A full discussion of women’s civic rhetoric in the Middle Ages has been somewhat obfuscated for two reasons: persistent generalities about women’s roles, and generalities about the nature of the civic itself in the Middle Ages.
Functions of the Cantred in Medieval Ireland
March 17, 2013 By
The cantred as territorial division was recognised everywhere in Ireland by the Anglo-Norman colonists in the first decades of the establishment of the colony. The subsequent use made of these units depended on a number of variables.
Elite and government in medieval Leiden
March 10, 2013 By
The development of Leiden’s 61ite is traced up to 1420. The siege of the city in that year and the assumption of power by Jan van Beieren resulted in important changes in the urban government: the faction of the Hoeken finally lost ascendancy and the viscount of Leiden ceased to have control over the city’s administration.
The earls in Henry the Second’s reign
March 10, 2013 By
The earldoms of Henry Ills reign can only be understood in the context of their history. The roots of the nature of earldoms in Henry II’s reign stretch back beyond the Norman Conquest to England and the Continent before 1066. It was the combination of these two traditions that shaped many of the features of the earldom under the Norman and early Angevin kings of England.
England: One Country, Two Courts
December 26, 2012 By
The tension created by the two-court system is an integral part of England’s administrative and constitutional history. Exactly how integral has generated a considerable amount of scholarly work, from explanations of the sources of the conflict, to how the disagreement over jurisdiction was addressed throughout the Middle Ages, to what impact the issue had in shaping England’s overall political development.
Spectacularizing Justice in Late Medieval England
November 28, 2012 By
I use the word ritual because in cases of treachery use of a general ‘script’ as ordered by these two accounts emerges with surprising frequency in England in the late 13th and early 14th century.
Comital Authority, Accountability and the Personnel of Comital Administration in Greater Anjou, 1129-51
November 19, 2012 By
This paper was part of SESSION VIII:Power & Politics in the Long Twelfth Century. It examined the charters of Geoffrey of
The Coleridge Hundred and its Medieval Court
October 28, 2012 By
Where possible, I have given examples of the earliest type of court documented, with examples of the type of case heard, and by whom they were heard, concentrating on the Manorial and Mayor’s Courts, which are the best documented, and whose Rolls nave been translated by the authors of my chief sources of reference.
Anglo-Saxon law and numismatics: A reassessment in the light of Patrick Wormald’s the Making of English Law
October 22, 2012 By
In this article, I wish to return to the references to coinage in the Anglo-Saxon laws in the light of Patrick Wormald’s important research on the laws, especially his The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, which has made this difficult evidence much more penetrable to the non-specialist.
The Fatimid and Kalbite Governors in Sicily : 909-1044
October 21, 2012 By
This is the second part of my investigation on the Muslim governors (or rulers) in Sicily.
The status of women in Roman and Frankish law
October 10, 2012 By
Under both Roman and Frankish laws, women, although they did not have judicial equality with men, did have many legal rights and freedoms.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
September 23, 2012 By
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
‘Ye shall disturbe noe mans right’: oath-taking and oath-breaking in late medieval and early modern Bristol
August 22, 2012 By
The Bristol mayor’s inauguration was commemorated by a display of civic authority and splendour which was extravagantly illustrated and entered into the city’s most famous history, The Maire of Bristowe Is Kalendar, begun by Robert Ricart in 1479. Urban ceremonies and rituals such as this have excited a great deal of scholarly interest.
The personnel of English and Welsh castles, 1272-1422
August 22, 2012 By
In England, the role played on the continent by the castellanies would appear to have been performed by the county castle and the sheriff, a post that remained firmly under the king’s control in all but a few counties. Instead, a more subtle link between the castle community and political power will have to be found. It will be searched for in the appointment of constables to royal castles, and in grants of ownership of castles, royal or forfeited. It may be found in the building activity that was so common in this period, or in the marriage alliances that created many of the great castle owning estates.
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
June 12, 2012 By
As I have shown elsewhere, the county of Holland underwent a structural change in the second half of the fourteenth century, when economically the emphasis shifted from agriculture to trade and industry and demographically from the country to the towns. The institutions however did not change.
‘He contents the people wherever he goes’ Richard III: His Parliament and Government
April 29, 2012 By
In recent years new biographies of great figures such as Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy have shed great light on key issues of English-European relations, while studies of Margaret Beaufort have redefined the political role of the women of this era.
Palaces and the Street in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Italy
June 19, 2010 By
The late Middle Ages was a period of spectacular urban growth throughout Italy. The city of Florence, for example, began a circuit of walls in 1284 that expanded the area of the city five-fold.
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