R. R. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208785
- eISBN:
- 9780191678141
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208785.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book examines the period when Wales struggled to retain its independence and identity in the face of the Anglo-Norman conquest and subsequent English rule. It explores the nature of power and ...
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This book examines the period when Wales struggled to retain its independence and identity in the face of the Anglo-Norman conquest and subsequent English rule. It explores the nature of power and conflict within native Welsh society as well as the transformation of Wales under the English crown. An account of the last major revolt under Owain Glyn Dwr forms the culmination of this work.Less
This book examines the period when Wales struggled to retain its independence and identity in the face of the Anglo-Norman conquest and subsequent English rule. It explores the nature of power and conflict within native Welsh society as well as the transformation of Wales under the English crown. An account of the last major revolt under Owain Glyn Dwr forms the culmination of this work.
Edmund King (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203643
- eISBN:
- 9780191675928
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203643.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
The reign of King Stephen (1135–54) is famous as a period of weak government, as Stephen and his rival the Empress Matilda contended for power. This is a study of medieval kingship at its most ...
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The reign of King Stephen (1135–54) is famous as a period of weak government, as Stephen and his rival the Empress Matilda contended for power. This is a study of medieval kingship at its most vulnerable. It also shows how individuals and institutions enabled the monarchy to survive. A contemporary chronicler described the reign as ‘nineteen long winters in which Christ and his saints were asleep’. Historians today refer to it simply as ‘the Anarchy’. The weakness of government was the result of a disputed succession. Stephen lost control over Normandy, the Welsh marches, and much of the North. Contemporaries noted as signs of weakness the tyranny of the lords of castles, and the breakdown of coinage. Stephen remained king for his lifetime, but leading churchmen and laymen negotiated a settlement whereby the crown passed to the Empress's son, the future Henry II.Less
The reign of King Stephen (1135–54) is famous as a period of weak government, as Stephen and his rival the Empress Matilda contended for power. This is a study of medieval kingship at its most vulnerable. It also shows how individuals and institutions enabled the monarchy to survive. A contemporary chronicler described the reign as ‘nineteen long winters in which Christ and his saints were asleep’. Historians today refer to it simply as ‘the Anarchy’. The weakness of government was the result of a disputed succession. Stephen lost control over Normandy, the Welsh marches, and much of the North. Contemporaries noted as signs of weakness the tyranny of the lords of castles, and the breakdown of coinage. Stephen remained king for his lifetime, but leading churchmen and laymen negotiated a settlement whereby the crown passed to the Empress's son, the future Henry II.
Andrew Reynolds
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199544554
- eISBN:
- 9780191720390
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544554.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book is the first to investigate how Anglo‐Saxon society dealt with social outcasts. The study begins in the period immediately following Roman rule and ends in the century following the Norman ...
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This book is the first to investigate how Anglo‐Saxon society dealt with social outcasts. The study begins in the period immediately following Roman rule and ends in the century following the Norman Conquest. This period, the 5th to 11th centuries, witnessed the conversion to Christianity, the emergence of the late Saxon state, and the development of the landscape of Domesday Book. While the study of early Anglo‐Saxon cemeteries and churchyards of the Christian period is well established, a substantial body of excavated and documented evidence for human burial in a range of other contexts has remained neglected until now. This book thus reveals for the first time a nuanced and varied approach to burial rites in Anglo‐Saxon England, particularly relating to individuals cast out from mainstream society. Although impressive written evidence survives, archaeology is uniquely placed to investigate the earliest period of post‐Roman society, the 5th to 7th centuries, where documents are lacking and to provide an independent assessment of documented situations in the later part of the period. The landscape setting of unusual human burials provides insights into the chronology of territorial arrangements and how features such as boundaries and pre‐existing monuments, such as barrows and linear earthworks, were perceived by the Anglo‐Saxons. Overall, the book argues that modes of outcast burial show a clear pattern of development from the pre‐Christian centuries, where deviant burials are found only in community cemeteries, to a situation whereby locally determined rites, such as crossroads burial, existed alongside formal measures imposed from the 7th century ad in the context of kingdom formation.Less
This book is the first to investigate how Anglo‐Saxon society dealt with social outcasts. The study begins in the period immediately following Roman rule and ends in the century following the Norman Conquest. This period, the 5th to 11th centuries, witnessed the conversion to Christianity, the emergence of the late Saxon state, and the development of the landscape of Domesday Book. While the study of early Anglo‐Saxon cemeteries and churchyards of the Christian period is well established, a substantial body of excavated and documented evidence for human burial in a range of other contexts has remained neglected until now. This book thus reveals for the first time a nuanced and varied approach to burial rites in Anglo‐Saxon England, particularly relating to individuals cast out from mainstream society. Although impressive written evidence survives, archaeology is uniquely placed to investigate the earliest period of post‐Roman society, the 5th to 7th centuries, where documents are lacking and to provide an independent assessment of documented situations in the later part of the period. The landscape setting of unusual human burials provides insights into the chronology of territorial arrangements and how features such as boundaries and pre‐existing monuments, such as barrows and linear earthworks, were perceived by the Anglo‐Saxons. Overall, the book argues that modes of outcast burial show a clear pattern of development from the pre‐Christian centuries, where deviant burials are found only in community cemeteries, to a situation whereby locally determined rites, such as crossroads burial, existed alongside formal measures imposed from the 7th century ad in the context of kingdom formation.
