centre: National Politics and Central Government In the Localities The Rewards of Service Conclusion Appendix 1 - Edward III's Household Knights, 1327-1377 Appendix 2 - Stewards and Chamberlains of the Royal Household, 1327-1377 Appendix 3 - Household Knights' Military Retinues Appendix 4 - Annuities Granted to Household Knights Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisEssays looking at the links between England and Europe in the long thirteenth century. The theme running through this volume is that of "England in Europe", with contributions tackling aspects of political, religious, cultural and urban history, placing England in a European context, exploring connections between the insular world and continental Europe, and using England as a case study of broader patterns of change in the long thirteenth century. A number of authors consider the long-term response of the English crown and polity to the Angevin empire's demise, examining kingship, historical memory, dynastic relationships and the influx of ideas and people to England from overseas. They look not only at connections between England and western Europe but also at others extending to northern Europe too. Many engage with larger trends that are European in scale, whether in the institutional life of the Church or in patterns of religious practice and belief, whilst others examine more confined geographical spaces, reminding us of distinctive political structures and identities lodged at the regional level.Trade Review[..] an important and stimulating book that makes essential reading for those interested in England's relations with the Continent in the thirteenth century. Each essay is praiseworthy in its own right and reflects a wealth of detailed scholarship. The editors and contributors are to be congratulated on what is a fine and informative collection. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Andrew Spencer and Carl S. Watkins Remembering the Vikings in Thirteenth-Century England and Denmark - Lars Kjaer Henry III and the Native Saints - Antonia Shacklock 'A Vineyard Without a Wall': The Savoyards, John de Warenne and the Failure of Henry III's Kingship - Andrew Spencer 'Ad Partes Transmarinas': The Reconfiguration of Plantagenet Power in Gascony, 1242-1243 - Amicie Pélissié du Rausas Similarities and Differences: The Lord Edward's Lordship of Gascony, 1254-1272 - Rodolphe Billaud The Letters of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French Relations - Anaïs Waag The Use of Friars as Envoys: Diplomatic Relations between King Henry III and Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261) - Philippa Mesiano The Italian Connection Reconsidered: Papal Provisions in Thirteenth-Century England - Thomas W. Smith Confession in England and the Fourth Lateran Council - Rebecca Springer Writing Civic History in London, Cologne and Genoa - Ian Stone

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst modern study devoted to one of the twelfth-century's most enigmatic, influential and fascinating figures. Henry of Blois (d. 1171) was a towering figure in twelfth-century England. Grandson of William the Conqueror and brother to King Stephen, he played a central role in shaping the course of the civil war that characterized his brother's reign. Bishop of Winchester and abbot of Glastonbury for more than four decades, Henry was one of the richest men in the kingdom, and effectively governed the English Church for a time as Papal Legate. Raised and tonsured at Cluny, he was an intimate friend of Peter the Venerable and later saved the great abbey from financial ruin. Towards the end of his life he presided, albeit reluctantly, over the trial of Thomas Becket. Henry was a remarkable man: an administrator of exceptional talent, a formidable ecclesiastical statesman, a bold and eloquent diplomat, and twelfth-century England's most prolific patron of the arts. In the first major book-length study of Henry to be published since 1932, nine scholars explore new perspectives on the most crucial aspects of his life and legacy. By bringing ecclesiastical and documentary historians together with archaeologists and historians of art, architecture, literature and ideas, this interdisciplinary collection will serve as a catalyst for renewed study of this fascinating man and the world in which he operated.Trade ReviewThis volume represents a major step forward for the study of a pivotal figure in twelfth-century history. [...] Ultimately, this book is a vital resource for any scholar hoping to better understand Henry of Blois's place in twelfth-century English history, and a step toward a more comprehensive portrait of this elusive figure. -- COMITATUSA richly informed volume that deserves the attention of all scholars interested in this remarkable figure. * SEHEPUNKTE *The editors and contributors should be applauded for bringing together such a diverse and compelling series of articles on a figure surely deserving of further study. This volume stands as a strong testament to the figure at its heart and goes a long way towards filling the gaps in our understanding of Henry of Blois. -- Craig M. Nakashian * Nottingham Medieval Studies *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Contributors Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Genealogical Table: The Family Connections of Henry of Blois Introduction: Approaches to Henry of Blois - John Munns and William Kynan-Wilson Causa Dei et ecclesie Cluniacensis: Henry of Blois and Cluny - Michael J. Franklin Henry of Blois and his Legation in England - Barbara Bombi The Episcopal Colleagues of Henry of Blois - John Munns The Architectural Heritage of Bishop Henry of Blois at Winchester Cathedral - John Crook Wolvesey: Henry of Blois' domus quasi palatium in Winchester - Martin Biddle Bishop Henry's Bible - Claire Donovan Henry of Blois and the Construction of Roman Identity - William Kynan-Wilson Henry of Blois: Between Patronage and Representation in the Long Twelfth Century - Matthew M. Mesley The Last Days of Henry of Blois - Edmund King Timeline Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisArgues the case for the individual as autonomous moral agent in the later Middle Ages. "Of fundamental importance for any discipline dealing with past societies and cultures. One of the most wide-ranging, sophisticated and imaginative books on medieval history that I have read in a very long time. The way in which the author defines, traces and analyses agency is stunningly original. It will make an immensely important contribution to our understanding of high and late medieval Europe." Professor Björn Weiler, University of Aberystwyth What did it mean to be an autonomous agent in European medieval society? This book aims to answer that fundamental question, via an examination of a mosaic of case studies drawn from the literate urban middle strata and the lower and middle-rank aristocracy. The social imaginary that informs individual conduct, the patterns of strategic action, and the individuals' sense of effectiveness in the world are reconstructed from "ego-documents", a broad category that includes first-person charters, autobiographical insertions in chronicles, private registers, and memoirs. These range from the better-known, such as the Ménagier de Paris and the histories of Galbert of Bruges and Salimbene of Parma, to the equally fascinating but more seldom explored French livres de raison and Italian ricordanze. The book's larger aim is to historicise the autonomous moral agent. Neither belief in divine intervention nor feudal relations inhibited individuals' social agency. The emphasis on hierarchy and order in medieval normative texts is shown in a different light, as part of the effort to restrain social subalterns, whose potential for agency caused anxiety. Whereas power is often structural, an effect of institutions which, however, were only just developing, the book argues that agency is a more apposite construct for capturing the salient medieval concerns with the possibilities and effects of individual and collective action.Trade Review[This book] points the way to further studies of social change that do not depend on class and institutions as explanatory devices. It will especially interest social and economic historians, as well as those medievalists studying gender and autobiographical writing. -- MEDIUM AEVUMThe evidence assembled in this book supports persuasive arguments about the varieties of individual agency and religious experiences [...] One of the features of modernity may well be the burgeoning of collective agency, alongside the self-agency so ably charted in this fine book. -- JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORYEpurescu-Pascovici has written an unusual book covering some fascinating case studies. I expect that this will be well appreciated in anthropological circles. * CANADIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY *This study consists of several studies of medieval ego-documents intended to recapture the subjective sense of agency experienced by their authors. Epurescu-Pascovici teases out in a number of different contexts how these authors conceived of their own choices and made their decisions to act. The result is a rich and rewarding exploration of medieval subjectivity in an unusually broad source-base. