Medieval History
Until the second world war, most British medieval historians avoided cultural history, remaining more concerned with the church, government or the law; institutions and politics. Except for the literate pious, what might have made medieval people tick was treated as self-evident, immaterial or unknowable. In the subsequent revolution of approaches, Maurice Keen, who has died aged 78, played a seminal role, even if his unshakable modesty would probably have denied it.
His major book, Chivalry (1984), which won the Wolfson prize that year, remains one of the great works of history in English of the past 70 years, comparable with such landmarks as his old tutor Richard Southern's The Making of the Middle Ages or Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity. After Chivalry, no one could look at Keen's subject, the knightly life, unaffected by his comprehensive and nuanced exposition of the nature and significance of the culture of those who ruled western Europe for half a millennium.
Keen demonstrated that chivalry existed as a serious feature of medieval politics, religion, nobility and society, not an exotic distraction. Using a vast array of literary, visual, legal, academic and archival evidence, he dismantled the then prevalent view associated with the Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga that chivalry was a decadent expression of the waning of the middle ages.
Click here to read this article from The Guardian
See also: The Telegraph's obituary of Maurice Keen
See also: Maurice H. Keen Dies at 78; Redefined Chivalry, from The New York Times
- St Bride's Bay Grave Remains Recorded By Archaeologists
Archaeologists are excavating early medieval remains from a cemetery before they are washed away by the sea. It is known the site at St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire contains graves that date back to the 9th and 10th Centuries. The graves are close...
- A Knight?s Tale In Warwick
The chivalry and splendour of a bygone era is being brought vividly to life in a new exhibition in the heart of Warwick. Warwickshire Museum in Market Place is hosting ?Distant Voices? A dramatic exhibition of paintings by Leamington-based artist Noreen...
- The Nobility Of Western France: Anjou And Its Neighbors
Seigneurie:the Group for the Study of the Nobility, Lordship, and Chivalry invites submissions for it's session at Kalamazoo 2012 on The Nobility of Western France: Anjou and its neighbors Please send submissions to : Sarah Delinger ...
- Shifting Frontiers
Call For Papers Deadline: November 15, 2010 The Society for Late Antiquity announces the Ninth Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Penn State University (University Park) from June 23-26, 2011. The conference will...
- Cfp: Shifting Frontiers
> Call For Papers > > Deadline:November 15, 2010 > > The Society for Late Antiquity announces the Ninth Biennial > Conference on Shifting > Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Penn State University > (University Park) > June 23-26, 2011. The conference...
Medieval History
Maurice Keen, historian (1933-2012)
Until the second world war, most British medieval historians avoided cultural history, remaining more concerned with the church, government or the law; institutions and politics. Except for the literate pious, what might have made medieval people tick was treated as self-evident, immaterial or unknowable. In the subsequent revolution of approaches, Maurice Keen, who has died aged 78, played a seminal role, even if his unshakable modesty would probably have denied it.
His major book, Chivalry (1984), which won the Wolfson prize that year, remains one of the great works of history in English of the past 70 years, comparable with such landmarks as his old tutor Richard Southern's The Making of the Middle Ages or Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity. After Chivalry, no one could look at Keen's subject, the knightly life, unaffected by his comprehensive and nuanced exposition of the nature and significance of the culture of those who ruled western Europe for half a millennium.
Keen demonstrated that chivalry existed as a serious feature of medieval politics, religion, nobility and society, not an exotic distraction. Using a vast array of literary, visual, legal, academic and archival evidence, he dismantled the then prevalent view associated with the Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga that chivalry was a decadent expression of the waning of the middle ages.
Click here to read this article from The Guardian
See also: The Telegraph's obituary of Maurice Keen
See also: Maurice H. Keen Dies at 78; Redefined Chivalry, from The New York Times
- St Bride's Bay Grave Remains Recorded By Archaeologists
Archaeologists are excavating early medieval remains from a cemetery before they are washed away by the sea. It is known the site at St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire contains graves that date back to the 9th and 10th Centuries. The graves are close...
- A Knight?s Tale In Warwick
The chivalry and splendour of a bygone era is being brought vividly to life in a new exhibition in the heart of Warwick. Warwickshire Museum in Market Place is hosting ?Distant Voices? A dramatic exhibition of paintings by Leamington-based artist Noreen...
- The Nobility Of Western France: Anjou And Its Neighbors
Seigneurie:the Group for the Study of the Nobility, Lordship, and Chivalry invites submissions for it's session at Kalamazoo 2012 on The Nobility of Western France: Anjou and its neighbors Please send submissions to : Sarah Delinger ...
- Shifting Frontiers
Call For Papers Deadline: November 15, 2010 The Society for Late Antiquity announces the Ninth Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Penn State University (University Park) from June 23-26, 2011. The conference will...
- Cfp: Shifting Frontiers
> Call For Papers > > Deadline:November 15, 2010 > > The Society for Late Antiquity announces the Ninth Biennial > Conference on Shifting > Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Penn State University > (University Park) > June 23-26, 2011. The conference...