CONFERENCES: Count Hugh of Troyes and the Crusading Nexus of Champagne
This is my summary of a paper given at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London.
The Childhood of William the Conqueror
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.
The 1066 Norwegian Invasion of England in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The goal of this paper is to understand how the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle portrays the Norwegian Invasion of 1066 and how they characterize the Norwegians, particularly the figure of Haraldr Harðráði.
Monastic Space and the Use of Books in Anglo-Norman England
My summary of a paper given at the Institute of Historical Research on: Monastic Space and the Use of Books in Anglo-Norman England.
Chivalry, Feudalism, and Source Criticism: The Writing of Medieval German Military History
A paper from the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Did the Vikings reach Madeira?
New research about mice on Madeira suggests that the Vikings may have visited the Atlantic island 400 years before it was colonized.
The Battle of Clontarf – then and now
HistoryHub and University College Dublin have teamed up to create two-part video series to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf.
Is the story of the Battle of Clontarf more fiction than fact?
The Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh is considered one of the most important sources about the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. However, new research is suggesting the tale is based more on the Trojan War than on historical sources.
Trinity College Dublin marks anniversary of Battle of Clontarf with conference and exhibition
This year marks the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf, one of the most important events in Irish history.
Mass Pilgrimage and the Christological Context of the First Crusade
The importance of Jerusalem as a holy city for Christians serves as a starting point for understanding the motivations of eleventh-century pilgrims.
Lords Of The North Sea: A Comparative Study Of Aristocratic Territory In The North Sea World In The Tenth And Eleventh Centuries
The paper is a comparative study on the aristocrats of eastern England, eastern Normandy, western Flanders and central Norway.
Auðun of the West Fjords and the Saga Tradition: Similarities of Theme and Structural Suitability
This paper evaluates the story of Auðun from the West Fjords, a þáttr dating from the Sturlunga period of medieval Iceland. It compares the short prose narrative to the much longer sagas in terms of their mutual concerns with kings, peace, and the place of Iceland in a larger Christian world.
Spiritual ‘encyclopedias’ in eleventh-century Byzantium?
The theoretical debate concerning what constitutes an ‘encyclopedia’ in the Byzantine context appears to be not only underdeveloped, but also carried out in a vacuum with respect to the Latin medieval counterpart (and vice-versa).
Living stones : the practice of remembrance at Lincoln Cathedral, (1092-1235)
This thesis analyses four different aspects of devotional life at one of England’s largest and wealthiest medieval cathedrals between the years 1092 and 1235.
Unpleasant Affairs That Please Us: Admonition and Rebuke in the Letter Collections of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 11th and 12th Centuries
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…
Herb-workers and Heretics: Beguines, Bakhtin and the Basques
During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women’s movement. The same term was used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of “heretic.” The etymology of the term “beguine” and ultimate origins of the movement have never been satisfactorily explained.
Bernard of Clairvaux’s Writings on Violence and the Sacred
Monk, exegete, political actor and reformer, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was not just a man of his times; he was a man who shaped his times.
Clontarf in the Wider World
While a lively debate has continued for decades between Irish historians concerning the impact of the battle, Clontarf’s place in a wider field of European events has received less attention.
Harold Godwinson’s Posthumous Reputation, 1066-c.1160
This text will show in which ways Harold’s posthumous reputation was constructed to cement the Norman claim to legitimacy and how this legacy lasted well beyond William the Conqueror’s death.
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
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.
The “Discrete Occupational Identity” of Chaucer’s Knyght
Popular critical opinion favors reading the pilgrim Knyght of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales as the representative of the idealized chivalric knight; however, the pilgrim Knyght bears the hallmark of the early professional soldier that began to evolve as early as the eleventh century.
The Military Use of the Icon of the Theotokos and its Moral Logic in the Historians of the Ninth-Twelfth Centuries
Starting at least by the late tenth century, Byzantine emperors took icons of the Mother of God with them on campaign. This article examines the appearance of such icons in the narratives of historical texts.
Resonance and the Photographing of Medieval Architecture
In this essay I aim to convey in text and photographs what it might mean to experience medieval architecture with some degree of connectivity or what Wittgenstein calls, poetically, “resonance.”
Holy War and the home front : the crusading culture of Berry, France in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries
Le Berry, in the geographical centre of France, developed its own “crusading culture” that both affected the ideas of the people living there and effected new institutions and traditions in that society pertaining to the crusades.