Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France

Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France PDF Author: Kathleen Thompson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 9780861932542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The emergence of the northern French county of the Perche, and the rise of the Rotrou family from obscure origins to princely power, 11-13c.

Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France

Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France PDF Author: Kathleen Thompson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 9780861932542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The emergence of the northern French county of the Perche, and the rise of the Rotrou family from obscure origins to princely power, 11-13c.

Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2004

Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2004 PDF Author: John Gillingham
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 9781843831327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This volume contains the usual wide range of topics, and offers some unusual and provocative perspectives, including an examination of what the evidence of zooarchaeology can reveal about the Conquest. The other subjects discussed are the battle of Alençon; the impact of rebellion on Little Domesday; Lawrence of Durham; Thomas Becket; Peter of Blois; Anglo-French peace conferences; episcopal elections and the loss of Normandy; Norman identity in southern Italian chronicles; and the Normans on crusade. The contributors, from Germany, France and Denmark as well as Britain, and the United States, are RICHARD BARTON, NAOMI SYKES, LUCY MARTEN, MIA MüNSTER-SWENDSEN, JOHN D. COTTS, J.E.M. BENHAM, JöRG PELTZER, JULIE BARRAU, EMILY ALBU, EWAN JOHNSON, G. A. LOUD, HANNA VOLLRATH.

Heresy in Medieval France

Heresy in Medieval France PDF Author: Claire Taylor
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 0861932765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Investigation of heresy in south-west France, including a new assessment of the role of Catharism and the Albigensian Crusade.

The Virgin and the Grail

The Virgin and the Grail PDF Author: Joseph Goering
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300138202
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Some fifty years before Chrétien de Troyes wrote what is probably the first and certainly the most influential story of the Holy Grail, images of the Virgin Mary with a simple but radiant bowl (called a “grail” in local dialect) appeared in churches in the Spanish Pyrenees. In this fascinating book, Joseph Goering explores the links between these sacred images and the origins of one of the West’s most enduring legends. While tracing the early history of the grail, Goering looks back to the Pyrenean religious paintings and argues that they were the original inspiration of the grail legend. He explains how storytellers in northern France could have learned of these paintings and how the enigmatic “grail” in the hands of the Virgin came to form the centerpiece of a story about a knight in King Arthur’s court. Part of the allure of the grail, Goering argues, was that neither Chrétien nor his audience knew exactly what it represented or why it was so important. And out of the attempts to answer those questions the literature of the Holy Grail was born.

Medieval Boundaries

Medieval Boundaries PDF Author: Sharon Kinoshita
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812202481
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
In Medieval Boundaries, Sharon Kinoshita examines the role of cross-cultural contact in twelfth- and early thirteenth-century French literature. Starting from the observation that many of the earliest and best-known works of the French literary tradition are set on or beyond the borders of the French-speaking world, she reads the Chanson de Roland, the lais of Marie de France, and a variety of other texts in an expanded geographical frame that includes the Iberian peninsula, the Welsh marches, and the eastern Mediterranean. In Kinoshita's reconceptualization of the geographical and cultural boundaries of the medieval West, such places become significant not only as sites of conflict but also as spaces of intense political, economic, and cultural negotiation. An important contribution to the emerging field of medieval postcolonialism, Kinoshita's work explores the limitations of reading the literature of the French Middle Ages as an inevitable link in the historical construction of modern discourses of Orientalism, colonialism, race, and Christian-Muslim conflict. Rather, drawing on recent historical and art historical scholarship, Kinoshita uncovers a vernacular culture at odds with official discourses of crusade and conquest. Situating each work in its specific context, she brings to light the lived experiences of the knights and nobles for whom this literature was first composed and—in a series of close readings informed by postcolonial and feminist theory—demonstrates that literary representations of cultural encounters often provided the pretext for questioning the most basic categories of medieval identity. Awarded honorable mention for the 2007 Modern Language Association Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies

Introduction to Medieval Europe 300–1500

Introduction to Medieval Europe 300–1500 PDF Author: Wim Blockmans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317934245
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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Book Description
Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1500 provides a comprehensive survey of this complex and varied formative period of European history. Covering themes as diverse as barbarian migrations, the impact of Christianization, the formation of nations and states, the emergence of an expansionist commercial economy, the growth of cities, the Crusades, the effects of plague, and the intellectual and cultural life of the Middle Ages, the book explores the driving forces behind the formation of medieval society and the directions in which it developed and changed. In doing this, the authors cover a wide geographic expanse, including Western interactions with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World. ? Now in full colour, this second edition contains a wealth of new features that help to bring this fascinating era to life, including: A detailed timeline of the period, putting key events into context Primary source case boxes Full colour illustrations throughout New improved maps A glossary of terms Annotated suggestions for further reading The book is supported by a free companion website with resources including, for instructors, assignable discussion questions and all of the images and maps in the book available to download, and for students, a comparative interactive timeline of the period and links to useful websites. The website can be found at www.routledge.com/cw/blockmans.? Clear and stimulating, the second edition of Introduction to Medieval Europe is the ideal companion to studying Europe in the Middle Ages at undergraduate level.

