The subject of Scottish lay religious faith in the eighty years prior to the Reformation of 1559-60 is one in which a variety of concepts and concerns emerge. The choice which has been made reflects the constraints of time and space. Some attempt has also been made to address those areas which have been overlooked by historians, or rarely discussed, such as the role of Mary in lay religious faith. It was necessary to explain lay images of the afterlife in order to understand the path which laypeople chose to attain salvation, so chapters on the Day of Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory should be seen as the context for understanding the chapters on God, Mary and Jesus. The first chapters discusses the Day of Judgement, an event which must be understood in order to interpret all lay religious attitudes and actions. The basic assumption of the Scots was that all people would be judged at the Day of Judgement, so decisions were made on earth in terms of their understanding of God's expectations on this final day. There were, in effect, two "Days of Judgement", a particular and a general one. An understanding of the nature of these two Days of Judgement illuminates understanding of the laity's conception of the function of purgatory, in particular, and also the importance to salvation of church rituals such as the Eucharist, as well as saintly and human intercession after death. Part of the thesis discusses heaven, hell and purgatory, those states of being which were the laity's future after death.

The topic of my thesis is “The campaigns of the Norman dukes of southern Italy to Byzantium, in the years between 1071 and 1108 A.D.” As the title suggests, I am examining all the main campaigns conducted by the Normans against Byzantine provinces, in the period from the fall of Bari, the Byzantine capital of Apulia and the seat of the Byzantine governor (catepano) of Italy in 1071, to the Treaty of Devol that marked the end of Bohemond of Taranto’s Illyrian campaign in 1108. My thesis, however, aims to focus specifically on the military aspects of these confrontations, an area which for this period has been surprisingly neglected in the existing secondary literature. My intention is to give answers to a series of questions, of which only some of them are presented here: what was the Norman method of raising their armies and what was the connection of this particular system to that in Normandy and France in the same period (similarities, differences, if any)? Have the Normans been willing to adapt to the Mediterranean reality of warfare, meaning the adaptation of siege engines and the creation of a transport and fighting fleet? What was the composition of their armies, not only in numbers but also in the analogy of cavalry, infantry and supplementary units? While in the field of battle, what were the fighting tactics used by the Normans against the Byzantines and were they superior to their eastern opponents? However, as my study is in essence comparative, I will further compare the Norman and Byzantine military institutions, analyse the clash of these two different military cultures and distinguish any signs of adaptations in their practice of warfare. Also, I will attempt to set this enquiry in the light of new approaches to medieval military history visible in recent historiography by asking if any side had been familiar to the ideas of Vegetian strategy, and if so, whether we characterise any of these strategies as Vegetian?

This thesis examines the evidence for the involvement in warfare of clerks and religious in England between the beginning of the tenth century and the end of the twelfth. It focuses on bishops and abbots, whose military activities were recorded more frequently than lesser clergy, though these too are considered where appropriate. From the era of Christian conversion until long after the close of the middle ages, clergy were involved in the prosecution of warfare. In this period, they built fortresses and organised communities of warriors in time of peace and war. Some were slain in battle, while others were given promotion or lands for their martial exploits. A series of canonical pronouncements aimed to forbid or restrict the involvement of Christian clergy in organised bloodshed, and some writers branded militant clergy as corrupted by the lure of earthly power or even as having surrendered their sacerdotal status. This study therefore approaches the military practices of clergy alongside the legal and narrative treatments, and treats the latter as reactions to, not the background of, the former. This requires consideration of a wide range of narrative, diplomatic and legal source material. A broad approach shows that clerics’ military activities cannot be separated from their spiritual powers, that canonical treatment was more fragmented and less influential than has been assumed, and that the condemnations of some authors existed alongside others’ praise for clerics’ valour, loyalty, or commitment to defending their flocks. In consequence, the extended study of clerical participation in warfare is shown to have significant consequences for our conception of the bounds of military history, the construction of the licit and the illicit, and the nature of clerical identity itself.

