A look at author Emily Murdoch’s book, Conquests, from her series, ‘Conquered Hearts’
Hastings: An Unusual Battle
October 3, 2015 By
Part of the reason academic warriors have covered the ground so often is that the battle is by no means easy to understand. It was unusual in a number of ways; so unusual, that the battle demands special care in interpretation.
The Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson
August 16, 2015 By
My book review of Robin Hood tale, Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson.
‘Virile Strength In A Feminine Breast’: Women, Hostageship, Captivity, And Society In The Anglo-French World, C. 1000- C.1300
July 15, 2015 By
My interest in the relationship between hostage- and captive-taking practices and gender originally arose out of the idea for a much grander project about women and warfare.
The Afterlife of the Dead: Reform in Attitude Towards Medieval Burials, Corpses and Bones
July 7, 2015 By
The International Medieval Congress is taking place at the University of Leeds, I’m on hand this week to report on the conference. This blog post reports on my first session.
In Pursuit of Aristocratic Women: A Key to Success in Norman England
December 30, 2014 By
Discussion of marital strategies of the aristocracy in England, 1066-1154, including recruitment through marriage, marital alliances, and political advantage.
Irish Hagiographical Lives in the Twelfth Century: Church Reform before the Anglo-Norman Invasion
September 7, 2014 By
In order to further disentangle the reality and fiction of this view of culture versus barbarity and of reform versus wickedness, I shall analyse twelfth-century Irish vitae.
The Childhood of William the Conqueror
May 28, 2014 By
Duke Robert died when William was seven leaving him to rely on other men to rule his duchy until he came of age. These years were fraught with peril.
Monastic Space and the Use of Books in Anglo-Norman England
May 21, 2014 By
My summary of a paper given at the Institute of Historical Research on: Monastic Space and the Use of Books in Anglo-Norman England.
Unpleasant Affairs That Please Us: Admonition and Rebuke in the Letter Collections of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 11th and 12th Centuries
March 23, 2014 By
From the Norman Conquest in 1066 up to the famous “murder in the cathedral”2 in 1170, six archbishops of Canterbury ruled over the English church…
Writing conquest: traditions of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance in the twelfth century
March 2, 2014 By
Writing Conquest examines the ways in which Latin, Old English, and Middle English twelfth-century historical and pseudo-historical texts remembered and reconstructed three formative moments of Anglo-Saxon invasion and resistance…
The Normans are an Unconquerable People: Orderic Vitalis’s Memory of the Anglo-Norman Regnum during the Reigns of William Rufus and Henry I, 1087-1106
March 1, 2014 By
This essay examines Orderic’s portrayal of the three sons of William the Conqueror, as well as one member of the Anglo-Norman high aristocracy, in an effort to understand how and why his Historia Ecclesiastica recreates the nineteen-year period between the death of William the Conqueror and the ascension of Henry I as an age of violence, poor lordship, and ambiguous gender roles.
How cutting off a horse’s tail was a big insult in the Middle Ages
February 9, 2014 By
Want to humiliate your adversary? Attacking his horse and cutting off its tail was the preferred method, according to a recent article.
The Public and Private Boundaries of Motherhood: Queen Igraine in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia and Laȝamon’s Brut’
January 11, 2014 By
In literary criticism, awareness of transmission of tales between British and continental literature tends to encourage a view of some Arthurian narratives as more similar in tone, style, and language than they in fact are.
Gay Reformers? Why the Medieval Church Banned Priests from Marrying
December 17, 2013 By
Among the issues that the current-day Roman Catholic Church is debating are whether or not priests should marry, and how accepting they should be of homosexuals. Interestingly, about nine hundred years ago both of these issues intertwined in the Anglo-Norman world.
Did Orderic Vitalis Have a Concept of Violence?
December 15, 2013 By
When Orderic writes that something happened violently, it was because he was expressing a judgment on whether or not this was a legitimate use of force.
Great Medieval Fiction 2013!
November 28, 2013 By
For those of you who enjoy some fantasy or a historical novel – this list is for you!
Designer of the Bayeux Tapestry identified
October 29, 2013 By
The Bayeux Tapestry was designed by Scolland, Abbot of St.Augustine’s monastery in Canterbury, according to research by Howard Clarke of University College, Dublin.
The Medieval Walking Dead
October 20, 2013 By
On January 1, 1091, an army of the dead came to Normandy. For one priest, it would be a night that he would never forget.
A stitch in time
September 28, 2013 By
Who commissioned the tapestry? Who made it, where and when? Where was the Tapestry first displayed? Was the message of the Tapestry outright Norman propaganda or a more evenhanded attempt at Anglo-Norman reconciliation?
The counts of the Perche, c. 1066-1217
August 11, 2013 By
The history of Count Rotrou’s family and the polity which they created spans less than 200 years, but it has much to tell us about the development of power structures in the central middle ages and it illustrates two significant strands in the modem historiography of France
Castle for Sale in France: Château-sur-Epte Castle
August 7, 2013 By
This Anglo-Norman castle was built at the turn of the twelfth-century, and was on the front lines in the wars between England and France in the Middle Ages. Now a picturesque ruin, this would be a historian’s dream!
Impregnable friendship : locating desire in the middle English ‘Amis and Amiloun’
July 24, 2013 By
Scholarship on Amis and Amiloun has generally been divided into two critical schools. The majority of critics have read the work as an exemplar of perfect friendship, overlooking (or ignoring) any trace of homoeroticism, citing the possibility itself as anachronistic, or explaining away its presence by offering historical or theoretical justification for intimacy among medieval men.
“A model of wisdom and exemplar of modesty without parallel in our time”: how Matilda of Flanders was represented in two twelfth-century histories
June 7, 2013 By
My thesis investigates the different ways in which two twelfth-century historians, William of Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis, represented Matilda.
Was the White Ship disaster mass murder?
May 21, 2013 By
It was perhaps the worst maritime disaster of the Middle Ages, not just because it cost 300 lives, but because one of them was the heir to the Anglo-Norman Empire. One scholar has a theory that the sinking of the White Ship on the night of November 25, 1120 was not a tragic accident, rather a case of mass murder.
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