HIST

1090
Mod
ule
Read
ing
List
Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 2011/12,
Semester 1
Professor GA Loud
g.a.loud@leeds.ac.uk
Tutor information is taken from the Module Catalogue
On this page:
• Introduction
• Bibliography by Topic
• 1. The Barbarian kingdoms
• 2. The Christianisation of Europe
• (a) The Church in the Early Middle Ages
• (b) The Christianisation of England
• (c) The conversion of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples
• 3. Mohammed and Charlemagne: the development of a northern economy
• 4. The Carolingians and their Empire
• Contemporary sources for the Carolingians
• 5. The Vikings
• 6. The Byzantine Empire (especially in the tenth and eleventh centuries)
• 7. The Schism between East and West
• 8. Germany under the Ottonians
• 9. The Decline of the Medieval Empire (c. 1050-1300)
• 10. France under the early Capetians (987 - 1180)
• 11. Kingship and government in the twelfth & thirteenth centuries
• 12. France under the later Capetians (1180-1328)
• 13. Spain: the Expanding Frontier
• 14. The Normans in Southern Italy and Sicily
• 15. The Crusades
• 16. The Gregorian Reform
• 17. The papacy in the High Middle Ages (c. 1122-1305)
• 18. Cluniacs, Cistercians and Monastic Reform (900-1200)
• 19. The Twelfth-Century ‘Renaissance’
• 20. Heresy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
• 21. The Friars
• 22. Towns, Trade and the ‘Commercial Revolution’
• 23. The Jews in the Middle Ages
• 24. Chivalry and courtly culture
• 25. The Hundred Years War
• 26. The ‘Crisis’ of the fourteenth century
• 27. The Late-Medieval Papacy: Avignon and the Great Schism
• 28. The Church at the end of the Middle Ages
• 26. Humanism and the Renaissance
• 30. Europe and a wider world
• 31. Monarchy at the end of the Middle Ages

Introduction
Most of the books needed for this course are in the
Edward Boyle (Student) Library, although for more
specialised works and for articles in historical journals you
will need also to use the Brotherton Library – the main
university library. (The Edward Boyle has multiple copies
of some books – the Brotherton usually has only one
copy). The computerised library catalogue should give
you the location for all the books and periodicals listed
here. For articles, remember to look up the title of the
journal, not that of the article itself or the author. A
increasing number of journals are now available
electronically: these include The American historical
review., English historical review., Journal of Medieval
History., Past & present., Speculum. and Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society.; in many cases only the most
recent issues of these journals are still on the
bookshelves: these can, however, be accessed through
the Library website [‘Electronic Resources’ section], and
are signified below by the letter [E]. Some key articles
and chapters have been digitally copied, and are
available on the module website in the VLE. [Go to the
HIST 1090 site, then access the ‘Learning Resources’
section, and then the ‘Online Course Readings’ folder].
These readings are signified by the letters [VLE] in this
bibliography. Photocopies of a few key articles have also
been put in the High Demand Collection in the Edward
Boyle Library (these are signified below by the letters
HDC): these are the only articles to be listed under the
author’s name in the library catalogue.

A word of advice: this bibliography may seem dauntingly

long! Do not be put off. First of all, each tutorial group will
cover only ten of these topics. Secondly, it is not intended
that each student will read every item on a set topic -
merely a selection of the titles suggested. In some weeks
tutorial groups will be split up to examine different
aspects of a subject, but it is also hoped that by providing
a relatively lengthy reading list on each subject this will
relieve pressure on the libraries, and enable every
student to find two or three books or articles to read on
the topic set for that week.
The best introductory textbook for the complete beginner, available
in paperback, is:

Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle

Ages  (Broadview Press, 2002), [a clear, if brief,
introduction, with excellent maps and charts].

For those who want a rather more detailed

textbook, we recommend:

David Nicholas The Evolution of the medieval world :

society, government and thought in Europe, 312-1500 0
(Longman 1992) [this is now available in a special print-
on-demand edition prepared for this department].
[Alternatively]

Wim Blockmans & Peter Hoppenbrouwers, Introduction to

medieval Europe, 300-1550  (Routledge 2007)

Clifford Backman, The worlds of medieval Europe(2nd. ed.

2009)

Students would be well advised to buy one or other

of these, and at least one other general book,
which will serve as an introduction to this module.
Those recommended for possible purchase (all
available in paperback) are:

A. MacKay & D. Ditchburn, Atlas of Medieval

Europe  (Routledge, 1997; 2nd ed. 2007).

Joseph H. Lynch The medieval church : a brief

history (Longman, 1992)

R.W. Southern Western Society and the Church in the

Middle Ages  (Penguin 1970) [still a very good
introduction, by the most distinguished British
medievalist of modern times]

Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (Fontana

1989) [especially relevant for students interested in the
Early Middle Ages]
Peter Brown The Rise of Western Christendom  . Triumph
and Diversity AD 200-1000 (Blackwell 1996) [an excellent
book, especially relevant for students interested in the
Early Middle Ages]

Roger Collins, Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 (1991)

Malcolm Barber The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050-

1320 (Routledge, 1992; 2nd. ed. 2004) [an excellent
book, especially relevant for students taught by Prof.
Loud].

Jacques le Goff Medieval civilization 400-1500  (Blackwell,

1988) [a very stimulating survey, though not a textbook
in the conventional sense]

Patrick J. Geary Readings in Medieval History (2nd. ed.

Broadview Press 2002) [a very useful collection of
translated source material][NB page references in this
bibliography are to this 2nd. edition: the Edward Boyle
Library has a number of copies of the 1st edition]

Barbara Rosenwein Reading the Middle Ages : sources

from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic
world (Broadview Press, 2006) [a collection of translated
source material designed to accompany Rosenwein’s
textbook, which has only very recently appeared].
Other useful introductory books include:

Robert Bartlett The Making of Europe: Conquest,

Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350  (Penguin
1994) [a thematic rather than a chronological account,
excellent, but some prior knowledge is assumed].

Christopher Brooke Europe in the Central Middle Ages,

962-1154 (Longman, 2nd edn., 1987) [an excellent
survey of the central part of this period].

Charles Briggs,The body broken : medieval Europe 1300-

1520(2011)

William C. Jordan Europe in the high Middle

Ages  (Penguin 2002) [Covers c1000 –1350; good for short
accounts of individual topics, but less helpful as an
overview, poor on some aspects, e.g. Germany: see the
review by G.A. Loud in History.  88 (2003), 116-17].

R.W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (1953) [an

older book, often reprinted, but still very stimulating;
there are five chapters on selected themes in the period
c. 970-1215]
Top of page

Bibliography by Topic
Top of page

1. The Barbarian kingdoms

Tutorial Questions:

To what extent was the Roman Empire undermined from

within?To what extent was the Roman heritage still
important in the Barbarian west?In what senses were the
barbarian kingdoms internally united?

Guy Halsall, Barbarian migrations and the Roman West,

376-568  (2007)*Chris Wickham, The inheritance of Rome
: a history of Europe from 400 to 1000 (2009)J.J.
O’Donnell The ruin of the Roman Empire  (2009)T.F.X.
Noble (ed.), From Roman provinces to medieval
kingdoms  (2006)J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The barbarian west,
400-1000 , (3rd edition, 1967) ( )J-M. Wallace-Hadrill, The
Long-Haired Kings  (1962)Christopher Kelly, Attila the Hun
: barbarian terror and the fall of the Roman
Empire  (2008)*I.N. Wood, The Merovingian kingdoms
450-751  (1994)Edward James, The Origins of France and
Germany, from Clovis to the Capetians 500-1000 (1982)
Edward James, The Franks  (1988)Neil Christie, The
Lombards : the ancient Longobards  (1995)Chris
Wickham, Early Medieval Italy. Central Power and Local
Society 400-1000  (1981), chapters 1-3.Roger
Collins, Early Medieval Spain. Unity in Diversity (1983)
Patrick Geary, Before France and Germany : the creation
and transformation of the Merovingian world (1988)L.K.
Little & B. Rosenwein, Debating the Middle Ages : issues
and readings (1998), part 1, pp. 5-91,[‘The fate of Rome’s
western provinces’, especially the essays by W. Pohl and
R. Hodges & D. Whitehouse]Walter Goffart ‘Rome's Final
Conquest: the Barbarians', History compass.  6 (2008) [E].
Patrick Geary, Readings in Medieval History , sections
‘the Barbarian World’ & ‘the early Franks’.
Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages : sources from
Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, pp. 58-71.
Top of page

2. The Christianisation of Europe

Top of page

(a) The Church in the Early

Middle Ages
Tutorial Question:

To what extent was there a unified Christian Church in

the early medieval west (before c. 750)?

*P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom  (1986), esp.

chapters 6, 8-9, 12-13.*R.A. Fletcher, The conversion of
Europe : from paganism to Christianity, 371-1386 AD  ,
371-1386 (1997), chapters 2-5.Robert Markus Gregory
the Great and his world (1997), esp. chapters 5, 7, 9-12.
Marilyn Dunn, The emergence of monasticism : from the
Desert Fathers to the early Middle Ages (2000)R.
Collins, Early Medieval Spain. Unity in Diversity (1983)E.
James, The origins of France : from Clovis to the
Capetians, 500-1000  (1982)P. Geary, Before France and
Germany : the creation and transformation of the
Merovingian world (1988)P. Geary, Readings in Medieval
History  , section ‘early Italy’.Rosenwein, Reading the
Middle Ages : sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the
Islamic world , pp. 17-62.
Top of page

(b) The Christianisation of

England
Tutorial Questions:

Why should the English have been prepared to accept

Christianity during the seventh century?What was the
relative contribution of the Irish and Roman missionaries
to the conversion of England in the seventh century?

*Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom  , chaps. 12-13.

