The Anglo-Norman Card of Adela of Blois

1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. LoPrete
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Real Power ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Family Politics ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
William The Conqueror

Down through the twelfth century, politics were as much, if not more, the affairs of personalities and families as the affairs of state. One corollary of this premise is that certain women, as creators of family ties and managers of households, can be shown to have exercised more effective real power than traditional legal and institutional approaches to the medieval period have brought to light. As an instrument of long-term policy, marriage politics were fraught with uncertainties, but when dominant and powerful personages were able to capitalize on opportunities, the resultant alliances could prove effective in the realization of precise political aims. A re-examination of the available evidence for the career of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror and countess of Blois, Chartres, and Meaux, from the perspective of family politics reveals that the Anglo-Norman – Thibaudian alliance, confirmed in her marriage to the eldest son of count Thibaud of Blois-Chartres, was actualized by Adela as an effective determinant of political action in the nearly twenty years she acted as the acknowledged head of the Thibaudian family.

The Earl, the Kings, and the Chronicler

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Full Length ◽  
English History ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Merchant Class ◽  
History Of ◽  
William The Conqueror

This book is the first full length biography of Robert (c.1088 × 90–1147), grandson of William the Conqueror and eldest son of King Henry I of England (1100–35). He could not succeed his father because he was a bastard. Instead, as the earl of Gloucester, Robert helped change the course of English history by keeping alive the prospects for an Angevin succession through his leadership of its supporters in the civil war known as the Anarchy against his father’s successor, King Stephen (1135–54). The earl is one of the great figures of Anglo-Norman History (1066–1154). He was one of only three landed super-magnates of his day, a model post-Conquest great baron, Marcher lord, borough developer, and patron of the rising merchant class. His trans-Channel barony stretched from western Lower Normandy across England to South Wales. He was both product as well as agent of the contemporary cultural revival known as the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, bilingual, well educated, and a significant literary patron. In this last role, he is especially notable for commissioning the greatest English historian since Bede, William of Malmesbury, to produce a history of their times which justified the Empress Matilda’s claim to the English throne and Earl Robert’s support of it.

Changing Perceptions of the New Administrative Class in Anglo-Norman and Angevin England: The Curiales and Their Conservative Critics

1990 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph V. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Base Stock ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
William The Conqueror

A complaint among twelfth-century English moralists and chroniclers was that monarchs were choosing “men raised from the dust” to be their ministers and counselors instead of members of old noble families. They charged that the king was choosing as his courtiers or familiares low-born men—plebes, ignobiles, even rustici or servi—allowing them to usurp places that belonged to the aristocracy. This chorus of complaint began in the time of William the Conqueror's sons. Only then did nobiles and curiales begin to divide into two distinct groups, and new administrative posts provided opportunities for new men to rise to greater wealth and influence.The early twelfth-century monastic chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, wrote that William the Conqueror “raised up the lowest of his Norman followers to the greatest riches.” Often cited is his complaint about Henry I, “So he pulled down many great men [illustres] from positions of eminence …. He ennobled others of base stock [de ignobili stirpe] who had served him well, raised them, so to say, from the dust, and heaping all kinds of favors on them, stationed them above earls and famous castellans.” The author of the Gesta Stephani also complained that Henry I took men of low birth [ex plebeio genere], who had entered his service as court pages and enriched them, endowed them with wide estates, and made them his chief officials. Another chronicler, Richard of Hexham, made a similar comment, although in admiring rather than condemning language, “He oppressed many nobles because of their faithlessness; he elevated to high honors many commoners [ignobiles], whom he found to be upright and loyal to him.”

scholarly journals COVID-19 Shutdown: A Qualitative Study on Pearls and Pitfalls

Proceedings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Naciye Güliz Uğur
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Long Term Impact

The extraordinary and tragic conditions that humanity has not experienced before in the modern period have become ordinary, namely, a “new normal” with the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has had frightening consequences for human health and has caused one million deaths as of September 2020. On the other hand, it has set a new standard of good habits, approaches, and benefits. Due to its global and long-term impact, this unique virus has laid the groundwork for unprecedented helping and sharing behaviors between people and countries. In this study, findings are compiled from the open-ended responses of 626 individuals, all of whom live in Turkey. Within the study’s scope, individuals were asked about the unique advantages and disadvantages of the restrictions imposed under COVID-19. While the categories of economy, social distance, and health came to the fore among the harms, the strengthening of family ties, adoption of technology, and the spread of solidarity culture were mentioned among the advantages.

Abbas qui et scriptor?The Handwriting of Robert of Torigni and His Scribal Activity as Abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel (1154–1186)

Traditio ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 45-86
Author(s):  
Benjamin Pohl
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Monastic Community ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Manuscript Production ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
First Time ◽  
Previous Scholarship

This article investigates a specific twelfth-century hand that occurs in a group of manuscripts connected to the Norman abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and identifies it as the hand of Robert of Torigni, the famous Anglo-Norman historian who became abbot of that monastery in 1154. The manuscripts used as evidence all contain corrections and interlinear glosses in what I contend constitutes Robert's own hand, and have neither been studied comparatively nor had their relationships scrutinized. Indeed, scholarship to date has actually argued for different examples of handwriting altogether as belonging to Robert and has not inquired as to whether the glosses and annotations contained within the codices discussed here could be indicative of Robert's scribal activity in the scriptorium of Mont-Saint-Michel during the period of his abbacy (1154–86). This article, therefore, seeks to challenge the prevailing notions concerning Robert's characteristic handwriting, both in terms of its supposed shape and character, and with regard to the manuscripts in which it is thought to survive. This fundamental reassessment of previous scholarship will be achieved by combining, for the first time, a comprehensive paleographical analysis of the manuscripts with a discussion of their broader historical and institutional contexts. Furthermore, and perhaps more significantly, in identifying Robert's hand and the contexts in which it survives, this article aims to enhance our knowledge concerning the person behind the script. It will present new and important insights into Robert's activities as head of his monastic community, as well as into his methods as a monastic historian who, as will be shown, was intimately involved in the processes of manuscript production at Mont-Saint-Michel during the second half of the twelfth century. Ultimately, this article argues that Robert, despite being the author and intellectual architect of complex and influential historical works, had in fact very little training as a book scribe, which is evidenced by his handwriting.

