Search results for ""becket""

Murder in the Cathedral, written for the Canterbury Festival in 1935, was one of T. S. Eliot's first dramatic achievements, and it remains one of the great plays of the century. It takes as its subject matter the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, depicting the events that led to his assassination, in his own cathedral church, by the knights of Henry II in 1170. Like Greek drama, the play's theme and form are rooted in religion, ritual purgation and renewal, and it was this return to the earliest sources of drama that brought poetry triumphantly back to the English stage at the time. This anniversary edition marks 850 years since Becket's dramatic murder, and eighty-five years since Eliot's play was first performed.

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Henry II conquered the largest empire of any English medieval king. Yet it is the people around him we remember: his wife Eleanor, whom he seduced from the French king; his son Richard the Lionheart; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Who was this great, yet tragic king? For fans of Dan Jones, George RR Martin and Bernard Cornwell. The only thing that could have stopped Henry was himself. Henry II had all the gifts of the gods. He was charismatic, clever, learned, empathetic, a brilliant tactician, with great physical strength and an astonishing self-belief. Henry was the creator of the Plantagenet dynasty of kings, who ruled through eight generations in command of vast lands in Britain and Europe. Virtually unbeaten in battle, and engaged in a ceaseless round of conquest and diplomacy, Henry forged an empire that matched Charlemagne’s. It was not just on the battlefield that Henry excelled; he presided over a blossoming of culture and learning termed ‘the twelfth century Renaissance’, pursued the tenets of reason over religious faith, and did more to advance the cause of justice and enforce the rule of law than any other English monarch before or since. Contemporaries lauded his greatness and described him as their ‘Alexander of the West’. And yet it is the people around him who are remembered: his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he seduced away from the French king; his sons Richard the Lionheart and John; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Henry – so famed during his lifetime – has slipped into the shadows of history. King of the North Wind offers a fresh evaluation of this great yet tragic ruler. Written as a historical tragedy, it tells how this most talented of kings came into conflict with those closest to him, to become the most haunted.

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Professor Coghill was invited to prepare this annotated edition of Murder in the Cathedral by Eliot himself, and he approved his introduction. Coghill discusses Eliot's subject matter, and the play's importance in his oeuvre. Forty pages of notes elucidate textual difficulties, and include a valuable discussion of some wider issues. The references to the production of the play in the theatre are of great interest. There are three appendices on the historical context; on the metre of Everyman, which influenced the versification of Murder in the Cathedral; and on Tennyson's poetic drama Becket, which offers a striking contrast to Eliot's treatment of the subject.

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Princes quest for true love, Princesses dance in enchanted slippers, and girls emerge from the ashes of the fireplace, changed forever by the touch of a Faery Grandmother''s wand. You are holding a great treasure, overflowing with life-changing magick... Grounded in the epic tradition and timeless wisdom of faerytales, this oracle reveals the meanings and lessons behind stories like The Little Match Girl, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. This magickal deck will introduce you to undiscovered gems, unearthing tales of unsurpassed imagination to advise, inspire and delight you. Every beautiful card offers trustworthy, compassionate and uplifting guidance to help you navigate life''s every peril, every promise, every enchantment.Illustrated by renowned faery artist Jasmine Becket-Griffith, written by Lucy Cavendish, THE FAERYTALE ORACLE teams the glory and wonder of the world''s most beloved faerytales with stunningly accurate messages, bringing you an oracle of outstandi

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Tomás Becket, arzobispo de Canterbury, es asesinado en 1170 por orden de su rey, por no querer someterse a las Constituciones de Clarendon, y cae, atravesado por las espadas, al pie mismo del altar de cuya iglesia es supremo sacerdote.Este hecho de la historia medieval es narrado por Eliot con un aire de grandeza antigua, en escenas de ritmo lento, parsimonioso, que al mismo tiempo poseen una gran tensión y majestad a medida que se aproxima el trágico desenlace.Quien es quizá el más grande de los poetas modernos nos ofrece una obra maestra, símbolo de la dignidad de la persona y de la libertad de conciencia frente al poder político.

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A series which is a model of its kind EDMUND KING, HISTORY This volume contains the usual wide range of topics, and offers some unusual and provocative perspectives, including an examination of what the evidence of zooarchaeology can reveal about the Conquest. The other subjects discussedare the battle of Alençon; the impact of rebellion on Little Domesday; Lawrence of Durham; Thomas Becket; Peter of Blois; Anglo-French peace conferences; episcopal elections and the loss of Normandy; Norman identity in southern Italian chronicles; and the Normans on crusade. Contributors: RICHARD BARTON, NAOMI SYKES, LUCY MARTEN, MIA MÜNSTER-SWENDSEN, JOHN D. COTTS, J.E.M. BENHAM, JÖRG PELTZER, JULIE BARRAU, EMILY ALBU, EWAN JOHNSON, G. A. LOUD, HANNA VOLLRATH.

