Medieval

Brent Shaw offers a reassessment of the women martyrs and heroines whose activities on behalf of the faith provoked unsettled admiration from the church fathers.

An absurd procession of chivalry or mad mass charges? Analysis of fighting in the Middle Ages has become more subtle than either of these scenarios, argues Sean McGlynn.

Anthony Pollard explains how the rivalry of two great Northern families contributed to civil war in fifteenth-century England.

Vivian Nutton reviews

Every commune had to have one - Diana Webb explains how the cult of a holy man or woman and civic PR went hand-in-hand in medieval Italy.

What made medieval monks laugh? Edward Coleman looks at humour, holy men and the sub-texts of comment in 12th-century England.

Kings knight knights, but who knights kings? Peter Linehan looks at how Alfonso XI got round the problem and in the process strengthened his hold on his kingdom.

Michael Antonucci discerns Byzantine origins in today's international power politics.

Nigel Saul looks at the two-way traffic between medieval Britain and the Continent