Articles
Gregory of Tours And the Merovingian letter
Robert Flierman
Pages: 119-144
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1893800
Merovingian letter-writing is traditionally studied by calling on a dozen or so high prolife letter collections. This article turns to a different source: Gregory of Tours' Histories, the foremost work of history-writing to survive from sixth-century Gaul. By studying Gregory's narrative descriptions of letters this article seeks to shed new light on three aspects of Merovingian epistolary culture that have proved difficult to approach solely through the epistolary evidence: first, the typological variety of letters used in Merovingian Gaul, which extended far beyond the literary compositions dominating the letter collections; second, the complex practices surrounding letter delivery, such as the use of messengers, oral performance and strategies of secret communication; and finally, the repurposing of letters after their initial moment of delivery, which includes recirculation of old letters as sources of evidence and persuasion, but also covers the way Gregory himself came to employ letters as a narrative device.
Writing history in Portugal before 1200
Rodrigo Furtado
Pages: 145-173
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1902375
The writing of history, in medieval Latin, in the territory today known as Portugal, has been poorly studied. For the period before 1200, critical editions, comprehensive studies, even a list of known texts are lacking. Further, there has been no attempt to understand the Latin historiography of Portugal in its proper Iberian context. This paper seeks to address these issues. Focusing on the lands that would, during the twelfth century, evolve from the county of Portucale into the kingdom of Portugal up to the beginning of the thirteenth century, the paper establishes the historiographic sub-genres employed in the period; identifies the texts that were held in north-western Iberian libraries as possible sources or models for new texts; and presents an annotated catalogue of all known historiographical texts produced in the region.
Multiple lordship in twelfth-century England: a quantitative study
Hannah Boston
Pages: 174-202
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1903974
Multiple lordship – holding land or owing allegiance to more than one lord simultaneously – has generally been regarded as a marginal practice in post-Conquest England, caused by the supposed breakdown of the seigneurial honour in the late twelfth century. This article overturns these assumptions with the results of a groundbreaking statistical study of 194 knightly families from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, 1066–c.1216. The process of reconstruction and selection of these case studies is discussed. Even on a conservative analysis, 33 per cent of these knights had allegiances to multiple lords by c.1216. The proportion of multiple tenants, moreover, remains roughly stable over time, suggesting that this is a normal part of society and not the result of honorial erosion. These findings call for a revision of the way in which we conceptualise local political society, and the nature of the relationship between a lord and his tenants.
Reconsidering the medieval experience at the shrine in high medieval England
Anne E. Bailey
Pages: 203-229
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1895874
This article reassesses pilgrimage practices in eleventh- and twelfth-century England and questions the assumption that pilgrims had relatively unrestricted access to saints' shrines and relics in this period. Drawing on hagiographical evidence, and focusing on six case studies, the article finds that remarkably few pilgrims are depicted in close proximity to a saint's shrine in these narrative sources; they are instead shown venerating at alternative places of devotion such as holy wells, empty graves and extra-mural chapels. It proposes that policies of restricted access were operated by many English cult centres earlier than is often imagined, and in discussing why ecclesiastical institutions may have distanced the laity from their principal shrines the article sets its conclusions within the wider religious developments of the time.
Revisiting the compilation of Matthew Paris's Chronica majora: new textual and manuscript evidence
Nathan Greasley
Pages: 230-256
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1897651
The Chronica majora of Matthew Paris (c.1200–59) is a vital source for the study of thirteenth-century Europe. This article explores its compilation and dating. Much previous scholarship has rested on the assumption that the first part of the text, a revision of the Flores historiarum of Roger of Wendover covering the years from the Creation to 1235, was written at the same time as Matthew's continuation of it (stretching to the year 1250). Textual, codicological and palaeographic evidence suggests that this was not the case. Matthew at first intended only to revise the Flores, and only later was it extended to become the Chronica majora. This article also puts forward evidence that Matthew's continuation was begun in the year 1247. The complex compositional process of the Chronica majora offers rare insight into the methods available to medieval authors charged with writing large-scale projects.
Rumour and reputation management in fourteenth-century England: Isabella of France in text and image
Laura Slater
Pages: 257-292
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2021.1891449
The extraordinary political actions of Queen Isabella of France between 1325 and 1330 provoked intense public discussion, partly as a result of deliberate efforts made by the queen, her allies and her opponents to influence public opinion through the dissemination of defamatory rumours. This essay explores the role of art and architecture in this process, discussing stained glass, manuscript illuminations and satirical protest badges. Analysis of the east window of the St Lucy Chapel of St Frideswide's Priory, Oxford, in the context of local rumours and information sources suggests that even the most expensive, public, permanent and monumental artistic commissions could be drawn into more ephemeral political debates. Intersecting with defamatory political discourses from which the majority of chronicle accounts sought to keep a careful distance, these sources offer a new perspective on the norms of early fourteenth-century English political culture.
