This thesis addresses the function of the depiction of ritualised acts in late medieval mystical narratives through the use of four case studies, those of Mechthild of Magdeburg's Flowing Light of the Godhead (c. 1260), Angela of Foligno's Memorial (c. 1270), the Vita et Revelationes of Agnes Blannbekin (c. 1315), and the Adelhausen sister-book (1318). The rituals of the Church appear throughout these texts, for instance in the celebration of saints' feasts and daily masses, to which these women devoted much of their time. Sacramental and liturgical practice portrayed within these accounts has been incorporated into the spiritual and mystical lives of women in various imaginative ways. Yet participation within such rites was not only a common and pious act, but also reinforced a social and religious hierarchy and offered access to the real presence of God. This discussion proposes that mystical texts are carefully constructed narratives which employ ritual acts as a strategy to frame and authorise their subjects. Positioning the mystic and their voice within, or interwoven with, both the performed rite, such as communion, or references to these rituals, for instance in the use of sacred spaces like the altar or objects such as the chalice, such texts can use such ritualised elements to embed the unusual or unstable mystical element in the familiar and orthodox. These ritual structures, which were theologically complex, are also integrated in order to explain and express aspects of the mystic's task and message. Through close study of the placement of ritual, the way in which it is described, and how it is changed or appropriated within the narrative's depiction, this thesis seeks to understand the ways in which rituals and references to rituals are deliberately considered and purposefully included within these spiritual texts.

This thesis analyses the kin dynamics, patterns of behaviour, and models of alliance and conflict of Norman families in Southern Italy, Sicily and Syria between circa 1030 and circa 1140, and it establishes a methodological framework for this much under-studied theme. Through an examination of chronicles, charters, material culture and architectural evidence, it maps out the extent of the kin groups, identifies common trends, and investigates possible manifestations of a sense of reciprocal obligation and mutual identity. The main case study are the Hautevilles, as the most numerous and best documented family. The first five chapters are dedicated to them, exploring the reach, members, and modus operandi of the group, and the ways in which its evolution intersected with military, institutional, and political issues to achieve the expansion and maintenance of their dominions. The approach taken is both thematic and chronological: the first chapter examines relationships between Hauteville siblings; the second chapter looks at sons, ersatz sons such as nephews, and the question of inheritance; the third chapter looks at the Hauteville cadet branches; the fourth deals with Hauteville women, both born to the family and married into it, whose discussion as a separate thread of inquiry both highlights and explicits many themes encountered with the men of the family; the fifth chapter looks at the significant changes in kin relations which occurred under the rule of Roger II of Sicily. Chapter 6 contextualises and compares the Hautevilles to other similar Norman kin groups in the South, the princes of Capua and the sons of Amicus. Chapter 7 examines larger questions of Norman identity, contextualising Southern Norman kin relations with those of the Anglo-Normans in the North, and seeking alternative models of comparison with the nobility of imperial Germany and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Studies of animal-human relations in the Old Norse world have often focussed on symbolic or economic relations with animals. In contrast, this thesis investigates relationships between domestic animals, humans, and the household-farm as expressed in laws, sagas, and material culture from Iceland. It demonstrates the complexity of animal-human relations in forming and sustaining the household-farm, and in shaping the admiration and anxieties expressed towards animals and animal-human relationships in narratives about the creation and operation of these home-places. Chapter 1 analyses narratives constructed around the settlement of Iceland, examining Landnámabók and stories about settlement in the Íslendingasögur, as well as modern archaeological interpretations of the Aðalstræti house. It argues that medieval Icelanders presented settlement as a tripartite exchange between humans, domestic animals, and the land; a representation at odds with recent archaeological interpretations. Chapter 2 reconstructs the legal regulation of animal-human relations in Grágás. It demonstrates that these laws encourage a demarcated legal landscape, in which domestic animals were to be controlled, protected, and punished; though these animals were not a homogenous category, and different animals had different status under the law and required differential treatment. Chapter 3 trials an experimental method to depict the areas of the farm, and to map how associations between animal and human spaces changed over time. It argues that relations between animals and humans shaped, and were shaped by the spatial organisation of the household-farm, and that such interactions constituted the past communities with which the Íslendingasögur sought to engage. Chapter 4 examines the concept of home in medieval Iceland, and the close relationship between the home, humans, and domestic animals in the Íslendingasögur. It argues that these sagas emphasise commonalities between certain men and domestic animals, and portray these animals simultaneously as animals, and actors in human social networks.