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Articulating Human and Divine Agency: Histories and Self-Narratives Lordship and Local Politics: The Cartulary of an Aristocratic Family To Render an Account of One's Deeds: The Livres de Raison The Social Uses of Life-Writing: The Tuscan Ricordanze A Gendered Social Imaginary: The Vernacular Literature on Social Conduct Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe motivations behind those who went on the Third Crusade examined through close investigation of their social networks. The Third Crusade (1189-1192) was an attempt by Latin Christendom to reconquer the Holy Land, following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. Tens of thousands responded to a call for a crusade by Pope Gregory VIII and the efforts of his preachers at mass cross-taking ceremonies, rallying to the expedition's leaders - Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, and Richard the Lionheart. This book analyses the communal and cultural factors that influenced nobles from north-western Europe who embarked on the Third Crusade, bringing out the motives, dynamics, and extent of their participation, and placing that participation in the broader social and geographical context of crusading and medieval life. It shows that significant numbers of them were themselves descended from crusaders, and that the majority of them travelled to the Levant in the company of friends, family, and neighbours, as well as through membership of a military household. It also highlights the role of key individuals - both male and female - who influenced the decision to undertake the crusade, and identifies the significant role played by particular religious institutions in the diffusion of crusading ideology.Trade ReviewBennett has made a welcome and significant contribution to our understanding of the Third Crusade and its elite participants from north-western Europe. -- PARERGON[E]ssential to all students of the Third Crusade. . . . an impressive and useful book. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Stephen Bennett's book delivers a meaningful and nuanced study of the elites from northwestern Europe participating in the Third Crusade (1187-92). The network analytical approach and the balanced consideration of multifarious factors grants Bennett's book vigor and system. * Speculum *Table of ContentsIntroduction Faith and Finance:Religious Foundations, Ecclesiastical Leaders, and Fraternity Family and Heritage:Lineage, Kinship, and Tradition Locality and Fellowship:Territory, Trade, and Tournaments The Household of King Richard I at the Time of the Third Crusade Conclusion: Personal, Spiritual, and Communal Influences on Participation in the Third Crusade Appendix A: The Noble Network: Crusaders from North-Western Europe, 1187-92 Appendix B: King Richard I's Household, 1189-92 Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers insight, using the example of the Chesapeake Bay fur trade, into how the different elements of transatlantic trade in the seventeenth century fitted together. This book explores the development of the fur trade in Chesapeake Bay during the seventeenth century, and the wide-ranging links that were formed in a new and extensive transatlantic chain of supply and consumption. It considers changing fashion in England, the growing demand for fur, at a time when the Russian fur trade was in decline, examines native North Americans and their trading and other exchanges with colonists, and explores the nature of colonial society, including the commercial ambitions of a varied range of investors. As such, it outlines the intense rivalry which existed between different colonies and colonial interests. Although the book argues that fur never supplanted tobacco as the region's principal export, noting that the trade declined as new, more profitable sources of supply were opened up, nevertheless the case of the Chesapeake fur trade provides an excellent example of how different elements in a new transatlantic enterprise fitted together and had a profound impact on each other.Trade ReviewMeticulously researched, the primary sources featured within include personal, financial, and legal documents: letters and journals, sumptuary laws and other edicts, wills and inventories, and even portraits and plays come together to paint a comprehensive picture of the fur trade. This text would be a useful resource for anyone interested in colonial trade and seventeenth-century high fashion as it provides invaluable information on the material, economic, and political implications of fur as a commodity. * Maryland Historical Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Fur and Fashion: The Infrastructure of a New Trade 2 Commerce and Colonization: The Emergence of the Fur Trade in Chesapeake Bay 3 Trade and Rivalry: The Promise of Expansion and Innovation during the 1630s 4 Trade, Rivalry and Conflict during a 'Time of Troubles' from 1640 to 1660 5 Commercial Change and Conflict: Contrasting Experiences after 1650 6 Trade, Consumption and Industry: Transatlantic Constraints on the Bay Trade Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisA fascinating account of the life of one of the most famous women of the Victorian era. For more than a decade in the second half of the nineteenth century Georgina Weldon (1837-1914) was one of the most famous women in England. Weldon was an exceptional self-publicist, intelligent and utterly convinced that she was always in the right. A semi-professional singer, she came to prominence as a friend of the composer Charles Gounod. Her husband's unsuccessful attempt to have her carried off to a lunatic asylum caused a public scandal, and her subsequent efforts to drag her enemies through the law courts were widely reported. Weldon's resistance to being certified insane and her unceasing legal claims for defamation and/or loss of earnings contributed to changes in laws relating to private asylums and vexatious litigation. Weldon sang in drawing rooms and concert halls, and on the music hall stage. She lectured on women's rights and law reform. The most notorious female plaintiff, and probably the first married women to represent herself in court, she advised many of her fellow litigants at a time when women were not permitted to practise law professionally. Her campaigns brought her notoriety and two gaol sentences. Joanna Martin expertly retells the story of that notorious Victorian eccentric who suffered many bouts of delusion and was an ardent supporter of spiritualism. Martin's account manages to negotiate a biography situated between crazed behaviour and the pursuit of admirable causes. Weldon's story offers a wide canvas introducing phenomena such as celebrity culture and major and marginal characters of Dickensian quality. This biography of Weldon, based on primary sources including Weldon's own diaries and letters, therefore touches upon a wide variety of issues; Victorian society, nineteenth-century's women's history, the context of a social and cultural history of madness and marriage (law), and nineteenth-century British musical culture.Table of ContentsGeorgina Weldon's Archive and her Biographers Prologue 1: Georgina 2: Mayfield 3: Harry 4: Beaumaris 5: Friends and Relations 6: Discontent 7: Gwen 8: Gounod 9: Tavistock House 10: Maestro or Marionette 11: Loss 12: Separation 13: Orphans 14: Argueil 15: Mad-Doctors 16: Home Again 17: Rivière 18: Covent Garden 19: Disaster 20: Conjugal Rights 21: Revenge 22: The New Portia 23: Swings and Roundabouts 24: Holloway 25: Gower Street 26: Gisors 27: The Trehernes 28: A New Century 29: Sillwood House 30: Angel or Devil? Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the ways in which the British Religious Affairs Branch aimed to organise religious life in post-war Germany. It is well known that at the key allied conferences during the latter part of World War II the future victorious allies were already progressing their post-war planning. Duly, an Allied Control Commission, with the task of providing administrative functions and eventually handing them over to an elected government, was formed in post-war Germany. In the Western zones, the cornerstone of coordinated administration was a policy of denazification, demilitarisation and democratization. Almost all sectors of German life would thereafter to be administered by the Allies. German Churches and religious affairs had, however, been promised to the defeated Germany. Of course, Nazism hadn't spared the Christian churches, and so questions of denazification and the future relationship between church and state in Germany remained significant. This book examines the British approach towards post-war German religious and ecclesiastical life by highlighting the role of the British Element of the Control Commission, more specifically the Religious Affairs Branch that was separated from the Education Branch at the end of 1945. Considering British attitudes to Catholics and Protestants, as well as the remaining Jewish and Muslim communities in Germany, this book uncovers allied differences with regards to organising future religious life in Germany.Trade ReviewA tour de force of research and analysis that has much to teach us today. * METHODIST RECORDER *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Creating a 'Religious Affairs' staff 2. The move to Germany 3. British experiences of religion in Germany in the summer of 1945 4. The formation of a separate Religious Affairs Branch 5. Relationships with the Catholic Church 6. Relationships with Protestant churches 7. Relationships with 'Minor Denominations' 8. Religious Visitors to the churches in the British Zone 9. The Allied Religious Affairs Committee 10. The Final Year: 1949-50 Conclusion Appendix 1: Text of the 'Stuttgart Declaration' Appendix 2: Senior members of staff of the Religious Affairs Branch

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst full-length examination of bastardy in Scotland during the period, exploring its many ramifications throughout society. The question of illegitimacy was as important and complex in Scotland as elsewhere in the Middle Ages. This book examines its legal, political, and social implications there between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. It explores illegitimacy in relation to royal succession and to the inheritance of ordinary estates; investigates the role it played in major political events; and considers how being, or having, a bastard affected the lives of elite women,and the careers of people in ecclesiastical life. Scotland's earliest surviving legal treatise, Regiam Majestatem, denied inheritance rights to offspring legitimated by the intermarriage of their parents, while the law of the Church regarded such children as legitimate and, by implication, capable of inheritance. The volume scrutinises the tension between these two positions, alongside contemporary evidence which provides new insights into legal theory and practice concerning inheritance and birth status. By contextualising illegitimacy within its socio-political as well as legal settings, it challenges existing assumptions about the meaning and significance of bastardy in the Scottish middle ages.Trade Review[A] polished production. Copious footnote references amply contextualize the main text; the standard of editing and proofreading is excellent; the writing itself is a pleasure to read. [...] a potentially valuable resource for several subdisciplines. -- PARERGONTable of ContentsIntroduction Church law and Scottish families Illegitimacy and royal succession I: before the Great Cause Illegitimacy and royal succession II: from the Great Cause to James Wives, daughters, and sisters Church careers and sacrilegious bastards Illegitimacy in political life Conclusion Timeline of key events Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe leading academic vehicle for scholarly publication in the field of medieval warfare. Medieval Warfare The articles here focus on activities in north-western Europe, with a reconsideration of the location of the battle of Stamford Bridge (1066), an examination of the role of open battles in the civil wars of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin kings, a re-assessment of the strategy of Edward I's war against Philip IV in 1297-98, and an analysis of the role of cavalry "coureurs" in late-medieval France. But regions further to the south and east are by no means neglected, with a dissection of the military rhetoric of Pere III of Aragon and his queen, Elionor of Sicily, and a discussion of the earliest European gunpowder recipes, from Friuli (1336) and Augsburg (1338- c. 1350). The volume also offers studies of the campaigns culminating in the battles of Firad in 634 and Qinnasrīn in 1134.Table of Contents1. Battle of Firāḍ: The Day on Which Khālid b. al-Walīd Did [Not] Defeat Both Byzantines and Persians - Konstantinos Takirtakoglou 2. A Mislocated Battlefield? Battle Flats: The Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066 - Michael C. Blundell 3. The Frankish Campaign of 1133-1134 in Northern Syria and the Battle of Qinnasrīn - Evgeniy A. Gurinov 4. Bella plus quam civilia? The Place of Battle in the Context of Civil War under the Anglo-Norman and Angevin Kings, c. 1100- c.1217 - Matthew Strickland 5. Edward I's War on the Continent, 1297-1298: A New Appraisal - David Pilling 6. The Earliest European Recipes for "Powder for Guns" (1336 and 1338-c. 1350) - Clifford J. Rogers and Fabrizio Ansani 7. Bellicose Rhetoric: The Memorable War Speeches of One Aragonese Royal Couple - Donald J. Kagay 8. Coureurs and Their Role in Late Medieval Warfare - Michael J. Harbinson

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn in-depth analysis of the key contribution made by the women members of this important ruling family in maintaining and advancing the family's political, landed, economic, social and religious interests. This book examines the lives of aristocratic Anglo-Irish women in late medieval and early modern Ireland as illustrated by an in-depth cross generational analysis of women born or married into the important Ormond family between the 1450s and 1660. It outlines and assesses their individual and collective significance in negotiating the preservation and advancement of the family's political, landed, economic, social and confessional interests, from the chronic instability of the Wars of the Roses, through the vicissitudes of the Tudor, Stuart, Commonwealth and Restoration eras. In gauging the relative significance of the Ormond women's experiences and contributions, the book explores their roles in both private dynastic and wider public circles within the broader context of aristocratic families elsewhere in Ireland, England and continental Europe. The cross-generational approach provides a chronologicaland comparative appraisal of all aspects of each of these women's lives, roles and contributions - private, public, social, economic, confessional and political - all of which were intimately intertwined with the Ormond family's changing political fortunes, succession challenges, shifting dynastic alliances, and financial difficulties over the course of two centuries of profound change and upheaval in Ireland.Trade ReviewA fascinating and engaging work....Duffy has produced a wonderful and highly engaging investigation into the power and influence wielded by aristocratic women in early modern Ireland. * HISTORY IRELAND *The book is illuminating, revelatory, and, I have to add, thrilling. It not only fills a yawning gap in Irish history by exploring the lives and roles of these Ormond women, but it portrays