Vice, Tyranny, Violence, and the Usurpation of Flanders (1071) in Flemish Historiography from 1093 to 1294
The earliest sources of the history of medieval Flanders do not agree on the origins of the counts. The earliest source, the so-called “Genealogy of Arnold [I],” credibly traces the counts’ origin to Baldwin I “Iron Arm,”…
CONFERENCES: The Stellinga, the Saxon Elite, and Carolingian Politics
This is my summary of a paper presented at the Institute of Historical Research on the causes of the Stellinga uprising in the Carolingian period.
Nourishment for the Soul – Nourishment for the Body: Animal Remains in Early Medieval Pomeranian Cemeteries
Late medieval sources clearly refer to souls, which in traditional folk beliefs were periodically returning to feed and warm themselves by the fires made by the living. This kind of conception can be merged with Slavic eschatology. There is multiple evidence to confirm that belief some form of spirit or soul was spreading amongst the people, who in the early medieval period, bordered directly with Pomerania.
Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance
This study opens with a historical account of Corbie from its foundation until the reign of Charles the Simple, which clarifies the political importance of the abbey and its relations with rulers and bishops.
The Prologue to Alfred’s Law Code: Instruction in the Spirit of Mercy
The Prologue to Alfred’s Law Code: Instruction in the Spirit of Mercy Michael Treschow Florilegium: Volume 13 (1994) Abstract Alfred’s law code tends…
An aspect of Alcuin: ‘Tuus Albinus’ – peevish egotist? or parrhesiast?
In over 270 letters from about a decade and a half, alcuin of york (†804) informed, advised, consoled and admonished contemporaries, reacted to current events, and maintained a circle of friends and partners in reciprocal prayer that extended from Jerusalem to Ireland and from rome to salzburg. Alcuin left york in the 780s to become a friend and chief advisor to Charlemagne.
Dental and oral diseases in Medieval Persia, lessons from Hedayat Akhawayni
Persian physicians had a great role in assimilation and expansion of medical sciences during the medieval period and Islamic golden age.
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950)
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950) Timothy P. Newfield Crisis Alimentarias en la Edad Media: Modelos, Explicaciones…
Oldest known Jewish prayer book goes on display
An Israeli museum is showcasing a Jewish prayer book that was written in the year 820 – believed to be the oldest known copy of a Siddur.
Byzantine Military Advice
‘General, when the enemy acts boldly, entice him into premature, reckless action and useless maneuvers. If he is on timid side, hit him hard with constant and rapid attacks. You must know the disposition of the enemy general and employ your own stratagems accordingly.’
Competition and tradition: Carolingian political rituals, 751-800
In 751, the Carolingians supplanted the traditional ruling dynasty of Francia. This article surveys Carolingian political rituals between 751 and 800, and argues that ritual was one means through which this new royal family sought to construct and legitimate its authority against its dynastic competitors.
The Magyar Raids: Fact and Fable
What is important is that the movement of some 200,000 men, women and children, and maybe more, with their herds of horses; cows; camels, sheep and goats and even pigs was done in an orderly, organized fashion that needs further research.
Castle Building and Its Social Significance in Medieval Hungary
The history of Hungarian fortification and castle-building has been a subject of Hungarian historiography ever since the 1870s, when Bela Czobor wrote his pioneering study, “Hungary’s Medieval Castles.”
England’s First Attempt to Break the Commercial Monopoly of the Hanseatic League, 1377-1380
During the second half of the fourteenth century English traders first seriously threatened the Hanseatic League’s commercial monopoly in the Baltic. The League, attempting to defendits monopoly, treated the English unjustly,where upon in 1377 the English Parliament rescinded the charter that granted the League important concessions and privileges in its English trade.
Wise Sayings from Medieval Ireland – The Maxims of King Aldfrith of Northumbria
Be cautious so that you may not be burdened with debts. / Be thrifty so that you may not be grasping. / Be obliging so that you may be loved.
Britain and the Beginning of Scotland
Until recently it was generally held that Scotland first began to take shape with a union of Picts and Scots under Cinaed mac Ailpín, who died in 858.
Saints, Tradition and Monastic Identity: The Ghent Relics, 850-1100
The extraordinary story ofthe Ghent relics was first told by Oswald Holder- Egger in an article published in 1886. During his work on part two of volume 15 of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores series, which Holder- Egger had just finished, he had come across the hagiographie literature produced at the abbeys of St Baafs and St Pieters in Ghent.
Kingdom, emporium and town: the impact of Viking Dublin
In recent years the precise location and nature of Viking Dublin have been much debated. It is now generally accepted that there was a longphort phase from 841 to 902: a period of enforced exile from 902 to 917, and thereafter a dún phase.
Memorial to Athelney Island, Home of Alfred the Great
Alfred was forced to flee with his family to safety in the woods and eventually made his way to the island of Athelney in the marshes of Somerset.
The Carolingian Army and the Struggle against the Vikings
There have been many previous studies of the Carolingian army, but none examining the ninth-century armies which faced the Viking invasions.
Anglo Saxon and Viking Ship Burial – The British Museum
This session explores Viking and Anglo Saxon ship burials between the seventh and tenth centuries presented at The British Museum.
Quid Tacitus . . . ? The Germania and the Study of Anglo-Saxon England
This paper considers the vexed historiography of Tacitus’s Germania and its reception history, first among German and other European historians and then among Anglo-Saxonists.
Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol
With a population of almost 10,000, Bristol was later medieval England’s second or third biggest urban place, and the realm’s second port after London. While not particularly large or wealthy in comparison with the great cities of northern Italy, Flanders or the Rhineland, it was a metropolis in the context of the British Isles.
Linear frontiers in the 9th century: Bulgaria and Wessex
I intend to answer some of those questions through a comparison between two famous, yet relatively neglected examples of imposition of ‘linear frontiers’ onto the landscape of early medieval Europe, both dated to the 9th century.
How Destructive were the Vikings?
Danielle Trynoski reports on the paper “How Much Material Damage Did the Northmen Do in Northern Europe?” given by Lesley Anne Morden