Hagiographies of Mary

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Ihnat
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
New Form ◽  
Miracle Story

This chapter examines a new form of literature that emerged in twelfth-century England, the collections of Marian miracle stories, designed to prove through reasoned argument that Mary was worthy of devotion. Marian miracle collections first appeared in English monasteries in the early twelfth century, depicting the imagined rewards of entreating Mary to act on their behalf. The Marian genre was a further expression of the drive to record letters, laws, histories, and hagiographies that pervaded Anglo-Norman monastic culture. In order to understand the part the miracle story played in the development of the Marian cult, the chapter traces its inception and early development within wider literary and devotional patterns. It also considers the prayers, chants, offices, and feast days that lie at the heart of the universal miracle collections before concluding with a discussion of how the miracle stories were communicated in the liturgy.

Waging War: Fields of Conflict and Siege Warfare

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver H. Creighton ◽  
Duncan W. Wright ◽  
Michael Fradley ◽  
Steven Trick
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Landscape Context ◽  
Siege Warfare ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Characteristic Features

This chapter provides an overview of how and with what consequences warfare was waged in the twelfth century, drawing particular attention to the landscape context of conflict. Case studies of the period’s two major pitched battles (Northallerton/the Battle of the Standard, 1138, and Lincoln, 1141) are presented, although the conflict as a whole saw few pitched battles and was instead dominated by siege warfare. The period saw the siege castle cemented as an essential part of the repertoire of Anglo-Norman conflict, mixing psychological and martial functions and favoured by rulers in an era when siege warfare was static and protracted while leaders needed to be mobile. The overall picture is that the conflict saw no radical departure in ways of waging war, and many of its characteristic features — such as the use of mercenaries, the avoidance of pitched battle, devastation of landscapes and the predominance of sieges — were not aberrations but part and parcel of an established pattern of Anglo-Norman warfare.

The legend is born: early Greek, Latin, and insular versions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Dresvina
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Katherine Group ◽  
Old English Martyrology

Chapter 1 is dedicated to the early distribution of the relics of St Margaret/Marina, the early versions of her passio (Greek, Latin, and Old English), and their interrelations. It also discusses the proper names and the place names found in her legend: of Margaret/Marina herself and its conflation with Pelagia, of her father Theodosius, the evil prefect Olibrius, her executioner Malchus, a matron Sinclitica, the supposed author Theotimus, the dragon Rufus, and of Pisidian Antioch. It then examines the three extant Old English versions of St Margaret’s life from the ninth to the early twelfth century: the Old English Martyrology, the Cotton Tiberius version, and the Corpus Christi life. The chapter proceeds with a discussion of the Anglo-Norman poem about the saint by Wace, an overview of Margaret’s early cult in England, and concludes with a study of the life of St Margaret from the Katherine Group.

Identity, Naming, and Division

2021 ◽  
pp. 257-298
Author(s):  
Letty ten Harkel ◽  
Chris Gosden
Keyword(s):  
Medieval Period ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
Domesday Book ◽  
The Church

We focus on evidence of naming the landscape in the medieval period starting with evidence from Domesday Book (1086 AD) and then moving backwards. We make links between names, the use of the landscape, and issues of identity. Landscapes would have been named in all periods. We consider what can be said of earlier landscapes for which evidence is scant or non-existent. Enclosure and naming were probably linked, in that when smaller parcels of land, such as fields, were created the are likely to have been given names in order to refer to them. We think about boundaries as evidence of sacred landscapes and end with conclusions on long-term continuities and differences. The landscapes of the early medeieval period stand out from those earlier, especially after the divisions, such as parishes, imposed by the church.

Anglo-Norman Canonists of the Twelfth Century: An Introductory Study

Traditio ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 279-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Kuttner ◽  
Eleanor Rathbone
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
History Of ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
The Common

Among the various aspects of the operation of canon law in medieval England, the history of the Anglo-Norman school of canonists which flourished in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries remains largely unexplored. Modern historians have frequently emphasized, to be sure, the eager interest which English churchmen of the twelfth century took in problems and issues of canon law; and it can now be considered an established fact that the English Church throughout this period was well abreast of the developments which everywhere resulted from the growing centralization of ecclesiastical procedure, from the work of Gratian and his school, and from the ever-increasing number of authoritative responses and appellate decisions rendered by the popes in their decretal letters. The importance of the system of delegate jurisdiction in the cases referred back by Rome to the country of origin has been noted, and so has the conspicuous number of twelfth-century English collections of decretals, which testifies to a particular zeal and tradition, among Anglo-Norman canonists, in supplementing Gratian's work by records of the new papal law. The problem, also, of the influence exercised by Roman and canon law on the early development of the Common Law is being discussed with growing interest among students of English legal and constitutional history.

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