England Archive
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Was the White Ship disaster mass murder?
Posted on May 21, 2013 | No CommentsIt 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. -
Civic and Religious Understanding of the Mentally Ill, Incompetent, and Disabled of Medieval England
Posted on May 20, 2013 | No CommentsThis brief summary covered the fourth paper given at KZOO's Mental Health in Non-medical Terms. It covered ways in which theologians, like Thomas Aquinas, tried to categorize mental disability. Aquinas also tried to prove that the mentally impaired were able to receive sacraments depending their lucidity and where they fit in his four categories. It was an interesting and enjoyable paper. -
Prince Hal’s Head-Wound: Cause and Effect
Posted on May 20, 2013 | No CommentsThe future King Henry V was hit by an arrow to the face at the Battle of Shrewsbury - how did he survive? -
Infant Burials and Christianization: The View from East Central Europe
Posted on May 19, 2013 | No CommentsThis was the second paper in the Early Medieval Europe I series given at KZOO and another fabulous archaeology paper. It contrasted infant grave sites in early converted medieval Poland and Anglo Saxon England. -
English Writings on Chivalry and Warfare during the Hundred Years War
Posted on May 18, 2013 | No CommentsAlongside the Old Testament stories of famous warriors like Joshua and Judas Maccabeus, these chivalric tales were to provide Oldcastle with the appropriate models for knightly behaviour that would, in turn, restore him to the path of heterodoxy. -
Lost medieval town of Dunwich revealed
Posted on May 16, 2013 | No CommentsA University of Southampton professor has carried out the most detailed analysis ever of the archaeological remains of the lost medieval town of Dunwich, dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’. -
William the Conqueror and the Channel Crossing of 1066
Posted on May 16, 2013 | No CommentsWilliam the Conqueror waited several weeks before making his maritime crossing of the English Channel in 1066 - was he hampered by weathered or did the Norman Duke intentionally remain in Normandy, hoping that events in Anglo-Saxon England would turn to his favour? -
Student Violence at the University of Oxford
Posted on May 9, 2013 | No CommentsMy first foray of KZOO 2013 couldn't have been off to a better start with, “I just don’t want to die without a few scars”: Medieval Fight Clubs, Masculine Identity, and Public (Dis)order. There were only two papers in this session and both were riveting. I felt like I couldn't type fast enough to get it all in! The first paper was given by Professor Andrew Larsen of Marquette University. Professor Larsen published a book on high and late medieval student violence and the Saint Scholastica's Day Riot at Oxford university. -
Female brewers in Holland and England
Posted on May 7, 2013 | No CommentsI also want to know why women worked in those professions, what the background of these women was and if changes occurred over time. -
Human Monstrosity in Terminator II: Judgement Day, Beowulf and The Passion of St Christopher
Posted on May 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe idea of a humanoid monster that can be reluctantly empathized with can be traced back to various source texts. For example, Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is a bloodthirsty savage, however upon a close reading of the poem he appears more human. -
Networking Scribes
Posted on May 5, 2013 | No CommentsThis was the keynote paper given at the Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Conference at the University of Toronto April 18 - 21, 2013. -
Welsh Poetry and the War of the Roses
Posted on May 5, 2013 | No CommentsThis is a brief summary of a paper on Welsh poetry, patronage and politics. It was given at the Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Conference at the University of Toronto April 18 - 21, 2013. -
Book Review: Shadow on the Crown
Posted on May 4, 2013 | No CommentsA review of Patricia Bracewell's book: Shadow on the Crown. -
Acquiring, Flaunting and Destroying Silk In Late Anglo-Saxon England
Posted on May 4, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper will argue that vibrantly coloured silks and other elaborate textiles were ubiquitous in England in the late Anglo-Saxon period. -
Bite Me: Rude Food and the Anglo-Saxon Riddle Tradition
Posted on May 3, 2013 | No CommentsAndy Orchard, one of the world's leading experts in Old English literature, presented on the tradition of early medieval riddles, and how the themes of food and sex can be found in these works. -
Will stone coffin reveal medieval knight buried in the same church as Richard III?
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsThe archaeologists who discovered King Richard III under a car park are now hoping that a 600-year-old lead lined stone coffin found nearby will lead them to the remains of a knight buried in the 14th century. -
‘Fromm thennes faste he gan avyse/This litel spot of erthe’: GIS and the General Prologue
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper was given at the Canada Chaucer Seminar on April 27, 2013. -
Pleasurable Forms and Forms of Pleasure in the Pages of the Pearl – manuscript
Posted on April 30, 2013 | No CommentsBahr discussed the poem, Pearl, jokingly termed, 'a formalists wet dream', and focused on its implied relationship between pleasure and form and how it explored the relationship between desire and fruitfulness. -
Magic in English Thirteenth-Century Miracle Collections
Posted on April 29, 2013 | No CommentsThis contribution focuses on miracle collections as a source for medieval magic for three reasons. The first is the very closeness of magic and miracles, for both seek to procure results which transcend nature, and to do this through the medium of a human practitioner. -
Magic for the dead? The archaeology of magic in later medieval burials
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsWas this magic healing or protective? Did it aim to safeguard the living or conjure the dead? Who were the recipients of such magical rites — and who was responsible for performing them? -
Maps Illustrating the Viking Invasions of England
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsThe accompanying maps, which were prepared for lecture-purposes, may perhaps be useful to others who want to illustrate a popular account of the Viking invasions of this country -
Queen’s Gold and Intercession: The Case of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Posted on April 26, 2013 | No CommentsThis essay will consider basic questions about queen’s gold and intercession. First it will address the mechanics of the levy and collection of queen’s gold, beginning with fundamentals such as the nature of the levy and who paid. An investigation into the origins of queen’s gold will follow. -
King John’s Testament and the Last Days of his Reign
Posted on April 26, 2013 | No CommentsKing John's testament is the first royal testament or will to survive in its original form in an English context. -
Richard III may have gone through painful medical treatments to ‘cure’ his scoliosis
Posted on April 25, 2013 | No CommentsScoliosis – a lateral or side-to-side curvature of the spine – can be a very painful condition to live with. But some of the treatments practised in the late medieval period would have themselves caused sufferers a lot of anguish. -
The commons in medieval England
Posted on April 21, 2013 | No CommentsWhy was the same term 'commons' used to describe both a part of the English legislature and a large gathering of rebellious people? How had this double meaning come about and what did it imply for the workings of politics in late medieval England?
