Global Medieval Contexts 500-1500: Connections and Comparisons provides a unique wide-lens introduction to world history during this period. Designed for students new to the subject, this textbook explores vital networks and relationships among geographies and cultures that shaped medieval societies. The expert author team aims to advance a global view of the period and introduce the reader to histories and narratives beyond an exclusively European context. Key Features: Divided into chronological sections, chapters are organized by four key themes: Religion, Economics, Politics, and Society. This framework enables students to connect wider ideas and debates across 500 to 1500. Individual chapters address current theoretical discussions, including issues around gender, migration, and sustainable environments. The authors' combined teaching experience and subject specialties ensure an engaging and accessible overview for students of history, literature, and those undertaking general studies courses. Theory boxes and end-of-chapter questions provide a basis for group discussion and research. Full-color maps and images illustrate chapter content and support understanding. As a result, this text is essential reading for all those interested in learning more about the histories and cultures of the period, as well as their relevance to our own contemporary experiences and perspectives. This textbook is supported by a companion website providing core resources for students and lecturers.

This book explores views of the natural world in the late Middle Ages, especially as expressed in Livre de chasse (Book of the Hunt), the most influential hunting book of the era. It shows that killing and maiming, suffering and the death of animals were not insignificant topics to late medieval men, but constituted a complex set of issues, and could provoke very contradictory thoughts and feelings that varied according social and cultural milieus and particular cases and circumstances.

This volume presents the first substantial exploration of crusading and masculinity, focusing on the varied ways in which the symbiotic relationship between the two was made manifest in a range of medieval settings and sources, and to what ends. Ideas about masculinity formed an inherent part of the mindset of societies in which crusading happened, and of the conceptual framework informing both those who recorded the events and those who participated. Examination and interrogation of these ideas enables a better contextualised analysis of how those events were experienced, comprehended and portrayed. The collection is structured around five themes: sources and models; contrasting masculinities; emasculation and transgression; masculinity and religiosity and kingship and chivalry. By incorporating masculinity within their analysis of the crusades and of crusaders the contributors demonstrate how such approaches greatly enhance our understanding of crusading as an ideal, an institution and an experience. Individual essays consider western campaigns to the Middle East and Islamic responses; events and sources from the Iberian peninsula and Prussia are also interrogated and re-examined, thus enabling cross-cultural comparison of the meanings attached to medieval manhood. The collection also highlights the value of employing gender as a vital means of assessing relationships between different groups of men, whose values and standards of behaviour were socially and culturally constructed in distinct ways.

The interaction between Byzantium and the Latin West was intimately connected to practically all the major events and developments which shaped the medieval world in the High and Late Middle Ages - for example, the rise of the 'papal monarchy', the launch of the Crusades, the expansion of international and long distance commerce, or the flowering of the Renaissance. This volume explores not only the actual avenues of interaction between the two sides (trade, political and diplomatic contacts, ecclesiastical dialogue, intellectual exchange, armed conflict), but also the image each side had of the other and the way perceptions evolved over this long period in the context of their manifold contact. Twenty-one stimulating papers offer new insights and original research on numerous aspects of this relationship, pooling the expertise of an international group of scholars working on both sides of the Byzantine-Western 'divide', on topics as diverse as identity formation, ideology, court ritual, literary history, military technology and the economy, among others. The particular contribution of the research presented here is the exploration of how cross-cultural relations were shaped by the interplay of the thought-world of the various historical agents and the material circumstances which circumscribed their actions. The volume is primarily aimed at scholars and students interested in the history of Byzantium, the Mediterranean world, and, more widely, intercultural contacts in the Middle Ages.

Baldwin of Boulogne was born the youngest of three sons and marked out for a clerical career, yet in turn he became a First Crusader, first Latin count of Edessa and the founder of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, remarkably, he has never been the subject of a full-length biography. This study examines in detail the stages of Baldwin's career, returning to the contemporary evidence to discover the qualities that enabled him not only to succeed his brother as ruler in 1100 but to maintain and expand the new kingdom of Jerusalem through the next eighteen years in the face of aggression from Muslim enemies and rivalry from fellow crusaders.