*H. Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-
Saxon England  (1972)James Campbell, The Anglo-
Saxons  (1982), chapter 3.( )James Campbell, Essays in
Anglo-Saxon history (1986), chapters 3-4.C.H.
Lawrence Medieval Monasticism (1984), chapter 4, pp.
50-60 ( )P. Hunter Blair, Northumbria in the Days of
Bede  (1976)

Bede, The Ecclesiastical History, either in the translation

of Leo Sherley-Prince Ecclesiastical history of the English
people / Bede ; with Bede's letter to Egbert and
Cuthbert's letter on the death of Bede (Penguin) or
Bertram Colgrave and Roger Mynors Bede's Ecclesiastical
history of the English people (Oxford Medieval Texts,
1969), especially book III [there are some extracts in
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , pp. 212-22].
Top of page

(c) The conversion of the

Germanic and Scandinavian
peoples
Tutorial Questions:

Assess the relative significance of the Anglo-Saxon

missionaries and of theCarolingians in the conversion of
the Germanic peoples.How significant was the eighth
century in the history of the Christianisation of the
Germanic peoples?Why did Frisia and Saxony resist
Christianity for so long?

*Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom  , chapters 15-

16.R. Collins, Early medieval Europe 300-1000  (1991)
*R.A. Fletcher, The conversion of Europe : from paganism
to Christianity, 371-1386 AD (1997), chapters 7-8, pp.
193-284.James T. Addison, The Medieval Missionary: a
Study of the Conversion of Northern Europe , AD 500-
1500 (1976)S.J. Crawford, Anglo-Saxon Influence on
Western Christendom (1933)C.H. Talbot, The Anglo-
Saxon missionaries in Germany : (1954)C.H. Talbot, St.
Boniface and the German mission, The mission of the
church and the propagation of the faith : Papers read at
the seventh Summer Meeting and the eighth Winter
Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society  (1970), 45-
57 [ ].*I.N. Wood, The Merovingian kingdoms 450-751  ,
450-751 (1994), chapter 18.*I.N. Wood, The missionary
life : saints and the evangelisation of Europe, 400-
1050 (2001)Timothy Reuter (ed.), The Greatest
Englishman : essays on St. Boniface and the Church at
Crediton  (1980), chapter 4.D.A. Bullough, The Age of
Charlemagne  (1965), especially chap. 3, pp. 69-96.P.D.
King, Charlemagne : translated sources (1987), pp. 209-
220 (the ‘General Admonition’, 789), 232-3 (‘On
Cultivating Letters’, c. 797).E. Emerton (trans.), The
Letters of Saint Boniface  (1940, 2nd. ed. 2000)
Top of page

3. Mohammed and
Charlemagne: the development
of a northern economy
Tutorial Questions:

When did the late Roman Empire really end?How far was
the Carolingian Empire ‘an economy of no outlets’?How
far have discoveries of the last fifty years altered our
understanding of the economic changes of the period
500-800?

*Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne (1937) [a

masterpiece - one of the great books of European history]
*R. Hodges & D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne
and the Origins of Europe (1983)A.F. Havighurst, ed. The
Pirenne Thesis: Analysis, Criticism, and Revision (1958;
2nd edn. 1969; 3rd edn. 1976)Chris Wickham, Framing
the early Middle Ages : Europe and the Mediterranean,
400-800  (2005)R.H. Bautier, The economic development
of medieval Europe  (1971), pp. 9-48R. Latouche, Birth of
Western Economy  (1961; 2nd edn. 1967)M.
Lombard, The golden age of Islam (1975)R.E. Sullivan,
'The Carolingian Age. Reflections on its Place in the
History of the Middle Ages', Speculum.  64 (1989), 367-
406 [E]P. Grierson, ' Commerce in the Dark Ages : a
critique of the evidence ', Transactions of the Royal
Historical Society.  Series V vol. 9 (1959), 123-140 [HDC]
[E]R. Hodges & W. Bowden (ed.), The sixth century :
production, distribution, and demand (1998) chapters by
Hodges, Delogu, Loseby, Wickham. pp. 3-40, 203-29,
279-92.R. Hodges, Dark Age Economics: the Origins of
Towns and Trade AD. 600-1000 (1982)C. Wickham, Land
and power : studies in Italian and European social history,
400-1200 (1994), chapters 1 & 3, pp. 7-42, 77-98.C.
Wickham & I.L. Hansen (ed.), The long eighth century  :
Production, Distribution and Demand (2000), chapters by
Loseby and Wickham, pp. 167-93, 345-77.A.
Verhulst, Rural and urban aspects of early medieval
northwest Europe (1992), chapters 9, 10Philip Grierson
& Medieval European Coinage:  vol. I: The Early Middle
Ages (5th- Mark Blackburn, 10th Centuries) (1986)N.J.G.
Pounds, An economic history of medieval Europe (1994),
chapter 2 [ ]
Top of page

4. The Carolingians and their

Empire
Tutorial Questions

Was Charlemagne anything more than a successful war

leader?How reliable a source for Charlemagne's reign is
Einhard's Life?What does Einhard’s Life tell us about
kingship in the early Middle Ages?Can the cultural
developments of the period 751-877 be described as a
Renaissance?

*Donald Bullough The Age of Charlemagne  (1965)J.M.

Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West  , 3rd edn. (1967),
especially chapters 5 & 7*P .D. King, Charlemagne  (1986)
Roger Collins, Charlemagne  (1998) ( )Joanna Storey
(ed.), Charlemagne : empire and society  (2005), esp.
chaps 5-6, 9. ( )*Janet L. Nelson, Charlemagne and the
paradoxes of power  (Reuter Lecture [Pamphlet], 2006)
Edward James, The origins of France : from Clovis to the
Capetians, 500-1000  (1982) chaps. 7-9, pp. 157-208 (
Rosamond McKitterick, Charlemagne : the formation of a
European identity  (2008)Rosamond McKitterick, The
Frankish kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-
987 (1982) ( )Rosamond McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian
culture : emulation and innovation (1994) ( )Jean
Dunbabin, France in the Making 843-1180 (1985)
chapters 1-5, pp. 1-123 ( )Janet Nelson, Charles the
Bald  (1992) ( )P.H. Sawyer, Kings and Vikings (1982)
Timothy Reuter, Germany in the early Middle Ages c.800-
1056 (1991) chapters 2-4, pp. 21- 111*T. Reuter,
' Plunder and tribute in the Carolingian
empire ', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. V.
vol. 35 (1985) 75-94 [HDC] [E]H.M.R.E. Mayr-Harting,
‘Charlemagne, the Saxons and the imperial coronation of
800’, English historical review.  111 (1996), 1113-1133
[E].J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983) ( )
Robert Folz, The concept of empire in Western Europe
from the fifth to the fourteenth century (1969) ( )Robert
Folz, The coronation of Charlemagne, 25 December
800 (1974) ( )
Top of page

Contemporary sources for the

Carolingians
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , section ‘the
Carolingians’ [includes Einhard].Rosenwein, Reading the
Middle Ages : sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the
Islamic world , pp. 172-97.L. Thorpe, Two lives of
Charlemagne  (Penguin, 1969) [includes Einhard]H. Loyn
& J. Percival, The Reign of Charlemagne : documents on
Carolingian government and administration  (1975)P.D.
King, Charlemagne : translated sources (1987)P.E.
Dutton, Charlemagne's courtier : the complete
Einhard  (1998)P.E. Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: a
Reader (1993)T. Reuter, The annals of Fulda  (1992)J.
Nelson, The annals of St-Bertin (1991)B.W.
Scholz, Carolingian chronicles  (1972) pp. 129-174,
'Nithard's Histories' [these three are all important sources
for the Carolingian collapse] [ ]
Top of page

5. The Vikings
Tutorial Questions:Why did the Vikings so suddenly
expand from their Scandinavian homelands?'Traders
rather than raiders': is this a fair summary of the Viking
impact on Western Europe? How far was the
disintegration of the Carolingian Empire the result of
Viking activity?Why did the Viking expansion come to an
end?

Holger Arbman, The Vikings (1961)Johannes

Bronsted, The Vikings (1965) ( )N.P. Brooks, ' England in
the ninth century : the crucible of defeat ', Transactions
of the Royal Historical Society. 5th ser. 29 (1979), 1-20
[HDC] [E]P.G. Foote & D.M. Wilson, The Viking
achievement : the society and culture of early medieval
Scandinavia  (1970) (J. Graham Campbell, The
Vikings (1980) ( )J. Graham Campbell, The Viking
World  (1982)Catherine Hills, Blood of the British : from
Ice Age to Norman Conquest (1986), chap. 6, 'Raiders or
traders? ' [ ]Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings  (1968)F.
Donald Logan, The Vikings in History  (2nd edn. 1991) ( )
H.R. Loyn, The Vikings in Britain  (1977)Janet
Nelson, Charles the Bald (1992) ( )Else Roesdahl, Viking
age Denmark (1982)Else Roesdahl, The Vikings  (1991) ( )
P .H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings  (2nd edn.,1971)P.H.
Sawyer, Kings and Vikings (1982)P. Sawyer (ed.), The
Oxford illustrated history of the Vikings  (1997)D.M.
Wilson, The Vikings and their Origins (2nd edn.,1980)
Top of page

6. The Byzantine Empire

(especially in the tenth and
eleventh centuries)
Tutorial Questions:

In what ways did the Byzantine Empire differ from the

contemporary kingdoms of the west?What were the
reasons for, and consequences of, the tenth-century
expansion?Why did the Byzantine Empire collapse so
catastrophically during the eleventh century?

