In this detailed study, Liddiard examines the processes and factors which determined the number, distribution and location of castles and considers how a castle's construction altered its environment. Using structures such as Castle Acre, Castle Rising, Middleton and Horsford as examples, Liddiard suggests that the location of most of Norfolk's castles was shaped by social factors and not military considerations. Castles were primarily intended to act as residences even though they were designed to dramatically dominate the landscape.
Gaelic literati were an elite and influential group in the social hierarchy of Irish lordships between c. 1300 and 1600. From their estates, they served Gaelic and Old English ruling families in the arts of history, law, medicine, and poetry. They farmed, kept guest-houses, conducted schools, and maintained networks of learning. In other capacities, they were involved in political assemblies and memorializing dynastic histories in landscape. This book presents a framework for identifying and interpreting the settings and built heritages of their estates in lordship borderscapes. It shows that a more textured definition of what this learned class represented can be achieved through the material record of the buildings and monuments they used, and where their lands were positioned in the political map. Where literati lived and worked are conceived as expressions of their intellectual and political cultures. Mediated by case studies of the landscapes of their estates, dwellings, and schools, the methodology is predominantly field based, using archaeological investigation and topographic and spatial analyses, and drawing on historical and literary texts, place-names and lore in referencing named people to places. More widely, the study contributes a landscape perspective to the growing body of work on autochthonous intellectual culture and the exercise of power by ruling families in late medieval and early modern northern European societies.
This paperback edition of a book first published in hardback in 2002 is a fascinating and provocative study which looks at castles in a new light, using the theories and methods of landscape studies.
Pre-Conquest monastic foundations, (in the present-day counties of Norfolk and Suffolk) in their topographical, social, economic and political environment; evolution of religious devotion in East Anglia since the 7th-century Conversion; the influence of the Anglo-Saxon past on the post-Conquest monastic landscape.
Exploring the successful Norman invasion of England in 1066, this concise and readable book focuses especially on the often dramatic and enduring changes wrought by William the Conqueror and his followers. From the perspective of a modern social historian, Hugh M. Thomas considers the conquest's wide-ranging impact by taking a fresh look at such traditional themes as the influence of battles and great men on history and assessing how far the shift in ruling dynasty and noble elites affected broader aspects of English history. The author sets the stage by describing English society before the Norman Conquest and recounting the dramatic story of the conquest, including the climactic Battle of Hastings. He then traces the influence of the invasion itself and the Normans' political, military, institutional, and legal transformations. Inevitably following on the heels of institutional reform came economic, social, religious, and cultural changes. The results, Thomas convincingly shows, are both complex and surprising. In some areas where one might expect profound influence, such as government institutions, there was little change. In other respects, such as the indirect transformation of the English language, the conquest had profound and lasting effects. With its combination of exciting narrative and clear analysis, this book will capture students interest in a range of courses on medieval and Western history.
This volume examines the aristocracy in Tuscany and in England in the years 1000-1250, offering a new way of studying English aristocracy in this period by tracing Italian aristocratic history, and then employing the same historiographic tools within English history.
Richard C. Hoffman's monumental study of rural life in medieval eastern Europe focuses on one region, the Duchy of Wroclaw, from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. The duchy is in many ways a microcosm of medieval European society, and thus Hoffman's analysis addresses issues central to a broader understanding of a vanished society. His analysis of the records of the Duchy of Wroclaw challenges the western stereotypes of east central Europe that have been imposed on its medieval past by modern nationalisms. Honorable Mention, Wallace K. Ferguson Prize of the Canadian Historical Association.
The Archaeology of the 11th Century addresses many key questions surrounding this formative period of English history and considers conditions before 1066 and how these changed. The impact of the Conquest of England by the Normans is the central focus of the book, which not only assesses the destruction and upheaval caused by the invading forces, but also examines how the Normans contributed to local culture, religion, and society. The volume explores a range of topics including food culture, funerary practices, the development of castles and their impact, and how both urban and rural life evolved during the 11th century. Through its nuanced approach to the complex relationships and regional identities which characterised the period, this collection stimulates renewed debate and challenges some of the long-standing myths surrounding the Conquest. Presenting new discoveries and fresh ideas in a readable style with numerous illustrations, this interdisciplinary book is an invaluable resource for those interested in the archaeology, history, geography, art, and literature of the 11th century.
