Summary Geoffrey de Montbray was one of the most important men in Normandy and England during the second half of the eleventh century. As bishop of Coutances, Geoffrey made a significant contribution to the restoration of ecclesiastical life in western Normandy. In post-Conquest England, where Geoffrey became a great landholder, he played a pivotal role in the consolidation of the Conqueror’s victory. Geoffrey’s role in the conquest and settlement of England, and in particular his association with warfare, has overshadowed his achievements as a diocesan bishop. In modern historiography he has been presented as an example of an old-fashioned type of bishop that was gradually being superseded in Normandy by more reform-minded prelates. This thesis will assess the validity of this interpretation by providing a detailed examination of his career. But it will also consider his activities as a diocesan bishop and his participation in the settlement of England in the context of the development of his personal relationship with the Conqueror. In particular, it will examine the significance of charismatic elements of lordship and the importance of acquiring ‘closeness’ to a ruler as a means of self-advancement. By approaching Geoffrey’s career from his perspective, the intention of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the mindset of an eleventh-century Norman bishop. This thesis uses a range of sources that includes charters and narrative sources, architectural evidence, the evidence of Domesday Book, and manuscript sources.

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<p> Historians of the Middle Ages have long reflected on the chronicles and archival sources of Western Europe, seeking to find the birth of the modern state. This thesis represents one such contribution to this historical problem, exploring the question of political centralization in the kingdom of France during the reigns of Capetian kings between 1151 and 1247. Focusing on the county of Anjou, this thesis contends that local aristocrats not only constructed their own political community but also used local customs to shape the contours of centralization in Anjou. Angevin sources suggest that state-building in France emerged less from conquest and occupation than as the result of cooperation between the political center and peripheral communities. The kings of France benefited from the loyalty of the Angevin political community, while local elites used royal concessions to define and defend their political and legal rights as Angevins.</p>

