This is the second collection of studies by Stephen D. White to be published by Variorum, the first being Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France. The essays in this volume look principally at France and England from Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon times up to the 12th century. They call into question the conventional practice of studying kinship and feudalism as independent systems of legal institutions and propose new strategies for examining them.

This is the second collection of studies by Stephen D. White to be published by Variorum (the first being Feuding and Peace-Making in Eleventh-Century France). The essays in this volume look principally at France and England from Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon times up to the 12th century. They analyze Latin and Old French discourses that medieval nobles used to construct their relationships with kin, lords, men, and friends, and investigate the political dimensions of such relationships with particular reference to patronage/clientage, the use of land as an item of exchange, and feuding. In so doing, the essays call into question the conventional practice of studying kinship and feudalism as independent systems of legal institutions and propose new strategies for studying them.

Explores how classical ideals of generosity influenced the writing and practice of gift giving in medieval Europe.

A full and provocative reappraisal of the Bayeux "Tapestry", its origins, design and patronage. Aspects of the Bayeux Tapestry (in fact an embroidered hanging) have always remained mysterious, despite much scholarly investigation, not least its design and patron. Here, in the first full-length interdisciplinary approach to the subject, the authors (an art historian and a historian) consider these and other issues. Rejecting the prevalent view that it was commissioned by Odo, the bishop of Bayeux and half-brother of William the Conqueror, or by some other comparable patron, they bring new evidence to bear on the question of its relationship to the abbey of St Augustine's, Canterbury. From the study of art-historical, archeological, literary, historical and documentary materials, they conclude that the monks of St Augustine's designed the hanging for display in their abbey church to tell their own story of how England was invaded and conquered in 1066. Elizabeth Carson Pastan is a Professor of Art History at Emory University; Stephen D. White is Asa G. Candler Professor of Medieval History (emeritus), Emory University, and an Honorary Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of St Andrews.

What meaning did human kinship possess in a world regulated by Biblical time, committed to the primacy of spiritual relationships, and bound by the sinews of divine love? In the process of exploring this question, Hans Hummer offers a searching re-examination of kinship in Europe between late Roman times and the high middle ages, the period bridging Europe's primitive past and its modern future. Visions of Kinship in Medieval Europe critiques the modernist and Western bio-genealogical and functionalist assumptions that have shaped kinship studies since their inception in the nineteenth century, when Biblical time collapsed and kinship became a signifier of the essential secularity of history and a method for conceptualizing a deep prehistory guided by autogenous human impulses. Hummer argues that this understanding of kinship is fundamentally antagonistic to medieval sentiments and is responsible for the frustrations researchers have encountered as they have tried to identify the famously elusive kin groups of medieval Europe. He delineates an alternative ethnographic approach inspired by recent anthropological work that privileges indigenous expressions of kinship and the interpretive potential of native ontologies. This study reveals that kinship in the middle ages was not biological, primitive, or a regulator of social mechanisms; nor was it traceable by bio-genealogical connections. In the Middle Ages, kinship signified a sociality that flowed from convictions about the divine source of all things and which wove together families, institutions, and divinities into an expansive eschatological vision animated by 'the most righteous principle of love'.

Dominique Barthélemy presents a sharply revisionist account of the history of France around the year 1000, challenging the traditional view that France underwent a kind of revolution at the millennium which ushered in feudalism.

The centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire saw extraordinary change across Western Europe - in institutions, social structure, rural and urban life, religion, learning, scholarship and art. This innovative textbook provides students coming to the study of Early Medieval Europe for the first time with the conceptual and methodological tools to investigate the period for themselves. It identifies major research questions and historiographical debates and offers guidance on how to engage with and evaluate the major documentary sources and the evidence of art history and archaeology. Ideally structured to support courses and classes in Medieval European history, the book's features include: Over 50 carefully selected maps and illustrations accompanied by explanatory commentary Detailed guidance on further reading with research questions to aid understanding Timelines and maps to orientate the reader in each chapter An extensive companion website providing practical study guidance, reference materials and access to further primary sources Offering a road map to the rich written and non-written sources for this period, and the exciting recent scholarship, this book is an essential guide for any student wishing to gain a deeper level of understanding and greater confidence in creative and independent historical thought.