This thesis explores the infrastructure and mechanics of Latin Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Jerusalem was an important religious site for Christians, though it did not gain large-scale popularity among pilgrims until the capture of the city by the crusaders in 1099. Despite the vast and ever expanding quantity of literature on the topic of medieval pilgrimage in Europe and to the Holy Land, the infrastructure and mechanisms for pilgrims has received little attention. This thesis addresses the following core questions: How did pilgrims maintain themselves en route to the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? How important were pilgrimage infrastructure and mechanisms for pilgrims? How did the infrastructure develop over the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? What impact did the changing political situation over the course of the crusades have on this network? Medieval pilgrim and travel narratives, canon law, cartularies, charters and other legal documents, chronicles, exemplars, hagiography, liturgical texts, and papal records are analysed to answer these questions. The thesis follows the pilgrim’s journey to the Holy Land, starting with mechanisms of protection associated with preparations for pilgrimage, continuing on to investigate those who provided infrastructure and mechanisms to pilgrims along the way, before focusing on infrastructure within the Holy Land itself. It demonstrates the scale of the infrastructure, showing the intertwining nature of real world mechanisms of protections with those of a spiritual kind, and how everyone from every level of society could participate and benefit from providing aid to pilgrims. This network is ultimately reflective of concepts such as poverty and charity associated with twelfth-century western Christian spirituality. Indeed, charity was at the heart of pilgrimage infrastructure.

This thesis offers the first extended study of British Library, MS Harley 1766 (c. 1450-60), an illustrated and much abridged version of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes (c. 1431-1438/39). Offering a holistic analysis of text, image, and paratextual features, it argues that the manuscript was the product of a Lydgate specialist and a team of associated artisans operating within Bury St. Edmunds during the 1450s and 1460s. Individual chapters explore the manuscript’s concern with promoting both Lydgate and Bury and identify a distinct rhetoric of idealised and stereotyped kings and queens, developed by the rearranged text and amplified through the design of the visual scheme. This thesis reads these motifs against Yorkist propaganda which fêted Edward IV and condemned both Henry VI and his queen, Margaret of Anjou. The connection between Yorkist propagandist themes and Harley 1766 is a direct result of the probable patronage of the manuscript by the Tyrell family, an East Anglian gentry family whose names repeatedly appear on the manuscript’s flyleaves. Commissioned as a direct response to their position as supporters of a deposed regime, Harley 1766 represents a political re-envisaging of the text designed for patrons seeking to realign themselves politically and ensure their safety in Yorkist England.

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.

This study examines the physical settings and landscape associations of open-air judicial courts in medieval Scotland. Outdoor medieval assembly practices represent an ephemeral collective human activity crucial to the understanding of medieval society. A multidisciplinary approach which utilises place-name, historical and archaeological evidence is adopted. Representative case studies are investigated and the results of geophysical and topographical survey presented. Place-names derived from Gaelic, Scots, Old Norse and English indicative of assemblies, and drawn from established studies, are brought together and supplemented by a preliminary survey of additional material. Over 200 place-names are considered. Published historical references to open-air courts relating to the 13th - 16th centuries, are examined, with 18 examples where physical settings can be confidently identified presented in detail. A diversity of open-air court settings are identified, incorporating both natural and archaeological features. Mounds are the most common archaeological setting identified with a widespread distribution which transcends historical linguistic and cultural boundaries. However, a significant number of court settings utilised natural hills, which has implications for the archaeological scrutiny of assembly places. The re-use of prehistoric features such as cairns and megalithic remains for courts is a widespread phenomenon, not restricted to royal centres. The pre-Christian cultic qualities of early historic central places are illustrated and the close association of early church sites and judicial assembly mounds in Scotland is demonstrated. Medieval judicial assembly sites in Scotland are also found in association with territorial boundaries, emphasising their role in inter-community dynamics. The historical material demonstrates a gradual decline in the use of open-air settings for courts from the 15th century onwards. This nonetheless represents significant persistence of customary court venues in Scotland during the progressive centralisation of legal process.