Debby Banham and Rosamond Faith
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199207947
- eISBN:
- 9780191757495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207947.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, Social History
Farming was the basis of the wealth that made England worth invading, twice, in the eleventh century. This book uses a wide range of evidence to investigate how Anglo-Saxon farmers produced the food ...
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Farming was the basis of the wealth that made England worth invading, twice, in the eleventh century. This book uses a wide range of evidence to investigate how Anglo-Saxon farmers produced the food and other agricultural products that sustained English economy, society and culture before the Norman Conquest. Part one draws on written and pictorial sources, archaeology, place-names and the history of the English language to discover what crops and livestock people raised, and what tools and techniques were used to produce them. In part two, a series of landscape studies explores how these could have been combined into working agricultural regimes in different parts of the country, using place-names, maps and the landscape itself. A picture emerges of an agriculture that changed from an essentially prehistoric state in the sub-Roman period to what was recognisably the beginning of a tradition that only ended with the Second World War. Anglo-Saxon farming was not only sustainable, because it had to be, but infinitely adaptable, to different soils and geology, and to a climate changing as unpredictably as it is today.Less
Farming was the basis of the wealth that made England worth invading, twice, in the eleventh century. This book uses a wide range of evidence to investigate how Anglo-Saxon farmers produced the food and other agricultural products that sustained English economy, society and culture before the Norman Conquest. Part one draws on written and pictorial sources, archaeology, place-names and the history of the English language to discover what crops and livestock people raised, and what tools and techniques were used to produce them. In part two, a series of landscape studies explores how these could have been combined into working agricultural regimes in different parts of the country, using place-names, maps and the landscape itself. A picture emerges of an agriculture that changed from an essentially prehistoric state in the sub-Roman period to what was recognisably the beginning of a tradition that only ended with the Second World War. Anglo-Saxon farming was not only sustainable, because it had to be, but infinitely adaptable, to different soils and geology, and to a climate changing as unpredictably as it is today.
Gervase Rosser
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198201571
- eISBN:
- 9780191779022
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201571.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
Association in a guild or fraternity was an extremely common experience in medieval Europe. This book asks why so many people wished to belong to these highly miscellaneous groups (only rarely ...
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Association in a guild or fraternity was an extremely common experience in medieval Europe. This book asks why so many people wished to belong to these highly miscellaneous groups (only rarely confined to a single craft), whose social diversity was of their essence. It finds a partial answer in the challenging material circumstances of the later Middle Ages, but a fuller one in contemporary debates surrounding the identity and fulfilment of the individual, and the problematic question of his or her relationship to a larger society. These debates are contextualized in a longer history which continues to be pertinent today. Unlike previous studies, the book’s focus is not on the guilds as institutions but on the social and moral processes which were catalysed by participation. These bodies are shown to have founded schools, built bridges, managed almshouses, governed small towns, shaped religious ritual, and commemorated the dead. Informing and transcending all of these activities, however, was the perception that association in a fraternity could be a catalyst of personal change. Members cultivated friendship between individuals on the understanding that the fulfilment of human potential depended upon a mutually transformative engagement with others. The peasants, artisans, and professionals who joined the guilds sought to change both their society and themselves. The study sheds light on the conception and construction of society in the Middle Ages, and suggests further that this evidence has implications for how we see ourselves.Less
Association in a guild or fraternity was an extremely common experience in medieval Europe. This book asks why so many people wished to belong to these highly miscellaneous groups (only rarely confined to a single craft), whose social diversity was of their essence. It finds a partial answer in the challenging material circumstances of the later Middle Ages, but a fuller one in contemporary debates surrounding the identity and fulfilment of the individual, and the problematic question of his or her relationship to a larger society. These debates are contextualized in a longer history which continues to be pertinent today. Unlike previous studies, the book’s focus is not on the guilds as institutions but on the social and moral processes which were catalysed by participation. These bodies are shown to have founded schools, built bridges, managed almshouses, governed small towns, shaped religious ritual, and commemorated the dead. Informing and transcending all of these activities, however, was the perception that association in a fraternity could be a catalyst of personal change. Members cultivated friendship between individuals on the understanding that the fulfilment of human potential depended upon a mutually transformative engagement with others. The peasants, artisans, and professionals who joined the guilds sought to change both their society and themselves. The study sheds light on the conception and construction of society in the Middle Ages, and suggests further that this evidence has implications for how we see ourselves.
