In Book VIII of this lengthy chronicle of Norman affairs, Orderic paused in his description of the political struggles between the sons of William the Conqueror to tell a ghost story.
The Wages of Sin: Kinship and Forgiveness in the ‘Herlechin’s Hunt’ of Orderic Vitalis
September 20, 2014 By
Mirrors for Princes: Henry II and the Succession to the Angevin Empire
September 14, 2014 By
Understandably, with so many ‘devilish’ offspring, Henry II faced many difficulties when it came to bringing up his sons, including the problem of how to successfully integrate them into the rule of the Angevin Empire.
Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015
August 12, 2014 By
This thesis is a comparison of ethnicity in Viking Age England and Normandy. It focuses on the period c.950-c.1015, which begins several generations after the initial Scandinavian settlements in both regions.
The Vikings in Normandy and Brittany
June 28, 2014 By
Dr David Petts (Durham University) tells us about his research in northern France: an area in which we know the Vikings to be elusive
The Childhood of William the Conqueror
May 28, 2014 By
Duke Robert died when William was seven leaving him to rely on other men to rule his duchy until he came of age. These years were fraught with peril.
Vikings in France and England
April 6, 2014 By
Danielle Turner juxtaposes Viking raiding and settlement in medieval France and England to answer the question why Normandy (on the French side) became a major player in the medieval world, while the Danelaw (on the English side) did not.
Lords Of The North Sea: A Comparative Study Of Aristocratic Territory In The North Sea World In The Tenth And Eleventh Centuries
April 5, 2014 By
The paper is a comparative study on the aristocrats of eastern England, eastern Normandy, western Flanders and central Norway.
The Normans are an Unconquerable People: Orderic Vitalis’s Memory of the Anglo-Norman Regnum during the Reigns of William Rufus and Henry I, 1087-1106
March 1, 2014 By
This essay examines Orderic’s portrayal of the three sons of William the Conqueror, as well as one member of the Anglo-Norman high aristocracy, in an effort to understand how and why his Historia Ecclesiastica recreates the nineteen-year period between the death of William the Conqueror and the ascension of Henry I as an age of violence, poor lordship, and ambiguous gender roles.
Designer of the Bayeux Tapestry identified
October 29, 2013 By
The Bayeux Tapestry was designed by Scolland, Abbot of St.Augustine’s monastery in Canterbury, according to research by Howard Clarke of University College, Dublin.
The Medieval Walking Dead
October 20, 2013 By
On January 1, 1091, an army of the dead came to Normandy. For one priest, it would be a night that he would never forget.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury and Charismatic Authority
September 28, 2013 By
The early career of Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109) provides an opportunity to explore the operation of charismatic authority in a monastic setting.
The counts of the Perche, c. 1066-1217
August 11, 2013 By
The history of Count Rotrou’s family and the polity which they created spans less than 200 years, but it has much to tell us about the development of power structures in the central middle ages and it illustrates two significant strands in the modem historiography of France
The Fortune of War: Henry I and Normandy, 1116 – 1120
August 8, 2013 By
The Fortune of War: Henry I and Normandy, 1116 – 1120 Dillon Byrd Oklahoma Christian University, Tau Sigma, Journal of Historical Studies, Vol.21 (2013) Abstract Henry I had great success in keeping the peace in England and Normandy, aside from the first two years of his reign. There were only two Norman uprisings against Henry, the first […]
Castle for Sale in France: Château-sur-Epte Castle
August 7, 2013 By
This Anglo-Norman castle was built at the turn of the twelfth-century, and was on the front lines in the wars between England and France in the Middle Ages. Now a picturesque ruin, this would be a historian’s dream!
Was the White Ship disaster mass murder?
May 21, 2013 By
It was perhaps the worst maritime disaster of the Middle Ages, not just because it cost 300 lives, but because one of them was the heir to the Anglo-Norman Empire. One scholar has a theory that the sinking of the White Ship on the night of November 25, 1120 was not a tragic accident, rather a case of mass murder.
William the Conqueror and the Channel Crossing of 1066
May 16, 2013 By
William the Conqueror waited several weeks before making his maritime crossing of the English Channel in 1066 – was he hampered by weathered or did the Norman Duke intentionally remain in Normandy, hoping that events in Anglo-Saxon England would turn to his favour?
Matilda of Flanders, Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy
March 19, 2013 By
One of the most influential and formidable medieval Queens of England was Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror.
Emma of Normandy, Queen of England
January 22, 2013 By
In reading about the successors of Alfred, I came across a Queen, Emma, who really intrigued me. It was because of her, the course of English history was sent into a completely different direction.
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.
King John and Rouen: Royal itineration, kingship, and the Norman ‘capital’, c. 1199 – c. 1204
January 20, 2011 By
Viking raids on the Spanish Peninsula
January 11, 2010 By
The Muslims described «heathens» as Majus. The name Majus – Magians was originally used of the Zoroastrians. It was then extended to other unbelievers, together with the associations of the term — e. g. incest and fire-worship.
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