Henry VIII's conservative religious beliefs

by Kathryn Hadley,

A rare medieval prayer roll that once belonged to Henry VIII goes on display, today, in the British Library’s Sir John Ritblat Gallery as part of its ‘Treasures of the British Library’ collection. Whilst there still exist numerous medieval obituary rolls, very few prayer rolls survived the Reformation. The prayer roll also features an inscription written by Prince Henry, which is one of only three surviving examples of his handwriting from before his accession to the throne on April 21st, 1509.

The roll was not discovered until 1858 and many questions about its origin, place of production and illumination remain unanswered. The British Library recently purchased the prayer roll from Sotheby’s for £485,000.

It is believed to have been produced in England in the late 15th century and consists of four parchment strips sewn end to end, measuring four metres when it is fully unrolled. It is illustrated with thirteen illuminations depicting Christ and various saints and their martyrdoms and also contains a two-column text with rubrics in English and prayers in Latin to the Five Holy Wounds of Christ and other related devotions.

The inscription at the top of the second membrane under the central image of Christ’s Passion, believed to have been written by Prince Henry some time prior to 1509 when he presented the roll to William Thomas a Gentleman of his Privy Chamber, reads: ‘Wylliam thomas I pray yow pray for me your lovyng master Prynce Henry’.

Henry’s royal badges consisting of the two Tudor roses, the Prince of Wales crowned ostrich feather as well as Katherine of Aragon’s emblem of a sheaf of arrows at the head of the roll are evidence that the roll was once owned and used by Prince Henry. The prayer roll provides fascinating and surprising insights into Henry’s traditional and conservative early religious practices that he would later destroy when he broke with Rome and established himself as head of the Church of England.

Images (British Library):

- Christ crucified, Angels bearing Christ's side wound

Christ is depicted hanging on a Tau-shaped cross and flanked by two angels each holding a small scroll. The vernacular instructions on the left-hand scroll promise general protection, material prosperity and safe childbirth to those who wear the roll on their bodies: “This cros, 15 times moten is the length of our Lord Jhesu Criste, and that day that ye bere it upon you ther shal no evyl spirit have power of yow on londe ne on water, ne with thonder ne litenyng be hurt, ne dye in dedely synne withowte confession, ne fyre be brent, ne water be drowned; and it shal breke your enemys power and encres your worldly goodes, and if a woman be in travell off childe, ley this on her body and she shal be delyverd withowte parel, the childe chrystendom, and the moder purificacyon.”

- The Archangel Michael and the Devil

The first of a series of images of saints, St Michael is depicted here conquering the devil, personified by a dragon-like monster with six heads and a tail ending in another head. The archangel is clothed in a red, feathered garment, relieved with gold. Beneath is a hymn to the saint: “Gaude princeps pietatis. Miles mire probatis ...”

First Impressions: Kingdom of Ife

by Kathryn Hadley

‘Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa’ opened yesterday, March 4th, at the British Museum. Showcasing nearly 100 pieces of Ife sculpture, drawn almost entirely from the collections of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria and most of which have never been seen in the UK before, the exhibition is unique and fascinating. The complexity of the sculptures is astonishing; the insight which they provide into the history of the city-state of Ife and West African culture from the 1200s to 1400s is intriguing.

European fascination with African art began in the late 15th century following the Portuguese discovery of the kingdom of Ife. Travellers to western Africa took works of art back to Europe where they were displayed as ‘curios’. There was a renewed interest in African art in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, notably as artists such as Picasso and Matisse sought new inspiration and studied masks and figures from Africa. One of the first European ethnographers and explorers to travel to Ife was the German Leo Frobenius. He arrived in late November 1910 as part of the third German Inner African Exploration. Frobenius spent three weeks carrying out excavations and unearthed numerous stone and terracotta sculptures. Further research into the nature and origins of African art began after the discovery, in 1938, of a cache of brass and copper sculptures.

