Brother vs brother in 15th-century Castile: The Battle of Olmedo in 1467
During the mid-fifteenth century, the Kingdom of Castile was involved in a bloody set of three large battles to determine whether its king would prevail over the nobles in a kind of Spanish Wars of the Roses.
New Medieval Books: Chronicle of King Pedro
Many historians will want to read through this book – it’s the first English translation of the chronicle and the most important source we have of Pedro the Cruel.
New Medieval Books: A Constellation of Authority: Castilian Bishops and the Secular Church During the Reign of Alfonso VIII
This book profiles seven bishops from the reign of Alfonso VIII, King of Castile from 1158 to 1214. It examines their careers and what role they functioned in the Castilian government.
Aurality as Methexis and the Rise of Castilian Literature: The Case of the Siete Partidas
In order to articulate a theory of literary cultural production based on auditory perception, participation needs to be analyzed in the context of Platonic methexis.
Captives in Mediaeval Spain: The Castilian-Leonese and Muslim Experience (XI-XIII Centuries)
War in the borders between Castilian-Leonese kingdom and al-Andalus during the 11th-13th centuries was an economic activity in which booty allowed some people to enrich themselves, while captives were a substantial part of the war profits.
The Customary of the Royal Convent of Las Huelgas of Burgos: Female Liturgy, Female Scribes
This article explores the medieval customary of the royal convent of Las Huelgas of Burgos, a hitherto unpublished document of critical importance for the knowledge of one of the most emblematic institutions of medieval Castile.
Textile Consumption in Late Medieval Castile: The Social, Economic, and Cultural Meaning of Clothing, 1200-1350
Focusing on the types of clothing imported into the realm, and using information from the royal accounts and tithes of a number of ports in the Bay of Biscay, I focus on issues of production and consumption in late medieval Castile and what this information tells us about the economic structures of the realm and on the exaggerated consumption of foreign cloth by certain groups within Castilian society.
Medieval Lisbon: Carmo Convent
Part III of my series on Medieval Lisbon. This visit took me to Carmo Monastery and museum.
The Problem of Old Debts: Jewish Moneylenders in Northern Castile
Focusing especially on Jewish moneylending, the article explores economic relations between Jews and Christians in Northern Castile at the turn of the fourteenth century.
‘Forget Your People and Your Father’s House’: Teresa de Cartagena and the Converso Identity
Religion is a very important factor to take into consideration in discussions about the identity of the conversos [converts] or New Christians, an emerging group in 15th-century Castile.
The Heraldic Casket of Saint Louis in the Louvre
The Casket of Saint Louis invokes political and social networks and events relating to the Capetian dynasty in the years before Louis IX reached his majority.
Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundation of the Studium Generale of Seville
This dissertation, “Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundations of the Studium Generale of Seville,” I reevaluate Spain’s medieval history, specifically focusing on the role of Alfonso X and his court in the development of institutions of higher education in thirteenth-century Andalusia.
Beyond the Border. The aristocratic mobility between the kingdoms of Portugal and León (1157- 1230)
During the reigns of Fernando II and Alfonso IX, the kingdom of León became home to several Portuguese aristocrats. Their relations with the Galician and Leonese nobility helped them create many cross-border ties and a powerful network of family-based relationships which heavily influenced the course of the main political conflicts of this period.
The Rise of a Tax State: Portugal, 1367-1401
This paper uses the case of fourteenth-century Portugal to question a common assumption of “fiscal history” literature, namely the linear relationship between war-related fiscal demands increase the level of taxation.
The Battle of Winchelsea
By early August, Edward received news that forty Castilian ships had gathered at Sluys and there were plans to attack England.
Discrimination Against the Jewish Population in Medieval Castile and León
I have tried to show the degree of discrimination suffered by the Jewish community in these two kingdoms in the Middle Ages through a deep analysis of the legal sources, lay as much as ecclesiastical, and also through documentary collections reflecting their practical application
Writing the Antithesis of María of Aragón: Alvaro de Luna’s Rendering of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris
Of the many works that form the canon of the debate on women in the fifteenth century, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, there is a text that often omitted. This lesser known text was written by one of the most notorious figures in Spanish history: don Alvaro de Luna.
Men Who Talk about Love in Late Medieval Spain: Hugo de Urriés and Egalitarian Married Life
In the last third of the fifteenth century, Hugo de Urriés’s work can offer the modern reader a very rare and informative perspective from the points of view of social history and history of ideas.
El Cid, Cluny and the Medieval Spanish Reconquista
Rodrigo Díaz, better known by his title El Cid, has traditionally been portrayed as one of the great heroes of Spanish history, perhaps the perhaps the Spanish national hero par excellence.
The Most Dramatic Moment of the Middle Ages!
An evil king versus a good king. They are half-brothers. It’s a fight to the death. In a tent!
Kings and sons: princely rebellions and the structures of revolt in western Europe, c.1170–c.1280
The 1173 revolt was, in fact, representative of a phenomenon in evidence across the medieval West: that of an uprising led not by disgruntled lords, but by a ruler’s chosen heir.
Commons in the late medieval Crown of Aragon: Regulation, uses and conflicts, 13th-15th centuries
In this paper, we shall show some characteristics of the use of pastures and commons in the Crown of Aragon between the thirteen and fifteenth centuries.