Charles of Anjou's conquest of the Sicilian Regno in 1266 transformed relations between France and the kingdom of Sicily. This original study of contact and exchange in the middle ages explores the significance of the many cultural, religious and political exchanges between the two countries, arguing that the links were more diverse and stronger than simply the rulers' family connections. Jean Dunbabin shows how influence flowed as much from south to north as vice versa, and that France was strongly influenced by the experiences of those who returned after years of fighting in the Regno. As well as considering the experiences of notable crusading families, she sheds new light on the career of Robert II d'Artois, who virtually ruled the Regno for six years before returning to France to remodel the government of Artois. This comparative history of two societies offers an important new perspective on medieval Western Europe.

Pierre de la Palud was a friar of aristocratic birth who was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1329. This biography follows the course of his eventful life, and exploits his copious writings to build up a vivid picture of the man and the world he inhabited. Lawyer, advocate, preacher, reformer, theologian, politician, encyclopedist, crusader - Pierre was all of these; and the voice of each can be heard in his writings. Jean Dunbabin's scholarly and penetrating study traces the career of Pierre de la Palud from his early reflections on contemporary moral issues, including papal prerogatives, contraception, and usury, to his political and diplomatic activities as Patriarch of Jerusalem. From Dominican friar to French courtier, the variety of Pierre's experience and the range of his writings reflect the turbulence of the fourteenth-century Christian church.

This text aims to provide a balanced portrait of one of the most controversial figures of 13th-century Europe and an assessment of the long-term significance of his career. The author describes how Charles I was able to carve out and control a huge power block in the Mediterranean, where he became ruler of Provence, Jerusalem and the kingdom of Naples (including Sicily) as well as that of Anjou. She also discusses his pivotal role in the crusades, as well as his military reform, trading, diplomacy, learning and the arts. The book explores through the life of Charles I of Anjou the international power politics of 13th-century Mediterranean Europe and shows that, as a result of his actions, the political map of Europe was redrawn.

Charles I of Anjou (1225-85), brother of St Louis, was one of the most controversial figures of thirteenth-century Europe. A royal adventurer, who carved out a huge Mediterranean power block, as ruler of Provence, Jerusalem and the kingdom of Naples as well as Anjou, he changed for good the political configuration of the Mediterranean world - even though his ambitions were fatally undermined by the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers. Jean Dunbabin's study - the first in English for 40 years - reassesses Charles's extraordinary career, his pivotal role in the crusades and in military reform, trading, diplomacy, learning and the arts, and finds a more remarkable figure than the ruthless thug of conventional historiography.

The complexity of the interplay and relationships over various borders in medieval Europe is here fully teased out. The processes by which ideas, objects, texts and political thought and experience moved across boundaries in the Middle Ages form the focus of this book, which also seeks to reassess the nature of the boundaries themselves; it thus appropriately reflects a major theme of Dr Malcolm Vale's work, which the essays collected here honour. They suggest ways of breaking down established historiographical paradigms of Europe as a set of distinct polities, achieving a more nuanced picture in which people and objects were constantly moving, and challenging previous conceptions of units and borders. The first section examines the construction of boundaries and units in the later Middle Ages, via topics ranging from linguistic units to social stratifications, and geographically from the Netherlands and Scotland to Gascony and the Iberian peninsula; it reveals how much the relationship between exchange and boundaries was reciprocal. The second section considers the mechanisms by which it took place, from West Africa to Italy and Flanders, and discusses the actual exchange of people, texts, and unusual artefacts. Overall, the essays bear witness to the constant interplay and interconnections throughout medieval Europe and beyond. Contributors: Paul Booth, Maria Joao Violante Branco, Rita Costa-Gomes, Mario Damen, Jan Dumolyn, Jean Dunbabin, Jean-PhilippeGenet, Michael Jones, Maurice Keen, Frederique Lachaud, Patrick Lantschner, Guilhem Pepin, R.L.J. Shaw, Hannah Skoda, Erik Spindler, John Watts.

