Family Trees and the Roots of Politics
Title Details

394 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

10 b/w illus.

Imprint: Boydell Press

Family Trees and the Roots of Politics

The Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century

Edited by K S B Keats-Rohan

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  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
Articles on the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages.

In recent decades historians have become increasingly aware of the value of prosopography as an auxiliary science standing at the crossroads between anthropology, genealogy, demography and social history. It is now developing as an independent research discipline of real benefit to medievalists. The geographically and chronologically wide-ranging subjects of the essays in this collection, by scholars from the British Isles and the Continent, are united bya common theme, namely the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages. The papers, including a review of the history of prosopography and some of its major successes as a method by Karl Ferdinand Werner, range from general considerations of prosopographical and genealogical methodology (including discussion of Anglo-Norman royal charters) to specific analyses of individual political and kinship groups (including the genealogy of the counts of Anjou and a rehabilitation of the prosopographical material in Wace's Roman de Rou). The main geographic focus is England and France from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, but other areas as diverse as Celtic Ireland and the Latin Principality of Antioch also come under prosopographical scrutiny.

Contributors: DAVID E. THORNTON, ANNE WILLIAMS, C.P. LEWIS, DAVID BATES, ELISABETH VAN HOUTS, EMMA COWNIE, JUDITH GREEN, JOHN S. MOORE, K.S.B. KEATS-ROHAN, CHRISTIAN SETTIPANI, HUBERT GUILLOTEL, KATHLEEN THOMPSON, VERONIQUE GAZEAU, MICHEL BUR, ALAN V. MURRAY, DANIEL POWER.
``Un vassal sans histoire'?: Count Hugh II (fl. c.955-992) and the Origins of Angevin Overlordship in Maine'. -
L'apport de la prosopographie a l'histoire sociale des elites - K F Werner
Kings, chronicles and genealogies: reconstructing mediaeval celtic dynasties - David E Thornton
A west-country magnate of the eleventh century: the family, estates and patronage of Beorhtric son of AElfgar - E A Williams
Joing the dots: a methodology for identifying the English in domesday book - C P Lewis
The prosopographical study of Anglo-Norman royal charters - David Bates
Wace as historian - Elisabeth M C van Houts
Religious patronage and lordship: the debate on the nature of the honor - Emma Cownie
Family matters: family and the formation of the Empress's party in south-west England - Judith Green
Prosopographical problems of English libri vitae - John S Moore
`Un vassal sans histoire'?: Count Hugh II (c.940/955-992) and the origins of Angevin overlordship in Maine - K S B Keats-Rohan
Les comtes d'Anjou et leurs alliances aux X et XIe siecles - Christian Settipani
Combour: proto-histoire d'une seigneurie et mis en oeuvre de la reforme gregorienne - Hubert Guillotel
The formation of the county of Perche: the rise and fall of the Gouet family - Kathleen Thompson
Quelques exemples de carrieres abbatiales en Normandie au Xe-XIIe siecles - V Gazeau
De quelques champenois dans l'entourage francais des rois d'Angleterre aux XIe et XIIe siecles - Michel Bur
How Norman was the principality of Antioch? Prolegomena to a study of the origins of the Nobility of a Crusader state - Alan V Murray
Between the Angevin and Capetian courts: John de Rouvray and the knights of the pays de Bray, 1180-1225 - Daniel Power

Dr K S B Keats-Rohan is Director of the Linacre Unit for Prosopographical Research and Fellow of the European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford.

"Medieval genealog[ists] will find that this work provides valuable insight into the sources available, as well as into some of the pitfalls to be encountered in their use." AMERICAN GENEALOGIST
"The papers are of high quality and of significance to others in their fields." ALBION
"The fact that the editor is KSBKR suggests [these studies] will be both unorthodox and brilliant... [she] has used her considerable skills at diplomatics and textual criticism to question the perceived Norman cultural and administrative dominance in post-Conquest England... the essays are all meticulously crafted models of prosopographical research." MEDIEVAL PROSOPOGRAPHY
"A thought-provoking collection which deserves to be widely read." FRENCH HISTORY

Hardcover

9780851156255

July 1997

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Title Details

394 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

10 b/w illus.

Imprint: Boydell Press