Description
Book SynopsisIan Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, outlining his ground-breaking approach to historical evidence. An important work from one of today's most original and popular medieval historians.
Trade Review'[Mortimer] revisits the methodology of medieval history, analysing numerous key historical texts in a new way to shed a refreshing light on the facts.' -- Your Family Tree 'Ian Mortimer has earned a well-deserved reputation as a writer capable of communicating the fascination of medieval history ... His speciality is the peculiar and the personal: the hidden springs by which the actions of the past were moved ... he still has much to communicate about his explorations of the forgotten corners of Medieval England.' -- Bbc History Magazine 'His [Mortimer's] experimental and challenging approach finds fertile ground in the intricacies and mysteries of court faction, noble rebellion and royal intrigue.' -- Good Book Guide 'It is good that Mortimer is trying to come up with answers and his book provides much food for thought. There is a fine mind at work here.' -- The Catholic Herald Dr Mortimer is well known as a medieval historian who can present his period in a way to make it understandable and attractive to a laymen as well as to academics... While several of the chapters have already been published it is good to have Dr Mortimer's works in this field in one volume: no historian, school of thought or era has a monopoly in the writing of history as this collection shows. -- Contemporary Review Author article in BBC History Magazine, Vol. 13, no.3.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements / Abbreviations / Introduction / 1. Objectivity and information: a methodological introduction / 2. Sermons of Sodomy: a reconsideration of Edward II's sodomitical reputation / 3. The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle / 4. Twelve angry scholars: reactions to 'The death of Edward II' / 5. The Plot of the earl of Kent, 1328-30 / 6. Edward III, his father and the Fieschi / 7. Edward III and the moneylenders / 8. Richard II and the succession to the Crown / 9. The rules governing succession to the Crown, 1199-1399 / 10. Regnal legitimacy and the concept of the royal pretender / 11. Concluding remarks / Full titles of works cited in the notes / Index