Mark Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600-

1025 (1996), chapters 8-10 [ ].Romilly
Jenkins, Byzantium, the Imperial Centuries 610-
1071 (1966), chapters 18-26.Dimitri Obolensky, The
Byzantine Commonwealth, Eastern Europe 500-
1453 (1971) chapters 3-5.George Ostrogorsky, History of
the Byzantine state (2nd. ed. 1968)Cyril Mango (ed.), The
Oxford history of Byzantium (2002), especially chapter 7
[ ].Jonathan Shepard ‘Byzantium in equilibrium, 886-944’
and ‘Byzantium expanding, 944-1025’, The new
Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 3, c.900-c.1024 (1999),
chapters 22 & 24, pp. 553-566, 586-604.Michael
Angold, The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204. A Political
History  (1984), chapters 1-4.Michael Angold, ‘The
Byzantine Empire 1025-1118’, The new Cambridge
medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-c.1198  (part
2) (2004), 217-53.Florin Curta, Southeastern Europe in
the Middle Ages, 500-1250  (2006)Catherine
Holmes, Basil II and the governance of empire (976-
1025)  (2005)Angeliki Laiou, The Byzantine
economy  (2007)Rosemary Morris, ‘The powerful and the
poor in tenth-century Byzantium’, Past & present.  73
(1976), 3-27 [E].John Haldon, Warfare, State and Society
in the Byzantine World 565-1204  (1999), especially
chapter 3, pp. 67-106.
Top of page

7. The Schism between East and

West
Tutorial Questions:

Was it inevitable that the Greek and Latin parts of

Christendom ended up as two separate churches?Was the
schism of 1054 as significant to contemporaries as it was
to be to posterity?

R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church , chapter

3, p. 53-90.Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy  (1989),
chapter 6, pp. 131-153.Joan Hussey, The Orthodox
Church in the Byzantine Empire , chapter 6, pp. 124-183.
Steven Runciman, The Eastern schism : a study of the
papacy and the Eastern Churches during the XIth and
XIIth centuries  (1955)Donald Nicol, 'Byzantium and the
papacy in the eleventh century', Journal of ecclesiastical
history.  13 (1962), 1-20 [E] [ ] [reprinted in D.M.
Nicol, Byzantium : its ecclesiastical history and relations
with the western world : collected studies (1972)]Donald
Nicol, ' The papal scandal (presidential address)  ', Studies
in church history. 13, The Orthodox Churches and the
west : papers read at the fourteenth summer meeting
and the fifteenth winter meeting of the Ecclesiastical
History Society  , ed. D. Baker (1976), 141-168 [HDC].John
Doran, 'Rites and wrongs: the Latin mission to Nicea,
1234', Studies in church history.  32 Unity and Diversity in
the Church (1996), 131-144 [ ]
Top of page

8. Germany under the Ottonians

Tutorial QuestionsHow weak was royal authority in East
Francia (Germany) in the early tenth century?To what
extent did the Ottonians increase royal authority in tenth-
century Germany?Assess the importance of the Church
and/or the eastern frontier in the development of
Ottonian power.
Benjamin Arnold, Medieval Germany, 500-1300 : a
political interpretation (1997)* Timothy Reuter, Germany
in the early Middle Ages c.800-1056 (1991) chaps 5-6,
pp. 115-180 [excellent]G. Barraclough, The Origins of
Modern Germany  (1946), chapters 1-3 [dated, to be used
with caution, especially with regard to the Church]E.
Müller-Mertens, ‘The Ottonians as kings and
emperors’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 3,
c.900-c.1024 (1999), 233-266 ( )*K.J. Leyser, Medieval
Germany and its neighbours 900-1250  (1982) chaps. 2-4,
pp. 11-101 [first published in History 50 (1965), English
historical review. 83 (1968) and 96 (1981), copies of the
first two of these in the HDC] [The last two available E]
John Gillingham, The kingdom of Germany in the High
Middle Ages (900-1200) (Historical Association Pamphlet
1971)*Timothy Reuter, 'The "Imperial Church System" of
the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: a
Reconsideration', Journal of ecclesiastical history.  33
(1982), 347-374 [HDC] [E]

Sources

Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages : sources from

Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world  , pp. 243-55.
Boyd H. Hill, Medieval monarchy in action : the German
Empire from Henry I to Henry IV (1972) [sources in
translation]David A. Warner Ottonian Germany : the
chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg  (2001) [translates a
key Ottonian chronicle, with an excellent introduction]
Top of page

9. The Decline of the Medieval

Empire (c. 1050-1300)
Tutorial QuestionsTo what extent did the Investiture
Contest damage imperial authority in Germany?When
and why did the collapse of imperial authority within
Germany become inevitable?How far did the German
emperors' involvement in Italy cause the collapse of their
rule in Germany?

On the period as a whole

*A. Haverkamp, Medieval Germany 1056-1273  (1988)

[the best modem treatment]*B. Arnold, Medieval
Germany, 500-1300 : a political interpretation [as above,
topic 8]*John Gillingham, The kingdom of Germany in the
High Middle Ages (900-1200)  [as above, topic 8]H.
Fuhrmann, Germany in the high Middle Ages, c.1050-
1200 (1986) chap. 5, pp. 135-186 [a translation of a
standard German textbook, but rather disappointing]Karl
Hampe, Germany under the Salian and Hohenstaufen
emperors  (1973) [translation of a classic German
account, clear, but now dated]

On Germany in the Investiture Contest

S. Weinfurter, The Salian century : main currents in an

age of transition (1999)*Karl Leyser, ' The crisis of
medieval Germany  ', Proceedings of the British
Academy.  69 (1983), 409-43 [reprinted in K.
Leyser, Communications and power in medieval Europe :
the Gregorian revolution and beyond  (1994), chap. 2]
[HDC] [essential] ( )T. Reuter, ' The 'imperial church
system' of the Ottonian and Salien rulers : a
reconsideration ' [as topic 9] [HDC]T. Mommsen & K.F.
Morison, Imperial Lives and Letters of the Eleventh
Century  (1962; revised ed. 2000)

Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

B. Arnold, ‘The Western Empire 1125-98’, The new

Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-
c.1198  (2) (2004), 384-421.M. Toth, ‘Welfs, Hohenstaufen
and Habsburgs’, The new Cambridge medieval history.
Vol. 5, c.1198-c.1300  (1999), pp. 375-404.T. Mayer, 'The
State of the Dukes of Zahringen', in G. Barraclough
(ed.), Mediaeval Germany (1938), vol. 2, pp. 175-202
[useful also on the Investiture Contest]*G. Tellenbach,
' From the Carolingian imperial nobility to the German
estate of imperial princes ', in T. Reuter (ed.), The
Medieval Nobility  (1979), pp. 203-231 [HDC] [a difficult
but important article]J. Gillingham, 'Elective Kingship and
the Unity of Medieval Germany', German history.  9
(1991), 124-35*K. Leyser, ' Frederick Barbarossa and the
Hohenstaufen polity  ', Viator. 19 (1980), 153- 76
[reprinted in K. Leyser, Communications and power in
medieval Europe : the Gregorian revolution and
beyond (1994), chap.7] [also in HDC] [ ]Marcel
Pacaut, Frederick Barbarossa  (1970)David
Abulafia, Frederick II: a Medieval Emperor (1988)
Top of page

10. France under the early

Capetians (987 - 1180)
Tutorial Questions

To what extent, and why, was there a general breakdown

in authority in tenth- and eleventh-century France?Why
were the Capetians such ineffective rulers in the eleventh
century, but relatively more effective in the twelfth?What
does The Deeds of Louis the Fat by Abbot Suger tell us
about Capetian kingship in the early twelfth century?
*E.M. Hallam, Capetian France 987-1328  (1980) [2nd ed.,
with J. Everard (2001)*Jean Dunbabin, France in the
Making 843 - 1180 (1985) (2nd edn., 2000) [both
excellent modern treatments] ( )*C.B. Bouchard, ‘The
kingdom of the Franks to 1108’, The new Cambridge
medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-c.1198  iv(2)
(2004),120-53.Robert Fawtier, The Capetian Kings of
France : monarchy and nation, 987-1328 (1962) [now
rather dated]Georges Duby, ‘The nobility in eleventh- and
twelfth-century Mâconnais’, in Lordship and Community
in Medieval Europe  , ed. F.L. Cheyette (1968), pp. 137-55.
*H.E.J. Cowdrey, ' The peace and the truce of God in the
eleventh century  ', Past & present.  46 (1970), 42-67
[HDC] [E]*E.M. Hallam, ' The king and the princes in
eleventh-century France ', Bulletin of the Institute of
Historical Research. 53 (1980) 143-56 [HDC]K.F. Werner,
'Kingdom and principality in twelfth-century France', in T.
Reuter (ed.), The medieval nobility : studies on the ruling
classes of France and Germany from the sixth to the
twelfth century  (1978), pp. 243-76R. Cusimano & J.
Moorhead (eds.), The deeds of Louis the Fat  (1992)Lindy
Grant, Abbot Suger of St-Denis : church and state in early
twelfth-century France (1998) [very lively]
Top of page
11. Kingship and government in
the twelfth & thirteenth
centuries
Tutorial Questions:

To what extent did governments become more

centralised and effective in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries?Why was the development of effective
government more precocious in England and Sicily than
in other medieval kingdoms?Why was papal government
more advanced than that of any secular kingdom until
the thirteenth century?Malcolm Barber, The Two Cities:
Medieval Europe 1050-1320 (1992), chaps. 9, 11 & 12
David Nicholas, The evolution of the medieval world :
society, government and thought in Europe, 312-
1500 (1992), chapters 7-8Maurice Keen, The Penguin
history of medieval Europe  (1969), chapter 8R.N.
Swanson, The twelfth-century renaissance (1999),
chapter 4, pp. 66–102.Alexander Murray, Reason and
Society in the Middle Ages  (1978) especially pp. 121-30,
194-203, 213-33Susan Reynolds, Kingdoms and
Communities in Western Europe 900-1300 (1984; 2nd ed.
1997)Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: the Western
Church from 1050 to 1250 (1991)I.S. Robinson, The
papacy 1073-1198 : continuity and innovation  (1990),
especially chaps. 2 - 5C. W. Hollister & J. W. Baldwin,
Augustus 'The Rise of Administrative Kingship. Henry I
and Philip', ', The American historical review. 83 (1978)
867-905 [E]A. Marongiu, 'A Model State in the Middle
Ages. The Norman and Swabian Kingdom of
Sicily', Comparative studies in society and history. 6
(1963/4) 307-321David Abulafia, ‘The kingdom of Sicily
under Hohenstaufen and Angevins’, The new Cambridge
medieval history. Vol. 5, c.1198-c.1300 (1999), pp. 497-
521.David Abulafia, Frederick II: a Medieval
Emperor (1988), chapter 1 ( )David Abulafia, The
Western Mediterranean kingdoms, 1200-1500 : the
struggle for dominion  (1997)Jean Dunbabin, Charles I of
Anjou : power, kingship and state-making in thirteenth-
century Europe (1998)H.R. Loyn, The Governance of
Anglo-Saxon England, 500-1087  (1984)W.L. Warren, The
governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086-
1272 (1987)Geary, Readings in Medieval History , pp.
672-82: ‘Enquêtes of King Louis’.
Top of page

12. France under the later

Capetians (1180-1328)
Tutorial Questions

Explain the rapid development of royal authority during

the reign of Philip II Augustus (1180- 1223).What
consequences did the Albigensian Crusade have for royal
authority in France in the first half of the thirteenth
centuries?How far were the later Capetian kings rulers
over the whole of France?

Robert Fawtier, The Capetian Kings of France : monarchy

and nation, 987-1328  (1962) [better on the thirteenth
century than on the earlier period]*E.M. Hallam, Capetian
France 987-1328  (1980; 2nd ed. 2001)John
Gillingham, The Angevin Empire (2nd. ed. 2001),
chapters 4-5, 7-8.*J .C. Holt, ' The end of the Anglo-
Norman realm  ', Proceedings of the British Academy. 61
(1975) [reprinted in J.C. Holt, Magna Carta and Medieval
Government (1985)] [also in HDC] ( )Jim Bradbury, Philip
Augustus : king of France 1180-1223  (1997)J.F. Benton,
'The revenues of Louis VII', Speculum. 53 (1978) 84-91
[E]K.F. Werner, 'Kingdom and Principality in Twelfth-
Century France', in T. Reuter (ed.), The medieval
nobility : studies on the ruling classes of France and
Germany from the sixth to the twelfth century (1978) pp.
243-276C. W. Hollister & J. W. Baldwin, 'The Rise of
Administrative Kingship. Henry I and Philip Augustus', The
American historical review.  83 (1978) 867-905 [E]John W.
Baldwin, ‘The Kingdom of the Franks: crown and
government’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol.
4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-c.1198  iv(2), 510-29.John W.
Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus (1986) [very
detailed]William C. Jordan, ‘The Capetians from the death
of Philip II to Philip IV’, The new Cambridge medieval
history. Vol. 5, c.1198-c.1300  (1999), pp. 279-313.William
C. Jordan, Louis IX and the challenge of the crusade : a
study in rulership  (1979)M.W. Labarge, Saint Louis : the
life of Louis IX of France.  (1968)Jean Richard, Saint Louis :
Crusader King of France  (1992), chapters 1-3, 9-12.J.R.
Strayer, The Reign of Philip the Fair (1980), chapters 3-5.
Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War. Vol. 1, Trial
by battle  (1990), chapter 1, pp. 1-37, ‘France in 1328’
[VLE].J.R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusades (1971)
Jonathan Sumption, The Albigensian crusade (1978, 2nd
ed. 1999)M.R.B. Shaw, Joinville’s Life of St.
Louis’, Chronicles of the Crusades  (1963)Geary, Readings
in Medieval History  , pp. 654-82.

The Expansion of Latin Christendom

General Reading on this topic*Robert Bartlett The

Making of Europe (1994), chapters 1, 2, 7, 10Malcolm
Barber The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050-
1320 (1992), chapters 5, 13 & 15R.W. Southern The
Making of the Middle Ages (1953), chapter1R. Bartlett &
A. McKay Medieval frontier societies (1989), esp.
chapters 2-3, 10-12.
Top of page

13. Spain: the Expanding

Frontier
Tutorial QuestionsWhen did a conscious ‘Reconquista’
begin?Why did the reconquest of Spain take so long?To
what extent was the society of medieval Spain a product
of the Reconquista?What role did (a) French immigrants
(b) the military monastic orders play in the Reconquista?
Why and to what extent did the Christian Spanish
kingdoms tolerate non-Christian minorities?

*A. MacKay Spain in the Middle Ages : from frontier to

empire, 1000-1500 (1977)Derek Lomax The reconquest
of Spain  (1976)*E. Lourie 'A society organised for war:
medieval Spain', Past & present.  t 25 (1966), 54-76 [HDC]
Richard Fletcher, The quest for El Cid  (1989)Bernard
Reilly, The contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-
1157 (1994)T.N. Bisson, The Medieval Crown of
Aragon  (1986), especially chapters 3-4.J.N. Hillgarth, The
Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516  i 1250-1410 Precarious
Balance (1976), esp. part I chapter 5.P. Linehan, ‘Spain in
the twelfth century’, The new Cambridge medieval
history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-c.1198 iv(2), 475-509.
P. Linehan, ‘Castile, Portugal and Navarre’, The new
Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 5, c.1198-
c.1300  (1999), pp. 668-699.R.I. Burns, Moors and
Crusaders in Mediterranean Spain (1978) chapters 2-3,
11 and 13 (especially this last). [nos. 2-3 were first
published in The American historical review. 66 (1961)
378-400, and ibid., 80 (1975) 21-42] [E]Bartlett &
McKay, Medieval frontier societies  [as above], chapters 3
& 10.

Primary Sources

S. Barton & R. Fletcher (ed.), The world of El Cid :

chronicles of the Spanish reconquest  (2000)‘ The Capture
of America and Tortosa by Caffaro’, trans. G.A. Loud [see
module website]
Top of page

14. The Normans in Southern

Italy and Sicily
Tutorial Questions:
Why were the Normans able to conquer southern Italy
and Sicily in the eleventh century?How ‘Norman’ was the
Norman kingdom of Sicily?Why was the development of
government in the Norman kingdom of Sicily so
precocious?To what extent was the ‘Norman’ kingdom of
Sicily a tolerant / multi-cultural society?

*G.A. Loud, The age of Robert Guiscard : Southern Italy

and the Norman conquest (2000)G.A. Loud, Conquerors
and churchmen in Norman Italy (1999), esp. chapters 2-
3, 5, 8-10.G.A. Loud, ‘Southern Italy in the eleventh
century’, and ‘Norman Sicily in the twelfth century’,
in The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and
2, c.1024-c.1198 iv(part 2) (2004), 94-119, 442-473.J.J.
Norwich, The Normans in the South (1966)J.J.
Norwich, The Normans in Sicily : The Normans in the
south 1016-1130 and,The kingdom in the sun 1130-
1194 (1970) [both now reprinted in one volume called
The Normans in Italy]D.C. Douglas, The Norman
Achievement  (1970)*Hubert Houben, Roger II of Sicily : a
ruler between East and West  (2002)David Matthew, The
Norman kingdom of Sicily (1992)David
Abulafia, Frederick II: a Medieval Emperor (1988), chapter
1 [ ]G.A. Loud & A. Metcalfe, The society of Norman
Italy  (2002), esp. chapters 3, 6-12.E. Borsook, Messages
in mosaic : the royal programmes of Norman Sicily (1130-
1187)  . (1990)Antonio Marongiu, 'A model state in the
Middle Ages. The Norman and Swabian kingdom of
Sicily', Comparative studies in society and history. 6
(1963/4) 307-321

SourcesG.A. Loud & P. Dunbar, The history of the

Normans  by Amatus of Montecassino (2004)G.A. Loud &
T. Wiedemann, The history of the tyrants of Sicily by
'Hugo Falcandus', 1154-69  (1998) [the introduction is
helpful for twelfth-century Sicily]
Top of page

15. The Crusades

Tutorial Questions:

What caused the First Crusade, and why was it

successful?Why were the later Crusades so much less
successful than the first?Why did it ultimately prove
impossible to defend the Crusader states in the East?

*H.E. Mayer, The Crusades  (2nd ed. 1988)Christopher

Tyerman, God's war : a new history of the
Crusades (2006)J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades : a short
history (1987)J. Riley-Smith, The Oxford illustrated
history of the Crusades (1994)J. Riley-Smith, ‘The
Crusades, 1095-1198’, The new Cambridge medieval
history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-c.1198 iv (part 1)
(2004), 534-63.Jean Richard, The Crusades, c. 1071-c.
1291 (1999)Jonathan Phillips, The Crusades, 1095-
1197 (2002)Andrew Jotischky, Crusading and the
Crusader states (2004)Steven Runciman, A History of the
Crusades (3 vols. 1951-4) [vol. 1 The First Crusade, vol. 2
The Kingdom of Jerusalem (to 1187), vol. 3 The Kingdom
of Acre; still the classic narrative account]T.P. Murphy
(ed.), The holy war  (1976), especially the essays by
Cowdrey & Brundage.Thomas Maddern (ed.), The
Crusades : the essential readings (2002) [a very useful
collection of essays]H.E.J. Cowdrey, ‘ Pope Urban II's
preaching of the first crusade ’, History. 55 (1970), 177-
88 [reprinted in H.E.J. Cowdrey, Popes, monks and
crusaders (1984; also in HDC].John France, Victory in the
East : a military history of the First Crusade  (1994)Joshua
Prawer, The world of the Crusaders (1972)J. Riley-
Smith, What were the Crusades? (1977)J. Riley-
Smith, The Atlas of the Crusades (1991)H.E. Mayer
‘ Latins, Muslims and Greeks in the Latin kingdom of
Jerusalem  ’, History.  63 (1978), 175-192 [also in HDC]
R.C. Smail ‘ Latin Syria and the West 1149-
1187 ’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.  Ser
V.19 (1969), 1-20 [HDC] [E]SourcesL. & J. Riley-
Smith, The Crusades : idea and reality, 1095-1274 (1981)
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , pp. 386-420,
section ‘the First Crusade’.
Top of page

16. The Gregorian Reform

Tutorial questions:

What were the ecclesiastical reformers of the eleventh

century trying to achieve?To what extent did Gregory VII
change the reform movement?How far did the Gregorian
reformers actually achieve their objectives?

*Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy. The Western Church

from 1050 to 1250 (1989), chapters 4-5 & 7, pp. 79-133,
154-173*U-R. Blumenthal, The investiture controversy :
church and monarchy from the ninth to the twelfth
century (1988)W. Ullmann, A short history of the Papacy
in the Middle Ages  (1972), chapter 6 [ ].*G.
Tellenbach, Church, State and Christian Society at the
time of the Investiture Contest (1938) [despite its age
still probably the best book on the subject]G.
Tellenbach, The Church in western Europe from the tenth
to the early twelfth century (1993), chapters 5-8, pp. 135-
347 ( )B. Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State 1050-
1300 (1964)K. Cushing, Reform and the papacy in the
eleventh century : spirituality and social change (2005)
I.S. Robinson, ‘Reform and the Church 1073-1122’, The
new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2,
c.1024-c.1198  iv(part 1) (2004), 268-334. ( )*I.S.
Robinson, ' Gregory VII and the soldiers of
Christ ', History.  58 (1973), 161-192. [HDC].I.S. Robinson,
‘ The friendship network of Gregory VII ’, History 63
(1978), 1-22 [HDC]H.E.J. Cowdrey, ' The papacy, the
patarenes and the church of Molan  ', Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society.  S ociety, series V.18 (1968), 25-
48 [reprinted in H.E.J. Cowdrey, Popes, monks and
crusaders (1984)] [also in HDC]. [B]H.E.J. Cowdrey, 'Pope
Gregory VII', Medieval history. 1 (1990), 23-38.

E. Emerton (trans.), The Correspondence of Pope Gregory

VII  (1932) [see especially Reg. IV.2 and Reg. VIII.21, pp.
102-5, 166-175, the two most important letters of
Gregory VII].Geary, Readings in Medieval History  , pp.
580-606.
Top of page

17. The papacy in the High

Middle Ages (c. 1122-1305)
Tutorial Questions:To what extent did the spiritual
authority of the high medieval papacy decline as its
material power increased?To what extent was the papacy
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the victim of its
own success?How far did the pontificate of Innocent III
(1198-1216) strengthen the Church?

R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church , pp.

100-133.*C. Morris, The Papal Monarchy (1989), chapters
8-9, 17 & 22, pp. 182-236, 417-451, 550-578.M.
Barber, The Two Cities, chapter 4, pp. 85-118*J.A. Watt,
‘The papacy’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol.
5, c.1198-c.1300 (1999), pp. 107-163.Walter Ullmann, A
short history of the Papacy in the Middle Ages , chapters
7-9G. Barraclough, The medieval papacy.  (1968) chapter
3I.S. Robinson, The papacy 1073-1198 : continuity and
innovation (1991) [part I provides a most useful
discussion of papal elections, administration and ideas]U-
T. Blumenthal, ‘The papacy 1024-1122’, The new
Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2, c.1024-
c.1198  iv(2), 8-37.I.S. Robinson, ‘The papacy 1122-
98’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1
and 2, c.1024-c.1198 iv(2), 317-383.Robert
Brentano, Rome before Avignon  . A Social History of
Thirteenth-Century Rome (1974), chapter 4, pp. 137-169,
‘the popes’.*Peter Partner, The lands of St Peter : the
Papal State in the Middle Ages and the early
Renaissance  (1972)J.A. Brundage, Medieval Canon
Law  (1995), especially chapter 3, pp. 44-69.H.
Tillmann, Pope Innocent III (1980)J.E. Sayers, Innocent III :
leader of Europe 1198-1216  (1994)John C. Moore, Pope
Innocent III  (1160/1-1216). To Root up and to Plant
(2003)

Sources

Brenda Bolton, Pope Innocent III and his world : Select

Documents on the Pontificate 1198-1216 (1998)
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , pp. 421-446,
‘canons of the Fourth Lateran Council’ [shorter version in
Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages : sources from
Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world  , pp. 395-400].
Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages : sources from
Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world  , pp. 366-70.
Top of page

18. Cluniacs, Cistercians and

Monastic Reform (900-1200)
Tutorial Questions :
To what extent, and why, did the Cluniacs reform and
develop traditional western monasticism?How far did the
new monastic orders of the late eleventh and twelfth
centuries seek to return to the spiritual origins of western
monasticism?Why did the Cistercians replace the
Cluniacs as the leaders of western monasticism during
the twelfth century?

Southern, Western Society and the Church , chapter 6,

pp. 214-272.*C.H. Lawrence, Medieval
Monasticism (1984), chapters 6-11, pp. 76-191.
Tellenbach, The Church in western Europe from the tenth
to the early twelfth century , chapter 4, pp. 91-134.
*Morris, The Papal Monarchy , chapters 3 and 10, pp. 57-
78, 237-262.Malcolm Barber, The Two Cities. Medieval
Europe 1050-1320 (1992), chapter 6, pp. 141-155.D.M.
Knowles, Christian monasticism (1962)Henrietta
Leyser, Hermits and the new monasticism : a study of
religious communities in Western Europe 1000-
1150 (1982)Brenda Bolton, The medieval
reformation (1983), chapters 1-2 and 5, pp. 17-54, 80-93.
Giles Constable, ‘Religious communities 1024-1215’, The
new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 4. Pts 1 and 2,
c.1024-c.1198  iv (part 1) (2004), 335-367.Ludo J.R.
Milis, Angelic monks and earthly men : monasticism and
its meaning to medieval society  (1992)Giles
Constable, The reformation of the twelfth century  (1996),
esp. chapters 1-2, and 6 [brilliant, but quite difficult,
needs some prior knowledge]Lester K. Little, Religious
Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval
Europe  (1978), chapters 4-7.C.N.L. Brooke, 'Monk and
canon. Some patterns in the religious life of the twelfth
century', Studies in church history. 22 Monks, Hermits
and the Ascetic Tradition (1985), 109-129 [ ].*Jean
Leclerq, ' The monastic crisis of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries  ' in Noreen Hunt (ed.), Cluniac Monasticism in
the Central Middle Ages  (1971) pp. 217-237 [HDC].
Noreen Hunt, Cluny under Saint Hugh, 1049-1109. (1967)
Barbara Rosenwein, Rhinoceros bound : Cluny in the
tenth century  (1982) [also on Cluny]Jean Leclerq, Monks
and love in twelfth-century France : psycho-historical
essays  (1979) [on the Cistercians]Constance B.
Bouchard, Holy Entrepreneurs: Cistercians, Knights and
Economic Exchange in Twelfth-Century Burgundy  (1991)
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , section
‘monasticism’.Pauline Matarasso, The Cistercian world :
Monastic writings of the twelfth century  , (Penguin
Classics 1993), especially the extracts from the ‘Little
Exord’, the ‘Vita Prima of St. Bernard’, and ‘An Apologia’
for Abbot William, pp. 5-58.
Top of page

19. The Twelfth-Century

‘Renaissance’
Tutorial QuestionsWhat was new about the ‘Twelfth-
Century Renaissance’? To what extent did the twelfth-
century see a ‘discovery of the individual’?To what extent
did the so-called 'Twelfth-century Renaissance' actually
change contemporary society?Was the emergence of
‘Gothic’ architecture indicative of a significant intellectual
change in society?

David Nicholas The evolution of the medieval world :

society, government and thought in Europe, 312-
1500 (1992), chapter l1*C.N.L. Brooke The twelfth
century renaissance  (1969)R.N. Swanson The twelfth-
century renaissance  (1999)R. W. Southern The Making of
the Middle Ages (1953), chapter 4.R.W.
Southern Medieval humanism, and other studies  (1970)
[chap 4, pp. 66-102, VLE] ( )R.W. Southern, Scholastic
humanism and the unification of Europe  ii The Heroic Age
(2001), especially chapters 7-9.R.L. Benson, G. Constable
& C.D. Lanham, Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth
Century  (1982)L. Melve, ‘The revolt of the medievalists.
Directions in recent research on the twelfth-century
Renaissance’, Journal of Medieval History.  32 (2006), 231-
52 [E].R.M. Thomson, ‘ England and the twelfth-century
renaissance ’, Past & present.  101 (1983) [HDC] [E]T.
Stiefel, The Intellectual Revolution in Twelfth-Century
Europe  (1985)Michael Haren Medieval Thought (1985)
C.H. Haskins The Renaissance of the Twelfth
Century  (1927) [now dated, but a path-breaking book in
its time]David Knowles The evolution of medieval
thought (2nd ed. 1988)*Colin Morris The Discovery of the
Individual 1050-1200 (1972) ( )Michael Clanchy, Abelard :
a medieval life  (1997)Michael Clanchy, From Memory to
Written Record: England 1066-1307  , (2nd ed.1993)A.
Wendekorst, ‘Who could read and write in the Middle
Ages? ’, in England and Germany in the High Middle Ages
: in honour of Karl J. Leyser  , ed. A. Haverkamp & H.
Vollrath (1996), pp. 57-88.Alexander Murray Reason and
Society in the Middle Ages  (1978)Beryl Smalley The
Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages  (3rd ed. 1983)W.
Berschin, Greek letters and the Latin Middle Ages : from
Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa (1988), chapter 11, pp. 201-
42 [ ].Betty Radice The letters of Abelard and
Heloise (1974), especially the ‘History of my Calamities’,
pp. 57-106. ( )
Architecture and Sculpture

