Essays on the continuing power and applicability of medieval images, with particular reference to recent films. The middle ages provide the material for mass-market films, for historical and fantasy fiction, for political propaganda and claims of legitimacy, and these in their turn exert a force well outside academia. The phenomenon is tooimportant to be left unscrutinised: these essays show the continuing power and applicability of medieval images - and also, it must be said, their dangerousness and often their falsity. Of the ten essays in this volume, several examine modern movies, including the highly-successful A Knight's Tale (Chaucer as a PR agent) and the much-derided First Knight (the Round Table fights the Gulf War). Others deal with the appropriation of history and literature by a variety of interested parties: King Alfred press-ganged for the Royal Navy and the burghers of Winchester in 1901, William Langland discovered as a prophet of future Socialism, Chaucer at once venerated and tidied into New England respectability. Vikings, Normans and Saxons are claimed as forebears and disowned as losers in works as complex as Rider Haggard's Eric Brighteyes, at once neo-saga and anti-saga. Victorian melodramaprovides the cliches of "the bad baronet" who revives the droit de seigneur (but baronets are notoriously modern creations); and of the "bony grasping hand" of the Catholic Church and its canon lawyers (an image spread in ways eerily reminiscent of the modern "urban legend" in its Internet forms). Contributors: BRUCE BRASINGTON, WILLIAM CALIN, CARL HAMMER, JONA HAMMER, PAUL HARDWICK, NICKOLAS HAYDOCK, GWENDOLYN MORGAN, JOANNE PARKER, CLARE A. SIMMONS, WILLIAM F. WOODS. Professor TOM SHIPPEY teaches in the Department of English at the University of St Louis; Dr MARTIN ARNOLD teaches at University College, Scarborough.

This is the first study of noblewomen in 12th-century England and Normandy, and of the ways in which they exercised power. It draws on a rich mix of evidence to offer an important reconceptualization of women's role in aristocratic society, and in doing so suggests new ways of looking at lordship and the ruling elite in the high middle ages. The book considers a wide range of literary sources such as chronicles, charters, seals and governmental records to draw out a detailed picture of noblewomen in the 12th-century Anglo-Norman realm. It asserts the importance of the lifecycle in determining the power of these aristocratic women, thereby demonstrating that the influence of gender on lordship was profound, complex and varied.

Providing an indispensable resource for students and scholars studying the history of medieval women and gender, this book provides a comprehensive depiction of women's lives in the 14th and 15th centuries. The late medieval period in England was one rich with opportunities for women, who played fundamental roles in family businesses as well as in the peasant community and economy, and who wrote letters, created autobiographies, and documented their spiritual journeys. Their lives fit into a pattern of seasonal celebrations and rituals shaped, for the majority of women, by work, marriage, and motherhood. The text further considers status distinctions, then shifts to experiences that affected all women, such as the ritual year, disease, food and drink, sex or celibacy, and religion. By providing an overview of the history of English women and gender in the 14th and 15th centuries, the book provides a background suitable for students as well as for academics beginning work in this field. Provides readers with an understanding of late-medieval women's daily lives, enabling a fuller appreciation of women's experiences in the distant past Examines women of all classes, rather than focusing exclusively on aristocratic ladies Provides a full picture of women's lives from birth to death, combining focus on such significant moments as marriage and childbirth with more common elements, such as work, food, and clothing Includes 15 images that bring the text to life

