There exists a great continuity in crusading policy between the years 1095-1101 on behalf of the papacy. The crusading expeditions which left for the east in 1101 can not be separated from the broader crusading effort in these years, and should be seen as a second wave of crusading armies, rather than as a separate crusade. The crusading expeditions of 1101-2 owe their origin in part to the energetic efforts of the papacy to continue the crusading policy established by Urban II at Clermont in 1095. The motivation behind the crusading armies which left for the east in 1101 differs only slightly from those which left for the east in 1096. A desire to emulate the success of the armies of the First Crusade remains the only clear cut distinction which prompted people from all levels of society to journey to the east in 1101. At the heart of the popularity behind the crusade message in the years 1095-1101 remains the deep religious piety prevalent in all levels of society This appears to be equally spread across wide areas of western Europe. The crusading expeditions of 1101-2 are more in the nature of pilgrimages than the armies of the First Crusade. This feature is particularly noticeable in the largely Bavarian army commanded by Welf IV duke of Bavaria. It would be a mistake however to see the crusading expeditions simply in terms of pilgrimages. All the crusading armies suffered considerable damage in Asia Minor from enemy attacks, and still brought valuable military aid to the kingdom of Jerusalem. The military importance of the crusader army did not end with the defeat at Ramla in 1102. Many thousands of crusader infantry were present at the second battle of Jaffa in 1102 which saved the kingdom of Jerusalem from collapse.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of medieval and early modern staff weapons, with the goal of creating a new typology and classification system. For the purposes of this thesis surviving material culture and iconography from several museums and collections have been examined and compared. The largest number of objects studied belongs to the Royal Armouries, where I had the privilege of closely examining key examples. In contrast to most previous studies that usually approach the subject of the typology of staff weapons from a perspective of linear evolution, this thesis attempts to revisit and re-examine the relationships of different weapon groups by thoroughly investigating their forms and how they affected their function. A new typological system of categorization is suggested by combining previous scholarship and new ideas for easier identification of different staff-weapon groups and sub-groups whilst at the same time keeping it as simple, descriptive and precise as possible. The design of this new typological system relies on the use and comparison of iconography and surviving weapons. This thesis also makes use of disciplines such as physics and materials science to better understand how certain technical feature affected the use of staff weapons. Disciplines that have not been widely used in this field can produce new data on the construction and function of the examined objects. Non-destructive experimentation and metallurgical analysis are used to analyze technical characteristics of staff weapons that have hardly been considered in previous scholarship. The overall aim of this thesis is to create a typology that can be used as a reference point for future investigation of staff weapons. The alternative disciplines introduced and used will hopefully inspire new perspectives and further research.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of death and burial in the Latin East. The Crusader cemetery at 'Atlit is used as a test site and the result of the 1934 excavation and 2004 survey of the site are here published. Burial customs from Western Europe, the Byzantine and Muslim worlds are all studied, in order to understand all of the influences that came together to impact on the death and burial customs of the Latin East. Data from all known Crusader burials is brought together, forming a compendium of known Crusader burial sites. This work is based on the following questions: 1) what were the cultural influences involved in Crusader burials and 2) are there any distinctively Crusader burial customs that can be seen in the archaeological record The end result of this thesis is an interdisciplinary discussion of death and burial in the Latin East, something that has been lacking up to this point. The main points of this thesis may be summarised as follows: 1) the burial traditions followed at the Crusader cemetery at 'Atlit appear to have French roots 2) burial rites varied throughout the Latin East, probably as a result of different groups of ethnicities burying people at the different sites 3) a systematic method of excavating burials must be developed for Crusader burials in the Latin East and 4) more work is needed in this area to fully understand the different traditions at work in the burials of the Latin East.

Alcuin’s dialogue De rhetorica enjoyed early success in Middle Ages and had a plethora of early copies in the ninth century. Diagrams concerning rhetoric were added to some of the earliest manuscripts and accompanied the dialogue through the ninth and tenth centuries, but were disregarded by modern editions of the work. The dialogue also has an uncommon combination of classical rhetorical precepts and explanation of the four cardinal virtues; these precepts and virtues had never been merged in such a way. In order to deal with the issues mentioned above, this thesis is divided into two main parts. The first deals mainly with Alcuin’s dialogue and its content. In this part, the controversial date of composition is taken into consideration, as well as the reception of the dialogue by modern scholars and their interpretation of how rhetorical precepts and cardinal virtues associate with each other in the dialogue. I give my own view of this issue and try to use Alcuin’s known sources to justify and undertand the presence of a discussion about virtues on a dialogue about rhetoric. Next I analyse the diagrams which were transmitted in some of the oldest manuscripts and consider their relation to the content of Alcuin’s text. I also collate the manuscripts and drew a stemma codicum of the manuscripts containing the diagrams. In the second part, I analyse previous editions of Alcuin’s work. A description of the readings found in the manuscripts, including two never used before, leads to the first stemma codicum of the dialogue. After this, a physical description of the manuscripts and justifications of each of the different readings adopted in this edition is offered before the edition itself.

