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English Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485 (Medieval Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The king was the most important component in medieval political society. With him lay the right to rule, and all power flowed from him out to his subjects through a complex array of nobles, churchmen, gentry, and the machinery of government. Without the person of the monarch, governance was all but impossible. Across the roughly four centuries that separate the Norman Conquest from the accession of the Tudors in 1485, English kingship underwent a number of significant changes in response to various constitutional crises and transformations of government, but the core of who and what the king was remained constant. Historians have focused on kings and their power for centuries, and their work on so large a subject is both broad and varied. Significant debates as to the nature of kingship and the application of royal power and a plethora of studies of individual kings and how they shaped the office have led to different understandings of monarchy in this period. This bibliography does not try to provide the reader with an exhaustive list of articles and books on so broad a topic as kingship and monarchy. Rather, it tries to provide only the major works for any particular reign that will probably be found in a college or university library. This bibliography draws attention to works such as Stephenson and Marcham 1937 (cited under Source Collections in Translation), or Bryce Dale Lyon’s history of administration (Lyon 1980, cited under Constitutional and Administrative History) that might be lingering in dusty retirement on their shelves.
  4. General Overviews
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  6. A topic as broad as monarchy and kingship has spawned a great many general overviews and studies. The late 19th century was a period of great narrative histories, when historians covered several reigns in multivolume sets (e.g., Norgate 1887, Ramsay 1892, Ramsay 1913, and Hunt and Poole 1905–1910). Both Cambridge University and Oxford University produced multivolume sets of their own, while individuals have also produced single-volume studies.
  7. Early Narrative Histories and Essay Collections
  8.  
  9. The Victorian era and the early 20th century were periods of universal and great narrative histories. Works like Norgate 1887, Ramsay 1892, and Ramsay 1913 still make fine reading for the strength of the narrative, even though their interpretations of royal personages and actions are now dated. In the last decade of the 19th century, William Hunt and Reginald Poole edited a universal narrative, Political History of England (Hunt and Poole 1905–1910). As with Kate Norgate’s and James Henry Ramsay’s volumes, the interpretations are now outdated, but the strong narrative is still worth reading.
  10. Hunt, William, and Reginald Poole, eds. Political History of England. 12 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1905–1910.
  11.  
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  13.  
  14. A twelve-volume set that covers the history of England from earliest times to 1901. All of these volumes are available online in full text format through Project Gutenburg. Also available online through Hathi Trust Digital Library.
  15.  
  16. Find this resource:
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  18.  
  19. Norgate, Kate. England under the Angevin Kings. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1887.
  20.  
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  22.  
  23. A strong narrative history of the reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John. Norgate thinks much more of Henry and Richard the Lionheart than she does of John.
  24.  
  25. Find this resource:
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  27.  
  28. Ramsay, James Henry. Lancaster and York: A Century of English History, 1399–1485. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1892.
  29.  
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  31.  
  32. A narrative history of the Wars of the Roses period, beginning with the accession of Henry IV in 1399 and carrying through to the death of Richard III at Bosworth.
  33.  
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  36.  
  37. Ramsay, James Henry. The Genesis of Lancaster. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913.
  38.  
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  40.  
  41. A narrative history of the birth and development of the earldom and duchy of Lancaster down to 1399.
  42.  
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  45.  
  46. Round, J. H. Feudal England: Historical Studies on the 11th and 12th Centuries. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1909.
  47.  
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  49.  
  50. A collection of Round’s essays in which he argues strongly that the Norman Conquest created a great gulf between 1066 and what had gone before. The essays center on the Domesday Book, feudalism, and military service due to the Norman kings. Round was the first historian to challenge the ideas of William Stubbs and Edward Augustus Freeman on their interpretations of the 11th and 12th centuries.
  51.  
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  53.  
  54.  
  55. Stenton, F. M. English Feudalism, 1066–1166. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932.
  56.  
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  58.  
  59. This volume collects Stenton’s Ford Lectures for 1929 at Oxford University. He took a long view of the growth and blending of feudal with Anglo-Saxon institutions and military service. He argued that the trend toward a centralized government so powerfully advanced by Henry I was at odds with baronial feudal government. This led to the reaction of Stephen’s reign and ultimately to the resurgence of royal authority under Henry II.
  60.  
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  62.  
  63.  
  64. Cambridge and Oxford Narrative Histories
  65.  
  66. While William Hunt and Reginald Poole were working on their (Political History of England series (Hunt and Poole 1905–1910, cited under Early Narrative Histories and Essay Collections), J. B. Bury at Cambridge University was planning what he called The Cambridge Medieval History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1911–1936). This general eight-volume series was to encompass all of medieval Europe from the late antique period to 1500. The relevant volumes contained chapters on English political history complete with discussions of individual kings. Cambridge University Press decided to update this series in the 1980s as The New Cambridge Medieval History. Beginning in 1995 and finishing in 2005, the new Cambridge series, this time seven volumes, appeared in roughly the same format as Bury’s series. Oxford University Press in the 1920s was also busy producing its History of England series, which took British history from earliest times to the 20th century. Like The Cambridge Medieval History, these volumes can be found in many American college and university libraries. Some of them (e.g., those by A. L. Poole and M. McKisack) were among the finest examples of general history ever written. Others, however (e.g., those by Frederick M. Powicke and E. F. Jacob), were less successful. In the 1980s Oxford, too, decided to update its aging series. The relevant volumes and their arguments on kingship and monarchy include Bartlett 2000, Prestwich 2005, and Harriss 2005.