The saint's cult casts light on relations between Cornwall and Brittany - and Henry II's empire - in the 12th century. The historical, political, ecclesiastical, and religious relationships between medieval Cornwall, Brittany, Wales, Ireland and England are explored here through a study of the cult of St Petroc. Evidence for the cult in each areais thoroughly surveyed, but Cornwall and Brittany, the most important loci of the cult and most closely linked by language and culture, are the book's primary focus. The implications of the cult of a Celtic saint [generallyan intensely local phenomenon] shared between Cornwall and Brittany are discussed, and attention is given to the highly politically-directed twelfth-century account of the furtive translation of the saint's relics to Brittany, which offers invaluable evidence for relations between Cornwall and Brittany, and also for Brittany's position in the Angevin empire of Henry II. Dr KAREN JANKULAK lectures in the Department of Welsh, University of Wales,Lampeter. She gained her Ph.D. from the Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Queen Sybil of Jerusalem, queen in her own right, was ruler of the kingdom of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. Her reign saw the loss of the city of Jerusalem to Saladin, and the beginning of the Third Crusade. Her reign began with her nobles divided and crisis looming; by her death the military forces of Christian Europe were uniting with her and her husband, intent on recovering what had been lost. Sybil died before the bulk of the forces of the Third Crusade could arrive in the kingdom, and Jerusalem was never recovered. But although Sybil failed, she went down fighting - spiritually, even if not physically. This study traces Sybil's life, from her childhood as the daughter of the heir to the throne of Jerusalem to her death in the crusading force outside the city of Acre. It sets her career alongside that of other European queens and noblewomen of the twelfth century who wielded or attempted to wield power and ask how far the eventual survival of the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192 was due to Sybil's leadership in 1187 and her determination never to give up.

There has been a tendency to the view the history of the early medieval papacy predominantly in ideological terms, which has resulted in the over-exaggeration of the idea of the papal monarchy. In this study, first published in 1979, Jeffrey Richards questions this view, arguing that whilst the papacy's power and responsibility grew during the period under discussion, it did so by a series of historical accidents rather than a coherent radical design. The title redresses the imbalance implicit in the monarchical interpretation, and emphasizes other important political, administrative and social aspects of papal history. As such it will be of particular value to students interested in the history of the Church; in particular, the development of the early medieval papacy, and the shifting policies and characteristics of the popes themselves.

This is a comprehensive and original study of madness in the medieval Islamic world. Using a wide variety of sources from history, literature, and art, the late Michael Dols explores beliefs about madness in Islamic society and examines attitudes towards individuals afflicted by mental illness or disability. The book demonstrates the links between Christian and Muslim medical beliefs and practices, and traces the influence of certain Christian beliefs, such as miracle-working, on Islamic practices. It breaks new ground in analysing the notions of the romantic fool, the wise fool, and the holy fool in medieval Islam within the framework of perceptions of mental illness, and shows that the madman was not regarded as a pariah, an outcast, or a scapegoat. This is a comprehensive and original work, whose insights into magic, medicine, and religion combine to open up our understanding of medieval Islamic society.

This book examines the everyday lives of lay women, including their working routines, their clothing, and precious possessions / This book will appeal to scholars and students of Byzantine history, art and archaeology, as well as those interested in gender and material culture studies / Studies on Byzantine women in the past has been primarily concerned with religious and imperial figures, but this work comprehensively presents the lives of those secular and non-privileged women

The book is divided into ecclesiastical, legal, letters, chronicles, biography, conduct books, literary and medical writings to enable students to find sources relevant for their courses by theme. The sources range from well-known texts such as the letters of Abelard and Heloise, Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales to less familiar sources such as Hincmar of Rheims, Gratian, Peter Damian and Gregory IX, Ibn Hazm's The Ring of the Dove and Boccaccio's De mulieribus Claris. Providing students with a range of examples to use in their seminars and essays. This second edition has been revised throughout to include the literature published since the first edition and expanded to include additional material from European, Jewish and Muslim sources as well as additional material on same-sex relations such as the same-sex marriage rituals. Providing students with the latest debates and sources appropriate for how the field has progressed to inspire them in taking the field forward themselves.

The inner workings of early medieval societies cannot be understood without also studying their links - religious, cultural, economic and political - with their neighbours. In this collection Karl Leyser shows how Ottonian and Salian Germany both influenced and was influenced by the societies with which it came into contact. While the author's central interest is in Germany, his work is of value for the study of medieval European society as a whole.

This is a study of the ideology of monarchy in late medieval Europe. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, European monarchies faced a series of crises and conflicts, which gave rise to intense debate as to the nature and authority of monarchy in its various forms. From such debates and polemics emerged many of the ideas that were to sustain the later confrontation between "absolutism" and "constitutionalism." Burns examines the ideas generated by various "crisis of monarchy" in France, England, the Spanish kingdoms, and what still claimed to be the "universal" monarchies of Empire and Papacy. This is a lucid and stimulating exploration of a major and previously neglected topic in the history of political thought by one of its leading historians.