The kingdom of Ife is located in southwest Nigeria, south of the river Niger, and is regarded as the spiritual heartland of the local Yoruba-speaking people. It first emerged around 800AD and flourished as a powerful city-state on the crossroads of local and long-distance trade routes from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Legend traces the foundation of the kingdom of Ife back to the supreme god Olodumare, who allegedly asked his son Orishanla to create the world equipped with an iron chain, a snail shell filled with soil, a chicken and a chameleon. When Orishanla drank too much and fell asleep, however, his brother Oduduwa took over. Oduduwa climbed down the chain from the sky onto the watery land and emptied the soil from the snail shell. When the chicken kicked the soil around, dry land appeared and the chameleon tested the firmness of the land. Orishanla then created human beings and Oduduwa founded the kingdom of Ife.

Ife is also considered the birthplace of some of the highest achievements of African art and culture. The stone, terracotta, brass and copper alloy sculptures on display depict human figures from a wide cross-section of Ife society and provide a fascinating insight into local customs and beliefs. Some of the figures have unusually large heads, for example, in accordance with the belief that the head should be emphasised as the source of spiritual power and destiny.

A highlight of the exhibition is a collection of 15 almost life-size copper-alloy uncrowned heads, which date back to 1200-1400 and were made using the highly complex ‘lost-wax’ casting technique. They were discovered in 1938 and the Ooni (ruler) of Ife at the time, Sir Adesoji Aderemi (1930-80), agreed to send them to the British museum for display in 1947-48. They were thereafter returned to Nigeria where they formed the nucleus of the collections of the National Museum of Ife which opened to the public in 1954. One of the sculptures is a copper mask of the third king of Ife Oblafon II, who ruled in the late 1300s and early 1400s, weighing over 5kg. Slits are carved below the eyes of the mask which may be evidence that it was made to be worn.

Despite the insights into the culture and social and economic organisation of the kingdom of Ife which the exhibition provides, the city-state remains largely a legend. Knowledge about the history of the kingdom is primarily based on oral sources - epic tales, prayers, songs and mythical narratives, which were only recently written down. The true significance of the sculptures is unknown and locked in glass cases they seemed removed and somewhat misunderstood. I left the exhibition frustrated and lacking a deep understanding of the culture and history of Ife. The sculptures reminded me, in many ways, of the ‘curios’ which Europeans brought back from Africa from their very first journeys on the 15th century.


Kingdom of Ife: sculptures from West Africa
March 4th – June 6th
British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 020 7323 8299
http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Images: (Copyright Karin L. Willis/Museum for African Art/Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments)

- Head with elaborate crown, Ife, Ita Yemoo. Terracotta, 12th-14th century

- Torso of a king, Ife Wunmonije, brass, early 14th century

- Oblafon mask, Ife, metal, early 14th century

First Impressions: Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the V&A

by Charlotte Crow,

After seven years in development, the £31.75 million new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum open to the public this Wednesday. A full fanfare deserves to be sounded.

At the press view this morning there was still protective polythene in evidence, altar pieces were being vacuumed and capitals lowered into place atop pillars. But these finishing touches did not detract from the visual and spatial impact of the ten galleries which span 300 AD to 1600. On display are some of the most beautiful works of European art and craftsmanship of the period and although aesthetically the objects speak for themselves, their appreciation is unquestionably enhanced by this creative overhaul.

The architects in charge of the reconfiguration of the original 1909 galleries, MUMA (McInnes Usher McKnight Architects), have also been responsible for the design and this, together with a close curatorial input, helps to explain the successful cohesion of the project. Large-scale architectural pieces, many of which have not been seen for decades or more, are integrated within the gallery scheme; one can take a view from an Italian stone balcony, walk through a vast marble choir screen from the Netherlands and examine from all angles a three-storey wooden spiral staircase from Morlaix in Brittany dating from the 1520s.

The overwhelming impression is of light and breathing space for objects large and small. The design is confident and contemporary without being self conscious or intrusive. I especially liked the onyx window screens in the lower galleries, inspired by medieval alabaster, which delicately filter natural light behind the brilliant stained glass, and the artefact labels of beaten ‘gold-leaf’.

