In Rituals and Symbolic Communication in Medieval Hungary under the Arpad Dynasty (1000 - 1301) Dusan Zupka examines rituals as means of political and symbolic communication in medieval Central Europe, with a special emphasis on the rulers of the Arpad dynasty in the Kingdom of Hungary. Particular attention is paid to symbolic acts such as festive coronations, liturgical praises, welcoming of rulers (adventus regis), ritualised settlement of disputes, and symbolic rites during encounters between rulers. The power and meaning of rituals were understandable to contemporary protagonists and to their chroniclers. These rituals therefore played an essential role in medieval political culture. The book concludes with an outline of ritual communication as a coherent system.

This volume covers the transition period stretching from the reign of Justinian I to the end of the 8th century, focusing on the experience of individuals who lived through the last decades of Byzantine rule in Egypt before the arrival of the new Arab rulers. The contributions drawing from the wealth of sources we have for Egypt, explore phenomena of stability and disruption during the transition from the classical to the postclassical world.

Did medieval women have the power to choose? This is a question at the heart of this book which explores three court cases from Yorkshire in the decades after the Black Death. Alice de Rouclif was a child heiress made to marry the illegitimate son of the local abbot and then abducted by her feudal superior. Agnes Grantham was a successful businesswoman ambushed and assaulted in a forest whilst on her way to dine with the Master of St Leonard's Hospital. Alice Brathwell was a respectable widow who attracted the attentions of a supposedly aristocratic conman. These are their stories.

Saint Christina the Astonishing was born into a poor Belgian family in 1150. She 'died' aged 22 but at her requiem she rose from her coffin and flew away like a bird, wanting to escape the smell of sinful humanity. This was the first of many mad, disobedient exploits in her long and remarkable life. Jane Draycott and Lesley Saunders retell - through their own poems as well as brief extracts from medieval religious writers - Christina's story as a woman's search for selfhood. The book includes artworks from Peter Hay, which he created for the original edition in direct response to the poetry. First published in 1998 and long out of print, this new edition makes Jane Draycott and Lesley Saunders' sensual and exhilarating poetic collaboration available once more. 'Ascetic and excessive, exasperating, sometimes absurd, the life of the little-known St Christina provokes fantasies and questions. Was she a wonder worker? Or an anorexic, fuelled by hatred of the flesh? Or a powerful woman whose legendary flights set her free from her time and her place? Rather than offering pieties or diagnoses, Lesley Saunders and Jane Draycott, invite us to a feast of soul food. Their two distinctive voices meet the voices of the Middle Ages in an extraordinary blend of the sacred and the profane, the rapt and the irreverent, playful, sensual and deeply felt.' Philip Gross 'Poetry as exciting as this is rare: fusing an earthy sensuality with the spiritual, it lets us hear Christina's voice ringing clearly from the rafters.' Robyn Bolam

This book is devoted to the Old Rus' dress of the Upper Volga area, as gleaned from the archaeological evidence of the burial sites. The organic remains of dress and metal and glass ornaments and fasteners are considered. Issues such as the social status and age of the buried individuals, as well as the influence of various ethnic groups (including East Slavic groups, Finno-Ugric tribes and the Balts ) on the dress of the Old Rus', are addressed through the study of variants of male and female headdresses, clothes and accessories. Furthermore, a detailed study of the evolution of the headdress and the structure of jewelry from the late 10th century to the 13th century is offered.

Medieval Franciscans prayed in hermitages and churches, on the road and in the piazza, with song and silence. The unique stories of these men and women, as their engaging texts, stunning architecture and breath-taking artwork suggest, are narratives of souls, enfleshed in their respective worlds of the leprosarium, university, or itinerant preaching. The essays in this book foster a nuanced perspective on Franciscan beliefs and spiritual practices by resisting the temptation to reduce their myriad accounts of prayer to an exclusive, univocal spirituality. By displaying the breadth and depth of these medieval Franciscans at prayer, these essays challenge contemporary readers to look anew at this "cloud of witnesses" from the past, who, both lay and religious, promoted a diversity of spiritual expression that found a familial focus in their mutual passion for the divine and the world they shared.

This book is the first to bring together all that is known about the humanly-modified and cultivated landscapes of Middle America just prior to the European conquest. It assesses the agricultural and human-environment conditions existing at that time, and its implications for various contemporary themes ranging from global change to the presumed 'environment friendly' Native American.

Armies of the Dark Ages spans the period from 600 AD to 1066 and describes Byzantine, Sub-Roman, Pictish, Irish, Visigothic, Lombard, Merovingian, Carolingian, Ottonian, Viking, Russian, Slav, Avar, Khazar, Magyar, Bulgar, Pecheneg, Ghuzz, Alan, Armenian, Sassanid, Arab, Andalusian, Near Eastern, Saxon, Norman, Italian and Spanish armies. It examines tactics and strategy, organisation and formations as well as providing a detailed guide to the dress and equipment of the armies of the period. Comprehensive illustrations complement the text and the result is a wealth of information for anyone interested in the warfare of the time. Long out of print, the book has been a source of inspiration to wargamers and academic historians alike. It is reprinted here in its complete 1980 second edition with an updated bibliography.

