From 1250 to 1795 Lithuania covered a vast area of eastern and central Europe. Until 1387 the country was pagan. How this huge state came to expand, defend itself against western European crusaders and play a conspicuous part in European life are the main subjects of this book. Chapters are devoted to the types of sources used, to the religion of the ancient Balts (and the discovery of a pagan temple in Vilnius in the late 1980s), and to Lithuanian relations and wars with Poland and the Germans. Under Grand Duke Gediminas, Lithuania came to control more of Russia than the prince of Moscow.

This book looks at the conduct of war in the crusaders' kingdom from the end of the Third Crusade to the final demise of the Latin Kingdom in 1291. Among the many fascinating subjects covered by Christopher Marshall are the military impact of the crusades, the make-up of the Christian and Muslim armies, the structure and organization of castles and other strongpoints such as fortified towns, battles, raiding expeditions, and sieges. During this period the Christians struggled to defend their kingdom as the threat from their Muslim neighbors grew ever stronger. He concludes that the Christians...

Runaway religious were monks, canons and friars who had taken vows of religion and who, with benefit of neither permission nor dispensation and for myriad reasons, fled their monasteries and returned to a life in the world, usually replacing the religious habit with lay clothes. Not only the normal tugs of the world drew them away: other less obvious yet equally human motives, such as boredom, led to a return to the world. The church pursued them with her severest penalty, excommunication, in the express hope that penalties would lead to the return of the straying sheep. This book is the...

This book examines the Jewish community in England from 1262 to 1290, during the reign of Edward I. Commencing with a survey of the historiography and heritage of medieval Anglo-Jewry, the book analyzes the Jews' financial value to the Crown and indicates that after 1275 some may have diversified into commodity broking. A further chapter examines the varying fortunes of seven provincial communities, which is followed by the most comprehensive study of debtors to Jews to date, showing the wider impact of Jewish lending. Finally, the reasons behind one of the first European expulsions of the...

This book examines the selected writings of John of Wales, a thirteenth-century Franciscan scholar. Though overshadowed historically by men like Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure, John contributed significantly to the preaching explosion of the later Middle Ages, devoting his scholastic energies to the production of encyclopedic preaching aids for the growing number of the devout and learned emerging from the new universities. Through a detailed analysis of his world view, the author establishes John's strong interest in politics and contemporary social issues and helps to explain why his...

This book examines the relationship between the royal monasteries in tenth- and eleventh-century Germany and the German monarchs. It focuses on the practical aspects of governing without a capital and while constantly in motion, and on the payments and services that monasteries provided to the king and that in turn supported the king's travel economically and politically. It concludes that German rulers did in fact make much greater use of their royal monasteries than has hitherto been recognized.

This book is a study of the reformation in ecclesiastical politics in twelfth-century England whereby the cathedral chapter, by gradually gaining control of more of its own wealth and resources, increased its power and emerged as a community largely independent of the bishop. The story illuminates an important period in the internal life of the Church, when the obligations and rights of individuals and institutions were being given ever more precise definition, and when new views on Church doctrine and canon law, as well as on royal and papal interests, became the concern of many of the...

Among the many states of late medieval Italy, one stands out for its unfamiliarity to an English audience and for its neglect in historical research: that of the Este family, lords (later Dukes) of the cities of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio in northern Italy. This book is the first modern attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the political structure of this state based on archive sources. Much of the book is concerned with the ways by which the Este used their vast landed resources in and around Ferrara to build up and reinforce their personal political authority both within and outside...

This book explores the full range of social, economic, religious and cultural contacts between England and the German city of Cologne during the central Middle Ages, c. 1000 to c. 1300. A wealth of original archive material reveals an extensive network of English and German emigrants who were surprisingly successful in achieving assimilation into their new homelands. From pilgrims to emigrants, crusaders and merchants to teachers, there existed a complex world of Anglo-German associations that will suggest a reconsideration of the medieval European world.

The fourteenth century heralded a new stage in the history of the Church, when papal rule was forced to find new patterns of cooperation with emerging national states. The Avignon pontificate of Clement V (1305-14) found a compromise among conflicting interests, and thus paved the way for the Church in the modern era. In contrast to the characterization of the Avignon period as the "Babylonian captivity" of the papacy, this book offers a new evaluation of Clement's reign, the goals of papal policy, and its evaluation by contempories.