Habilitationsschrift--Ratisbon. / Includes bibliographical references (p. xxi-xcviii) and index.

The first aim of this thesis is to present a comprehensive toponymic listing and analysis for six parishes of Western Strathearn, and this is done in Part One where approximately 2500 place-names are considered. The medieval parishes of BQR, COM, TEX, MUT, MZX and MXZ form a continuous, largely upland, area, topographically distinct from the Strathearn parishes to the east, and with the exception of Innerpeffray (part of MXZ, see esp. Part Two, Appendix 1b) somewhat less affected, in the 12c to 14c at least, by inward migration of Anglo-Norman and other non-Gaelic groups or individuals. Thus we might expect this western area to be the most conservative part of an earldom that Cynthia Neville has characterised as conservative and insular as late as 13c when compared to other major Scottish earldoms and lordships (Neville 1983, eg vol i, 156, Neville 2000, 76). The core lands of the more easterly medieval parish of FOW were subjected to the same comprehensive toponymic analysis. Though that toponymic material could not be included for reasons of space, it has contributed, along with the material from the six parishes covered in the gazetteers below, to the second main aspect of the thesis, the discussion of lordship and land organisation in Part Two. In Part Two will also be found an introduction to the earldom of Strathearn and a discussion of a number of aspects of its history, as well as appendices giving additional information relevant to the topics discussed in the body of the thesis. The parish unit was chosen as the basis for the organisation of this thesis since John Rogers (Rogers 1992, esp. 125-7) has shown the fundamental link between the form of the ecclesiastical parishes, whose creation was complete by 12c, and pre-existing units of land usually referred to as multiple estates, a multiple estate being a group of individual estates, not necessarily contiguous, organised and operated as a coherent social, tenurial and economic unit. As Rogers puts it, multiple estates were essentially units of lordship, taking the form of a principal settlement or caput with a number of dependent settlements. They contained within their bounds all the resources required to support their economies and to produce the necessary renders. Accordingly they were arranged in the landscape to exploit those resources, a process which often produced irregular geographical forms, including areas detached from the main body of the estate. This process frequently led to a specialisation of function, such as the management of pasture, amongst the component settlements. Jones (1976) discusses the multiple estate in the context of the early British Isles, Dodgshon (1981, esp. 58ff) in a Scottish context. The latter writer says (op. cit., 58) that in their variety of scale, multiple estates have often been likened to a parish, though some were undoubtedly larger, adding that lordship was exercised over them by a tribal chief, a king or a feudal baron. Many of these characteristics will be found relevant to the discussion of land organisation and lordship in Part Two. In our present state of knowledge, then, the medieval parishes are the best representation we have of the patterns of land organisation in Strathearn as they may have been in the time of the late Pictish and early Scottish kingdoms. A practical demonstration of the relevance of parish boundaries lies in the fact that it is rare indeed to find a settlement place-name whose area of reference straddles the boundary of a medieval parish. It is overwhelmingly within the context of the original parish that the place-names of an area have coherence and are most likely to give up their secrets.

This is a study of Charles Dickens David Copperfield and Herman Melville Moby Dick from a Marxist perspective, exploring the different manifestations of the capitalist system, with critical reference to the theories of Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton. It will attempt to understand cultural differences, values and moral codes, that the two novels reveal about Victorian England and Antebellum America, at this point in literary history, the decade of time with 1850 at its centre. The thesis will explore how the cultural legacy and ambitions of each nation is represented in each of the novels. By comparing the central themes of each work, the study will attempt to illustrate how capitalism is expressed specifically in each nation.

