Politics Archive
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Edward II: His Friends, His Enemies, and His Death
Posted on March 7, 2013 | No CommentsEdward I was a hard act to follow. By 1295, he had subdued Wales. He promulgated what Michael Prestwich calls a “majestic set of statutes” that led to his being called the English Justinian. Though his relationships with the nobility were sometimes stormy, there was no doubt who was in charge. The same would not be said about his son. -
Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland
Posted on March 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe marriage of Margaret of Denmark and King James III of Scotland may not have been very happy. But the union had a significant impact on the territorial gains of Scotland. -
500-year-old arrest warrant for Machiavelli discovered
Posted on March 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe original copy of a proclamation - exactly 500-years old - calling for the arrest of Niccolò Machiavelli has been discovered by a British historian. -
Thomas Hatfield: Bishop, Soldier, and Politician
Posted on March 4, 2013 | No CommentsThomas Hatfield (c. 1310–81) rose from origins amongst the Yorkshire gentry to become a valued royal servant under King Edward III. -
Friendship structures – modern and pre-modern
Posted on March 3, 2013 | No CommentsAt the same time, friendship has been shown, by medievalists working on many different regions and societies, to have been a widespread social bond often, indeed predominantly, cultivated outside personal, emotional attachments, and often explicitly as a form of allegiance, carrying concomitant expectations and obligations of mutual support; as such, it was central to political organisation. -
Personal’ Rituals: The Office of Ceremonies and Papal Weddings, 1483-1521
Posted on March 3, 2013 | No CommentsThis analysis reveals the increasing involvement of papal ceremonialists in the preparation and supervision of wedding events,5 highlighting the ceremonialists’ own broad definition of their mandate and a pragmatic approach to the boundaries of papal ritual. -
King James III of Scotland
Posted on March 2, 2013 | No CommentsA man of artistic temperament with an elevated sense of self importance, he does not appear to have had any idea how to handle the Scottish nobility. -
“In Muliere Exhibeas Virum”: Women, Power and Authority in Early Twelfth Century Anglo-Norman Chronicles
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsThis thesis analyses the relationship of women with power and authority within the context of the evidence provided by early twelfth-century Anglo-Norman chronicles between 1095 and 1154. -
Scotland’s Pope: Benedict XIII
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsScotland’s Pope: Benedict XIII J. H. Baxter (Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University ofSt. Andrews) Scot’s Magazine (1929) Abstract In the latter half of the month of August,... -
Monarchy and nobility in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1131: establishment and origins
Posted on February 22, 2013 | No CommentsThe Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, established by the victorious crusaders in Palestine in July 1099, was one of the first colonial societies of the Middle Ages. -
Mary of Guelders, Queen of Scotland
Posted on February 20, 2013 | No CommentsMary was born c. 1434, the daughter of Arnold, Duke of Guelders and Catherine of Cleves, a great aunt of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. -
Thieves of Pleasure: A vicious fraternal war rewards Alfonso VI with the artistic and poetic treasures of al-Andalus
Posted on February 19, 2013 | No CommentsAs the balance of power began to shift from Muslim to Christian, a power struggle erupted among Christian rulers that would continue for generations, even as the light of Arabic poetry burned bright enough to influences centuries of Western verse. -
Historical Thought and the Reform Crisis of the Early Sixteenth Century
Posted on February 19, 2013 | No CommentsI shall follow what I feel to be the methodologically sound procedure of examining one case in some detail, while at the same time producing evidence to suggest that elements which are operative in this instance may be operative in others as well. What I should like to focus attention upon are certain ideas of history which were current in the early sixteenth century.  -
King James II of Scotland: A Reign of Murder and Mayhem
Posted on February 13, 2013 | No CommentsHistory repeats itself. This aphorism is especially true for the Scottish monarchy. There was a period during Scottish history where Kings would die, leaving a child as heir to be ruled by a regency council. This happened over and over and it happened to King James II. -
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
Posted on February 11, 2013 | No CommentsIn northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world. -
The Mind’s Eye: Reconstructing the Historian’s Semantic Matrix Through Henry Knighton’s Account of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381
Posted on February 11, 2013 | No CommentsThe 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)... -
Sir John Fortescue and the French Polemical Treatises of the Hundred Years War
Posted on February 10, 2013 | No CommentsInevitably 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. -
The Princess and the Gene Pool: The Plantagenet rebel who held the secret to Richard III’s DNA
Posted on February 9, 2013 | No CommentsRichard III is perhaps the most controversial figure in British history and historians will long be discussing what new light the finds cast on his story. But the long-forgotten Anne was herself a creature of scandal – a woman who openly took a lover; divorced her husband; and kept his family lands anyway. -
Basil II and the government of Empire (976-1025)
Posted on February 8, 2013 | No CommentsThe reign of Basil II (976-1025) is widely accepted as the apogee of medieval Byzantium. -
Edith of Wessex, Queen of England
Posted on February 6, 2013 | No CommentsWe would like examine the life of a woman who was a contemporary of Queen Emma, Queen Matilda and mentor of Saint Margaret of Scotland. -
The Duchess and the Necromancers
Posted on February 1, 2013 | No CommentsThe downfall of Eleanor Cobham was a shocking event in the 15th century, and it's disturbing today. -
Narrative and political strategies at the deposition of Richard II
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper is an attempt to examine the role of what might loosely be termed formal and informal political ideas in the coup d’e´tat which brought Henry IV to power in 1399. -
The Assassination of Godfrey the Hunchback
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsOne of the earliest reports comes from Lambert of Hersfeld. Around 1078, he wrote a rather extensive account of the assassination, with several details: the assault took place in the city of Antwerp, in the night, when the duke had retired 'because of a natural need'. -
Procopius’ Portrayal of Theodora in the Secret History: ‘Her Charity was Universal’
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsLike most other writers of late antiquity, what little is known about Procopius comes from his works. Born at the turn of the sixth century in Caesarea, he had the chance to receive education in the traditional Greek fashion, i.e. through the use of classical authors, before Justinian banned pagan teaching in 529 -
How useful is Blind Hary’s ‘The Wallace’ as a source for the study of chivalry in late medieval Scotland?
Posted on January 26, 2013 | No CommentsWhat scholars consider to have constituted a chivalric attitude needs to be considered at this point. To live the chivalrous life was to seek to imitate the great deeds of others, which could be learned from the extensive literature that dealt with the idea of knighthood. In chivalric literature, the knight was expected to have a strong sense of personal honour and had to be willing to defend it against affronts
