Paul the Deacon wrote at a time when the Regnum Langobardorum was on the cusp of downfall and attachment to the Carolingian empire. Paul’s narratives (the Historia Langobardorum in particular) have become vital sources for Italian medieval history and a window on the world of the eighth century in the West. Recent approaches to Paul have projected modern perceptions onto his works in the quest to identify his politico-ethnic viewpoint. Consequently his personal ‘voice’ has been lost in modern treatments. The narrative structure of his work, and analysis of the kind of dramatic events that interested him, are areas that have hitherto been largely ignored by scholars. This thesis seeks to provide the context for both Paul’s Life and Works and to present an analysis of what it was that Paul actually said rather than trying to conjure an analysis from what he did not say. It will demonstrate that there is not only a ‘multi-vocality’ within the works of Paul, but links, connections, even contradictions that in themselves serve to present and show Paul’s singularity as both a writer and an individual in challenging times for both him personally and for Italy generally. Yet analysing Paul by using Paul alone is a teleological cul-de-sac and thus this thesis will seek to compare his narrative approach with that of other early medieval authors.

While the Latin version of William of Tyre’s chronicle of the Latin East, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, is a valuable tool for modern historians, it was not particularly well-known during the medieval period with only nine copies surviving. However, William’s history did become extremely popular through a translation of the original into Old French, the so-called L’Estoire de Eracles, with fifty-one surviving manuscripts. The Eracles text has been overlooked by scholars who have assumed that it is a simple translation of William’s text, and there has also been little work in to establishing a provenance for the translation or determining the translator’s motives. This thesis seeks to identify the extent to which the Eracles is a simple translation and assess its importance to historians. While, for the most part, the translator is faithful to William’s text, he made alterations throughout. Many are of a stylistic nature, and the translator did not simply abridge William’s text for a new audience. He made several additions that serve to identify him and his audience. In particular, he regularly added background material on French crusaders, and on events in France, including additional information not found in any other source. On occasion the translator alters William’s criticism of certain individuals and gives a very different version of events that may be more accurate. The major difficulty with studying the Eracles text is the fact that the nineteenth-century editions were reliant upon a limited number of manuscripts. There has been little work on these manuscripts and no clear understanding of the relationships between these manuscripts. This thesis also seeks to tackle this problem by presenting a critical edition of six sample chapters that takes into account all the surviving manuscripts and by establishing the relationships between these manuscripts.

The medieval castle is one of the most popular topics in medieval historiography and interest in this structure has institutionalized it in modern medieval scholarship. Unfortunately, this does not mean that modern historians understand it. The problem lies in the narrow and isolationist definition used by many scholars who see it as simply a fortified private residence representing and defending power. This thesis will demonstrate that the castle’s contemporaries understood it as an identifiable and distinguishable structure and symbol with a singular yet multi-dimensional characteristics as a fortified, personal, and multifunctional resource. The twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm has been chosen as a focus for this thesis because of the specific differences between the reigns of Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II. This period, particularly the nineteen years of Stephen’s reign, experienced significant castle warfare, which provides a great deal of material for this study. In chapters 1-3, each of the above characteristics and their corresponding details will be analysed individually. In chapter 4, three case studies will be presented to demonstrate how these independent characteristics were perceived of as acting simultaneously. Chapter 5 will compare perceptions of castles to other medieval buildings. Finally, chapter 6 will test the definition’s legitimacy by applying it beyond the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm. This dissertation will demonstrate that there was a contemporary understanding of the castle which encompassed its fortified nature, its personal possession, and its multifunctional resourcefulness. If we are to understand this phenomenon as its contemporaries did, then we need to alter our modern definition and expand our understanding in order to come to a truer and more complete appreciation of this essential resource in the Middle Ages.