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Lace up your boots and sample 50 of the finest trails Massachusetts has to offer. This hiker's paradise offers not only mountaintop vistas but also historic landmarks and pristine seashore. Hike along cranberry bogs in Massasoit State Park, trace the edge of a cliff overlooking the Merrimack River in Maudslay State Park, follow the Appalachian Trail over Becket and Walling Mountains in October Mountain State Forest, or walk the state from Rhode Island to New Hampshire on the Midstate Trail. Veteran hiker and outdoor writer Ben Ames will introduce you to these trails and more. Use this guide for: detailed route maps for each trail; accurate route profiles showing the ups and downs of each hike; tips on equipment, trip planning, and hiking with dogs and children; accurate directions, difficulty ratings, trail contacts, and more.

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To escape a lifetime of poverty, mercenary Sir Benedict Palmer agrees to one final, lucrative job: help King Henry II’s knights seize the traitor Archbishop Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. But what begins as a clandestine arrest ends in cold-blooded murder. And when Fitzurse, the knights’ ringleader, kidnaps Theodosia, a beautiful young nun who witnessed the crime, Palmer can sit silently by no longer. For not only is Theodosia’s virtue at stake, so too is the secret she unknowingly carries—a secret he knows Fitzurse will torture out of her. Now Palmer and Theodosia are on the run, strangers from different worlds forced to rely only on each other as they race to uncover the hidden motive behind Becket’s grisly murder—and the shocking truth that could destroy a kingdom.

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A TIMES TOP TEN CRIME AND MYSTERY BOOK FOR 2024''Ryan and Ray go from strength to strength, and this, their third outing, is the best yet. Simon Mason has created crime fiction''s most entertaining double act in decades'' Mick HerronOxford, city of rich and poor, where the homeless camp out in the shadows of the gorgeous buildings and monuments. A city of lost things - and buried crimes. At three o''clock in the morning, Emergency Services receives a call. ''This is Zara Fanshawe. Always lost and never found.'' An hour later, the wayward celebrity''s Rolls Royce Phantom is found abandoned in dingy Becket Street. The paparazzi go wild. For some reason, news of Zara''s disappearance prompts homeless woman Lena Wójcik to search the camps, nervously, for the bad-tempered vagrant known as ''Waitrose'', a familiar sight in Oxford pushing his trolley of possessions. But he''s nowhere to be found either. Who will lead

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Alexander Bramwell, marqués de Walton, favorito de la alta sociedad inglesa está a punto de casarse? hasta que se tropieza con Haley Becket.Haley no es como las demás? en serio, porque viene del año 2019. Y este lugar con corsés incómodos, guantes con encaje y normas de conducta estúpidas no le va para nada. Que aquí no hay ni discos ni móvil! Pero, sin Internet y sin opciones, se verá obligada a adentrarse en la nobleza londinense en busca de un camino de vuelta a su tiempo.Pero se topará con varios obstáculos, el mayor de ellos, el engreído marqués, odioso y prepotente, que no deja de mirarla intensamente con sus brillantes ojos verdes. Es un incordio, en serio y atractivo pero sobre todo un incordio.Romance, intriga y mucha tensión? a través del tiempo.

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The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackHenry II (1154-89) through a series of astonishing dynastic coups became the ruler of an enormous European empire. One of the most dynamic, restless and clever men ever to rule England, he was brought down both by his catastrophic relationship with his archbishop Thomas Becket and his debilitating arguments with his sons, most importantly the future Richard I and King John. His empire may have ultimately collapsed, but in Richard Barber's vivid and sympathetic account the reader can see why Henry II left such a compelling impression on his contemporaries.Richard Barber has written for Penguin The Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe, The Holy Grail and Edward III and the Triumph of England. He is a major figure in medieval studies, both as a writer and as a publisher.

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This is the story of a plain silver chalice from the first century AD that now rests in the heart of England. From its momentous beginnings as the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, and as the vessel used to catch His blood at the Crucifixion, to its unrecognised discovery in the late nineteenth century, the chalice has passed through the hands of saints, crusaders, kings, queens, Templar knights and ‘Guardians.’ This account revisits the beginnings of the Knights Templar and their rise to incredible wealth and power; it introduces a completely new version of the origins of the Arthurian legends; and it disputes the supposed loss of the Crown Jewels in the Wash and the cause of King John’s subsequent death. It re-examines the murder of Thomas Becket and resurrects the forgotten story of a knight who went from disregarded son and child hostage to Regent of England and Guardian of the Grail. The story reveals the reason behind one of England’s greatest church mysteries: an early thirteenth-century clue that has taken over 700 years to be deciphered. Most importantly of all, however, it establishes where the Holy Grail is now.

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Change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Simon Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history of Britain, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties. What makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain - one country or many? Has British history unfolded 'at the edge of the world' or right at the heart of it?Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here - Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn - but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I. The first in a series, this volume paints a rich and vivid portrait of the life of the British people and their nation.