This thesis investigates the character and role of non-Christian belief in medieval societies, and how we can reconstruct it using written sources. It focuses on Anglo-Saxon culture, contextualising Anglo-Saxon material with analyses of Middle English, Older Scots, Scandinavian and Irish texts. We lack Anglo-Saxon narratives about elves (ælfe, singular ælf), but the word ælf itself is well-attested in Old English texts. By analysing these attestations, it is possible to discover much about the meanings of the word ælf— from which, I argue, it is possible to infer what ælfe were believed to be and to do, and how these beliefs changed over time. Using methodologies inspired by linguistic anthropology (discussed in Chapter 1), I develop these analyses to reconstruct the changing significances of non-Christian beliefs in medieval English-speaking societies, affording new perspectives on Christianisation, health and healing, and group identity, particularly gendering. The body of the thesis, chapters 2–9, is in three parts. Because of its historiographical prominence in discussions of Anglo-Saxon non-Christian beliefs, I begin in Chapter 2 by reassessing Scandinavian comparative evidence for elf-beliefs. I also show that it is possible to correlate the meanings of Old Norse words for supernatural beings with other Scandinavian mythological sources for world-views, providing a case-study supporting similar approaches to Anglo-Saxon evidence. Chapters 3–6 reassess Anglo-Saxon linguistic and textual evidence, tackling in turn prehistoric naming patterns and morphological developments, poetry, glosses, and medical texts. The long-standing assumption that ælfe were incorporeal, small and arrowshooting proves to be both unfounded and implausible. Traditionally, ælfe were conceptually similar both to gods and to human ethnic others, all of whom were opposed to monsters in Anglo-Saxon world-views. They were probably only male. In textual evidence, ælfe are paradigmatic examples of dangerously seductive beauty and they are possible causes of prophetic speech and certain kinds of ailments. They inflicted ailments at least at times by a variety of magic called siden, cognate with the much-discussed medieval Scandinavian magic seiðr. Both of these points associate ælfe with femininegendered traits, and I show that by the eleventh century, ælf could also denote otherworldly, nymph-like females. These otherworldly females seem to have been new arrivals in Anglo-Saxon belief-systems. Demonisation is clearly attested from around 800, but ælfe were not conflated with demons in all or even most discourses, even after the Old English period. Chapters 7–9 develop this core evidence to argue for the cultural significance of the beliefs it reveals. By adducing comparative texts from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia and from the early modern Scottish witchcraft trials, Chapter 7 shows how the characteristics of ælf in Old English could occur together in coherent, ideologically significant narratives. Chapter 8 considers the Old English charm Wið færstice in a similar comparative context, focusing on the trial of Issobel Gowdie for witchcraft in 1662, and considering the importance of elf-beliefs in Anglo-Saxon healing. These chapters emphasise cultural continuity in North West European beliefs, questioning inherited scholarly constructions of fairy-beliefs as distinctively ‘Celtic’, and showing striking continuities between Anglo-Saxon and early modern Scottish beliefs. Chapter 9 concludes by combining earlier findings to make new assessments of Anglo-Saxon Christianisation and constructions of group identity, danger and power, and gendering. I examine gender in particular, combining evidence from throughout the thesis with comparative textual and archaeological material to argue that mythological gender transgressions were important to early Anglo-Saxon gendering. Beliefs in effeminate ælfe helped to demarcate gender norms, but also provided a paradigm whereby men could in real life gain supernatural power through gender transgression. I link the subsequent rise of female ælfe to changes in Anglo-Saxon gendering, whereby gender roles were enforced with increasing strictness. By combining detailed linguistic and textual analyses in a suitable comparative context, I reconstruct aspects of non-Christian belief which are marginalized in our early medieval sources, and detect how they changed over time. Such beliefs illuminate various aspects of medieval culture, including social identity, health and healing, the sources and use of supernatural power, and Christianisation. My methods, meanwhile, provide paradigms for taking similar approaches to studying belief and ideology in other areas of medieval Europe.

The thesis explores how far enclosure was pivotal in shaping the female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria as cloistered and contemplative. It focuses on how enclosure influenced the development of representations of female urban sainthood, with particular reference to three Umbrian saints; Clare of Assisi, Clare of Montefalco and Angela of Foligno. The issue of enclosure came to the fore because of the success of the Franciscan movement in promoting the apostolic life, which emphasised the itinerant life, evangelisation and participation within the urban community. However, women who aspired to follow these values were instead directed towards introspective, contemplative seclusion. The claustration of Clare of Assisi exemplified this type of response. Using a combination of a wide range of sources, the nature of enclosure and the processes by which claustration was consistently articulated and promoted are reconstructed. My research reveals that the creation of the cloistered ideal was a negotiated process. The first, chapter, Challenging the stabilitas loci, examines the significance of hagiographic sources, in the form of vitae and canonisation proceedings, in revealing the nature of enclosure for religious women, and, by utilising a wide number of saintly examples, shows how often enclosure was in reality broken by women. The following two chapters concentrate on the construction of male textual authority and the importance they placed on the seclusion for religious women. Chapter 2, The regularisation of chastity: between doctrine practice, examines the theological arguments that were put forward in the development of monastic rules for women and how they reflected a trend that assumed that professed religious women ought to remain within the cloister. In doing so, the regularisation of the cloister emphasised the preservation of the chastity of nuns, through their affiliation to established orders, their supervision and material provision.

Traditionally, the bishops who held office during the civil war which dominated King Stephen's reign (1135-1154) have been considered weak and ineffective, able neither to bring peace between the two sides or among warring local barons nor to protect their flocks or even themselves from the so-called 'Anarchy'. The explanation for this has been found in the bishops' lack of spiritual calibre. Bishops have also been seen as withdrawing their support from the king and ending their involvement in royal government, partly because of increasing general ecclesiastical desire for separation between Church and State and partly because of specific disputes with Stephen. As a consequence of all this, bishops are allowed little importance in modern histories of Stephen's reign. This thesis shows that modern historiographical consensus is based in flawed interpretive frameworks which have led to misinterpretation of the nature of the episcopate and its importance in Stephen's reign. It offers more valid alternatives and then re-examines, the royal, ecclesiastical and, especially, the local evidence in light of them to show that, in fact, the bishops were crucially important figures in regional politics, religion and society during the civil war. It proves as well, that they could possess considerable spiritual authority and continued to be committed to the king and active in the government of the kingdom throughout the period. Additionally, each of these also has consequences for how the episcopacy and Anglo-Norman history in general are understood. This is, therefore, a reassessment of the bishops of King Stephen's reign.