This volume examines the Melkite church from the Arab invasion of Syria in 634 until 969. The Melkite Patriarchates were established in Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria and, following the Arab campaigns in Syria and Egypt, they all came under the new Muslim state. Over the next decades the Melkite church underwent a process of gradual marginalization, moving from the privileged position of the state confession to becoming one of the religious minorities of the Caliphate. This transition took place in the context of theological and political interactions with the Byzantine Empire, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Papacy and, over time, with the reborn Roman Empire in the West. Exploring the various processes within the Melkite church this volume also examines Caliphate-Byzantine interactions, the cultural and religious influences of Constantinople, the synthesis of Greek, Arab and Syriac elements, the process of Arabization of communities, and Melkite relations with distant Rome.

Based on rigorous film-analysis and historical comparisons, this book explorers the narrative filmmakers create by summarising complex historical issues, but which can lead to misconceptions about the past. Analysis of films such as Alexander Nevsky, Kryzact (1960)-also known as Knights of the Teutonic Order, The Black Knight, El Cid, The Great Warrior Skanderberg, Braveheart, The Seventh Seal, Spartacus, Gladiator, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Saladin, Kingdom of Heaven and 300 offers students a broad range of examples to consider alongside the history of antiquity and medieval Europe. This book explores how the past is portrayed in the present and offers students and general readers a framework to unpick 'historical' films to see how the facts are woven into fiction.

War in Eleventh-Century Byzantium presents new insights and critical approaches to warfare between the Byzantine Empire and its neighbours during the eleventh century. Modern historians have identified the eleventh century as a landmark era in Byzantine history. This was a period of invasions, political tumult, financial crisis and social disruption, but it was also a time of cultural and intellectual innovation and achievement. Despite this, the subject of warfare during this period remains underexplored. Addressing an important gap in the historiography of Byzantium, the volume argues that the eleventh century was a period of important geo-political change, when the Byzantine Empire was attacked on all sides, and its frontiers were breached. This book is valuable reading for scholars and students interested in Byzantium history and military history.

Articles centred on the use made by European nations of medieval texts and other artefacts to define their history and origins. The 19th century was a time of fierce national competition for the "ownership" of medieval documents and the legitimation of national histories. This volume contains papers dealing with the attempts of French scholars to claim English documents (and vice versa), as also of disputes between Scandinavian and British scholars, and Dutch, German and Italian scholars. Regionalism is also a repeated topic, with claims made for the autonomy of Frisia within the Netherlands, and Languedoc within France. Other papers deal with the rediscovery of medieval music, with early American attempts to redirect the course of 20th century poetry by appeal to medieval precedent, and with the continuing vitality of Dante's Divina Commedia (especially the Inferno) in the light of 20th century experience. The volume as a whole sheds new light on the whole process of appropriating history, which remains a vital and contentioustopic, both inside and outside the academic world. CONTRIBUTORS: MARK BURDE, MAGNUS FJALLDAL, ALPITA DE JONG, ANNETTE KREUZIGER-HERR, NILS HOLGER PETERSEN, RACHEL DRESSLER, KARL FUGELS, WILLIAM QUINN, PETER CHRISTENSEN

On December 22, 1550 an old bricklayer named Richard Plantagenet was buried at Eastwell in Kent. Unusually for a bricklayer, he had been able to read Latin and, when pressed, he had claimed to be a natural son of King Richard III and to have met him the day before the Battle of Bosworth. Yet had he simply been Richard III's bastard he would have been styled "of Gloucester" or given the name of his birthplace. Richard III openly acknowledged and provided for his other bastards. Why did he not do the same for Richard Plantagenet? Most tellingly, where is the evidence that Prince Richard actually died? In an original and intriguing scenario, David Baldwin argues that while some elements of Richard Plantagenet's story may be authentic, it is possible that he dared not reveal his real identity: Richard, Duke of York, the rightful king. David Baldwin has searched contemporary documents to unearth the clues that underpin his theory and has visited all the places associated with Richard Plantagenet. In doing so, he has opened up an entirely new line of investigation and exonerated Richard III of the greatest of the crimes imputed to him. Dead princes were a potential embarrassment, but a living prince would have been a real danger and a closely guarded secret, not only in Richard's reign but in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

