Rhetoric and Ethnicity in Gerald of Wales
This paper was given at the 2013 Celtic Studies Association of North America Annual Meeting at the University of Toronto.
Bede’s Perspective and Purpose in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People
I argue that Bede’s involvement in ecclesiastical affairs throughout his life both illuminates and clouds his perspective on the history of the English church.
Peter of Dusburg’s attitude towards the Holy Land in the Crusades Period
Peter of Dusburg, a monk and brethren of the Teutonic Order had been one of the greatest Chronicles writers of the Military Order. He had written his book ‘Chronicon Terrae Prussiae’ in Latin in 1326, during the tenure of the Teutonic Grand Master Werner von Orseln.
Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend
This article is intended to rectify this, proceeding from the widely-held assumption of the existence of a genuinely ‘historical Arthur’, before going on to consider the even more fundamental question of whether we ought to believe in Arthur’s existence at all.
Stepmothers as Villains: The Dark Side of Medieval Motherhood
Anglo-Norman writers seem to assign women to one of two extremes within the chronicles: on one side there are women who are presented as visions of perfection. With almost super-human ease, these women excel at marriage, motherhood, and religious devotion all of which are reflected in their physical beauty.
Medieval Germany in America
Do Americans have anything to learn from the history of Germany in the Middle Ages?
Christian reactions to Muslim conquests (1st-3rd centuries AH; 7th-9th centuries AD)
We in fact find a great diversity of reactions to Muslim expansion from Christian authors, depending on their particular circumstances and point of view
Stories of the Death of Kings: Retelling the Demise and Burial of William I, William II and Henry I
This paper examines the accounts that describe the death and burial of three successive kings: William the Conqueror, William Rufus, and Henry I.
The Image of Early Medieval Barbaroi in Contemporary Written Sources and Modern Scholarship: the Balkan Perspective
This article gives a review on the accounts of the contemporary authors held as authorities on the history of the barbarian tribes, which combined with the survey of the material evidence, retrieved with archaeological excavations.
Intermarriage in fifteenth-century Ireland: the English and Irish in the ‘four obedient shires’
The so-called ‘four obedient shires’ of Meath, Kildare, Louth and Dublin are a fruitful area for a study of marriage between the English of Ireland and the Irish, as these counties comprised the region of the colony most firmly under English control in the fifteenth century. Much of the anti-Irish rhetoric that survives in sources from the period…
Images of Rodrigo: The construction of past and present in late medieval Iberian chronicles
A return to late medieval narrative accounts of the events surrounding the invasions of 711 suggests that most medieval chroniclers saw the fall of Visigothic Spain in a different light
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
Celestial portents appear frequently in the Historiae of Bishop Gregory of Tours (ca. 539–94). Gregory carefully distinguished between the interpretation of celestial signs and horoscopic astrology by describing signs as natural, albeit miraculous, elements of God’s Creation.
Gilbert Foliot and the two swords : law and political theory in twelfth-century England
Considering the importance of the Church as a driving force in twelfth- century political history, the complex relationship between piety and Church involvement in lay politics during this time period remains surprisingly under-explored.
The History of Saint Patrick – a Short Story
St. Patrick was born, not in Ireland, but in Britian around AD 387. Well, actually, he wasn’t called St. Patrick at the time, or even Patrick, but was referred to as Maewyn Succat.
The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000: Augustinian Historiography, Medieval and Modern
Despite extensive advances in scholarship since 1900, medieval historians continue to accept and repeat this revisionist position, a position that is methodologically jejune and that almost completely ignores the social dynamics of millennial beliefs.
The Liber Vitae of Durham (BL MS Cotton Domitian A. vii): a discussion of its possible context and use in the later middle ages
The Durham Liber Vitae belonged in the later Middle Ages to Durham Cathedral Priory and, to understand its context, the history of the communities which produced it must be understood.
The early years of Justin I’s reign in the sources
In the night of 8—9 July 518 the aged emperor Anastasius died during a violent storm. On the following day, 9 July, the magister officiorum Celer gathered together the other high palace officials to deliberate and choose another emperor.
Friendship structures – modern and pre-modern
At the same time, friendship has been shown, by medievalists working on many different regions and societies, to have been a widespread social bond often, indeed predominantly, cultivated outside personal, emotional attachments, and often explicitly as a form of allegiance, carrying concomitant expectations and obligations of mutual support; as such, it was central to political organisation.
“In Muliere Exhibeas Virum”: Women, Power and Authority in Early Twelfth Century Anglo-Norman Chronicles
This thesis analyses the relationship of women with power and authority within the context of the evidence provided by early twelfth-century Anglo-Norman chronicles between 1095 and 1154.
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.
Why history matters – and why medieval history also matters
The middle ages has in fact been implicit to all arguments about modernity – it is that which is silently invoked by everything which proclaims itself ‘modern’ and ‘western’. But too often the idea of what is ‘medieval’ owes more to Walter Scott and Hollywood than anything found in pre-modern archives.
The British Kingdom of Lindsey
The first piece of evidence which offers support for the above contention comes from the kingdom-name ‘Lindsey’ itself. Two forms of this name exist in Anglo-Saxon sources, reflecting two different Old English suffixes:6 Lindissi (later Lindesse, as used by Bede and the earliest manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)7 and Lindesig…
What is A Chronicle? On the Joy of Reading History
Recent scholarship has hotly debated the definitions of chronicles as a genre, and focussed on the task tracing them back to their authentic, pristine text. However, another way of approaching this is to think of the chronicle as a physical object, a history book, with each new transcription being a new crystalization of the work.