This study involves a close examination of the story of the Trojan origin of the Franks in the following works: the Chronicle of Fredegar, the Liber historiae Francorum, the Aethici philosophi Scythae cosmographia attributed to Saint Jerome, the Historia vel gesta Francorum, the Historia de origine Francorum attributed to Dares of Phrygia, the Chronicon universale usque ad annum 741, Paul the Deacon’s Liber de episcopis Mettensibus, Frechulf of Lisieux’s Historiarum libri XII, and Aimoin of Fleury’s Historia Francorum libri IV. It traces the continuity and differences, the similarities and influences among these works that utilise the Trojan narrative in order to construct a genealogy for the Franks. The study indicates a high point in the engagement with the story between the 720s and the 770s, a period of great transformation for the Frankish world. Furthermore, not only does the analysis of the different versions of the story in these works reveal that they are heavily interconnected in terms of textuality but the manuscript evidence additionally suggests that much more complex relationships were at play as they circulated throughout the Frankish region in the ninth century. In approaching the Trojan narrative as a whole, this study not only contributes to a neglected topic in the field of medieval studies but also brings together the textual and manuscript evidence in order to reach a full understanding of its significance with regard to early Frankish history. Thus, in addition to analyses of the texts and textual comparisons among the works this study also integrates research gathered from manuscripts that include one or more of these works. In doing so, it presents interrelationships among the works that are not obvious to the modern reader and contextualises them in the broader framework of the Trojan narrative.

La question de la « place du juriste face à la norme », sujet d’actualité en droit positif, peut-Être posée pour l’Europe occidentale du haut Moyen Âge. La Toscane, intégrée politiquement au royaume lombard mais située au carrefour des traditions juridiques d’une péninsule italique fragmentée, constitue un terrain propice à une étude des rapports entre les praticiens du droit et le tissu de normes haut-Médiéval. En effet l’Italie, berceau de la romanité et du notariat public moderne, est le creuset d’un droit atypique où cohabitent et s’entremêlent les substrats législatifs et coutumiers romains et germaniques.Dans ce cadre, la Toscane apparaît comme une région périphérique vierge de toute initiative juridique,réceptionnant simplement les innovations légales lombardes, carolingiennes puis romanistes. Mais au-Delà du respect de textes législatifs peu à peu figés, les notaires doivent composer avec des modèles formulaires, des pratiques coutumières,des besoins sociaux et des volontés individuelles sans cesse en mouvement. L’association de ces règles, régaliennes et coutumières, constitue l’ordre normatif valable au jour de rédaction d’un acte.Au long de ces cinq siècles d’histoire, le notariat doit donc être bien plus souple et inventif que ne le laisse supposer le formalisme a priori rigide des actes haut-Médiévaux, et chaque scribe dispose de son propre savoir-Faire juridique, graphique et linguistique. Dans l’imposante masse documentaire toscane, on distingue des trames formulaires infra-Régionales mais aussi de nettes singularités, au niveau local et à l’échelle même de l’individu, dénotant une véritable culture en symbiose avec son temps, son espace et les hommes. / The question of « the place of the jurist before the norm » a current subject in positive law, can possibly be posed for western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Tuscany, politically integrated into the Lombard kingdom but situated at the crossroad of the juridical traditions of a fragmented Italian peninsula, constitutes a favorable terrain for the study of the relationship between the practitioners of law and the normative fabric of the early medieval period. In effect, Italy,the cradle of Roman culture and of modern public notaries, was the melting pot for atypical or mixed law and mingledRoman and German legislative foundations and customs.In this framework, Tuscany appears as a peripheral region, devoid of any juridical initiative, simply receiving Lombard, Carolingian, and Roman legal innovations. However, beyond compliance with gradually fixed legislative texts,the notaries had to deal with constantly changing formulary models, customary practices, social needs, and individual desires. The association of these factors, sovereign and customary, constituted the valid normative order of the day in thecreation of legal documents.Throughout these five centuries of history, notaries thus had to be much more flexible and inventive than issuggested by the rigid, a priori formalism of early medieval legal documents, and each scribe disposed of his ownjuridical, graphical, and linguistic expertise. Within the imposing mass of Tuscan documents, one finds sub-Regionalforms but also clear peculiarities, on both the local and individual levels, denoting a culture in symbiosis with time, space,and man. / Il problema del « posto del giurista di fronte alla norma », argomento di attualità in diritto positivo, si può affrontare anche per l'Europa occidentale dell'alto Medioevo. La Toscana, integrata politicamente nel regno longobardo ma situata all'incrocio delle tradizioni giuridiche di una penisola italica frammentata, costituisce un campo favorevole peruno studio dei rapporti tra i tecnici del diritto e il tessuto delle norme alto-medievali. Infatti l'Italia, culla della romanità edel notariato pubblico moderno, è il crogiolo di un diritto atipico in cui coabitano e si intrecciano i fondamenti legislativie consuetudinari romani e germanici.In questo ambito, la Toscana appare come una regione periferica e vergine per ogni iniziativa giuridica, che silimita ad accogliare le novità giuridiche longobarde, carolingie e romaniche. Comunque, al di là del rispetto dei testilegislativi poco a poco fossilizzati, i notai devono misurarsi con i modelli dei formulari, con le pratiche consuetudinarie, ibisogni sociali e le volontà individuali sempre in movimento. Il complesso di queste regole, regie e consuetudinarie,costituisce l'ordine normativo valido nel giorno della redazione di un atto.Quindi, nel corso di questi cinque secoli di storia, il notariato deve essere molto più flessibile e inventivo diquanto lascia supporre il formalismo a priori rigido degli atti alto-medievali, ed ogni scriba utilizza la sua personaleabilità giuridica, grafica e linguistica. Nell'imponente massa documentaria toscana, si distingono delle trame di formulariinfra-regionali ma anche delle chiare peculiarità, a livello locale e a quello dell'individuo singolo, rivelando una veracultura in simbiosi col suo tempo, il suo spazio e gli uomini.

