Essays exploring and problematizing the idea of an "exceptional" England within Western Europe during the long thirteenth century. The theme of this volume, "Exceptional England", follows on from that of the previous one, "England in Europe". Both respond to two long-term historiographical trends among British medievalists: to place England and Britain in a wider European context, and, conversely, to emphasise the differences between developments in England and those elsewhere, either explicitly or implicitly. The essays here, in tackling aspects of political, religious, cultural and urban history, are often concerned with shifts that transcend the "national" because they are driven by forces operating on a European, or at least a western European, scale. A number bring developments in England into conversation with those in other regions, turning not only to France, a traditional comparator, but also ranging further, using Poland, Italy, Spain and Hungary as points of comparison. Others problematise England's boundaries by considering the fates of people caught between worlds as English continental possessions shrank. If England emerges in these essays as rather less "exceptional", some of the contributions highlight its unusually rich sources, suggesting ways in which these riches might illuminate the history of Europe in the long thirteenth century more generally. Particular subjects addressed include the fortunes of the knightly class, the dynamics of episcopal election, and models of child kingship, along with new studies of Gerald of Wales and Simon de Montfort.

Essays looking at the links between England and Europe in the long thirteenth century.

Essays reflecting the most recent research on the thirteenth century, with a timely focus on the Treaty of Paris. Additional editors: Karen Stöber, Björn Weiler The articles collected here bear witness to the continued and wide interest in England and its neighbours in the "long" thirteenth century. The volume includes papers on the high politics of the thirteenth century, international relations, the administrative and governmental structures of medieval England and aspects of the wider societal and political context of the period. A particular theme of the papers is Anglo-French political history, and especially the ways in which that relationship was reflected in the diplomatic and dynastic arrangements associated with the Treaty of Paris, the 750th anniversary of which fell during 2009, a fact celebrated in this collection of essays and the Paris conference at which the original papers were first delivered. Contributors: Caroline Burt, Julie E. Kanter, Julia Barrow, Benjamin L. Wild, WilliamMarx, Caroline Dunn, Adrian Jobson, Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks, Tony K. Moore, David A. Trotter, William Chester Jordan, Daniel Power, Florent Lenègre

No detailed description available for "English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century".

Of all the epochs of effort after a new life, that of the age of Aquinas, Roger Bacon, St. Francis, St. Louis, Giotto, and Dante is the most purely spiritual, the most really constructive, and indeed the most truly philosophic. … The whole thirteenth century is crowded with creative forces in philosophy, art, poetry, and statesmanship as rich as those of the humanist Renaissance. And if we are accustomed to look on them as so much more limited and rude it is because we forget how very few and poor were their resources and their instruments. In creative genius Giotto is the peer, if not the superior of Raphael. Dante had all the qualities of his three chief successors and very much more besides. It is a tenable view that in inventive fertility and in imaginative range, those vast composite creations—the Cathedrals of the Thirteenth Century, in all their wealth of architectural statuary, painted glass, enamels, embroideries, and inexhaustible decorative work may be set beside the entire painting of the sixteenth century. Albert and Aquinas, in philosophic range, had no peer until we come down to Descartes, nor was Roger Bacon surpassed in versatile audacity of genius and in true encyclopaedic grasp by any thinker between him and his namesake the Chancellor. In statesmanship and all the qualities of the born leader of men we can only match the great chiefs of the Thirteenth Century by comparing them with the greatest names three or even four centuries later. Now this great century, the last of the true Middle Ages, which as it drew to its own end gave birth to Modern Society, has a special character of its own, a character that gives it an abiding and enchanting interest. We find in it a harmony of power, a universality of endowment, a glow, an aspiring ambition and confidence such as we never find in later centuries, at least so generally and so permanently diffused. … The Thirteenth Century was an era of no special character. It was in nothing one-sided and in nothing discordant. It had great thinkers, great rulers, great teachers, great poets, great artists, great moralists, and great workmen. It could not be called the material age, the devotional age, the political age, or the poetic age in any special degree. It was equally poetic, political, industrial, artistic, practical, intellectual, and devotional. And these qualities acted in harmony on a uniform conception of life with a real symmetry of purpose.

Studies on the cultural, social, political and economic history of the age. This collection presents new and original research on the long thirteenth century, from c.1180-c.1330, including England's relations with Wales and Ireland. The range of topics embraces royal authority and its assertion and limitation, the great royal inquests and judicial reform of the reign of Edward I, royal manipulation of noble families, weakening royal administration at the end of the century, sex and love in the upper levels of society, monastic/layrelations, and the administration of building projects. Contributors: RUTH BLAKELY, NICOLA COLDSTREAM, BETH HARTLAND, CHARLES INSLEY, ANDY KING, SAMANTHA LETTERS, JOHN MADDICOTT, MARC MORRIS, ANTHONY MUSSON, DAVIDA. POSTLES, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, SANDRA G. RABAN, BJORN WEILER, JOCELYN WOGAN-BROWNE, ROBERT WRIGHT. THE EDITORS are all in the Department of History, University of Durham.

`An indispensable series for anyone who wishes to keep abreast of recent work in the field'. WELSH HISTORY REVIEW