The galleries, which have been funded by £20 million of private donations and a £9.75 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, are arranged broadly chronologically but also thematically, enabling the exhibits to shine a broader light on the times and allowing artefacts from different places to sit alongside each other. The famous enamel Becket Casket, made within twenty years of Becket’s murder in Limoges and believed to have held his relics, is displayed close to a 12th-century church-shaped metalwork and ivory tabernacle from Cologne in the section ‘Faiths and Empires 300-1250’. In ‘Devotion and Display 1300-1500’ religious celebration is explored through works of art commissioned by civic groups as well as by individuals. Here stained glass window panels commissioned by Bishop William of Wykeham for Winchester College c.1393, are shown alongside fragments of Giovanni Pisano’s late 13th-century sculpture of the prophet Haggai, which once graced the façade of Siena cathedral.

There is too much to see in one visit, but this is somewhere I will look forward to returning to linger over the treasures and dig deeper into the layers of interpretation on offer.

Images:

- detail of the Troy tapestry

- the Becket casket

2010 World Monuments Watch: the 93 most endangered heritage sites in the world

by Kathryn Hadley

The 2010 World Monuments Watch was announced this morning, October 7th, in London by World Monuments Fund Britain. The Watch is a list of endangered heritage sites worldwide which is compiled every two years. Sites can be nominated by anyone from individual citizens to conservation professionals. Nominations are then considered by a panel of experts who decide on the final list. Since the programme’s inception, more than 630 sites in 125 countries and territories have been included on the eight Watches.

The 2010 Watch includes 93 sites worldwide, from Afghanistan, to Uganda, Bhutan, Bolivia, the United States, Belgium and Ireland. The oldest monument on the list is 10,000 BC art in a Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa; the most recent is the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library in Atlanta, Georgia, built in the 1970s. Six sites from the British Isles also feature on the 2010 Watch list.

British sites include a group of five graveyards in Edinburgh - Greyfriars Kirkyard, Canongate Kirkyard, St. Cuthberts Kirkyard, Old Calton Burial Ground and New Calton Burial Ground – where Adam Smith and David Hume are notably buried. Dr Jonathan Foyle, Chief Executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, described the sites, this morning, as a ‘repository of the Scottish Enlightenment’, which risks being lost forever if the headstones are left to rot.

Second on the list is Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church in Belfast designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architect W. H. Lynn and completed in 1875, when it was home to one of the largest Methodist congregations in Belfast. The four other sites include the Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo constructed between 1935 and 1937; St John the Evangelist Parish Church in Shobdon, Herefordshire, an example of the mid 18th-century Rococo Gothic style; Russborough in County Wicklow in Ireland, a demesne designed for the First Earl of Milltown in the 1740s; and Sheerness Dockyard on the Isle of Sheppey. The dockyard, as it exists today, was built in 1815; however, its history dates back to Roman times and it continues to be used as a commercial port today.

As each of the sites worldwide on the 2010 Watch, the story of the Sheerness Dockyard is truly fascinating and deserves to be preserved.

In a 1998 article, Paul Wilkinson uncovers some fascinating links between the North Kent coast and a literary epic in Beowulf: New Light on the Dark Ages

Picture:
Sheerness Dockyard

More pictures of some of the other sites worldwide are available on the website of the BBC.

Mapping Medieval Chester Festival

by Kathryn Hadley

A new website devoted to medieval Chester will be launched tomorrow, August 29th, as one of the final stages of the Mapping Medieval Chester project. The project was developed by Swansea University, Queen’s University Belfast and King’s College London in an effort to understand how different communities lived and interacted in Chester between 1200 and 1500AD. It addressed issues of space, place and identity in the town on the border town between England and Wales and explored how writers form various ethnic communities and cultural backgrounds imagined and represented Chester.

The new website features a multi-layered map of Chester at the end of the Middle-Ages and is linked to medieval texts, which are being made accessible to the public for the first time. The texts include De laude Cestrie, a 12th-century description of the city in Latin by Lucian who was probably a monk at St Werburgh monastery, and the Life of St Werburge a verse celebration of Chester and its patron, St Werburgh, written by the monk Henry Bradshaw in approximately 1513.

