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Recently, scholars of pre-Christian religions in Scandinavia have argued against a unified pantheon with Odin at its head. Instead, scholars have argued that religious beliefs in pre-Christian Scandinavia should be understood as a body of interrelated beliefs that varied by region, social class, and environmental setting. Significant cults within pre-Christian Scandinavia include those of Thor, Freyr, Odin, and a cult of the dead. Acknowledging that various religious beliefs coexisted leads to the question of how they interacted with each other. The cult of Odin has often been considered a cult of royalty and elites. Scholars have argued that Odin's various aspects were tools for legitimizing rule. Significantly, Odin was not the god of the farmers, who may have favored a cult of the dead. By using the religious ruler ideology framework outlined by Sundqvist, this thesis argues that the followers of a cult of Odin benefited from Odin's perceived power over the dead because those followers existed in a society which used the dead to establish social and political standing. Using textual and archaeological evidence, I first establish how pre-Christian Scandinavians used the dead to create social and political power through óðal rights. I then use Icelandic sagas to show that overpowering the dead was a theme in the transfer of inheritance and power. Finally, I show how Odin and Odinic figures were shown overpowering the dead before gaining social and political standing. This thesis concludes that Odin's power over the dead was an aspect of religious legitimization for his cult. Critically, this thesis adds to the historiography by examining how different pre-Christian religions in Scandinavia interacted with one another.

<p> An older generation of historians argued that the translation of Aristotle's political works into Latin in the second half of the thirteenth century caused a secularizing revolution in political thought that severely weakened the authority of the Latin Church over secular kings, overthrowing what is often termed the "papal monarchy." However, this thesis has recently undergone severe criticism, to which I offer a contribution, but also a corrective. Aristotle's political thought had nothing to do with the decline of papal power, for his claim that political institutions were natural to mankind was completely acceptable to the Latin Church. The difficulty lay in theologians' interpretation of Aristotle's metaphysical thought, and it was necessarily theologians in the end who had to argue in favor of papal monarchy. Because of Aristotle's soaring popularity in the intellectual climate of the thirteenth century, the papal monarchy could only stay intellectually vibrant if its defenders could keep up with the rise of Aristotelian philosophy generally. The Dominicans Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas built a magnificent synthesis of Aristotle's thought with Christian theology, and they both adduced Aristotle in favor of papal monarchism. However, Aquinas's contemporary, the great Franciscan theologian a, Bonaventure, while a committed papal monarchist, had deep misgivings about Aristotle's metaphysics. He helped promote a reactionary movement that culminated in a massive condemnation of Aristotelian ideas (many of them defended by Thomas) at Paris by Bishop Etienne Tempier in 1277, followed by similar censures at Oxford lasting well into the 1280s. These reactions against Aristotle were severely harmful to the fate of the papal monarchy, for they set ecclesiastical authority against the very theologians that the papacy needed to harmonize the popular Greek thinker's thought with Christianity.</p>

This thesis examines Christianization in the ecclesiastical province of Trier from 570-630, using both traditional and more recent theoretical approaches. It begins by examining the paradigms and limitations of current approaches both to the Merovingian Church and to the concepts of ‘paganism’ and ‘Christianization’. It then introduces the cognitive science of religion focusing in particular on Harvey Whitehouse’s postulation of ‘doctrinal’ and ‘imagistic’ ‘modes of religiosity’ as a theoretical tool. The subsequent section deals with the cult of saints and the figure of the bishop both in general and in the province, using Whitehouse’s approach as a means of opening these up and allowing parallels to be drawn between the cult of saints and funerary feasting. At the same time, his theory is challenged by the variation within these activities in terms of participants and frequency of occurrence. The complex nature of Merovingian monasticism also presents a degree of challenge to Whitehouse’s perception of medieval monasticism as monolithic. Nevertheless, the application of ideas regarding the imagistic mode to recluses opened up new avenues of discussion. A focus on the ecclesiastical province of Trier suggests that the advent of Columbanian monasticism did not produce an instant surge in the number of rural monasteries in the north-east. Examination of church councils offered a double opportunity for the application of modes theory, both to the contents of the councils and to the institution of the councils themselves. A closer examination of councils in the context of place allows for consideration of regional variation. Modes theory is once again challenged: while councils may appear at first to be a supremely doctrinal phenomenon (involving policing and uniformity), they also involve negotiation, ingenuity and reflection. The paucity of sources for the north east tests the regional approach taken here: but it also encourages questions to be asked regarding the spread of manuscripts and ideas. Modes theory reveals the motivations behind apparently prosaic sermon collections as sophisticated, aiming at the policing of the clergy and laity and ensuring the stability of ‘correct’ doctrine. The section on the Synod of Auxerre dealing with standards amongst the clergy and parish care raises questions regarding the possibility of shared beliefs. An examination of the Life of Goar reveals that although its contents might seem appealing in elucidating more details of parish care, the context of the source called its reliability into question. Finally, an analysis of burial rites via three cemeteries in the province of Trier tested the limits of modes theory, and other cognitive approaches were recruited to examine the impact of the concept of liminality on burial practice. Presentation of geographical and archaeological evidence is discussed it is suggested that more extensive database work would enable comparative regional study, allowing for a closer examination of belief, burial and Christianization. This study concludes that the use of modes theory, together with other insights drawn from the cognitive science of religion, offers an alternative and illuminating approach to Christianization. It suggests that future research should regard this as a valid methodological tool for the analysis of medieval religion. It also suggests that a regional focus would benefit future studies of the Merovingian period.

