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Essays on the medieval chronicle tradition, shedding light on history writing, manuscript studies and the history of the book, and the post-medieval reception of such texts. The histories of chronicles composed in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and onwards, with a focus on texts belonging to or engaging with the Prose Brut tradition, are the focus of this volume. The contributors examine the composition, dissemination and reception of historical texts written in Anglo-Norman, Latin and English, including the Prose Brut chronicle (c. 1300 and later), Castleford's Chronicle (c. 1327), and Nicholas Trevet's Les Cronicles (c. 1334), looking at questions of the processes of...
From Thomas Becket to Charlemagne, from Leif Erickson to Count Dracula, this series of biographical essays separates truth from legend as it explores the lives of some of the most accomplished and influential figures of medieval history. Drawing on the latest research, Icons of the Middle Ages: Rulers, Writers, Rebels, and Saints examines the lives of some of the most remarkable personalities of the Medieval Era—powerful, ruthless, compassionate, brilliant people who remain widely influential today. Each portrait in this extraordinary gallery sets its subject in the context of their world, revealing what we really know about their lives, their iconic status in their own times, and their lasting legacies in our time. Readers will encounter fascinating individuals devoted to the pursuit of power (Richard III), to freedom (Robert the Bruce), to philosophy and religion (Maimonides; Thomas More), and to the arts (Dante; Hildegard of Bingen). Additional chapters explore life in the medieval castle and the advent of siege warfare—two defining developments in the Middle Ages.
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Accounts of Jack Cade's 1450 Rebellion-an uprising of some 30,000 middle-class citizens, protesting Henry VI's policies, and resulting in hundreds of deaths as well as the leaders' execution-form the dominant entry in a group of quasi-historical documents referred to as the London chronicles of the Fifteenth Century. However, each chronicle is inherently different and highly subjective. In the first study of the primary documents related to the Cade Rebellion, Alexander L. Kaufman shows that the chroniclers produced multiple representations of the event rather than a single, unified narrative. Aided by contemporary theories of historiography and historical representation, Kaufman scrutinizes...
While references to Robin Hood began to appear as early as the thirteenth century in legal records, the earliest surviving poems did not appear in manuscripts and early printed books until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Several fourteenth-century allusions in the works of William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer suggest that the rymes of Robyn Hood were widely circulating by the 1370s, but, it is vital to note, none of these late fourteenth-century works survives. A better approach, Thomas H. Ohlgren argues, is to focus on what has actually survived rather than on what might have existed. As a result, the poems Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and the Potter, which survive in two different Cambridge manuscripts of the last third of the fifteenth century, and A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, which was printed at least seven times in the sixteenth century, must receive pride of place in the canon because they have a physical reality as material artifacts - in short, they exist and provide valuable information about the places and times of their composition and dissemination.
Edition of fifteenth-century chronicles providing important evidence for contemporary events, including the Wars of the Roses. This edition makes available for the first time to a wider audience two historically important fifteenth-century English chronicles, with full scholarly apparatus and comprehensive introductions. The Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis gives full and graphic accounts of the murder of James I of Scotland in 1437, and the subsequent executions of his assassins; translated from a lost Latin narrative by John Shirley, it is edited from the only full text thathas survived. `Warkworth's Chronicle', usually ascribed erroneously to John Warkworth, master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, is a frequently-cited source for events in the Wars of the Roses between 1461 and 1473, and gives a contemporary assessment of the supposed murders of Edward, Prince of Wales, and of Henry VI by Richard of Gloucester. Professor LISTER M. MATHESON taught at Michigan State University.
Medieval society created many kinds of records and written material which differ considerably, giving us such sources as last wills, sermons, manorial accounts, or royal biographies. Primary sources are an exciting way for students to engage with the past and draw their own ideas about life in the medieval period. Understanding Medieval Primary Sources is a collection of essays that will introduce students to the key primary sources that are essential to studying medieval Europe. The sources are divided into two categories: the first part treats some of the many generic sources that have been preserved, such as wills, letters, royal and secular narratives and sermons. Chapter by chapter each expert author illustrates how they can be used to reveal details about medieval history. The second part focuses on areas of historical research that can only be fully discovered by using a combination of primary sources, covering fields such as maritime history, urban history, women’s history and medical history. Understanding Medieval Primary Sources will be an invaluable resource for any student embarking on medieval historical research.
Reading, writing and the prosecution of warfare went hand in hand in the fifteenth century, demonstrated by the wide circulation and ownership of military manuals and ordinances, and the integration of military concerns into a huge corpus of texts; but their relationship has hitherto not received the attention it deserves, a gap which this book remedies, arguing that the connections are vital to the literary culture of the time, and should be recognised on a much wider scale. Beginning with a detailed consideration of the circulation of one of the most important military manuals in the Middle Ages, Vegetius' De re militari, it highlights the importance of considering the activities of a rang...
Index of manuscripts in Middle English prose contained in the John Rylands & Chetham's Libraries, Manchester The John Rylands and Chetham's Libraries, Manchester, were both founded by charitable local magnates and in the course of time have become well known in many parts of the world. Housed in their striking original premises, they both contain major collections of manuscripts which in each case include important texts in Middle English prose. In particular, the Rylands collection, which is the larger, has fifteen copies of the Wycliffite Bible, six of the prose Brut, three of Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesu Chris, two of Pore Caitif, as well as single copies of numerous other works. Chetham's has a Wycliffite Bible, a Mandeville's Travels, a Polychronicontranslation by Trevisa, lives of Christ and of the saints, and an important series of scientific and medical texts.
Index of manuscripts in Middle English prose contained in the Henry E. Huntington Library The Huntington Library, with its fifty-two complete manuscripts, and excerpts in several others, can lay claim to the largest collection of Middle English materials outside the British Isles. This collection includes nearly 500 bound volumes of literary, historical, and religious materials, which contain about 2,000 separate texts. Manuscripts in Middle English (1150-1500), particularly of prose and verse, are a collecting strength.