This book is the first detailed investigation to focus on the late medieval use of Tree of Jesse imagery, traditionally a representation of the genealogical tree of Christ. In northern Europe, from the mid-fifteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, it could be found across a wide range of media. Yet, as this book vividly illustrates, it had evolved beyond a simple genealogy into something more complex, which could be modified to satisfy specific religious requirements. It was also able to function on a more temporal level, reflecting not only a clerical preoccupation with a sense of communal identity, but a more general interest in displaying a family's heritage, continuity and/or social status. It is this dynamic and polyvalent element that makes the subject so fascinating.

In one of his sermons, the medieval preacher Bernardino of Siena listed seven 'fathers' to whom one owed obedience: God, one's natural father, godfather, confessor, benefactor, a government official, and any elderly man. This book seeks to answer the question of why medieval Europeans saw the need for so many 'fathers.' Why was fatherhood so appealing as a metaphor? Situated at the intersection of social and cultural history, the study draws upon a variety of late-medieval and early-modern sources including witness depositions, personal letters and pedagogical treatises from the city of Basel, Switzerland. It focuses on how people from different walks of life invoked ideas about fatherhood in the pursuit of various goals - not only the ideological agendas of scholarly elites, but also the more pragmatic problems of closing a business deal, claiming an inheritance, or choosing sides in a fistfight - before turning to what these ideas reveal about fatherhood 'on the ground.' The book argues that it was precisely fatherhood's basis in lived experience that gave it a familiar 'shape' in the several roles that fathers played, including provision, affection, disciplinary authority, and education. The most potent rhetorical aspect of fatherhood, however, was not as a static image or shape, but rather the possibility of invoking connections between one role and another. The most potent connection between roles was the idea that fathers were 'affectionate authorities,' combining power over subordinates with desire for their well-being. Tracing the connections and contradictions of these identities, this study provides a nuanced view of concepts of fatherhood on the eve of the Reformation.

This unique study bridges the history of the Crusades with the history of Armenian nationalism and Christianity. To the Crusaders, Armenian Christians presented the only reliable allies in Anatolia and Asia Minor, and were pivotal in the founding of the Crusader principalities of Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Tripoli. The Anatolian kingdom of Cilicia was founded by the Roupenian dynasty (mid 10th to late 11th century), and grew under the collective rule of the Hetumian dynasty (late 12th to mid 14th century). After confrontations with Byzantium, the Seljuks and the Mongols, the Second Crusade led to the crowning of the first Cilician king despite opposition from Byzantium. Following the Third Crusade, power shifted in Cilicia to the Lusignans of Cyprus (mid to late 14th century), culminating in the final collapse of the kingdom at the hands of the Egyptian Mamluks.

R.C. Davis provided the classic account of the European medieval world; equipping generations of undergraduate and 'A' level students with sufficient grasp of the period to debate diverse historical perspectives and reputations. His book has been important grounding for both modernists required to take a course in medieval history, and those who seek to specialise in the medieval period. In updating this classic work to a third edition, the additional author now enables students to see history in action; the diverse viewpoints and important research that has been undertaken since Davis' second edition, and progressed historical understanding. Each of Davis original chapters now concludes with a 'new directions and developments' section by Professor RI Moore, Emeritus of Newcastle University. A key work updated in a method that both enhances subject understanding and sets important research in its wider context. A vital resource, now up-to-date for generations of historians to come.

This celebrated account of society and economy in England from the first Anglo-Saxon settlements in the fifth century to the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest has been a standard text since it first appeared in 1962. This long-awaited second edition incorporates the fruits of 30 years of subsequent scholarship. It has been revised expanded and entirely reset.