This collection of essays explores the complex relations between Christians and Muslims at the dawn of the modern age. It begins by examining two seminal works by Nicholas of Cusa: De pace fidei, a dialogue seeking peace among world religions written after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and Cribratio Alkorani (1460-61), an attempt to confirm Gospel truths through a critical reading of the Qur'an. After considering Nicholas, his sources, and his context, the book explores a wider range of late medieval texts on Christian-Muslim relations-not only Christian writings about Islam but also Muslim responses to Christianity. The book's focus is historical, but it can also contribute to efforts at increasing Muslim-Christian understanding today.

Based on extensive study of the primary and secondary sources, Damian J. Smith here provides the first full account of the combined influence of crusade, heresy and inquisition in and about the lands of the Crown of Aragon until the death of James I the Conqueror in 1276. This work deals with the gradual loss of influence of the Crown in Provence and Languedoc culminating in the treaty of Corbeil in 1258. It then investigates the extent of heresy in the lands of the Crown and in other areas of Christian Spain. In the final part, the origins and development of the Aragonese inquisition are discussed in detail with a particular emphasis on the role of Ramon de Penyafort.

Basingstoke is frequently seen as a very modern town, the product of the last decades of the 20th century. In reality it has a long, rich and prosperous history. From its beginnings c.1000 it became a significant market centre for the area around, and a place on the route to London from the west. By 1500 it was among the top 60 towns in England by wealth and taxpayers, and the centre of a major industrial area, whose manufactured cloths formed part of international patterns of trade. Moreover, it is well documented particularly for the 15th and 16th century, when it was at its peak, and should provide a useful addition to the limited number of studies of small medieval towns. Much of the old town has been swept away by the shopping centre, but something of the medieval footprint survives in its street beyond this, in a few surviving buildings and above all in its magnificent church. This book examines these features as well as the families, whether outsiders or locals, who made the most of the new thriving economic conditions, and whose dynamism helped create the town's expansion.

"Women in England in the Middle Ages" looks at 'all sorts and conditions' of women from c.500 to c.1500 A.D., concentrating on common experiences over their life-cycle, as daughters, wives and mothers, and the contrasts derived from their position in the social hierarchy. Most women lived out their lives in their own village or town, but queens and noblewomen exercised power and patronage locally and at the royal court. Religion played a significant part in women's lives; some became nuns and abbesses, while the majority were involved in their own parish and community. Inevitably, women's lives changed over time, but, in bringing up their children and balancing family and work, medieval women faced many of the problems of their modern counterparts.

For the first time, Sophie Harwood uses the Old French tradition as a lens through which to examine women and warfare from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The result is a skilled analysis of gender roles in the medieval era, and a heightened awareness of how important literary texts are to our understanding of the historical period in which they circulated. Medieval Women and War examines both the text and illustrations of over 30 Old French manuscripts to highlight the ways in many of the texts differ from their traditionally assumed (usually classical) sources. Structured around five pivotal female types - women cited as causes for violence, women as victims of violence, women as ancillaries to warriors, women as warriors themselves, and women as political influences - this important book unpicks gendered boundaries to shed new light on the social, political and military structures of warfare as well as adding nuance to current debates on womanhood in the middle ages.

This volume, Ordo et Sanctitas: The Franciscan Spiritual Journey in Theology and Hagiography, which celebrates the life and legacy of J. A. Wayne Hellmann, is comprised of articles written by colleagues, former students, and associates. The authors were invited to contribute their own articles within three broad categories corresponding with the areas in which Wayne has made a longstanding scholarly contribution: Franciscan hagiographical texts (especially Thomas of Celano); medieval theology and the Bonaventurian theological tradition; and the retrieval of the Franciscan tradition in a contemporary context. All of the essays in the volume build upon and expand in new directions the contributions of our honoree in these areas. Contributors are Regis J. Armstrong , Joshua C. Benson, Michael Blastic, Joseph Chinnici, Michael F. Cusato, Jacques Dalarun, J. Isaac Goff, Jay M. Hammond, Timothy J. Johnson, John Kruse, Steven J. McMichael, Juliet Mousseau, William Short, Laura Smit, and Katherine Wrisley Shelby.

While Karl Leyser was pre-eminent in the English-speaking world as the historian of medieval Germany, his work has increased our understanding of European society as a whole. In particular, he brought to life nobles and ecclesiastics, by combining a profound knowledge of the primary sources with an imaginative ability to understand motives and attitudes. Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages brings together essays by Karl Leyser's pupils, many of them distinguished historians in their own right, on subjects which he himself illuminated.