  67. Bartlett, Robert. England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075–1225. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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  70.  
  71. Bartlett argues that kingship and lordship were among the most essential characteristics of political society. A complex series of interwoven and ever-shifting relationships between kings and nobles in a reciprocal but unequal relationship characterized by both private and public aspects is reflected in the monarchy in these centuries. Kings possessed both feudal powers as overlords and private privileges as great landlords in their own right.
  72.  
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  74.  
  75.  
  76. Harriss, Gerald L. Shaping the Nation: England, 1360–1461. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  77.  
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  79.  
  80. Harriss begins his discussion of kingship and monarchy with the late medieval notion that English kinship was a “mixed monarchy” (p. 3). Although a king’s authority might come from God, kings were human and thus susceptible to corruption. As Harriss puts it, English kings held the Crown “in trust from the people, God’s children, to be exercised with their assent for their good” (p. 6).
  81.  
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  83.  
  84.  
  85. The New Cambridge Medieval History. 7 vols. in 8 parts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995–2005.
  86.  
  87. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  88.  
  89. Available online in full-text format by subscription from Cambridge University Press.
  90.  
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  92.  
  93.  
  94. Prestwich, Michael. Plantagenet England, 1225–1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  95.  
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  97.  
  98. Prestwich argues that the king was indeed a feudal overlord as Robert Bartlett suggests but that this concept changed over the 13th century, beginning with the Magna Carta. With the growth of Parliament as an institution, the very nature of government changed, and with it changed the nature of kingship, as governance became increasingly contractual (pp. 131–133, 185–188, 278–285).
  99.  
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  101.  
  102.  
  103. Other Studies
  104.  
  105. Some works in this category cover broad time spans, such as Gransden 1982; Douglas 1969; Douglas 1976; Le Patourel 1976; Kaeuper 1988; Vale 1996; and Chrimes, et al. 1972. Others straddle several reigns, such as Given-Wilson 1986 and McFarlane 1972.
  106. Chrimes, Stanley B., Charles Derek Ross, and Ralph Alan Griffiths, eds. Fifteenth-Century England, 1399–1509. Papers presented at a colloquium held at University Hall, Cardiff, on 24–28 September 1970. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1972.
  107.  
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  109.  
  110. This volume is a collection of essays on the subject of kings and governance throughout the “long 15th century.” Although many of the interpretations contained in these pages have been challenged since the 1980s, this little book remains one of the key pieces of historiography on medieval English political history published since the mid-20th century.
  111.  
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  113.  
  114.  
  115. Douglas, David C. The Norman Achievement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
  116.  
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  118.  
  119. Douglas discusses the spread of the Normans across Europe from their foundations in Normandy to England and southern Italy.
  120.  
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  122.  
  123.  
  124. Douglas, David C. The Norman Fate. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
  125.  
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  127.  
  128. Douglas discusses the aspects and effect of Norman government in England and Sicily in addition to placing the impact of the Normans in a European context.
  129.  
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  131.  
  132.  
  133. Given-Wilson, Chris. The Royal Household and the King’s Affinity, 1369–1413. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.
  134.  
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  136.  
  137. This book is a study of the king’s house and how his affinity (i.e., his retainers) affected royal policy and politics in the reigns of Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV.
  138.  
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  140.  
  141.  
  142. Gransden, Antonia. Historical Writing in England. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1982.
  143.  
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  145.  
  146. A comprehensive survey of monastic and secular authors in England from the mid-6th century to the mid-16th. The volumes also cover a critical assessment of secondary authors on the subject and historiographical developments. First published in 1974.
  147.  
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  149.  
  150.  
  151. Kaeuper, Richard. War, Justice, and Public Order: England and France in the Later Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
  152.  
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  154.  
  155. Kaeuper places the Hundred Years’ War in an administrative and legal context. He argues that to prosecute the wars the English and French monarchies drew unprecedented amounts of power to themselves (the “war state”) and traces how they worked to keep hold of these extraordinary powers after the wars ended (the “peace state”).
  156.  
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  158.  
  159.  
  160. Le Patourel, John. The Norman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.
  161.  
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  163.  
  164. Le Patourel views the Norman kingdom of England and Normandy as a cohesive unified whole or Norman Empire. He argues that the Norman Empire extended well into France and that the governmental methods used by the Normans as kings of England were used in their French domains as well.
  165.  
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  167.  
  168.  