This thesis is a study of the articulation of power in Scotland c. 500-1000 AD using an analysis of manifestations of ‘symbolic wealth’, particularly sculpted stones. In studying the power structures of early medieval Scotland, both textual and archaeological evidence must be considered. Documentary evidence for Scotland is poor, but comparison can be made with Ireland, which has relatively rich textual evidence. The archaeological evidence of the early medieval period in Scotland is considerable, but has an uneasy relationship with the textual sources. Previous attempts to understand the power structures of early medieval Scotland through contemporary descriptions, such as those existing for the monastery at Iona, have resulted in constructed ideal types. These ideal types (e.g. for monasteries, emporia, civitates) have hindered the recognition of difference and variety in early medieval settlement. Within this thesis, relevant documentary evidence is considered alongside the archaeology with the aim of exploring variability in contemporary perceptions and perceived hierarchies of places of power. This research recognises that control of resources, material and physical, is a crucial aspect of power relations in the early medieval period and approaches power by looking at the type and distribution of material culture and how it indicates changes in ideology and politics. Aspects of material culture invested with social meaning are termed ‘symbolic wealth’. Traditional manifestations of symbolic wealth, such as imported pottery, glass vessels and fine metalworking are considered. The main body of evidence comes from a new methodological approach to sculpted stones that argues sculpture can be ranked by virtue of the relative investment in its creation process. This, in turn, indicates the degree to which power and investment were centralised. The methodology evaluates the relative time involved in the steps of the creation process of individual monuments.

The early Christian cults of saints and relics as well as the act and process of pilgrimage were central themes in the religious practice of the Middle Ages. The veneration of saints and relics, the belief in miracles, and the act of pilgrimage were aspects of Christianity rapidly adopted by the converted population of the North Atlantic. This thesis focuses on St Magnus, Earl of Orkney († c. 1116), the cult and pilgrimage process which emerged about a century after the conversion of the Northern Isles. The physical monuments and primary sources, are seen as defining the cult, the pilgrimage process, as well as outlining a trace of the route. St Magnus cult and pilgrimage are also discussed within a comparative context; of the Norse cultural sphere, and of the medieval Universal Church.

The traditional view of historians is that Scottish female religious establishments were not worthy of study due to the ?scanty? sources available for these women, by these women or their convents. This study will challenge this preconceived notion that Scottish female religious were unimportant to the overall study of monasticism in Scotland. It demonstrates that by using a wide range of sources, Scottish female religious in Scotland were successful both economically and locally and had varying connections to the outside world.The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between Scottish convents, their inhabitants and Scottish families, kin-groups and locality. Firstly, will be a discussion of how the outside world and their connections to convents began by looking at the grants and further patronage of these religious communities. Further contacts between the two were varied ranging from the foundation and granting of gifts to these religious communities, the challenging of conventual rights and privileges, external conflict like warfare or the suppression of a convent. Secondly, an assessment has been carried out of the origins of Scottish nuns and the identifying of female religious: the outcome of this has been the construction of a database of all known Scottish female religious. Prosopographical analysis has been applied to show their links to local families, former patrons or founders and their relations to one another. The next part of this study discusses the organization and governance of Scottish convents by examining the role of Scottish prioresses in their religious and secular communities. The office of the prioress has yet to be fully evaluated as an important role in the monastery or in her local community and this section will highlight her many-faceted roles. In addition, how prioresses succeeded to office prioress and monastic elections will be discussed further.

This thesis is about late medieval carpenters, their techniques and their art, and about the structure that became the fusion of their technical virtuosity and artistic creativity: the hammer-beam roof. The structural nature and origin of the hammer-beam roof is discussed, and it is argued that, although invented in the late thirteenth century, during the fourteenth century the hammer-beam roof became a developmental dead-end. In the early fifteenth century the hammer-beam roof suddenly blossomed into hundreds of structures of great technical proficiency and aesthetic acumen. The thesis assesses the role of the hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall as the catalyst to such renewed enthusiasm. This structure is analysed and discussed in detail. Its place in the milieu of late medieval architecture is assessed, and its influence evaluated. That influence took effect mainly in East Anglia. Thus, early fifteenth-century trends in hammer-beam carpentry in the region are isolated and analysed. A typology of is created, from which arise surprising conclusions regarding the differing priorities late-medieval carpenters ascribed to structure, form and ornament. A chapter is also devoted to a critical review of literature pertaining to the topic.