First English translation of key chronicle for study of the rise of the Normans. This is the first English translation of a powerful work of semi-imaginary history which gave the Normans a past, present, and future at the outset of their triumphant century. Completed in or soon after 1015 by a visiting Frenchscholar, it is a study in verse and prose of one family's rise from defeat and exile in the world of the heathen Vikings to an honoured place among the great territorial rulers of France. It recounts two campaigns in England by the founder, Rollo, and a series of stirring political, military and religious events on the Continent, most notably the dreadful murder of Rollo's son William, and the kidnapping, escape and precarious early career of Dudo's firstpatron, Count Richard I. The author's exuberant imagination is matched by his language, so presenting the unwary reader with difficulties, which ERIC CHRISTIANSEN notes and discusses throughout, defining and explaining themany poetic metres and prose embellishments used, and identifying the sources of numerous borrowings; he also re-examines and collates the manuscripts and printed versions of the text, and considers the most recent scholarship inthe field. The late ERIC CHRISTIANSEN was Fellow of New College and University Lecturer at Oxford.

What did medieval authors know about their world? Were they parochial and focused on just their monastery, town, or kingdom? Or were they aware of the broader medieval Europe that modern historians write about? This collection brings the focus back to medieval authors to see how they described their world. While we see that each author certainly had their own biases, the vast majority of them did not view the world as constrained to their small piece of it. Instead, they talked about the wider world, and often they had informants or textual sources that informed them about the world, even if they did not visit it themselves. This volume shows that they also used similar ideas to create space and identity - whether talking about the desert, the holy land, or food practices in their texts. By examining medieval authors and their own perceptions of their world, this collection offers a framework for discussions of medieval Europe in the twenty-first century.

In 1550-51, English Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer engaged in a debate with Bishop Stephen Gardiner. Archbishop Cranmer was asserting a new Reformed view for England's Eucharist theology, but he faced opposition from England's leading traditional theologian, Gardiner. Gardiner remained faithful to the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation, while Cranmer was formulating a Spiritual Presence theology. This book analyzes the debate, asking how both Cranmer and Gardiner arrived at opposing theologies despite being involved similarly in English religion and politics. To answer the question, the book examines each author's use of scripture, continental Reformers, and early Church Fathers. The book also argues that the personal and political context surrounding the two men shaped the nature of the theological debate. While trying to push Edward VI's England toward greater Reformation, Cranmer faced continued opposition from Gardiner who was imprisoned throughout Edward's reign. Gardiner sought release from prison and a return to authority, while Cranmer sought validation for his new theology and its associated legislation. To counter Gardiner's challenge, Cranmer had to create a clear Eucharistic theology. This political and personal climate therefore forced Cranmer to create England's Spiritual Presence theology by 1552 that was adopted in the 1558 Elizabethan Settlement and Anglican Church. It was this debate that set Anglicanism for England.

Featuring full-colour artwork, maps and carefully chosen illustrations, this exciting book investigates the Teutonic Knights and their Lithuanian foes during the epic Lithuanian Crusade. The Teutonic Knights were a military order committed to spreading Christendom eastwards into the non-Christian realms of the Baltic and Russia. They progressively extended their control across the various feuding tribes of the Baltic until they confronted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a relatively well-organized and cohesive state. Fully illustrated, this book investigates the fighting men on both sides, assessing their origins, tactics, armament and combat effectiveness in three clashes of the Lithuanian Crusade. The battle of Voplaukis (1311), triggered by a major Lithuanian invasion of newly Christianized lands, saw the Teutonic Knights defeat the numerous but relatively poorly equipped Lithuanian raiders once they had brought them to battle. As a result, the Lithuanians would begin to prepare for full-scale warfare, and the siege of Kaunas (1362) was the month-long investment of the first brick-built castle the Lithuanians constructed. In the battle of Grunwald (1410), the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - fielding knights by now almost comparable to those of the Order - broke the armies of the Teutonic Knights, a defeat from which the Order would never really recover. This lively study lifts the veil on these formidable medieval warriors and three battles that shaped the Baltic world.