Les débats entre historiens qui étudient l’époque féodale, Xe-XIIe siècle, portent sur la seigneurie castrale, son apparition, son développement, mais avec un présupposé : l’apparition des châteaux traduit la crise de l’autorité publique, son éparpillement entre les mains de l’aristocratie pour laquelle les châteaux deviennent des instruments de domination, l’an Mil marquant une étape décisive de ce processus. Cette thèse tente d’apporter des éléments de discussion par l’étude du phénomène castral : la formation des châteaux, les autres formes de fortifications, leur rôle, leur évolution. Leur implantation et leurs fonctions permettent d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur ce qu’est une châtellenie, et sa mise en perspective sur le long terme, depuis le premier millénaire. L’évolution de la villa en seigneurie rurale constitue un chapitre qui tente de comprendre ce qu’est une seigneurie, ses droits et ses fonctions, et les divers acteurs de la création des seigneuries. Dans une deuxième partie, l’étude des familles gravitant dans les châteaux et dans leurs ressorts permet d’apporter des éléments nouveaux sur l’origine des nouveaux comtes, des seigneurs de châteaux et des garnisons castrales. Elle s’intègre directement dans le débat sur la chevalerie : hommes nouveaux, soldats de fortune, ou héritiers de l’aristocratie carolingienne. Les comportements familiaux sont aussi étudiés, et les évolutions entre cousinages et lignages. Ils sont impactés par l’extension des liens féodo-vassaliques qui concernent de plus en plus tous les aspects de la vie, les héritages et les biens allodiaux. L’étude de l’évolution de la société « féodale » tente d’éclairer le passage du château, détenteur de la puissance publique, au château, résidence d’une aristocratie et point de crispation de la part des populations rurales dès le XIVe siècle. Elle cherche à établir s’il y a bien eu une « mutation » féodale à la veille de l’an Mil, ou s’il s’agit d’un processus évolutif sur le long terme. / The debates between historians who study the feudal period,10th-12thc., relate on the seigneurie castrale, its appearance, its development, but with one presupposition: the appearance of the castles translates the crisis of public authority, its scattering in the hands of the aristocracy for which the castles become instruments of domination, the year 1000 marking a decisive stage in this process. The thesis tries to bring elements of discussion by the study of the castle phenomenon formation of the castles, the shapes of the fortifications, their role, their evolution. Their establishment and their functions make it possible to bring a new light on what is a châtellenie, and its setting in prospect in the long term, since the first millenium. The evolution of the villa to seigneurie rurale constitutes a chapter which tries to understand what is a seigneurie, its rights and its functions, and the various actors of the creation of the seigneuries. In a second part, the study of the families evolving in the castles and their resorts makes it possible to bring new elements on the origin of the new counts, the lords of castles and the garrisons of the castles. It is integrated firmly in the debate on knighthood : new men, soldiers of fortune, or heirs to the Carolingian aristocracy. The behavior of the families is also studied, and the evolutions between kinships. They are impacted by the extension of the feodo-vassalic links which relate more and more to every aspect of life, inheritances and freehold possessions. The study of the evolution of the “feudal” society tries to clarify the passage from the castle, holder of the public power, to the castle, residence of an aristocracy and locus of tenseness by the rural populations as soon as the14th century. It seeks to establish if there were actually a feudal “change” on the eve of the year 1000, or if it was an evolutionary process on the long term.

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour objectif de mieux cerner la conception que les écrivains médiévaux pouvaient avoir de l'Île-de-France. Pour ce faire, nous avons travaillé sur un corpus de 212 textes littéraires écrits entre 1175 et 1530. La première partie traite de la dénomination : quelle était alors la signification revêtue par les mots de « France » et d' « Isle de France » ? Puis nous avons étudié la façon dont cet espace était présenté par les écrivains, en confrontant leur témoignage à celui d'autres sources, notamment iconographiques. On retire de notre corpus une image somme toute assez bien caractérisée de la région. Son centre, la ville de Paris, attire bien sûr tous les regards, mais les textes montrent une réelle conscience de la complémentarité qui relie la capitale à l'ensemble de l'Île-de-France. Par ailleurs, ce territoire s'affirme comme profondément lié à la monarchie, sur le plan matériel (résidence du roi et de la cour, présence des institutions centrales) mais aussi spirituel. La troisième partie permet de préciser ce lien par l'étude des biographies de trois souverains, Philippe Auguste, Saint Louis et Charles V. Cet examen plus rapproché fournit des informations sur l'affirmation de Paris comme capitale de la France et sur les « chantiers royaux » qui apparaissent, dans notre corpus, comme une caractéristique importante de la région parisienne. / This research deals with the identity of the Paris region in the Middle Ages, as shown off by 212 texts, written between 1175 and 1530. This region was usually called "France": this word obviously has various meanings, which we had to precise. The territory was quite accurately described by medieval authors. Of course, they focused on the town of Paris, but they also realized that the city and its neighborhood were deeply complementary. The main specificity of this region is its link with the royal power. We tried to analyze it within a more restricted corpus: the biographies of three kings of France, Philip Augustus, Saint Louis and Charles V, who made Paris their capital and ordered a lot of buildings in Île-­de-France.

