Late Fourteenth Century Research Articles

Þat Ʒet þe wynd & þe weder & þe worlde stynkes: The Sins of Richard II and the Corruption of the Crown

Many writings from late fourteenth century England reflect a popular conception that English society had deteriorated into serious dysfunction. Four literati who discussed this problem are Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, William Langland, and the Gawain Poet. All four agreed that somehow King Richard II bore responsibility for the kingdom’s travails. The writers disagreed vis-à-vis which exact sins the king had committed to cause society to degrade, but all did concur that whatever exact sins the king had engaged in, those sins had damaged the construct of the Crown of England, and thereby the realm.

Cesarean Section and Religious Hierarchies in Fifteenth- Century Europe

In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, Cesarean section, the medical procedure whereby a child is delivered by cutting through the wall of the mother’s abdomen, was an extremely taut subject. More often that not Cesarean sections were performed as acts of desperation to save the child following the mother’s death, and as such, the procedure was embedded in the popular imagination and imbued with symbolic power. While it was promoted by the Catholic Church to save the souls of the infants through baptism, Jewish communities viewed the procedure with wariness due to its perceived unnaturalness. The coupling of divergent religious views on the procedure, a strained religious environment, and changes in the occupational landscape of obstetrics resulted in the utilization of Cesarean section by Christians as a means to demonstrate the corporeal and occupational inferiority of Jews. Mouat uses the Cesarean section as a springboard into the history of the religious tensions and hierarchies that came to define early modern obstretics.

О некоторых особенностях конструкции и покроя хулагуидских, чагатайских и тимуридских пластинчато-нашивных и пластинчато-клепанных доспехов XIV–XV вв.

Introduction. The paper considers body armor patterns with hidden plates worn by warriors of Hulaguid Iran, Chagatai Ulus, and the Timurid Empire. In contemporary weapon studies, such armor is known as ‘kuyak’ or ‘brigandine’. Goals. The study aims at identifying features of design and cut inherent to some types of Hulaguid, Chagatai and Timurid ‘kuyaks’ from the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries. Results. Comparative insights into archaeological and graphic materials yield a hypothesis there may have existed a special variety of combined ‘kuyaks’ with some plates riveted and some sewn to an organic backing on the inside. Such armor garments could have been used by warriors of Hulaguid Iran in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries. From a historical perspective, such armors could be a variation between thirteenth-century armor garments with sewn-in plates and — ‘brigandines’ with riveted-in plates of the subsequent era. Our comprehensive analysis of written and graphic data also concludes that the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Transoxiana, Khorasan and adjacent territories were characterized by a widespread occurrence of special plated-and-riveted armors combining an armored torso part and a long unarmored skirt. The unusual design resulted from the appearance and spread of a new mail-and-plate hip defense element referred to as ‘dyzlyq-butluq’, which made the heavy armored Central Asian skirts not that relevant. In view of the armors’ distribution area, they can be labeled as ‘Timurid-type kuyaks’. Conclusions. The replacement of ‘Timurid-type’ armors (with riveted-in plates) from combat practices of Central Asian peoples was caused by a change in the local military-cultural tradition in the aftermath of collapses of the Timurid states throughout the early sixteenth century.

The rise and fall of the Clann Éinrí Aimhréidh Uí Néill: dynastic feuding and geopolitics in the late medieval Irish Sea world

AbstractDuring the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the Ulster lordship of Tír Eoghain was bitterly contested between two rival branches of the Uí Néill dynasty: the Clann Éinrí Aimhréidh and the Clann Briain Catha an Dúin. Traditionally, historians have focused mainly on the local origins and ramifications of this feud and have paid only cursory attention to how events ranging from the Shannon Estuary through to the Outer Hebrides shaped the course of this struggle. For instance, throughout the later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries a range of different regional players from across this wider ‘Irish Sea world’ became drawn into pulled into this conflict, each possessing a vested interest in the outcome of the Uí Néill successional war. By drawing upon a rich corpus of primary sources, including Irish, Scottish and English material, this article locates the Uí Néill feud within a wider dynastic and geopolitical context. Ultimately, the article argues for the necessity of exploring this feud from within a wider geographic and dynastic framework of interpretation, and paying closer attention to how events within the Irish Sea world could impact and impinge upon the politics of the wider archipelago.

Art and female agency in late Byzantium: three methodological case studies.