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Published in collaborationwith the National Churches Trust, this fascinating book is a sumptuous and authoritative photographic history of churches in England, as told through the objects inside them. Arranged chronologically from the Roman era to the present day, it covers a huge range of church objects including ornate fonts, beautiful stained glass windows, carved bench ends and rood screens, precious silverware and even church organs, and each piece has a fascinating story to tell. Within these pages, you''ll discover: The Hinton St Mary mosaic in Dorset, created in the early 4th century AD and showing the first depiction of Jesus Christ in Britain. The full Norman repertoire of abstract geometrical forms displayed in the Tower Arch, St John's Church, Northampton. The Becket pilgrims represented in glowing medieval stained glass in Canterbury Cathedral. Exquisitely carved misericords showing scenes from spiritual life through the yea

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It is the year 1152, and a beautiful woman rides through France, fleeing her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage.Her husband, Louis of France has been more monk than monarch, and certainly not a lover. Now Eleanor of Aquitaine has one sole purpose: to return to her duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, destined for greatness as King of England. It will be a union founded on lust, renowned as one of the most vicious marriages in history, and it will go on to forge a great empire and a devilish brood. This is a story of the making of nations, and of passionate conflicts: between Henry II and Thomas Becket; between Eleanor and Henry's formidable mother Matilda; between father and sons, as Henry's children take up arms against him - and finally between Henry and Eleanor herself.

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The history of London up to 1666 is a story of Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts. Of a city that grew from ancient origins to become ‘the flower of all cities’, until the centuries of building and the lives within it were obliterated by the Great Fire. It features many of the famous figures in British history: Queen Boudicca, King Alfred, Thomas Becket, Wat Tyler, Dick Whittington, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Guy Fawkes. And Geoffrey Chaucer, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Inigo Jones, Thomas Middleton, John Milton, Christopher Wren, Aphra Behn and Samuel Pepys. It is a tale of ‘great matter’ and ‘great reckoning’, where the nation was shaped, fortunes made and squandered, lives transformed, advanced and lost. Through the story of early London we can trace a busy, beautiful, dangerous city lost forever, but brought back to life here through skilful analysis of the archaeological, pictorial and written records.

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The mystical element of water is both a bringer of life and a bearer of death, the herald of hope and the harbinger of destruction. It is in our nature to seek to understand it, to conquer it and to sip its mysterious powers. Who better, then, to ask for guidance and inspiration than the spirits of water themselves, the Water Fae - mermaids, sprites, nymphs and more. Their wisdom and insight have been collected within this oracle to help us comprehend and embrace the enigmatic dichotomy that is water.MYTHS & MERMAIDS features the artwork of world-renowned artist, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, paired with a guidebook channelling the wisdom, advice and poignant poetry of Jasmine''s two sisters, Amber Logan and Kachina Mickeletto. The guidebook includes primary and antithesis meanings for each card, reflecting the duality of water and card spreads ranging from concise yes/no readings to more complex divinations. Embrace the duality that is the element of water and prepare to plumb the depths o

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''I loved this memoir'' - Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path''A whole new way of looking at a familiar landscape'' - Neil Ansell, author of The Last Wilderness''Simmons observes the natural world with precision and affection'' - Times Literary SupplementAn old map. A lost pilgrimage route. A journey in search of our walking heritage.On an antique map in Oxford''s Bodleian Library, a faint red line threading through towns and villages between Southampton and Canterbury suggests a significant, though long-forgotten, road. Renamed the Old Way, medieval pilgrims are thought to have travelled this route to reach the celebrated shrine of Thomas Becket.Over four seasons, travel writer Gail Simmons walks the Old Way, winding 240 miles between the chalk hills and shifting seascapes of the south coast, to rediscover what a long journey on foot offers us today. What it means to embrace ''slow travel'' in the age of the car?

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Our capital city has always been a thriving and colourful place, full of diverse and determined individuals developing trade and finance, exchanging gossip and doing business. Abandoned by the Romans, rebuilt by the Saxons, occupied by the Vikings and reconstructed by the Normans, London would become the largest trade and financial centre, dominating the world in later centuries. London has always been a brilliant, vibrant and eclectic place – Henry V was given a triumphal procession there after his return from Agincourt and the Lord Mayor’s river pageant was an annual medieval spectacular. William the Conqueror built the Tower, Thomas Becket was born in Cheapside, Wat Tyler led the peasants in revolt across London Bridge and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was the first book produced on Caxton’s new printing press in Westminster. But beneath the colour and pageantry lay dirt, discomfort and disease, the daily grind for ordinary folk. Like us, they had family problems, work worries, health concerns and wondered about the weather.

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The history of London up to 1666 is a story of Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts. Of a city that grew from ancient origins to become ‘the flower of all cities’, until the centuries of building and the lives within it were obliterated by the Great Fire. It features many of the famous figures in British history: Queen Boudicca, King Alfred, Thomas Becket, Wat Tyler, Dick Whittington, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Guy Fawkes. And Geoffrey Chaucer, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Inigo Jones, Thomas Middleton, John Milton, Christopher Wren, Aphra Behn and Samuel Pepys. It is a tale of ‘great matter’ and ‘great reckoning’, where the nation was shaped, fortunes made and squandered, lives transformed, advanced and lost. Through the story of early London we can trace a busy, beautiful, dangerous city lost forever, but brought back to life here through skilful analysis of the archaeological, pictorial and written records.

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An exceptional reference work to pilgrim and secular badges of the middle ages. This is the first major catalogue in English devoted to medieval badges. These fascinating objects provide us with a guide to the popularity of different cults and pilgrim centres, supplying evidence of the sometimes arduous journeys not only to famous and far-off sanctuaries like Compostela, but to native shrines such as that of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury, or the tombs of local, unofficial saints. Often mass-produced and sold in tens of thousands, pilgrim souvenirs offer pointers to fashion in contemporary precious jewellery. The secular badges include a wealth of non-religious imagery, playful and amatory, satirical, celebratory and heraldic. Illustrating nearly 800 items ofpopular medieval jewellery, the catalogue contained within the book describes previously unpublished finds retrieved from datable archaeological London waterfront deposits, and provides the basis of a chronological framework for future excavations. BRIAN SPENCER was the Senior Keeper at the Museum of London, with special responsibility for the Museum's collection of medieval everyday objects.