The focus of the thesis is the diplomatic and legal implications of the capture of ships at sea in the later Middle Ages. It challenges key assumptions in much secondary literature concerning the definition of piracy, seeking to explore several major themes relating to the legal status of shipping in periods of war or diplomatic tension in this period. The thesis draws primarily on diplomatic, legal and administrative records, largely those of English royal government, but also makes use of material relating to France, Holland and Zealand, Flanders and the Hanse. The majority of studies on this subject stress the importance of developments which occurred in the fifteenth century, yet I have found it necessary to follow the development of the law of prize, diplomatic provisions for the keeping of the sea and the use of devolved sea-keeping fleets back to the start of the thirteenth century. This thesis questions the tendency of historians to attach the term ‘piracy’, with its modern legal connotations, to a variety of actions at sea in the later Middle Ages. In the absence of a clear legislative or semantic framework a close examination of the complexity of practice surrounding the judgement of prize, the provision of restitution to injured parties, and diplomatic mechanisms designed to prevent disorder at sea, enables a more rounded picture to emerge. A detailed examination of individual cases is set within the broader conceptual framework of international, commercial and maritime law. Chapter 1 provides a study of the wartime role of devolved flees by means of a case study of Henry III’s Poitou campaigns of 1242-3. It demonstrates that private commissioned ships undertook a variety of naval roles including the transport of troops, patrolling the coast and enforcing blockades. Further, it argues that it is anachronistic to criticise private shipowners for seeking profit through attacks on enemy shipping as booty was an integral incentive in all forms of medieval warfare. Chapter 2 provides a detailed examination of the application of letters of marque, one of the principal means of obtaining redress for injuries suffered at the hands of the subject of a foreign sovereign. It demonstrates that far from being a justification for ‘piracy’ letters of marque were highly regulated legal instruments applied in the context of an internationally accepted body of customs. Chapter 3 examines the concept of neutrality and the relationship between warfare and commerce through a study of Anglo-Flemish relations during the Anglo-Scottish wars between 1305 and 1323. It argues that universal standards of neutrality did not exist in this period and that decisions on prize took place within the context of an ever-changing diplomatic background. Chapter 4 focuses on the provision of restitution once judgement had been made through an examination of a complex dispute between English merchants and the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland spanning the opening decades of the fourteenth century. It emphasises the ad hoc nature of restitution with a variety of means devised to compensate the injured parties and the difficult and often inconclusive process undergone by litigants against a backdrop of competing interests, both local and national. The thesis concludes that the legal process surrounding the capture of shipping was civil rather than criminal in nature. The plaintiff’s need to obtain restitution was the driving force behind such actions rather than the state’s desire to monopolise the use of violence at sea. The reliance of the English crown on devolved shipping made such a policy fiscally impractical.

