|
Books > History > World history > 500 to 1500
Thomas Walsingham, a monk of St Albans, has been described as the last of the great medieval chroniclers. The St Albans Chronicle is arguably the most important account of English history to be written in England at this time. This volume contains the material which can be shown to have been written by Walsingham himself before 1400, and includes his highly individual account of such episodes as the Peasants' Revolt and the rise of Lollardy. This is the first modern edition, and it provides a facing-page English translation, substantial historical commentary, and textual notes.
Rarely did ancient authors write about the lives of women; even
more rarely did they write about the lives of ordinary women: not
queens or heroines who influenced war or politics, not sensational
examples of virtue or vice, not Christian martyrs or ascetics, but
women of moderate status, who experienced everyday joys and sorrows
and had everyday merits and failings. Such a woman was Monica-now
Saint Monica because of her relationship with her son Augustine,
who wrote about her in the Confessions and elsewhere. Despite her
rather unremarkable life, Saint Monica has inspired a robust
controversy in academia, the Church, and the Augustine-reading
public alike: some agree with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who knew
Monica, that Augustine was exceptionally blessed in having such a
mother, while others think that Monica is a classic example of the
manipulative mother who lives through her son, using religion to
repress his sexual life and to control him even when he seems to
escape. In Monica: An Ordinary Saint, Gillian Clark reconciles
these competing images of Monica's life and legacy, arriving at a
woman who was shrewd and enterprising, but also meek and gentle.
Weighing Augustine's discussion of his mother against other
evidence of women's lives in late antiquity, Clark achieves
portraits both of Monica individually, and of the many women like
her. Augustine did not claim that his mother was a saint, but he
did think that the challenges of everyday life required courage and
commitment to Christian principle. Monica's ordinary life, as both
he and Clark tell it, showed both. Monica: An Ordinary Saint
illuminates Monica, wife and mother, in the context of the societal
expectations and burdens that shaped her and all ordinary women.
Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in
preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis that
pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual
blessing in the monastic world of late antiquity, and it becomes a
popular social networking strategy among lay people from the ninth
century onwards, even finding application in recent times. Located
at the intersection of religious and social history, brother-making
exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and
subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical and legal
control. Wide-ranging in its use of sources, from a complete census
of the manuscripts containing the ritual of adelphopoiesis to the
literature and archaeology of early monasticism, and from the works
of hagiographers, historiographers, and legal experts in Byzantium
to comparative material in the Latin West and the Slavic world,
this book is the first exhaustive treatment of the phenomenon.
Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450 was one of the most important popular
uprisings to take place in England during the Middle Ages. It began
as an orchestrated demonstration of political protest by the
inhabitants of south-eastern England against the corruption,
mismanagement, and oppression of Henry VI's government. When no
assurance of any remedy came from the king the rising soon
collapsed into violence. This is the first full-length study of
Cade's revolt to be published this century. I. M. W. Harvey charts
the course of the rebellion and its associated troubles during the
early 1450s, and explores the nature of the society which gave rise
to these upheavals. She makes full use of the available
contemporary evidence, as well as the work of subsequent
historians, in order to uncover the identities of the rebels,
explain their actions, assess their relations with the magnates,
and to examine their achievements. Dr Harvey's lucid and scholarly
analysis of Jack Cade's rebellion helps make intelligible the
eventual collapse of Henry VI's reign into the Wars of the Roses.
This is the first complete biography of one of the most brilliant
fifteenth-century monarchs, Alfonso V of Aragon. Ryder traces
Alfonso's life from his childhood in the chivalric world of Castile
to the newly-acquired states of Aragon and his subsequent accession
to the Aragonese throne. In addition to being a shrewd politician,
Alfonso is revealed to have been an accomplished diplomat, acutely
aware of the power of commerce, and one of the greatest patrons of
the early Renaissance. He brought humanism to life in Southern
Italy and made his court the most brilliant in Europe. Offering not
only an insightful look at Alfonso's life but a vivid portrait of
political and cultural life during his reign, this volume will hold
special appeal for scholars and students of early modern European
history, fifteenth-century Italian and Spanish history, and
Renaissance studies.
Echoes of Enlightenment: The Life and Legacy of Soenam Peldren
explores the issues of gender and sainthood raised by the discovery
of a previously unpublished "liberation story" of the
fourteenth-century Tibetan female Buddhist practitioner Soenam
Peldren. Born in 1328, Peldren spent most of her adult life living
and traveling as a nomad in eastern Tibet until her death in 1372.
