Twelfth-century England

Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, England (ca 1088–ca 1154) has been admired for centuries as the author of the monumental Historia Anglorum. The recent discovery of the Anglicanus ortus opens a new window onto this important English author as well as onto the uses of poetry and the knowledge of medicine in medieval England. Written in Latin verse, the Anglicanus ortus describes the medicinal uses of 160 different herbs, spices and vegetables. Henry drew on centuries of learned medicine to compose this work, employing the medical knowledge of ancient authors like Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides and of medieval scholars like Walahfrid Strabo, Macer Floridus and Constantine the African. But this is no ordinary herbal: the work is staged first as a discussion between a master and a student walking around a garden, inspecting the plants in their separate beds, and then as an awkward performance by the same master before Apollo and a critical audience, seated in a theatre at the garden’s centre. Beyond its didactic and performative aspects, the entire work is framed as a prayer to God’s generative capacity and the rational order of nature. The search for that order is virtuous: as Henry himself says, ‘Happy is he who can know the causes of things, especially whatever will be the cause of health.’ This critical edition is based on the five extant manuscripts and includes a complete English translation on facing pages and a commentary on every poem. An extensive introduction traces the history and relation of the manuscripts, examines Henry’s poetic skill and use of sources, and establishes the place of the Anglicanus ortus in a pivotal era in the history of medicine and natural philosophy.

One of the rarest afflictions to come across within twelfth century English hagiography is the double disability of being deaf and mute; in fact, of the eight hagiographic sources, and two-hundred and ninety-two accounts of individuals, that I have researched for my thesis there are only three sufferers (the equivalent of 1%); and in fact, as separate afflictions, there are only seventeen accounts (6%) of muteness and two of deafness (0.6%).

Of these three joint cases, two individuals are cured and one is punished with these disabilities. But, what is particularly interesting thought is that within these rare examples miracle cures the saintly remedy given does not cure both afflictions automatically.  In the Vita et Miracula Sancta Æbbe Virginis, deafness is cured by Becket but it is not until later that Æbbe restores speech to the man (MAE.4.vii) whilst in Miracula S. Swithuni the boy learns to speak from spending time at the tomb of Winchester’s famous saint.  Two questions immediately spring to mind with regards to the rarity of such accounts; firstly, how likely was it that someone suffering from this double disability would attempt to find a cure and secondly why do the saints appear to be unwilling to offer their full services?

This paper considers how the deaf and mute (and those who were both deaf and mute) are reflected within twelfth-century hagiographies and why these cases are quite so rare.  It will also consider the problems of partial cures and what that meant for both the cults and for the sufferer.  Is the lack of mention due to the fact that these where disabilities that could be lived with or were cures less forthcoming (and therefore the cure-seekers have gone unrecorded)?

This chapter investigates the form and consequences of the English invasion of Ireland, c.1166-c.1254, situated within the wider framework of European political configurations and frontier societies. A rapid narrative of the cut and thrust of medieval conquest is interwoven with the analysis of major themes relating to lordship and colonisation.

This article offers the first study and critical edition of the Liber de motibus planetarum (Lmp), a neglected Latin text on planetary theory that appears anonymously and without any clear indication of date or place of origin in nine manuscripts of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. An analysis of its sources and parallels to other Latin treatises and translations from Arabic indicates that the Lmp originated in England in the third quarter of the twelfth century. A plausible terminus post quem is provided by the appearance of similar passages in the anonymous treatise Ptolomeus et multi sapientum (1145), which can be linked to Abraham Ibn Ezra and his astronomical tables for the meridian of Pisa. The Lmp would appear to be historically significant for its relatively detailed textual and diagrammatic presentations of Ptolemy’s planetary models as composed of multipart physical orbs. While it is generally accepted that physicalized or ‘orbed’ versions of these models entered Latin astronomy through the influence of Ibn al-Haytham’s Maqāla fī hayʾat al-ʿālam (On the Configuration of the World), the early history of this idea in a Latin context has not been studied to any deeper extent. In this regard, the Lmp offers clear evidence that Ptolemaic orbs and diagrams representing them already were a part of Latin astronomy three centuries before Peuerbach’s Theoricae novae planetarum (1454).