This thesis reassesses the evidence for the English woman of spirit, Christina of Markyate, as a case-study for transitions in sanctity and spirituality during the twelfth century. It highlights the lack of appropriate vocabulary and models available in the 1130s and 1140s to make sense of the new manifestations of holiness that Christina embodies. By using three distinct but overlapping discourses to structure the study – social networks in religious life, sanctity and spirituality – it reflects on how the stakeholders in Christina’s texts negotiated their positions in relation to these discourses and throws light on a context of rapid discourse shift. The first section, ‘The Lady Christina: Texts and Contexts’, locates Christina, her texts, and her religious foundation at Markyate in their immediate and extended social networks. It shows that she had regional fame during her lifetime but that this was not sustained after her death. Her story is intimately tied up with the Abbey of St Albans, whose interest in their own domestic saints caused its revival in the later middle ages. Although charismatic in her own right, Christina was principally a successful institution builder and prioress, whose main concerns were domestic, rather than carving out a new kind of role for religious women in England. The second section, ‘Saint Christina: Sanctity and Learning’ addresses whether it is possible to consider Christina a saint, and what sanctity might involve when the traditional trappings of cult are missing. Christina fell between older and newer ideas about holiness, which resulted in the disrupted use of models to shape her story. Her saintly credentials were her virginity and visions, and in seeking to have these recorded Christina strategically performed and recast her external behaviour within recognisable modes of holiness. It is also possible to identify ways that Christina moved beyond existing constructions of identity and found a feminine voice in the performances of her ‘sartorial body’. The third section, ‘Ancilla Christi: Visions and Community’ looks in detail at Christina’s spirituality, using her visions to critique the separation of elite and popular modes of numinous encounter by taking her out of her primary social networks and identifying a comparative framework in contemporary trends in Western visionary culture. Visions flourish within particular domestic contexts and disciplines, and Christina enables us to glimpse a sub-culture of visionary experience in twelfth-century England, which rarely shows up in sources and is given little authority in the dominant narratives. The question of what ‘success’ might mean in these three discourses, forms a background theme to the investigation. It is used as a route into what was valued, what was normative, and what was recognisable, in the contemporary fields where Christina enjoyed networks and status, rather than as an objective measurement tool. A variety of sources and theoretical approaches are used to contextualise the fourteenth-century redactions of her vita in order to yield twelfth-century meanings. The main redaction, found in John of Tynemouth’s legendary of British saints, is a disrupted text full of hagiographic elements that can be opened up to multiple readings because of its historical situation and competing agendas. Overall this thesis concludes that Christina and many of the people with whom she came into contact recognised her visions as a mark of divine favour, and that in a climate where the primary category for receiving such distinction was sainthood, Christina was cast, not especially successfully, as a saint.

This thesis explores ceremonial entries in Renaissance France from the perspective of the townspeople who designed and produced them. Existing studies of French entries have tended to see them as expressions of monarchical power, with townspeople coming in submission before the majesty of the king. In contrast, this thesis demonstrates that ceremonial entries were nuanced civic ceremonies which demonstated urban pride and power. Chapter 1 details the weeks of preparations that went into staging a civic reception and the townspeople’s numerous efforts to ensure that the entry was a success. Chapter 2 examines the extramural greeting, where the civic council and other notables came out of the town in procession to greet the visitor and make the formal welcoming speech. The extramural greeting was an important part of the ceremony, as it was the first point of personal contact between the urban elite and the dignitary. The intramural procession is discussed in chapter three. During this part of the ceremony, the dignitary entered through the town gate and processed through the streets until they reached the town’s principal church, where a short service was held. The urban fabric was decorated with flowers, linens, triumphal arches and other decorative structures, while theatrical performances were staged along the length of the processional route. The streets were thronged with ordinary townspeople who had come to both watch and participate in the ceremony. Chapter 4 is concerned with the post-entry festivities, which included banquets, further processions and jousting. The exchange of gifts between the royal guest and the town council was an important element of the post-entry ceremonies, as it was the occasion when the civic councillors could win significant new economic grants for the crown in return for providing a valuable item of silverware.

In the last years of the pontificate of Paul II and for the whole of the pontificate of Sixtus IV, nearly six hundred Scottish clerics supplicated to the pope for a variety of reasons, although the majority concerned their holding of benefices. The clerics ranged from those who were unbeneficed to those who were of prelatial rank and also included a small group who were familiars of the pope and of cardinals. Their supplications are contained within the Registra Supplicationum, a Vatican Archive source, which has long been regarded as an important source for the study of the late medieval Scottish Church in light of the paucity of native ecclesiastical source material. In order to analyse almost 1,200 supplications (for the period January 1470 to August 1484) to the best effect, the study has employed the use of a relational database. Methodological issues such as record linkage are therefore discussed in detail, in addition to results of analysis. In essence the research has been conducted as much to determine what issues can, and should be addressed as to provide definitive conclusions. Nevertheless, use of such methodology has imparted greater clarity to results of analysis than has hitherto been possible. The study reveals, for example, that a disproportionate number of supplications were made by, or on behalf of a distinct group of papal or cardinal familiars. Furthermore, in terms of relations to the papacy, a marked variation from diocese to diocese can be noted. The dioceses of St Andrews, Glasgow, and, to a lesser degree, Aberdeen were not only the most popular dioceses in which aspiring clerics sought benefices, but clergy from these dioceses were more likely to seek favour from the pope.

