Byzantine society was highly stratified in the fourteenth century. The main division was understood as one between rich and poor or the archontes and the demos, a division which represented both inequalities in the social status of an individual and in the distribution of material wealth and political power. Elements outside this division, namely the middle class, can be identified, yet they could not be introduced into the schema. Social inequality would be expressed through a number of gestures and the exhibition of deference towards a social superior, who in turn showed his snobbery. Moreover, there existed social networks of different types. Most importantly, the patronage system of social relations, which dominated Byzantine society, seriously hindered the development of other horizontal social groups, including class divisions. This system is identified as having contributed to the lack of direction of late Byzantine society. This picture of Byzantine society is collaborated by three case studies: a) a thorough analysis of the social structure and relations in a provincial society, Serres, b) the analysis of two social networks, the two factions of the second civil war, having as a main question the degree of class consciousness in Byzantine society, c) the analysis of the social structure and relations in the besieged Constantinople at the very end of the fourteenth century.

This doctoral dissertation investigates the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735) in the context of miracles and the miraculous. It begins by exploring the patristic tradition through which he developed his own historical and hagiographical work, particularly the thought of Gregory the Great in the context of doubt and Augustine of Hippo regarding history and truth. It then suggests that Bede had a particular affinity for the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as models for the writing of specifically ecclesiastical history. The use of sources to attest miracle narratives in six hagiographies known to Bede from Late Antiquity are explored before applying this knowledge to Bede and five of his early Insular contemporaries. The research is rounded off by a discussion of Bede’s use of miracles in the context of reform, particularly his desire to provide adequate pastoral care through his understanding of the ideal bishop best exemplified by Cuthbert and John of Beverley. By examining Bede and the miraculous not only through the lens of his predecessors but also among his contemporaries, this thesis ultimately positions Bede as an innovative Anglo-Saxon scholar, though one clearly conscious of the traditions within which he was working.

This thesis explores the representation of the sixth-century Merovingian Queen Brunhild. By examining seven of the divergent sources which present the queen, the construction of Brunhild, or multiple Brunhilds, is analysed through gendered, literary and political lenses. Rather than attempting to reconcile the extremities of depictions of this queen, during her life and after her death, I demonstrate that Brunhild is a series of historical and textual problems at different political moments. I also show that the themes damnatio memoriae, feud and queenship, commonly used to analyse her career, are inadequate to understand the queen herself, the authors who wrote about her, and the age in which they lived. Three main themes within Brunhild’s extensive career allow the exploration of the tensions inherent within the seven main sources which present her. The ‘construction of queenship’ is an examination into Brunhild’s move from Visigothic princess to Frankish queen, a transition often dismissed, but one which proves pivotal to understanding the queen’s later Visigothic dealings. The ways in which authors recognised her at the point of marriage is nuanced by their political context, looking back on the queen upon her husband’s death. The ‘politics of survival’ goes on to study Brunhild’s relationship with the church: first, the positive associations between a queen and piety, and then, the results when that relationship goes awry. It is Brunhild’s tension with the church which labels her ‘the second Jezebel’. Finally, ‘dynasty and destruction’ explores Brunhild’s relationship with her offspring. During three regencies, spanning three generations, the queen’s connection to her family was critiqued in different ways. Her involvement in Visigothic succession politics to the end of her career is examined, alongside Brunhild’s maternal image, and finally the accounts of her death. How Brunhild’s physical and political body is neutralised is crucial to understanding each author’s motives. There is no other early medieval queen with the textual afterlife of Brunhild and this thesis is the first full examination of the extremities of her representation. Subjected, it has been said, to damnatio memoriae, the vilification, or more literally, destruction of memory, Brunhild and her textual manifestation is read in an entirely new way. The contemporary recognition of this queen, together with her textual representation, betray a tension which illustrates that Brunhild was, in fact, more alive after she was dead.

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This thesis compares and contrasts the experiences of the three daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Matilda, Leonor and Joanna all undertook exogamous marriages which cemented dynastic alliances and furthered the political and diplomatic ambitions of their parents. Their later choices with regards religious patronage, as well as the way they and their immediate families were buried, seem to have been influenced by their natal family, suggesting a coherent sense of family consciousness. To discern why this might be the case, an examination of the childhoods of these women has been undertaken, to establish what emotional ties to their natal family may have been formed at this time. The political motivations for their marriages have been analysed, demonstrating the importance of these dynastic alliances, as well as highlighting cultural differences and similarities between the courts of Saxony, Castile, Sicily and the Angevin realm. Dowry and dower portions are important indicators of the power and strength of both their natal and marital families, and give an idea of their access to economic resources which could provide financial means for patronage. The thesis then examines the patronage and dynastic commemorations of Matilda, Leonor and Joanna, in order to discern patterns or parallels. Their possible involvement in the burgeoning cult of Thomas Becket, their patronage of Fontevrault Abbey, the names they gave to their children, and finally where and how they and their immediate families were buried, suggests that all three women were, to varying degrees, able to transplant Angevin family customs to their marital lands. The resulting study, the first of its kind to consider these women in an intergenerational context, advances the hypothesis that there may have been stronger emotional ties within the Angevin family than has previously been allowed for.

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The Heracleians were the rulers of the Byzantine Empire during a particularly interesting period. The seventh century was an age of invasions and, in this respect, it did not differ greatly from much which had preceded it. But the Heracleians, in the course of their efforts to defend the empire against the Slavs, the Persians and the Arabs, were forced to introduce many radical changes. The empire which they succeeded in preserving was very different from that which they had inherited from the successors of Justinian. This development is the salient feature of Byzantium in the seventh century and is directly connected with frontier problems of the Heracleians. The reigns of Heraclius himself, of Constans II, of Constantine IV and of Justinian II almost span this century and their work needs to be treated as a whole since it played a special part in Byzantine history. It i s in this light that the available material has been considered, and, while it is not claimed that anything new has been discovered, such an approach has, at some points, led to a somewhat different interpretation of what has been widely used in the past by others. Both the primary and the secondary material for this period are to be found in a variety of languages and scripts (1) with consequent problems in citation, and it has not proved practicable to follow throughout one uniform method. Names of Greek authors and titles of Greek works are, as is the usual custom, given in Latin wherever there is an accepted Latin form, otherwise they are left in the original. Names of Russian authors and titles of Russian works have been transliterated according to the system recommended by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. Arabic,Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopic texts, however, have had to be read only in translation and the methods of transliteration have therefore normally been those of the editions in which these texts appear. In the case of Arabic, however, an attempt at consistency, based upon the system of Professor P. K. Hitti, has been made possible through the valuable advice of Dr. W. J. Martin, Rankin Lecturer in Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Studies in the University of Liverpool. Names of places that have acquired a customary English spelling have been left in that form. Quotations have been given in English except where a purpose could be served by preserving the original.

The Litlyngton Missal, Westminster Abbey Library MS 37, is a lavishly illuminated English service book commissioned by Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton 1383-4 and donated to his Benedictine monastery at Westminster. This thesis examines the life of this medieval ecclesiastical patron and investigates how his missal is an expression not simply of a desire to be commemorated, but is also a reflection of his priorities as a member of Westminster’s monastic community. While the study’s emphasis is on the missal’s iconography, both text and image are contextually examined in order to better appreciate the patron’s intended messages of personal devotion to the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the abbey’s promotion, and protection of its privileges. This study scrutinizes the abbey’s particular status in relation to the crown and how this is reflected through the missal, most especially through the inclusion of coronation orders and royal exequies. Considering the rubrics and illuminations of these ceremonies through the lens of Westminster Abbey and its abbot elucidates their authorship and clarifies why, atypically, they were included in a service book of this kind. Analysis of documentation and examination of the book’s stages of creation affords a better understanding of the missal’s production than has been obtained to date and shows that there is an overarching aesthetic cohesion to the book. The thesis offers a critical reappraisal of the missal’s illumination and reveals previously unacknowledged innovation and subtlety. The thesis considers what images occur, where, and how they relate to the text. The findings regarding the imagery are contextualised by comparison with illumination schemes of other English missals of fourteenth and fifteenth century missals and service books. The thesis discussion begins with a biographical study of Nicholas Litlyngton in chapter one, providing a clear context to the man who commissioned the missal. Chapter two considers Litlyngton specifically in his role as patron of the missal. The focus of chapter three is the production of the missal, focusing on its scribe, the illuminators, and their style. Discussion of the contested matter of number of artists and attribution of work also occurs in this chapter. Chapter four scrutinises the text and images connected to the royal ceremonies and examines the motivation behind their inclusion in the missal. The final chapter considers the manuscript’s iconographic programme through a comparative study of other English missals, and interprets the extent of convention or innovation in the Litlyngton Missal’s illuminations. Chapter five also examines messages contained in the images and reflects on their significance and purpose.

The individual authorial voice of the late-medieval gentry letter-writer as heard in the context of private, familial or public land disputes is the focus of this thesis. It uses as its main sources two fifteenth-century letter collections which arise out of legal challenges: the Armburgh Roll and the letters of John Shillingford, a mayor of Exeter. The Armburgh Roll, c.1417-c.1453, focuses on a disputed inheritance claim and the affairs of the claimants Joan Armburgh and her husband Robert. The Shillingford letters detail a public dispute between the city of Exeter and the ecclesiastical authorities in the 1440s. The aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of the social and cultural attitudes of the fifteenth-century gentry through the analysis of the language and composition of their personal writings as well as to advance the historiographical appreciation of those gentry letters where they were written within the framework of conflict. It is both the deployment of a literary line of enquiry and a comparative study of the language, content and context of the letters that comprises the main strands of the study. It shows how by ‘reading between the lines’ and examining the individuality of the texts it is possible to reveal the thought processes that sit behind the individual writers’ words and therefore to gain a greater insight into the literate gentry strata. It demonstrates the importance of examining the letters with the emphasis on the politics of the writing which in turn reveals the emotional engagement that the individual gentry writer had with his or her own writing. Primarily, the thesis argues that by appraising the personal writings of the gentry with the emphasis on the creation of the texts against an appreciation of the complex ideological beliefs and concepts of the late-medieval period we can develop our understanding of gentry close personal relationships which in turn enables us to add to our knowledge of that important land-owning class and its evolving social hierarchy.