The politics of being Norman in the reign of Richard the Fearless,Duke of Normandy (r. 942–996)

In 966, by the end of the reign of its third duke, Richard I, Normandy had overcome the crises that had beset it in the middle of the century. Much of this success came from the coherence of its ruling group, which expressed itself partly in terms of ‘Norman’ identity. This article uses Dudo's history of the dukes and Richard's charters to argue that ‘Norman’ as a political identity was a deliberate creation of the court of Richard I in the 960s, following the perceived failure of his and his father's policies of assimilation into Frankish culture.     

Gendered Violence: Castration and Blinding as Punishment for Treason in Normandy and Anglo‐Norman England

The use of castration as a punishment for treason and other forms of misdemeanour was a specific trait of the Norman realms of medieval Europe. In the post‐Carolingian kingdoms of France, Germany and Italy, it was rarely practised and only known as a punishment for sexual crimes. In Scandinavia, Normandy, Anglo‐Norman England and Norman Sicily, however, blinding and castration were regarded as an appropriate equivalent of the death penalty. The particular emphasis on masculinity implied in the Norman construction of noble honour, rendered the Norman warrior's body particularly vulnerable. Since his testicles were regarded as the prerequisite of his social existence, they became a legitimate point of attack whenever the ruler felt betrayed and decided to use force against his enemies. This gendered violence constituted a constantly renewed frame of reference, which defined political power as male and reinforced the notion that authority required a fully functional masculine body.     

The Norman Conquest of the classical past: William of Poitiers,language and history

William of Poitiers' Gesta Guillelmi, written shortly after the Norman Conquest of England, remains surprisingly neglected, especially by historians. He is generally regarded primarily as a classical stylist who employed classical references to decorate his panegyric of William of Normandy. Poitiers' use of classical allusion was, however, far from superficial. In arguing for William’s legitimacy as king of England, Poitiers addresses a wider audience than is generally acknowledged, and appeals directly to the fears, expectations and values of his day. The article examines his three most sustained allusions to classical heroes of naval enterprises and conquest – Caesar, Aeneas and Theseus – as key components of the memory of the Norman Conquest, demonstrating that each allusion makes a specific moral and political point. Poitiers is a case study for medieval authorial ingenuity in applying classicism to the problems of the present.     

Henry II,liturgical patronage and the birth of the ‘Romano‐German Pontifical’

Variously acclaimed as coepiscopus, saint and Mönchskönig, Henry II of Germany has always had a reputation as a quasi‐religious figure. This article goes a step further, appending to his résumé the creation of the wildly successful liturgical tradition known as the ‘Romano‐German Pontifical’. Formerly dated to the tenth century, its major ordines are here argued to have been cultivated in royal circles in the years 1002–9, before being compiled for the first time as a gift for the new Bamberg Cathedral. The tradition is shown to reflect the king’s concerns, scholarly, political and confessional, as well as projecting an idealistic, Bamberg‐esque notion of Romano‐German unity.     

Origin Narratives and the Making of Dynastic History in al‐Dīnawarī's Akhbār

This article takes the reader on a journey into the historical writing of the ninth century Muslim historian al‐Dīnawarī (d. 895) and examines the motives behind composing his al‐Akhbār al‐?iwāl. The themes and narrative arrangements of this work give insight into al‐Dīnawarī's historical agenda that demonstrates his interest in royal histories that exemplify the rise and fall of nations, dynasties, and powerful rulers. Al‐Dīnawarī's emphasis on specific episodes and events demonstrates that only certain ethnic groups whose political legitimacy derives from a respectable and prominent origin can bring about political and social stability. By dealing with these sociopolitical concerns, this article also sheds new light on the intellectual discourses and political crises that dominated Islamic society during the eighth and ninth centuries and the way al‐Dīnawarī reacted to these challenges.     

French Decorative Ceramics Mass‐Produced During and After the 17th Century: Chemical Analyses of the Glazes

Chemical analyses of a group of Pb silicate–glazed decorative objets d'art showing scenes of the French royal family (Louis XIII and Henri IV), and biblical and classical figures, have been analysed and compared with other similar heritage ceramics and with the rustiques figulines of Bernard Palissy (1510–90) and his followers and imitators. In particular, non‐destructive ion‐beam chemical analyses (PIXE and PIGE) have been performed on 11 ceramic artefacts from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and a like number from several French museums; results for 13 objects are described in detail in this paper. SEM–EDX has been performed on chips (‘microsamples’) taken from small unobtrusive defective regions on the CMA ceramics. The results of the ion‐beam and SEM–EDX techniques are in good agreement. All the decorative ceramics included uniform non‐opacified glazes. None of these objects can be of 16th century production; all must date from the 17th to the 19th centuries.     

Dynasty and diaspora in the Latin East: the case of the Sourdevals

Though primarily a pious exercise, the First Crusade formed part of a broader medieval ‘aristocratic diaspora’ – a movement often attributed to those from Normandy – and offered enterprising figures the chance of a new life in the East. This article examines how one such figure, the Italo-Norman Robert of Sourdeval, whose wider kinship group was also found throughout the Anglo-Norman world, forged a career in the newly formed Crusader States. It outlines how his descendants continued, and built upon, Robert’s foundations, securing influence in the Latin East during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by demonstrating an impressive ability to cross political divides, forge political relationships, and use periods of turmoil to their advantage. Through this family, therefore, important insights can be gained into the dynastic strategies deployed by crusading nobles seeking to forge positions of power, but also, more broadly, into the nature of the so-called Norman diaspora.     

Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting,St. Alban’s, 1869

A round-headed window in the cathedral close at Winchester, drawn by John Aubrey on or before March 1669 for his Chronologia architectonica, may belong to a hitherto unidentified structure shown by John Speed on his Map of Winchester of 1611. The location suggests that this structure and hence the window may have been part of the royal palace built in the centre of Winchester by William the Conqueror by about 1069–70, said by Gerald the Welshman, writing about 1198, to have been second to the palace in London ‘in neither quality nor scale’     

Family and influence to the south of Normandy in the eleventh century: the lordship of Bellême

The Bellême family were among the most important of the new families to emerge in the unsettled conditions of northern France in the tenth century. They illustrate well the manner in which those families extended their influence at the expense of declining central authorities. The nature of their relations with their overlords, the counts of Maine and the dukes of Normandy, is examined and a new chronology proposed for the complex divisions of estates among the family. It is suggested that family quarrels of the 1040s and 1050s seriously weakened their position and that the lordship was easily dominated by Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou, the most powerful figure in mid-eleventh century northern France. A reversal is traced in the pro-Angevin sympathies of Bishop No of Sées, the last surviving male member of the family, after the failure of the coalition of Angevins and Capetians against the duke of Normandy in 1054. However, it was not until the estates of the family were eventually reunited in 1071 on the succession of Ivo's niece, Mabel, and her Norman husband, that the lordship came completely under the influence of the ascendant Normandy.     

. . . in die festivitatis: gift‐giving,power and the calendar in the Carolingian kingdoms*

The reckoning of time and the composing of calendars became an important part of cultural practice in the early Middle Ages. This paper asks how important were works on the reckoning of time for those who used the calendar in everyday life. It considers whether monks and scholars may have influenced royal officials in the reckoning of time. The social symbolism of calendric knowledge is also examined in the context of gift‐giving and exchange that permeated Frankish society. Representations and uses of time reckoning are actually seen to be similar in the royal court and local contexts, but were rather different from what some scholars have imagined.     