The Grosvenor Museum has been a partner in the project and has organised a programme of events on August 29th to celebrate the launch of the new website. Highlights at the Grosvenor Museum include a series of readings from medieval texts relating to Chester, a photographic display of medieval sites in Chester and the opportunity to view the museum’s collection of medieval documents.

For further information on the project visit http://www.medievalchester.ac.uk/
For further information on the Mapping Medieval Chester Festival visit http://www.grosvenormuseum.co.uk/

Magna Carta awarded UN status

by Kathryn Hadley

Yesterday, July 30th, the four surviving copies of the 1215 Magna Carta, held by the British Library, Salisbury Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral, were awarded ‘Memory of the World’ status by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Their inscription on the Memory of the World International Register was approved by the Director General of UNESCO, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, following a recommendation by the 14-member International Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme.

The UNESCO Memory of the World International Register is a catalogue of documentary heritage of global significance, similar to a World Heritage Site list for documents and archives. It was created in 1997 and forms an integral part of the Memory of the World Programme, which was established in 1992 to promote the preservation and dissemination of valuable archive and library collections worldwide. Inscriptions to the International Register are made every two years.

Magna Carta is just one of the 35 documents added to the International Register this year, bringing the total number of inscriptions since 1997 to 193. Other additions, this year, include the Diaries of Anne Frank, the League of Nations Archive from 1919 to 1946, the Royal Archives of Madagascar from 1824 to 1897, the Donguibogam, an encyclopaedia of medical knowledge and treatment techniques compiled in Korea in 1613, and the Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux in France inventoried by the Abbot Pierre de Virey in 1472 and which forms one of the largest medieval monastic library collections in western Christendom.

Magna Carta is often described as one of the founding documents of British liberty because it imposed, for the first time, detailed written constraints on royal authority in the fields of church rights, taxation, feudal rights and justice. It also reasserted the power of customary practice to limit unjust and arbitrary behaviour by the king. It is the fourth Memory of the World inscription from the UK, alongside the 1916 documentary and propaganda film The Battle of the Somme (inscribed in 2005), General de Gaulle’s Appeal of 18th June 1940, made in the BBC studios in London (jointly nominated with France and also inscribed in 2005), and the 13th-century Mappa Mundi held at Hereford Cathedral (inscribed in 2007).

Other documents which have previously been granted Memory of the World status include the Bayeux Tapestry and the Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in France, the Gutenberg Bible printed in Gottingen, Germany, the pre-Colombian Codices in Mexico and the Korean Jikji, which contains the essentials of Zen Buddhism and is world’s oldest book printed using metal type.

Phil Spence, Director of Operations and Services at the British Library, described the importance of Magna Carta’s recent inscription on the International Register:

‘Magna Carta is a fundamental document in the history of our nation, and has
international significance for its definition of the rights of the individual.
The declaration that "no free man should be imprisoned without the lawful
judgment of his equals" still has great resonance 800 years after Magna Carta
was first drawn up. The two original copies of Magna Carta are among the British
Library’s most historically evocative, precious and popular treasures.’

Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Master of the Rolls and Chairman of the Magna Carta Trust also welcomed the UNESCO announcement:

‘There are few documents which have had the resonance of the Magna Carta, the
foundation of English law and the first recognition that the people have rights
enshrined in law and that even monarchs’ powers are limited. Following the
signing of the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215, virtually every country in the
world has sooner or later, embraced democracy, recognised human rights and
espoused the rule of law.’