Existing scholarship suggests that she was illiterate, lacking
religious education, and unconnected to established religious
institutions. That, and the fact that as a woman her claims of
religious authority would have been constantly questioned, makes
Soenam Peldren's overall success in legitimizing her claims of
divine identity all the more remarkable. Today the site of her
death is recognized as sacred by local residents. In this study,
Suzanne Bessenger draws on the newly discovered biography of the
saint, approaching it through several different lenses. Bessenger
seeks to understand how the written record of the saint's life is
shaped both by the specific hagiographical agendas of its multiple
authors and by the dictates of the genres of Tibetan religious
literature, including biography and poetry. She considers Peldren's
enduring historical legacy as a fascinating piece of Tibetan
history that reveals much about the social and textual machinations
of saint production. Finally, she identifies Peldren as one of the
earliest recorded instances of a historical Tibetan woman
successfully using the uniquely Tibetan hermeneutic of deity
emanation to achieve religious authority.
The History of the Church of Abingdon is one of the most valuable
local histories produced in the twelfth century. It provides a
wealth of information about, and great insight into, the legal,
economic, and ecclesiastical affairs of a major monastery. Charters
and narrative combine to provide a vital resource for historians.
The present edition, unlike its Victorian predecessor, is based on
the earliest manuscript of the text. A modern English translation
is provided on facing pages, together with extensive introductory
material and historical notes.
This volume covers the period from the reputed foundation of the
abbey and its estates to c.1071. Volume II, already published,
covers from c.1071- c.1164.
This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a
European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been
familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades
and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly
publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion
has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the
term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have
been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European
History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the
subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an
integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together
with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims
both to interrogate the notion of 'early modernity' itself and to
survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The
overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not
simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity.
Volume II is devoted to 'Cultures and Power', opening with chapters
on philosophy, science, art and architecture, music, and the
Enlightenment. Subsequent sections examine 'Europe beyond Europe',
with the transformation of contact with other continents during the
first global age, and military and political developments, notably
the expansion of state power.
This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a
European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been
familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades
and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly
publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion
has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the
term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have
been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European
History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the
subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an
integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together
with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims
both to interrogate the notion of 'early modernity' itself and to
survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The
overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not
simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity.
Volume I examines 'Peoples and Place', assessing structural factors
such as climate, printing and the revolution in information, social
and economic developments, and religion, including chapters on
Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam.
Written by twelve expert historians, this well-illustrated account of the great confrontations of medieval Europe (c.700-1500) examines major developments in the methods of warfare from the time of Charlemagne through to the end of the Crusades. The result is a rich and fascinating history of a culture steeped in martial ideas, whose aristocrats were also warriors in a society organized by its desire to wage war.
The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe provides
a comprehensive overview of the gender rules encountered in Europe
in the period between approximately 500 and 1500 C.E. The essays
collected in this volume speak to interpretative challenges common
to all fields of women's and gender history - that is, how best to
uncover the experiences of ordinary people from archives formed
mainly by and about elite males, and how to combine social
histories of lived experiences with cultural histories of gendered
discourses and identities. The collection focuses on Western Europe
in the Middle Ages but offers some consideration of medieval Islam
and Byzantium, opening these fields for further research. The
Handbook is structured into seven sections: Christian, Jewish, and
Muslim thought; law in theory and practice; domestic life and
material culture; labour, land, and economy; bodies and
sexualities; gender and holiness; and the interplay of continuity
and change throughout the medieval period. This Handbook contains
material from some of the foremost scholars in this field, and will
not only serve as the major reference text in the area of medieval
and gender studies, but will also provide the agenda for future new
research.
Since the early 20th century the scholarly study of Anglo-Saxon
texts has been augmented by systematic excavation and analysis of
physical evidence - settlements, cemeteries, artefacts,
environmental data, and standing buildings. This evidence has
confirmed some readings of the Anglo-Saxon literary and documentary
sources and challenged others. More recently, large-scale
excavations both in towns and in the countryside, the application
of computer methods to large bodies of data, new techniques for
site identification such as remote sensing, and new dating methods
have put archaeology at the forefront of Anglo-Saxon studies. The
Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, written by a team of experts
and presenting the results of the most up-to-date research, will
both stimulate and support further investigation into those aspects
of Anglo-Saxon life and culture which archaeology has fundamentally
illuminated. It will prove an essential resourse for our
understanding of a society poised at the interface between
prehistory and history.
|
You may like...
Inside Birds
Cecilia Smith
Hardcover
R605
Discovery Miles 6 050
|