The intent behind Blood Cries Afar: The Forgotten Invasion of England 1216 was to be the first book to study the French invasion of England in 1216 and the first to offer a military narrative and analysis of its events. In completing the study, a clear understanding is conveyed of the course of fragmented and frequently confusing and neglected events. The large French expeditionary force that landed in England in May 1216 allied with baronial rebels against King John to divide the country for eighteen months. For a year the French occupied and ruled the richest one-third of England, including the capital, London (which remained in their hands for the entire duration of the occupation). At one point, as many as two-thirds of the English baronage recognised the French leader, Prince Louis (heir to the Capetian throne in France) as their monarch; King Alexander II of Scotland travelled to Dover to pay homage to him as King Louis I of England. The invasion was ended by military means, not political ones. The neglect of this major invasion event, which came close to being a second Norman Conquest, is a telling one. In part this is due to its events unfolding over the end of King John's reign the start of and Henry III's (as a minor), and also because it remains in the shadow of Magna Carta from a year earlier. Thus in the few places where the invasion has been investigated, its treatment has been partial, disjointed and brief. This book shows how it was that a succession of military events led to the point that the French were able to launch a full-scale invasion and how the invasion and subsequent occupation was defeated militarily. In so doing, it emphasizes strongly the primacy of military events over political and diplomatic ones, and offers a detailed analysis of campaigning in the early thirteenth century. It offers the most comprehensive account and analysis of a number of engagements, some of which have been almost completely neglected or overlooked entirely. The book also offers fresh insights, context and arguments on the following: Richard I's and England's foreign policy; the military leadership of King John; the first re-issue of Magna Carta; Louis' campaign and planned last-stand; the fluidity of castle warfare; ravaging as a precision weapon; the impact on non-combatants and the role of atrocity; the importance of the invasion to nascent English identity. But most of all, its chief significance is that it offers the first, full-length and military study of events that dominated England from the sealing of Magna Carta in June 1215 to the end of the invasion in September 1217.

This thesis engages with a broad range archival source from across Flanders to analyse poorly understood urban groups, the archery and crossbow guilds. The development and continuing importance of the guilds, as military and social groups, and as agents of social peace, will be analysed over six chapters. Chapter one traces the guilds’ origins and continuing military service. Proving a foundation date or a definitive origin for most guilds has proved impossible, but their enduring military importance can be established. In contrast to the assumptions of Arnade (1996), stating that after 1436 the guilds rarely served in war, I have shown that guilds served across the fifteenth century. Chapter two examines the guild-brothers themselves, through a prosopographical study of the members of the Bruges guilds. Many writers have assumed guilds to be ‘elite’ but no study to date has attempted to prove the status of guild-brothers. My use of several hundred different sources reveals numerous important details about guilds’ composition. Many ‘elites’ were present, but so too were members of all crafts and, in comparison with the militia records of 1436, many richer crafts were greatly underrepresented, but crucially no profession was excluded. Chapters three and four analyse respectively the devotions and community of the guilds. Both show the centrality of choice; that guilds were reactive and complex groups changing in response to the needs of members, who could include women, children and priests. Chapter five steps back from the guilds to examine their relationships with authorities. The rulers of Flanders granted privileges to guilds, but they also socialised with them. Great lords patronised and joined guilds, helping them gain rights and lands, but such relationships were mutually beneficial. Urban authorities also supported their guilds, through money, wine, cloth and even land the towns cherished their guilds not just as defenders, but as representatives of civic ideology. Chapter six demonstrates the guilds’ displays of honour and civic prestige at their best, through a study of their competitions. Competitions brought hundreds of armed men together, yet they did not provoke violence, rather, through the language of brotherhood and symbols of commensality, competitions rebuilt damaged communities. A study of competitions is far more than a study of spectacles; it is an analysis of the greatest forms of civic representation and the guilds becoming agents of social peace.