Collecting sixteen thought-provoking new essays by leading medievalists, this volume celebrates the work of the late Rees Davies. Reflecting Davies' interest in identities, political culture and the workings of power in medieval Britain, the essays range across ten centuries, looking at a variety of key topics. Issues explored range from the historical representations of peoples and the changing patterns of power and authority, to the notions of 'core' and 'periphery' and the relationship between local conditions and international movements. The political impact of words and ideas, and the parallels between developments in Wales and those elsewhere in Britain, Ireland and Europe are also discussed. Appreciations of Rees Davies, a bibliography of his works, and Davies' own farewell speech to the History Faculty at the University of Oxford complete this outstanding tribute to a much-missed scholar.

Geffrei Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis is the oldest surviving example of historiography in the French vernacular. It was written in Lincolnshire c.1136-37 and is, in large part, an Anglo-Norman verse adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Its narrative covers the period from the sixth century until the death of the Conqueror's son William Rufus in 1100.
This is an important text in historiographic terms, less as an historical source than as an early example of informative literature written in a secular perspective for a predominantly baronial audience. It illustrates the multilingualism and multiculturalism of twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Britain, and shows the descendants of the Norman conquerors seeking to integrate themselves culturally into their adoptive homeland during the 1130s. It also ranks among the earliest extant witnesses of the rise of courtly literature in French, and of named female literary patronage.
This edition offers a critical text of one of the chronicle's four extant manuscripts. There is an introduction placing the poem in its social and literary contexts, followed by the medieval text, edited according to critical interventionist principles and comprising 6532 rhyming octosyllables. A facing modern English prose translation, the first concern of which is accuracy, aims also to convey the tone and style of the original rather than provide a strictly literal rendering of it. The extensive explanatory notes to the text are followed by a bibliography and a complete index of place and personal names.

THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2022 Eleven years when Britain had no king. In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution. On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the 'useless and dangerous' House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew. The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley, who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man. The Restless Republic ranges from London to Leith, Cornwall to Connacht, from the corridors of power to the common fields and hillsides. Gathering her cast of trembling visionaries and banished royalists, dextrous mandarins and bewildered bystanders, Anna Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain's history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

This book explores the late medieval English cults which evolved around 'political martyrs' - men who had been violently killed in political circumstances and later venerated, though never canonized.It is the first monograph to study political martyrdom. It innovatively locates late medieval cults of political martyrs in their religious, social and cultural context. It uses a broad range of primary sources. It provides a detailed study of important case studies.This book explores the late medieval English cults which evolved around 'political martyrs'. By examining these cults the richness of political culture is revealed, and insights offered into the ways in which belief, worship, social and civic identities, and political language and practice were continuously constructed and re-constructed.

Historians of premodern Europe often think in terms of 'small worlds': a series of regional societies functioning independently of each other. This -approach works well for isolated areas but is less obviously applicable to England, the most centralised country in Europe. How far England was centrally controlled and how far power in reality remained in the localities are key considerations in understanding English history both in the middle ages and after-wards.
The essays in "Regionalism and Revision" all address these questions, both by analysing how the problem should be approached and by examining what the exercise of power involved in local terms. Did the gentry dominate local office by virtue of their intrinsic importance in their counties or were they dependent for the continuation of their power and wealth on the renewal of their commissions from the central government? How did magnates mediate influence at the centre on behalf of the localities, and how were they repaid for it? How did officials appointed by the crown, including sheriffs and JPs, react to having to impose unpopular burdens, such as purveyance, upon the counties?

Winner of the 2019 Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Prize In To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle, Andrew Villalon and Donald Kagay provide a full treatment of one of the major battles of the Hundred Years War. The authors have investigated the background to Najera, traced its immediate events, and laid out its effects on Iberia and the principal adversaries in the Hundred Years War.

This book is a new survey of the Celtic and Roman traditions in Merovingian Gaul, Lombard Italy, and the British Isles from 590-768. In it Corning argues that the main areas of conflict between the two traditions during this period were the Easter controversy and by extension the style of tonsure. Corning's work serves as a valuable case study of the ways in which the early medieval Church attempted to reach consensus on divisive issues.

This study offers a new view on the development of an urban culture of writing in one of the major cities of late medieval Europe. Via the examination of a tremendous number of documents from the Augsburg city archive it shows how civic authorities started to rely more and more on written records, which in turn created the need for archiving. The power of this process primarily resulted from a growing desire for supervision and control. Die Studie eroeffnet einen neuen Blick auf den Entstehungsprozess kommunaler Schriftkultur in einer europaischen Grossstadt des Spatmittelalters. Die Auswertung der umfangreichen UEberlieferung im Stadtarchiv Augsburg zeigt, wie stadtische Autoritaten zunehmend auf Schriftlichkeit angewiesen waren und dabei eigene Bedurfnisse der Archivierung auspragten. Als zentrale Antriebskraft der Verschriftlichung tritt dabei ein wachsendes Bedurfnis nach Kontrolle und UEberprufbarkeit hervor.