This major work is the most radical reinterpretation of the subject for fifty years. Hicks argues that Bastard Feudalism was far more complex - and positive in its effects - than previous accounts have suggested. A major contribution to historical debate which revolutionises our view of late medieval society.

Despite the enormous literature on the crusades, the Frankish states in the Aegean (set up in the wake of the Fourth Crusade in 1204) have been seriously neglected by modern historians. Yet their history is both compelling in itself - these were the last crusader states to be set up in the eastern Mediterranean and among the last to fall to the Turks - and also valuable for the case study they offer in medieval colonialism. Peter Lock surveys the social, economic, religious and cultural aspects of the region within a broad political framework, and explores the clash of cultures between the Frankish interlopers and their Byzantine subjects. This is a major addition to crusading studies.

For many in the Middle Ages, pilgrimages were seen to represent a clear risk of moral and religious perdition for women, and they were strongly discouraged from making them; this exhortation would have been universally disseminated and generally followed, except, of course, in the case of the virtuous 'extraordinary women', such as saints and queens. Women and Pilgrimage in Medieval Galicia represents an analysis of the social history of women based on documentary sources and physical evidence, breaking away from literary and historiographical stereotypes, while at the same time contributing to a critical assessment of the myth that medieval women were kept hidden away from the world. As the chapters here show, women - and not only those 'extraordinary women', but also women from other social strata - became pilgrims and travelled the paths that led from their homes to the most important Christian shrines, especially - although not exclusively - Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. It can be seen that medieval women were actively involved in this ritualistic expression of devotion, piety, sacrifice or penitence. This situation is thoroughly documented in this multidisciplinary book, with emphasis both on the pilgrimages abroad from Galicia and on the pilgrimages to the shrine of St James at Compostela.

In the first full-length study of Judith of Flanders (c. 1032-1094), Mary Dockray-Miller provides a narrative of Judith's life through analysis of the books and art objects she commissioned and collected. Organizing her book chronologically by Judith's marriages and commissions, Dockray-Miller argues that Judith consciously and successfully deployed patronage to support her political and marital maneuverings in the eleventh-century European political theater. During her marriage to Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria, she commissioned at least four Gospel books for herself in addition to the numerous art objects that she gave to English churches as part of her devotional practices. The multiple treasures Judith donated to Weingarten Abbey while she was married to Welf of Bavaria culminated in the posthumous gift of the relic of the Holy Blood, still celebrated as the Abbey's most important holding. Lavishly illustrated with never before published full-color reproductions from Monte Cassino MS 437 and Fulda Landesbibliothek MS Aa.21, The Books and the Life of Judith of Flanders features English translations of relevant excerpts from the Vita Oswinii and De Translatione Sanguinis Christi. Dockray-Miller's book is a fascinating account of this intriguing woman who successfully negotiated the pitfalls of being on the losing side of both the Norman Conquest and the Investiture Controversy.

Originally published in 1975, this book helps students understand why the Movements of the 12th century remained much more enclosed and monastic or turned to heresy; How much the new orders of Friars owed to the earlier movements and to what extent they arose from the personal inspiration of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic. The introduction is arranged to help the documents to speak for themselves: it opens with a direct confrontation with Francis then goes back to search the religious experience of the 10th to 12th centuries for movements and especially well documented individuals who can help explain the development of fashions and ideas. There are sections on precursors, both monks and heretics, and on the papal policies towards these movements, and the introduction closes with a chapter on Dominic and an epilogue on the impact of the Friars.

Originally published in 1970, this volume examines the history of the Yorkist and early Tudor royal landed estate, conducted in the light of its role in earlier medieval history and especially in Lancastrian government. It provides material with which to understand the nature and origins of the changes that took place in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in Tudor chamber finance. Many of the documents had not been previously published when this book first appeared. The book also questions fundamental assumptions in the wider field of English constitutional history, for example, that the revenues of medieval kings of England were divided into 'ordinary' and 'extra-ordinary' and that they were expected to 'live of their own' on their 'ordinary' revenues.

