Edward Augustus Freeman (1823 1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results, examining the history of medieval England from the fifth until the twelfth centuries. Volume 6 provides a comprehensive index for the set. These volumes will interest both scholars of early England and the Conquest and modern historiographers.

First published in 1929, The Mystery of the Great Pyramid attempts to unravel the secrets of the Great Pyramid by drawing parallels with the rituals in the Book of the Dead. The conception of the Pyramid and the origin of the cult of Osiris and of the Book of the Dead are to be found in a common source, which maybe expressed in the one word, Messianism. The author argues that this is why the literature of early Christian gnosticism abounds in mystical pyramid figures and associated astronomical conceptions and constellations. This book will be of interest to students of history, philosophy, and theology.

Crusades covers the seven hundred years from the First Crusade (1095-1102) to the fall of Malta (1798) and draws together scholars working on theatres of war, their home fronts and settlements from the Baltic to Africa and from Spain to the Near East and on theology, law, literature, art, numismatics and economic, social, political and military history. Routledge publishes this journal for The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East. Particular attention is given to the publication of historical sources - narrative, homiletic and documentary - but studies and interpretative essays are welcomed too. Crusades also incorporates the Society's Bulletin. The editors are Professor Benjamin Z. Kedar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Professor Jonathan Phillips, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK; Nikolaos G. Chrissis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece; and Iris Shagrir, The Open University of Israel.

Scholars have recently begun to study collections of Byzantine historical excerpts as autonomous pieces of literature. This book focuses on a series of minor collections that have received little or no scholarly attention, including the Epitome of the Seventh Century, the Excerpta Anonymi (tenth century), the Excerpta Salmasiana (eighth to eleventh centuries), and the Excerpta Planudea (thirteenth century). Three aspects of these texts are analysed in detail: their method of redaction, their literary structure, and their cultural and political function. Combining codicological, literary, and political analyses, this study contributes to a better understanding of the intertwining of knowledge and power, and suggests that these collections of historical excerpts should be seen as a Byzantine way of rewriting history. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429351020, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Offers a fresh perspective on the role of the court in late medieval Scotland, framing it within the wider field of court studies, highlighting its centrality to the effective government for which James IV is renowned. James IV is regarded by many historians as the most charismatic and politically successful of Scotland's rulers, with his royal court, and the institution of the royal household which underpinned it, at the heart of his reign. This book, the first comprehensive examination of the subject, takes the structures and personnel of the household - from councillors to stable-hands - as the foundation for its study of the court and its role. Beginning by looking at the distinction between household and court and the structures imposed by the household on the court, Hepburn utilises this framework to explore the lives of the people moving within it, both in terms of their duties as royal servants and their broader social and political worlds. The book argues that these people were both audience and performer in the court, receiving and producing messages about the king, royal government and the status of groups and individuals. Association with the household also became a feature of life for people away from the court, through the household-related terms in which they were described and through the lands they held. Overall, it highlights the central role of the court in the effective conduct of royal government for which James IV is renowned.

The Lancastrian army was conducting a triumphant march on the capital, having defeated Warwick at the Second Battle of St. Albans, when on 4 March, Edward of York was proclaimed king in London. The Lancastrians withdrew northwards and Edward followed in pursuit. The two armies met at the village of Towton on 29 March 1461. This long and bitter battle began early as the two armies advanced towards each other, raging all day with the Lancastrians seeming to have the better of it, until the Duke of Norfolk arrived with several thousand Yorkist reinforcements., resulting in what is known as 'Bloody Meadow'. This book reveals how Towton marked the resurgence of the Yorkist cause and established Edward IV as king.

Edward Augustus Freeman (1823 1892) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and one of the pre-eminent historians of his generation. Politics was a constant interest for Freeman, who was also a regular contributor to the Saturday Review. While he wrote on a variety of historical topics, from ancient Greece to the German Federation, and had a great interest in architecture, this six-volume work, published between 1867 and 1879, was his magnum opus. Freeman reconsiders how the history of the Conquest is understood and examines its causes and results. Volume 3 focuses almost exclusively on the tumultuous events of 1066. Freeman analyses Harold's reign, the interregnum, and the later reign of William in Normandy. Additionally, he provides a thorough account of military events in Normandy and England, and detailed descriptions of battles.

Christopher Daniell's Atlas of Medieval Britain presents a sweeping visual survey of Britain from the Roman occupation to 1485.