This essay employs the anthropological notion of female social agency to analyse a selection of case studies in the art history of the late Byzantine Empire. They concern three women – Nicoletta Grioni, Isabelle de Lusignan, and Maria d'Enghien-Brienne – who lived between the mid- to late fourteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth. All three were part of a Greek-Latin Mediterranean socio-cultural context. While their stories are not fully represented in textual primary sources, the present essay examines a selection of heterogeneous visual and cultural materials that help to reinstate their role in history and overcome the male-logocentric nature of the written evidence related to them.

The Prosecution of Heresy in the Henrician Reformation

ABSTRACT At the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign, the prosecution of heresy was based on three statutes of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Under this system, the Church tried the crime with the assistance of secular authority. Juries presented suspects, whose cases were then transferred to the church courts for determination. In 1532, the Supplication against the Ordinaries challenged the conduct of heresy trials. It invoked common-law principles about due process and standards of proof. Two years later, a new statute modified the system, although less drastically than had been proposed. The royal supremacy and new religious policies changed the context in which heresy was prosecuted. Up until 1539, however, the church courts still determined accusations. Thereafter, in the case of specified heresies, the Act of Six Articles made lay juries responsible for determining guilt or innocence. Commissions under this act combined elements of canon law and common law. These reforms were, however, not seen to have improved the conduct of heresy trials. It proved easier to criticize the traditional method of prosecution than to devise a better one.

Medieval Futures and the Postwork Romance

Abstract: This essay explores speculative resources in the premodern past as displayed in some contemporary anglophone fiction, with a focus on novels by Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood. Among its retrievals, speculative medievalism offers a critical vantage point on ruinous, "neofeudal" futures by fashioning a form of romance narrative centered on workers. The late-fourteenth century English poem Piers Plowman is looked to as a premodern speculative precursor and interlocutor for such versions of the medieval past.

Der Aufstieg der Landsmannschaft aus Elsass-Burgund im preußischen Zweig des Deutschen Ordens im späten 14. Jahrhundert

The rise of the brethren from Alsace-Burgundy in the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in the late 14th century In the late fourteenth century, brethren of the Teutonic Order from Alsace-Burgundy, who had not played any role in the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Orden so far, gained much importance. At the end of 1379, not a single brother from that region had an important administrative function. Eighteen years, however, later they controlled two of six seats of the highest dignitaries, and two offices in the Komtur’s rank and two in the Pfleger’s rank. Key to such a success was – beside personal and professional connections – cooperation with the two Frankish Grand Masters, with the brethren from Swabia and also with one brother from probably Lower Austria. From the very beginning, the most important figures from Alsace-Burgundy were Johann Marschalk von Frohburg, then especially Werner von Tettingen, Konrad von Kyburg and Rudolf von Kyburg.

Следы животных на строительной керамике золотоордынского Солхата

The archaeological researches of the Crimean ulus of the Golden Horde discovered a multitude of finds in the cultural layers from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, particularly building ceramic ware with footprints of animals. Such finds not only reflect the level of development of building technique, but also allow the one to determine the species composition of the fauna in the mediaeval Crimea, to amend the information on the economic and industrial activities of the population of Solkhat in the Golden Horde period. Among the footprints on bricks there are traces of canines (domestic dog and wolf), felines (cat), and artiodactyls (goat). Most of the footprints, 14 specimens, belong to canine animals, cat footprints are documented on four bricks, and only one artefact shows a footprint of goat’s hoof. This statistic is indirectly confirmed by the analysis of osteological materials, with a significant percentage of dogs’ remains and a little less of cats’. Goat’s bones are also rare; small cattle is mostly represented by sheep’s bones, the breeding area of which probably does not coincide with the place where Solkhat building ceramics were produced. The building ceramics with footprints of animals’ paws and hoofs originating from the excavations of the mediaeval settlement of Solkhat is published for the first time.

Banking Law in Italian Legal Consulting between the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth Centuries

Abstract Banking operations in northern and central Italy between late fourteenth and early fifteenth century were very sophisticated and often gave rise to disputes involving the expertise only law professors could provide. To provide solutions which were at the same time viable and grounded in legal culture, lawyers went beyond merely practical considerations to work out legal institutions as a framework to banking activities. In doing so, they developed a proper banking law, a peculiar legal system.

