Peasant Anger and Violence in the Writings of Orderic Vitalis
This paper examines the representation of peasant anger in the writings of Orderic Vitalis. In his texts, Orderic often associates peasant anger with divine vengeance and just violence.
The Wages of Sin: Kinship and Forgiveness in the ‘Herlechin’s Hunt’ of Orderic Vitalis
In Book VIII of this lengthy chronicle of Norman affairs, Orderic paused in his description of the political struggles between the sons of William the Conqueror to tell a ghost story.
The Normans are an Unconquerable People: Orderic Vitalis’s Memory of the Anglo-Norman Regnum during the Reigns of William Rufus and Henry I, 1087-1106
This essay examines Orderic’s portrayal of the three sons of William the Conqueror, as well as one member of the Anglo-Norman high aristocracy, in an effort to understand how and why his Historia Ecclesiastica recreates the nineteen-year period between the death of William the Conqueror and the ascension of Henry I as an age of violence, poor lordship, and ambiguous gender roles.
Emotions and Power in Orderic Vitalis
This essay explores some of the complexities and paradoxes encountered when one thinks about power, particularly as power was expressed by a single author, Orderic Vitalis.
Did Orderic Vitalis Have a Concept of Violence?
When Orderic writes that something happened violently, it was because he was expressing a judgment on whether or not this was a legitimate use of force.
The Medieval Walking Dead
On January 1, 1091, an army of the dead came to Normandy. For one priest, it would be a night that he would never forget.
“A model of wisdom and exemplar of modesty without parallel in our time”: how Matilda of Flanders was represented in two twelfth-century histories
My thesis investigates the different ways in which two twelfth-century historians, William of Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis, represented Matilda.
Aspects of the English royal succession, 1066-1199: the death of the king
The death of any ruler in the twelfth century, even if it were expected, caused a considerable amount of shock and disquiet amongst those who were left behind.
Southern Italy and the Construction of the Historia ecclesiastica of Orderic Vitalis
Of all the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman historians, Orderic Vitalis was the most interested in southern Italy