Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 3 - 2022 i Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

MARGINALIA The stories of medieval women remain to be fully revealed and thoroughly explored, in scholarship and popular culture. Select textual and visual sources offer insight into their various roles within medieval society, but much more awaits discovery and interpretation. The image on the cover, ornately carved in ivory, shows the early Byzantine Empress Ariadne (ca. 455-515). She is extravagantly dressed in royal attire and sits frontally on a bejeweled throne. This small object eloquently captures her presence and power, although the details of her life and deeds remain elusive, like those of many other medieval women. This issue explores the activities of women as artists, fighters, leaders, and patrons, underscoring their impact in different contexts, ranging from courtly settings to military orders. From tactful diplomats to creative artists, women…

THE GREEN MAN IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND The meaning and significance attached to the 'Green Man' motif would have been apparent to the medieval faithful, including the patrons who commissioned them and the stonemasons and woodcarvers who created them. These individuals were well versed in biblical narratives and with associated Christian apocrypha, lore, and legend that helped to flesh out and illuminate scripture. The visual narrative of medieval churches brought such stories to life in a meaningful way for all, whether literate or illiterate. The 'Green Man' motif, as it appears in the cathedrals and churches of England, does not represent a pagan figure, as initially proposed in a 1939 publication. Lady Raglan, who first came up with the term 'Green Man' for this genre, wrote: This figure I am convinced,…

TEMPLARS, HOSPITALLERS, AND TEUTONIC KNIGHTS Hospitaller nuns and Teutonic Order half-sisters tended the sick in their orders' hospitals, whilst in Catalonia, a Templar sister called Ermengarda was commander of a preceptory, with several Templar brothers under her command. In Bohemia, one Hospitaller nun even raised an army against her order. Women and the orders The Templars originated in the Holy Land in the years after the First Crusade (1095-1099). Once the crusaders conquered Jerusalem, most of them went home, leaving the new Crusader States vulnerable. They were short of manpower, surrounded by hostile forces that they had attacked or threatened, and plagued by bandits along the pilgrim routes whose protection had spurred the Crusade in the first place. In response, two knights from northern France, Hugh de Payens and Godfrey…

In late medieval Europe, marriage diplomacy was an everyday part of political life. As soon as children were born, their parents began planning their lives, assigning each child a designated role relative to their assigned gender and birth order. The first-born son became the heir-apparent, and his wife needed to be of equal bloodlines or higher (for women often married down) or wealthy or well-connected (such as a natural daughter of the pope) to compensate. The second-born son usually became a cleric, while the third-born son became a military captain who married lower-ranking members of the nobility, unless he had made a fortune as a mercenary and found a wife to match his new status. Daughters were more versatile and could be married into foreign courts and relied upon to…

FROM DISPUTE TO UPRISING What began as a dispute between the town's inhabitants for control of the civic government escalated into a rebellion against royal authority and the overbearing influence of Bartholomew de Badelesmere, the constable of Bristol Castle. Edward II was left with no other option other than to send an army to Bristol in 1316 to bring the rebellion to an end. Origins of the Bristol Rebellion Rather surprisingly given the longevity of the incident, the anonymous author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi was one of the few chroniclers to devote any attention to the Bristol rebellion. Other evidence can be found in the January 1316 Parliament Roll, the royal letters sent to the protagonists, and the petitions in the National Archives of the United Kingdom. Although they…

The various versions of the Holy Rood legend have their origins in hagiographies connected with the Garden of Eden. They tell of how the seeds, kernels, or twigs from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were received by Seth from the Angel of Mercy, venerated by Moses, David and Solomon, and recognised by the Queen of Sheba as the future Cross of the Lord. The legend follows the Wood of the Cross on its journey to fulfil its destiny as the instrument of the Passion and of mankind's salvation. The legend had an overwhelming impact on the history of medieval literature and art, as well as church ornament and decoration. Selected readings • Baert, Barbara. A Heritage of Holy Wood: The Legend of the True Cross in…

As the ninth century dawned, it could be argued that the centre of the world was Baghdad. It was still a young city, just about 50 years old, but as the capital of the Abbasid Empire it became enormously wealthy. With its wealth came the scholars, writers, artists, and entertainers, all looking to make their careers. Early life and training One of those to arrive was a girl by the name of 'Arīb. In fact, she returned to Baghdad, as she had been born in that city around the year 797. According to 'Arīb's version, her father was a member of an important household, while her mother was a concubine. She was only a few years old when that family was purged and destroyed by the caliph, a victim of…

Whether Anna was graciously given or energetically demanded, the arrival of the Byzantine princess to Kyiv was a momentous event in many ways. First, and despite the very few mentions we have of her in Kyivan sources, she is always referred to as tsaritsa ('empress'), unlike her own husband, Volodimir, who is given systematically the title of kniaz ('prince'). Second, the only clear information about Anna's matrimony from those very same Kyivan sources, regardless of the explanation one is ready to accept for it, is that Volodimir's marriage to Anna implied the Christianization of the new East Slavic polity. However, the conversion to Christianity of the ruling prince and his subjects could have taken place without this marriage to a princess beyond her prime, imperial as she might be. Born…

