Books in the Manchester Medieval Studies series

Assessing the relationship between reform and the papacy in eleventh-century Europe from the perspectives of social and religious change, this book fills a gap in current literature and offers new insights into an important topic in medieval history -- .

This study explores the making of peace in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries based on the experiences of the kings of England and the kings of Denmark. It offers a vision of how relationships between rulers were regulated and maintained in a period before nation states and international law. -- .

This book explores rural societies in western Europe from 700-1050. It focuses on the bottom of the social hierarchy, rejectingviews that see rural society exclusively through the structures of lordship and challenging the teleological idea of the residential group as the prototype of the late-medieval structured community. -- .

This is an examination of how medieval people at all social levels thought about law, justice and politics, as well as their role in society. The author provides a history of judicial developments in the 13th and 14th centuries and considers the intellectual history in the period.

Surveying and assessing competing critical approaches to chaucer's work, this text emphasizes a need to see Chaucer in historical context; the context of the social and political concerns of his own day.

This is the first book to draw together the rich and growing literature on the life cycle in Western Europe, c.1300-c.1500. In discussing life's stages, from birth to death, the study explores attitudes towards ageing, rites of passage, and the influence played by gender, class and regional location. -- .

Immigrant England tells the story of thousands of people who migrated to later medieval England. The book draws on uniquely rich evidence about the lives of these men and women, and analyses the attitudes of the English to the foreigners in their midst. Essential reading for everyone interested in the historical dimensions of modern debates. -- .

This book examines the relationship between the Capetian monarchs of France and the Crusades, and considers the challenge to political authority that confronted them following their failure to join the early crusades, and their less-than-impressive involvement in later ones. -- .

A reappraisal of the role that Roman classical sources, notably the works of Cicero and Seneca, played in the political thought of John of Salisbury, a leading humanist of the twelfth century. -- .

This book examines one hundred years of historical debate on the English peasantry in the later Middle Ages, exploring the influences and changes to peasantry society, economy and culture. -- .

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. -- .

Traces how the Bible came to be known by lay people through different mediums. It brings together intellectual and religious history with art history, music, literature and social history to trace how the Bible was sung and preached, revered and studied in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century England. -- .

Later medieval Europe saw a great deal of change and expansion of different kinds. This geographically broad textbook explores these events in a series of chapters on the different countries, covering the Holy Roman Empire, East-Central Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. It looks not only at political history but also at economy, society and culture. -- .

The medieval landscape, as traditionally viewed, was hardly populated by women - aside from the occasional queen, mistress, abbess, or mystic. This study aims to fill that gap by examining the experiences and voices of young medieval womanhood.

Discusses the representation of women in the art of the late Middle Ages in Northern Europe. Drawing on different media, but focusing paticulary on the woodcut, the text charts how the images of women changed during the period and proposes two basic categories - the Virgin and Eve, good and evil.

Provides a starting point for researchers and students investigating the Viking settlement of Britain. This book considers the history and development of contemporary debates about Scandinavian settlement, and examines differences between rural and urban Viking settlement. It looks at the Scandinavian conversion to Christianity.

Through an examination of the rite and practice of consecrating (dedication) churches in eleventh-century Italy, A Sacred City examines how ritual was employed to foster the Gregorian reform and how sacred space shaped identity, generated conflict, and provoked a debate over symbolic meaning and ecclesiology among the reformers. -- .

Paints a picture of the study of music in eleventh- and early twelfth-century Germany. This book focuses on the activity of a group of prominent intellectuals based in the monastic and cathedral schools of the German Kingdom, charting their sources and shared concerns, while examining their reception and modification of each others' ideas.

This book is a comprehensive introductory guide to late medieval gentry culture, including chapters on gentility, chivalry, politics, education and recreation, literacy, literature, cultural networks, religion, music and the visual arts. It surveys existing work in the fieldand presents new research by medievalists from a range of disciplines. -- .