For further information on how and why Magna Carta became a beacon of liberty in Britain and the United States, read our article The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215

Picture: copy of Magna Carta held by the British Library

250,000 medieval soldier service records published online

by Kathryn Hadley

A searchable database containing 250,000 service records of soldiers who saw active duty in the latter phases of the Hundred Years War was published online yesterday, July 20th. The database is part of a research project about soldiers in English royal armies between 1369 and 1453 led by Dr Adrian Bell at the ICMA (International Capital Market Association), Henley Business School, University of Reading, and Professor Anne Curry from the University of Southampton. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Based on the study of historic records such as the proceedings of the Court of Chivalry, muster rolls records in the National Archives at Kew and archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris) researchers have created complex profiles of individual soldiers in what is now considered England’s first professional army. The database notably includes the names of many archers who served with Henry V at Agincourt, details of where individual soldiers fought and for how long, which campaigns they fought in, how much they were paid, who was ill and unable to fight, who was knighted and who advanced in rank as a result of military success.

Thomas, Lord Despencer, began his career in arms in 1385, aged twelve, for example. Thomas Gloucestre, esquire, was a soldier in the English royal army for 43 years. He fought at Agincourt, in Prussia and Jerusalem. Robert de Fishlake enlisted in 1378, aged 16. He participated in John of Gaunt’s military campaign to St Malo in 1378, the Duke of Buckingham’s expedition to Brittany in 1380 and in Richard II’s campaign to Scotland in 1385. He progressed from being an archer to eventually being called a witness, aged 46, by Sir Edward Hastings at a Court of Chivalry.

It is traditionally assumed there was no professional army in England until the early modern period. The later phase of the Hundred Years War from 1369 to 1453 was, however, one of the most highly militarised periods of the medieval era. One of the aims of the project was to determine when a professional soldiery developed and whether or not the soldiers who fought between 1369 and 1453 were part of a professional army. The study ends in 1453 with the loss of Gascony, which marked the end of intensive military activity overseas. The main campaigns of the period were to France, but there were also expeditions to Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Garrisons were also maintained within England, the Channel Islands, Wales and the marches, at Calais and in Gascony. During the 15th century stage of the war, troops were stationed in Normandy and the surrounding regions.

Officially, there existed no standing army in England at the time. Researchers therefore considered as professional soldiers those who saw repeated service or served continuously. In order to determine who those men were, it was thus necessary to compile a database of the soldiers who saw active service between 1369 and 1453 including details such as how long they served for and which campaigns they fought in.

Dr Adrian Bell described some of the sources used to complete the project:

‘The service records survive because the English Exchequer had a very modern
obsession with wanting to be sure that the Government’s money was being spent as
intended. Therefore we have the remarkable survival of indentures for
service detailing the forces to be raised; muster rolls showing this service and
naming every soldier from Duke to Archer; accounts from the captains
demonstrating how the money had been spent; and entries showing when the
Exchequer made the requested payments. It is the survival of the muster roll
evidence that allows us to begin to reconstruct the service of soldiers. This
allows us to look for repeated service in the retinues of particular captains,
and also service alongside a network of colleagues and family members. We can
see that careers in arms regularly lasted over 20 years, and soldiers served
from their teenage years to their 60s and older!’

The completed online database will be formally launched by Dr Adrian Bell and Professor Anne Curry at an international conference entitled England’s Wars, 1272-1399, at the University of Reading tomorrow, Wednesday July 22nd.

A pilot project database is available for searching at http://www.medievalsoldier.org/

For a selection of articles about the Hundred Years War, visit the Hundred Years War section of our Medieval Themes focus page and our military history focus page.
Also, in Why Men Fought in the 100 Years War Anthony Tuck considers the motives that led Englishmen to fight in France during the Hundred Years War.

Picture: the tomb of Sir John Cressy (1407-1445), parish church of Dodford, Northamptonshire (Prof Brian Kemp)

New Project to Catalogue Cambridge University Library’s Incunabula

by Kathryn Hadley

Cambridge University announced, today, the beginning of a new project to catalogue, for the first time, the University Library’s celebrated collection of incunabula, pre-1501 printed books. The term incunabula literally means swaddling-clothes, or cradle, in Latin and was adopted to describe a book printed at an early date, in the first infancy of printing.

Very few records of the Library’s 4,650 treasures are currently in its online catalogue. Records will begin to be catalogued this autumn and, over the next five years, the University Library will produce detailed records for each item, which will be accessible through its Newton Universal Catalogue.