L’origine des revendications de la Couronne d’Aragon sur la Corse remontent à 1297 lorsque le pape Boniface VIII, qui veut se concilier l’alliance du roi d’Aragon Jacques II, lui donne en fief le royaume de Sardaigne et de Corse, constitué pour l’occasion. Il revient au roi de transformer cette inféodation nominale en domination effective. Durant la première moitié du XIVe siècle, les Catalano-aragonais concentrent leurs efforts sur la Sardaigne mais peinent à s’imposer en Corse où la Commune de Gênes dispose déjà de points d’appui puissants. Les Corses, pris dans ce conflit entre grandes puissances méditerranéennes, ne s’engagent que prudemment pour l’un ou l’autre parti. Les seigneurs insulaires tissent d’abord des liens entre ces suzerains antagonistes, pour tenter de favoriser leurs propres seigneuries. La situation change radicalement après 1358. Les peuples de Corse mènent une vaste révolte anti-seigneuriale et obtiennent l’aide de la Commune de Gênes, qui prend le contrôle du nord de l’île devenu Terra del Comune. Rejetant cette légitimité populaire et génoise, des barons Cinarchesi du sud parviennent à reconstituer leurs seigneuries avec l’aide du roi d’Aragon, ennemi de Gênes et suzerain féodal légitime. L’alliance aragonaise change alors de nature : née d’une convention diplomatique entre puissances extérieures, elle devient un enjeu interne à la Corse. Des seigneurs corses, comme Arrigo della Rocca ou Vincentello d’Istria, s’imposent comme chefs d’un parti royal opposé à Gênes et bénéficient de l’aide de leur suzerain. Pour eux cette l’alliance est aussi un atout dans leur projet de se constituer une seigneurie unique de Corse. L’île devient le champ d’affrontement de projets politiques concurrents, par lesquels chaque protagoniste, local ou extérieur, affirme sa légitimité à gouverner. Étudier les liens qui se sont tissés, du XIIIe au XVe siècle, entre les Corses et la Couronne d’Aragon revient à associer deux grilles d’analyse : une grille méditerranéenne, qui intègre la Corse dans le vaste conflit entre Gênes et l’Aragon, avec pour objectif de comprendre la nature du projet politique de la Couronne d’Aragon en Corse, et une grille locale qui se préoccupe de la façon dont les Corses ont intégrés le fait aragonais. On peut alors appréhender les particularismes et les évolutions de la culture politique corse, autour des thèmes de la légitimité du pouvoir et sa représentation. Mes recherches s’appuient essentiellement sur le fonds de l’Archivo de la Corona de Aragón à Barcelone, encore peu exploité pour la Corse, et particulièrement sur les registres de la Cancilleria real. Les documents aragonais sont confrontés aux chroniques corses, italiennes et catalanes, ainsi qu’aux documents de l’Archivio di Stato di Genova, afin de multiplier les angles d’approche et les échelles d’analyse. / The claims of the Crown of Aragon on Corsica go back to 1297, the year Pope Boniface VIII, eager to form an alliance with King James II of Aragon, bestowed on him the opportunely-created Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica. It was for the King to turn this theoretical allegiance into an effective domination. During the first half of the XIV Century, the Catalan-Aragonese concentrated their efforts on Sardinia but found it hard to impose their rule on Corsica, where the Commune of Genoa already had many strongholds. Corsicans, caught in the midst of this conflict opposing two great Mediterranean powers, were careful not to choose sides hastily. The lords of the island first made alliances with those rival suzerains, in an attempt to favour their own seigneuries. The situation changed radically after 1358, when the Corsican peoples rebelled against their lords and obtained the help of the Commune of Genoa, which then took the control of Northern Corsica, now “Terra del Commune”.Rejecting this popular – and Genovese- legitimacy, some “Cinarchesi” barons succeeded in reconquering their Southern seigneuries, with the help of the King of Aragon, the enemy of Genoa and lawful suzerain. This changed the very nature of the Aragonese alliance – initially meant as a diplomatic covenant between two foreign powers, it now became a major issue inside Corsican society. Corsican lords, such as Arrigo della Rocca or Vincentellod’Istria, emerged as leaders of a royalist party, opposed to Genoa and benefitting from the help of the Crown of Aragon. For them, the alliance was also