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In this book, Victor Turner is concerned with various kinds of social actions and how they relate to, and come to acquire meaning through, metaphors and paradigms in their actors' minds; how in certain circumstances new forms, new metaphors, new paradigms are generated. To describe and clarify these processes, he ranges widely in history and geography: from ancient society through the medieval period to modern revolutions, and over India, Africa, Europe, China, and Meso-America. Two chapters, which illustrate religious paradigms and political action, explore in detail the confrontation between Henry II and Thomas Becket and between Hidalgo, the Mexican liberator, and his former friends. Other essays deal with long-term religious processes, such as the Christian pilgrimage in Europe and the emergence of anti-caste movements in India. Finally, he directs his attention to other social phenomena such as transitional and marginal groups, hippies, and dissident religious sects, showing that in the very process of dying they give rise to new forms of social structure or revitalized versions of the old order.

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The artistry, wit, and erudition of medieval Latin narrative poetry continued to thrive well into the middle of the thirteenth century. No better evidence of this survives than in the long and brilliantly successful career of Henry of Avranches (d. 1262). Professional versifier to abbots, bishops, kings, and at least one pope, Henry displays a pyrotechnical verbal skill and playfulness that rivals that of the Carmina Burana and similar collections of rhymed secular verse. Yet he also stands as self-conscious heir to the great classicizing tradition of the twelfth-century epic poets, above all of Walter of Châtillon. Henry entwines these two strands of his literary inheritance in what might surprise modern readers as an improbable genre. The bulk of Henry’s known output is a series of versified saints’ lives, including those of Francis of Assisi, King Edmund, and Thomas Becket, nearly all of which are based on identified prose models. These two volumes present most of his work in the genre, as witnessed in the English manuscript that remains the linchpin of our knowledge of this remarkable poet’s career.

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Toda la lucidez y la audacia de Edna O?Brien están presentes en sus deslumbrantes memorias. Esta chica de campo ?nacida en 1930 en las profundidades de la Irlanda rural? dibuja ante nosotros el retrato de una mujer libre, de una creadora ferozmente apegada a su independencia. La primera novela de Edna O?Brien, Las chicas de campo, se publicó en 1960 y escandalizó tanto a la gente de su pueblo que el libro fue quemado en público en la plaza mayor. Hay en estas páginas mucho de acción y de reflexión, y una personalidad singularísima: conventos de monjas, fugas, divorcios, maternidad? incluso locas fiestas en el Londres de los años sesenta y encuentros con gigantes de Hollywood. Y también, de manera central, amor. Mucho amor: feliz en alguna ocasión y, sobre todo, no correspondido. Chica de campo nos lleva de los prados irlandeses a Jackie Onassis, de los brazos de Robert Mitchum a Hillary Clinton, de sus paseos por un Nueva York nevado a sus extraños encuentros en París con Samuel Becket

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In the Middle Ages, it was thought that praying at the right shrine could save you from just about anything, from madness and famine to false imprisonment and even shipwreck. Kingdoms, cities, and even individual trades had patron saints that would protect them from misfortune and bring them wealth and prosperity, and their feast days were celebrated with public holidays and pageants. With saints believed to have the ear of God, veneration of figures such as St Thomas Becket, St Cuthbert, and St Margaret brought tens of thousands of pilgrims from all walks of life to sites across the country. Saints, Shrines and Pilgrims takes the reader across Britain, providing a map of the most important religious shrines that pilgrims would travel vast distances to reach, as well as descriptions and images of the shrines themselves. Featuring over 100 stunning photographs and a gazetteer of places to visit, it explains the history of pilgrimage in Britain and the importance that it played in medieval life, and describes the impact of the unbridled assault made on pilgrimage by the Reformation.

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This first modern study of Henry the Young King, eldest son of Henry II but the least known Plantagenet monarch, explores the brief but eventful life of the only English ruler after the Norman Conquest to be created co-ruler in his father’s lifetime. Crowned at fifteen to secure an undisputed succession, Henry played a central role in the politics of Henry II’s great empire and was hailed as the embodiment of chivalry. Yet, consistently denied direct rule, the Young King was provoked first into heading a major rebellion against his father, then to waging a bitter war against his brother Richard for control of Aquitaine, dying before reaching the age of thirty having never assumed actual power. In this remarkable history, Matthew Strickland provides a richly colored portrait of an all-but-forgotten royal figure tutored by Thomas Becket, trained in arms by the great knight William Marshal, and incited to rebellion by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, while using his career to explore the nature of kingship, succession, dynastic politics, and rebellion in twelfth-century England and France.