Orientador: Ruy de Oliveira Andrade Filho / Banca: Heloisa Costa Milton / Banca: Giulia Crippa / Resumo: Analisamos, nesta pesquisa, as formas como a traição era representada na sociedade feudal francesa do século XIII, através da Canção de Gesta Renaut de Montauban. A narrativa deste poema trata da revolta de Reinaldo, ajudado pelos seus irmãos e pelo primo Maugis, contra o imperador Carlos Magno e a longa guerra travada até a obtenção do perdão imperial. Com isto, nos vemos confrontados com a violação dos laços de fidelidade entre o vassalo e seu senhor e os julgamentos morais de uma aristocracia cavaleiresca francesa em crise, diante do efetivo aumento do poder real capetíngio. Como não podia combater o monarca, a aristocracia incentivava a difusão de formas literárias nas quais defendia a sua ideologia, baseada nos laços vassálicos e numa visão idealizada do passado. Também procuramos verificar como se consolidou a terminologia utilizada para nomear a "traição", no Ocidente medieval, baseada na Bíblia latina, em especial nos Evangelhos e no episódio da entrega de Jesus por Judas Iscariótes, cuja herança perdura até nossos dias. / Abstract: It's been analyzed, in this research, the forms how treason was represented in the French feudal society of the thirteenth century through Song of Geste Renaut de Montauban. The narrative of this poem deals with Renaut's revolt, helped by his brothers and cousin Maugis, against the emperor Charles the Great and the long lasting war until reaching the imperial forgiveness. Hereby, we find ourselves facing the violation of loyalty bonds between the vassal and his master and the moral judgments of a French chivalry aristocracy in crisis, before the effective increase of the Capetingian royal power. Not being able to fight the monarch, the aristocracy would encourage the diffusion of literary forms in which it would stand up to its ideology, based on vassal bonds and an idealized view of the past. We've also tried to verify how the terminology used to relate "treason" was consolidated in the medieval Occident, based on the Latin Bible, especially on the gospel and the passage of Judas Iscariot handing over Jesus and whose heritage lasts to the present days. / Mestre

How and why did plate armor come to be widely used in Medieval Europe? I trace the historical development of armor in Europe from antiquity to the middle ages, and then identify the main causes that pushed European warriors to develop and adopt plate armor from the 14th to the 16th centuries. I rely on prior research by scholars and historians of arms and armor, as well as primary source documents that describe arms and armor and their use in tournaments and on the battlefield. I conclude that a combination of social, political, military, and technical factors pushed European warriors to adopt plate armor. I also briefly discuss the demise of plate armor due to increasing use of firearms in the 16th century and the growth of professional armies.

This dissertation examines the character, conditions and change of peasant stratification in early modern Sweden. Wherever and whenever one looks, one finds that resources were unevenly spread among peasant households. In the literature, there are different, and conflicting, views compatible with this finding. In order to explain its character, this study places peasant stratification into a broader system of resource reproduction. Resource holding, families, and individuals are studied over time. The study is based on an extended family reconstitution comprising the landholding peasants in the Mid-Swedish parish of Björskog between 1620 and 1820. Data has been compiled from cadastres, poll tax registers, parish registers, court records, and maps, and has then been related to the information on resource holding as given by tax lists and probate inventories. Six elements and three general principles are identified as fundamental to systems of resource reproduction among peasants. Starting from these, the book argues that the resource holding of a Swedish peasant household was relatively independent of family demography; that wealthy peasants were able to retain large surpluses even during the period of high rent pressure in the seventeenth century; that the reproduction of poorer peasant households was imperfect whereas the reproduction of wealthier households was extended; that wealthy peasants dominated the local community; that economic inequalities within the class of landed peasants did not increase during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; that land accumulation and cyclical mobility became important features of peasant society, but not until the decades around 1800: and that the peasant community was characterized by a large degree of geographical and downward social mobility.

This thesis examines the struggle between King Louis XI and the great feudal houses of the fifteenth century such as Burgundy, Brittany, Anjou, Armagnac, Bourbon, and Foix. It attempts to provide a detailed narrative based on the primary sources and the excellent studies on individual feudal princes produced by a number of French historians, supplemented by a critical analysis of the traditional view of Louis XI as the "vainquer de la grande féodalité."