an asset in their own plan to turn Corsica into one single seigneury. The island became the scene of many a clash between competitive political agendas, in which each player – both local and foreign, tried to assert its claim to rule Corsica.Studying the ties formed between Corsicans and the Crown of Aragon from the XIII Century to the XV Century amounts to analyzing the situation from two perspectives – a Mediterranean one, which comprehends Corsica in the vast conflict between Genoa and Aragon and aims to understand the nature of the political plan of the Crown of Aragon as regarded Corsica, and a local one, which focuses on the extent to which Corsicans absorbed the Aragonese reality. The latter perspective highlights the specificities and evolutions of Corsican political culture and, in particular, issues such as the legitimacy of power and its representation.My research is, for the most part, based on documents from theArchivo de la Corona de Aragón in Barcelona, so far hardly exploited as regards Corsica, and in particular on the registers of the Cancilleria Real. Aragonese sources are confronted with Corsican, Italian and Catalan chronicles, as well as with the documents from the Archivio di Stato di Genova, in order to present as many different perspectives and axes of study as possible.

Articulant la question de l’existence d’une « région diplomatique », espace culturel saisi à travers les pratiques de l’écrit documentaire, avec celle de l’émergence de centres d’écriture, cette enquête met en évidence dans la Provence des Xe et XIe siècles, une affirmation progressive et contrastée des institutions ecclésiastiques dans l’écrit diplomatique. Par la circulation des modèles et des hommes, la Provence occidentale avait constitué, entre 950 et 1010 environ, un réseau partageant des pratiques communes. Le début du XIe siècle a vu une rupture par le déclin rapide de la diplomatique entre particuliers et la disparition des scribes à la clientèle multiple actifs dans les cités. Contrôlant davantage la rédaction des actes dans la première moitié du XIe siècle, les centres d’écritures n’ont pas infléchi le formulaire de la même manière. Développant une diplomatique profondément originale, Saint-Victor de Marseille a été le monastère le plus enclin à recourir à des formes ornées, par la rhétorique des préambules et les discours pastoraux qui valorisaient l’aumône des aristocrates. Au milieu du XIe siècle, une seconde rupture apparaît à Saint-Victor, par un abandon des formes maison au profit d’un formulaire simplifié. Cette forte propension victorine à décider du profil des actes apparaît comme une attention à la valeur de média de l’acte, par ailleurs tangible par les utilisations des archives et leur valorisation par le classement et la compilation du grand cartulaire. / By the articulation of two main issues, i. e. the existence of a "diplomatic area" understood as a cultural space delimited through the practices of document writing, and the development of centers of writing, this study highlights the increasingly importance and contrasting influence of the ecclesiastical institutions on the diplomatic writing in Provence in the 10th and 11th centuries. The circulation of men and formulaic patterns made of western Provence, from about 950 to 1010, a network that allowed the spreading of common practices. In the early 11th century, one sees a break in this evolution as a consequence of the rapid decline of the use of diplomatics for private interactions and the disappearance of scribes who used to have a large clientele in the cities. Thanks to a better managing of the writing of documents in the first half of the 11th century, the scriptoria have not modified in the same way the formulaic patterns. The scribes of the abbey of Saint-Victor of Marseilles developed a highly original diplomatic practice based on stylistic and rhetorical devices, which are reflected in the preambles and the pastoral references praising the alms of aristocratic families. A second break with the traditions occurred at Saint-Victor in the middle of the 11th century, when the home-made formulas were replaced by simplified ones. The care Saint-Victor took of the appearance of the documents shows a special concern for the media feature of the document, which is also apparent in the use of archives and their valorization through the classification of charters and the compilation of a large cartulary.

