Medievalists.net » Family

Last Words from a Medieval Mother to her Son

Medievalists.net — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 18:45:35 +0000

Yesterday, I stumbled across a passage from the Liber Manualis, written by a ninth-century Frankish woman named Dhuoda to her fifteen-year-old son.

The post Last Words from a Medieval Mother to her Son appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Parental Grief and Prayer in the Middle Ages: Religious Coping in Swedish Miracle Stories

Medievalists.net — Tue, 26 May 2015 22:50:12 +0000

This article focuses on expressions of bereavement and religious coping in medieval miracle stories from Sweden.

The post Parental Grief and Prayer in the Middle Ages: Religious Coping in Swedish Miracle Stories appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Picturing Maternal Anxiety in the Miracle of the Jew of Bourges

Medievalists.net — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:48:37 +0000

During the middle ages, one of the most popular and most frequently illustrated Miracles of the Virgin Mary was the Miracle of the Jew of Bourges. According to the text of the miracle, the Virgin saves a young Jewish boy after his father throws him into a fiery oven upon learning he attended a Christian mass.

The post Picturing Maternal Anxiety in the Miracle of the Jew of Bourges appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Medieval Parenting Advice

Medievalists.net — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 16:48:58 +0000

For as long as there have been children, there has been parental advice. This week, let’s take five minutes to look at two Middle English texts that deal with advice

The post Medieval Parenting Advice appeared first on Medievalists.net.

‘There is more to the story than this, of course’: Character and Affect in Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen

Medievalists.net — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:02:55 +0000

Philippa Gregory has critiqued gendered representations of Elizabeth Woodville and has stated that her 2009 novel The White Queen fictionalises Woodville’s history with the aim of challenging such depictions.

The post ‘There is more to the story than this, of course’: Character and Affect in Philippa Gregory’s The White Queen appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Replacing the Father – Representing the Child: A Few Notes on the European History of Guardianship

Medievalists.net — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 02:49:11 +0000

There are medieval European varieties of guardianship that is closely connected to feudal forms of power relations. In English feudal society, where inheritance practice was largely dominated by the principles of primogeniture, the oldest male heir of a deceased father would become the ward of the feudal guardian.

The post Replacing the Father – Representing the Child: A Few Notes on the European History of Guardianship appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Kissing Cousins: Incest and Sex Change in Tristan de Nanteuil

Medievalists.net — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 11:52:06 +0000

In this paper I re-examine Blanchandine‘s sex change in light of its relation to the issue of incest; as I will show, incest is directly related to the sex change and also punctuates the narrative at other points. Tristan de Nanteuil depicts two sexual and/or romantic relationships between cousins...

The post Kissing Cousins: Incest and Sex Change in Tristan de Nanteuil appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Royal and Magnate Bastards in the Later Middle Ages: The View from Scotland

Medievalists.net — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:59:54 +0000

Theory and Practice in Scotland and Elsewhere Medieval Scotland’s law on bastardy is set out in the lawbook Regiam Majestatem (c.1320)...In England things were different, as Michael Hicks has demonstrated. Admittedly, English heraldic practice eventually followed the French, and the formula ‘X bastard of Y’ is occasionally found for magnates’ bastards.

The post Royal and Magnate Bastards in the Later Middle Ages: The View from Scotland appeared first on Medievalists.net.

CONFERENCES: Count Hugh of Troyes and the Crusading Nexus of Champagne

Medievalists.net — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 12:18:18 +0000

This is my summary of a paper given at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London.

The post CONFERENCES: Count Hugh of Troyes and the Crusading Nexus of Champagne appeared first on Medievalists.net.

Blended and Extended Families in Carolingian Charters

Medievalists.net — Tue, 27 May 2014 09:55:51 +0000

This is a summary of a paper on Carolingian charters and the relationship between step and blended families.

The post Blended and Extended Families in Carolingian Charters appeared first on Medievalists.net.