I became fascinated by the history of the period from 900 to 1250 as an undergraduate at the University of Exeter where I was supervised for a doctorate by Professor Frank Barlow. The subject of my thesis was Odo, bishop of Bayeux (1049/50-1097), a biography that introduced me to a multitude of subjects. That time stimulated a fascination with France and with the place of English history, British history, and the history of the Normans in a European context, as well as an interest in biography and individual lives.
By David Bates
My interest in William began when almost fifty years ago when I discovered that there were many unknown or scarcely known charters. So, it all started from an awareness that there was a lot that people did not know. Writing the book took all this into account, but it also raised serious issues for me about how to place in context culturally and morally. I always think about the words on page 513: "William’s life is ultimately a parable on the eternal moral conundrum of the legitimacy of violence used to achieve what its perpetrators believed to be a justifiable end."
The book has been translated into French and Chinese.
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By Marc Bloch
An English translation of a book published in French in 1940 (La société féodale). One of the truly great books on medieval society, it brought the richness and diversity of the Middle Ages alive for me in ways that have stayed with me throughout my career as a scholar and author. It also introduced me to History as written in France, again something that has always inspired me.
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By John Le Patourel
Like Marc Bloch’s book, this helped me to grasp how to take an international perspective on the history of the central Middle Ages. In this case, its central theme was that we must think about Normandy and England as politically, socially, and economically joined together after 1066. It has inspired a lot that I have written and my teaching to students. See my The Normans and Empire for personal reflections.
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By Janet L. Nelson
A magnificent biography that vividly brings alive the life and personality of one of the great figures of European history, one whose legacy is still with us. Charlemagne’s creation of an empire roughly equivalent in size to the modern EU is explored with wonderful insight. We see in him the energy and skill that enabled him to project power, making himself both trusted and feared. It makes us think about the ultimate contradictions of empire as a phenomenon, the mix of savage violence and the accompanying proclaimed civilizing mission that organized and shaped peace.
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By Elisabeth Van Houts
A marvellous book that explores the experience for men and women of being married during the Christian Middle Ages. It presents us with an analysis of individual lives and is a social history, a gender history, an emotional history, a sexual history, and much else besides. Among the many subjects treated are female agency within marriage, the extent to which it was possible to choose a married partner, and the history and personal experience of married clergy when such marriages were forbidden.
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By John Gillingham
This is a remarkable collection of essays by a scholar who, along with the likes of Rees Davies, Robert Bartlett, Ian Short, and Hugh Thomas, has brought about a revolution in the way we think about the English people and their identities during what we should call the long twelfth century. The consequences for the way in which we think about British history and the place of the British Isles within continental Europe have been profound. The debates continue!
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