Le château fort imprègne profondément dès l'enfance l'imaginaire de nos contemporains. Le phénomène est massif et déjà ancien comme l'attestent les 418 images de châteaux forts proposées de 1882 à 1960, dans les publications pour la jeunesse, destinées à l'usage scolaire ou dans le cadre familial et qui servent de base à cette étude. L'activité éditoriale reflétant les choix de société, il s'agit alors de comprendre comment s'élaborent, durant l'enfance, la connaissance et le mythe du château fort au travers de ses diverses représentations iconiques, textuelles ou par le jouet-château.A partir de l'exploitation de ce vaste corpus, la thèse met en exergue les fondements de la connaissance du château fort qui prédominent en tous supports scolaires ou de loisirs : les références scientifiques aux travaux de Viollet-le-Duc, omniprésentes jusqu'en 1960. Ce souci d'appui sur les valeurs scientifiques reconnues nourrit les objectifs de la société de la fin du XIXe et du XXe s. qui, par ce choix déterminé, souhaite donner le meilleur à la formation de la jeunesse.Par ailleurs, l'étude des images en interaction avec l'écrit montre que les idées reçues, telle que l'huile bouillante et les oubliettes, font partie à la fois des connaissances acquises et des micro-mythes. Ces stéréotypes stimulant l'imaginaire de toutes générations, l'étude suivante analyse les émotions qui surgissent dans l'activité de réception des représentations mais aussi celles que l'enfant traduit dans le jeu symbolique. Pas à pas sont mises en évidence les peurs originelles que suscite le château fort chez l’enfant lecteur ou joueur : peur de la privation de liberté ou de lumière, peur de l'enfermement, en somme peur de la mort, cette inconnue. On rejoint là les mythes fondateurs de l'humanité.Grâce à l'analyse des manuels et des ouvrages de jeunesse, il apparaît que le château fort est aussi une construction politique instrumentalisée pour l'éducation morale et religieuse de la jeunesse, voire celle différenciée des garçons et des filles. Mais c'est le recours aux neurosciences qui permet de comprendre les processus neuronaux mis en jeu à propos du château fort, dans l'activité perceptive et sensible du jeune lecteur ou joueur mais aussi dans son activité motrice engageant la corporalité.Dans cette perspective, quel est le véritable enjeu de la restauration des châteaux forts ou même de la construction à l'identique du château du XIIIe siècle, Guédelon : préservation du passé ou plongée concrète dans l'imaginaire du château fort à l'échelle réelle ? / The fortified castle deeply pervades the imaginary world in the childhood of our contemporaries. The phenomenon is massive and already ancient, as the 418 pictures of the fortified castles proposed from 1882 to 1960 in youth publications dedicated to school or family use and which are the basis of this study can testify. Insofar as the editorial activity reflects social choices, it therefore deals with understanding how the knowledge and the myth of the fortified castle is building itself during childhood through its various iconic representations, textual or thanks to the toy-castle.Starting from the exploitation of this vast corpus, this thesis underlines the founding principles of the knowledge of the fortified castle which predominate in all supports, for education or for leisure : the scientific references to Viollet le Duc’s works, omnipresent until 1960. This will to be based on recognized scientific values feeds the goals of the society of the late 19th and 20th century, which, through this determined choice, wishes to give the best for the education of their youth.Moreover, the study of the pictures interacting with written expressions shows that the preconceived ideas, such as boiling oil or the dungeon, are part of acquired knowledge as much as of the micro-myth. These stereotypes stimulating the imaginary world of all generations, the following study gives an analysis of the emotions that emerge in the reception activity of the representations but also of the ones that the child translates in the symbolical game. Step by step, the original fears aroused by the fortified castle in the games of the reading or playing child are highlighted : fear of freedom or light deprivation, fear of imprisonment, in other words the fear of death, this unknown. Here we are in accordance with the founding myth of humanity.Thanks to the analysis of the school books and youth publications, it appears that the fortified castle is also a political construction used for moral and religious education, even the one that distinguishes boys from girls. But this is the resorting to neurosciences that enable to understand the neuronal process at stake as far as the fortified castle is concerned, in the young reader’s or player’s perceptive and sensitive activity, but also in his motor activity which implies his body awareness.With this purpose, what is really at stake in the restoration of the fortified castle or even in the identical building of the 13th century castle, Guédelon : preservation of the past, or a concrete immersion in the imaginary world of the fortified castle on a real scale ?