them as three-dimensional people who actively shaped the wider political, societal, economic, and cultural changes of the day. * IRISH EXAMINER *Table of ContentsIntroduction Aristocratic women's lives in late medieval and early modern Western Europe The Ormond women through the Wars of The Roses and immediate aftermath: marriage, absenteeism and illegitimacy New beginnings: The heiresses, the usurper, and royal intervention; the succession of Margaret and Anne Butler Dynastic consolidation and female political entity: Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond and Ossory (1472-1542) Family, marriage, and politics: The six daughters of Margaret Fitzgerald and Piers Butler and the ongoing revival of the earldom in the sixteenth century 'You have too piteous a face to be a warrior', Joan Fitzgerald Countess of Ormond, Ossory and Desmond - agent, peace broker, advocate Black Tom's women: unions, succession and decline Conclusion Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamines the experiences of Catholics during the period when England was ruled by Puritan Protestants. This is the first book to examine thoroughly the ways in which Catholics adapted to political and social change during the turbulent years of the English Revolution. The book examines several important aspects of the Catholic experience in this period. It explores the penal laws by which the estates of Catholics were sequestrated, discussing the extent to which politicians designed the new laws to target Catholics specifically, rather than Royalists more generally, and outlining how the sequestration legislation operated in practice. It considers how Catholic gentry utilised their networks with influential Protestants with wider political connections when applying to have their sequestrations discharged. More broadly the book reveals how Catholics demonstrated their loyalty and assimilated into society despite being viewed as the natural enemies of the English Republic and Protectorate. The book also compares Catholic experiences to those of other religious minorities and sets the situation in England in the wider European international context of Catholic-Protestant rivalry and warfare, which made Catholics a particularly vulnerable religious minority in Puritan England.Trade Review[T]he leading work for understanding how Catholics interacted with the sequestration and compounding processes in the mid-seventeenth century. [...] Among its many other fine qualities, then, the book is characterized by a spirit of intellectual generosity and collegiality that suggests that it might well serve as a jumping-off point for further research. -- H-NET REVIEWSGregory's important book begins a long-overdue analysis of how English Catholics experienced nearly two decades of revolution and republican rule. The book should be required reading for advanced undergraduates and post-graduate students and will be very useful to specialists in the field. We can hope that other scholars will continue Gregory's analysis into the experience of Catholics during this significant period in British history. -- BRITISH CATHOLIC HISTORYEilish Gregory successfully tackles the complex and constantly evolving topic of sequestration during one of the most fractious periods of early modern England. -- JOURNAL OF CHURCH AND STATE[A] meticulously researched book -- JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY[An] excellent book that will become important reading for scholars of early modern Catholicism, the English Revolution and religious toleration. Gregory unpicks a complex topic and guides the reader through the sequestration and compounding processes with ease. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, LITERATURE & CULTURE *The book's greatest strength is its connection of several streams of interrelated material...that elucidate the complicated history of an engaged group rejected by the nation to whom they hoped to prove loyal. * THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY *[A] detailed and lively study. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *[T]his detailed and lively study is essentially one of continuity in Catholic negotiation with the state before and after these years, notwithstanding the upheavals of the Revolution. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *Overall, Gregory succeeds in explaining the intricacies of a complex financial system that was constantly shifting, convincing with her argument that as sequestration evolved, so did Catholic efforts to protect their estates. Importantly, on a wider scale, Gregory plugs the Catholic experience back into the general narrative and opens the door to future research in the area. -- James E. Kelly, Durham University * Journal of British Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Reformation of the Sequestration Process during the Civil Wars, 1642-1648 The Sequestration Process in the English Republic, 1649-1660 Print and Publicity in the Sequestration and Compounding Process Strategies and Persuasion: Catholic Experiences of the Sequestration and Compounding Process Catholic and Protestant Networks in the English Revolution, 1642-1660 Catholics and the Government of the English Republic, 1649-1660 Conclusion Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn exploration of the influence of gender on the workings of memory in the Middle Ages, focussing on the non-elite. WINNER of the Women's History Network 2020 Book Prize Church court records offer the most detailed records of everyday life in medieval England for people below the level of the elite. Vivid testimony in cases of marriage, insult, and debt, as well as tithes, testaments and ecclesiastical rights, show how men and women thought about the past and presented their own histories. While previous studies of memory in this period have tended to explore formal memory techniques in the schools and monasteries, this book turns to lay contexts instead, considering for the first time how gender influenced the ways that "ordinary" men and women remembered past events in the centuries leading up to the Reformations. Drawing on legal depositions, supplemented by pastoralia, literature and lyrics, the author argues that despite the many constraints upon their actions, lower-status men and women could use the law to communicate complex and varied pasts. She addresses the legal and religious developments that generated these memories, charting how gender shaped depictions of courtship, sexuality and childbirth, marriage and widowhood,as well as custom and the landscape. The book analyses these themes through the lens of gender and subjectivity, challenging conventional narratives that have aligned female remembrance with domesticity while embedding male memory in the public sphere. This approach offers precious evidence of the gendered, moral, and emotional worlds of lower-status people in medieval England.Trade ReviewThe book's rich contents outline a multilayered vision of the period, in which memory became increasingly important for the sacrament of confession, with penitents urged to remember their sins and the circumstances surrounding them. Recommended. * CHOICE *A rewarding piece of work with lots of intelligent insights hidden within its larger argument.... This book is a must read for historians of any period interested in these themes, or just for those looking for a pleasurable escape into the lives of lower-order medieval families. * PARERGON *

