Discussion of site and buildings, books and manuscripts, cultural life and traditions, from the earliest Anglo-Saxon period to the later middle ages. Glastonbury Abbey was one of the great cultural centres of Anglo-Saxon and medieval England, yet this is the first volume of scholarly essays to be devoted to the subject. Written in honour of C. A. Ralegh Radford, the first itemsare concerned with the physical remains of the abbey, ranging from the place of Glastonbury in the development of Christianity in Somerset to specific examinations of surviving monastic buildings. The main body of the essays explores documents relating to the abbey for evidence of its history and traditions, including the earliest Anglo-Saxon period, pre-conquest abbots, and links with the Celtic world. The final section deals with the cultural life of the abbey: Glastonbury's role in education is discussed and the concluding essay deals with the most magical of all Glastonbury legends - its link with Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail. Contributors: PHILIP RAHTZ, MICHAEL D. COSTEN, C.J. BOND, J.B. WELLER, ROBERT W. DUNNING, LESLEY ABRAMS, JAMES P. CARLEY, ANN DOOLEY, SARAH FOOT, DAVID THORNTON, RICHARD SHARPE, JULIA CRICK, OLIVER J.PADEL, MATTHEW BLOWS, CHARLES T. WOOD, NICHOLAS ORME, CERIDWENLLOYD-MORGAN, FELICITY RIDDY.

Joan of Arc has long piqued the historical imagination, for it seems impossible that a peasant-maid could have led the French army, crowned her king, and then been burned as a heretic, only later to be found a saint. This volume of original essays employs the latest tools of historical analysis, literary criticism, and feminist inquiry to reveal why veterans of her military campaigns found her to have been a remarkable commander; why so many of her contemporaries, churchman and poets alike, found it possible to accept the validity of her mission and her voices; why modern politicians and artists have used her as a symbol; and why the Catholic Church finally decided to canonize her in 1920.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Joan of Arc has long piqued the historical imagination, for it seems impossible that a peasant-maid could have led the French army, crowned her king, and then been burned as a heretic, only later to be found a saint. This volume of original essays employs the latest tools of historical analysis, literary criticism, and feminist inquiry to reveal why veterans of her military campaigns found her to have been a remarkable commander; why so many of her contemporaries, churchman and poets alike, found it possible to accept the validity of her mission and her voices; why modern politicians and artists have used her as a symbol; and why the Catholic Church finally decided to canonize her in 1920.

Joan of Arc and Richard III loom large in the histories of their countries, but the myths surrounding them have always obscured just who they were and what they hoped to accomplish. In this book, medieval historian Charles Wood brings these fascinating figures to life through an original combination of traditional biography and wide-ranging discussion of the political and social world in which they lived. Wood draws on a range of unusual sources--from art and legal codes to chronicles and lives of saints--to present a new picture of medieval people and their concerns. Focusing on topics often neglected by other historians, he includes lively discussions of royal adultery scandals, child-kings and the problems they posed, and earlier people and crises that helped to shape the culture of sex and sainthood that was profoundly that of the Middle Ages. In so doing, he clarifies the historical contributions of Richard and Joan, and sheds new light on the political, social, and religious forces that shaped medieval government and made France and England such widely different countries.

(First published as THE AGE OF CHIVALRY) A lively and insightful interpretation of the Middle Ages.