Very little critical work has been done on collections of charters surviving from medieval Scotland. Using cutting-edge methodologies, this study deconstructs the largest of these collections, namely the Kelso Abbey cartulary, and attempts to answer questions such as when, why and how was it produced, and is its content authentic? Ultimately, it concludes that the manuscript is not a straightforward, objective transcript of the monastery’s charters, and evidence to support this is presented in four chapters, a conclusion and two commentary sections. Chapter one demonstrates that the production of the cartulary was tied to a specific period in the abbey’s history and was certainly produced as part of a campaign to rebuild after the wars of the early fourteenth century and their ramifications. These ramifications included the destruction of the monks’ charters, the destruction of their home and property, and the upheaval of the native landholding establishment by King Edward I and King Robert I. Chapter two reinforces the above suggestions by dating the production of the manuscript between 1321 and 1326 - i.e. the precise years in which King Robert was working to help many of the religious houses in Scotland to reassert themselves after the war. Apart from contextual considerations, chapter two also establishes that the cartulary is not a completely accurate representation of the documentation in the monastery’s archive. Among other things, portions of the manuscript appear to be missing, and the scribes who produced it adopted selection criteria which led to the omission of charters or of diplomatic. Thereafter, chapters three and four evaluate the authenticity of the material in the manuscript. Chapter three demonstrates that there are severe problems with the information, diplomatic, witness lists and other features found in a number of its charters, and chapter four demonstrates that these items share a number of conspicuous features in common, including their locations, conditions and the circumstances which appear to have led to their production. In combination, chapters three and four build a strong case against the authenticity of a number of items in the manuscript, and both of these discussions are complemented by exhaustive commentaries which discuss each of the problematic charters in detail. Finally, this study concludes by demonstrating that certain features of the Kelso Abbey cartulary appear to call into question the veracity of several well-established paradigms, including the notion that cartularies were created for the sole use of the inhabitants of religious communities. It also suggests that the consequences of the Anglo-Scottish wars in the early fourteenth century may be comparable to the consequences of the Norman Conquest of 1066 in terms of inspiring religious houses, like Kelso, to forge charters, and it builds a strong case that this needs to be an area of future inquiry.

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A detailed examination of the interactions between individuals and their wider social experiences is the primary aim of this thesis. It is intended that such an investigation will present a picture of local society within which the ties between individuals and families are more multi-faceted than a strict feudal presentation of society would allow. This formulation takes into account a number of components and involves the important consideration of religious patronage as an indicator of local attachments. The investigation of the social role of religious patronage, including consideration of personal motivation and the politics of choice, will be the subject of two chapters and will provide an important indication of the strength of local attachments and social ties. The main theme throughout this work will be that the development of local society involved the integration of a number of social groups within a framework provided by relatively clear geographical boundaries. This thesis thus aims to portray the main characteristics of local society in more three dimensional terms than have been previously attempted, by approaching the subject from a number of different angles. The thesis will accordingly elaborate the existing picture of Scottish society, through the movement of discussion away from the narrow confines of superior lordship.

The thesis begins by exploring the threshold of old age in the Middle Ages. The subjectivity of ageing is rehearsed and the difficulties of identifying the elderly by physical or mental traits. A discussion on fixing the starting point of old age using the aetates hominis and relevant medical and legislative sources follows. The thesis continues with an examination of attitudes towards biological ageing. Chapter Two adopts the physiology of Galen (129-199) in relation to ageing as a starting point and follows its development in the Middle Ages. Ancient and medieval attitudes to the fundamental question of whether ageing is natural or pathological are also considered. The pathologies which were associated with old age in the medieval period are identified and the various lines of treatment which were prescribed for them are assessed. The theological view on ageing in relation to sin is determined next. The attitude of spiritual physicians to elderly penitents is explored by examining the libri poenitentiales. Theological and physiological attitudes are then compared. The theme of wholeness and disintegration which is highlighted by that comparison is carried into the following chapter which considers images of old age in medieval literature. In particular, the old person's proximity to physical corruption is explored against the background of medieval society's fascination with death and the cadaver. Chapter Five attempts to mitigate the harsh view of life in old age in the literary sources by analysing notions of the debt which children owed to aged parents and considering the means of social security which were available to the elderly when the family failed to support them. The ultimate purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge of medieval society's understanding of how and why humans aged and the attitude of that society to its liminal members.