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdition of the records of a medieval Suffolk eyre reveal rich details of life at the time. The eyre was an organised judicial visitation to the counties of England by the king's justices to hear all types of plea, civil and crown, as well as to investigate any matters for the king that pertain to the county; it was thus a hugely important part of the legal process. This volume, edited by Eric Gallagher with an introduction by Henry Summerson, follows on from Dr Gallagher's edition and translation of the civil pleas of the same eyre, published by the Suffolk Records Society in 2009. But whereas the civil pleas deal primarily with litigation between landowners, the crown pleas are mostly concerned with the actions of townsmen and peasants, recorded both as killers and thieves, and as the victims of crime. Like the civil pleas, the crown pleas illuminate the workings of the common law, but in addition they illustrate the functions and purposes of local and central government, shedding light in sometimes vivid detail upon the lives of the humbler members of society, upon their occupations, relationships, misfortunes and quarrels - and the sometimes bizarre ways in which they met their deaths. The eyre was led by William of York, the King's justiciar and later bishop of Salisbury, and his colleagues who met at Ipswich, Cattishall (outside Bury St Edmunds) and Dunwich. The eyre roll, now in the National Archives, is the first from Suffolk surviving in full to have been edited and published; it has the particular interest of coming from a county that was then one of the most populous and prosperous of English shires.Trade ReviewSummerson's intimate knowledge of the contents of the roll is impressive: his comprehensive introduction provides numerous examples from the entries to illustrate his points. [...] Excellent publication. -- LOCAL HISTORIANTable of ContentsIntroduction The Crown Pleas of the Suffolk Eyre of 1240 Glossary and abbreviations Bibliography Index of people and places Analysis of contents

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne opens each new volume expecting to find the unexpected - new light on old arguments, new material, new angles. MEDIUM AEVUM The articles brought together here demonstrate the exciting vitality of this field. The volume begins with a keynote chapter on the failure of marriages among Christians and Muslims in crusader diplomacy. Other chapters consider the ceremony of knighting and the coronation ritual of Matilda of Flanders. There are also investigations of hunting landscapes in Cheshire, and Lancashire before Lancashire in the context of the Irish Sea World, while lordship is examined in two contexts, in post-Conquest England and early thirteenth-century Le Mans and Chartres. The sources for our knowledge of the period, as always, receive attention, whether drawn from documentary evidence or material culture, with essays on universal chronicle-writing and the construction of the Galfridian past in the Continuatio Ursicampina; the coinage of Harold II; and the patronage of the Bayeux Tapestry by Odo of Bayeux.Table of ContentsJoan of England and Al-ʿâdil's Harem: The Impossible Marriage between Christians and Muslims (Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries) (The Allen Brown Memorial Lecture)- Martin Aurell The Forests and Elite Residences of the Earls of Chester in Cheshire, c. 1070-1237 (The Des Seal Memorial Lecture) - Rachel E. Swallow The Coinage of Harold II in the Light of the Chew Valley Hoard (The Christine Mahoney Memorial Lecture) - Gareth Williams Change and Continuity: Multiple Lordship in post-Conquest England (The Marjorie Chibnall Essay Prize) - Hannah Boston 'Fitting the missing tile': Universal Chronicle-writing and the Construction of the Galfridian Past in the Continuatio Ursicampina (The Marjorie Chibnall Essay Prize Proxima Accessit) - Gabriele Passabì 'Audi Israel': Apostolic Authority in the Coronation of Mathilda of Flanders - Laura L. Gathagan Between the Ribble and the Mersey: Lancashire before Lancashire and the Irish Sea Zone - Charles Insley The Helmet and the Crown: The Bayeux Tapestry, Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror - Christopher Norton Knighting in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries - Max Lieberman Enquête, Exaction and Excommunication: Experiencing Power in Western France, c.1190-1245 - Richard Barton

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat were the lives of Africans in provincial England like during the early modern period? How, where, and when did they arrive in rural counties? How were they perceived by their contemporaries? This book examines the population of Africans in Norfolk and Suffolk from 1467, the date of the first documented reference to an African in the region, to 1833, when Parliament voted to abolish slavery in the British Empire. It uncovers the complexity of these Africans' historical experience, considering the interaction of local custom, class structure, tradition, memory, and the gradual impact of the Atlantic slaving economy. Richard C. Maguire proposes that the initial regional response to arriving Africans during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was not defined exclusively by ideas relating to skin colour, but rather by local understandings of religious status, class position, ideas about freedom and bondage, and immediate local circumstances. Arriving Africans were able to join the region's working population through baptism, marriage, parenthood, and work. This manner of response to Africans was challenged as local merchants and gentry begin doing business with the slaving economy from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. Although the racialised ideas underpinning Atlantic slavery changed the social circumstances of Africans in the region, the book suggests that they did not completely displace older, more inclusive, ideas in working communities.Trade ReviewThis work will become a standard reading for anyone researching slavery, labor and African populations in East Anglia, as well as providing methods for understanding a more local background of African populations in Britain during the early modern era. -- Andrew Kettler * Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies and Renaissance Quarterly *An important and valuable book... unequivocally challenges an idea that diversity is only a matter of a few metropolitan port cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and London. * NORFOLK ARCHAEOLOGY *Although scholarly literature on people of color living in Britain has grown over the last 30 years, this book is unusual in its focus on a region outside a major metropolis. By delving into county records, Maguire shows that people of African descent were a small but significant presence in these counties. * CHOICE *This is a meticulously researched study and readers are very well served by a 30-page bibliography, which provides much information about the primary source material which scholars with interests in this field might benefit from examining. The index is also commendably thorough, enabling easy navigation throughout the text. -- Local Historian[...] a text greatly to be admired for its bold assertiveness and direction [...] -- David Killingray * Family & Community History *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations A note on dating, transcription, currency, weights and measures, and references Introduction. A Social History of Africans in early modern Norfolk and Suffolk One. Identifying the African Population in Early Modern Norfolk and Suffolk Two. Beginnings: The Establishment of the African Population, 1467 to 1599 Three. 'Strangers', 'Foreigners', and 'Slavery' Four. The Seventeenth Century. The Early Shadow of Transatlantic Slavery Five. The African Population, 1600-1699 Six. Eighteenth-Century Links to the Atlantic Economy Seven. Eighteenth-Century African Lives Eight. The 'Three African Youths', a Gentleman, and Some Rioters Epilogue: Reconsidering the Social History of Africans in Norfolk and Suffolk Appendix A: The African and Asian Population identified in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1467-1833 Appendix B: The Surname 'Blackamore', 1500-1800 Appendix C: Plantation Ownership in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1650-1833 Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFresh perspectives on the English clergy, their books, and the wider Anglo-Saxon church. Priests were ubiquitous figures in the Anglo-Saxon world: they acted as educators, agents of royal authority, scribes, and dealers in real estate. But what set priests apart from the society in which they lived was the authority to provide pastoral care and their ability to use the written word. Early medieval bishops saw books as indispensable to a priest's duties and episcopal legislation frequently provided lists of books that priests were to have: tools of the trade for the secular clergy. These books are not only an exceedingly valuable window into pastoral care, but also a barometer for the changes taking place in the English church of the tenth and eleventh