Annotated throughout with clear commentary, this volume tells the story of the British Isles, and makes visually accessible the varied and often complex world of the Middle Ages. The Atlas depicts the spatial distribution of key events and buildings between 1066 and 1485, as well as providing the relevant Anglo-Saxon background. Charting the main political, administrative and religious features of medieval society, the maps also locate cultural landmarks such as the sites of mystery plays, universities and specific architectural styles.

Topics covered include:

• Iron Age and Roman occupation
• Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
• changing political scenarios within England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
• religious framework, including diocesan boundaries, monasteries and friaries
• government, society and economy.

Complete with recommended further reading, this volume is an indispensable reference resource for all students of medieval British history.

Exploring a variety of themes such as how much crusades cost, how they were financed, how funds were transferred to the East and how crusaders fared financially after their return, this book will appeal to researchers and students in the crusades and medieval economics alike / Taking the Kingdom of England as a case study, those interested in medieval English history will find it particularly useful / This book also examines the commitment and willingness of the participants to sacrifice their own finances for the interests of the Holy Land

This is a book that explores the nature of sainthood in a region at the margins of medieval Latin Christendom. Defining the model of sanctity that characterized Transylvania between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the study considers how the cults of saints functioned within specific local social and cultural contexts. Analyzing case studies from a multi-ethnic region influenced by both the Latin and Eastern Christian traditions, this book provides a close reading of little-surveyed primary sources and offers a comprehensive understanding of sainthood in Transylvania, enhancing the broader study of medieval saints' cults and their relationship to social power structures. It will be of great interest to scholars of medieval religion, researchers in medieval studies, and religious studies scholars engaged in comparative research.

This book provides case studies which together show students and researchers alike the benefit of taking beliefs about the supernatural as an important factor in accounting for political authority and beliefs about warfare. Although contributions mainly focus on medieval and early modern Europe, the early chapters reach into antiquity and the later ones into modernity exploring how these claims continue to influence military epistemology, the interpretation of conflict and the decision that life-taking is just. This book provides medieval and early modern history students and researchers with an understanding of religion and conflict and of the enduring role of beliefs about the supernatural in the construction of authority and the conduct of war.

The Byzantine Neighbourhood contributes to a new narrative regarding Byzantine cities through the adoption of a neighbourhood perspective. It offers a multi-disciplinary investigation of the spatial and social practices that produced Byzantine concepts of neighbourhood and afforded dynamic interactions between different actors, elite and non-elite. Authors further consider neighbourhoods as political entities, examining how varieties of collectivity formed in Byzantine neighbourhoods translated into political action. By both acknowledging the unique position of Constantinople, and giving serious attention to the varieties of provincial experience, the contributors consider regional factors (social, economic, and political) that formed the ties of local communities to the state and illuminate the mechanisms of empire. Beyond its Byzantine focus, this volume contributes to broader discussions of premodern urbanism by drawing attention to the spatial dimension of social life and highlighting the involvement of multiple agents in city-making.

Honouring the work of the renowned historian Margaret Muller, After the Text will appeal to students and academics in Byzantine literature / Covering the use of rhetoric, poetry, fables, and hagiography in Byzantium, those interested in Byzantine Greek will find this book particularly enlightening / These studies illustrate the profound richness of Byzantine culture through its literature by analysing texts within context

The Norman invasion of Britain, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, is well known, but the later invasion of Ireland is much less well documented. Yet much of what we see today in Irish heritage has Norman roots. Ireland and Britain have many similarities, although relations between them have too often descended into bitterness and violence. This book goes back to the starting point of this, more than eight hundred years ago. Beginning with Irish history before the Norman invasion, the book describes how Ireland was conquered and settled by the French-speaking Normans from north-west France, whose language and culture had already come to dominate most of Britain. It looks at the creation and government of a large region called the Liberty of Leinster between 1167 and 1247, a turning point in Irish history, identifying the Frankish institutions imposed upon Ireland by its Anglo-Norman conquerors. The Normans were not always belligerent conquerors, but they were innovators and reformers, who incorporated the sensible traditions and practices of their subjugated lands into their new government. In little over one hundred years the Normans had a transforming effect on British and Irish societies and, while different in many ways, both countries benefited from their legacy.

The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir (1160-1233AD), entitled 'al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh', is one of the outstanding sources for the history of the mediaeval world. It covers the whole sweep of Islamic history almost up to the death of its author and, with the sources available to him, he attempted to embrace the widest geographical spread; events in Iraq, Iran and further East run in counterpoint with those involving North Africa and Spain. From the time of the arrival of the Crusaders in the Levant, their activities and the Muslim response become the focus of the work. This part covers the establishment of the Crusader states and the initial weak and divided response of Muslim regimes in the area, the moribund Fatimid caliphate in Egypt and competing emirs in Syria and Mesopotamia. The strengthening of the Muslim reaction is typified by the career of Zanki, which also illustrates the important links with events in the orbit of the Abbasid caliphate and the Saljuq sultanate.