A frequently overlooked aspect of the knowledge transfer from Arabic into Latin in the twelfth century is the introduction of the Islamo-Arabic calendar, which confronted Western computists with a radically different scheme of lunar reckoning that was in some ways superior to the 19-year lunar cycle of the Roman Church. One of the earliest sources to properly discuss this new system and compare it to the old one is the anonymous Collatio Compoti Romani et Arabici, found in a manuscript from Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire. This article contains the first edition and translation of this previously unknown text, preceded by an analysis of its content and sources. As will be argued, the text was written in the second quarter of the twelfth century as a reaction to the astronomical tables of al-Khwārizmī, recently translated by Adelard of Bath, as well as to eclipse observations that had exposed the flaws of the ‘Roman’ computation.

Aelred of Rievaulx died on Jan. 12, 1167, at Rievaulx Abbey, after twenty years as its abbot. Soon afterward a hagiographical life of Aelred appeared, written by Walter Daniel, a monk at Rievaulx who had apparently served as Aelred's secretary and infirmarian for about ten years.  This introduction to the English translation of Walter's Life of Aelred provides biographical information about Aelred and his life and works, information about Walter himself, and analysis of Walter's Vita Aelredi.

The thesis studies the specific problems that Muslim organisations struggle with as they navigate and position themselves amongst the churches, the state institutions and the many other relevant organisational actors in the religio-organisational fields in Denmark, Germany and England.
In framing an analytical focus on the relations and environment of Muslim organisations, the thesis applies the concepts of field, doxa, capital, norms and symbolic power as theorised by Pierre Bourdieu and others. The thesis proposes the idea of the religio-organisational field as a construct informed by the spheres of religious life and of organised, institutional logics. The religio-organisational field frames the struggle for the positions of power, recognition and capital available in the structural relations of the field.
In this context, the thesis seeks to identify what Muslim organisations stand to win and loose in the pursuit of the stronger positions in the field. Also, the thesis questions how the Muslim organisation impacts and changes the existing institutions and organisations. This is done by investigating the structural norms, technologies, tactics and powers of dominations and subjection as applied by both the Muslim organisations and the governing institutions in the field.
A core assumption of the thesis is that since the introduction of Islam and Muslim organisations into the European context, Islam has been a catalyst or occasion for significant changes in the balances of power amongst states and churches.
This is investigated further by looking at the history of regulating religion, which is the structural context in which Muslim organisations must navigate and position themselves. Not only the history of churches and states is revealing, but also the specific laws and norms that frame and structure the possible field of action of Muslims are of relevance.
Within this normative and historical context, a case from each of the three countries is analysed and discussed in depth.
In Danmark, the focus is on Muslim organisations who seek recognition and approval to perform marriages with civil validity. The analysis goes into significant detail about the ministrial practices and procedures as managed by the Advisory Committee on Religious Denominations. The Bourdieuian perspective applied here is on the construction and maintenance of fundamental dividers in the religio-organisational field and the strict scrutiny to which Muslim organisations are submitted.
Next, the focus is on the German Islam Conference. This analysis looks at the struggle between the German government and the Muslim organisations who are trying to position themselves as eligible and respectable partners in the religio-organisational field. The Bourdieuian perspective applied here is on the generative structuration that transforms ‘Muslims in Germany’ to ‘German Muslims’ by analogy to the Christian institutions.
In the English case the focus is on the Shari’a councils and their position between the Muslim communities and the wider English society. The Shari’a councils are locked in a tricky game of managing expectations from both these sides. They have the difficult task of stewardship of the Islamic norms embedded in Shari’a, which is challenged in a modern context. The Bourdieuian perspective is on the symbolic resignification and reproduction of Shari’a norms as these become new resources for Muslims in the religio-organisational field.
The thesis concludes on the overall guiding questions and outlines the most important perspectives from the analyses of the religio-organisational fields. This is done by looking specifically at what Muslim organisations, on one hand, and state and governments, on the other, stand to win and loose in the struggles of the field. The conclusion, furthermore, summarises the most important and critical insights into the impositions of division in the religio-organisational field and into the Muslim positions taken in response to these impositions.