centuries. This first full-length study of Anglo-Saxon priests' books examines a wide array of evidence, including booklists, music, liturgy, narrative, and, crucially, the surviving manuscripts. The volume opens with a consideration of the context of a priest's life and work, moving on to investigate the issues of clerical literacy and the availability of books to priests, uncovering avenues for priestly education and elucidating the role that the secular clergy played in channels of manuscript production and distribution. The second part analyses the documentary and manuscript evidence for certain classes of priests' books, challenging existing thought and arguing that two poorly understood manuscripts are in fact books for priests. GERALD P. DYSON is Assistant Professor of History at Kentucky Christian University.Trade ReviewA compelling and original book....This outstanding first book...has launched a medieval historian of tremendous promise. * ANGLIA *A book not just for historians but for all medievalists who work on the texts, both Latin and vernacular, of Anglo-Saxon England. * LIBRARY & INFORMATION HISTORY *Dyson's study of Anglo-Saxon priests' books, the first full-length study of its kind, advances our understanding of the secular priests who formed the largest literate group in tenth- and eleventh-century England and whose ministries touched the lives of most Christians. Deeply researched, judiciously argued, and clearly written, it offers an accessible overview of priestly expectations and duties, and will prove a reliable guide to further exploration and discovery of the texts and contexts of late Anglo-Saxon pastoral care. -- Robert K. Upchurch * Journal of English and Germanic Philology *[A] carefully argued and learned account of how the clergy in pre-Conquest England were able to obtain liturgical books and put them to use in pastoral care. -- Julia Barrow * Journal of British Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction Priests, Books, and Pastoral Care "Ne cunnon þæt leden understandan": Issues of Clerical Literacy Demand and Supply: Production and Provision of Books for Priests Preaching and Homiletic Books for Priests Performing the Liturgy: Priests' Books for the Mass and Office Locating Penitentials, Manuals, and Computi Conclusions Appendix Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis pioneering study tells the story of the emergence of rural workers' gardens during a period of unprecedented economic and social change in the most dynamic and prosperous region of Scotland. Much criticised as weed-infested, badly cultivated and disfigured by the dung heap before the cottage door, eighteenth-century cottage gardens produced only the most basic food crops. But the paradox is that Scottish professional gardeners at this time were highly prized and sought after all over the world. And by the eve of the First World War Scottish cottage gardeners were raising flowers, fruit and a wide range of vegetables, and celebrating their successes at innumerable flower shows. This book delves into the lives of farm servants, labourers, weavers, miners and other workers living in the countryside, to discover not only what vegetables, fruit and flowers they grew, and how they did it, but also how poverty, insecurity and long and arduous working days shaped their gardens. Workers' cottage gardens were also expected to comply with the needs of landowners, farmers and employers and with their expectations of the industrious cottager. But not all the gardens were muddy cabbage and potato patches and not all the gardeners were ignorant or unenthusiastic. The book also tells the stories of the keen gardeners who revelled in their pretty plots, raised prize exhibits for village shows and, in a few cases, found gardening to be a stepping-stone to scientific exploration.Trade ReviewIt is a seminal work, and hopefully, it will stimulate many years of fruitful research. -- Agricultural History ReviewThroughout her book, Catherine Rice's own love of and understanding of gardening help the reader to comprehend the topographical, economic and practical difficulties involved in maintaining productive cottage gardens. She writes extremely well and with a deep understanding of the motivations of all those concerned in the development of cottage gardens. I cannot recommend this book enough to those interested in the history of gardening and equally to anyone wishing to understand the social and economic history of the Scottish countryside. Catherine Rice's thorough academic research, accompanied by well-chosen illustrations, detailed notes, a glossary, bibliography and index, is a triumph. -- Scottish Labour History JournalTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Counties of the Eastern Lowlands before 1975 A Note on Old Scottish Weights and Measures Introduction Chapter 1 - The Changing Landscape Chapter 2 - Kailyards and Farm Servants Chapter 3 - Cottagers' Gardens Chapter 4 - Potato Grounds Chapter 5 - The Midden Chapter 6 - The Rural Diet Chapter 7 - Competitions and Shows Chapter 8 - The Cottage Gardener's Education Chapter 9 - The Idea of the Cottage Garden Epilogue Glossary Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisA rare examination of the political, social, and economic contexts in which painters in Tudor and Early Stuart England lived and worked While famous artists such as Holbein, Rubens, or Van Dyck are all known for their creative periods in England or their employment at the English court, they still had to make ends meet, as did the less well-known practitioners of their craft. This book, by one of the leading historians of Tudor and Stuart England, sheds light on the daily concerns, practices, and activities of many of these painters. Drawing on a biographical database comprising nearly 3000 painters and craftsmen - strangers and native English, Londoners and provincial townsmen, men and sometimes women, celebrity artists and 'mere painters' - this book offers an account of what it meant to paint for a living in early modern England. It considers the origins of these painters as well as their geographical location, the varieties of their expertise, and the personnel and spatial arrangements of their workshops. Engagingly written, the book captures a sense of mobility and exchange between England and the continent through the considerable influence of stranger-painters, undermining traditional notions about the insular character of this phase in the history of English art. By showing how painters responded to the greater political, religious, and economic upheavals of the time, the study refracts the history of England itself through the lens of this particular occupation.Table of ContentsPart I. Introduction Introduction 1. Painters before the Reformation Part II. Kinds of People 2. The Stranger-Painters 3. The Painter-Stainers' Company of London 4. Provincial Painters Part III. Particular Specialities 5. Arms Painters 6. Glass Painters Part IV. Ways and Means 7. The Workshop Personnel 8. The Workshop Space 9. The Business of Painting Part V. Conclusion 10. An Occupation in Transition Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisChallenges the longstanding perception that modernist composers made art, not money, and that those who made money somehow failed to make art. Patrons have long appeared as colorful, exceptional figures in music history, but this book recasts patrons and patronage as creative forces that shaped the sounds and meanings of new French music between the world wars. Far from mere sources of funding, early twentieth-century patrons collaborated closely with composers, treating commissions for new music as opportunities to express their own artistry. Patrons developed new pathways to participate in music-making, going beyond commissions to establish ballet companies, manage performance venues, and establish state programs. The impressive variety of patronage activities led to an explosion of new music as well as new styles and -isms, indelibly marking the repertoire that this book examines, including a number of pieces frequently heard in concert halls today. In addition to offering new perspectives on well-known French repertoire, this book challenges conceptions of patronage as a bygone phenomenon. Complementing a dwindling cast of aristocratic patrons were new ranks of music publishers, impresarios, state bureaucrats, opera directors, and others capitalizing on their savings, social connections, and artistic vision to bring new music into the world. In chapters on French discourse around patronage, aristocratic commissions, the stimulus provided by the interwar dance craze, music publishing, the Paris Opéra, state intervention in French musical life, and transatlantic musical exchanges, the book blends cultural history with primary source study and music analysis. It not only improves our understanding of French musical life and culture during the early twentieth century but also supplies us with essential insights into the ways modern music emerged at the intersection of music composition, aesthetic and national politics, and the creative labor of patrons.Trade Review[A] treasure trove for those interested in the period. Highly recommended. -- CHOICEThis book offers a thought-provoking new perspective on French music of the interwar years through the lens of musical patronage. It contributes to a rebalancing of scholarly discourse, from a strong emphasis upon musical product to one concerned also with the various hands involved in its process [...]