The reign of Justinian (527--65) was a key phase in the transition from the Roman empire of classical times to the Byzantine empire of the Middle Ages. Justinian himself, born of peasant stock in a provincial backwater, was one of the greatest rulers yet, despite prodigious achievements, he remained an outsider in the sophisticated society of Constantinople. Here, John Moorhead reinterprets Justinian as man and monarch, together with his formidable empress, the ex-actress Theodora, and assesses the evidence from their time for the evolution of a distinctively medieval world.

Cradle of northern Europe's later urban and industrial pre-eminence, medieval Flanders was a region of immense political and economic importance -- and already, as so often later, the battleground of foreign powers. Yet this book is, remarkably, the first comprehensive modern history of the region. Within the framework of a clear political narrative, it presents a vivid portrait of medieval Flemish life that will be essential reading for the medievalist -- and a boon for the many visitors to Bruges and Ghent eager for a better understanding of what they see.

This Seminar Study introduces students to England's foreign policy during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs. In this succinct introduction the author addresses the key questions facing students - for example, to what extent did monarch or minister make policy. Each reign is analysed in turn providing a narrative and explanation of the major events and policy decisions throughout the Tudor period.

This book investigates the impact of the ever-changing story of William Wallace on Scottish national identity. Freed from the historian's bedrock of empiricism by a lack of corroborative sources, the biography of this short-lived late-medieval patriot has long been incorporated into the ideology of nationalism. It is to explain this assimilation, and to deconstruct the myriad ways that Wallace's biography has been endlessly refreshed as a national narrative, over many generations, that forms this investigation. William Wallace: A National Tale examines the elision of Wallace's after-life into narrative ascendency, dominating the ideology and politics of nationalism in Scotland. This narrative is conceptualised as the national tale, a term taken out of its literary moorings to scrutinise how the personal biography of a medieval patriot has been evoked and presented as the nation's biography over seven centuries of time. Through the verse of Blind Harry, the romance of Jane Porter, to the historical imaginations of Braveheart and Brave, Scotland's national tale has been forged. This is a fresh, engaging and timely exploration into Wallace's hold over Scotland's national mythology. It reappraises William Wallace as a national figure. It explores Wallace variously as: A Protestant, A Scottish Chief, A Romantic Hero, and a Hollywood Hero. It examines Scotland's obsession with the need for a national hero.

Translation is at the centre of Christianity, scripturally, as reflected in the biblical stories of the tower of Babel, or of the apostles' speaking in tongues after the Ascension, and historically, where arguments about it were dominant in Councils, such as those of Trent or the Second Vatican Council of 1962-64, which, it should be recalled, privileged the use of the vernacular in liturgy. The four texts edited here discuss the legitimacy of using the vernacular language for scriptural citation. This question in England became central to the perception of the followers of John Wyclif (sometimes known as Lollards): between 1409 and 1530 the use of English scriptures was severely impeded by the established church, and an episcopal licence was required for its possession or dissemination. The issue evidently aroused academic interest, especially in Oxford, where the first complete English translation seems to have originated. The three Latin works here survive complete each in a single manuscript: of these texts two, written by a Franciscan, William Butler, and by a Dominican, Thomas Palmer, are wholly hostile to translation. The third, the longest and most perceptive, edited here for the first time, emerges as written by a secular priest of impressive learning, Richard Ullerston; his other writings display his radical, but not unorthodox opinions. The only English work here is a Wycliffite adaptation of Ullerston's Latin. The volume provides editions and modern translations of these four texts, together with a substantial introduction explaining their context and the implications of their arguments, and encouraging further exploration of the perceptions of the nature of language that are displayed there, many of which, and notably of Ullerston, are in advance of those of his contemporaries.