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Shakespeare's Henry IV lamented Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'. It was true of that king's reign and of many others before and after. From Hereward the Wake's guerilla war, resisting the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror, through the Anarchy, the murder of Thomas Becket, the rebellions of Henry II's sons, the deposition of Edward II, the Peasants' Revolt and the rise of the over-mighty noble subject that led to the Wars of the Roses, kings throughout the medieval period came under threat from rebellions and resistance that sprang from the nobility, the Church and even the general population. Serious rebellions arrived on a regular cycle throughout the period, fracturing and transforming England into a nation to be reckoned with. Matthew Lewis seeks to examine the causes behind the insurrections and how they influenced the development of England from the Norman Conquest until the Tudor period. Each rebellion's importance and impact is assessed both individually and as part of a larger movement to examine how rebellions helped to build England.

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The hamlet of Worthing began to develop as a fashionable seaside resort during the late eighteenth century. It attained town status in 1803 when its administration was invested in a board of commissioners that first met at the Nelson Hotel. Inns of greater antiquity were the White Horse at West Tarring, the Maltsters Arms at Broadwater and the Anchor in Worthing High Street. Other well-established pubs, such as the town centre Warwick and the Cricketers at Broadwater, began as basic beer retailers and brewing victuallers of the early Victorian period. Several pubs in the area are of architectural interest. The ornate Grand Victorian opened in 1900 as the Central Hotel, the half-timbered design of the Thomas á Becket (1910) was in homage to the nearby medieval Parsonage Row cottages, while the imposing Downlands was built in 1939 in the classic roadhouse style. Worthing Pubs takes us on a fully illustrated tour of the historical hostelries in the district, yet also acknowledges how the local drinking culture has been shaped by the contemporary craft-beer bar and the burgeoning micropub scene.

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This guidebook details the Pilgrims' Way, an historic pilgrimage route to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, home of the shrine of the martyred archbishop, St Thomas Becket. The route is described both from Winchester in Hampshire (138 miles) and London's Southwark Cathedral (90¼ miles), with an optional spur to Rochester Cathedral. With relatively easy walking on ancient byways, the route from Winchester is presented in 15 stages of 5-14 miles: it can be comfortably completed in under a fortnight. It follows a major chalk ridge through scenic countryside, taking in characterful towns and villages and historic churches. The route from Southwark is described in 10 stages and includes a visit to the ruined Lesnes Abbey. Detailed route description is accompanied by 1:50,000 OS mapping, advice on making the most of a trip and information on the historical background to the pilgrimage, key historical figures and local points of interest. Accommodation listings and details of facilities and transport links can be found in the appendices. Pilgrimages to Becket's shrine began within a few years of the his death in 1170, although Canterbury was a popular destination even before this time due to the nearby shrine of St Augustine. The route has featured in literature, drama and film, and forms the setting for Geoffrey Chaucer's famous Middle English work, The Canterbury Tales.

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The second book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor.Wherever the historians go, chaos is sure to follow...Dispatched to Victorian London to seek out Jack the Ripper, things go badly wrong when he finds the St Mary's historians first. Stalked through the fog-shrouded streets of Whitechapel, Max is soon running for her life. Again.And that's just the start. Max finds herself in a race against time when an old enemy is intent on destroying St Mary's. An enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself.From the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh to the murder of Thomas a Becket, via an unscheduled dodo rescue mission, join the historians of St Mary's as they hurtle around History on more hilarious, hair-raising escapades Readers love Jodi Taylor: 'Once in a while, I discover an author who changes everything... Jodi Taylor and her protagonista Madeleine "Max" Maxwell have seduced me' 'A great mix of British proper-ness and humour with a large dollop of historical fun' 'Addictive. I wish St Mary's was real and I was a part of it' 'Jodi Taylor has an imagination that gets me completely hooked' 'A tour de force'

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A series which is a model of its kind. Edmund King, History The wide-ranging articles collected here represent the cutting edge of recent Anglo-Norman scholarship. Topics include English kingship, legends of the Battle of Bouvines, ideas of empire, the practicalities of child kingship, and female rulership in Brittany. The volume continues in its proud tradition of source analysis: there are studies of northern French urban franchises, and Norman charters and a logistical take on the making of the Domesday Book, while narrative sources are represented in the vernacular by a study of Herman of Valenciennes' Bible and in Latin by the historiography of Robert of Torigni and Ralph Niger. Further contributions focus on the twelfth-century ecclesiastical officers Abbot Peter the Venerable and Archbishop Thomas Becket, and the volume is completed with an analysis of the concept of economic resources with respect to Normandy. Contributors: Mathieu Arnoux, JamesBarnaby, Dominique Barthelemy, Thomas Bisson, Scott G. Bruce, Francis Gingras, Frédérique Lachaud, Anne E. Lester, C.P. Lewis, Amy Livingstone, Fanny Madeline, Nicholas Vincent, Emily Ward

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The artistry, wit, and erudition of medieval Latin narrative poetry continued to thrive well into the middle of the thirteenth century. No better evidence of this survives than in the long and brilliantly successful career of Henry of Avranches (d. 1262). Professional versifier to abbots, bishops, kings, and at least one pope, Henry displays a pyrotechnical verbal skill and playfulness that rivals that of the Carmina Burana and similar collections of rhymed secular verse. Yet he also stands as self-conscious heir to the great classicizing tradition of the twelfth-century epic poets, above all of Walter of Châtillon. Henry entwines these two strands of his literary inheritance in what might surprise modern readers as an improbable genre. The bulk of Henry’s known output is a series of versified saints’ lives, including those of Francis of Assisi, King Edmund, and Thomas Becket, nearly all of which are based on identified prose models. These two volumes present most of his work in the genre, as witnessed in the English manuscript that remains the linchpin of our knowledge of this remarkable poet’s career.