. * H-France Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Redefining Patronage 1. The Patronage Problem 2. Aristocratic Commissions 3. Entrepreneurial Patronage and Concert Dance 4. The Publisher as Patron 5. Jacques Rouché: The State's Patron 6. Nationalizing Music Composition 7. Transatlantic Legacies Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisProvocative new investigation into the shadowy figure of Gildas, his influence and representation. Gildas is an essential witness to the Christian culture of the British Isles in the opaque period after the decline and fall of the western Roman empire. His criticisms in De excidio Britanniae of the Britons in the context of spiritual and secular corruption and partition with pagan powers are a crucial source for understanding the transition to the medieval nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. But the ways in which this enigmatic ecclesiastical figure has been received over the centuries have shaped an ambivalent reputation. On the one hand, he is seen as a significant contributor to ecclesiastical reform; on the other, as a dour and unreliable chronicler lamenting an inevitable spiritual and political decline. This book seeks to refine and recuperate the image of Gildas. It does so by examining his self-image as presented in select surviving works, and subsequent representations as developed by the reception of these works - the legacy of Gildas - by church luminaries such as Columbanus, Gregory the Great, and Bede; in exploring how Gildas influenced perceptions of authority in the British Isles and on the continent, it puts this legacy into a wider context. Overall, the volume argues that as one of the earliest authorities to define and defend Christian kingship Gildas deserves to be seen as a significant contributor to the political and ecclesiastical development of the early medieval West.Trade Review[...] Joyce's study is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Gildas. This volume is well researched, ambitious, and impressively wide in scope. It demonstrates just how much remains to be said of a writer of whose work so little survives. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Narratives for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland 2. Images of Gildas 3. Gildas's De excidio - Authority and the Monastic Ideal 4. Columbanus and Gregory the Great 5. Gildas and the Hibernensis 6. Bede and Gildas Conclusion: The Legacy of Gildas Appendix: De communicatione Gildas Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMonks Eleigh was one of the principal units of medieval administration, providing a legal framework for land tenure, the prosecution of crimes and misdemeanours and social control. The manor was one of the principal units of medieval administration, providing a legal framework for land tenure, the prosecution of crimes and misdemeanours and social control. For the lord of a manor it was a source of supplies and income for the maintenance of his status and power. For the tenants the manor formed the everyday focus of their working lives, because they typically owed work services on his land and were subject to the manorial court for wrong doings, the settlement of disputes, the holding of their lands and payment of various feudal dues. Manors were the standard unit of land tenure for centuries, but they changed and developed over time and differed in their administration according to the particular custom of each manor. The records of the manor of Monks Eleigh are typical of those which still exist for hundreds of manors across England. They allow us to glimpse some of the details of the people who lived and worked there over a period of some four centuries. In the earliest extents and accounts we see a concentration on the work services which the unfree tenants were obliged to do on the lord's lands in lieu of rent, including ploughing, sowing, harrowing, harvesting, carting, ditching, hurdle-making and working in the manor vineyard. Accounts list the lord's stock of animals including oxen, horses, cattle, sheep, geese, ducks, peacocks and doves. They detail repairs to manorial buildings such as the hall, barns, mill, dovecote, sheep-cotes and gates. Court rolls record admissions of tenants to land-holdings as well as fines for misdemeanours such as trespass on growing crops, assaults and thefts. By the sixteenth century the rentals show that an increasing number of tenants were using their manorial land-holdings as investments by living elsewhere and sub-letting them. In more general terms, these records can throw light on the development of manorial administration over time, the changing forms of land tenure, place name and surname studies, the decline in serfdom, popular unrest and social mobility.Trade ReviewThis is an excellent publication, professionally produced, with a very helpful glossary and indexes of people, places and subjects. Aldous' use of footnotes throughout is particularly worthy of mention providing a meticulous interpretation of all aspects of the translations. -- Local HistorianTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION Editorial conventions THE DOCUMENTS I. Charters, mid-twelfth century to 1360 II. Extents, early thirteenth century to early fourteenth century IV. Building accounts, 1343 to 1466 III. Accounts, 1285 to 1482 V. Court rolls, 1305/6 to 1422 and 1545 VI. Rentals, 1379-80 to 1683 VII. Petition and Legal Documents relating to a riot in 1481 Glossary, including saints' days used for dating Bibliography Index of people and places Index of subjects

Read more less

Book SynopsisNew study and edition of the remarkable letter collection of Margaret of Anjou, bringing all her correspondence together in one volume for the first time. 2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award Winner Margaret of Anjou remains a figure of controversy. As wife to the weak King Henry VI, she was on the losing side in the first phase of the Wars of the Roses. Yorkist propaganda vilifying Margaret was consolidated by Shakespeare: his portrait of a warlike and vengeful queen - "a tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" - became the widely-accepted view, which up until recently had been little questioned. However, Margaret's letters, collected here in full for the first time, have their own story to tell - and present a rather different picture. In her words and the words of her contemporaries, both friend and foe, they reveal a woman who lived according to the noble standards of her time. She enjoyed the hunt, she practised her faith, and she tried to help or protect those who called upon her for assistance, as was expected of a queen and "good lady". Henry's mental breakdown, the birth of their son and growing tensions among the lords of the land forced her to step outside the life she would have expected to live. This study of Margaret's letters establishes the scope of a late medieval queen's concerns, while providing a unique account of this extraordinary woman. HELEN MAURER and B.M. CRON are both independent scholars; their work has focussed on Margaret of Anjou for many years.Trade ReviewThe very commendable volume demonstrates highly skilled and meticulous in-depthresearch...