Lives Identities And Histories In The Central Middle Ages

Offers a new take on the identities and life histories of medieval people, in their multi-layered and sometimes contradictory dimensions.

At a time when the Battle of Hastings and Magna Carta have become common currency in political debate, this study of the role played by the Norman Conquest in English history between the eleventh and the seventeenth centuries is both timely and relevant.

Explores the multiple ways in which different conceptions of time and history have been used to understand politics since late antiquity, showing that no conception of politics has dispensed altogether with time, and many have explicitly sought legitimacy in association with forms of history.

Drawing on the expertise of 26 distinguished scholars, this important volume covers the major issues in the study of medieval Europe, highlighting the significant impact the time period had on cultural forms and institutions central to European identity. Examines changing approaches to the study of medieval Europe, its periodization, and central themes Includes coverage of important questions such as identity and the self, sexuality and gender, emotionality and ethnicity, as well as more traditional topics such as economic and demographic expansion; kingship; and the rise of the West Explores Europe’s understanding of the wider world to place the study of the medieval society in a global context

Explores how medieval towns and cities received newcomers, and the process by which these 'strangers' became 'neighbours' between 1000 and 1500.

This collection of ground-breaking essays celebrates Mark Ormrod’s wide-ranging influence over several generations of scholars. The seventeen chapters in this collection focus primarily on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and are grouped thematically on governance and political resistance, culture, religion and identity.

In the Middle Ages, both individual and social groups became progressively cohesive, reaching a respective notion of identity, which contributed to the articulation of the society. Adopting an identity implied defining otherness; to combine external perception and inner assumption; to seek a justification in a specific memory; and to link social cohesion and territory. Through the analysis of these features, a new perspective is opened from which to study the Middle Ages in its different social aspects: the emergence of self and personal identity; religious identity and rejection of religious alterity; relationship between the majority and social minorities; delimitation of the identity of the ruling groups; assumption of identity in political expressions; or the progressive identification of national features in touch with the consolidation of central power at the end of the Middle Ages. The personal and collective identity, in short, shaped the medieval society and prepared a specific legacy.

What did medieval authors know about their world? Were they parochial and focused on just their monastery, town, or kingdom? Or were they aware of the broader medieval Europe that modern historians write about? This collection brings the focus back to medieval authors to see how they described their world. While we see that each author certainly had their own biases, the vast majority of them did not view the world as constrained to their small piece of it. Instead, they talked about the wider world, and often they had informants or textual sources that informed them about the world, even if they did not visit it themselves. This volume shows that they also used similar ideas to create space and identity – whether talking about the desert, the holy land, or food practices in their texts. By examining medieval authors and their own perceptions of their world, this collection offers a framework for discussions of medieval Europe in the twenty-first century.