New Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Poland and Prussia: The Impact of Gdańsk draws together the latest reseach conducted by local historians and archaeologists on the city of Gdańsk and its impact on the surrounding region of Pomerania and Poland as a whole. Beginning with Gdańsk’s early political history and extending from the 10th to the 16th century, its twelve chapters explore a range of political, social, and socio-cultural historical questions and explain such phenomena as the establishment and development of the Gdańsk port and city. A prominent theme is a consideration of the interactions between Gdansk and Poland and Prussia, including a look into the city’s links with the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and the Kingdom of Poland under the rule of the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties. The chapters are placed in the historical context of medieval Poland as well as the broader themes of religion, the matrimonial policy of noble families or their contacts with the papacy. This book is an exciting new study of medieval Poland and unparalleled in the English-speaking world, making it an ideal text for those wanting to deepen their knowledge in this subject area.

New Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Gdańsk, Poland and Prussia draws together the latest reseach on the important port town of Gdańsk and its impact on the surrounding region of Pomerania and Poland as a whole. The twelve chapters explore various political, social, and socio-cultural historical questions and explain such phenomena as the establishment and the development of the Gdańsk port and city and its links with the Teutonic Order and Polish kings. The chapters are placed in the historical context of medieval Poland as well as the broader historical themes of matrimonial policy of noble families or their contacts with the papacy.

New Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Poland and Prussia: The Impact of Gdańsk draws together the latest reseach conducted by local historians and archaeologists on the city of Gdańsk and its impact on the surrounding region of Pomerania and Poland as a whole. Beginning with Gdańsk’s early political history and extending from the 10th to the 16th century, its twelve chapters explore a range of political, social, and socio-cultural historical questions and explain such phenomena as the establishment and development of the Gdańsk port and city. A prominent theme is a consideration of the interactions between Gdansk and Poland and Prussia, including a look into the city’s links with the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and the Kingdom of Poland under the rule of the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties. The chapters are placed in the historical context of medieval Poland as well as the broader themes of religion, the matrimonial policy of noble families or their contacts with the papacy. This book is an exciting new study of medieval Poland and unparalleled in the English-speaking world, making it an ideal text for those wanting to deepen their knowledge in this subject area.

Drawing together an international team of historians, lawyers and historical sociolinguists, this volume investigates urban cultures of law in Scotland, with a special focus on Aberdeen and its rich civic archive, the Low Countries, Norway, Germany and Poland from c. 1350 to c. 1650. In these essays, the contributors seek to understand how law works in its cultural and social contexts by focusing specifically on the urban experience and, to a great extent, on urban records. The contributions are concerned with understanding late medieval and early modern legal experts as well as the users of courts and legal services, the languages and records of law, and legal activities occurring inside and outside of official legal fora. This volume considers what the expectations of people at different status levels were for the use of the law, what perceptions of justice and authority existed among different groups, and what their knowledge was of law and legal procedure. By examining how different aspects of legal culture came to be recorded in writing, the contributors reveal how that writing itself then became part of a culture of law. Cultures of Law in Urban Northern Europe: Scotland and its Neighbours c.1350–c.1650 combines the historical study of law, towns, language and politics in a way that will be accessible and compelling for advanced level undergraduates and postgraduate to postdoctoral researchers and academics in medieval and early modern, urban, legal, political and linguistic history.

Beata Możejko traces the chequered history of Peter von Danzig, a caravel which served under the flag of Gdańsk from 1471, most famously being used by Gdańsk privateer Paul Beneke to carry out an audacious raid in April 1473.

Monetisation and Commercialisation in the Baltic Sea, 1050–1450 explores the varied uses of silver and gold in the Baltic Sea zone during the medieval period. Ten original contributions examine coins and currencies, trade, economy, and power, taking care to avoid an out-of-date approach to economic history which assumes a progression from ‘primitive’ forms to ‘developed’ structures. Combining a variety of methodological approaches, and drawing on written sources, archaeological and numismatic evidence, and anthropological perspectives, the book considers the various ways in which silver and gold were used as monetary currency, fiscal instruments of power, and gifts in the High and Late Medieval societies of the Baltic Sea. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, as well as those interested in economic history, and the history of trade and commerce.

Covering areas in today’s Ukraine, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia, this book studies the impact of both natural and human-inflicted disasters on pre-modern towns. Various kinds of catastrophes, starting with major natural disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and epidemics caused high population mortality. Others, such as protracted war conflicts, were caused by human activity and could be just as, if not more, destructive for cities, their populations and the urban economy. Crises affected not only the population as a whole, but also townsmen and women in their individual lives. Case studies of renewal and resilience in the volume illustrate that, in many cases, successfully overcoming disaster brought positive changes for urban people. The collection presents analytical research anchored in the contemporary historiographical discourse on studying social and cultural relations in urban environments in the Middle Ages and early modern period, and it incorporates interdisciplinary approaches in the forms of geography, archaeology, and literary theory. This volume is an engaging resource for students and researchers of pre-modern history, social history, and disaster studies.

Military Diasporas proposes a new research approach to analyse the role of foreign military personnel as composite and partly imagined para-ethnic groups. These groups not only buttressed a state or empire’s military might but crucially connected, policed, and administered (parts of) realms as a transcultural and transimperial class while representing the polity’s universal or at least cosmopolitan aspirations at court or on diplomatic and military missions. Case studies of foreign militaries with a focus on their diasporic elements include the Achaemenid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Roman Empire in the ancient world. These are followed by chapters on the Sassanid and Islamic occupation of Egypt, Byzantium, the Latin Aegean (Catalan Company) to Iberian Christian noblemen serving North African Islamic rulers, Mamluks and Italian Stradiots, followed by chapters on military diasporas in Hungary, the Teutonic Order including the Sword Brethren, and the Swiss military. The volume thus covers a broad band of military diasporic experiences and highlights aspects of their role in the building of state and empire from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages and from Persia via Egypt to the Baltic. With a broad chronological and geographic range, this volume is the ideal resource for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in the history of war and warfare from Antiquity to the sixteenth century.

An analysis of Valencia's fifteenth-century port activity functional to the study of the city's diverse maritime networks and markets based on first-hand archive research mainly focusing on the second half of the fifteenth century. The text also takes into account an assortment of further late-fourteenth to early-sixteenth century data collected and analysed by other authors.

Beata Możejko traces the chequered history of Peter von Danzig, a caravel which served under the flag of Gdańsk from 1471, most famously being used by Gdańsk privateer Paul Beneke to carry out an audacious raid in April 1473.