Geoffroy of Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne

Geoffroy of Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne PDF Author: Theodore Evergates
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150177350X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Geoffroy of Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne by Theodore Evergates traces the remarkable life of Geoffroy of Villehardouin (c. 1148–c. 1217) from his earliest years in Champagne through his last years in Greece after the crusade. The fourth son of a knight, Geoffroy became marshal of Champagne, principal negotiator in organizing the Fourth Crusade, chief of staff of the expedition to and conquest of Constantinople, garrison commander of Constantinople and, in his late fifties, field commander defending the Latin settlement in the Byzantine empire against invading Bulgarian armies and revolting Greek cities. Known for his diplomatic skills and rectitude, he served as the chief military advisor to Count Thibaut III of Champagne and later to Emperor Henry of Constantinople. Geoffroy is remarkable as well for dictating the earliest war memoir in medieval Europe, which is also the earliest prose narrative in Old French. Addressed to a home audience in Champagne, he described what he did, what he saw, and what he heard during his eight years on crusade and especially during the fraught period after the conquest of Constantinople. His memoir, The Book of the Conquest of Constantinople, furnishes a commander's retrospective account of the main events and inner workings of the crusade—the innumerable meetings and speeches, the conduct (not always commendable) of the barons, and the persistent discontent within the army—as well as a celebration of his own deeds as a diplomat and a military commander.

Royal Bastards

Royal Bastards PDF Author: Sara McDougall
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198785828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
The stigmatization as 'bastards' of children born outside of wedlock is commonly thought to have emerged early in Medieval European history. Christian ideas about legitimate marriage, it is assumed, set the standard for legitimate birth. Children born to anything other than marriage had fewer rights or opportunities. They certainly could not become king or queen. As this volume demonstrates, however, well into the late twelfth century, ideas of what made a child a legitimate heir had little to do with the validity of his or her parents' union according to the dictates of Christian marriage law. Instead a child's prospects depended upon the social status, and above all the lineage, of both parents. To inherit a royal or noble title, being born to the right father mattered immensely, but also being born to the right kind of mother. Such parents could provide the most promising futures for their children, even if doubt was cast on the validity of the parents' marriage. Only in the late twelfth century did children born to illegal marriages begin to suffer the same disadvantages as the children born to parents of mixed social status. Even once this change took place we cannot point to 'the Church' as instigator. Instead, exclusion of illegitimate children from inheritance and succession was the work of individual litigants who made strategic use of Christian marriage law. This new history of illegitimacy rethinks many long-held notions of medieval social, political, and legal history.

Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. AD 500-1250

Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. AD 500-1250 PDF Author: Barrie Cook
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047417798
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description
This themed volume contains 28 papers by leading authorities on numismatics and monetary history. It covers a variety of topics concerning the design, use and circulation of coinage in northern Europe in the late fifth to early thirteenth centuries.

Knights, Lords, and Ladies

Knights, Lords, and Ladies PDF Author: John W. Baldwin
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812296281
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
At the beginning of the twelfth century, the region around Paris had a reputation for being the land of unruly aristocrats. Entrenched within their castles, the nobles were viewed as quarrelling among themselves, terrorizing the countryside, harassing churchmen and peasants, pillaging, and committing unspeakable atrocities. By the end of the century, during the reign of Philip Augustus, the situation was dramatically different. The king had created the principal governmental organs of the Capetian monarchy and replaced the feudal magnates at the royal court with loyal men of lesser rank. The major castles had been subdued and peace reigned throughout the countryside. The aristocratic families remain the same, but no longer brigands, they had now been recruited for royal service. In his final book, the distinguished historian John Baldwin turned to church charters, royal inventories of fiefs and vassals, aristocratic seals and documents, vernacular texts, and archaeological evidence to create a detailed picture of the transformation of aristocratic life in the areas around Paris during the four decades of Philip Augustus's reign. Working outward from the reconstructed biographies of seventy-five individuals from thirty-three noble families, Baldwin offers a rich description of their domestic lives, their horses and war gear, their tourneys and crusades, their romantic fantasies, and their penances and apprehensions about final judgment. Knights, Lords, and Ladies argues that the aristocrats who inhabited the region of Paris over the turn of the twelfth century were important not only because they contributed to Philip Augustus's increase of royal power and to the wealth of churches and monasteries, but also for their own establishment as an elite and powerful social class.