This thesis is an examination of the family in the late medieval and Tudor period. It is intended to demonstrate the potential of gentry studies which adopt an interdisciplinary framework through a combination of history and archaeology. It is also an examination of gentry identity and its relationship to the family. A single family will be used for this examination: the Gascoigne family of Yorkshire. Multiple branches will be examined, including the branches of Gawthorpe, Lasingcroft, Cardington and Hunslet. This enables the assessment to include the variances in identities between each branch of the family. Ultimately, this investigation reveals the complexity of identity within a singular family and posits the consequences of this in the wider historiographical debate. Chapter One of this thesis will introduce the Gascoigne Family. It will bring together evidence from a myriad of different sources to recreate, as far as possible, the Gascoigne family history. Chapter Two assesses the social networks of the family, and ultimately discerns that career-based networks tend to be short-lived in comparison with networks based upon kinship and location. Chapters Three and Four consider the involvement of the Gascoigne family in politics and the law. They examine office-holding and magnate affinities, and propose that the appointment of William Gascoigne I as Chief Justice of England was the culmination of a period of politicisation within the legal sphere. Chapter Five examines the family's relationship with the landscape, with specific focus on tomb monuments and manorial complexes. This thesis concludes by showing that the Gascoigne family as a single entity cannot be adequately defined, and that interdisciplinary frameworks offer an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the past.

This thesis presents an edition of the first five books of Josephus Scottus's eighteen-book Abbreviatio commentarii S. Hieronymi super Isaiam, a text which has not previously been edited and has rarely been studied. The edition is eclectic, and has been based on the ninth-century manuscripts Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 6296, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale lat. 12154, and St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek Cod. Sang. 254, with partial collation of the tenth-century Fulda, Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek 100 Aa 13 manuscript and the ninth-century Wolfenbüttel Herzog August Bibliothek Cod. Guelf. 49 Weiss. manuscript. A critical apparatus is included. I have thoroughly described the surviving manuscripts of the Abbreviatio and their complex relationships to each other, as well as discussing my choice of editorial methods. As part of placing the edition and Josephus Scottus's work in context, I have considered and assessed previous scholarship on abbreviated exegesis and on Hiberno-Latin exegesis. I have also discussed the text of the Book of Isaiah and its history in early and patristic Christian thought in order to better understand Josephus Scottus's approach. A survey of the extant pre-ninth-century manuscripts of Jerome's Commentariorum in Esaiam is provided as part of establishing the text's transmission. I have also compared passages from Jerome's Commentariorum in Esaiam and Josephus Scottus's Abbreviatio at greater length than any previous study, in order to understand the method Josephus Scottus used to abbreviate the Commentariorum and to analyse his style of abbreviation and his goals. It is my intention in creating this partial edition to provide a legible text that other scholars may use for further study of Josephus Scottus and the subject of abbreviated exegesis.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the York Minster Close between c.1500 and 1642. It seeks to develop a contextual understanding of the topographical and morphological development of York cathedral Close between the late fifteenth and the mid seventeenth century. The cathedral settlement represented a rare concentration of economic, temporal and spiritual power within medieval society. This study aims to establish the impact on the cathedral landscape of contemporary social, political and religious changes, including the Reformation. It explores the growing tensions between the Archbishop and Dean and Chapter and between the cathedral and the city. It also tries to understand how the heterogeneous communities who inhabited and frequented the Close were connected to ideas of landscape and environment. Finally it is concerned with the Close as an urban space and it will question how processes of urban change, such as decay and improvement, affected it. Although the sources used for investigating the material culture of the Close are in great part documentary, the theoretical approach taken is drawn from post-processualist archaeology, interpretative anthropology and new history. The overall aim is to provide a narrative as a “thick description”, moving through the different cultural layers that composed this landscape. York escaped large-scale institutional change, but the concepts of ‘sacred space’ which had so dominated its medieval character, was transformed. Outward conformity masked the deliberate concealment of precious objects such as St. William’s shrine, whilst liturgy and literacy became closely entwined with the growth of the print and bookselling trades around the Minster. The presence of the Council of the North enhanced the role of the ecclesiastical and civil courts. New communities of lawyers, shopkeepers and tradesmen appropriated, subdivided and sub-let the Close buildings and the later sixteenth and early seventeenth century were characterised by a period of large-scale investment and modernisation of medieval mansions, including Sir Arthur Ingram’s conversion of the former Archiepiscopal Palace to an urban residence and gardens.

The Old French romans d’antiquité (the Roman de Thèbes, the Roman de Troie, and the Roman d’Enéas) are often admired for their depiction of war, this being a focal concern of their respective narratives. However, the significant roles played by women in their representation of warfare are far less acknowledged. This thesis seeks to remedy that gap in the scholarship. The methodology is based on new philology, a gender studies approach, and new historicism. Attention is given not just to the romans’ texts but also to later manuscript copies and their illustrations as a way of interpreting the texts’ reception and value in the centuries after their composition. Chapter I considers the extent to which women were involved in the commissioning and patronage of the romans in the twelfth century and includes an analysis of manuscript traditions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Chapter II provides an overview of the written sources of the romans and shows how the female characters differ from their classical antecedents. It examines the romans’ historical environment and identifies women with whom the texts can be connected and who may have helped influence the portrayal of the female characters. Chapters III-VII are dedicated to the different roles or experiences that women have in war. Chapter III looks at the ways in which women are invoked as the causes of war; Chapter IV surveys how they are victimised and suffer; Chapter V explores how they perform ancillary functions; Chapter VI takes on one of the most culturally popular images of women in war, which is the figure of the Amazonian woman-warrior; finally, Chapter VII analyses women’s performance of political roles in conflict scenarios. Historical evidence suggests that this is the role in which we would expect women to be most active. Looking at these texts in this way sheds new light on women in the romans d’antiquité and illuminates how they are important to our understanding of the historical period in which these texts circulated.