Essays on the connections between politics and society in the middle ages, showing their interdependence. Christine Carpenter's influential work on late-medieval English society aspires to encompass a wide spectrum of human experience. Her vision of "total" history embeds the study of politics in a multi-dimensional social frameworkwhich ranges from mentalities and ideology to economy and geography. This collection of essays celebrates Professor Carpenter's achievement by drawing attention to the social underpinning of political culture; the articles reflectthe range of her interests, chronologically from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth, and thematically from ideology and culture, through government and its officials, the nobility, gentry and yeomanry, the law and the church, to local society. The connection between centre and locality pervades the volume, as does the interplay of the ideological and cultural with the practical and material. The essays highlight both how ideas were moulded in political debate and action, and how their roots sprang from social pressures and interests. It also emphasises the wider cultural aspects of topics too-easily conceived as local and material. BENJAMIN THOMPSON is Fellow and Tutor in History at Somerville College, Oxford; JOHN WATTS is Professor of Later Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Contributors: Jackson Armstrong, Caroline Burt, Tony Moore, Richard Partington, Ted Powell, Andrea Ruddick, Andrew Spencer, Benjamin Thompson, John Watts, Theron Westervelt, Jenny Wormald.

This concise and unique volume explores the vital relationship between testimony, memory, and the community in medieval society. Joel T. Rosenthal assembles various categories of testimonies to illuminate how "ordinary" Late Medieval people saw themselves as units of their community, their awareness of the issues surrounding the theater of birth, their interest in the world of and beyond the village, and what aspects of the ubiquitous mother Church were worth recalling. Supported by primary sources and by modern scholarly focus on such issues as social memory, village life, rumor and gossip, and demography, this book provides both a wealth of source material and insightful discussion on how historians can chart the role of memory and community in its shaping of medieval identity and society.

This new translation offers a faithful yet accessible English-language rendering of the twelfth-century Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolomitanorum, the earliest known Latin account of the First Crusade. Although an anonymous work, it has become the exemplar for all later histories and retellings of the First Crusade. As such, it is filled with vivid descriptions of the hardships suffered by the crusaders, with deeds of personal heroism, with courtly intrigues, with betrayal and cowardice, and with a relentless faith that would see the attainment of the desired goal: the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1095. There is a great deal of mystery surrounding this anonymous account, especially in regard to its authorship; place, date, and purpose of composition; narrative methodology; and point of view. It is also a sweeping tale that swiftly moves from the first preaching of the crusade by Pope Urban II, to the ragtag and ultimately doomed effort of the popular People's Crusade, and then the more disciplined and concerted campaign by the French and Norman nobility that led to the conquest of the Holy Land by the crusaders. Based on the latest scholarly research, including a substantive introduction that explores the questions surrounding the Gesta and its historical context, this definitive translation will bring the First Crusade and its era to life for all readers.

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

By allying Blomkvist's network-kingdoms with Sindbaek's nodal market-networks, it is argued that the political and economic character of Viking-Age Britain and Ireland - my 'Insular Scandinavia' - is best understood if Dublin and Jorvik are seen as being established as nodes of a market-based network kingdom. Based on a dataset relating to the then developing bullion economies of the central and eastern Scandinavian worlds and southern Scandinavia in particular, it is argued that war-band leaders from, or familiar with, 'Danish' markets like Hedeby and Kaupang transposed to Insular Scandinavia the concept of polities based on establishment of markets and the protection of routeways between them. Using this book, readers can think of interlinked Dublin and Great Army elites creating an Insular version of a Danish-style nodal market kingdom based on commerce and silver currencies. A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain will help specialist researchers and students of Viking archaeology make connections between southern Scandinavia and the market economy of the Ui Imair ('descendants of Ivarr') operating out of the twin nodes of Dublin and Jorvik via the initial establishment of Hiberno-Scandinavian longphuirt and the related winter-camps of the Viking Great Army.