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Michael Prestwich

Författare till Edward I

18+ verk 939 medlemmar 7 recensioner 3 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

Michael Prestwich is Emeritus Professor of History at Durham University.

Verk av Michael Prestwich

Associerade verk

The Welsh wars of Edward I (1901) — Förord, vissa utgåvor62 exemplar
A Social History of England, 1200-1500 (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 49 exemplar
The Battle of Crécy, 1346 (2005) — Bidragsgivare — 43 exemplar
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2000 (2000) — Author "Reassessing the Hammer of the Scots" — 8 exemplar
The Place of War in English History, 1066-1214 (2004) — Redaktör — 4 exemplar

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Recensioner

“Plantagenet England 1225–1360” covers a lot of ground and is, on the most part, an engaging history, not a stuffy textbook.

I was amused by some of my country’s long-forgotten surnames, like William Standupryght for example, or the gentleman referred to in the following quote.

“In 1347 Roger Sweatinbed of Friesthorpe was accused of fornication with Letitia Bat.”

English surnames aren’t what they used to be.

It’s amazing how people thought during those times. The following quote of man’s knowledge of woman’s body made me eyebrows move in an upward direction:

“Nor was the female anatomy understood; one view was that it was similar to the male, but turned inside out. In comparison to the male, however, the female body ‘hath smalle ballokkys’, as a late medieval writer put it. Even odder, but well founded in classical writings, was the notion that the uterus was capable of wandering about the body, causing great problems should it lodge in an inappropriate place, such as the chest.”

Medical knowledge has grown considerably since medieval times!
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
PhilSyphe | Jun 22, 2018 |
An look at some of the lesser known people of the middle ages.
 
Flaggad
bhutton | 1 annan recension | Jan 26, 2016 |
Michael Prestwich’s well-written and informative book offers a collection of 70 short biographies of important, notable and remarkable people (mainly from western Europe and the Near and Middle East, though one example each from Central Asia and the Far East is included as well) in the medieval age, spanning from 800 to the beginning of the early modern period in 1500. It is divided into five sections: An Age of Empire, An Age of Confidence, An Age of Maturity, An Age of Plague and An Age of Transition, with a brief general overview of the main events and people before the actual individual profiles.

While the readership receives an increased diversity of subjects, this is achieved at the cost of necessary brevity, with biographies ranging from two to four pages on average, including often half- or full-page illustrations. Several times the author makes reference to intriguing events that were no further explored, and I often felt that a certain individual’s life could have been described in more detail, rather than being painted in fairly broad strokes. This certainly whets the appetite for further discovery, and there is an extensive Further reading list in the Appendix. The illustrations are breathtakingly wonderful, serving to underline Michael Prestwich’s assertion that the medieval period was not the Dark Ages of popular impression, but an era of invention, innovation and some remarkably progressive people.

While women make up 15 per cent of all the biographies, these generally fall – perhaps predictably – into the categories of nun, saint, princess, duchess and queen, with only one exception. For the remainder, there are kings, emperors, statesmen, nobles, popes, friars, hermits, conquerors and warriors, but also artists, builders, merchants, craftsmen, inventors, poets, scientific pioneers, architects, travellers, chroniclers and even a pirate. While it is probably necessary to include several monarchs and other leaders of men, in my opinion there were a few too many, and I found the lives of ordinary individuals far more illuminating. I guess it is understandable that the lives of people connected to religion and faith should feature heavily in a book that covers an era marked by religious strife (the Crusades, persecution of so-called heathens and heretics), but again I found that perhaps there were again slightly too many; after reading for a third time how ruthlessly heretics were persecuted or another religious order was established, it began to feel a bit repetitive.

The things that have stayed most in my mind are the occasional very personal glimpses of a life lived in the distant past, such as that Charlemagne suffered from insomnia, that Pope Innocent III had a sense of humour, and that Giotto was quick-witted and sharp when taunted about his supposed ugliness.

I think this book is probably better suited for dipping in and out at leisure, rather than being read from cover to cover like I did (with a review deadline to keep), but it gives the reader a fascinating glimpse of life that is in many respects far removed from ours; recommended.

(This review was originally written for Amazon's Vine programme.)
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
passion4reading | 1 annan recension | Jan 18, 2015 |
This book is just as good as its companion, Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual. I learned a great deal about 14th-century warfare and life in general. All of it was interesting, and much of it was amusing. I had no idea, for example, that Ulrich Von Liechtenstein was a real knight (and he liked to disguise himself too, although he did not come from Gelderland), or that the Scots were once able to sneak into a besieged castle under cover of night by going on all fours and mooing like cattle. Any history buff will love this book.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
meggyweg | Aug 9, 2010 |

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Associerade författare

Charles Coulson Contributor
Peter R. Coss Contributor
David Crook Contributor
Beth Hartland Contributor
Henry Summerson Contributor
Björn Weiler Contributor
J. R. Maddicott Contributor
Francoise Le Saux Contributor
David Carpenter Contributor
Alistair Tebbit Contributor
Michael Ray Contributor
Janet E. Burton Contributor
Susan Stewart Contributor
Nick Barratt Contributor
Emilia Jamroziak Contributor
Seymour Phillips Contributor
Harold Fox Contributor
Sean Duffy Contributor
Richard Huscroft Contributor
Martin Allen Contributor
Ruth M. Blakely Contributor
David Postles Contributor
Kathryn Faulkner Contributor
K. J. Stocks Contributor
Nigel Morgan Contributor
Robert Wright Contributor
Sandra Raban Contributor
Andy King Contributor
Marc Morris Contributor
W. M. Ormrod Contributor
P. D. A. Harvey Contributor
Peter W. Edbury Contributor
Charles Insley Contributor
Anthony Musson Contributor
Brendan Smith Contributor
Corinne Saunders Contributor
Thea Summerfield Contributor
Susan Crane Contributor
Paul Brand Contributor
J. Beverley Smith Contributor
John Carmi Parsons Contributor
Rebecca Reader Contributor
Paula Dobrowolski Contributor
J. J. Crump Contributor
Jens Röhrkasten Contributor
John Gillingham Contributor
Hugo Schwyzer Contributor
Chris Given-Wilson Contributor
Mark Page Contributor
Susan Reynolds Contributor
F. J. Watson Contributor
Alan Young Contributor
Barbara Harvey Contributor
Robert C. Stacey Contributor
John H. Munro Contributor
Derek Keene Contributor
Michael Haskell Contributor
Wendy Childs Contributor
Scott L. Waugh Contributor

Statistik

Verk
18
Även av
10
Medlemmar
939
Popularitet
#27,357
Betyg
3.8
Recensioner
7
ISBN
63
Språk
4
Favoritmärkt
3

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