This thesis argues against the common assumption that English writers ignored the ethical problems of war during the particularly brutal wars of Edward III, king of England, 1327–77. English historical literature in this period is typically mined for ‘facts’ to create visions of the past, or read as literature with little context, but never properly considered for its engagement with the morality of warfare. Chapter One shows that the many uncertain aspects of war, such as intention, are those that most affect how military acts are judged. Chapter Two argues that writers use theo-retical frameworks in a more nuanced and rhetorical sense than commonly believed. Chapter Three argues against the common belief that there was no concept of civilian immunity in the period, and demonstrates how writers present these civilian victims in different ways to attach moral value to those who attack them. Chapter Four examines how writers show the English to only attack enemy civilians, in their campaigns of devastation on a day-to-day basis, to force the enemy to do battle, and thereby end war. Chapter Five shows that writers avoid any of the morally unsavoury aspects of violence but revel in the suffering endured by their own men as meritorious asceticism. Chapter Six assesses how writers engage with the difficulties of ending hostilities and offering mercy, especially when martial culture encouraged bellicosity and vengeance. The thesis focuses throughout on the often nuanced and sensitive perspectives of English writers in this period before the age of Chaucer. The Appendix introduces each of the main sources used throughout this thesis and provides a detailed list of their manuscripts. The many errors and poor descriptions repeated in scholarship are corrected throughout. Several previously unidentified manuscripts, variant versions, and previously unknown texts have been described.

This thesis explores English writings about the crusades from 1550 to 1660. It focuses particularly on the political and religious contexts in which matiyrologist John Foxe, schoolmaster Richard Knolles, and Anglican divine Thomas Fuller wrote about the Holy War to comprehend the emergence of three distinct strands of crusade representation in English historiography. These approaches demonstrate that the crusades were repeatedly remoulded and reimagined in early modem England as part of intra-Protestant polemics fought to define the Anglican Church, and to determine how the nation would position herself politically within an increasingly fractured Christendom. Crusade scepticism, coloured by diverse agendas, competed with a conservative vision of the movement that stylistically owed most to medieval historiography, but that was often driven by a growing feat· of radical religious reform. This balanced perspective on attitudes is reinforced by consideration of key crusading themes in plays, sermons, and other 'non-historical' genres. Taking these texts into account acknowledges that early modem readers absorbed lessons about the past from a broad spectrum of sources, while demonstrating the complex relationship between the Reformation and images of the Holy War in English writings. Finally, the thesis argues that continuity in representations was no less important than change; striking within this diverse portfolio of texts is the coherence with which they viewed the crusades' consequences as pertinent to the Ottoman Empire's continuing attacks on Christian lands. This thesis suggests that only at the end of the seventeenth century, in conjunction with a perception that the Ottoman threat to the West had withered, did English writers detach themselves from the emotions of the crusades, to write about them as a distinct historical phenomenon.

This thesis examines the place of the 'Oryent' in the socio-cultural milieu of Robert Thornton, a member of the North Riding gentry, circa 1400-1473. Using the figure of Thornton, and his two manuscripts, Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS 91 and London, British Library MS Additional 31042, as a way of entering into this cultural landscape, it situates them in their historical and geographical contexts in order to explore the representations, reception of, and attitudes towards the people and material culture of the 'Oryent' (employing Thornton's own orthography and usage to define this region) as found in Thornton's socio-cultural sphere. By then exploring both the cultural landscape, and the ideas presented by the manuscripts themselves, this thesis argues that, counter to much current critical thinking, those of Thornton's circle possessed a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the 'Oryent', and its people, the Jews and so-called 'Saracens'. Firstly it examines the real contemporary presence and usages of 'Oryental' foodstuffs, fabrics and animals throughout Yorkshire. It then explores the remembered presence of the Jews, the evoked presence of the Holy Land in the city of York, and how these cultural memories influenced the experience of reading the alliterative romance Siege of Jerusalem. Finally it investigates the imagined literary figure of the Saracen, as located in Thornton's manuscripts, how this figure was informed by scholastic ideas, and how these ideas impacted upon thoughts concerning Saracen conversion to Christianity. The thesis concludes that the Yorkshire literati enjoyed a sustained, informed and positive interaction with 'Oryental' material culture that contrasted strongly with their hostile - yet still deeply considered - attitude towards the Jews, whilst their attitude towards the Saracens was more nuanced and, again, had been thought through thoroughly.