The Making of Medieval Societies, c.750-c.1250

Course code: HICL138S6

Tutors: Dr Matthew Innes, Dr John Arnold and Dr Caroline Humfress

This course provides an introduction to the history of medieval Britain and Europe from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. This is one of the most dramatic periods in British and European history, with crucial developments in cultural, social and political organisation leading to the emergence of the kingdoms and communities of the medieval world. It was in this period that the kingdoms of England, Scotland, France, Germany, and of Scandinavia and eastern Europe first emerge, that the first Universities were founded, that the crusading movement began and the power of the Popes reached its height, that the first major outbreaks of heresy took place and that urban life was reborn in western Europe. It was also in this period that the power of a knightly class of hereditary landowners devoted to warfare was firmly established, in partnership with the Christian church, as the fundamental force shaping European society. This course will focus on developments in the Britain (including Scotland and Wales) and Ireland, and in western Europe (particularly France and Germany): British and European developments in this period cannot be studied independently. We will also give full attention to developments in the Meditteranean, particularly Italy, Spain and the Byzantine Empire in the Balkans and near East, and discuss crucial developments in Scandinavia and eastern Europe. Full attention will be paid to translated extracts of contemporary testimony from primary sources, most available via the internet.

Introductory reading

Barbara Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (2000) - best basic outline for the total beginner in this period

The following are recommended as ways into the period:

Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Change, 950-1350 (1997)

Marc Bloch, Feudal Society (1961)

Heinrich Fichtenau, Living in the Tenth Century (1991)

Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson, eds., The Medieval World (2002)

Susan Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in western Europe, 900-1300 (2nd edition, 1997)

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

The following as introductions to key areas/themes:

Robert Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225 (1999)

Marcus Bull, ed., Short Oxford History of France in the Central Middle Ages, 900-1200 (2002)

Michael Clanchy, England and its Rulers, 1066-1272 (2nd edition, 1993)

Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: the western church from 1050-1250 (1990)

New Cambridge Medieval History, vols. II (700-900, ed R. McKitterick, 1997), III (900-1024, ed. T. Reuter, 2000), V (1198-1300, ed. D. Abulafia, 1999). Vol. IV has not yet come out.

Pauline Stafford, Unification and Conquest: England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (1989)

Jean-Pierre Poly and Eric Bournazel, The Feudal Transformation (1991)