Romances provided the basis of a particular kind of view of knighthood and warfare that was very influential on other literature concerning knights and warfare, as much as it was on real life practices and attitudes.
Interpreting Warfare and Knighthood in Late Medieval France: Writers and Their Sources in the Reign of King Charles VI (1380-1422)
March 10, 2013 By
The Mind’s Eye: Reconstructing the Historian’s Semantic Matrix Through Henry Knighton’s Account of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381
February 11, 2013 By
The Mind’s Eye: Reconstructing the Historian’s Semantic Matrix Through Henry Knighton’s Account of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381 Sarah Marilyn Steeves Keeshan Master of Arts, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia December (2011) Abstract The medieval historian engaged with the systems of power and authority that surrounded him. In his account of the Peasants’ Revolt in late medieval […]
Sir John Fortescue and the French Polemical Treatises of the Hundred Years War
February 10, 2013 By
Inevitably Fortescue had to adopt new arguments for the defence of Henry VI. To this end he asserted that the Lancastrians now had a just title through divine and ecclesiastical approbation, popular consent and prescription, but the core of his case was a direct response to the Yorkist claim that they had a superior hereditary title to the throne.
Ransoming prisoners of war became widespread in the Hundred Years War, new book finds
January 24, 2013 By
‘There is widespread evidence to suggest that during the 15th century the practice of ransom is increasingly extended to commoners, not just kings or chivalrous knights.’
The English Soldier in the Campaign of Agincourt
January 13, 2013 By
The field between the English and French was open, devoid of hedges, thickets, valleys, ravines, or other obstacles, and had been chosen by the French themselves. For our purpose the country was like a table; rarely is a battlefield so simple and easy to describe.
The Scottish wars of Edward III, 1327-1338
January 13, 2013 By
This thesis deals with the events of the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 1330s and the English military machine that allowed Edward III to win numerous successes against the Scots yet was unable to secure a permanent conquest of any portion of Scotland save Berwick-upon Tweed.
The Half-Hanged Man
December 18, 2012 By
I’ve wanted to write a novel set during the latter half of the 14th century for a long time. Even by medieval standards, this was a brutal and bloody era, with much of Europe plunged into dynastic wars.
Mathematical modelling of a mediaeval battle: the Battle of Agincourt, 1415
December 9, 2012 By
The present study aims at using a modern continuum theory that includes contact between individuals, to model the mediaeval Battle of Agincourt in 1415
Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar: Joan of Arc’s Scottish Captain
November 14, 2012 By
Priest, soldier, pillager, diplomat, counsellor to kings, Archdeacon of St Andrews… and mentioned in the birth of Scottish golf. You couldn’t make this man up.
A Reevaluation of the Impact of the Hundred Years War On The Rural Economy and Society of England
October 11, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine both the positive and negative impacts of the Hundred Years War on the rural society and economy of England and to demonstrate that the overall impact of the war was not as negative as the majority of historians have previously maintained.
“The King’s Library: Construction, Representation and Reception of the Ideal Kingship in the Late French Middle Ages”
October 6, 2012 By
This paper on Charles V of France and his contribution to education was given on October 5th, 2012 as part of a workshop between Freiburg and the University of Toronto.
The King’s Mercy. An Attribute of Later Medieval English Monarchy
September 9, 2012 By
Modern assumptions about medieval justice still tend to see this process of amelioration as merely occasional and exceptional: mercy needed to be applied only where special circumstances made it inappropriate to apply the full rigours of the law. This, however, is seriously to misunderstand both the purpose and the pervasiveness of mercy in the operation of medieval justice.
Comparisons and Contrasts: The Struggles and Reactions of Selected English Ports Between 1338 and 1360
August 25, 2012 By
Warships landed in the harbor on a quiet Sunday morning in 1338 while most of the townspeople were attending mass. The sailors they carried proceeded to pillage and loot the town completely, killing many of the townspeople and raping the women and girls.
Henry of Lancaster and Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines
July 15, 2012 By
Lancaster’s range of activities suggests the best elements of the fourteenth-century pattern of knighthood. This was rather more secular, both in theory and practice, than that which had inspired a thirteenth-century knight.
Cogs, Sails and Longbows: Implications of Naval Tactics and Technology in the Hundred Years War
June 24, 2012 By
There were several naval engagements during the Hundred Years War. The three that will be looked at in this work are the battle of Sluys in 1340, the battle of Les Espagnols-Sur- Mer in 1350, and the capture of a French fleet from La Rochelle. The battle of Sluys is the best known of these, but it can be argued that subsequent engagements are of equal or greater importance. Many historians have downplayed these events.
John Crabbe: Flemish Pirate, Merchant, and Adventurer
June 5, 2012 By
The decades before the outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War were notoriously fruitful in commercial violence.
The introduction and use of the pavise in the Hundred Years War
May 16, 2012 By
When the Genoese had all been brought together and put in order, and after they had begun to approach their enemy, they started to shout as loud as they could to frighten the English.
In the Wake of the Treaty of Windsor: A Tale of Two Ladies
April 29, 2012 By
The river Lima, which crosses the upper Minho region, one of the great and beautiful landscapes in Portugal, had witnessed some of the most significant moments of her life. And yet, Inês had probably been born very far away in England, in the reign of Edward III.
From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages
April 23, 2012 By
Aberth writes in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, both in his lively, readable style aimed at the nonspecialist and in his antiheroic, almost romantic portrayal of late medieval miseries.
Strategic Insights: The Battle of Crecy
March 25, 2012 By
This paper will explore and analyze strategic decision making by Edward III, King of England, and Philip VI, King of France, at the Battle of Crecy using the critical thinking model as a conceptual framework, in conjunction with egocentrism and sociocentrism as the two main cognitive frames of reference.
The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries
March 11, 2012 By
According to DeVries, historians (myself specifically included) who argue for the lethal efficacy of the longbow are committing the sin of technological determinism, and indeed ‘have done military history and the history of technology a disservice’…
Chacun son Guesclin : La réception des quatre versions de l’oeuvre de Cuvelier entre 1380 et 1480
February 26, 2012 By
The goal of the present thesis is to study the reception of the Chanson de Bertrand du Guesclin by Cuvelier from the time of its creation around 1385 up to the publication in print of one of its prose versions around 1480.
The Loss of Ponthieu: Nationalism or Particularism
November 27, 2011 By
The birth of European nationalism from amidst the carnage of the Hundred Years War has become one of the truisms of medieval history.
Inter-frontal Cooperation in the Fourteenth Century and Edward III’s 1346 Campaign
November 27, 2011 By
In this article I will endeavour to fill this gap, and examine to what extent medieval commanders campaigning on different fronts could have cooperated with each other in pursuit of a common plan, and what was the potential importance of such cooperation.
The military and administrative leadership of the Black Prince
November 9, 2011 By
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, has been analyzed on many different levels for his military genius in battle during the Hundred Years War.
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