Michael Brown
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633326
- eISBN:
- 9780748672127
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633326.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
The battle of Bannockburn, fought on the fields south of Stirling at midsummer 1314, is the best-known event in the history of Medieval Scotland. It was a unique event. The clash of two armies, each ...
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The battle of Bannockburn, fought on the fields south of Stirling at midsummer 1314, is the best-known event in the history of Medieval Scotland. It was a unique event. The clash of two armies, each led by a king, followed a clear challenge to a battle to determine the status of Scotland and its survival as a separate realm. As a key point in the Anglo-Scottish wars of the fourteenth century, the battle has been extensively discussed, but Bannockburn was also a pivotal event in the history of the British Isles. This book analyses the road to Bannockburn, the campaign of 1314 and the aftermath of the fight. It demonstrates that, in both its context and legacy, the battle had a central significance in the shaping of nations and identities in the late Medieval British Isles.Less
The battle of Bannockburn, fought on the fields south of Stirling at midsummer 1314, is the best-known event in the history of Medieval Scotland. It was a unique event. The clash of two armies, each led by a king, followed a clear challenge to a battle to determine the status of Scotland and its survival as a separate realm. As a key point in the Anglo-Scottish wars of the fourteenth century, the battle has been extensively discussed, but Bannockburn was also a pivotal event in the history of the British Isles. This book analyses the road to Bannockburn, the campaign of 1314 and the aftermath of the fight. It demonstrates that, in both its context and legacy, the battle had a central significance in the shaping of nations and identities in the late Medieval British Isles.
Stephen Rippon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199203826
- eISBN:
- 9780191708282
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203826.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book explores the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character across southern Britain during the medieval period. The ‘long eighth century’, between the late seventh and ...
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This book explores the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character across southern Britain during the medieval period. The ‘long eighth century’, between the late seventh and the early ninth centuries, is highlighted as having seen significant changes in how the countryside was managed, with further developments around the tenth century. While villages and open fields were created in the central zone of England (for example in the East Midlands down as far as Somerset), there were also significant changes with regard to how the landscape was exploited and managed in areas such as the south‐west of England and East Anglia. A number of major boundaries in landscape character are identified, such as the Blackdown and Quantock Hills in the South‐West, and the Gipping and Lark valleys in East Anglia, and it is suggested that these have their origins in the pre‐medieval period. In the twelfth century the concept of managing the landscape through villages and open fields was exported into newly conquered southern Wales where major differences in landscape character reflect areas of English, Welsh, and Flemish settlement.Less
This book explores the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character across southern Britain during the medieval period. The ‘long eighth century’, between the late seventh and the early ninth centuries, is highlighted as having seen significant changes in how the countryside was managed, with further developments around the tenth century. While villages and open fields were created in the central zone of England (for example in the East Midlands down as far as Somerset), there were also significant changes with regard to how the landscape was exploited and managed in areas such as the south‐west of England and East Anglia. A number of major boundaries in landscape character are identified, such as the Blackdown and Quantock Hills in the South‐West, and the Gipping and Lark valleys in East Anglia, and it is suggested that these have their origins in the pre‐medieval period. In the twelfth century the concept of managing the landscape through villages and open fields was exported into newly conquered southern Wales where major differences in landscape character reflect areas of English, Welsh, and Flemish settlement.
S. T. Ambler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198754022
- eISBN:
- 9780191815751
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198754022.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
In thirteenth-century England, circumstance and personality converged to produce an episcopate uncommonly dedicated not only to its pastoral mission but also to the defence of the kingdom and the ...