[it]proves a rich and invaluable source, complex in its substantial details, at times highly entertaining, to thoseworking with fifteenth century Anglo-Frenchnetworks, politics, and power. * H-SOZ-KULT *This meticulous compilation of the 15th-century English queen's letters is much more than just a collection of texts. . . . The extensive research makes this a valuable resource for understanding the people and institutions of medieval England at a time of civil disturbance. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Helen Maurer and Boni Cron are to be congratulated on such a scholarly and complete edition of this hitherto scattered material which will provide a useful resource for all future studies of Margaret of Anjou. * THE RICARDIAN *It is difficult to think of two more qualified historians to provide a much-needed new edition of letters to, from, and about Margaret. . . . [T] letters in this critical edition are not new, but the new editors' detailed and knowledgeable commentary on each are alone a strong recommendation for this edition. -- Peter Russell * Journal of British Studies *Will be useful primarily to scholars focused on research related to Margaret of Anjou, queenship, and epistolary writing. -- Michele Seah * Parergon *[This book] will become the standard reference work for Margaret's letters. . . . The editors have succeeded in their aim of providing a counterpoint in the normalcy of Margaret's activities as queen, certainly before Henry VI's collapse in 1453, to her more-studied role as a leading player in the struggle for the English throne between 1455 and 1471. -- James Ross, University of Winchester * Speculum *Table of ContentsIntroduction Matchmaker Holy Orders Position Wanted Business Interests Protector and Peacemaker Money Matters Belief and Benevolence The Queen's Disport En Famille Queen Consort Lancastrian Queen Queen Beyond the Sea Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisInterrogations of materiality and geography, narrative framework and boundaries, and the ways these scholarly pursuits ripple out into the wider cultural sphere. Early medieval England as seen through the lens of comparative and interconnected histories is the subject of this volume. Drawn from a range of disciplines, its chapters examine artistic, archaeological, literary, and historical artifacts, converging around the idea that the period may not only define itself, but is often defined from other perspectives, specifically here by modern scholarship. The first part considers the transmission of material culture across borders, while querying the possibilities and limits of comparative and transnational approaches, taking in the spread of bread wheat, the collapse of the art-historical "decorative" and "functional", and the unknowns about daily life in an early medieval English hall. The volume then moves on to reimagine the permeable boundaries of early medieval England, with perspectives from the Baltic, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, including an examination of Vercelli Homily VII (from John Chrysostom's Greek Homily XXIX), Hārūn ibn Yaḥyā's Arabic descriptions of Barṭīniyah ("Britain"), and an consideration of the Old English Orosius. The final chapters address the construction of and responses to "Anglo-Saxon" narratives, past and present: they look at early medieval England within a Eurasian perspective, the historical origins of racialized Anglo-Saxonism(s), and views from Oceania, comparing Hiberno-Saxon and Anglican Melanesian missions, as well as contemporary reactions to exhibitions of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Pacific Island cultures. Contributors: Debby Banham, Britton Elliott Brooks, Caitlin Green, Jane Hawkes, John Hines, Karen Louise Jolly, Kazutomo Karasawa, Carol Neuman de Vegvar, John D. Niles, Michael W. Scott, Jonathan WilcoxTrade ReviewGlobal Perspectives on Early Medieval England lives up to its ambitious name. Collectively, the volume's essays remind readers repeatedly of the importance of perspective toward the formation of meaning, with each underscoring this fact by dislocating early medieval England from the Isles and posing it against international counterpoints, past and present. I praise the authors for their ability to tackle head-on several emergent challenges rooted in the premodern world, namely the contentions of identity, the ethics of propagation, and the rights and wrongs of conquest. These authors demonstrate how scholars of medieval letters, sciences, and cultures can collaborate to serve the general public, utilizing their expertise to elucidate the past, untangling its intricate presence. -- Sherif Abdelkarim, Grinnell College * The Medieval Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Global Perspectives on Early Medieval England -- Karen Louise Jolly and Britton Elliott Brooks Part I Material Culture 1 The Global Triumph of Bread Wheat: The Role of Early Medieval England -- Debby Banham 2 Globalizing Anglo-Saxon Art -- Jane Hawkes 3 Minding the Gaps: Early Medieval Elite Sites in England and the Perimeters of Current Knowledge -- Carol Neuman de Vegvar Part II Crossing Borders 4 Imagination at the Edge of the World: Luxuriating Women in Vercelli Homily VII and a Resistant Audience -- Jonathan Wilcox 5 Britain, the Byzantine Empire, and the Concept of an Anglo-Saxon 'Heptarchy': Harun ibn Yahya's Ninth-century Arabic Description of Britain -- Caitlin R. Green 6 Wulfstan in Truso: Old English Text, Baltic Archaeology, and World History -- John Hines Part III Origins and Comparisons 7 Reassessing Anglo-Saxon Origins from a Eurasian Perspective -- John D. Niles 8 Historical Origins of a Mythical History: The Formation of the Myth Supporting Anglo-Saxonism Reconsidered -- Kazutomo Karasawa 9 Boniface and Bede in the Pacific: Exploring Anamorphic Comparisons between the Hiberno-Saxon Missions and the Anglican Melanesian Mission -- Michael W. Scott 10 Anglo-Saxons on Exhibit: Displaying the Sacred -- Karen Louise Jolly

Read more less

Book SynopsisA close analysis of forgeries and historical writings at Saint Peter's, Ghent; Saint-Denis near Paris; and Christ Church, Canterbury, offering valuable access to why medieval people often rewrote their pasts. What modern scholars call "forgeries" (be they texts, seals, coins, or relics) flourished in the central Middle Ages. Although lying was considered wrong throughout the period, such condemnation apparently did not extend to forgeries. Rewriting documents was especially common among monks, who exploited their mastery of writing to reshape their records. Monastic scribes frequently rewrote their archives, using charters, letters, and narratives, to create new usable pasts for claiming lands and privileges in their present or future. Such imagined histories could also be deployed to "reform" their community or reshape its relationship with lay and ecclesiastical authorities. Although these creative rewritings were forgeries, they still can be valuable evidence of medieval mentalities. While forgeries cannot easily be used to reconstruct what did happen, forgeries embedded in historical narratives show what their composers believed should have happened and thus they offer valuable access to why medieval people rewrote their pasts. This book offers close analysis of three monastic archives over the long eleventh century: Saint Peter's, Ghent; Saint-Denis near Paris; and Christ Church, Canterbury. These foci provide the basis for contextualizing key shifts in documentary culture in the twelfth century across Europe. Overall, the book argues that connections between monastic forgeries and historical writing in the tenth through twelfth centuries reveal attempts to reshape reality. Both sought to rewrite the past and thereby promote monks' interests in their present or future.Trade ReviewMore powerfully than any previous commentator, Berkhofer has demonstrated the narrative qualities of charters and cartularies. [...] Let us hope that where he has trod, others will soon follow! * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW (TMR) *An essential read for those interested in questions of authenticity in the European Middle Ages. * SPECULUM *

Read more less