Papers in Anglo-Norman history including new research on music, the Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday studies. Papers on a very wide range of subjects include, for the first time, one on music, on changes in English chant repertories in the eleventh century; book migrations are examined over the same period, and one of the two papers on the Bayeaux Tapestry looks at changing representations of the "burgheat". There are important papers on law and church administration and the relations of Normandy and England with other regions. The development of Rouen is comparedwith that of Paris; William the Conqueror's relations with Blois and Champagne are discussed; papers on the frontier with the Scots and on Rhys ap Teudur, king of Deheubarth are included. Domesday studies, chronicles and poetry are also represented with new research. Contributors W.M. AIRD, ROBERT BABCOCK, PAUL BRAND, SHIRLEY ANN BROWN, MICHAEL HERREN, EDOARDO D'ANGELO, DAVID DUMVILLE, JEAN DUNBABIN, BERNARD GAUTHIEZ, DAVID HILEY, B.R. KEMP, DEREK RENN, MARY FRANCES SMITH, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, SALLY VAUGHN, JOHN BRYAN WILLIAMS. 16. 1993: St Cuthbert, the Scots and the Normans; Rhys ap Tewdwr; 13c Litigation; Bayeaux Tapestry; Falco of Benevento's Chronicle; Anglo-Saxon Books on Norman Hands; Geoffrey of Chaumont, Thibaud of Blois and William the Conqueror; Paris, un Rouen capetien? 11c English Chant Repertories; Appointment of Parochial Incumbents in 12c England; Burgheat and Gonfanon; ArchbishopStigand; Free Alms Tenure in 12c; Anselm in Italy 1097-1100; Judhael of Totnes.

Survey of the reign of Henry II, offering a range of new evaluations and interpretations. Henry II is the most imposing figure among the medieval kings of England. His fiefs and domains extended from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and his court was frequented by the greatest thinkers and men of letters of his time,besides ambassadors from all over Europe. Yet his is a reign of paradoxes: best known for his dramatic conflicts with his own wife and sons and with Thomas Becket, it was also a crucial period in the evolution of legal and governmental institutions. Here experts in the field provide significant reevaluations of its most important aspects. Topics include Henry's accession and his relations with the papacy, the French king, other rulers in the British Islesand the Norman baronage; the development of the common law and the coinage; the court and its literary milieu; the use of Arthurian legend for political purposes; and the career of the Young King Henry, while the introduction examines the historiography of the reign. CONTRIBUTORS: MARTIN ALLEN, MARTIN AURELL, NICK BARRATT, PAUL BRAND, SEAN DUFFY, ANNE DUGGAN, JEAN DUBABIN, JOHN GILLINGHAM, EDMUND KING, DANIEL POWER, IAN SHORT, MATTHEW STRICKLAND CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL and NICHOLAS VINCENT are Professors of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia.

This wide-ranging and instructive collection makes a valuable addition to the fast-growing body of work on medieval chivalry.' HISTORY

Charles of Anjou's conquest of the Sicilian Regno in 1266 transformed relations between France and the kingdom of Sicily. This original study of contact and exchange in the Middle Ages explores the significance of the many cultural, religious and political exchanges between the two countries, arguing that the links were more diverse and stronger than simply the rulers' family connections. Jean Dunbabin shows how influence flowed as much from south to north as vice versa, and that France was strongly influenced by the experiences of those who returned after years of fighting in the Regno. As well as considering the experiences of notable crusading families, she sheds new light on the career of Robert II d'Artois, who virtually ruled the Regno for six years before returning to France to remodel the government of Artois. This comparative history of two societies offers an important perspective on medieval Western Europe.

Covering the centuries between the disintegration of the Carolingian empire and the rise of the French monarchy, this book traces the long period of gestation that ended with the emergence of the kingdom of France as a recognizable political entity, both on the map of Europe and in the minds of its inhabitants.