Louée par les troubadours mais critiquée par les clercs, délaissée par son époux mais écoutée de toutes les cours royales, Aliénor d’Aquitaine a arpenté l’Occident, et même la Terre sainte, durant trois quarts de siècle.
Cette activité a scellé en partie le destin politique de la France du Moyen Age. En effet, reine d’un espace politique étendu des confins de l’Ecosse aux contreforts des Pyrénées en vertu de son union avec Henri II Plantagenêt, Aliénor a été mêlée de près aux affaires de la France de l’Ouest, qui en a gardé certains souvenirs.
En outre, le mode de vie de cette princesse de pays d’oc devenue reine et duchesse de part et d’autre de la Manche n’a pas été sans liens avec la civilisation courtoise du XIIe siècle, dont la France a été le jardin.
C’est d’une vraie saga que nous parlent les pierres et les paysages encore visibles de la France d’Aliénor, qu’il n’appartient qu’à nous de redécouvrir.

The book is devoted to one of the most fruitful and complicated periods of historiographical activity in medieval England. The work is the first research that takes into account all the survived sources of the period, dealing one way or another with Britain's past. Those include various types of chronicles (in Old English, Latin, and Anglo-Norman), brief annals, hagiography, cartularies and other documental collections, historiographical elements in legal tracts, verses, letter collections etc.

"This book examines the rise and fall of the aristocratic Lacy family in England, Ireland, Wales and Normandy. As one of the first truly transnational studies of individual medieval aristocrats, it provides a fresh look at lordship and the interplay between aristocracy and crown from 1166 to 1241.

Hugh de Lacy (†1186), traded on his military usefulness to King Henry II of England in Wales and Normandy to gain a speculative grant of the ancient Irish kingdom of Mide (Meath). Hugh was remarkably successful in Ireland, where he was able to thwart the juvenile ambitions of the future King John to increase his powers there. Hugh was hailed by native commentators as ‘lord of the foreigners of Ireland’ and even ‘king of Ireland’. In this study his near-legendary life is firmly grounded in the realities of Anglo-Irish politics. The political career of Hugh’s less famous son and heir, Walter de Lacy (†1241), is in turn illuminated by surviving royal records and his own acta. Walter was one of the major actors in the Irish Sea province under Kings Richard I, John and Henry III, and his relationship with each king provides a unique insight into the nature of their reigns. Over the course of fifty-two years, Walter helped to shape the course of Anglo-Irish history. That history is recast in light of the transnational perspective of its chief participants.

This book is especially useful for those studying the history of medieval Britain and Ireland, and is a major contribution to current debates over the structure of medieval European society."

This article examines the construction of national identity in John of Salisbury's Policraticus (c.1159). This well-known treatise has not been included in recent discussions of identities in medieval Britain. The focal point of the analysis is the author's contradictory representations of Britones. John of Salisbury emphasised the distinction and hostility between the Britons/Welsh and the English; at the same time, he claimed that the ancient Britons (Brennius and his companions-in-arms from Geoffrey of Monmouth's De gestis Britonum) were ‘compatriots’ and ‘ancestors’ of the ‘contemporary’ inhabitants of the English kingdom. Comparison with other twelfth-century texts reveals specific features of the model of national identity traced in the Policraticus: the appropriation not only of the British past, but also of the British name and identity, and the imagining of a unified people of Britain. This culminated in the invention of the unique term gens Britanniarum, which nevertheless did not exclude the ‘English’ as an alternative or even interchangeable name. The article discusses political agendas behind John of Salisbury's use of the language of ‘Britishness’, most importantly, support for the pan-British ambitions of the archbishops of Canterbury. The example of the Policraticus, with its combination of both conventional and original elements, nuances our understanding of how and for what ideological purposes national identity might have been constructed in twelfth-century England.

"In the twelfth century anthologies were the most common form in which short poems in Latin such as lyrics, epigrams, and occasional verse circulated in written form among the reading public. Since twelfth-century anthologies are not identical with their twentieth-century descendants, it would be wise to describe the genre in general before scrutinizing Houghton MS. Lat 300 in particular.

The English word anthology derives from the Greek anthologia, which means "flower-collection" or "bouquet." During the Byzantine era the Greek word became a metaphor for a collection of flowers of verse, that is, of small choice poems; the homonym anthologion was applied to hymnals. Although the Neo-Latin term florilegium is a calque of anthologia, the two are not synonyms. Whereas an anthology tends to be a conglomeration of complete texts, florilegium usually denotes wise sayings or memorable passages extracted from longer works. In the Middle Ages various metaphoric terms related to flares were used to describe such collections of extracts. Modem English uses the word excerpt, which sustains the floral imagery since it derives from a verb meaning "to pluck.""