Scholars have long been interested in the extent to which the Anglo-Saxon past can be understood using material written, and produced, in the twelfth century; and simultaneously in the continued importance (or otherwise) of the Anglo-Saxon past in the generations following the Norman Conquest of England. In order to better understand these issues, this volume provides a series of essays that moves scholarship forward in two significant ways. Firstly, it scrutinises how the Anglo-Saxon past continued to be reused and recycled throughout the longue duree of the twelfth century, as opposed to the early decades that are usually covered. Secondly, by bringing together scholars who are experts in various different scholarly disciplines, the volume deals with a much broader range of historical, linguistic, legal, artistic, palaeographical and cultic evidence than has hitherto been the case. Divided into four main parts: The Anglo-Saxon Saints; Anglo-Saxon England in the Narrative of Britain; Anglo-Saxon Law and Charter; and Art-history and the French Vernacular, it scrutinises the majority of different genres of source material that are vital in any study of early medieval British history. In so doing the resultant volume will become a standard reference point for students and scholars alike interested in the ways in which the Anglo-Saxon past continued to be of importance and interest throughout the twelfth century.

This series [pushes] the boundaries of knowledge and [develops] new trends in approach and understanding. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW The focus of this volume may be summed up as "The Word". Its essays examine the contents and provenance of manuscripts which were written for polemical purposes, treasured by the duchess of York, and through the new medium of print introduced to a wider public topics of historical interest and illustrations of the geography of the known world. The essays here also consider official records of forest administration, expressed in arcane language; documents preserved in the papal curia which reveal significant facts about the lives of Scottish bishops; archives produced by the English chancery noting the movements of a royal councillor; and letters, poems and songs exposing the political strategy of a German prince. Nor is the spoken word neglected, whether employed in speeches delivered at the start of parliaments, using as their themes scriptures and classical texts to set a political agenda; or as sermons to open-air congregations gathered at St. Paul's Cross, where the oratory of Bishop Alcock stirred his listeners in different ways. Contributors: Michael Bennett, Julia Boffey, Paul Cavill, J.M. Grussenmeyer, TomJohnson, J.L. Laynesmith, John Milner, Ben Pope, Dan E. Seward, Sarah Thomas

The Nasrid builders of the Alhambra - the best-preserved medieval Muslim palatial city - were so exacting that some of their work could not be fully explained until the invention of fractal geometry. Their design principles have been obscured, however, by the loss of all archival material. This book resolves that impasse by investigating the neglected, interdisciplinary contexts of medieval poetics and optics and through comparative study of Islamic court ceremonials. This reframing enables the reconstruction of the underlying, integrated aesthetic, focusing on the harmonious interrelationship between diverse artistic media --architecture, poetry and textiles -- in the experience of the beholder, resulting in a new understanding of the Alhambra.

The Viking Age lasted a little over three centuries, but has left a lasting legacy across Europe. These dynamic warrior-traders from Scandinavia, who fought and interacted with peoples as far apart as North America, Russia, and Central Asia, are some of the most recognizable historical figures in the western world. In the modern imagination they represent ruthlessness, heroism, adventurousness, and a unique prestige embellished by the wondrous tales and poetry of the sagas. Yet the sum of evidence for the Viking presence is far less clear than their reputation implies. In Search of Vikings presents a collection of papers from experts in a broad range of disciplines, including history, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics, to provide a detailed understanding of the Vikings in peace and in war. This book focuses on one particularly exciting area of the Viking world, namely the north-west region of England, where they are known to have settled in large numbers. North-west England was the crossroads between Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It was a battleground for distant powers and dynasties, and its Irish Sea coastline created opportunities for trading and settlement. Silver hoards, burials, and Old Norse place-names attest to the Viking presence, and Scandinavian DNA is detectable amongst the modern population. The 12 integrated studies in this book are designed to reinvigorate the search for Vikings in this crucial region and to provide must-reading for anyone interested in Viking history.