The Library’s incunabula collection notably includes the first printed edition of Homer’s works, produced in Florence in 1488; a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed in Europe from moveable metal type and produced in Mainz in approximately 1455; the first book to contain italic type, printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1500; and several editions of William Caxton, who first introduced the printing press into England in 1476.

Medieval historian and author Professor Miri Rubin, of Queen Mary, University of London, explained the significance of the collection:

‘These earliest printed books were the product of medieval craftsmanship, but they also reflect new - often humanist - trends in learning and reading. Religion and politics, poetry and science are all to be found in these early books. Hence the project will have a major impact by offering new opportunities for scholars and others.’

Some of the books from the collection are decorated with elaborate illustrations, such as the illuminated copy of Dio Chrysostomus, De regno, published in Venice in 1471, and the hand-coloured copy of Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle (Nuremberg, 1493), which illustrates the history of the world up to 1492, in 1,809 woodcuts. Another rare book in the collection is a Book of Hours, printed on vellum by Caxton’s successor, Wynkyn de Worde, which is inscribed by Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s future wife, and her family.

One of the most important gifts to the Library was a collection of 340 books donated by Arthur Young, a retired lawyer and member of Trinity College. He allegedly arrived at the Library in a taxi, one morning in the 1930s, with the books, which he claimed included an old bible. The said bible was a copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Although the project does not involve a complete page-by-page digitisation of the Library’s incunabula, the Gutenberg Bible has been fully digitalised and is available online http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/treasures/incunabula/B42/

Images:

- Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed in Europe from moveable metal type (Mainz, c. 1455)
- Illuminated copy of Dio Chrysostomus, De regno (Venice, 1471)

New Medieval Gallery at the British Museum

by Kathryn Hadley

A new gallery showcasing the museum’s collection of medieval material opened today, March 25th, at the British Museum. By placing the collection in its historical context, the gallery aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the period from 1050 to 1500, from the West to the Byzantine Empire.

Various sections in the gallery explore different themes, including the world of the nobility during the medieval age through a display of artefacts revealing noble pursuits at the time and some of the rituals and protocols surrounding aristocratic amusement. Artefacts on display notably include the celebrated Royal Gold Cup, crafted in Paris between approximately 1370-1380 under the patronage of Jean duc de Berry, and the Lewis chessmen, which date from the 12th century and may constitute one of the few complete surviving medieval chess sets.

A further section devoted to sacred art also illustrates the major devotional developments of the age, from the flourishing of monasteries in the mid-eleventh century to their dissolution in the sixteenth century. A display of icon paintings, ivories, wooden figure carvings and jewellery, combining objects from the Byzantine world with contemporaneous pieces from western Europe, notably explores the concept of iconoclasm and provides and insight into how the divine were represented in two different, but related Christian cultures.

Lastly, another section focuses on the Byzantine Empire and considers the empire's role as a pivotal point on the medieval map and a trading capital and centre of intellectual and artistic ferment. Related displays develop the theme of internationalism and illustrate the vast movement of people and commodities around the medieval world through commerce, pilgrimage and crusade.

The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 0207 323 8299
http://www.thebritishmuseum.org/

Pictures: Shield of Parade, late 15th century, from Flanders or Burgundy; and The Lewis Chessmen, c. 1150-1200, probably made in Norway and found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland (The Trustees of the British Museum)

Two Large-Scale Archive Projects Launched

by Derry Nairn

News today of the launch of two important but contrasting archive projects at Oxford and Essex universities.

A University of Essex led census project is set to create a massive historical research resource which focuses society in Britain for the period 1851-1911. The £1.06m project, is a collaboration between the university’s History Department and the UK Data Archive (UKDA), which is based on campus. It aims to bring together more than 200 million individual records from the censuses for .