  169. McFarlane, K. B. Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972.
  170.  
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  172.  
  173. This book contains some of the last undergraduate lectures on these topics of the great Oxford historian, which appeared long after his death in 1966. Although McFarlane may not have thought his lectures worth publishing, they do demonstrate his thinking on the subjects. The chapters are very easy to read, and the notes added by the editors provide good context for McFarlane’s arguments and ideas.
  174.  
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  176.  
  177.  
  178. Vale, Malcolm G. A. The Origins of the Hundred Years War: The Angevin Legacy, 1250–1340. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.
  179.  
  180. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206200.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  181.  
  182. Vale emphasizes the role of Gascony among the causes of the Hundred Years’ War. Argues that the English king’s homage to the French crown for Aquitaine was a constant source of friction throughout the 13th century, leading to the war of 1294 and eventually into the wars in the 1330s.
  183.  
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  185.  
  186.  
  187. Reference Works
  188.  
  189. Since around 1990 a number of reference works have appeared (e.g., EuroDocs and the Internet Medieval Sourcebook) that have tried to bring a large number of medieval documents in translation to a broad audience. At the same time publications such as the Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages and Szarmach, et al. 1998 seek to bring to their audience the scope of the Middle Ages through a series of concise articles.
  190. Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.
  191.  
  192. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  193.  
  194. This website is a collaborative effort of more than six hundred historians who have produced small, concise articles on persons, places, battles, events, and more throughout the European Middle Ages. Offered by Oxford University Press as part of its Digital Reference Shelf, it is available to institutions on a subscription basis.
  195.  
  196. Find this resource:
  197.  
  198.  
  199. EuroDocs.
  200.  
  201. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  202.  
  203. This website was created and is maintained by Brigham Young University and is intended to provide a repository of selected transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations of texts illustrative of European history from the ancient period to the modern day. This is an open-access website and no subscription is necessary.
  204.  
  205. Find this resource:
  206.  
  207.  
  208. Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
  209.  
  210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211.  
  212. This website is maintained by Fordham University’s Center for Medieval Studies. It contains a wealth of source materials from all aspects of the Middle Ages and a very nice selection of constitutional documents, including selections from the Domesday Book and works on the common law, the Magna Carta and the growth of Parliament, the deposition of Richard II, and the Wars of the Roses.
  213.  
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  215.  
  216.  
  217. Medievalists.net.
  218.  
  219. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  220.  
  221. This website is maintained by the medievalists Peter Konieczny and Sandra Sadowski. It is a good repository for many different modes of medieval academic material. The site webmasters travel to most of the important scholarly conferences in North America and Britain. The site archives an extensive selection of articles and materials on a number of medieval English topics, including Domesday.
  222.  
  223. Find this resource:
  224.  
  225.  
  226. Szarmach, Paul, M. Teresa Tavormina, and Joel T. Rosenthal, eds. Medieval England: An Encyclopedia. London: Routledge, 1998.
  227.  
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  229.  
  230. This is a one-volume encyclopedia of England in the Middle Ages. It covers not only kings, battles, treaties, and the like but also social, economic, and religious topics. It is lavishly illustrated with pictures and maps.
  231.  
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  233.  
  234.  
  235. Bibliographies and Handbooks
  236.  
  237. In the age of the Internet, with e-books and multiple outlets for scholarly productivity, bibliographies and handbooks seem to belong to an earlier generation. Nevertheless, the comprehensive nature of these books and the care the authors took in assembling them make them well worth consulting. Graves 1975 should be consulted for the comprehensive nature of its bibliographic entries, while Fryde, et al. 1996 is an excellent source for regnal dates of kings and bishops and the names of those who served in high government office. Altschul 1969, Wilkinson 1978, and Guth 1976 cover English history over a wide range of topics. Rosenthal 1994 and Usilton 1996 are attempts to continue the work done by Altschul, Wilkinson, and Guth. Cheney and Jones 2000 is a very useful work, as it provides all the saints’ days and major feast days in the medieval calendar.
  238. Altschul, Michael. Anglo-Norman England, 1066–1154. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
  239.  
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  241.  
  242. The first in a series of bibliographic handbooks prepared for students of English history by the Conference on British Studies.
  243.  
  244. Find this resource:
  245.  
  246.  
  247. Cheney, C. R., and Michael Jones. Handbook of Dates. Rev. ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  248.  
  249. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  250.  
  251. This is a most useful book for anyone interested in English and British history. It contains annual calendars for every year between 500 and 2100 CE, including dates for king’s regnal years, Easter in every one of these years, saints’ days, and other festival days.
  252.  
  253. Find this resource:
  254.  
  255.  
  256. Fryde, Edmund B., D. E. Greenway, S. Porter, and I. Roy. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  257.  
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259.  
  260. This is the third edition of the handbook originally edited by F. M. Powicke in 1961. It contains the regnal dates for all English and British kings and ruling dates for all archbishops and bishops, meeting dates of every Parliament, and major officeholders and peerages from the earliest foundations to 1996. It contains a wealth of basic information that is easily accessible to students of all levels.
  261.  
  262. Find this resource:
  263.  
  264.  
  265. Graves, Edgar B., ed. A Bibliography of English History to 1485: Based on the Sources and Literature of English History from the Earliest Times to about 1485 by Charles Gross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.
  266.  
  267. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  268.  
  269. This is the first in the great series of Oxford bibliographies of English and British history from the earliest times to the 20th century. All of the bibliographies in this series are as comprehensive as possible and cover all aspects of English and British history. Kings, kingship, and monarchy are covered in great detail in these pages.
  270.  
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  272.  
  273.  
  274. Guth, DeLloyd J. Late Medieval England, 1377–1485. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
  275.  
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  277.  
  278. The last in the medieval series of bibliographic handbooks on English history instituted by the Conference on British Studies.
  279.  
  280. Find this resource:
  281.  
  282.  
  283. Rosenthal, Joel T. Late Medieval England, 1377–1485: A Bibliography of Historical Scholarship, 1975–1989. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 1994.
  284.  
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  286.  
  287. Continued in A Bibliography of Historical Scholarship, 1990–1999 (2003). These two volumes contain all of the works published on every aspect of late medieval England between 1975 and the turn of the century. The books and articles are divided by subject, and kingship, along with specific kings, takes up large sections. They provide a fine resource for anyone looking for published work on any aspect of late medieval England.
  288.  
  289. Find this resource:
  290.  
  291.  
  292. Usilton, Larry W. The Kings of Medieval England, c. 560–1485. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1996.
  293.  
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  295.  
  296. This handy little bibliography (only 120 pages) provides annotated citations for the major books and articles that cover each king from the Anglo-Saxon period to Richard III. The work is intended for use by scholars, graduate students, undergraduate students, and interested people outside of academia.
  297.  
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  299.  
  300.  
  301. Wilkinson, Bertie. The High Middle Ages in England, 1154–1377. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
  302.  
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  304.  
  305. A bibliographic handbook on English history instituted by the Conference on British Studies.
  306.  
  307. Find this resource:
  308.  
  309.  
  310. Major Primary Source Collections in the Original Languages
  311.  
  312. For many centuries the English government records were housed in a variety of locations: the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, the Duchy of Cornwall Record Office, the British Library, and others. Since around 1990, however, the British government has worked to bring all of the government-owned documents under one umbrella organization and to house them in a single repository, the National Archives. The British Library still maintains a public independent status as an archive, and its holdings are not administratively under the umbrella of the government. Both the Bodleian Libraries and the Cambridge University Library contain a large amount of medieval material, and the Pipe Roll Society still pursues its goal of editing and publishing the Great Rolls of the Pipe. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores contains a large number of chronicles from the medieval period and remains one of the most significant collections of English chronicles in existence. The advent of the Internet and the increasing desire of British archivists to make their resources available to all who wish to use them have proven of great advantage to English medieval historians around the world.
  313. Bodleian Libraries. University of Oxford.
  314.  
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  316.  
  317. The Bodleian Libraries house a wealth of manuscript material on a variety of subjects across time and space. They possess a substantial collection of pre-1500 manuscripts, many of which impinge directly on specific kings and reigns. The online catalogue is searchable, and the Bodleian has reasonable rates for the digital reproduction of documents.
  318.  
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  320.  
  321.  
  322. British Library. London.
  323.  
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  325.  
  326. This is one of the main repositories of medieval English government documents. The library has a comprehensive catalogue that is searchable online. Like the National Archives, the British Library has reasonable rates for digital reproduction of documents.
  327.  
  328. Find this resource:
  329.  
  330.  
  331. Cambridge University Library. University of Cambridge.
  332.  
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  334.  
  335. Like the Bodleian Libraries, the Cambridge University Library houses a wealth of pre-1500 manuscript material that relates to medieval English kings. It also maintains a selection of manuscripts for viewing in a digital format through the main page on its website. One of these is an illustrated biography of Edward the Confessor (r. 1042–1066) that was composed in the 12th century. The library’s online catalog is searchable and provides services for digital reproduction at reasonable rates.
  336.  
  337. Find this resource:
  338.  
  339.  
  340. National Archives. London.
  341.  
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  343.  
  344. This is the main repository for the vast majority of medieval English government documents. A number of the document collections are available for online searching, and some, such as the E 179 Project, which centers on lay and clerical taxation, are available in a searchable database. The archive’s catalog of documents is searchable and available online.
  345.  
  346. Find this resource:
  347.  
  348.  
  349. Pipe Roll Society.
  350.  
  351. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  352.  
  353. The Great Rolls of the Pipe (National Archives classification E 372) are among the earliest surviving English public records that deal with the Crown and royal governance. The Pipe Rolls are arranged by county, and each roll represents a different year. All of the Pipe Rolls have been published from 1130 to 1223. This website provides a full list of the publications of the society.