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This illustrated history portrays one of England’s finest cities. It provides a nostalgic look at Canterbury’s past and highlights the special character of some of its most important historic sites. The photographs are taken from the Historic England Archive, a unique collection of over 12 million photographs, drawings, plans and documents covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history. Pictures date from the earliest days of photography to the present and cover subjects from Bronze Age burials and medieval churches to cinemas and seaside resorts. Canterbury’s history stretches back to the Romans and the foundation of the first cathedral in England in the seventh century. It became a renowned pilgrim centre following the murder of Thomas Becket in the cathedral in 1170, developing into one of the most important cities in medieval England. Canterbury also prospered through the textile industry, welcoming many French Huguenots. Although extensively damaged during aerial bombardment during the Second World War, this historic city today retains much of its ancient fabric alongside the newly developed areas of the town including the University of Kent, which was founded in 1965. This book will help you to discover Canterbury’s remarkable history.

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An exploration of how power and political society were imagined, represented and reflected on in medieval English art Images and imagery played a major role in medieval political thought and culture, but their influence has rarely been explored. This book provides a full assessment of the subject. Starting with an examination of the writings of late twelfth-century courtier-clerics, and their new vision of English political life as a heightened religious drama, it argues that visual images were key to the development and expression of medieval English political ideas andarguments. It discusses the vivid pictorial metaphors used in contemporary political treatises, and highlights their interaction with public decorative schemas in English great churches, private devotional imagery, seal iconography, illustrations of English history and a range of other visual sources. Meanwhile, through an exploration of events such as the Thomas Becket conflict, the making of Magna Carta, the Barons' War and the deposition of Edward II, it provides new perspectives on the political role of art, especially in reshaping basic assumptions and expectations about government and political society in medieval England. LAURA SLATER is a Fulford Junior ResearchFellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

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The Notory Art of Shorthand (Ars notoria notarie), an important yet understudied late medieval work, is newly edited here and presented for the first time in English translation along with an introduction and commentary. This unique treatise on shorthand writing is a hybrid of literary genres that sheds much light on late medieval scribal culture. Following in a medieval tradition of works such as the Secret of Secrets, the innovative Ars notoria notarie points forward to early modern hermetic writers such as Agrippa von Nettesheim and John Dee, the latter having owned one of the three manuscripts of the work. The Ars notoria notarie relates to disciplines ranging from paleography to magic. It has multiple identities: a unique branch of one of the most popular magic treatises of the Middle Ages, the Ars notoria; a rare report on medieval paleography and the notarial trade; an exposé of a unique medieval cipher based on the famous Tironian notes; an eclectic university text bringing together authorities from Pliny and Aristotle to Donatus and Bede; a remarkable source for the liturgy of Thomas Becket; and, finally, a distinctive contribution to the epistolary genre known as the mirror for princes.

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Survey of the reign of Henry II, offering a range of new evaluations and interpretations. Henry II is the most imposing figure among the medieval kings of England. His fiefs and domains extended from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and his court was frequented by the greatest thinkers and men of letters of his time,besides ambassadors from all over Europe. Yet his is a reign of paradoxes: best known for his dramatic conflicts with his own wife and sons and with Thomas Becket, it was also a crucial period in the evolution of legal and governmental institutions. Here experts in the field provide significant reevaluations of its most important aspects. Topics include Henry's accession and his relations with the papacy, the French king, other rulers in the British Islesand the Norman baronage; the development of the common law and the coinage; the court and its literary milieu; the use of Arthurian legend for political purposes; and the career of the Young King Henry, while the introduction examines the historiography of the reign. CONTRIBUTORS: MARTIN ALLEN, MARTIN AURELL, NICK BARRATT, PAUL BRAND, SEAN DUFFY, ANNE DUGGAN, JEAN DUBABIN, JOHN GILLINGHAM, EDMUND KING, DANIEL POWER, IAN SHORT, MATTHEW STRICKLAND CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL and NICHOLAS VINCENT are Professors of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia.

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Hal Wallis might not be as well known as David O. Selznick or Samuel Goldwyn, but the films he produced—Casablanca, Jezebel, Now Voyager, The Life of Emile Zola, Becket, True Grit, and many other classics (as well as scores of Elvis movies)—have certainly endured. As producer of numerous films, Wallis made an indelible mark on the course of America's film industry, but his contributions are often overlooked and no full-length study has yet assessed his incredible career.A former office boy and salesman, Wallis first engaged with the film business as the manager of a Los Angeles movie theater in 1922. He attracted the notice of the Warner brothers, who hired him as a publicity assistant. Within three months he was director of the department, and appointments to studio manager and production executive quickly followed. Wallis went on to oversee dozens of productions and formed his own production company in 1944.Bernard F. Dick draws on numerous sources such as Wallis's personal production files and exclusive interviews with many of his contemporaries to finally tell the full story of his illustrious career. Dick combines his knowledge of behind-the-scenes Hollywood with fascinating anecdotes to create a portrait of one of Hollywood's early power players.