First published in 1934, this book is a history of Christ's College, Cambridge, from its foundation in 1437, through its relocation to its current site, up to the charter of 1505. The original college, founded by parochial rector William Byngham, was named God's House and occupied a site which is now part of King's College. It was given its first royal licence in 1446 and moved to its present site in 1448. The college received its present name and charter when it was refounded in 1505 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII. This book recounts the history of Christ's during this period, using archival evidence and illustrations to offer a fascinating picture of the less well known early stages of the college's development.

Understanding Disability Throughout History explores seldom-heard voices from the past by studying the hidden lives of disabled people before the concept of disability existed culturally, socially and administratively. The book focuses on Iceland from the Age of Settlement, traditionally considered to have taken place from 874 to 930, until the 1936 Law on Social Security (Loeg um almannatryggingar), which is the first time that disabled people were referenced in Iceland as a legal or administrative category. Data sources analysed in the project represent a broad range of materials that are not often featured in the study of disability, such as bone collections, medieval literature and census data from the early modern era, archaeological remains, historical archives, folktales and legends, personal narratives and museum displays. The ten chapters include contributions from multidisciplinary team of experts working in the fields of Disability Studies, History, Archaeology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Folklore and Ethnology, Anthropology, Museum Studies, and Archival Sciences, along with a collection of post-doctoral and graduate students. The volume will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, history, medieval studies, ethnology, folklore, and archaeology.

As the politico-economic exploits of vikings in and around the Frankish realm remain, to a considerable extent, obscured by the constraints of a fragmentary and biased corpus of (near-)contemporary evidence, this volume approaches the available interdisciplinary data on a cumulative and conceptual level, allowing overall spatiotemporal patterns of viking activity to be detected and defined - and thereby challenging the notion that these movements were capricious, haphazard, and gratuitous in character. Set against a backdrop of continuous commerce and knowledge exchange, this overarching survey demonstrates the existence of a relatively uniform, sequential framework of wealth extraction, encampment, and political engagement, within which Scandinavian fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities - or 'hydrarchies'. By delineating and visualising this framework, a four-phased conceptual development model of hydrarchic conduct and consequence is established, whose validity is substantiated by its application to a number of distinct regional case studies. The parameters of this abstract model affirm that Scandinavian movements across Francia were the result of prudent and expedient decision-making processes, contingent on exchanged intelligence, cumulative experience, and the ongoing individual and collective need for socioeconomic subsistence and enrichment. Monarchs and Hydrarchs will appeal to both students and specialists of the Viking Age, whilst serving as an equally valuable resource to those investigating early medieval Francia, Scandinavia, and the North Sea world as a whole.

Explores the importance of religious beliefs, objects, and practices to the development and evolution of markets and marketplaces in material, geographic, and ideological terms providing students and scholars with an accessible introduction to the latest research in the field to inform their studies. Truly global, the chapters cover Europe, South Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East allowing students to compare the role religion played in the development of the marketplace in the pre-modern world. This is an interdisciplinary volume, bringing together scholars of literature, history, archaeology, and sociology to investigate religion and the marketplace providing students with a fuller picture of the field.

St. Margaret of Antioch was one of the most popular saints in medieval England and, throughout the Middle Ages, the various Lives of St. Margaret functioned as a blueprint for a virginal life and supernatural assistance to pregnant women during the dangerous process of labor. In her narrative, Margaret is accosted by various demons and, having defeated each monster in turn, she is taken to the place of her martyrdom where she prays for supernatural boons for her adherents. This book argues that Margaret's monsters are a key element in understanding Margaret's importance to her adherents, specifically how the sexual identities of her adherents were constructed and maintained. More broadly, this study offers three major contributions to the field of medieval studies: first, it argues for the utility of a diachronic analysis of Saints' Lives literature in a field dominated by synchronic analyses; second, this diachronic analysis is important to interpreting the intertext of Saints' Lives, not only between different Lives but also different versions of the same Life; and third, the approach further suggests that the most valuable socio-cultural information in hagiographic literature is found in the auxiliary characters and not in the figure of the saint him/herself.