The object of this paper will be to analyse the reportage of Cardiff City’s historic FA Cup victory against Arsenal FC in 1927. Despite being a Welsh team, Cardiff City were eligible to play in the English FA Cup, and its 1927 victory has proven to be the only occasion when a non-English team has won the tournament.

I will use contemporary accounts of Cardiff City’s matches, round by round, in the British print media, to assess how the unique phenomenon of a non-English team winning the ‘English Cup’ was received. I will investigate how prominent the exceptionality of this event was in media reports. I will focus on the representation of ‘Welshness’ or Welsh national identity in these reports to determine how far Cardiff City’s win represented a victory for ‘the other’, or how far the team was appropriated by the English for victory in a sport which many English consider their country ‘invented’. I will assess how far (if at all) national distinction intensified as Cardiff City got closer to the prize – victory over Arsenal. I will consider whether a ‘Welsh national image’ was constructed by the media and what role stereotypes played.

Ultimately, I am keen to determine whether football was significant as a vehicle through which the English print media constructed a Welsh national identity or whether the sport, famous for arousing rivalries, inspired journalists to focus on other areas of identity competitiveness.

Why, despite decades of research on powerful women in post-Conquest England, are those women seen as exceptions rather than the norm?  This chapter considers this question as well as presenting the results of recent research on women in the twelfth century.  In common with the other authors in the latest volume of the New Middle Ages series of Palgrave Macmillan, the author challenges the "exceptionalism" of women who exercised power and agency and suggests new avenues for research on women.

This paper provides a close study of references to different aspects of material culture, as detailed in the chronicles of twelfth-century English historians. Scholars have long been aware of the materiality of the medieval world and the field of Anglo-Norman studies has also begun to recognise that the ‘visibility of the past’ is an important theme in English and Norman historical writing which is deserving of greater study. This study contributes to this developing area of research by drawing attention to the nature of such references and their significance to twelfth-century historical writing. The twelfth century was a vibrant period for historical writing in England, in which some of the most important narrative Latin histories of the medieval period were written. Though the frequency and type of references to aspects of material culture differs from chronicle to chronicle, close study of a broad range of texts reveals a number of recurring themes which, taken together, display the rich and multi-faceted relationship between material culture and historical writing in twelfth-century England. Particular attention will be given to William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, as well as to a number of other contemporary and near contemporary chronicles written across England. Crucial to these histories was the claim that such objects were still in existence at the time of writing and so could be seen by the author and his readers. Such references reveal the extent to which these narratives were so often underpinned and, at times, even given their overall shape by physical objects and highlight the importance of material culture to twelfth century English historical writing.

"A microhistory of the case that Pope Alexander III decided in favor of the interpretation of Gratian on consent in matrimony, this study examines the life and marriage of Agnes of Essex, countess of Oxford (born 1151).  The pope's decision in the matter of her appeal established the necessity of female consent to wed in canon law.  Betrothed at three and raised by her future in-laws, Agnes rejected her father's choice of her husband, probably when she was seven. She married instead the eldest brother of her former betrothed--a man at least 30 years her senior. Soon thereafter, her father was accused of treason and convicted in a judicial duel. Her husband, the earl of Oxford, petitioned for an annulment of their marriage.  The pope not only upheld the validity of her marriage, but intervened in the earl's treatment of Agnes.

For a brief summary of her life, see my entry on Agnes in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography."

This paper,  a talk given at the International Congress of Medieval Studies in 2003, challenges us to consider what we think we know about famous historical characters.  It begins with a tongue-in-cheek review of college textbook accounts of Eleanor's life, but also critiques serious biographies of the queen.  How much of what we know about Eleanor is based on cross-examined documentary evidence, how much on layers of tradition and supposition?  I examine three episodes in her life, the evidence for which suggests that scholars have been as influenced by contemporary rumor and inference as the authors of many western civilization textbooks.

Call for papers
Orderic Vitalis:
New Perspectives on the Historian and His World

(9-11 April 2013, St John’s College, University of Durham)

The organising committee of the Durham University Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference 'Orderic Vitalis: New Perspectives on the historian and his world' invite abstracts from prospective speakers. This event, funded by the Durham University IMRS, will provide a forum for the dissemination of new research into the life and works of the monastic scholar, Orderic Vitalis. With plans already in place to publish a 'companion' volume on Orderic, this conference will aim to re-invigorate existing work and open new lines of research around a figure whose legacy has proven vital to scholars of the Anglo-Norman world.

