ENGL 213: Inventing [the] English (HC)

Introduces a wide range of materials that constitute the culture, or cultures, of medieval England, across fields including political and legal history, archaeology, social history, art history, religion and the history of education. Above all it looks at the literature of medieval England in Latin, French and English, plus post-medieval perspectives on the 'Middle Ages'.

From the departure of the Roman legions, to the battle of Lavishly illustrated with over a hundred pictures--including twenty-four pages of color plates--this attractive volume brings together leading scholars who illuminate the history and culture of medieval England.

This seminal work of scholarship, which traces the development of literacy in medieval England, is now fully updated in a third edition. Includes a revised guide to further reading and a revision of the plates which illustrate medieval manuscripts in detail

Christopher Tyerman offers the first book-length study of the role of England in the Crusades. Focusing on the courtroom and council chamber rather than the battlefield, he demonstrates the impact of the Crusades on the political and economic functions of English society. Drawing on a wide range of archival, chronicle, and literary evidence, Tyerman brings to life the royal personalities, foreign policy, political intrigue, taxation and fundraising, and the crusading ethos that gripped England for hundreds of years.

The widespread view that 'mystical' activity in the Middle Ages was a rarefied enterprise of a privileged spiritual elite has led to isolation of the medieval 'mystics' into a separate, narrowly defined category. Taking the opposite view, this 2011 book shows how individual mystical experience, such as those recorded by Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, is rooted in, nourished and framed by the richly distinctive spiritual contexts of the period.