The Persistence of the Warrior Tradition in the Last Years of the Middle Ages: The Example of the Pas d’Armes in Burgundy under Duke Charles the Bold
Appearing in the last century of Middle Ages, the Pas d’Armes are a real example of the undeniable interest held by the nobility of the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance in the arts of warfare and in literature.
The Reconciliation of Reason and Faith in Gothic Period of Medieval Europe
The term Gothic refers to a style of art and architecture and to the period of their development in western Europe, which lasted from the middle of twelfth century into the fourteenth century in Italy and later in other European countries. During the period, there appeared one conflict-reason verse faith.
The emergence and transformation of medieval Cumbria
The Cumbrian kingdom is one of the more shadowy polities of early medieval northern Britain. Our understanding of the kingdom’s history is hampered by the patchiness of the source material, and the few texts that shed light on the region have proved difficult to interpret.
The politics of being Norman in the reign of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy (r. 942–996)
In 966, by the end of the reign of its third duke, Richard I, Normandy had overcome the crises that had beset it in the middle of the century. Much of this success came from the coherence of its ruling group, which expressed itself partly interms of ‘Norman’ identity.
The Delectable War between Mutton and the Refreshments of the Market-Place: Rereading the Curious Tale of the Mamluk Era
At some point in XV century, Ahmad Ibn Yahya Ibn Hasan al-Haggar composed a curious narrative titled ‘Kitab al-harb alma suq bayna lahm ad-da’n wa-hawadir as-suq’ (‘The Delectable War between Mutton and the Refreshments of the Market-Place’).
“How Do You Know if it is Love or Lust?” On Gender, Status, and Violence in Old Norse Literature
This article examines attitudes towards behaviour relating to women within Old Norse literature, focusing both on chivalric romances and the legendary sagas.
Defining Constantinople’s Suburbs through Travel and Geography
This paper considers these challenges as they relate to the suburbs of Constantinople and, in doing so, it seeks to offer some reflections on the ways in which various conceptions of geography, space, and spatial practice can inform late antique suburban studies.
Where are the dead of medieval battles? A preliminary survey
Medieval battles have always fascinated historians as well as the general public. We have to admit, however, that battles of this period are difficult to study.
Assets to the Country: Countesses in Fourteenth Century England
Surviving sources can tell us much about medieval noblewomen, even if many earlier historians ignored them. We learn that these women were strong and intelligent, and can answer questions about their childhoods, their abilities to choose marriage partners, their daily and annual schedules, and their experiences during widowhood.
The mark of the Devil: medical proof in witchcraft trials
This thesis will analyze the intersection between medical and religious beliefs in the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries to evaluate the importance placed upon medical evidence by secular and ecclesiastical courts.
The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872-3, Torksey, Lincolnshire
This paper provides a fresh perspective on the Viking Great Army and its impact on Anglo-Saxon England, based on new tightly dated and contextualised evidence from Torksey.
Making Modern Migraine Medieval: Men of Science, Hildegard of Bingen and the Life of a Retrospective Diagnosis
This article uses Hildegard as a case study to shift our focus from a polarised debate about the merits or otherwise of retrospective diagnosis, to examine instead what happens when diagnoses take on lives of their own.
Statements in Stone: The Politics of Architecture in Charlemagne’s Aachen
Statements in Stone is an intersectional and preliminary study of the architecture and social aspects of the palatine complex of Aachen Germany during the reign of Charlemagne approximately spanning from the 790s to 814CE.
Inventing Saladin: The Role of the Saladin Legend in European Culture and Identity
Legends can forge cultural identities, yet they can also be the bane of historians. All too frequently legend is mixed with enough fact that it misleads historians and laymen alike.
Reading the Exeter Book Riddles as Life-Writing
There is much to be gained from interpreting the tenth-century Exeter Book riddles as a characteristically biographical group of texts. They comprise a rich source of information for the study of Anglo-Saxon concepts of life courses and life stages.
Why was it important for the Byzantines to read Latin? The views of Demetrios Kydones (1324-1398)
This article will discuss how Demetrius Kydones promoted the policy of reconciliation and alliance with Western European powers against the Ottoman Turks.
What’s in a Name?: Reflections on, and Echoes of, the Reign of Pedro I of Castile
There has been only one Pedro, Pedro I of Castile. This was no accidental oversight. The circumstances of his reign, and the passions and animosities he unleashed, assured that his name and memory would not be honored, sparing future monarchs of the taint of Pedro’s tumultuous reign.
Medieval Sermon Studies since The Sermon: A Deepening and Broadening Field
Since the publication of The Sermon in 2000, the field of medieval sermon studies has matured into a well-established and growing interdisciplinary area of medieval studies.
Clemence of Barking and Valdes of Lyon: Two Contemporaneous Examples of Innovation in the Twelfth Century
Clemence of Barking and Valdes of Lyons were strong supporters of Catholic ideals and were seeking to endorse Christian virtues. Nevertheless, their actions provide examples of innovation and a deviation from the mainstream.
Women, attorneys and credit in late medieval England
In recent years, quantitative research regarding the use of later medieval English courts has dispelled the old myth that women at law were mostly engaged in litigation over land.
‘Nec ancilla nec domina’: Representations of Eve in the Twelfth Century
This thesis seeks to demonstrate the extent to which the figure of Eve operated in twelfth-century commentary on Genesis as a crucial means by which to examine some of the most fundamental and problematic areas of the hexaemeron and fall narratives.
King Eystein’s Raid on Aberdeen
In the early 1150s Eysteinn Haraldsson, the eldest son of the late Harald Gille, who shared the kingship of Norway with his younger half-brothers, led a fleet across the North Sea.
Beowulf before Beowulf: Anglo-Saxon Anthroponymy and Heroic Legend
Since the inception of Beowulf scholarship approximately two hundred years ago, debate has persisted concerning the nature of the poem’s eponymous hero. Is he a historical Geatish prince or is he a fictional character inserted into a historico-legendary world?
Agatha, Clerical ‘Wife’ and Wet Nurse to King John of England, Longtime Companion to Godfrey de Lucy, Bishop of Winchester
Agatha is the earliest royal wet nurse for whom at least a faint sketch of her life can be drawn, and she presents a rare view of a non-noble, non-royal, non-religious English woman of the late twelfth- and early thirteenth centuries.
‘Becoming English’: Nationality, Terminology, and Changing Sides in the Late Middle Ages
Late medieval English chronicles contain several puzzling references to the idea of people ‘becoming English’ by changing allegiance, usually in the context of war.