In contrata Arminorum Note sugli Armeni in Crimea e a Tana nel XIV secolo

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongol invasion spread fear from China to France. Yet, over subsequent decades, the threat waned, leading to a need for political and economic rebalancing. The Mongols swiftly conquered Asia and even reached Europe, reshaping the continent’s political landscape and fostering an interconnected trade network. This transformation attracted diverse merchants to new ‘intermediate’ settlements like Tana at the Don River’s mouth. Initially established by the Latins with Mongol Khan’s approval, it became a crucial stop on the ‘Mongol route to China’ in the fourteenth century. Genoese, Venetians, Catalans, Central Asian traders, Mongols, and Armenians settled there. The Armenian community, amidst growing political turbulence, demonstrated integration and sustained commercial activity. This paper explores Tana’s Armenian community in the late fourteenth century amid weakening Mongol power.

Early Palisaded Villages in Southwestern Ontario

Abstract We review the initiation of palisade enclosed village communities in central southwestern Ontario, using data from a series of related early Late Woodland sites that we interpret as showing an east to west settlement sequence. New AMS dates based on samples of carbonized maize provide a revised chronology for the origin of village life, which began in the twelfth century. We show how villages developed alongside community pattern and ceramic attribute trends into the fourteenth-century middle Late Woodland period. A suite of dates from the most westerly site in the sequence on the Norfolk sand plain document the timing of an abrupt change in community pattern during the late fourteenth century.

A new theory of medieval Rus’ terminology for Muslim Tatars: Batunskii’s Russia and Islam

Research Objectives: To examine Mark Batunskii’s theory, articulated in Volume 1 of his history of Russia and Islam, that by calling the Tatars “Pechenegs” and “Polovtsy” the Rus’/Russian sources “Islamized” both the Tatars and their Kyivan predecessors. Research Materials: This article is based upon narrative sources, including chronicles, tales, epics, and saints’ lives, which refer to the Tatars from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Novelty of the Research: No specialists have engaged Batunskii’s theory by analyzing the terminology applied to the Tatars, either Muslim or not, in the medieval sources. Nor has anyone compared the Rus’ application of other terms also applied to Muslims such as “pagan,” “Ishmaelite,” “Hagarene” and “Saracen” to their appearance in Western European sources. Results: Extensive examination of the sources reveals that Rus’/Russian sources carefully identified who was a Muslim (besermen) and who was not. The Pechenegs, Polovtsy and Tatars who invaded Rus’ in the thirteenth century were not. Only sources from the late fourteenth century and later associated Tatars, now Muslims, with Pechenegs and Polovtsy not as adherents of Islam but as nomads who were not Orthodox Christians. This historicist identification had the effect of minimizing Tatar adherence to Islam. Fifteenth and sixteenth-century sources do put more emphasis on the Islamic identity of the Tatars, probably because of the increasing weight placed upon Russian Orthodox Christianity as the hallmark of Muscovy.

The Persian Adaptation of Chandayan: Understanding Intercultural Communication in Medieval India

Chandayan was composed in late fourteenth century by Daud. The text was unique among its contemporaries from the perspective of language, script, and content. It was the first text of Awadhi (Hindwi). The present paper is an attempt to study the reasons behind the composition of such a syncretic text. Who were the people for whom it was composed? Why did it was patronized by the wazir of Delhi Sultan, Khan- i Jahan second? After a brief discussion on the above mentioned questions, the paper will be focused on the Persian adaptation of the story of Chandayan during the seventeenth century. Hamid Kalanauri adapted this story into Persian during the reign of Emperor Jahangir and named it Ismatnama. The study would attempt to bring to light the picture that contemporary sources paint. How did the story got circulated and transmitted to various circles? It would try to seek answers to the following questions. Why did Hamid Kalanauri choose this story? What was the medium of transmission? What was the reason behind its Persian adaptation and how did the story was reimagined for a new audience? The adaptation dismantled the barrier of language and open the text to a wider world. The study would be based on primary evidence, substantiated by secondary literature where required. The texts used for the study are Persian court chronicles, tazkira literature and vernacular sources.

Boven de 50ste breedtegraad.