La présente étude s’inscrit dans le débat à propos d’une éventuelle « mutation féodale » autour de l’an mil. Il s’agit d’étudier l’aristocratie laïque durant les Xe et XIe siècles, en prêtant une égale attention aux ressorts matériels et idéologiques de sa domination sociale. La signification des transformations que connaît alors l’écriture diplomatique étant au cœur de la controverse, le choix a été fait de partir des sources hagiographiques originaires des abbayes d’Aurillac, Conques et Figeac. Mais le discours hagiographique présente ses propres biais. Afin de s’en prémunir au mieux, on a confronté autant que possible les affirmations des sources hagiographiques aux informations disponibles grâce à d’autres types de documents. La démonstration procède en deux étapes. En recourant aux méthodes de l’hagiologie, la première partie permet de contextualiser la production hagiographique et de s’interroger sur les conditions de sa réception : on s’aperçoit que si les textes latins sont d’abord destinés à être lus par des clercs, de multiples canaux de diffusion orale permettaient aux hagiographes de s’adresser également aux laïcs, en particulier à l’aristocratie. La seconde partie étudie l’évolution de la domination aristocratique à travers ce que permet d’en percevoir l’hagiographie. Elle montre qu’un certain nombre de transformations ont eu lieu dès le début du Xe siècle et permettent de parler d’une « mutation de l’an 900 » : l’émergence de la chevalerie, la mise en place de la féodalité, la montée en puissance des sires, l’importance des châteaux et des milites sont autant de phénomènes qui datent de cette époque. Toutefois, l’an mil connaît deux ajustements non négligeables : le redéploiement de l’identité aristocratique autour des châteaux et le passage d’une conception cognatique de la parenté noble à une autre d’avantage agnatique. / The present study falls within the scope of the debate about a possible “feudal mutation” around the year 1000. It is concerned with the study of lay aristocracy during the 10th and 11th centuries, by giving equal attention to ideological and material aspects of its social domination. Because the meaning of the transformations that affect diplomatic writing then is in the heart of the matter, we make the choice to work from the hagiographic narratives from the abbeys of Aurillac, Conques and Figeac. But there are also biases in the hagiographic discourse. In order to counterbalance their influence, we have compared as much as possible the data from hagiographic texts with the information available thanks to other types of documents. The demonstration is organized in two steps. Using the methods of hagiology, the first part contextualizes hagiographic production and questions the conditions of its reception: we are led to realize that, if the Latin texts are primaraly intented to be read by clerics, multiple oral channels allowed hagiographers to address also the laity, especially the aristocracy. The second part examines the evolution of aristocratic domination through what can be perceived in the hagiography. It shows that some transformations took place as early as the beginning of the 10th century and that we can therefore speak of “a mutation of the year 900”: the ermergence of chivalry, the establishment of feudalism, the rise of the lords, the importance of castles and milites are phenomena which date from this time. Howewer, there are two significant adjustments around the year 1000: aristocratic identity refocuses on castles and the the noble kinship moves from a cognatic conception to another more agnatic.

