567 research outputs found
Myths and reality: the Crusades and the Latin East as presented during the Trial of the Templars in the British Isles, 1308–1311
No full textHelen Nicholson uses testimonies given during the trial of the Templars in the British Isles to explore what the people of Britain and Ireland actually knew about the Holy Land during the early years of the fourteenth century. Having discussed the problems of using such testimony evidence, she shows that there was a certain level of travel from Ireland to the eastern Mediterranean, and argues that some of those who spoke against the Templars did have a personal interest in the situation in the Middle East
“The Real Da Vinci Code”: The accounts of Templars’ estates in England and Wales during the suppression of the Order
No full textMost readers will be familiar with at least the title of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. In the novel, a cryptic code holds the key to valuable knowledge held by the Templars that has been hidden from the world for centuries. Likewise in this paper Nicholson and Slavin discuss valuable information about the Templars that has been effectively concealed within the documents drawn up at the time of the Templars’ arrests in Britain and Ireland and during the proceedings against the Templars. This valuable information comprises data revealing the extent of the Templars’ estates and their moveable and immoveable property at the time of the arrests and at intervals thereafter, and the income and expenditure of those estates during the time that they were administered by the English king’s officials. The data were recorded by royal officials and are preserved in the National Archives of the UK in Kew, but these records’ heavily abbreviated state and sometimes poor state of preservation renders them effectively unintelligible to the majority of readers: hence they are effectively encoded. In this paper, the authors explain how these documents were produced, summarise the information that they contain, and then present a detailed analysis of some of the data within them.
This paper is founded in Nicholson and Slavin's planned research project into the Templars’ properties in England and Wales. The goal of this research is to publish the records for England and Wales (the records from Ireland were published in 1967), to make them available to all scholars with an interest in medieval estate records; but with the particular intention of establishing exactly how wealthy or poverty-stricken the Templars in Britain were in 1308, and what property the Hospitallers actually inherited here in 1313
Love in a hot climate: Gender relations in 'Florent et Octavien'
No full textIn her exploration of the role of personal relationships in transgressing religious and linguistic boundaries, Nicholson echoes the point made by Ailes (in the previous chapter) that language is both reflexive and constitutive of society and culture. In 'Florent et Octavien', the exotic locations in which much of the action takes place seem at first to function as a backdrop for a story whose focus is gender rather than religious or ethnic conflict — however, this strange cultural milieu allows for an exploration of gender norms by creating a context in which norms and mores can be set aside and different modes of interaction can be imagined, ones less constrained by the customs of contemporary society. Nicholson suggests that this work can be read as an ironic attack on the conventional languages of chivalry and romance, and possibly on the conventions of the crusade cycle itself. Here, religion serves as a stand-in for longstanding and unexplained hostility of any kind: actual differences between Christianity and Islam are characterized only in their adherents’ treatment of women. There is little sense of otherness in the depiction of the Saracen and references to polygamy are the only approximations of actual features of Islamic culture. For the participants in this romance, it seems chivalry, faith, honour, are evenly divided between Christian and Muslim, and the popularly perceived gender and religious stereotypes of both cultures are mocked and overturned
Echoes of the Past and Present Crusades in Les Prophecies de Merlin
No full textNicholson Helen. Echoes of the Past and Present Crusades in Les Prophecies de Merlin. In: Romania, tome 122 n°487-488, 2004. pp. 320-340
The trial of the Templars in Ireland
No full textThe trial of the Templars in Ireland was rather different from that elsewhere. Any Templar who was a visitor to Ireland was not cross-examined. There is no evidence that the Templars were required to abjure all heresies, or that they were sent to do penance. Overall, it appears that the papal investigators attempted to investigate the Templars in Ireland with all due rigour, but that their efforts were not entirely successful. A number of friars gave evidence against the Templars, which amounted to little more than a statement of dislike. However, the inquisitors did sent information to their colleagues in Britain which was used in the summary sent to the papal commissioners preparing for the Council of Vienne in 1312
Hospitaller women in the Middle Ages
No full textThis volume brings together recent and new research, with several items specially translated into English, on the sisters of the largest and most long-lived of the military-religious orders, the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. In recent years there has been increasing scholarly interest in women's religious houses during the Middle Ages, with particular focus on the problems which they faced and the social needs which they performed. The military-religious orders have been largely excluded from this interest, partly because it has been assumed that women played little role in religious orders with a predominantly military purpose. Recent research has shown this to be a misconception.
Study of the women members of these orders enables scholars to gain a deeper appreciation of the nature of hospitaller and military orders and of the role of women in religious life in general. The papers in this volume explore the roles which the Hospitaller sisters performed within their order; examine the problems of having men and women living within the same or adjoining houses; study relations between the order and the patrons of its women's houses; and consider the career of a prominent Hospitaller woman who became a saint.
This volume will be of interest not only to scholars of the military-religious orders and of the Hospital of St John in particular, but also to scholars of monastic history and to those with a concern for women's history during the middle ages.
Contents: Preface; 'Introduction: A survey of Hospitaller women in the Middle Ages', by Anthony Luttrell and Helen J. Nicholson; 'Women and the military orders in the 12th and 13th centuries', by Alan Forey; 'Men and women of the Hospitaller, Templar and Teutonic Orders: 12th to 14th centuries', by Francesco Tommasi; 'The sisters of the Order of St John at Mynchin Buckland', by Myra Struckmeyer; 'The Aragonese Hospitaller monastery of Sigena: its early stages, 1188–c.1210', by Luis García-Guijarro Ramos; 'Margaret de Lacy and the Hospital of St John at Aconbury, Herefordshire', by Helen J. Nicholson; 'The Hospitaller sisters in Frisia', by Johannes A. Mol; 'Fleur de Beaulieu (d. 1347), Saint of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem', by Pauline L'Hermite-Leclercq; 'The female monastery of San Bevignate at Perugia: 1325–c.1507', by Francesco Tommasi; Index of names and places
The light of the eye : doctrine, piety and reform in the works of Thomas Sherlock, Hannah More and Jane Austen
No full textBibliography: leaves 376-401.This thesis investigates the ways in which three eighteenth-century writers, Bishop Thomas Sherlock, Hannah More and Jane Austen embody orthodox Anglican doctrine according to their individual perceptions of the enlightening properties of Protestant Christianity. After situating them in their respective gender, literary and ecclesiastical contexts, I examine some of their key doctrines and analyse excerpts from their works. My selection of passages from Sherlock's works is fairly comprehensive, but in the case of More and Austen, where there is already a formidable body of literary criticism, it is more selective. Thus, I focus on doctrine in More's tracts, Strictures on the System of Female Education, An Essay on St Paul and most especially Coelebs in Search of a Wife and in the case of Austen, on her prayers and select passages from Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park. I conclude that, although diverse in their particular kind of Anglicanism (High, Evangelical and Median) and in their choice of genre, transparency or obscurity (anonymity and pseudonymity) and the various narratological strategies some of them invoke to circumvent certain taboos, Sherlock, More and Austen champion the same central orthodox doctrines, defend them against current alternatives to orthodoxy such as Latitudinarianism, Deism and various forms of Freethinking, and promote similar moral and ecclesiastical reforms. However, indirectly (through female characters who resist male representation or control) the women writers subject their ostensibly authorially-endorsed male narrators/characters to scrutiny and sometimes (when the males objectify the women) subversion
Medieval warfare: theory and practice of war in Europe, 300-1500
No full textWarfare in medieval times was never static or predictable - although there were ideals and conventions to follow, in the field commanders had to use their initiative and adapt to the needs of the moment. In this concise, wide-ranging study, Helen Nicholson provides the essential introductory guide to a fascinating subject.
Medieval Warfare
- surveys and summarises current debates and modern research into warfare throughout the whole of the medieval period across Europe
- sets medieval warfare theory and practice firmly into context as a continuation and adaptation of practice under the Roman Empire, tracing its change and development across more than a millennium
- considers military personnel, buildings and equipment, as well as the practice of warfare by land and se
From Wunderkammern to Kinect: The Creation of 'Shadow Worlds'
No full textThis paper focuses on two projects, Still Life No. 1 and Shadow Worlds | Writers' Rooms [Brontë Parsonage], to reveal the creative approaches the authors take to site, technology, and the self in their production of shadow worlds as sites of wonder. Informed by the uncanny (re-animation and the double) and an interest in the limen (thresholds in the real and virtual realms), the projects explore white light and infrared digital 3D scanning technologies as tools for capture and transformation. The authors will discuss how they suture the past with the present and ways that light slips secretly between us, revealing other realms
The invisibility of being a new nurse: the experience of transition from student to registered children’s nurse
No full textThis research examines the transition from student nurse to Registered Nurse (child). Earlier studies suggest the transition always involves a period of discomfort and uncertainty. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal studies of children?s nurses, revealing a gap in the evidence that this study aims to fill. This longitudinal study commenced in one HEI in England where the six participants were completing their undergraduate programme in child nursing. A phenomenological interpretive design was used to answer the research question: „What is the experience of making the transition from student to RN (child) like?? Data was collected using focused qualitative interviews at three stages: mid final year, and at 3–4 months and 12–14 months post-employment as an RN. The data was analysed using descriptive and interpretive methods. The thesis draws out the changes in the participants experience over time and suggests the transition extends beyond the first year of practice. It involves development within four overarching themes: Personal and Professional Identity, Primacy of Practice, Working with People, and Managing Newness. These key themes are present across the participants? experience but their importance changes over time. The transition is characterised by the visibility of being a nurse and the invisibility of being a „new? nurse. This study supports the findings of some earlier studies and introduces some new evidence in relation to children?s nursing, such as responding to crises, coping with grief and the difficulties and challenges of working with parents. The main limitations are that this is a small-scale study within a specific branch of nursing, with participants drawn from one HEI and conducted by a single investigator. However, because the participants took up employment in different locations in England, the findings may have some resonance with other neophyte children?s nurses beyond the original setting of the research. Recommendations are made for undergraduate programme providers and employers to strengthen and develop the preparation of RN (child) pre- and post-qualification, particularly in the areas of preceptorship, prioritising care and managing time, working with parents, and coping with emergencies or the death of a chil
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