  354.  
  355. Find this resource:
  356.  
  357.  
  358. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores. 251 vols. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1858–1896.
  359.  
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  361.  
  362. The Rolls Series. This great series sought to publish as many medieval chronicles relating to England as were known to exist in the 19th century. The series published ninety-nine chronicles and related works in 251 volumes. The vast majority of these are editions of the originals and are still in their original Latin or Anglo-Norman French. Very few are translated.
  363.  
  364. Find this resource:
  365.  
  366.  
  367. Source Collections in Translation
  368.  
  369. Beginning in 1840 the deputy keeper of the public records made certain documents or collections of documents available through publication in Public Record Office 1840–1958. While these reports were useful, they had a limited circulation as they were only part of the deputy keeper’s report to the government. In the late 19th century the Public Record Office began to calendar the more important classifications of records. The Patent Rolls (Calendar of Patent Rolls), Close Rolls (Public Record Office 1892–1935), and Fine Rolls (Court of Chancery 1911–1962) were all calendared in published form along with the Inquisitions Post Mortem (Public Record Office 1904–2010). As a group, these calendars are the most useful and often-used published records that relate to medieval England. The Parliament Rolls were originally edited and published in the 18th century but were not translated. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, published in 2005 (Given-Wilson 2005) does translate all of the Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English into modern English and should be consulted for the documents and the commentary for each Parliament. English Historical Documents, 1042–1189 (Douglas and Greenaway 1953) and Stephenson and Marcham 1937 are attempts to bring a broad range of political, economic, parliamentary, diplomatic, and religious documents to a broad audience. While all of the documents are translated into modern English, the editors chose documents they considered representative or particularly significant.
  370. Calendar of Patent Rolls. 52 vols. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1891–1916.
  371.  
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  373.  
  374. The Calendar of Patent Rolls (National Archives classification C 66) contains grants of land, title, annuities, protections for military service, and more. This series is available to any user online. Also see the National Archives for a discussion of the administrative history of these rolls.
  375.  
  376. Find this resource:
  377.  
  378.  
  379. Court of Chancery. Calendar of Fine Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 1272–1509. 22 vols. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1911–1962.
  380.  
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  382.  
  383. The Fine Rolls (National Archives classification C 60) contain records for all debts touching the Crown. The Fine Rolls for the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) have also been edited and translated. They are available in a full-text format and free of charge through King’s College London.
  384.  
  385. Find this resource:
  386.  
  387.  
  388. Douglas, David Charles, and George William Greenaway, eds. English Historical Documents. Vol. 2, 1042–1189. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1953.
  389.  
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391.  
  392. Continued in English Historical Documents, Volume 3, 1189–1327, edited by Harry Rothwell (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1975) and English Historical Documents, Volume 4, 1327–1485, edited by A. R. Myers (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1969). These three volumes cover the period from just before the Norman Conquest to the accession of the Tudors and reflect the general editor Douglas’s vision to produce a series of twelve volumes that contain the most significant primary documents selected, edited, and translated by the editor of each volume and thus made accessible to students. The series covers the period from 500 to 1914, and the three mentioned here are among the most significant of the twelve.
  393.  
  394. Find this resource:
  395.  
  396.  
  397. Given-Wilson, Chris, ed. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. CD-ROM. Leicester, UK: Scholarly Digital Editions, 2005.
  398.  
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400.  
  401. This is a combined effort of seven editors each editing and translating a certain number of rolls. The CD contains all of the Rolls of Parliament in translation. The reader can choose to read the text in its original language or in English translation. The text is fully searchable. The editors provide a substantial introduction for each Parliament.
  402.  
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405.  
  406. Public Record Office. Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records. Reports 1–120. London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1840–1958.
  407.  
  408. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  409.  
  410. These are the annual reports of the deputy keeper of the public records to Parliament detailing the workings of the Public Record Office. However, the deputy keepers produced a number of lists and calendars of record classes that appear in the appendixes in Volumes 1–10 and 24–50. These appendixes are sometimes forgotten or overlooked, because they are not easy to obtain. Nevertheless, they are very useful and should be consulted if possible.
  411.  
  412. Find this resource:
  413.  
  414.  
  415. Public Record Office. Calendar of Close Rolls, 1272–1485. 43 vols. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1892–1935.
  416.  
  417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  418.  
  419. The Calendar of Close Rolls (National Archives classification C 54) contains many of the most important documents produced by English kings. Unlike the Letters Patent, Letters Close were delivered “closed” (like a modern letter) and “sealed.” These are mostly letters to royal officials commanded to perform some task for the king. See the National Archives for a discussion of the administrative history of these rolls.
  420.  
  421. Find this resource:
  422.  
  423.  
  424. Public Record Office. Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office. 26 vols. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1904–2010.
  425.  
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427.  
  428. The Inquisitions Post Mortem (National Archives classifications C 132–139 and E 149) are preserved from the reign of Henry III, specifically 1236 onward. These calendars represent the inquisitions that took place on the death of a member of the community who personally held land from the Crown—a tenant in chief. None of the documents is available online, but a nice introduction is available at the National Archives.
  429.  
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432.  
  433. Stephenson, Carl, and Frederick George Marcham, eds. Sources of English Constitutional History: A Selection of Documents from A.D. 600 to the Present. New York: Harper, 1937.
  434.  
  435. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  436.  
  437. For many years after its publication this volume was used by American students in English and British history courses. The work is divided by reign and is further subdivided by topic (constitutional documents, patent letters, royal writs and summonses, Parliamentary records, military records, etc.).
  438.  
  439. Find this resource:
  440.  
  441.  
  442. Journals
  443.  
  444. Although there are no academic journals directly related to the concept of monarchy and kingship, a number of major journals in the field have published significant scholarship on monarchy in the past and continue to do so. The English Historical Review, the Journal of Medieval History, and the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society tend to focus on more political and economic topics than does Past and Present, which focuses more on social history. Speculum tends to contain articles that blend historical and literary disciplines.
  445. Court Historian: The International Journal of Court Studies.
  446.  
  447. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  448.  
  449. This biannual journal, published since 1995, is dedicated to court studies from 1400 to the present day. It contains articles on all aspects of court history. It is interdisciplinary in orientation, bringing together architectural history, military history, art history, the role of servants at court, the role of women at court, and military and diplomatic activities at court.
  450.  
  451. Find this resource:
  452.  
  453.  
  454. English Historical Review.
  455.  
  456. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  457.  
  458. Although the English Historical Review covers English influence in a global context, it is the one of the most significant publications that deals with the subject of the English monarchy on a regular basis. The journal, published since 1886, has included such authors as J. H. Round, K. B. McFarlane, Ralph Alan Griffiths, Simon Walker, and John Watts. It is available by subscription online in full text from JSTOR as part of the Arts and Sciences II package.
  459.  
  460. Find this resource:
  461.  
  462.  
  463. Journal of Medieval History.
  464.  
  465. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  466.  
  467. This journal, published since 1975, includes articles on all aspects of medieval history and on occasion has offered works that deal with the English monarchy and kingship. Available by subscription online in full text from the Elsevier Science Direct Freedom Collection.
  468.  
  469. Find this resource:
  470.  
  471.  
  472. Past and Present.
  473.  
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475.  
  476. This journal, published since 1952, is dedicated to bringing its audience the most lively and significant debates in all fields of history. Authors include A. J. Pollard, David A. Carpenter, and John Watts. Available to subscribers online in full text from JSTOR as part of the Arts and Sciences II package.
  477.  
  478. Find this resource:
  479.  
  480.  
  481. Speculum.
  482.  
  483. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  484.  
  485. This journal has been published since 1926 by the Medieval Academy of America and is devoted to medieval studies in general. Although it tends to focus on medieval studies rather than on political history, it has published articles by such authors as W. H. Dunham, Charles T. Wood, Chris Given-Wilson, and William M. Ormrod. Available to subscribers online in full text from JSTOR as part of the Arts and Sciences I package.
  486.  
  487. Find this resource:
  488.  
  489.  
  490. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
  491.  
  492. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  493.  
  494. Published annually by the Royal Historical Society since 1872, this is one of the most important journals for the study of medieval English kings and monarchy. Authors from the Transactions include K. B. McFarlane and Charles Derek Ross. This journal is available to subscribers online in full text from Cambridge Journals and through JSTOR as part of the Arts and Sciences VII package.
  495.  
  496. Find this resource:
  497.  
  498.  
  499. Constitutional and Administrative History
  500.  
  501. In English historiography constitutional and administrative history has gone hand in hand with discussions of the Crown, kingship, and individual kings. Thus these topics are included here. It is important to understand that kings needed the machinery of government to make their justice function and their governance real at the county level. Often historians have determined the success or failure of a particular monarch or his or her reign based on how successful he or she was in governance. The constitution came to limit the abilities of the monarch and finally (though outside the period under discussion) to control the Crown itself. Thus a familiarity with these topics is essential for understanding medieval kingship and monarchy. All of this historiography springs first from Stubbs 1874–1878 and Tout 1920–1933. Maitland 1908 on the legal aspects of the constitution, Baldwin 1913 on the council, Maxwell-Lyte 1926 on the great seal, and Steel 1954 on the Exchequer are all outgrowths of Stubbs 1874–1878 and Tout 1920–1933. Chrimes 1936, Loyn 1986, and Lyon 1980 are attempts to open new ground and vary in the success of their efforts.
  502. Baldwin, James F. King’s Council in England during the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913.
  503.  
  504. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  505.  
  506. This is still the standard work on the functioning of the king’s council. Baldwin covered the Middle Ages from the reign of Henry III to that of Henry VIII. He provides a narrative history of the council and its personnel and development over time and also describes how the council interacted with the other organs of English administration, such as the Chancery, the Exchequer, and Parliament.
