Aiming for Peace and Responding to Crisis: Movement and the Saints in Eleventh-Century Southern French Miracle Collections
In the miracle texts of Saints Vivien at Figeac, Privat at Mende, and Enimie at Sainte-Enimie, all written in the eleventh century in the south of France, movements abound in a flurry of danger and excitement in reference to their relics.
Slaves, Wealth and Fear: An Episode from Late Mamluk-Era Egypt
Slaves, Wealth and Fear: An Episode from Late Mamluk-Era Egypt By Nur Sobers Khan Oriens, Vol. 37 (2009) Introduction: In the spring of 1446 a…
Ethics and Representation of War in the Lanercost Chronicle, 1327–47
I argue that Lanercost’s distinctive style is not simply the result of patriotic or anti-Scottish fervour, but instead reflects a sensitive awareness of the death and destruction of war.
Medicine or Magic? Physicians in the Middle Ages
Medicine or Magic? Physicians in the Middle Ages By William Gries The Histories, Vol.15:1 (2019) Introduction: According to Hannam’s paraphrase of the subject in The…
Technology of manufacture of firearms in the Teutonic Order’s state in Prussia: gun barrels and metal projectiles
The paper focuses on two issues related to the manufacture of firearms in the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia: the technology of gun barrels and metal projectiles
Henry V in the cinema: Laurence Olivier’s charismatic version of history
Public attitudes to Henry V are very much influenced by William Shakespeare’s interpretation. Richard Inverne discusses how Shakespeare’s version has been translated into cinematic form by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh.
Ecstatic Pain: manifestations of physical pain in the visions of Julian of Norwich and their implications for imitatio Christi
This thesis explores the manifestations of bodily pain in two visions received by the late medieval English mystical writer Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1416).
The Measure of Literacy in Late Medieval England: The Case of St. Albans, 1237-1399
In the mid-thirteenth century, the tenants living on the manors of the liberty of St Albans had no use for letters.
Dragomans and Crusaders: The Role of Translators and Translation in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean, 1098-1291
How did the invading Franks navigate the multifaceted language barrier when they conquered, settled, and ruled Syria in the era of the crusades?
King Alfred, Mercia and London, 874-86: A reassessment
The status of London in the later ninth century has for some time been the subject of enquiry by historians, numismatists and archaeologists
The day the sun turned blue: A volcanic eruption in the early 1460s
And the sun has been seen blue many times a day and a cross was spotted in the moon as well as many more miracles in the sky.
Beech Trees in the Bayeux Tapestry: an Ecological Perspective
There are 37 trees or groups of trees on the tapestry and it has been widely noticed that trees are used as scene endings.
Domestic violence against women as a reason to sanctification in Byzantine hagiography
The lives of Matrona of Perge, Mary the Younger and Thomaïs of Lesbos are rare examples of how domestic violence against women could be also interpreted as a reason to sanctify the woman suffered abuses of this sort.
Wages of sin: The financial operations of a medieval church court
An overwhelming number of the criminal charges made in the Consistory from the second half of the fourteenth century until the last quarter of the fifteenth, the period for which records are most complete, were sexual in nature.
Bodies of Parchment: Representing the Passion and Reading Manuscripts in Late Medieval England
In a diverse range of late-fourteenth- and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ’s body is metaphorically related to a book or a document at the moment of his crucifixion.
The Armaments of the Hundred Years’ War and Their Effects on Western Europe
This project investigates the development of weaponry during the late medieval period, specifically focusing on the Hundred Years’ War, fought between England and France between 1337 and 1453.
Dishonorable Ambassadors: Spies and Secret Diplomacy in Ottoman Istanbul
In the sixteenth century, the Habsburgs and the Ottomans clashed for the dominance of Europe and the Mediterranean and engaged in a global rivalry that affected every polity along the shores of the Mediterranean.
A Fruitful Partnership: Jews and the Canons of St. Kilian in Twelfth-century Würzburg
Over the course of about a century, from around 1120 to around 1220, the canons of St. Kilian, caretakers of the Neumünster church in Würzburg had frequent – one might even say constant – business dealings with the Jews of that same city.
Time, Myth and the Origins of the Lombards
Origins, Identities and ethnicities were all central concerns of Early Medieval writers
The Mongol invasions and the Aegean world (1241–61)
This article examines the decisive role played by the Mongols in the political history of the Aegean region in the thirteenth century. The Mongol invasions of 1241–44 were the key turning point in the struggle for hegemony in the region.
Women at Canossa: The Role of Royal and Aristocratic Women in the Reconciliation between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV of Germany
Modern historians rarely mention the presence of royal and aristocratic women at Canossa in January 1077. Yet contemporaries emphasised the important roles played by several women, including Matilda of Tuscany, Adelaide of Turin, Empress Agnes and Queen Bertha.
“Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns”: The Biblical Unicorn in Late Medieval Religious Interpretation
We do not usually think of the unicorn as a ‘biblical creature,’ but it can indeed be found in Bible translations from Late Antiquity.
The ‘Van Boschuysen Affair’ in Leyden: Conflicts between Elite Networks in Late Medieval Holland
The 1480s were a turbulent age in the city of Leyden in the county of Holland.
The Great Western Schism, Legitimacy, and Tyrannicide: The Murder of Louis of Orléans (1407)
I will argue that the use of this kind of vocabulary during the Schism may have facilitated a slip into the rhetoric of tyrannicide, and may have incited it. I will suggest that the climate and rhetori of the Schism may have led John the Fearless to rationalize tyrannicide against his cousin, Louis of Orléans.