This article examines a number of short narratives from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries which relate to the activities of Cnut as king of England.
Letters from the Otherworld: Arthur and Henry II in Stephen of Rouen’s Draco Normannicus
May 3, 2017 by
The poem Draco Normannicus includes a correspondence between King Arthur, now ruler of the Antipodes, and Henry II.
Past and Present in Mid-Byzantine Chronicles: Change in Narrative Technique and the Transmission of Knowledge
April 24, 2017 by
Particular emphasis will be placed on the Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor and the Chronicle of Symeon the Logothete.
The Historiography of Crisis: Jordanes, Cassiodorus and Justinian in mid sixth-century Constantinople
April 17, 2017 by
This article presents a new interpretation of the historiographical production of Jordanes by situating it in the political and social environment of Constantinople of the years 550-552.
Was There History in the Middle Ages?
April 12, 2017 by
Did medieval writers think they were writing history? Emily A. Winkler takes a closer look at the various forms of ‘history’ during this period.
Gregory of Tours, the Eastern Emperor, and Merovingian Gaul
April 4, 2017 by
This article explores Gregory’s passages on imperial Rome and argues that they were intended to highlight the virtues and vices of particular Merovingian kings in comparison with particular Roman emperors.
The use and the abuse of history, national heritage and nationalism
March 29, 2017 by
‘Icelanders or Norwegians? Leifur, Snorri and national identity then and now’ followed by a panel discussion
The Quennells and the ‘History of Everyday Life’ in England, c. 1918–69
March 19, 2017 by
The Quennells and the ‘History of Everyday Life’ in England, c. 1918–69 By Laura Carter History Workshop Journal, Issue 81 (2016) Introduction: A new social history developed in mid twentieth-century England, one that has seldom been taken seriously by historiographers of social history. The ‘history of everyday life’ involved disparate threads that are challenging to weave […]
Visions in a Ninth-Century Village: an Early Medieval Microhistory
February 27, 2017 by
This article however suggests that an account of a ninth-century peasant’s vision can be read to recover a microhistory of a rural priest in northern Francia, and draws out the implications for how the local societies of the period might be viewed.
‘The revolt of the medievalists’: Directions in recent research on the twelfth-century renaissance
February 11, 2017 by
Ever since Wallace K. Ferguson contributed to making ‘the revolt of the medievalists’ a slogan for the medievalists’ attack on the modernity of Jacob Burckhardt’s Italian renaissance, the question of ‘renaissance’ or ‘renaissances’ has been much discussed.
King Æthelstan in the English, Continental and Scandinavian Traditions of the Tenth to the Thirteenth Centuries
January 29, 2017 by
Using close textual analysis, this thesis has identified similarities and differences in the ways in which the Anglo-Saxon king, Æthelstan, is depicted in narrative sources from England, the Continent and Scandinavia during the tenth to the thirteenth centuries
Autumn of the Middle Ages: A Century Later
November 30, 2016 by
Taking a look at the influence of Johan Huizinga’s Autumn of the Middle Ages.
Who Is the Historian?
September 4, 2016 by
How do historians bring past events to life and why is their role so important in society?
BOOK REVIEW: Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History You Weren’t Taught in School
March 28, 2016 by
A review of Dominic Selwood’s, ‘Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History you Weren’t Taught in School’
BOOK REVIEW: Who is the Historian? by Nigel A. Raab
March 16, 2016 by
Danièle Cybulskie, @5MinMedievalist, gives a review of Nigel A. Raab’s latest book, ‘Who is the Historian’.
Saladin and the Problem of the Counter-Crusade in Medieval Europe
February 3, 2016 by
The phrase Counter-Crusade is, obviously, a modern construct, but in 1144 the military situation in Syria did drastically change.
Danish ferocity and abandoned monasteries: the twelfth-century view
January 7, 2016 by
Apart from brief accounts of attacks on Lindisfarne and Donemutha in the 790s, there are almost no accounts of Viking attacks on Anglo-Saxon monasteries in contemporary sources. There are however many in twelfth century sources, most of them fictive or largely so. This article tries to explain why twelfth-century authors found it so important to invent stories of Viking brutality towards monks and nuns and what ideas and material they used to create their stories
The Empire that was always Decaying: The Carolingians (800-888)
December 11, 2015 by
According to most textbooks, the first Western empire to succeed its late Roman predecessor suddenly burst upon the scene, on Christmas Day 800 in Rome, when Pope Leo III turned Charles, King of the Franks and Lombards, and patricius (protector) of the Romans, into an imperator augustus
Writing History in a Paperless World: Archives of the Future
December 5, 2015 by
The question I want to pose here concerns the form of archives that will be available to the historians of the early twenty-first century. Or put differently – what will be left behind of the contemporary present in lieu of paper for the future historians?
The Duel between Guy of Steenvoorde and Iron Herman
November 29, 2015 by
…both fought bitterly. But Guy knocked his adversary from his horse and kept him down easily with his lance as he was struggling to get up. Then his opponent, running nearer, ran Guy’s horse through with his sword, disemboweling it.
John Hardyng and his Chronicle
November 19, 2015 by
Hardyng, an ex-soldier and spy of Henry V, set about composing the work after he ‘retired’ to the Augustinian priory at South Kyme, Lincolnshire, in the 1440s or 1450s.
From Agincourt (1415) to Fornovo (1495): aspects of the writing of warfare in French and Burgundian 15th century historiographical literature
October 23, 2015 by
The object of this thesis is to inquire into some major aspects of the historiographical writing of war in France and Burgundy, from Henry V’s invasion of France in 1415 to the first wars of Italy.
Anna Komnene and her Sources for Military Affairs in the Alexiad
October 21, 2015 by
Without discounting the contribution of oral traditions of storytelling to the Alexiad, the study favours the growing consensus that Anna was more reliant on written material, especially campaign dispatches and military memoirs.
Teaching Historical Understanding with Christopher Columbus
October 11, 2015 by
I’m a big fan of Christopher Columbus. Not the man, the phenomenon.
Senses of the Past: The Old English Vocabulary of History
August 26, 2015 by
How did the Anglo-Saxons think about history?
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