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The true importance of cathedrals during the Anglo-Norman period is here brought out, through an examination of the most important aspects of their history. Cathedrals dominated the ecclesiastical (and physical) landscape of the British Isles and Normandy in the middle ages; yet, in comparison with the history of monasteries, theirs has received significantly less attention. This volume helps to redress the balance by examining major themes in their development between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. These include the composition, life, corporate identity and memory of cathedral communities; the relationships, sometimes supportive, sometimes conflicting, that they had with kings (e.g. King John), aristocracies, and neighbouring urban and religious communities; the importance of cathedrals as centres of lordship and patronage; their role in promoting and utilizing saints' cults (e.g. that of St Thomas Becket); episcopal relations; and the involvement of cathedrals in religious and political conflicts, and in the settlement of disputes. A critical introduction locates medieval cathedrals in space and time, and against a backdrop of wider ecclesiastical change in the period. Contributors: Paul Dalton, Charles Insley, Louise J. Wilkinson, Ann Williams, C.P. Lewis, RichardAllen, John Reuben Davies, Thomas Roche, Stephen Marritt, Michael Staunton, Sheila Sweetinburgh, Paul Webster, Nicholas Vincent

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Henry II (1133-1189) was an enigma in his own time and has continued to excite widely divergent judgments ever since. His quarrel with Archbishop Becket, his troubled relationships with his sons and with his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and other dramatic incidents of his reign present rich material for historical novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers, but with no unanimity of interpretation. This masterful biography provides a comprehensive reappraisal of Henry II, the man and king. W. L. Warren explores a full range of contemporary sources to illuminate the king’s policy and personality as well as the events of his reign.Henry II’s greatness as a king is not in doubt. From an early age he impressed his will on a turbulent realm and established new standards of law and order in seemingly ungovernable territories. He fought and won the first great war over the balance of power in western Europe, laid the foundations for the growth of English Common Law and of royal administration, and destroyed the possibility that the realm might disintegrate into feudal principalities. Warren focuses on the actions of the king and, while not underrating the importance of the famous crises of Henry’s reign, gives equal attention to incidents that are little-known but equally revealing.

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Setting off on foot from Winchester, Ken Haigh hikes across southern England, retracing one of the traditional routes that medieval pilgrims followed to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Walking in honour of his father, a staunch Anglican who passed away before they could begin their trip together, Haigh wonders: Is there a place in the modern secular world for pilgrimage? On his journey, he sorts through his own spiritual aimlessness while crossing paths with writers like Anthony Trollope, John Keats, Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and, of course, Geoffrey Chaucer. Part travelogue, part memoir, and part literary history, On Foot to Canterbury is engaging and delightful. “My father didn’t need this walk, not the way I do. For him it would have been a fun way to spend some time with his son. He had, I begin to realize, a talent for living in the moment… Perhaps a pilgrimage would help me find happiness. Perhaps I could walk my way into a better frame of mind, and somehow along the road to Canterbury I would find a new purpose for my life. It was worth a shot.” Audio edition from PRH available from Audible, Kobo, Google, and Apple Books.

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First 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.

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Practical guide to walking the North Downs Way National Trail that runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, partly following the old Pilgrims' Way to the shrine of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. It winds its way through the protected landscape of the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs, passing medieval churches, castles, Neolithic burial sites, vineyards and numerous WWII defences. There are literary associations with Swift, Cobbett, Dickens and Jane Austen. The guide includes: * 80 large-scale walking maps - at just under 1:20,000 - showing route times, places to stay, points of interest and much more, and 15 town plans. * 14 stage maps showing hills and descents, and 2 overview maps. * Itineraries for all walkers - whether walking the route in its entirety or sampling highlights on day walks and short breaks. * 15 town plans. * Places to stay with reviews - campsites, bunkhouses, hostels, B&Bs, pubs and hotels. * Places to eat with reviews - cafes, teashops, pubs, takeaways, restaurants. * What to see - historical, cultural, geographical background information. * Comprehensive public transport information - for all access points on the Path.* Flora and fauna - four page full colour flower guide, plus an illustrated section on local wildlife. * Green hiking - understanding the local environment and minimizing our impact on it. * GPS waypoints - also downloadable from the Trailblazer website.

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Les qualites d'historien qu'on reconnait a Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence meritaient qu'on se penchat avec attention et minutie sur la seule oeuvre qu'on lui connaisse, surtout qu'elle n'est pas toujours d'un abord facile. Elle porte d'ailleurs sur un personnage de tout premier plan, et qui a inspire plus d'un ecrivain moderne: Thomas Becket. Parue en 1922, l'edition Walberg, pourtant reputee excellente et certes non denuee de merites ni d'interet, appelait en priorite une serieuse remise a jour du texte. Tout a ete controle aux sources, souvent remis en conformite avec elles, emende plus d'une fois differemment s'il le fallait, et ponctue de neuf. Une traduction s'imposait pratiquement; ce fut d'ailleurs le mobile du present travail. Et elle est demeuree opportune malgre celles qui ont ete publiees entre-temps, car elle se distingue des autres par des differences parfois importantes et par l'abondance des justifications, explications ou elements de discussion fournis dans les notes, qui occupent la majeure partie du tome II. La consultation et la recherche y seront facilitees par une serie de tables, consacrees respectivement aux rimes, aux references bibliques, aux proverbes et sentences, a l'intertextualite, aux noms propres, et a un index lexicologique et grammatical de pres de 1500 entrees.