Otto von Simson The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic

Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order  (3rd. ed.
1988)Christopher Wilson, The Gothic cathedral : the
architecture of the great church, 1130-1530 : with 220
illustrations : (1992)Jean Bony, French Gothic
architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries (1983)Lindy
Grant, Architecture and society in Normandy, 1120-
1270 (2004)Paul Williamson, Gothic sculpture, 1140-
1300 (1995)Willibald Sauerlander, Gothic Sculpture in
France, 1140-1270  (1972)
Top of page

20. Heresy in the twelfth and

thirteenth centuries
Tutorial Questions

Why did the twelfth century see heresy develop on a

large scale in western Europe?Why was did heresy
develop in some regions rather than others?To what
extent did the Church itself create heretics by its own
actions during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries?How
effective was the Church's campaign against heresy
during the twelfth and thirteen centuries?
J.H. Mundy, Europe in the High Middle Ages 1150-
1309 (1973), pp. 515-561 [ ].Malcolm Barber, The Two
Cities  , chap. 7, pp. 168-192.Bernard Hamilton, ‘The
Albigensian Crusade and heresy’, The new Cambridge
medieval history. Vol. 5, c.1198-c.1300 (1999), pp. 164-
181. (Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy  (1989), chapters
14 & 18, pp. 339-357, 452-477.Brenda Bolton, The
medieval reformation (1983), chapters 3-4 & 6, pp. 55-
79, 94-111.M.D. Lambert, Medieval heresy : popular
movements from Bogomil to Hus (1977, 2nd ed. 1992)
M.D. Lambert The Cathars  (1998) ( )Malcolm Barber, The
Cathars : dualist heretics in Languedoc in the high Middle
Ages  (2000) ( )R.I. Moore, The Birth of Popular
Heresy  (1975)R.I. Moore, The Origins of European
Dissent  (1977)*R.I. Moore, The Formation of a
Persecuting Society (1987)Andrew Roach, The Devil's
world : heresy and society, 1100-1320 . (2005)*W.L.
Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern
France 1100-1250  (1974)Bernard Hamilton, The Medieval
Inquisition (1981)*Bernard Hamilton, ‘ The Cathars and
christian perfection ’, in The Medieval Church:
Universities, Heresy and the Religious Life: Essays in
Honour of Gordon Leff,  ed. Peter Biller & B. Dobson
(1999), pp. 5-23 [HDC] ( )*C.N.L. Brooke, ' Heresy and
religious sentiment : 1000-1250 ', Bulletin of the Institute
of Historical Research.  41 (1968), 115-131 [HDC].Brenda
Bolton, 'Tradition and temerity: papal attitudes to
deviants 1159-1216', Studies in church history.  . 9
Schism, Heresy and Social Protest (1972), 79-91 [ ].
Jonathan Sumption, The Albigensian crusade (1978, 2nd
ed., 1999) ( )J.R. Strayer, The Albigensian
Crusades (1971)Michael Costen, The Cathars and the
Albigensian Crusade (1997)Carol Lansing, Power and
purity : Cathar heresy in Medieval Italy : (2001) ( )
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , pp. 500-519
[extracts from an inquisition by Jacques Fournier, Bishop
of Pamiers, 1320]
Top of page

21. The Friars

Tutorial Questions:

To what extent were the friars a response to new

developments in medieval society?Compare and contrast
the development of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders
up to c.1300How far were the later problems of the
Franciscan Order the consequences of its origins?

R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the

Middle Ages  , chapter 6 (iii), pp. 272-299. ( )*Colin
Morris, The Papal Monarchy (1989), chapters 17 (vi) & 18
(i), pp. 442-7, 452-261Malcolm Barber, The Two Cities  ,
pp. 155-167Brenda Bolton, The medieval
reformation (1983), chapters 4 & 6, pp. 67-79, 94-111L.K.
Little, Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in
Medieval Europe  , chapter 9C.H. Lawrence, Medieval
Monasticism (1984), chapter 12, pp. 192-220.*C.H.
Lawrence, The friars : the impact of the early mendicant
movement on Western society  . (1994)Rosalind
Brooke, The Coming of the Friars (1975)Rosalind
Brooke, Early Franciscan Government (1959)Rosalind
Brooke, The image of St Francis : responses to sainthood
in the thirteenth century  (2006)J.R.H. Moorman, A history
of the Franciscan Order : from its origins to the year
1517 (1968)Michael Robson, The Franciscans in the
Middle Ages  (2006)Frances Andrews, The other friars :
the Carmelite, Augustinian, Sack and Pied Friars in the
Middle Ages  : (2006)C.N.L. Brooke, 'St. Dominic and his
first biographer', Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society. , Ser.V.17 (1967), 23-40 [E]C.N.L. Brooke, 'Priest,
deacon and layman, from St Peter Damian to St.
Francis', Studies in church history.  26 The Ministry:
Clerical and Lay (1989), 65-85 [ ].P. Linehan, 'A tale of
two cities: capitular Burgos and mendicant Burgos in the
thirteenth century', Church and city, 1000-1500 : essays
in honour of Christopher Brooke  . Essays in Honour of
Christopher Brooke, ed. D. Abulafia, M. Franklin & M.
Rubin (1992), pp. 81-110.John B. Freed The Friars and
German Society in the Thirteenth Century (1977)
Geary, Readings in Medieval History , section ‘the
Mendicants’.
Top of page

22. Towns, Trade and the

‘Commercial Revolution’
Tutorial Questions:

Why were towns developing in Europe during the central

Middle Ages?Why were some parts of medieval Europe
more urbanised than others?Was there a ‘commercial
revolution’ in Europe during the central Middle Ages?Why
was republican government increasingly under threat in
the towns of northern and central Italy during the
thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries?

Towns in General:

Keith Lilley Urban life in the Middle Ages, 1000-

1450 (2002)*David Nicholas, The growth of the medieval
city : from late antiquity to the early fourteenth
century (1997)David Nicholas, The later medieval city
1300-1500 (1997)N.J.G. Pounds, An economic history of
medieval Europe  (1994), chapter 6, pp. 223-282Robert
Bartlett The Making of Europe (1994), chap.7, pp. 167-
196Edith Ennen, The medieval town  (1979)

M. Kowaleski Medieval Towns: a Reader (2008)

Towns in particular regions:

J.K. Hyde, Society and Politics in Medieval Italy. The

Evolution of the Civil Life 1000-1350 (1973)Daniel
Waley, The Italian City Republics  (3rd. ed. 1988)John
Larner, Italy in the age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-
1380 (1980), chapters 6-7, 9 pp. 106-52, 183-227 ( )John
Larner, The lords of Romagna : Romagnol society and the
origins of the signorie. (1965), esp. chapters 5 & 8*P.J.
Jones, ' Communes and despots : the city state in late-
medieval Italy  ', Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society. , Ser. V. 15 (1965), 71-96. [HDC] [E]R.H. Britnell
' England and northern Italy in the early fourteenth
century : the economic contrasts ', Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society.  , Ser. V. 39 (1989), 167-83 [HDC]
[E]D.M. Palliser (ed.), The Cambridge urban history of
Britain Vol. I, 600-1540 (2000)David Nicholas, Medieval
Flanders  (1992), especially chapters 5-6.Galbert of
Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good, Count of
Flanders  , trans. J .B. Ross (1967) [a key contemporary
text for the Flemish towns in the twelfth century; there
are some extracts from this text in Geary, Readings in
Medieval History  , pp. 372-85]

The ‘Commercial Revolution’:

Robert S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the

Middle Ages. 950-1350 (1971)Henri Pirenne, Economic
and Social History of Medieval Europe (1936)N.J .G.
Pounds, An economic history of medieval Europe (2nd
ed.1994), chapters 3-4, 6, pp. 90-163, 223-282Georges
Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval
West (1968) pp. 61-165, 260-278R.S. Lopez, 'The Trade
of Medieval Europe: the South', The Cambridge economic
history of Europe. Vol.2, Trade and industry in the Middle
Ages. , vol. II (2nd. ed. 1987), 306-401 [ ].Alexander
Murray Reason and Society in the Middle Ages  (1978),
section on 'Money'Peter Spufford Money and its Use in
Medieval Europe  (1988)Geary, Readings in Medieval
History  , pp. 764-5, 787-801.

There is an excellent bibliography of further reading in

Pounds, An economic history of medieval Europe ,
pp.516-18
Top of page

23. The Jews in the Middle Ages

Tutorial Questions:

Why were Jews so unpopular in the Medieval

Christendom?What impact did the crusading movement
have on the Jewish communities of Europe in the Middle
Ages?Why were the Jews expelled from England and
France in the late thirteenth century, but not from Spain
until the end of the fifteenth century?

