A Feminist of the Medieval Times: Chaucer’s Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales
Chaucer’s characters take part in a story-telling contest while going on the pilgrimage. Among them, the Wife of Bath is an outstanding woman who seems not to be a typical figure in the medieval times.
Gerard of Nazareth, John Bale and the origins of the Carmelite Order
The phenomenon of eremitical monasticism in western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been studied extensively,2 but little material has been found that might shed light on the foundation of eremitical communities by Franks in the Latin East.
Jews and Dogs Prohibited: The Psychology of Medieval Anti-Semitism
Professor Stow speaks about the image of ‘Jewish dogs’ found in the Middle Ages, and on his research related to the treatment of the Jewish minority in medieval Europe.
On the shoulders of eastern giants: the forgotten contributions of medieval physicists
We learn at school that Isaac Newton is the father of modern optics, that Copernicus heralded the birth of astronomy, and that it is Snell’s law of refraction. But what is the debt these men owe to the physicists and astronomers of the medieval Islamic Empire?
John Hardyng’s Chronicle: a study of the two versions and a critical edition of both for the period 1327-1464
Part II of the thesis is an edition of the two versions for the years 1327-1464, selected for their relevance to the public and political affairs of late medieval England, and because it is in this section that Hardyng draws together his conclusions about the reigns of previous monarchs in relation to the present governance of England; the edition is supported by full critical apparatus and a commentary for each version, containing background contextual and historical information, and comparative allusions to other contemporary historical and literary texts. The thesis concludes with six appendices, a selective glossary and a bibliography.
Chaucerian Ekphrasis: Power, Place and Image in the Knight’s Tale
We first glimpse Chaucer’s Knight in a portrait-like description of him that Chaucer the narrator relays in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales.
‘Ye shall disturbe noe mans right’: oath-taking and oath-breaking in late medieval and early modern Bristol
The Bristol mayor’s inauguration was commemorated by a display of civic authority and splendour which was extravagantly illustrated and entered into the city’s most famous history, The Maire of Bristowe Is Kalendar, begun by Robert Ricart in 1479. Urban ceremonies and rituals such as this have excited a great deal of scholarly interest.
Difficulties in Reading the Naples Recipes: Was the Scribe a Woman?
In a previous article, Weldon has argued that the manuscript, which is dated to 1457, was intended for a female audience. Now he has also come to believe that text was also written by a female author.
Fatal Colours: Towton 1461 – England’s Most Brutal Battle
The battle of Towton in 1461 was unique in its ferocity and brutality, as the armies of two kings of England engaged with murderous weaponry and in appalling conditions to conclude the first War of the Roses
A Medieval Murder – Interview with Frederik Pedersen
Frederik Pedersen, Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, talks with Medievalists.net about the murder of William Cantilupe on March 23, 1375.
The personnel of English and Welsh castles, 1272-1422
In England, the role played on the continent by the castellanies would appear to have been performed by the county castle and the sheriff, a post that remained firmly under the king’s control in all but a few counties. Instead, a more subtle link between the castle community and political power will have to be found. It will be searched for in the appointment of constables to royal castles, and in grants of ownership of castles, royal or forfeited. It may be found in the building activity that was so common in this period, or in the marriage alliances that created many of the great castle owning estates.
The English aristocracy at war, 1272-1314
Nevertheless, the experiences of medieval combatants are best understood in the context of the local communities from which they were recruited and the retinues in which they served. Consequently, an attempt is also made to reassess the subject of military organisation under the first two Edwards by examining the composition and structure of these armies from the perspective of the soldiers and small units that comprised them.
Anglo-Norman defence strategy in selected English border and maritime counties, 1066-1087
Ella Armitage’s analysisof early Norman castles in 1912 provides a clear espousalof this view, in particular her statement that in England the reasonsfor the erection of mottes seem to have been manorial rather than military; that is, the Norman landholder desired a safe residence for himself amidst a hostile peasantry, rather than a strong military position which could hold out against skilful and well-armed foes.
Castle for Sale: Fortress of Miolans, Savoy
This impressive medieval castle is located in the heart of the Savoy Valley, and is situated on a strategic site above the hamlet of Miolans, which part of the small town of St-Pierre Albigny in eastern France
The fourteenth-century sheriff : English local administration in the late Middle Ages
Sheriffs were a numerically select group, but who were they? Why were they appointed? What qualities, if any, set these men apart from their peers? Prosopography, rather than procedural history, holds the key to these problems and in terms of its methodology this study owes far more to McFarlane than it does to Morris.
The warhorse and military service under Edward III
How, for example, are we to assess the likely extent and distribution of campaigning profits (and, indeed, costs) in society – or the impact of military service on the workings of shire administration, or the influence of war on the retaining practices of the nobility and gentry – without first establishing the identities of those who served in the king’s armies during this period? There can be few major research undertakings in the field of late medieval English history that would offer such wide-ranging benefits as a full-scale reconstruction of the military community.
Agricultural wage labour in fifteenth-century England
In the period when agriculture dominated almost every aspect of daily life, the lords and wealthy peasants relied on paid labourers for farming business, yardlanders hired labourers to work with them, whilst moderate and landless villagers worked for hire. Agrarian wage labour is a window on the economy as well as on agricultural society.
Causes of Piracy in Medieval Japan
The scope of the study spans two distinct phases of piratical activity by Japanese marauders known as the wako, the first lasting from 1223 to 1265 and the second from 1350 to the early 1400s.
Nero, Emperor and Tyrant, in the Medieval French Tradition
Nero ruled the Roman Empire from 54 to 68 CE, bringing to an end the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Perversely attractive and also thoroughly abhorrent, he evoked both positive and negative images.
The 13th-century “Constance” tales
The ‘Constance’ group is made up of a series of romances, histories, legends and folktales that all share a general plot type.
Patronage and indebtedness: Portugal, Castile and the papal Court around the year 1300
At the time of Nicholas IV’s election in February 1288, for thirteen long years the king and kingdom of Portugal had been suffering the consequences of excommunication and interdict, as specified in ‘De regno Portugalie’, Gregory X’s ‘constitution, ordinance and provision’ of September 1275.
Qui coierit cum muliere in fluxu menstruo… interficientur ambo (Lev. 20:18) – The Biblical Prohibition of Sexual Relations with a Menstruant in the Eyes of Some Medieval Christian Theologians
What attitudes did medieval Christian theologians have towards the prohibition in Leviticus of sexual relations with a menstruating woman?
In Our Time: Marco Polo
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the celebrated Venetian explorer Marco Polo.
Homicidal Pigs and the Antisemitic Imagination
This is not parody. It is not carnival. It is not a bestiary. The case of the black-snouted sow of Senlis is an actual legal document – one of upwards of thirty-five such cases known-in which various beasts were tried, convicted, and punished for criminal acts of brutality.
Call for Papers: Gender in Material Culture, Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2013
Conference to be held from 4th-6th January 2013 at Bath Spa University