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In thirteenth-century England, circumstance and personality converged to produce an episcopate uncommonly dedicated not only to its pastoral mission but also to the defence of the kingdom and the oversight of royal government. This cohort was bound by corporate solidarity and possessed an authority to reform the king—and so influence political events—unknown to the episcopates of other kingdoms. These bishops took a central part in the dramatic events of the reigns of King John and Henry III, throughout rebellion, civil war, and invasion from France, and the turbulent years of minority government and Henry’s early personal rule. They acted as peacemakers, supporting royal power when it was threatened, for the sake of regnal peace, but also using their unique authority to reform the king when his illegal actions threatened to provoke his barons to rebellion. This situation changed, however, between 1258 and 1265, when around half of England’s bishops set aside their loyalty to the king and joined a group of magnates, led by Simon de Montfort, in England’s first revolution, appropriating royal powers in order to establish a new form of government: conciliar rule. As members of Montfort’s regime, they helped to govern England, as well as constructing arguments to justify the new order. This book examines the interaction between the bishops’ actions on the ground and their culture, identity, and political thought. In so doing it reveals how the Montfortian bishops were forced to construct a new philosophy of power in the crucible of political crisis.Less
In thirteenth-century England, circumstance and personality converged to produce an episcopate uncommonly dedicated not only to its pastoral mission but also to the defence of the kingdom and the oversight of royal government. This cohort was bound by corporate solidarity and possessed an authority to reform the king—and so influence political events—unknown to the episcopates of other kingdoms. These bishops took a central part in the dramatic events of the reigns of King John and Henry III, throughout rebellion, civil war, and invasion from France, and the turbulent years of minority government and Henry’s early personal rule. They acted as peacemakers, supporting royal power when it was threatened, for the sake of regnal peace, but also using their unique authority to reform the king when his illegal actions threatened to provoke his barons to rebellion. This situation changed, however, between 1258 and 1265, when around half of England’s bishops set aside their loyalty to the king and joined a group of magnates, led by Simon de Montfort, in England’s first revolution, appropriating royal powers in order to establish a new form of government: conciliar rule. As members of Montfort’s regime, they helped to govern England, as well as constructing arguments to justify the new order. This book examines the interaction between the bishops’ actions on the ground and their culture, identity, and political thought. In so doing it reveals how the Montfortian bishops were forced to construct a new philosophy of power in the crucible of political crisis.
Charles L. H. Coulson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198208242
- eISBN:
- 9780191716676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208242.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book overturns many of the traditional assumptions about the nature and purpose of castle-building in the middle ages. It demolishes the traditional belief that castles were overwhelmingly ...
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This book overturns many of the traditional assumptions about the nature and purpose of castle-building in the middle ages. It demolishes the traditional belief that castles were overwhelmingly military in their function, showing how this was simply one aspect of a more complicated whole, and sets out to recreate the medieval understanding of castles as symbolically fortified places of all kinds. It places castles in the context of medieval culture and society, as ancient walled post-Roman towns and prestigious religious enclaves to transitory campaign forts. Going back to the original sources, the book proposes a new and subtler understanding of the function and symbolism of castles as well as insights into the lives of the people who inhabited them. Fortresses were only occasionally caught up in war, but constantly were central to the ordinary life of all classes: of the nobility and gentry, of widows and heiresses, of prelates and clergy, of peasantry and townspeople alike. The book presents and explores this broad social panorama.Less
This book overturns many of the traditional assumptions about the nature and purpose of castle-building in the middle ages. It demolishes the traditional belief that castles were overwhelmingly military in their function, showing how this was simply one aspect of a more complicated whole, and sets out to recreate the medieval understanding of castles as symbolically fortified places of all kinds. It places castles in the context of medieval culture and society, as ancient walled post-Roman towns and prestigious religious enclaves to transitory campaign forts. Going back to the original sources, the book proposes a new and subtler understanding of the function and symbolism of castles as well as insights into the lives of the people who inhabited them. Fortresses were only occasionally caught up in war, but constantly were central to the ordinary life of all classes: of the nobility and gentry, of widows and heiresses, of prelates and clergy, of peasantry and townspeople alike. The book presents and explores this broad social panorama.
Alan Deyermond (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book is a guide to the complete range of medieval scholarship undertaken in twentieth-century Britain: history, archaeology, language and culture. Some of the twenty-nine chapters here focus on ...
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This book is a guide to the complete range of medieval scholarship undertaken in twentieth-century Britain: history, archaeology, language and culture. Some of the twenty-nine chapters here focus on changes in research method or on the achievements of individual scholars, others are the personal account of a lifetime's work in a discipline. Many outline the ways in which subjects may develop in the twenty-first century. The book sets British scholarship in its international context and contains useful bibliographies.Less
This book is a guide to the complete range of medieval scholarship undertaken in twentieth-century Britain: history, archaeology, language and culture. Some of the twenty-nine chapters here focus on changes in research method or on the achievements of individual scholars, others are the personal account of a lifetime's work in a discipline. Many outline the ways in which subjects may develop in the twenty-first century. The book sets British scholarship in its international context and contains useful bibliographies.
Rural Settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
Medieval Marriage Sermons
Medieval Single Women
Lords of the Central Marches
The Foundations of Gentry Life