* R. Chazan * The Jews of medieval western

Christendom (2006)R. Chazan Robert Chazan, European
Jewry and the First Crusade (1987)N. Cohn * F. Heer F.
Heer , The Medieval World : Europe 1100-1350 (1963),
chapter 13 ( )

Anna Abulafia,Christian?Jewish relations, 1000-1300 :

Jews in the service of medieval Christendom(2011)S.
Grayzel The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth
Century,  (new ed. 1989)Gavin I. Langmuir, Toward a
Definition of Antisemitism (1990)* Sophia Menache 'The
king, the church, and the Jews: some considerations of
the expulsions from England and France', Journal of
Medieval History.  13 (1987) 223-36 [E]*Miri Rubin,
‘Desecration of the host: the birth of an
accusation’, Studies in church history.  29 The Church and
Judaism (1992), 169-85.9 ( )Miri Rubin, Gentile Tales: the
Narrative Assault on late Medieval Jews (2003)Samuel K.
Cohn, ‘The Black Death and the burning of the Jews’, Past
& present.  196 (2007), 3-36 [E].Anna Foa The Jews of
Europe after the Black Death  (2000) [England]* B. Ovrut
'Edward I and the expulsion of the Jews', Jewish quarterly
review. , 67 (1977), 224-35P. Elman 'The economic
causes of the expulsion of the Jews in 1290', The
economic history review.  , 7 (1936-7), 145-54 [E]R.B.
Dobson 'The decline and expulsion of the medieval Jews
of York', Transactions, 26 (1979) 34-52 Available as an
Online Course Reading in Minerva* R.B. Dobson The Jews
of Medieval York and the Massacre of March 1190  ,
(Borthwick Papers 45, 1974)Robin Mundill England's
Jewish solution : experiment and expulsion, 1262-1290 :
(1998)Paul Hyams 'The Jewish Minority in England, 1066-
1290', Journal of Jewish studies. , 25 (1974) 270-93 [ ]C.
Roth A history of the Jews in England  (3rd ed. 1964)

[France]

* Robert Chazan Medieval Jewry in northern France : a

political and social history  (1973)W.C. Jordan, The French
monarchy and the Jews : from Philip Augustus to the last
Capetians  (1989)

[Spain]

Y. Baer A history of the Jews in Christian Spain / Yitzhak

Baer. Vol.2, From the fourteenth century to the
expulsion (new ed. 1992)* Jocelyn Hillgarth The Spanish
Kingdoms 1250-1516 , vol. II (1978), pp.126-69, 410-65.
*J.R.L. Highfield, ‘ Christians, Jews and Muslims in the
same society : the fall of convivencia in medieval
Spain  ’, Studies in church history.  15 (1978), 121-146
[HDC]. ( )David J. Wasserstein, ‘ Jews, Christians and
Muslims in medieval Spain  ’, Journal of Jewish studies. 43
(1992), 175-86 [HDC]Angus MacKay , ' Popular
movements and pogroms in fifteenth-century
Castile  ', Past & present 55 (1972), 33-67 [HDC] [E]
Philippe Wolff 'The 1391 pogrom in Spain. Social crisis or
not? ', Past & present.  , 50 (1971), 4-18 [E]Yom Tov
Assis, Jewish economy in the medieval crown of Aragon,
1213-1327 : money and power (1997)

[Germany]

G. Kisch The Jews in Medieval Germany: a Study of their

Legal and Social Statu s, (2nd. ed. 1970), part IVSources:
John Edwards (ed.), The Jews in Western Europe 1400-
1600 (1994)Boccaccio The Decameron,  trans. G.H.
McWilliam (Penguin Classics 1972), day 1 story 2Geofrrey
Chaucer, The Canterbury tales (Penguin Classics ), ‘the
Prioress’s tale’.
Top of page

24. Chivalry and courtly culture

Tutorial Questions:

To what extent did medieval warfare change during the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?How relevant to the
actual practices of warfare were the ideals of chivalry?
How far did chivalric ideas develop as a result of the
influence of the Church?

*Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages (1984)*John

France, Western Warfare in the Age of the
Crusades (2000)J.F. Verburggen, The Art of Warfare in
Western Europe during the Middle Ages (1976)Michael
Prestwich, Armies and warfare in the Middle Ages : the
English experience  (1996)Michael Mallett, Mercenaries
and their Masters. Warfare in Renaissance Italy  (1974)J.
Bradbury, The medieval archer  r (1985), especially
chapters 5-7.Maurice Keen, The Laws of War in the late
Middle Ages  (1965)*Maurice Keen, Chivalry (1984)David
Crouch, William Marshal : court, career and chivalry in
the Angevin Empire 1147-1219  (1990)*David Crouch The
birth of nobility : constructing aristocracy in England and
France, 900-1300  (2005), especially chapters 1-3.David
Green, Edward the Black Prince : power in medieval
Europe  (2007), especially chapter 3, ‘Chivalry and
nobility’, pp. 73-105.Juliet Barker, The tournament in
England, 1100-1400 (1986)J. Barker & R.
Barber, Tournaments : jousts, chivalry and pageants in
the Middle Ages (1989)Malcolm Vale, War and chivalry :
warfare and aristocratic culture in England, France and
Burgundy at the end of the Middle Ages (1981)Malcolm
Vale, The princely court : medieval courts and culture in
north-west Europe, 1270-1380 (2001)A. Curry & M.
Hughes (ed.), Arms, Armies and Fortification in the
Hundred Years War (1994)G. Brereton (trans.),
Froissart, Chronicles  (Penguin Classics 1968)
Top of page

25. The Hundred Years War

Tutorial Questions:

Was the war caused by the French royal succession,

Gascony, or other factors?Why were the English militarily
successful for so long?To what extent was the French
kingdom undermined by internal problems?Why did the
war re-commence in the early fifteenth century?

C.T. Allmand. The Hundred Years War. England and

France at War  c. 1300-1450 (1988)Anne Curry, The
Hundred Years War (1993)Eduoard Perroy, The Hundred
Years War  (1951 and 1965)K. Fowler (ed.), The Hundred
Years War  (1971)Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years
War. Vol. 1, Trial by battle  (1990), especially chapters 3-
4, 9, 14-15 [a very detailed narrative history, but
exceptionally well-written; this vol. covers the years to
1347].Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War. Vol. 2,
Trial by fire  (1999), especially chapters 5-8 [this vol.
covers 1347-69]Richard Barber, Edward, Prince of Wales
and Aquitaine  , a Life of the Black Prince (1978)David
Green, Edward the Black Prince : power in medieval
Europe  (2007), especially chapter 1, pp. 25-49.F. Autard,
‘France under Charles V and Charles VI’, The new
Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 6, c.1300-
c.1415  . (2000), pp. 422-441. ( )J. Le Patourel, ‘The king
and the princes in fourteenth-century France’, in Europe
in the late Middle Ages , ed. J.R. Hale, R. Highfield & B.
Smalley (1965), 155-183 [reprinted in J. Le Patourel,
Feudal Empires, Norman and Plantagenent (1984)]. ( )J.
Le Patourel, ‘The Treaty of Bretigny 1360’, Transactions
of the Royal Historical Society. Ser. V.10 (1960), 19-39
[reprinted as above] [E]J.B. Hennemann, ‘Financing the
Hundred Years War: royal taxation in France in
1340’, Speculum. 42 (1967), 275-98 [E]C. Phillpotts, ‘The
fate of the Truce of Paris 1396-1415’, Journal of Medieval
History.  24 (1998), 61-80 [E].

R. Barber (trans.), The Life and campaigns of the Black

Prince : from contemporary letters, diaries and
chronicles, including Chandos Herald's Life of the Black
Prince (1986) [contemporary texts]
Top of page

26. The ‘Crisis’ of the fourteenth

century
Tutorial Questions:

Was the population of Western Europe already in decline

by 1348?What were the immediate, and the long-term,
consequences of the famine of 1315-17 and the Black
Death of 1347-50?To what extent were other factors than
the plague responsible for the fourteenth-century crisis?

R-H. Bautier The economic development of medieval

Europe  (1971) pp. 170-257 [ ]N.J.G. Pounds An economic
history of medieval Europe  (2nd ed.1994), chapter 10,
pp. 443-87L. Genicot 'Crisis: from the Middle Ages to
Modern Times', The Cambridge economic history of
Europe. Vol.1, Agrarian life of the Middle Ages.  , (2nd. ed.
1966) 660-741.C. Klapisch-Zuber, ‘Plague and family
life’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 6, c.1300-
c.1415  (2000), pp. 124-154.*W.C. Jordan, The Great
Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth
Century  (1996)Bruce Campbell (ed.), Before the Black
Death : studies in the "crisis" of the early fourteenth
century (1991)David Herlihy, The Black Death and the
transformation of the west (1997)Samuel K. Cohn, The
Black Death transformed : disease and culture in early
Renaissance Europe  (2002)*Samuel K. Cohn, ‘The Black
Death: end of a paradigm’, The American historical
review. 107 (2002), 703-38 [E].Samuel K. Cohn, ‘The
Black Death and the burning of the Jews’, Past &
present. 196 (2007), 3-36 [E].O. Benedictow, The Black
Death, 1346-1353 : the complete history (2004)David
Green, Edward the Black Prince : power in medieval
Europe  (2007), chapter 2, pp. 51-71, ‘the Black Death’.M.
Mollat & P. Wolff The popular revolutions of the late
Middle Ages  (1973)F.X. Newman (ed.), Social unrest in
the late Middle Ages : papers of the fifteenth annual
Conference of the Center for Medieval and Early
Renaissance Studies, University Center at
Binghamton (1986) ( )S.K. Cohn, Popular protest in late-
medieval Europe : Italy, France and Flanders (2004)D.
Nicholas, Medieval Flanders  (1992), chapter 10 ( )J.
Dumolyn & J. Hoewers, ‘Patterns of urban rebellion in
medieval Flanders’, Journal of Medieval History. 31
(2005), 369-93 [E]..John Larner, Italy in the age of Dante
and Petrarch, 1216-1380 (1980), chapters 8 & 12.H.S.
Lucas, 'The great European famine of 1315, 1316, and
1317', Speculum. 5 (1930) [E] [reprinted in Essays in
economic history  II, ed. E.M. Carus-Wilson (1962), pp. 49-
72.Ian Kershaw, 'The great famine and agrarian crisis in
England 1315-1322', Past & present.  59 (1973), 3-50 [E],
[reprinted in R.H. Hilton (ed.), Peasants, knights, and
heretics : studies in medieval English social
history (1976); pp. 85-132]J .M. W. Bean 'The Black
Death: the crisis and its social and economic
consequences', in D. Williman (ed.) The Black Death : the
impact of the fourteenth-century plague : papers of the
eleventh annual conference of the Center for Medieval &
Early Renaissance Studies (1982)John Hatcher Plague,
Population and the English Economy 1348-1530  (1977)
M.M. Postan Essays on Medieval Agriculture and General
Problems of the Medieval Economy  (1973)J. Day The
medieval market economy  (1987) (especially 'Crisis and
trends in the late Middle Ages')Rosemary Horrox
(ed.), The Black Death (1994) [documents in translation,
mainly British, but see especially the Continental
accounts on pp. 14-61, 149-203, 248-9]Boccaccio The
Decameron  , trans. G.H. McWilliam (Penguin Classics
1972), introduction
Top of page

27. The Late-Medieval Papacy:

Avignon and the Great Schism
Tutorial Questions:Why did the papacy remain based
for so long at Avignon in the fourteenth century?To what
extent was the papacy under French influence while it
was at Avignon?Why was it so difficult to find a solution to
the ‘Great Schism’ of 1378?

