The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis has been called the greatest of all medieval chronicles. Written in Normandy between 1114 and 1141, it is a detailed history of the Norman people and their conquests, full of vivid portraits of the lives and characters of men and women, kings and queens, lords and bishops, simple knights and humble villagers. The chronicle offers a unique, authentic picture of feudal society during a period of rapid change in church and state which saw the emergence of the Anglo-Norman realm, the spread of new forms of monasticism, and the launching of the...

Monastic life, the royal courts and Norman nobility as depicted by Orderic's medieval chronicle.

Edited with a facing-page English translation from the Latin text by: Chibnall, Marjorie;

Edited with a facing-page English translation from the Latin text by: Chibnall, Marjorie;

Historians have long debated the significance of the Norman Conquest. Did it mark the imposition of an alien and repressive regime on "free Englishmen"? Or did England benefit from the uniting of two separate and disparate cultures and civilizations? Marjorie Chibnall, one of the leading historians of the period, here addresses these issues.

The debate on the Norman Conquest is still ongoing. Because of the great interest that has always been shown in the subject of conquest and its aftermath, interpretations have been numerous and conflicting; students bewildered by controversies may find this book a useful guide through the morass of literature. In the medieval period writers were still deeply involved in the legal and linguistic consequences of the Norman victory. Later the issues became direcly relevant to debates about constitutional rights; the theory of a "Norman yoke" provided first a call for revolution and, by the 19th...

Topics covered include: the Bayeux Tapestry; Bishops of Winchester and the Monastic Revolution; Charters of Henry II; Early Irish Castles; Land and Inheritance in England; Life of St Margaret; Mont St Michel 966-1035; Sake and Soke, Titles, and Tenants-in-Chief; Shaftesbury Abbey's Benefactors; 12c Anglo-Scottish Warfare; Benoit of St Maure and William; Southwell Tympanum, Glastonbury Respond, Leigh Christ; Inventio et Miracula Sancti Vulfranni. BT> Contributors: C. HOLDSWORTH, S. BROWN, K. COOKE, M. FRANKLIN, J. HUDSON, L. HUNEYCUTT, T. McNEILL; R. MORTIMER, C. POTTS, D. ROFFE, M....

Abbey, town and early charters of Battle; Anglo-Norman succession 1120-1125; Aethelings in Normandy; 11c Barons and their Officials; Coinage and currency under Henry I; Early earls of Norman England; Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain; Ivo of Chartres; Landholding by Milites in Domesday; Robert of Belleme; Robert of Mortain; Sculpture romane de Normandie; William I's Breton supporters; William of Malmesbury's description of Jerusalem. E. SEARLE, L. BARKER, M. BAYLE, M. BLACKBURN, D.F. FLEMING, J. GILLINGHAM, B. GOLDING, A. GRABOIS, K.S.B. KEATS-ROHAN, S. KEYNES, C.P....

Adela of Blois and Ivo of Chartres; Anglo-Norman families; Anglo-Scandinavian equestrian equipment; Belrem'; Bookland, Folkland and Fiefs; Charters of David I; Counts of Boulogne under Eustace II; Dispute settlement; Financing Stephen's War; Fortification de Rouen; French literature in 12c England; Margam Annals; Ranulf II Earl of Chester's armed neutrality; Rochester cathedral priory c.1100; See of London. G.W.S. BARROW, P. DALTON, B. GAUTHIEZ, J. GRAHAM-CAMPBELL, J. GREEN, K. LOPRETE, J.S. MOORE, R.B. PATTERSON, S. REYNOLDS, I. SHORT, H.J. TANNER, A.J. TAYLOR, P. TAYLOR, H....

Papers here have as a general theme the -Norman Age-, with a special slant towards the Mediterranean world. Subjects treated include the policies of the Norman rulers, their military and naval organisation and coinage, chronicle sources and aspects of church history in their principalities, and the relations of the Normans with Byzantium, the Fatimid rulers and the crusading states. Other papers treat more generally of art, literature and language in the Norman period. Listing: Adam of Balsham's Oratio de Utensilibus; Chronicle of Falco of Benevento; Coinages of Norman Apulia and Sicily; De...