With the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 and the subsequent establishment of four Frankish states in the Middle East, individuals of European descent came to control and administer areas of the Levant. Frankish regional authority persisted until 1291, when their diminished coastal territories fell to the Mamluks. Yet, despite a Frankish assumption of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, what e↵ect this had on communities in the countryside is still unknown. The purpose of this thesis is to resolve some of this uncertainty, by examining the Frankish impact on rural settlements in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frankish impact on communities was investigated through an exploration of the medieval landscape and seigneurial obligations, two attributes that affected all rural sites in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, regardless of other settlement characteristics. Investigating physical qualities of the countryside through palaeoenvironmental information, medieval views of landscape, and the connection between natural attributes and settlement sites, suggested that despite a favourable climate, Frankish impact on rural communities was limited and regional. Likewise, exploration of seigneurial obligations imposed on settlements similarly implied that Frankish impact was localised to specific areas; however it also suggested that the Franks maintained a sound understanding of indigenous agricultural customs outside of areas they significantly a↵ected. It showed Frankish disinterest in intervening with local traditions when established conventions benefited landlords. This thesis contributes to the field of Crusader Studies by nuancing the current view of the e↵ect the Franks had on communities in the countryside. Frankish impact in rural environments is presented as localised and restricted, but consciously imposed in the settlements that were a↵ected.

Much concerning the disease termed leprosy is accepted as received knowledge, without thought to time and place, but there were many differences in how leprosy sufferers were treated across regions and eras, and so diversity should be regarded as normal. This thesis will examine what was meant by the term leprosy during primarily the medieval period between the sixth and fifteenth centuries in Ireland in order to see if this equates with the disease called Hansen’s Disease in the twenty-first century. The focus will fall around the twelfth century, but as the majority of the extant documentary evidence is mainly from the early modern period, this will, out of necessity, also be discussed. There has been much written on what exactly leprosy was in the past and this thesis will not attempt to answer that question directly, instead its aim will be to contextualise the situation in medieval Ireland by examining the presence of leprosy in comparative terms in the Middle Ages. Leprosy in medieval Ireland is a much neglected area of research due to the perception that there is a lack of evidence. Although extant documentary sources may be less than elsewhere in medieval Europe, this thesis will show that there are plenty of other forms of proof available. Ciara Crawford’s unpublished thesis of 2010, which examined general illness, including leprosy in the Irish annals, is the only other research undertaken this millennium regarding leprosy in medieval Ireland, as all of the other limited research in connection with this subject was undertaken during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This thesis employs all forms of extant evidence including, annals, documentary, hagiography, archaeology, paleopathology and place-names and using this multi-disciplinary approach provides confirmation of the presence of the disease, which was then termed leprosy, in medieval Ireland. This approach resulted in multiple methodological and terminology issues and this thesis will also attempt to address these in order to understand the extent and nature of leprosy in Ireland and its prevalence throughout the period under scrutiny. Employment of this multi-disciplinary approach has resulted in a surprising amount of Irish evidence concerning leprosy being gathered together for the first time. This approach enabled an image to emerge of how leprosy and its sufferers were treated and together with elsewhere, Ireland shows diverse outcomes. It must be taken into consideration however that the extant evidence is inconsistent and some geographical areas and time periods are better represented than others, resulting in an incomplete and uneven portrayal.