While the conference welcomes papers on a wide scope of topics, we particularly invite abstracts for papers relating to the following areas:

•The manuscript history of Orderic's Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic's scholarly and scribal career away from the Historia ecclesiastica.

•Orderic’s travels, administrative activities, and studies away from Saint-Évroul.

•Orderic’s world view and his networks of knowledge-exchange and transfer.

•The 'rediscovery' of the Historia ecclesiastica by early modern audiences, and Orderic's subsequent influence on the development of Anglo-Norman studies.

Prospective speakers are invited to submit abstracts of between 250-300 words, and should also include their contact details (name, affiliation, e-mail address). The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2012. Limited bursaries towards travel costs will be offered to postgraduate speakers. If you wish to apply for one of these, please indicate this when submitting an abstract.

For further information about Orderic Vitalis: New perspectives on the historian and his world or to submit an abstract, please email Charlie Rozier, at: c.c.rozier@durham.ac.uk or Dan Roach at: dr229@exeter.ac.uk, or visit:
www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/conferences/orderic_vitalis/

The Chronicon of Marianus Scotus stands out from among the chronicles of high medieval Europe for being a pioneering exercise in historical chronology, geared towards reconciling seemingly irreconcilable data points provided by the ancient chronographic record, the Easter computus, the Church fathers, and the four Gospels. This chronological experiment enjoyed its most vivid and lasting reception in Anglo-Norman England, as witnessed by works such as the 'Excerptio de chronica Mariani' by Robert, Bishop of Hereford (1086) and the Worcester 'Chronica chronicarum' (John of Worcester), which continued the chronicle to 1140. The purpose of this chapter is to gather and assess what is known about the role of Worcester priory in transmitting these works and in disseminating knowledge of Marianus’s chronological innovations to other monastic centres in twelfth-century England.

Walcher, the prior of Great Malvern in Worcestershire (d. 1135), is a landmark figure in the history of medieval science, whose work brought the Latin computistical tradition to its apex while foreshadowing the twelfth-century Renaissance in mathematical astronomy. His most famous achievement is the observation of a lunar eclipse in 1092 with the aid of an astrolabe, which is the first of its kind to be recorded in a Latin source. In spite of his renown, Walcher’s writings have never received any close scrutiny and the precise rationale and modalities behind his observations and calculations remain ill-understood. This volume contains the first complete edition of Walcher’s two known treatises (De lunationibus and De Dracone), together with an English translation and a detailed commentary. An introductory study will elucidate the background to his scientific pursuits and situate them in the intellectual and disciplinary context of the late-eleventh and early-twelfth century, when Latin astronomy underwent a transformation of lasting significance.

My thesis analyses representations of madness in miracle narratives produced in England from 1090 to 1234, examining Vitae (saints’ Lives containing miracles) and Miracula (miracle collections unaccompanied by a Life).  I explore the impact of the local environment of a saint’s cult, and the wider influence of twelfth-century medical developments on monastic representations of mad pilgrims.  This innovative approach places sickness and health in the context of medieval conceptions of the natural world and the functioning of the miraculous within it.  Historians have long been interested in the transmission of ideas within the intellectual climate that accompanied the development of Scholastic learning in Western Europe.  In terms of medical learning, translations of Greek and Arabic texts were produced in southern Italy in the vicinity of the schools of Salerno in the late eleventh century, when I begin my study, and circulated in Europe, not least in England, during the two centuries that followed.  I assess their influence on hagiographical representations of madness, which I argue was dependent on the immediate local context of the individual cult and compiler.  I end my investigation in 1234 when Pope Gregory IX made canonisation the exclusive prerogative of the pope, thus reducing the necessity for and popularity of large local miracle texts.

Madness, as a condition variously affecting the body, mind, and soul, lay at the cross-section of a Christian philosophical tradition that distinguished between the material body and the immaterial soul, and medical premises that connected bodily humours with the faculties of the mind (imagination, reason, and memory).  I demonstrate that these two models were not perceived as exclusive by hagiographers whose tentative explanations of madness are representative of the close interaction between religion and medicine.  Through thematic case studies of six saints’ cults, my thesis reconstructs the ideas that influenced individual hagiographers and that contributed to cultural understandings of the healthy and the sick mind.