IN THE SERVICE OF THE HOUSEHOLD © Jeroen Savelkouls Around 1393, an elderly citizen of Paris wrote a book on household management for his new fifteen-year-old bride. Because the young lady did not have any experience in managing a big and wealthy household, her husband decided to write down the tasks in detail. I am glad he did, because this source - known as the Ménagier de Paris - gives us a splendid insight into how a large household handled food, and what roles women played in it. Servants The lady of the house often had help and could be advised by a steward, which was always a man. The particular lady in the Ménagier de Paris also had help from a dame, a housekeeper, who was hired by the…

Stone Fidelity: Marriage and Emotion in Medieval Tomb Sculpture Boydell Press, 2020 ISBN: 978-1783272716 Women in the Military Orders of the Crusades Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 ISBN: 978-0230114135 Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages Cornell University Press, 2003 ISBN: 978-0801488306 Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100-1400 Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 ISBN: 978-3030013455 The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe Oxford University Press, 2016 ISBN: 978-0198779384 Medieval Women Religious, c. 800c. 1500: New Perspectives Boydell Press, 2023 ISBN: 978-1837650293 Elite Women as Diplomatic Agents in Italy and Hungary, 1470-1510 Arc Humanities Press, 2022 ISBN: 978-1641892421 Queens and Queenship Arc Humanities Press, 2021 ISBN: 978-1641891899 Other books, articles, and publications • Amt, Emilie, ed. Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. Routledge, 2009.…

ROYAL EQUESTRIAN HERALDRY The image we see here does not look much like a modem coat of arms at all: it is a mounted knight, wearing a colourful cloak and brandishing a sword. Brief overview Using a symbol to identify a person or place is a very ancient concept. In Western Europe, a system for displaying different symbols was standardized beginning in the late twelfth century, growing out of earlier ad-hoc emblems adopted by knights and nobles to identify them in battle. These designs were painted onto shields and sewn onto the surcoat that knights wore over their armour to protect it from the elements. The term 'coat of arms' originates from this surcoat. These symbols became more regulated with the increasing popularity of chivalric tournaments in the thirteenth century.…

THE ROLES OF ROYAL WOMEN IN THE GLOBAL MIDDLE AGES When we think about queenship, some of the most prominent figures that spring to mind are those of regnant queens - such as Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Victoria - none of whom are medieval. There were, however, many significant women who ruled in their own right in the Middle Ages. There were queens who served as consorts, regnants, regents, and dowagers, and they exercised their power and authority around the world. Consort The most common type of queen, especially in the Middle Ages, was the consort, namely the king's wife. The role of the consort was primarily to bear a (preferably male) heir, although they held many other important roles and responsibilities as a co-ruler. The amount of power…

TWO WOMAN WARRIORS OF MEDIEVAL JAPAN The move was not unprecedented - families of Japanese court descent such as the Northern Fujiwara had done the same thing in the north, in beyond-the-pale lands that had never been fully pacified by Heian. ButYoritomo was doing this in marches, near what is now Tokyo, which had recognized imperial suzerainty for at least half a millennium. Despite enjoying distant imperial ancestry, he was very much a member of a new class of people on the Japanese scene: samurai, hereditary warrior vassals. History remembers these acts in Yoritomo's name, but there is much to suggest that the brains behind this scheme were those of his wife Masako and her family, the Hojo. The new capital was in their region, many of Yoritomo's initial followers…

Despite both her father and uncle being executed for attempting to overthrow the king in 1400, Margaret's first marriage to John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset (married 1397-1410) cemented her standing within the monarchical court because he was a renowned military hero and close confidant of King Henry IV. Widowed after Beaufort's death, Margaret looked to remarry, which was relatively uncommon at that time. Although her personal reasons for her second marriage to the Duke of Clarence (1412-1421) remain unknown, the duchess most likely wanted to retain her royal position and not disappear from her political and social life. However, she eventually secluded herself from the public after Clarence's death due to his rash tactics in the Battle of Baugé (1421). His decisions not only cost him his own life, but…

MANIPULATING HISTORY IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA At the time when Nicolae Ceausescu ruled Romania (Secretary-General of the Communist Party from 1965 to 1989), a concentrated effort was made to rewrite the history of the Romanians in ways that brought to the fore the concept of the providential leader. Because the medieval principalities that later united to form modern Romania (Walachia and Moldavia in 1859, and Transylvania in 1918) produced several figures of military and political authority, the medieval period was at the core of the Communist rewriting of national history. The strategy was particularly efficient due to its reliance on 'soft' manipulation techniques and the targeting of children. As a result, current generations of Romanians still perceive the country's past mostly through the prism of this Communist propaganda initiative. Medieval superheroes…