Cette étude porte sur les systèmes défensifs d'une quarantaine de villes petites et moyennes, édifiés en Alsace centrale entre les XIIIe et XVe siècles, jusqu'à leur déclassement ou démantèlement définitif au XIXe siècle. Les ressources sollicitées sont de natures diverses : prospections des vestiges conservés, sondages archéologiques, documentation iconographique (plans, gravures, photographies anciennes), archives médiévales et modernes. Parmi ces dernières, une grande enquête sur l’état de conservation des enceintes des petites villes, bourgs et villages d’Alsace, initiée par le directeur des fortifications d’Alsace en 1779, livre un tableau exhaustif des systèmes fortifiés avant leur abandon. Les questions abordées portent sur les matériaux de construction, les diverses composantes de la défense (portes, murs, fossés, remparts...), les données topographiques et la chronologie des aménagements. Les enseignements majeurs, dans un domaine où seules les enceintes des grandes villes ont jusqu'à présent attiré l'attention, sont la diversité des réponses apportées au besoin de défense mais également des chronologies et types de structures qui n'ont rien à envier à ces grandes villes. Tout au moins jusqu'au XVIe siècle ; car sauf exception, ces villes petites et moyennes n'ont en effet pas pu prendre le virage du bastionnement des fortifications. Elles ont en revanche assez bien entretenu les structures héritées du Moyen Âge pour encore pouvoir être considérées comme des points d’appui dans la défense de la région par l'administration royale peu avant la Révolution. / This study deals with the defensive systems of three dozen small and middle-sized towns of central Alsace, from their building between the 13th and 15th Centuries, to their definitive dismantling during the 19th Century. Various resources were exploited : examination of existing remains, archaeological surveys, visual sources (maps, prints, old photographs), Middle Age and Modern period archives. The latter source included a major condition report on Alsace’s small cities, towns and villages, initiated by the province’s head of fortifications in 1779, which offers a complete overview of fortification systems before they were abandoned.The study addresses the questions of the construction materials used, the variety of defensive elements (doors, walls, moats, ramparts, etc.), topographical data and a chronology of their construction.The major teachings, in a field so far focused on large cities’ walls, are the broad range of solutions to the protective needs and the diversity of their chronology and layout models that are just as interesting as those of larger cities. This is noted until the 16th Century, when, with few exceptions, these small and middle-sized towns were not able toupgrade their defense to the level of bulwarks. Well maintained though, they were still seen as a major defensive support for the region by the royal administration, soon before the French revolution.

This thesis takes as its starting point the use of extracts from the works of historical authors who wrote in England in the early to mid twelfth-century. It focuses upon the ways in which their works began to be incorporated into three particular texts in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Through the medium of individual case studies – De Abbatibus (Abingdon), CCCC 139 (Durham) and The London Collection three elements are explored (i) how mediaeval writers used extracts from the works of others in ways which differed from modern practices with their concerns over charges of plagiarism and unoriginality (ii) how the structural and narrative roles which the use of extracts played within the presentation of these texts (iii) how the application of approaches developed in the twentieth century, which transformed how texts are now analysed, enabled a re-evaluation and re-interpretation of their use of source material with greater sensitivity to their original purposes This analysis casts fresh light upon the how and why these texts were produced and the means by which they fulfilled their purposes and reveals that despite their disparate origins and individual perspectives these three texts share two common features: (i) they follow a common three stage pattern of development (ii) they deal with similar issues: factional insecurities and concerns about the quality of those in power over them – using an historical perspective The analysis also reveals the range of techniques which were at the disposal of the composers of these texts, dispelling any notion that they were either unsophisticated or naïve in their handling of their source materials. Together these texts demonstrate how mediaeval authors used combinations of extracts as a means of responding quickly and flexibly to address particular concerns. Such texts were not regarded as being set in stone but rather as fluid entities which could be recombined at will in order to produce new works as required.