L’espace ardennais constitue un territoire féodal qui se forme au Xe siècle sur les terres du diocèse de Reims. La dévolution d’honneurs et de terres est issu de la volonté de plusieurs archevêques successifs désireux de maintenir l’autorité de leur Église sur leur diocèse tout en favorisant leurs familles respectives. Trois lignages bénéficièrent ainsi de la politique archiépiscopale : les comtes d’Omont, les comtes de Verdun qui formèrent la première phase de notre espace d’étude et enfin les comtes de Champagne qui, les derniers, dominèrent l’espace ardennais avant que ce dernier ne tombe dans les mains des rois de France, perdant par là même ses spécificités ce qui mena à sa disparition. Cet espace féodal constitue un exemple intéressant de territoire en position de marche entre France et Empire puis de marge entre les domaines de grands nobles tels que les comtes de Bar ou de Champagne. Cette situation construisit la féodalité ardennaise : unie par des liens familiaux, protéiforme, transfrontalière et capable de chercher loin de ses domaines les occasions d’alliances au point de briller jusqu’en Terre Sainte. / The area of the Ardennes represents a feudal territory which originates from the lands of the diocese of Reims in the 10th century. The devolution of honors and lands derives from the will of several consecutive archbishops eager to maintain the authority of their Church onto their diocese, while priviledging their own families. That’s how three lineages took advantage of the archiepiscopal policy including the Counts of Omont, the Counts of Verdun who were at the origins or the first stage of our study area and finally the Counts of Champagne who were the last ones to control the area of the Ardennes before the latter fell into the hands of the Kings of France. This not only made it lose its specificies but also led to its disappearance. This feudal area constitutes an interesting example of territory from a march position between France and the Holy Roman Empire to a margin position among the nobles estates such as the Counts of Bar or of Champagne. This situation built up the feudalism of the Ardennes which strengthened family ties, evolved continuously, went beyond the borders and had the ability to go beyond its estates in order to fin opportunities to make new alliances to the extent of shining as far as the Holy Land.

La chanson de geste et le roman arthurien en prose aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles dépeignent un univers largement guerrier. Mais loin d’en donner une signification homogène, les œuvres narrent différents types de conflits, des plus terrestres aux plus spirituels, et font entendre des voix diverses – y compris celle du jongleur ou du narrateur – qui tantôt justifient la violence collective, tantôt la condamnent, selon des critères variables. Cette pensée complexe de la guerre s’éclaire lorsqu’on replace les discours littéraires au cœur d’un dialogue avec d’autres textes – surtout ecclésiastiques – concernant l’activité guerrière et sa légitimité : ainsi, la manière de concevoir le sens de la lutte, dans des fictions destinées en premier lieu à un public noble, puise dans des systèmes de valeurs parfois opposés mais aussi complémentaires, laïcs et cléricaux. L’enjeu des relations conflictuelles tel que l’expriment les récits dépend également de schémas d’organisation intellectuelle qui sous-tendent une représentation de l’ordre : la guerre est conçue positivement lorsqu’elle vise à défendre ou à établir une certaine organisation du monde et de la société, parfois fondée sur une exigence de continuité et d’unité du pouvoir, parfois au contraire nourrie par une aspiration à la totalité. En dernier lieu, la valeur de la lutte dépend de son rôle dans la destinée humaine, ce que l’épopée et le roman expriment chacun selon un régime d’historicité distinct : les discours de la guerre sont donc aussi fonction des spécificités poétiques des formes littéraires, de leur écriture de l’histoire, et de la façon dont elles organisent le temps. / 12th and 13th century chansons de gestes and prose Arthurian romances depict a largely warlike universe. But, far from giving an homogeneous interpretation of it, these works narrate different types of conflicts, from the more earthly to the more spiritual, and let diverse voices be heard – including that of the juggler or of the narrator – which sometimes justify collective violence, sometimes condemn it, according to different criteria. This complex view of war can be better understood if we place these literary discourses at the center of a dialogue with other kinds of texts – mainly ecclesiastical – about war and its legitimacy : thus, the way in which the meaning of fighting is conceived in fictions first of all destined to a noble audience is rooted in sets of values which are sometimes opposed but also complementary, lay and ecclesiastical. The stakes of the conflictual relationships as they are expressed in the narratives also depend on the intellectual constructions underlying a representation of order : war is conceived positively when its aim is to defend or to establish a certain organization of the world and of society, sometimes based on a requirement for continuity and unity of power, sometimes drawing on the contrary on an aspiration for totality. Finally, the value of the fight depends on its role in human destiny, which the epic and the romance each express according to a different regime of historicity : discourses about war thus depend on the poetic specificities of literary forms, on their writing of history, and on the way they organize time.