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As the travellers gather in the Tabard Inn at the start of a pilgrimage to pray before the blessed bones of St Thomas à Becket in Canterbury, they agree eagerly to mine host Harry's suggestion of amusing themselves on each day of their journey with one tale and each evening with another - but the latter to be of mystery, terror and murder.The Knight begins that evening: his tale opens with the destruction of a sinister cult at its stronghold in the wilds of Oxfordshire by Sir Hugo Mortimer during the reign of William the Conqueror, and then moves to Oxford some two hundred years later where strange crimes and terrible murders are being committed. The authorities seem powerless but Lady Constance, Abbess of the Convent of St Anne's, believes the murders are connected with the legends of the cult and she petitions the King for help.As the murders continue unabated, special commissioner Sir Godfrey Evesden and royal clerk Alexander McBain uncover clues that lead to a macabre world sect, which worships the dark lord. But they can find no solution to a series of increasingly baffling questions and matters are not helped by the growing rift between Sir Godfrey and McBain for the hand and favour of the fair Lady Emily.

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The historic cathedral city of Canterbury has traces of its Roman past. The oldest church in England, St Martin’s, can trace its history back to this era but it is the cathedral founded under Anglo-Saxon rule which still dominates the city close by other surviving Saxon buildings, the Burgate and St Augustine’s Abbey. Canterbury became an international pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages after the assassination of Thomas Becket and although the population plummeted after the Black Death, the city wall with its gates was rebuilt. Huguenot weavers helped to revive the city’s fortunes and the town grew again in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although some of the town’s old buildings such as the castle and the towers in the walls fell into disrepair. Although the Baedeker Blitz in the Second World War destroyed many buildings, Canterbury has retained its historic core but today’s city is also graced by noteworthy examples of modern architecture, not least at the University of Kent and the recently redeveloped Marlowe Theatre. Canterbury in 50 Buildings explores the history of this fascinating city in Kent through a selection of its most interesting buildings and structures, showing the changes that have taken place in Canterbury over the years. The book will appeal to all those who live in Canterbury or who have an interest in the city.

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In-depth study of an important writer and close associate of Becket. Herbert of Bosham (c.1120-c.1194) was one of the most brilliant, original and versatile thinkers of the twelfth century. Herbert was Thomas Becket's closest confidant, a theologian, biblical commentator, historian, letter-writer and Hebrew scholar; he wrote a Life of St Thomas unlike any other contemporary biography, produced one of the most visually-arresting illuminated Bible books of his age, and composed a commentary on the Psalms inspired by Jewish scholarship. His uncompromising character, and the originality and complexity of his thought, meant that Herbert's works were largely ignored during his lifetime and forgotten for centuries, but more recently they have begun to receive the attention and approval that their author insisted they deserved. The chapters in this book, the first to be devoted to Herbert's life and works, examine his eventful and troubled life, his remarkable corpus of works,and how they came to be neglected and rediscovered. They provide an introduction to his life, writings and legacy, direction to existing scholarship on the subject, and new insights on, interpretations of and discoveries about anidiosyncratic representative of the "twelfth-century renaissance". MICHAEL STAUNTON is Associate Professor of History at University College Dublin. Contributors: Julie Barrau, Laura Cleaver, Matthew Doyle, Anne J. Duggan, Christopher de Hamel, Sabina Flanagan, Michael Staunton, Nicholas Vincent.

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The scholarly quality of all of these contributions does justice to the richness of the entire collection. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW Articles examining aspects of the French manuscripts in the Parker Library. `This wide-ranging volume contains Philippe Ménard's study of the Proverbs in MS 450 - Elspeth Kennedy's contribution on the prose Lancelot in MS 45 -concentrating on how the manuscript gives evidence of a medieval tendencyto improve a romance text in terms of narrative consistency; Danielle Quéruel's essay on the Chronique d'un Ménestrel de Reims in MS 435 - Françoise Ferrand's discussion of the magnificent Apocalypse in MS 20, which she suggests maywell have been produced to commemorate the coronation of Edward III; René Stuip's brief survey of the mid-fifteenth-century Histoire des Seigneurs de Gavre (MS 91) - Diana Tyson's examination of the five prose Brutmanuscripts,followed by a lengthy analysis by J.C. Thiolier of one of them, Thomas de Gray's Scalacronica(MS 133) with its interesting royalist slant on the murder of Thomas Becket; Jacques Beauroy's study of MSS 37and 301, examples of treatises on agricultural management - Fittingly, the editor's tail-piece is on fragments of French texts in the Parker Library - the volume is an interesting contribution.' FRENCH STUDIES NIGEL WILKINSis Librarian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The contributors are: PHILIPPE MÉNARD, ELSPETH KENNEDY, DANIELLE QUÉRUEL, FRANÇOISE FERRAND, RENÉSTUIP, JEAN-CLAUDE THIOLIER, DIANA TYSON, JACQUES BEAUROY, NIGEL WILKINS

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