The Relationship of the Italian and Southern French Cathars, 1170-1320
The aim of this thesis is to answer two questions, namely why Southern French Cathars chose to flee to Italy
when persecuted in the early thirteenth century and secondly to assess the extent to which Catharism was a ‘universal church’.
Anglo-Scandinavian Literature and the Post-Conquest Period
This thesis concerns narratives about Anglo-Scandinavian contact and literary traditions of Scandinavian origin which circulated in England in the post-conquest period.
The Norse Penny Reconsidered: The Goddard Coin—Hoax or Genuine?
This article considers the penny’s numismatic and archaeological context, and engages with the debate from a Norwegian perspective.
I was there. Constantine Akropolites’ Typikon
Constantine Akropolites wrote an appendix to the typikon for the Church of our Lord’s Resurrection in Constantinople, rebuilt by his father, George (1217-82).
Anglo-Danish Connections and the Organisation of the Early Danish Church: Contribution to a Debate
The Christianization of Northern Europe is closely linked to concepts of cultural transfer, transmission, and influence. Latin Christianity was essentially foreign to the medieval North, and foreign expertise was needed for the implementation of the Christian faith.
The control of Kent in the ninth century
To one who lived through the political turmoil in England during the second half of the ninth century, the most significant aspect of a changing world must have been the intensification of Viking raids, culminating with the ‘conquests’ of the ancient kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria.
The elusive Norse harbours of the North Atlantic: why they were abandoned, and why they are so hard to find
In the 8th century, Scandinavians began to press westwards across the North Atlantic; exploring, raiding, colonizing and trading.
Two Different Views of Knighthood in the Early Fifteenth-Century: Le Livre de Bouciquaut and the Works of Christine de Pizan
This article contends that the view of knighthood defended by the author of the biography was strikingly different in many ways from that held by Christine.
Three individuals, three stories, three burials from medieval Trondheim, Norway
This article presents the life stories of three individuals who lived in Trondheim, Norway, during the 13th century. Based on skeletal examinations, facial reconstructions, genetic analyses, and stable oxygen isotope analyses, the birthplace, mobility, ancestry, pathology, and physical appearance of these people are presented.
Episcopal Virginity in Medieval England
The literature on medieval sainthood is substantial, rich and varied, but on one point it is almost unanimous: sexuality, and in particular virginity, was of far greater significance to female saints than to their male counterparts.
The ‘joyous entry’ of Archduke Maximilian into Antwerp (13 January 1478): an analysis of a ‘most elegant and dignified’ dialogue
An in-depth analysis of a contemporary account of Maximilian’s joyous entry into Antwerp (13 January 1478) adds a new perspective to historiography by showing how the public urban spaces functioned as complex social products.
Architecture in medieval Persian painting: fact or fantasy?
Robert Hillenbrand looks at how Persian painters tackled depicting architecture while also showing the process of construction, and how they operated within what to a Western eye might seem like constricting conventions.
Domesday coming to the British Library
The National Archives will loan Domesday, the most famous and earliest surviving public record, to the British Library for its landmark exhibition, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.
Build a medieval city with new video game
Foundation is a grid-less, sprawling medieval city building simulation with a heavy focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.
The Women around an Emperor: Anne of Brittany
In the fifth in a series of features exploring the early modern women whose lives intersected in some way with that of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Natalie Anderson examines the life of Anne of Brittany.
One of his own: the Irish participant in the assassination of Tigernán Ua Ruairc
Tigernán Ua Ruairc was King of Bréifne and Conmaicne. In fact this kingdom reached its greatest extent during his long reign, between c. 1124 and his assassination in 1172.
Medieval Clothing in Uvdal, Norway
A special feature of three of the bodies was that their skulls were wrapped in linen cloth. Not only the forehead and neck, but also mouth, nose and eyes were covered with linen. These linen wrappings must have been applied especially for burial purposes.
‘Sisters Under the Skin’? Anglo-Saxon Nuns and Nunneries in Southern England
The history of female monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England has generally been seen as falling into two distinct phases conveniently separated by the Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking invasions of the ninth century.
The Giving and Withholding of Consent in Late Twelfth-Century French Literature
My investigations into the depiction and punishment of rape in late twelfth-century literature in northern France stem from a particular interest in some of the earlier branches of the Roman de Renart.
The Monk Who Knew the Ways of Love
It has been suggested that the art of the troubadour is original primarily in its exercise of choice within a relatively strictly limited field and that, if art results from the tension between freedom and restraint, then the two poles of this dialectic are the exercise of choice of expression and the limitation of the field in terms of subject-matter and linguistic register.
Old Norse Ship Names and Ship Terms
The nautical language of the North Sea Germanic area is a very elaborate and rich terminology. This was no less true at the time I am dealing with, namely the period from the Viking Age up to about 1400 A.D.
The Penny in the Pennylands: Coinage in Scotland in the Early Middle Ages
Other terms of account, such as shilling, mancus, mark and ora are to be found in Old English documents, but the silver penny was tile only coin to be issued, and remained so until the groat was introduced by Edward I in 1279.
St. Theodore, Euchaïta and Anatolia, c. 500-1000 CE: Landscape, Climate and the Survival of an Empire
St Theodore ‘the recruit’ was one of the most important military saints of the Byzantine and wider medieval world, and his cult center, at Euchaïta in northern Turkey, was famous from the fifth century on.
Chaucer’s Decameron and the Wife of Bath’s Tale: Why Do Literary History?
A possible direct link between the two greatest literary collections of the fourteenth century, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, has long tantalized readers because these works share many stories, which are, moreover, placed in similar frames.