Kinship and identity in eleventh-century Normandy: the case of Hugh de Grandmesnil,c. 1040–1098

Hugh de Grandmesnil was one of the co-founders of the Norman monastery of Saint-Evroult. It was no doubt his part in this foundation that led Orderic Vitalis, a monk of that house, to provide an account of Hugh's career in his Historia ecclesiastica. The information found there provides an almost unique opportunity to observe an individual of the eleventh century in the context of nearly all of his family connections. This article uses that evidence first to examine Hugh's relationships with his kinsmen and to ask whether they acted together so as to form, in Sir James Holt's words, a ‘mutual benefit society’, and secondly to consider the extent to which Hugh's identity was defined by his relations with his kinsmen. The findings of this inquiry reveal, amongst other things, that the importance of Hugh's relationships with his kinsmen varied over the course of Hugh's career, and that the pool of kinsmen, friends, and allies to whom Hugh could turn in time of need was equally fluid. Hugh's career therefore stands as a corrective to frequently held assumptions that the relationships forged by kinship and marriage between members of the secular elite of eleventh-century Normandy remained stable throughout an individual's life.     

British hospitality for an unfortunate prince: the Duc de Bordeaux's visit to Britain as an early test of the entente cordiale, 1843–4

In the summer of 1843, Anglo-French relations thawed in the wake of the British and French royal families' meeting at the Château d'Eu in Normandy. Members of both governments began to speak of the good understanding, or entente cordiale, between them, and much of the existing historiography points out that by 1844, what proved to be a fragile arrangement was under some pressure. However, mere months after the Eu visit, another royal visit threatened the entente, that of King Louis Philippe's exiled great-nephew, the Bourbon pretender Henri, Duc de Bordeaux (later known as the Comte de Chambord), to Britain. Owing to Britain's tradition of allowing entry to foreigners, Bordeaux was able to enter Britain freely, whilst the British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen, argued that his visit would have little political consequence. Rather, Bordeaux and his suite intended to make political demonstrations. These activities and Aberdeen's willingness to believe professions to the contrary deeply offended the French government. Aberdeen was eventually forced to admonish Bordeaux and his suite. Although the dispute was amicably resolved, it almost fatally undermined the entente soon after its inception.     

A Royal Boat Burial and Watercraft Tableau of Egypt's 12th Dynasty (c.1850 BCE) at South Abydos

Excavations at Abydos, Egypt, during 2014–2016 have revealed the remains of a boat burial dating to the reign of Senwosret III (c.1850 BCE). The boat burial occurred inside a specially prepared, subterranean vaulted building. Surviving elements of planking appear to derive from a nearly 20 m‐long boat that was buried intact but later dismantled for reuse of the wood. The vessel may belong to a group of royal funerary boats associated with the nearby tomb of Senwosret III. Incised on to the interior walls of the boat building is an extensive tableau including 120 surviving drawings of pharaonic watercraft. A unique deposit of pottery vessels was found associated with the ceremonial burial of this royal boat.     

The Marriage Well at Teltown: holy well ritual at royal cult sites and the rite of temporary marriage

This article discusses Lag an Aonaigh, the ‘Marriage Well’ of Teltown, and the unusual temporary marriage ritual that once took place there during the annual Lughnasa festival. The relationship of Lag an Aonaigh to the modern and ancient fairs (aonach and óenach), and to the broader cult of holy wells is considered, which it is suggested largely represents the local adoption of the Mediterranean healing-spring cult. The article investigates the possibility that this marriage rite was informed by lore of a divine wedding at Teltown, and by the inaugurations carried out at many royal centres that entailed the matrimonial symbolism of the king marrying the Goddess of the land. The relationship of this site to the broader landscape of Teltown, especially to the nearby Knockans linear earthwork is explored. This relationship is then used to analyse the landscapes of the other main ‘royal’ sites, where linear earthworks similar to the Knockans that terminate near springs or ponds are also found. It is considered that all of these earthworks may have been used in ritual processions involving the springs, or even as devices to segregate young men and women at these assemblies, and lead them to the spring to start their own ‘Teltown weddings’.     