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has funded research on the collection, which is the largest of its kind in the world. Professor Kevin Schurer, along with Dr Edward Higgs, is leading the project. Professor Schurer said:

These records contain vast amounts of information on every house, household and individual in the country and are the basis of much of our knowledge of changing social and economic structures over this period. Bringing all the existing computerised versions of these censuses together will completely transform our ability to research this period... This will put British social scientific research at the forefront of international efforts in this field

The project will bring together computerised versions of the censuses that have been created by public and commercial bodies. Once it is complete, it is hoped that researchers from a wide variety of fields will be able to carry out cross-discipline studies of the highest quality. Ultimately, if further funding can be found, the project may lead to the creation of a Victorian Panel Survey.

For more info, see Essex University's website

Meanwhile, over at Oxford University, plans are afoot to have records of the Hundred Years War available to academic researchers and to the general public.

The Gascon Rolls, as the pieces are known, number 113 unpublished manuscripts and cover the years 1317 to 1468. They contain copies of letters, grants and many other documents mostly written in Latin, to be published in English summaries in on-line and printed form. It is expected to take three years to complete the project.

Academics from Oxford are collaborating with the University of Liverpool and King’s College London on the initiative and have been funded almost three-quarters of a million pounds by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The National Archives and The Ranulf Higden Society are also co-operating in the project.

The Hundred Years War is a significant era in British history. It ended after a massive defeat by the French of an English army on a battlefield at Castillon, near Bordeaux. This marked the end of an era, terminating three hundred years of English rule in southwest France and the end of England’s rule as a continental European land power.

Dr Malcolm Vale, of St John’s College Oxford, said:

The history of the old emnity between England and France today still arouses interest and,... parts of the story have not yet been fully told. This research project aims to make available the most important unpublished documentary source for the Hundred Years War, its prelude, course and aftermath so we can arrive at a better understanding of how and why relations between the two countries deteriorated, leading to a century-long conflict.

Plans for the project include an initial translation and summary of the entries on the rolls, followed by editing and publishing and, finally, the production of a full edition (text and translation) of the roll for 1337-38.

Watch this space for more news!

...And in the meantime, feel free to browse this full-length 2006 article on the Hundred Years War:-

Poitiers: High Point of the Hundred Years’ War
Ian Mortimer remembers the English triumph at Poitiers in September 1356, and suggests that this victory was the dramatic culmination of Edward III’s visionary approach to waging war, the consequences of which are still with us today.

Vikings Reassessed

by Kathryn Hadley

As part of the Festival of Ideas organised by Cambridge University from October 22nd to November 2nd, the department for Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies held an open afternoon on Saturday 25th October for primary school children, partly designed to reassess many children’s and popular perceptions of the Vikings as a destructive, warring and barbarous race. The department also published a leaflet explaining this common misinterpretation of much of the Vikings’ history. Academics warn against the dangers of such negative mass perceptions of the Norse invaders, arguing that children and teenagers in particular should be more informed of the positive aspects of their cultural and social impact on Britain. According to Dr Elizabeth Rowe, a Viking expert and lecturer in Scandinavian medieval history at the university:

It's damaging to think that they were simply a violent society, and easy to undermine them as a people who have no redeeming qualities.

Recent research has revealed that the Vikings were not merely a violent and drinking people; they were primarily peaceful, clean, hygienic and artistic. They did not wear horned or winged helmets and were not as hairy or dirty as was commonly imagined. They were fashion conscious and attached considerable importance to their appearance.

Evidence is notably based on the medieval chronicle of John Wallingford, who wrote about the eleventh century and went so far as to complain that the Vikings were too clean. They combed their hair every day, washed every Saturday and regularly changed their clothes. Entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also warn against overemphasising the violence and destructiveness of the Norse warriors. Although it records some battles, it does not do so for every year. Moreover, archeological evidence has challenged the common perception of the Vikings as a warring race. The first burial ground of Viking origin in Britain was discovered just four years ago in Cumbria. The remains of Viking men and women were buried notably with brooches and jewellery as well as with weapons.

Dr Francis Pryor, an archaeologist and regular on the Channel Four series Time Team has thus claimed that:

Far from the illiterate warring thugs in horned helmets who brought us to new depths of barbarism after landing by boat to sack monasteries and molest women, they were a settled and remarkably civilised people who integrated into community life and joined the property-owning classes.