This book explores the contribution of southern Italy and Sicily to the crusades and crusader states. By adopting the theme of identity as a tool of analysis, it argues that a far more nuanced picture emerges about the relationship than the dismissive portrayal by William of Tyre in his Chronicon, which has largely been accepted by later historians. Building upon previous scholarship in relation to Norman identity, it widens the discussion to evaluate the role of more fluid and evolving Italo-Norman and Italo-Sicilian identities, and how these shaped events. In so doing, this book also argues that the relationship between the territories needs to be considered in different dimensions: direct involvement of leaders and rulers versus indirect engagement through the geography of southern Italy and Sicily. Over time, and as identities change, these two dimensions converge, making the kingdom itself a leading participant in crusading.

Ancestor worship is often assumed by contemporary European audiences to be an outdated and primitive tradition with little relevance to our societies, past and present. This book questions that assumption and seeks to determine whether ancestor ideology was an integral part of religion in Viking Age and early medieval Scandinavia. The concept is examined from a broad socio-anthropological perspective, which is used to structure a set of case studies which analyse the cults of specific individuals in Old Norse literature. The situation of gods in Old Norse religion has been almost exclusively addressed in isolation from these socio-anthropological perspectives. The public gravemound cults of deceased rulers are discussed conventionally as cases of sacral kingship, and, more recently, religious ruler ideology; both are seen as having divine associations in Old Norse scholarship. Building on the anthropological framework, this study introduces the concept of 'superior ancestors', employed in social anthropology to denote a form of political ancestor worship used to regulate social structure deliberately. It suggests that Old Norse ruler ideology was based on conventional and widely recognised religious practices revolving around kinship and ancestors and that the gods were perceived as human ancestors belonging to elite families.

This is the first English translation of the 'Chronicle of Prussia', which was written by Nicolaus von Jeroschin, in middle German verse, during the period from 1330 to 1341. It is a history of the Teutonic Knights, encompassing the period between the foundation of the order, in 1190, and 1331. The translator's introduction sets the work in its historical and cultural context. The text was written at the instigation of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, to make an account of the ethos and history of the order's conquest of Prussia available 'to all German people'. Its purpose was to remind the order's knight brothers and its supporters of its origins and past achievements, but above all it was intended to establish the legitimacy of Prussia as a locus for crusades, setting the scene for the order's 'golden age' in the second half of the fourteenth century. The chronicle's content is divided into three sections: it opens with a description of the founding of the order in Acre. There follows a discourse on the nature of spiritual and earthly warfare, which echoes the ideology of crusading warfare first articulated by Bernhard of Clairvaux in his treatise De laude novae militiae. The final, longest, section recounts the wars of the Teutonic Knights against the Prussians and Lithuanians from 1230 until the narrative breaks off abruptly in 1331. The chronicle is the main historical source document for the period it covers and was widely disseminated during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is also an engaging and lively account of warfare and colonisation on the eastern frontier of Latin Christianity.

The Hussite Chronicle is the most important single narrative source for the events of the early Hussite movement. The author is Laurence of Brezova (c.1370-c.1437), a member of the Czech lower nobility and a supporter of the Hussite creed. The movement arose as an initiative for religious and social reform in fifteenth-century Bohemia and was energized by the burning of the priest Jan Hus in 1415. Church and empire attempted to suppress the movement and raised five crusades against the dissenters. The chronicle offers to history and scholarship a nuanced understanding of what can be regarded as an essential component for a proper understanding of late medieval religion. It is also a considered account of aspects of the later crusades. This is the first English-language translation of the chronicle.

This selection of over 200 texts, nearly all appearing for the first time in English translation, provides a close-up look at the crusades against the Hussite heretics of 15th-century Bohemia, from the perspective of the official Church - or at their struggles for religious freedom, from the Hussites' own point of view. It also throws light on the meaning of the crusading movement and on the nature of warfare in the late Middle Ages. There is no single documentary account of the conflict, but the riveting events can be reconstructed from a wide range of contemporary sources: chronicles, sermons, manifestos, songs, bulls, imperial correspondence, military and diplomatic communiques, liturgy, military ordinances, trade embargos, epic poems, letters from the field, Jewish documents, speeches, synodal proceedings, and documents from popes, bishops, emperors and city councils. These texts reveal the zeal and energy of the crusaders but also their deep disunity, growing frustration and underlying fears - and likewise the heresy, determination and independence of the Hussites. Five times the cross was preached and the vastly superior forces of the official church and the empire marched into Bohemia to suppress the peasant armies. Five times they were humiliated and put to flight.