The Historia Francorum oui ceperunt Iherusalem is an eyewitness account of the First Crusade, written by a Provencal priest, Raymond of Aguilers, who accompanied the Count of Toulouse on the Crusade. As such it is an important primary source for the History of the First Crusade. Only ten manuscripts of the work of Raymond of Aguilers have survived, and the main purpose of this thesis has been, by collating these manuscripts, to restore the original text as written by Raymond of Aguilers. The evidence and reasoning which have led the present editor to construct the text herein contained, are to be found in the Critical Introduction. The work of Raymond of Aguilers has twice been previously edited: by Jaques Bongars in his collection of Crusader sources, the Gesta Dei per Francos (Hanover 1611); by various editors of the Academie Royale des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres in their collection of Crusader sources, the Recueil des Historiens des Croisades; Historiens Occidentaux, (Paris, 1856). These editions are both, however, unsatisfactory, and the present text is the first to be constructed using all the known manuscripts of the work of Raymond of Aguilers. The Historia Francorum has always raised considerable difficulties of interpretation when it has been used as a source for the First Crusade. Recent work has tended to reduce these difficulties. In the Historical Introduction the editor has tried to give an account of the latest research, and to offer his suggestions as to how the Historia Francorum may best be used. The Historical Introduction has another purpose; in preparing the text it has been found necessary to take some account of the purposes and outloot of Raymond of Aguilers. Various matters of special interest, such as Raymond of Aguilers use of other eyewitness accounts of the First Crusade, have been dealt with in the Appendices.

This thesis seeks to understand the impact of the locality on the lordships of the North-Sea world. Historians, previously, have focussed on aristocrats and lordship through a lord’s relationship to a central authority. Medievalists, moreover, have focussed on central Europe when investigating the aristocracy and nobility, the consequence of this is that lordships were fixed in central kingdoms, which have been perpetuated from a twentieth-century idea of nationhood. Also such a perception causes us to describe the period in structuralist terms and negates the possibility of a fluid society in the tenth and eleventh centuries. ‘Lords of the North-Sea World’ will, however, show that society was not ‘feudal’ or rigid, by contrast it was flexible and subject to change. This thesis intends to investigate lordships in a seascape that has been relatively untouched by historians. I use a comparative methodology which has remained an underused medium by medieval historians. I begin by outlining the topic and justifying my approach, which will explore the huge historiographical background of aristocratic studies. Four key themes will be examined; these are territory, solidarities, inheritances and ‘Noble Texts’. All will reveal how important the locality was to the identity, relationships and perception of the aristocracy in medieval society. The thesis, moreover, will suggest that local factors were a key component in the decision making of lords when they had choices. This has been achieved by drawing on narrative and documentary evidence to consider the levels of regional distinctiveness in lordships. The thesis also appeals to the global versus local debates throughout academic disciplines by suggesting that in the early middle ages, global vehicles of power were attempting to blunt the unmistakable authority of localism.

This thesis examines the form and function of the miraculous as it appears in Latin narrative histories of the crusades of 1095-1204. It addresses an important scholarly lacuna by approaching crusading through the lens of the miraculous, a theme of critical importance to many historical representations of the crusades. Three core lines of analysis are pursued: how the miraculous, as the ultimate epistemological tool for the discernment of divine will, was employed by the authors of crusade narratives as a component in their rhetorical strategies; how representations of the miraculous can reflect changing contemporary attitudes towards the crusading movement; and whether the miraculous of crusade texts can mirror parallel changes to the intellectual landscape of western Europe. The importance of supernatural themes to the narrativisation of the crusades is revealed through the exploration of three thematic dichotomies: miracles and marvels; visions and dreams; and signs and augury. It will be shown that the miraculous represents a previously undervalued source for understanding how the crusades were conceptualised, represented, and memorialised in this period. Further, the findings of the thesis exemplify how crusade narratives represent rich and hitherto largely overlooked sources for the study of medieval western European intellectual culture more broadly.

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