  507.  
  508. Find this resource:
  509.  
  510.  
  511. Chrimes, S. B. English Constitutional Ideas in the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1936.
  512.  
  513. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  514.  
  515. This work stood for decades as one of the most significant works on the topic. It takes a rather legalistic and administrative view of the constitution and of the power of the crown. K. B. McFarlane famously reviewed this work in “Review,” English Historical Review 53 (1938): 707–710.
  516.  
  517. Find this resource:
  518.  
  519.  
  520. Loyn, Henry Royston. The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England, 500–1087. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986.
  521.  
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523.  
  524. Continued in W. L. Warren, The Governance of Norman and Angevin England, 1086–1272 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987) and Alfred L. Brown, The Governance of Late Medieval England, 1272–1461 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989). These three volumes form a series and were an attempt to update the discussion and debate on English medieval administrative history and bring it into line with current scholarship roughly fifty years after Thomas F. Tout’s death.
  525.  
  526. Find this resource:
  527.  
  528.  
  529. Lyon, Bryce Dale. A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England. New York: Norton, 1980.
  530.  
  531. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  532.  
  533. This very readable book is still a fine narrative of how English kings ruled their kingdom. It traces the growth of Parliament, the limits of royal authority, and the personality of each king.
  534.  
  535. Find this resource:
  536.  
  537.  
  538. Maitland, Frederic W. The Constitutional History of England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1908.
  539.  
  540. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  541.  
  542. This is a collection of Maitland’s law lectures, published many years after they were given, which the author did not intend to publish. The lectures cover a wide range of topics and continue to the modern period.
  543.  
  544. Find this resource:
  545.  
  546.  
  547. Maxwell-Lyte, Henry C. Historical Notes on the Use of the Great Seal. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1926.
  548.  
  549. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  550.  
  551. This book is an administrative history that is shorter than Thomas F. Tout’s great six-volume work, but it contains many more illustrative examples from the documents themselves than does Tout’s.
  552.  
  553. Find this resource:
  554.  
  555.  
  556. Steel, Anthony Bedford. The Receipt of the Exchequer, 1377–1485. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1954.
  557.  
  558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559.  
  560. This is a study of the receipt totals of the Exchequer for the years covered. It is the product of over three decades of research and is still the standard work on the Exchequer in this period. Each Exchequer term is carefully totaled from the rolls, and an analysis of each year is presented.
  561.  
  562. Find this resource:
  563.  
  564.  
  565. Stubbs, William. The Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1874–1878.
  566.  
  567. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  568.  
  569. These three volumes stood for generations as the standard interpretation of government, kingship, and monarchy. With a typical Victorian self-confidence, Stubbs saw the English Constitution developing and moving forward for most of the Middle Ages.
  570.  
  571. Find this resource:
  572.  
  573.  
  574. Tout, Thomas F. Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England. 6 vols. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1920–1933.
  575.  
  576. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  577.  
  578. These six volumes (the last two published posthumously) represent the most significant work of the great historian who founded the Manchester school of administrative history. Nearly a century later it remains the standard work on administration and how royal governance functioned in the Middle Ages.
  579.  
  580. Find this resource:
  581.  
  582.  
  583. Individual Kings
  584.  
  585. Studies of individual medieval English kings abound, and a comprehensive list would try the patience of the reader. This section provides the most significant Victorian or Edwardian biographies and the most significant articles and books moving forward to the present time.
  586. William I “The Conqueror”
  587.  
  588. For many generations William the Conqueror (r. 1066–1087) was on the receiving end of a great amount of pro-Norman propaganda. Freeman 1867–1879 found William to be one of the greatest men ever to rule England. For Edward Augustus Freeman, writing from the comfort of later Victorian Oxford University, history was made up of great men, and although these great men had helpers, Freeman’s William was the statesman who orchestrated all things. This view is challenged in Douglas 1964, which finds that the Conqueror needed many bishops, nobles, abbots, and knights to make his rule sustainable over the large Anglo-Saxon population. Borman 2012 seeks to widen the focus on William I and the politics of his household and realm by adding the person of Queen Matilda and her considerable talents. Galbraith 1961 and Roffe 2000 view the reign through the lens of the Domesday Book.
  589. Bates, David. William the Conqueror. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2001.
  590.  
  591. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  592.  
  593. Bates does not view William as an especially appealing man. He finds the king efficient and powerful but little more than a grim soldier and an almost tyrannical ruler for whom the ends ultimately justified the means of politics. Bates sees the Conqueror as primarily a French duke rather than an English king.
  594.  
  595. Find this resource:
  596.  
  597.  
  598. Borman, Tracy. Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I. London: Bantam, 2012.
  599.  
  600. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  601.  
  602. Borman provides a study of a wise, powerful, and thoughtful queen who was as driven and ruthless as her husband. Borman sees Matilda as a partner in the governance of the realm and the only person who could control her willful husband.
  603.  