Because the sheriffs of late twelfth-century England played such a crucial role in maintaining law and order and in collecting royal revenue, the way that the king managed this position, either directly or through his justiciars, provides insight into his administrative competence. In the case of Richard I of England (1189-1199), to whom historians generally ascribe negative attributes, royal appointments to shrievalties indicate that Richard concerned himself with this local office, chose capable and loyal men, and used the office wisely as a means of raising much needed money. Furthermore, the justiciars named by King Richard governed well while in power, skillfully safeguarding the kingdom and doing so in large measure through judicious shrieval appointments. / The majority of those used as sheriffs did not, contrary to commonly held views, originate in the curial class; and even though secular and ecclesiastical magnates served the king in this capacity, they made up only a small minority. Instead, the typical sheriff for Richard I was a man of local stature but who had limited contacts at the royal court. Nevertheless, it was those from the curial and magnate classifications who benefitted most from the distribution of royal patronage. Remarkably, possession of a shrievalty did not provide the advantage expected for someone with such frequent access to the sources of power. / The view of Richard I as an irresponsible and unconcerned monarch, therefore, must be altered, for he fits well into the type of administrative kingship modeled by the Angevin family as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 1059. / Major Professor: Ralph V. Turner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Some of the greatest names in medieval literature, Chretien de Troyes, Jean de Meun, Brunetto Latini, and Chaucer, to name a few, proudly include their vernacular adaptations of popular Latin sources within the corpus of their literary work. Yet, as Peter Dembowski points out, critics have paid little attention to the actual mechanics involved in the vernacularization practices. While the common medieval literary processes of auctoritas, translatio, and conjointure linked by Karl D. Uitti to the development of courtly vernacular literature are known to function in the transference of source texts to the vernacular, the role of rhetoric, an aspect of the conjointure process, has as yet remained unexplored. / Taking as its study the popular Latin tale collection, the Disciplina clericalis which appeared as a common source in almost all the vernacular literatures of Western Europe and which enjoyed a tremendous popularity throughout the Middle Ages, this study analyzes how one French vernacularized tale collection, the anonymous thirteenth-century Chastoiement d'un pere a son fils and the Decameron recast through rhetorical manipulation three of the tales found in the Disciplina. / The two prologues of the vernacularizations reveal the outline of a specific rhetorical scheme employed by the vernacularizer in the "adaptation" of the individual tales. Each of the clerks chooses the rhetorical method of argumentation best suited to his purpose. The tales present themselves as the elaborations of one part of the particular rhetorical scheme chosen by the clerk. Thus, rhetorical training not only aides the medieval clerk in the embellishment of the material but also serves him in the "translation" of the material to the new audience. Just as the development of courtly literature depended on the scholastic practices of the interdependent literary processes of auctoritas, translatio, and conjointure, so too the establishment of "bourgeois" literature relied on these same procedures as exercised by the clerks of the courtly tradition. Through these processes and rhetorical techniques, the clerks produced works in the vernacular that took their place next to the source texts. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: A, page: 3022. / Major Professor: Lori Walters. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This thirteenth-century epic comes from the manuscript 2.0.1. of the Peterhouse College at the University of Cambridge. It has been written in an Old French dialect and contains 9608 verses which constitute 246 rimed laisses (two other manuscripts can be found; one at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, XIII$\sp{\rm th}$ century and the other at the Bibliotheque de la Faculte de Medecine of Montpellier, XIV$\sp{\rm th}$ century). This epic narrates the life of Maugis, knight, enchanter and soothsayer, who not only fights the Sarrasins before Toledo, Milan or Palermo, but also leads ruthless feudal battles against the emperor Charlemagne. The hero, instructed by an old magician Baudri, soon becomes a fearful conjurer due to his brilliant sense for artfulness. Throughout his numerous audacious feats of skill, the magician is helped by the "fairy-horse" Bayard as well as the famous sword Froberge. / The introduction of this bilingual translation analyzes the main characters, Maugis, Charlemagne, Espiet and the emir Vivien, through a variety of different themes such as the feudal relations between vassals and king, crusades against the pagans, conversions of muslims to christianity and of course, love between knights and sarrasin princesses. The "merveilleux" or supernatural, is the predominant characteristic of this work, and the growing influence of the "matiere de Bretagne" is here, subtilely combined with the traditional rhetoric of the epic. / In conclusion, this epic will be reinserted into the cycle to which it belongs, the rebel cycle, in order to understand better the frequent allusions to other epic heroes such as Girart de Roussillon, Renaut de Montauban ou les quatre fils Aymon. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1347. / Major Professor: Joseph Allaire. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The Morality Vice character, in various manifestations, can be traced from an origin in the medieval drama through the drama of the Restoration. His or her defining characteristics are the use of disguise, the ability to manipulate, the tendency to address the audience directly, the desire to serve the devil by corrupting others, and the participation in a drama that is socially critical and/or morally didactic. / Originally an allegorical character participating in an externalized psychomachia, like Titivillus in the anonymous Mankind, the Vice metamorphosed during the late medieval and Renaissance periods into a unified representative of one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins, like Pride or Wrath in The Castle of Perseverance, appearing both in the comedies and the tragedies. On the Jacobean stage the Vice-figure took on more clearly human characteristics; significant examples of the early 17th century Vices are Shakespeare's Iago, Jonson's Volpone and Mosca, and Tourneur's Vindice. Beginning at this time, the Vice often functions as an instrument of the playwright's social criticism. During the Restoration, the Vice-figure, male or female, takes the form either of the bawd or the manipulator. Representative of the Restoration Vices are Dryden's Lyndaraxa and Zulema in the tragedy The Conquest of Granada, as well as Congreve's Fainall and Marwood in the comedy The Way of the World. / The peculiar quality of the Vice-figure is a charisma which conceals malevolence. Thus this character embodies form and function in the drama by leading the audience empathetically through the psychomachia, the mirror of the moral quandary at the heart of man. The Vice-figure's tenacity can be explained by the fact that the Vice role elucidates human moral behavior. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 3066. / Major Professor: Bertram H. Davis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This dissertation examines the socio-economic and socio-cultural dynamics of medieval Famagusta from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Contrary to the traditional historiography suggesting that Famagusta enjoyed commercial privilege after the fall of Acre in 1291 and lost its importance with the Genoese occupation of the city in 1374, this work offers more detailed analysis of economic and social dynamics of the late medieval Famagusta by examining wide-range of archival evidence and argues that Famagusta maintained its commercial importance until the late fifteenth century. In late medieval ages, Famagusta enjoyed economic prosperity due to its crucial role in Levant trade as a supplier and distributor of agricultural and luxury merchandise. It hosted nearly all prominent Genoese, Venetian, and Tuscan merchant companies and become one of the most important part of the Levantine trade policy of Venice and Genoa. Moreover, beside the economic growth Famagusta also witnessed social and cultural prosperity which enabled it to bear the title 'emporium'. People from almost every nation lived, visited, co-operated, and enjoyed the cultural wealth where the cultural differences were far from being social disintegration factor. By analysing notarial, fiscal, ecclesiastical and visual evidence from the period under examination, the main elements that are necessary to understand the evolution of medieval 'emporium', such as economic, social, cultural, administrative and urban dynamics, are scrutinized in order to draw more consistent conclusions. Regarding the lack of any monograph on this subject, this dissertation provides the first comprehensive analysis of economic and socio-cultural dynamics of late medieval Famagusta.

Status and gender studies are now well established paradigms of Byzantine social history. But academic enquiry has, so far, overlooked the significance of age. This is perhaps because most biographical accounts open with conception and birth, and move forwards to death, which seems so logical to us that the Life Course trajectory has not stood out as a defining characteristic of Byzantine biographical narratives. However, Byzantine authors do not present their characters as stagnant; characters are often shown to develop in persona across their lives. The study of age and life-stage is crucial to understanding the Byzantines’ evolving familial roles and societal responsibilities. This thesis deconstructs the Life Course patterns as presented to us by authors writing AD 518 to 1204, a critical period in the development of Byzantine culture. The start point is 518, the year that the Justinian dynasty commenced, a period characterised by a rich and abundant supply of evidence. The end point is 1204, the year that the Latins captured Constantinople and the sources distinctly change in style and influence. This thesis draws upon several types of evidence including literature, coins and tombstones in order to expose this hitherto unexploited but fundamental facet of Byzantine identity

This dissertation analyzes local and regional histories written during the 10th to 13th centuries in areas that were historically a part of the Persian Empire. These texts are written in Persian or Arabic or both. Some sources were originally in Arabic and later translated into Persian. The main Persian language local histories that I will address in this dissertation include the Tarikh-i Sistan, Tarikh-i Tabaristan, Tarikh-i Bukhara, Tarikh-i Bayhaq, and Tarikh-i Qum. This project attempts to answer how and why Persian local and regional histories assert a privileged connection with the Prophet Muhammad. I examine the ways in which Persian local and regional histories assert legitimacy, authority, and privileged access to Muhammad, the prophetic experience, and a blessed role in the Islamic umma.