Anglo-Norman Studies XLVIII - by Mark Hagger (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The volume opens with a review of the career of the distinguished historian J.E.A. Jolliffe (1891-1964) and the making of his foundational work, Angevin Kingship. It then moves on to such topics as the rewarding of clerics in royal service; the rule of David I in "Scotland", the country between the Firth of Forth and the River Spey; the political roles that Anglo-Saxon diplomas might have played as active agents in the construction of kingship; and the use and development of croziers before the Norman Conquest, looking in particular at the Beverley Crozier. There are also articles on the packhorse, often overlooked by historians but fundamental to medieval transport and the movement of goods and supplies; and the role played by the abbey of Fécamp in the preservation and performance of Norman maritime cultural memory throughout the eleventh century. Two chapters on particular texts round off the volume: respectively, they consider the De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi as an example of Latin-Christian engagement with Islamic beliefs in the mid-twelfth century, and the portrayal, experience, and reception of madness in the Vita Merlini.