On 28th January it will be 1200 years since Charlemagne died in 814. His legacy was immense.
Plague and Persecution: The Black Death and Early Modern Witch Hunts
January 27, 2014 By
The century or so from approximately 1550 to 1650 is a period during which witch-hunts reached unprecedented frequency and intensity. The circumstances that fomented the witch- hunts—persistent warfare, religious conflict, and harvest failures—had occurred before, but witch-hunts had never been so ubiquitous or severe.
Women, Gender and Lordship in France, c.1050–1250
January 22, 2014 By
Arguing that scholars should follow methods of analysis developed by historians of women in the early Middle Ages and must confront problems in the so-called ‘Duby thesis’, this article shows how anachronistic analytical categories and insufficient source criticism have masked our appreciation of the extensive political activities of non-royal aristocratic women in France during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.
John of Freiburg and the Usury Prohibition in the Late Middle Ages: A Study in the Popularization of Medieval Canon Law
December 31, 2013 By
In this dissertation I provide an edition of the treatise on usury (De usuris, bk. 2, tit. 7) contained in the Dominican friar John of Freiburg’s (d. 1314) Summa confessorum (ca. 1298) – a comprehensive encyclopedia of pastoral care that John wrote for the benefit of his fellow friar preachers and all others charged with the cure of souls.
Legal Competition in the Medieval World
December 6, 2013 By
Legal Competition in the Medieval World Aaron L. Bodoh-Creed (Cornell University) Cornell University: Working Paper, June 30 (2009) Abstract We develop a model of competition between legal systems with overlapping jurisdictions based on Hotelling competition that suggests that, absent institutional reform, courts with overlapping jurisdictions will be driven to adopt divergent legal doctrines in order to extract […]
A Rural Economy in Transition: Asia Minor from Late Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages
November 25, 2013 By
A Rural Economy in Transition deals with one of the most important periods in the history of Europe and the Middle East – the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
Medieval Shoes
October 16, 2013 By
Who set the trends for medieval shoe styles – politics, power, economics and climate.
The Black Death in the Middle East and Europe
October 9, 2013 By
I specifically look at England and Egypt as case studies and I’m really gonna talk more about Egypt here.
Into the frontier: medieval land reclamation and the creation of new societies. Comparing Holland and the Po Valley, 800-1500
September 29, 2013 By
In the paper it is shown that medieval land reclamation led to the emergence of two very divergent societies, characterised by a number of different configurations; (a) power and property structure, (b) modes of exploitation, (c) economic portfolios, and (d) commodity markets.
Coexistence among the Peoples of the Book under Abd al-Rahman III
August 16, 2013 By
A policy of coexistence among the Peoples of the Book was pursued by Abd al-Rahman III as such an existence was conducive to economic prosperity. To pursue these ends, the Jewish community was tolerated and protected, while the muwallads, mozarabs and Christian principalities were managed through violence and enforced cooperation within the Iberian Peninsula.
Down and Out in Westeros, or: Economy and Society in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire
April 21, 2013 By
So What’s a Dragon Worth, Anyway?
Society, economy and lordship in Devon in the age of the first two Courtenay earls, c. 1297-1377
April 8, 2013 By
This thesis is a contribution to the social history of medieval Devon and the south- west in the lifetimes of the first two Courtenay earls, Hugh II (1275-1340) and Hugh III (1303-77).
Modern finance in the Middle Ages
February 26, 2013 By
In this short video, Professor Adrian Bell of the University of Reading discusses the parallels between financial crises today and those 800 years ago – including credit crunch, sovereign default, foreign exchange and rate rigging.
Historical Thought and the Reform Crisis of the Early Sixteenth Century
February 19, 2013 By
I shall follow what I feel to be the methodologically sound procedure of examining one case in some detail, while at the same time producing evidence to suggest that elements which are operative in this instance may be operative in others as well. What I should like to focus attention upon are certain ideas of history which were current in the early sixteenth century.

The Regular Canons and the Use of Food, c. 1200–1350
January 31, 2013 By
We are greatly handicapped by the lack of material available to us for this period. By and large, household accounts which provide gross details of quotidian diet elude us. However, to recover the everyday diet of the canons, one useful approach is to examine corrodies and study the assumptions there, by way of analogy, with what can be inferred as normal consumption by canons.
Religious prohibitions against usury
January 29, 2013 By
Why do religions prohibit usury? From a non-historical perspective, interest rate policy might seem an unlikely candidate for inclusion as a central tenet of religious doctrine.
Dark ages and dark areas: global deforestation in the deep past
January 1, 2013 By
The ‘darkness’ that envelopes the ages and areas of the forest of the past consists broadly of two elements. First, there are the problems intrinsic to forests as living ecosystems or entities. Many of these are still more or less uncertain and murky. Second, there are the difficulties of knowing what human activity took place.
The Impact of Climate Change on Late Medieval English Culture
December 28, 2012 By
This thesis challenges the extremes of both environmental determinism and the modernist perspective that humanity exists in social and/or cultural isolation from the natural environment.
King and magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John
December 17, 2012 By
Perhaps the best way to capture the essence of the relationship between Richard, John and their magnates is to focus on one such relationship and to analyse the changes it underwent over the twenty-seven years the two brothers ruled England. The career of Walter de Lacy provides an excellent opportunity for such an analysis.
The Swedish Kings in Progress – and the Centre of Power
December 5, 2012 By
Why did the rulers travel! One reason was purely financial: the economy demanded a constant movement of the household. Once the food supplies in one place of abode had been eaten up it was easier to move to a new residence than to transport provisions overlong distances. Mobility contributed to the proper utilization of the produce of manors.
Adventures far from home: Hanseatic trade with the Faroe Islands
December 3, 2012 By
he voyage to Iceland, now a major destina- tion, took about four weeks (gardiner & mehler 2007, 403; Krause 2010, 150). The Faroe Islands are situated more or less in the middle of that distance and provided a fine stop-over. The islands were an additional market for their trade business and in case of storms offered a safe and most welcome shelter.
The Troublesome bequest of Dame Joan: the establishment of the chapel of St Anne at Walsingham Priory
December 2, 2012 By
In an act of both piety and remembrance, his widow, Dame Joan, ordered that his body should be buried within the great Priory church at nearby Walsingham and, above the tomb, there should be a chapel created in dedication to the mother of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Anne.
Market Failure during the Great Famine in England and Wales (1315-7)
November 29, 2012 By
While there can be little doubt that the floods of 1314-6 were the primary harbingers of the crisis, it is, perhaps, worth asking to what extent they were the only factors behind the hardship experienced between 1315 and 1317.
Shifting Experiences: The Changing Roles of Women in the Italian, Lowland, and German Regions of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
November 12, 2012 By
Specifically, the thesis compares and analyzes the changing roles that women could employ economically, politically, socially, and religiously.
The Regulations of James I concerning the Jewish Moneylenders: a Preliminary Report
October 15, 2012 By
This article enumerates the constitutions and statutes dictated by James I regarding the usurers, and the usurers of the Jews, between 1228 and 1251, from shortly before to shortly after the conquest of the kingdoms of Majorca and Valencia.
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