The Irish question and the concept ‘identity’ in the 1980s1

ABSTRACT. This article critically investigates the social construction of ‘identity talk’ in relation to the Irish Question in the 1980s. Our contention is that the utilisation of ‘identity’ imagined people as bounded groups in a particular way – as the two traditions or communities in Northern Ireland – and that this way of imagining people was deployed against ‘will’‐based conceptions of politics. The first part of the article places the emergence of ‘identity’ as a concept in its historical context and suggests four phases in the use of ‘identity’. The second part focuses on ‘identity’ as a concept and locates its emergence within the meta‐conflict regarding Northern Ireland. The article concludes by reflecting on Brubaker and Cooper's (2000) analysis of ‘identity’ as a category of analysis in light of our case study of ‘identity’ as a category of practice regarding the Irish Question.     

‘Queen’s Day – TV’s Day’: the British monarchy and the media industries

In contemporary British history, Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 is typically imagined and narrated as the moment where television was anchored as a national cultural form. In addition, it is well documented by commentators and scholars that during preparation for the coronation, politicians and the palace had reservations that live television might fracture the carefully constructed mystique of monarchy. This article revisits the coronation to consider why and how television was perceived as a watershed moment for both monarchy and television, and what difference this has made to royal representations since. Using the work of Michael Warner, it argues that the mediated intimacies facilitated by television as a new cultural form encouraged viewers to enact participatory and active processes of spectatorship as royal ‘publics’, who are brought into being through being addressed. That is, it was the act of emphasising the centrality of television’s role in the coronation, and in reinforcing the apparent distance between monarchy and (popular) media, that these ‘meanings’ of the coronation were constructed in the public and historical imaginary.     

An Umm an‐Nar‐type compartmented soft‐stone vessel from Gonur Depe,Turkmenistan

Recent excavations by V.I. Sarianidi in the so‐called ‘royal necropolis’ of Gonur Depe North, in southern Turkmenistan, have brought to light the first unequivocal example of an Umm an‐Nar‐type soft‐stone compartmented vessel ever found in Central Asia. The find is discussed in light of other evidence of links between Central Asia, south‐eastern Arabia and Bahrain.     

‘Halt! Be Men!’: Sikelgaita of Salerno,Gender and the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy

This article examines the career of Sikelgaita (1040–1090), wife of the Norman conqueror of southern Italy, Robert Guiscard, as a means of understanding the impact of the ‘other’ Norman conquest of the eleventh century. Sikelgaita is unusual in that she has left images in narrative sources both within and well beyond the confines of southern Italy. She is also well documented at a local level. Both types of material combine to reveal her crossing gender boundaries in titles she used, the way in which she managed property, her legendary presence alongside Robert on his campaigns and, more speculatively, in organising a campaign of written propaganda to ensure the succession of her son to his father's patrimony in preference to his half‐brother by Sikelgaita's predecessor as Robert's wife. Her history raises the problems of women's access to written texts, their conscious shaping of their own identities, their conflicting loyalties between natal and marital families, and the need for competing male heirs to prove themselves against a prevailing notion of masculinity in a period when one aggressively masculine group, the Lombards, was being supplanted in power by another, the Normans. As such, it demonstrates that the lives of so‐called ‘exceptional’ women continue to have a value to historians of gender in the middle ages, and can often demonstrate the patriarchal boundaries which even they could not cross.     

The Khat ban in the UK: What about the ‘scientific’ evidence? (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Since the 1920s certain psychoactive substances have been controlled by specially created international agencies. More recently, governments have committed themselves to using evidence in policy‐making. Yet, as the ban on khat in the UK and other countries shows, the assessment process is a perfunctory rather than a decisive component. The Home Secretary set aside scientific advice and bases the decision to ban on considerations outside the health risk ratio, including crime control and counter‐terrorism. However, experience shows that prohibiting substances when demand remains strong is inherently criminogenic. Indeed, the khat ban would appear to play into the hands of radical Islamist organizations. In this article, Axel Klein discusses how political calculations overrule evidence and how this is facilitated by international drug control agencies. Using the term ‘social system’ to explain the relentless extension of bureaucratic remit, he argues that control would now appear inevitable for any substance defined as a drug, regardless of evidence and consequence. As this has implications for other culture‐bound peculiar substances or ‘genussmittel’ he suggests ditching the term ‘drug’ altogether.