Medieval Intrigue

Ian Mortimer considers some of the key questions in Medieval history and rethinks the nature of historical evidence. In this important new work Ian Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, including whether Edward II was murdered, his possible later life in Italy, the weakness of the Lancastrian claim to the throne in 1399, and the origins of the idea of the royal pretender. Central to this book is his groundbreaking approach to medieval evidence. He explains how an information-based method allows a more certain reading of a series of texts. He criticises existing modes of arriving at consensus and outlines a process of historical analysis that ultimately leads to questioning historical doubts as well as historical facts, with profound implications for what we can say about the past with certainty. This is an important work from one of the most original and popular medieval historians writing today.

ISBN 1847065899   Pages 256 ISBN13 9781847065896 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 753 Publisher Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.   Published in London Imprint Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.   Height (mm) 234 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 156 Publication date 09 Sep 2010   Spine width (mm) 29 DEWEY 942.03   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Acknowledgements
		Abbreviations
		Introduction
1		Objectivity and information: a methodological introduction		1
2		Sermons of sodomy: a reconsideration of Edward II's sodomitical reputation		45
3		The death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle		61
4		Twelve angry scholars: reactions to 'The death of Edward II'		109
5		The plot of the earl of Kent, 1328-30		153
6		Edward III, his father and the Fieschi		175
7		Edward III and the moneylenders		235
8		Richard II and the succession to the Crown		259
9		The rules governing succession to the Crown, 1199-1399		279
10		Regnal legitimacy and the concept of the royal pretender		305
11		Concluding remarks		343
		Full titles of works cited in the notes		347
		Index		359

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