R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church , chapter

4 (iii), pp. 133-169.G. Barraclough, The medieval
papacy.  , chapter 4.Walter Ullmann, A short history of the
Papacy in the Middle Ages  , chapters 11-12.P.N.R. Zutshi,
‘The Avignon Papacy’, The new Cambridge medieval
history. Vol. 6, c.1300-c.1415  (2000), pp. 653-673.H.
Kaminsky, ‘The Great Schism’, The new Cambridge
medieval history. Vol. 6, c.1300-c.1415 (2000), pp. 674-
696Yves Renouard, The Avignon Papacy, 1305-
1403 (1970)Peter Partner, The lands of St Peter : the
Papal State in the Middle Ages and the early
Renaissance  (1972)Sophia Menache, Clement V (1998)
Diana Wood, Clement VI. The Pontificate and Ideas of an
Avignon Pope  (1989), chapters 4-6.J.E. Weakland,
‘Administrative and fiscal centralization under Pope John
XXII (1316-34)’, The Catholic historical review.  54 (1968-
9), 39-54, 285-310 [E].Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the
Great Schism (1948)C.M.D. Crowder, Unity, Heresy and
Reform 1378-1460 (1977)Rosenwein, Reading the Middle
Ages : sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic
world , pp. 458-9, 525-35.
Top of page

28. The Church at the end of the

Middle Ages
Tutorial Questions:

To what extent was the Church in need of reform in

1517?What, if any, efforts had been made to reform it
before 1517?To

J.A.F. Thomson, Popes and princes, 1417-1517 : politics

and polity in the late medieval church  (1980)Brian
Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory  (1955)
Antony Black, Council and commune : the conciliar
movement and the fifteenth-century heritage  : the
Conciliar Movement and the Fifteenth Century Heritage
(1979)Antony Black, ‘Popes and councils’, The new
Cambridge medieval history. Vol. 7, c.1415-
c.1500  (1998), 65-86.R.N. Swanson, Religion and
devotion in Europe, c.1215-c.1515 , (1995)John
Bossy, Christianity in the West 1400-1700  (1985)S.E.
Ozment, The age of reform, 1250-1550 : an intellectual
and religious history of late Medieval and Reformation
Europe  (1980), esp. chapter 5.C. Harper-Bill, The Pre-
Reformation Church in England (2nd.ed., 1996)Eamon
Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in
England c. 1400-1580 (2nd ed., 2005), part 1.Denis
Hay, The Church in Italy in the fifteenth century  (1977)G.
Leff, Heresy in the later Middle Ages : the relation of
heterodoxy to dissent, c. 1250-c. 1450. (2 vols.,1967)R.B.
Dobson, 'Citizens and chantries in late medieval
York', Church and city, 1000-1500 : essays in honour of
Christopher Brooke  . , ed. D. Abulafia, M. Franklin & M.
Rubin (1992), pp. 311-332.R.N. Swanson, Catholic
England : faith, religion and observance before the
Reformation  (1993)R.N. Swanson, 'Problems of the
priesthood in pre-Reformation England', English historical
review. 105 (1990), 845-869 [E].Margaret Harvey, 'Unity
and diversity: perceptions of the papacy in the late
Middle Ages', Studies in church history.  32 Unity and
Diversity in the Church (1996), 145-169. ( )
Top of page

26. Humanism and the

Renaissance
Tutorial Questions:

What part did humanism play in the early Renaissance

(up to c. 1500)?To what extent did the revival of the
classics influence other disciplines?Why did the
Renaissance begin in Italy rather than anywhere else in
Europe?

*Peter Burke, The Renaissance  (2nd ed. 1997)*Alison

Brown, The Renaissance  (2nd ed. 1999)*Robert Black,
‘Humanism’, The new Cambridge medieval history. Vol.
7, c.1415-c.1500 (1998), 243-277 ( )Denys Hay & John
Law, Italy in the age of the Renaissance 1380-
1530 (1989) chaps. 12-13.Lisa Jardine, Worldly goods : a
New History of the Renaissance (1996)Richard
Mackenney, Renaissances : the cultures of Italy, c. 1300-
c. 1600  ,(2005)Jeffrey C. Smith, The Northern
Renaissance  (2004)John Jeffries Martin (ed.), The
Renaissance : Italy and abroad (2007)John Jeffries Martin
(ed.), The Renaissance world (2007)L.D. Reynolds & N.G.
Wilson, Scribes and Scholars. A Guide to the Transmission
of Greek and Latin Literature (3rd. ed. 1991), chapter 4.
W. Berschin, Greek letters and the Latin Middle Ages :
from Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa (1988), chapter 12.R.
Weiss, ‘The dawn of humanism in Italy’, Bulletin of the
Institute of Historical Research.  42 (1969), 1-16 [ ].M.D.
Reeve, ‘Classical scholarship’, in The Cambridge
Companion to Renaissance Humanism , ed. Jill Kraye
(1996), pp. 20-46 [E].James Hankins, ‘Humanism and the
origins of modern political thought’, in The Cambridge
Companion to Renaissance Humanism , ed. Jill Kraye
(1996), pp. 118-141 [E].C. Hope & E. McGrath, ‘Artists
and humanists’, in The Cambridge Companion to
Renaissance Humanism , ed. Jill Kraye (1996), pp. 161-
188 [E].B. Kohl, ‘The changing concept of the studia
humanitatis in the early Renaissance’, Renaissance
studies.  6 (1992), 185-209.P.O. Kristeller, ‘The medieval
antecedents of Renaissance humanism’, in his Eight
Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance  (1964), pp. 147-
165.M. McLaughlin, ‘Humanist concepts of Renaissance
and Middle Ages’, Renaissance studies. 2 (1988), 131-
142.Robert Black, ‘ Florence ’, in The Renaissance in
National Context , ed. R. Porter & M. Teich (1992), pp. 21-
41.Robert Black (ed.), Renaissance thought : a
reader  (2001), introduction and chapters 1-4, 14, 18-19.
Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages : sources from
Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world  , pp. 536-545.
Top of page

30. Europe and a wider world

Tutorial Questions:

Why did Europeans travel to Asia in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries?How great an impact did the
expanding geographical horizons of Europe have on
medieval thought and actions?To what extent was the
later medieval expansion of Europe’s geographical
horizons made possible by technological innovation?

*J.R.S. Phillips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe  (1988;

2nd edn. 1998)J .H. Parry, The Age of
Reconnaissance (1963), sections 1 and 2F. Fernandez-
Armesto, Before Columbus (1987)David Abulafia, The
discovery of mankind : Atlantic encounters in the age of
Columbus s (2008)P.D.A. Harvey, Medieval Maps (1991)
B. Penrose, Travel and discovery in the Renaissance,
1420-1620 (1952)John H. Pryor, Geography, technology
and war : studies in the maritime history of the
Mediterranean, 649-1571  (1988)F.C. Lane, ‘The economic
meaning of the invention of the compass’, The American
historical review. 68 (1963) [E] [reprinted in Frederic C.
Lane, Venice and history : the collected papers of
Frederic C. Lane (1966), pp. 331-44]André Wink, Al-Hind,
the making of the Indo-Islamic world. Vol. 3, Indo-Islamic
society, 14th-15th centuries , (2004)Geoffrey
Dawson, Mission to Asia  (1955) [contains translations of
travellers’ accounts of the thirteenth century]I.
Rachewiltz, Papal envoys to the Great Khans  (1971)D.
Lach, Asia in the making of Europe. Vol.1, The century of
discovery  , (1965)J. Friedmann & K. Figg, Trade, travel,
and exploration in the Middle Ages : an
encyclopedia  (2000)
Top of page

31. Monarchy at the end of the

Middle Ages
Tutorial Questions:

How ‘absolute’ were the so-called ‘new monarchies’?

What was ‘new’ about the so-called ‘new monarchies’?

B. Guenée, States and rulers in later medieval

Europe  (1985)G. Richardson, Renaissance monarchy : the
reigns of Henry VIII, Francis I and Charles V  (2002)J.H.
Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716  (1963), chapters 1-3
Henry Kamen, Spain 1469-1714. A Society of
Conflict (2nd. ed. 1991)B. Chevalier, ‘The recovery of
France, 1450-1520’, The new Cambridge medieval
history. Vol. 7, c.1415-c.1500  (1998), 408-430.R.J.
Knecht, Francis I  (1982)R.J. Knecht, Francis I and absolute
monarchy  (Historical Association Pamphlet 1969)Denys
Hay & John Law, Italy in the age of the Renaissance 1380-
1530 (1989), especially chapters 5-6.W. Connell & A.
Zorzi, Florentine Tuscany : structures and practices of
power (2000)Richard Britnell, The closing of the Middle
Ages? : England, 1471-1529  (1997), chapters 1-3.A.J.
Pollard, ‘New monarchy renovated? England 1461-
1509’, Medieval history.  2(i) (1992), 78ff.