Before the climate changes of the late 20th century, the northern part of the Low Countries was generally assumed too cold and wet for viticulture. However, there is evidence of medieval vineyards and viticulture, for example in the gardens of several castles and noble residences in Holland and Gelre around 1375. This article explores the position, size and nature of one of those late fourteenth century castle vineyards above the 50th parallel and concludes that the reason for planting those vineyards was the production of verjuice – the sour juice of unripe grapes. An apparent contradiction is thereby resolved: climatic conditions might have prevented serious wine production, but not vineyard planting.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE AUGUSTINIAN FRIARY, CAMBRIDGE

The Augustinian friary in Cambridge, England, was founded in the 1280s and dissolved in 1538. Investigations in 1908–9 and 2016–19 have revealed much of the friary cloister, with evidence for an initial late thirteenth–mid-fourteenth-century phase, a major phase of construction in the mid–late fourteenth century and some fifteenth-century construction. This paper will primarily consider what can be reconstructed of the claustral buildings, complemented by what is known of the rest of the friary site. The friary will also be contextualised in terms of mendicant beliefs and anti-fraternal criticisms.

The Social-Legal Rights and Political Activity of Albanian Women in the Late Middle Ages (Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries)

Abstract This article addresses women's legal status in urban areas in Albania during the late Middle Ages, particularly Shkodra, Durrës, Ulqini, Tivari, and others. The documentary sources of the time reveal the role and importance of women, and shed light on the legal and penal protection of her person, dignity, and honor. In cases of murder, assault, insult, violence, and rape against women, no individual, neither layperson nor clergy, had immunity from prosecution before the law. This article also addresses the political influence of Albanian noblewomen during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, as well as their privileges and rights to emigrate, mainly to the Republic of Venice and southern Italy, after the final Ottoman conquest of Albanian territories.

The Decoration of Manuscript PL-GD Mar. F 406 in the Context of Illumination Art in Fifteenth-Century Gdańsk

This article analyses music manuscript Mar. F 406, originally from the collection of St Mary’s church in the Main Town (Rechtstadt) of Gdańsk, now kept at the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The codex is a compilation of liturgical chants. This article offers the first analytical study of the source undertaken from the perspective of the history of art, with a discussion of the character and quality of the gouache and calligraphic ornaments. These decorations are presented in the wider context of illumination art in fifteenth-century Gdańsk. Stylistic and comparative analyses were supported by non-invasive XRF and IR examination. The physical characteristics of the volume, along with the results of parallel musicological studies (Piotr Ziółkowski and Kamil Watkowski), make it possible to present a new chronology of the manuscript’s compilation, distinguish the individual illuminators’ hands and obtain knowledge of the techniques and practice of the scriptorium in Gdańsk. The codex is thus shown to have received its present-day form in the mid-fifteenth century. It is partly an original work from that period (by two Gdańsk-based copyists), and partly a compilation of older fragments (from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century). It was bound in Gdańsk by the elder Dragon Bookbinder (älterer Drachenbuchbinder). The first scribe-illuminator was a representative of the Gdańsk environment trained according to Bohemian models. The last three gatherings (VIII–X) remained blank until the early sixteenth century, when more chants were added by a team of copyists. The decoration in this section is the work of a single illuminator, who drew on old thirteenth-century models, as well as calligraphic patterns used in the decoration of incunabula. This section can be dated to the turn of the sixteenth century; the work of this illuminator has analogies in other Gdańsk books from the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The source constitutes a valuable example of a manuscript’s intense, long-term liturgical use. Its analysis demonstrates the need for a comprehensive study of the Gdańsk scriptorium in the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century (including illuminating and bookbinding techniques).

The Structure and Exercise of Power in Moray under Thomas Randolph, First Earl of Moray, 1312–32

Political and social circumstances in fourteenth-century northern Scotland and the central Highlands have long received attention in late medieval Scottish history. However, compared with many studies on the late fourteenth century, discussions on the first half of the century are scarce, except from the perspectives of kingship and regnal politics. There has been little research on Moray under the Randolph family, though detailed examinations of other northern regions and baronial families have been made. In this article the structure and exercise of power in Moray under the first earl, Thomas Randolph is discussed. This paper demonstrates that the earl’s building ties with influential local families and utilising the pre-existing informal political network and formal royal administrative systems, were as crucial for the governance of his northern estates as acquiring proxy-royal, regalian, and judicial power. Indeed, the earl took the opportunity to reinforce his rule by migrating his southern followers and expressing his authority in a unique fashion. However, due to his dependence on the pre-existing power networks and structure, the local political society kept its continuity too. Moray under Thomas I was never free from disputes, but the relatively stable regional situation was the product of such continuity and change.

Kumlbúa þáttr, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

<i>Kumlbúa þáttr</i>, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland