Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485

Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485 PDF Author: Ronald H. Fritze
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
Providing the chronological setting for many of Shakespeare's plays, various swashbuckling novels from Sir Walter Scott's to Robert Louis Stevenson's, and such Hollywood films as Braveheart, late Medieval England is superficially well known. Yet its true complexity remains elusive, locked in the covers of specialized monographs and journal articles. In over 300 entries written by 80 scholars, this book makes the factual information and historical interpretations of the era readily available. Covering political, military, religious, and constitutional subjects as well as social and economic topics, the volume is easy to use, comprehensive, and authoritative. It provides a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and educated laymen. Rightly characterized as an age of crisis, the 14th century saw the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Avignon Papacy, and the Great Schism of the Western Church. All placed great stresses on English society, aggravating old problems and creating new ones. In the late Middle Ages, parliament became an important element in English government; Cambridge and Oxford universities attained European-wide reputations; and general literacy increased. The Church remained a paramount religious, political, and social institution, but its independence and intellectual monopoly slipped. The entries in this book synthesize recent scholarship on these and other historical events. While emphasizing political, religious, constitutional and military topics, the book also provides brief introductions to social, economic, cultural, and intellectual topics. It is a valuable guide for those wishing to understand this complex, tumultuous, and until recently, poorly understood era.

Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485

Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485 PDF Author: Ronald H. Fritze
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 675

Get Book Here

Book Description
Providing the chronological setting for many of Shakespeare's plays, various swashbuckling novels from Sir Walter Scott's to Robert Louis Stevenson's, and such Hollywood films as Braveheart, late Medieval England is superficially well known. Yet its true complexity remains elusive, locked in the covers of specialized monographs and journal articles. In over 300 entries written by 80 scholars, this book makes the factual information and historical interpretations of the era readily available. Covering political, military, religious, and constitutional subjects as well as social and economic topics, the volume is easy to use, comprehensive, and authoritative. It provides a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and educated laymen. Rightly characterized as an age of crisis, the 14th century saw the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Avignon Papacy, and the Great Schism of the Western Church. All placed great stresses on English society, aggravating old problems and creating new ones. In the late Middle Ages, parliament became an important element in English government; Cambridge and Oxford universities attained European-wide reputations; and general literacy increased. The Church remained a paramount religious, political, and social institution, but its independence and intellectual monopoly slipped. The entries in this book synthesize recent scholarship on these and other historical events. While emphasizing political, religious, constitutional and military topics, the book also provides brief introductions to social, economic, cultural, and intellectual topics. It is a valuable guide for those wishing to understand this complex, tumultuous, and until recently, poorly understood era.

Richard II

Richard II PDF Author: Nigel Saul
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300149050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
Richard II is one of the most enigmatic of English kings. Shakespeare depicted him as a tragic figure, an irresponsible, cruel monarch who nevertheless rose in stature as the substance of power slipped from him. By later writers he has been variously portrayed as a half-crazed autocrat or a conventional ruler whose principal errors were the mismanagement of his nobility and disregard for the political conventions of his age. This book—the first full-length biography of Richard in more than fifty years—offers a radical reinterpretation of the king. Nigel Saul paints a picture of Richard as a highly assertive and determined ruler, one whose key aim was to exalt and dignify the crown. In Richard's view, the crown was threatened by the factiousness of the nobility and the assertiveness of the common people. The king met these challenges by exacting obedience, encouraging lofty new forms of address, and constructing an elaborate system of rule by bonds and oaths. Saul traces the sources of Richard's political ideas and finds that he was influenced by a deeply felt orthodox piety and by the ideas of the civil lawyers. He shows that, although Richard's kingship resembled that of other rulers of the period, unlike theirs, his reign ended in failure because of tactical errors and contradictions in his policies. For all that he promoted the image of a distant, all-powerful monarch, Richard II's rule was in practice characterized by faction and feud. The king was obsessed by the search for personal security: in his subjects, however, he bred only insecurity and fear. A revealing portrait of a complex and fascinating figure, the book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics and culture of the English middle ages.

The Parliament of England, 1559-1581

The Parliament of England, 1559-1581 PDF Author: Geoffrey Rudolph Elton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521389884
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
This is a comprehensive account of the parliament of early modern England at work, written by the leading authority on sixteenth-century English, constitutional and political history. Professor Elton explains how parliament dealt with bills and acts, discusses the many various matters that came to notice there, and investigates its role in political matters. In the process he proves that the prevailing doctrine, developed by the work of Sir John Neale, is wrong, that parliament did not acquire a major role in politics; that the notion of a consistent, body of puritan agitators in opposition to the government is mere fiction and, although the Commons processed more bills than the House of Lords, the Lords occupied the more important and influential role. Parliament's fundamental function in the government of the realm lay rather in the granting of taxes and the making of laws. The latter were promoted by a great variety of interests - the Crown, the Privy Council, the bishops, and particularly by innumerable private initiators. A very large number of bills failed, most commonly for lack of time but also because agreement between the three partners (Queen, Lords and Commons) could not be reached.

The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority

The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority PDF Author: Aleardo Zanghellini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134067062
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
While there is no shortage of studies addressing the state’s regulation of the sexual, research into the ways in which the sexual governs the state and its attributes is still in its infancy. The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority argues that there are good reasons to suppose that our understandings of state power quiver with erotic undercurrents. The book maintains, more specifically, that the relationship between ideas of political authority and male same-sex desire is especially fraught. Through a series of case studies where a statesman’s same-sex desire was put on trial (either literally or metaphorically) as a problem for the good exercise of public powers, the book shows the resilience and adaptability of cultural beliefs in the incompatibility between public office and male same-sex desire. Some of the case studies analysed are familiar ground for both political/constitutional history and the history of sexuality. The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority argues, however, that only by systematically reading questions of institutional politics and questions of sexuality through each other will we have access to the most interesting insights that a study of these trials can generate. Whether they involve obscure public officials or iconic rulers such as Hadrian and James I, these compelling fragments of queer history reveal that the disavowal of male same-sex desire has been, and partly remains, central to mainstream understandings of political authority.

The Tudor Constitution

The Tudor Constitution PDF Author: Geoffrey Rudolph Elton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521287579
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
Based on J.R. Tanner's Tudor constitutional documents.

Edward II the Man

Edward II the Man PDF Author: Stephen Spinks
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445667673
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
'Where he saw virtue, his contemporaries saw betrayal...What could he possibly have done to make a success of his reign? He was, it seems, doomed by his inheritance.' Historian Ian Mortimer's description of Edward II is the starting point of Stephen Spinks' new analysis of this ultimately tragic story of sex, revenge and savagery.

England in the Later Middle Ages

England in the Later Middle Ages PDF Author: M.H. Keen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134483031
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
First published to wide critical acclaim in 1973, England in the Later Middle Ages has become a seminal text for students studying this diverse, complex period. This spirited work surveys the period from Edward I to the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, which heralded in the Tudor Age. The second edition of this book, while maintaining the character of the original, brings the study up to date. Each chapter includes a discussion of the historiographical developments of the last decade and the author takes a fresh look at the changing world of the Later Middle Ages, particularly the plague and the economy. Also included is a rewritten introduction.

Henry VII

Henry VII PDF Author: S.B Chrimes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300212941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
Founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII was a crucial figure in English history. In this acclaimed study of the king’s life and reign, the distinguished historian S. B. Chrimes explores the circumstances surrounding Henry’s acquisition of the throne, examines the personnel and machinery of government, and surveys the king’s social, political, and economic policies, law enforcement, and foreign strategy. This edition of the book includes a new critical introduction and bibliographical updating by George Bernard.

The Reign of Edward II

The Reign of Edward II PDF Author: Gwilym Dodd
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1903153190
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A new review of the most significant issues of Edward II's reign. Edward II presided over a turbulent and politically charged period of English history, but to date he has been relatively neglected in comparison to other fourteenth and fifteenth-century kings. This book offers a significant re-appraisal of a much maligned monarch and his historical importance, making use of the latest empirical research and revisionist theories, and concentrating on people and personalities, perceptions and expectations, rather than dry constitutional analysis. Papers consider both the institutional and the personal facets of Edward II's life and rule: his sexual reputation, the royal court, the role of the king's household knights, the nature of law and parliament in the reign, and England's relations with Ireland and Europe. Contributors: J.S. HAMILTON, W.M. ORMROD, IAN MORTIMER, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, ALISTAIR TEBBIT, W.R. CHILDS, PAUL DRYBURGH, ANTHONY MUSSON, GWILYM DODD, ALISON MARSHALL, MARTYN LAWRENCE, SEYMOUR PHILLIPS.

The Constitutionalist Revolution

The Constitutionalist Revolution PDF Author: Alan Cromartie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139457519
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
An innovative account of English constitutional ideas from the mid-fifteenth century to the time of Charles I, showing how the emergence of grand claims for common law, the country's strange unwritten legal system, shaped England's cultural development. Though he does not neglect the role of narrowly religious disagreements, Cromartie brings out the way that 'religious' and 'secular' values came to be closely intertwined: to the majority of Charles's subjects, the rights of the clergy and the king were legal rights; the institutional structure of Church and state was an expression of monarchical power, obedience to the king and to the law was a religious duty. A proper understanding of this cluster of ideas reveals why Charles found England so difficult to control and why both parties in the civil war believed that they were fighting for established institutions.