  604. Find this resource:
  605.  
  606.  
  607. Douglas, David C. William the Conqueror. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.
  608.  
  609. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  610.  
  611. Douglas worked to challenge the traditional view of William, which he believed was laced with pro-Norman propaganda. Thus he found that William accomplished great things but did not do it all on his own. His predecessors as dukes of Normandy provided him a solid base, as did the rising secular aristocracy in the duchy of Normandy (pp. 3–11).
  612.  
  613. Find this resource:
  614.  
  615.  
  616. Freeman, Edward Augustus. A History of the Norman Conquest. 6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1867–1879.
  617.  
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619.  
  620. These six volumes represent much of the life work of one of the most significant Oxford historians of the 19th century. The extraordinary amount of detail in these volumes is of great value even in the early 21st century. However, as time has passed documents that Freeman did not have access to have been interpreted and perspective has changed, so a number of Freeman’s interpretations have been challenged.
  621.  
  622. Find this resource:
  623.  
  624.  
  625. Galbraith, Vivian H. The Making of Domesday Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
  626.  
  627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  628.  
  629. Galbraith argues that the Domesday survey was of great practical importance for introducing the concept of feudal tenure and feudal law into England. Taking the vast corpus of surveys and condensing them into manageable volumes was a work of genius on the part of William’s government.
  630.  
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633.  
  634. Roffe, David. Domesday: The Inquest and the Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  635.  
  636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  637.  
  638. Roffe argues that the Domesday inquest was the product of a threat of invasion in 1085. William the Conqueror ordered the inquest taken, but it was his son, William Rufus, who ordered the Domesday Book written in response to a revolt in 1088.
  639.  
  640. Find this resource:
  641.  
  642.  
  643. William II “Rufus”
  644.  
  645. William II Rufus, or the Red (r. 1087–1100), is not much liked by historians. Only a few academic studies of his reign exist, including Mason 2008 and Southern 1933. Edward Augustus Freeman (Freeman 1882) thought very little of this king, while Frank Barlow (Barlow 1983) is more evenhanded in his appraisal, giving more consideration to politics in the royal family than does Freeman 1882.
  646. Barlow, Frank. William Rufus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
  647.  
  648. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  649.  
  650. Barlow found William Rufus a successful monarch who saw to the continuance of many of his great father’s policies. The greatest achievement of his reign was that it saved England from the weak king that his elder brother Robert would have been and allowed for a peaceful transference of power to his younger brother, Henry I.
  651.  
  652. Find this resource:
  653.  
  654.  
  655. Freeman, Edward Augustus. William Rufus. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1882.
  656.  
  657. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  658.  
  659. For Freeman, Rufus was an evil man and an evil king, guilty of the worst forms of vice, who feared God not enough and man not at all. His only virtues were as a devotee of chivalry. Freeman also argues that Rufus held a posthumous reputation that was ill deserved.
  660.  
  661. Find this resource:
  662.  
  663.  
  664. Mason, Emma. King Rufus: The Life and Mysterious Death of William II of England. London: History, 2008.
  665.  
  666. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667.  
  668. Mason argues that perceptions of Rufus have been driven by the anti-Rufus “spin” produced by clerical chronicles. Her Rufus is a strong, powerful king who was a successful military man and a government innovator. Institutions such as itinerant justices and the increasing power of the shire courts, which are often associated with Henry I, were in fact products of Rufus’s reign.
  669.  
  670. Find this resource:
  671.  
  672.  
  673. Southern, Richard W. “Ranulf Flambard and Early Anglo-Norman Administration.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser., 16 (1933): 95–128.
  674.  
  675. DOI: 10.2307/3678666Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  676.  
  677. Southern challenged the traditional view of Flambard as a loathsome lackey of Rufus who robbed the church and oppressed secular nobles with the same alacrity. Southern argues that Flambard was behind “the widening of the king’s relations beyond those of mere overlord to tenant-in-chief, the increasing interference in local affairs through itinerant justices and the use of shire courts” (p. 127).
  678.  
  679. Find this resource:
  680.  
  681.  
  682. Henry I
  683.  
  684. The reign of Henry I (r. 1100–1135) is one of the most significant in the English Middle Ages. In these years the Crown extended power into the counties through an increase of administration and justice. Hollister 2001 sees Henry as a visionary with an overall plan for this great extension of royal power, while Green 1986 and Green 2006 portray him as a king who was ruthless and stopped at nothing to get what he wanted, even from his own family.
  685. Green, Judith. The Government of England under Henry I. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  686.  
  687. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511560248Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  688.  
  689. This book owes much of its methodology to historians of the 14th and 15th centuries who have made good use of prosopography to get at the functioning of government and the effectiveness of kingship through studying the men who served in government offices. This is a study of 104 individuals who served in various government positions—sheriffs, castellans, foresters, and others. There are also chapters on finance and justice.
  690.  
  691. Find this resource:
  692.  
  693.  
  694. Green, Judith. Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  695.  
  696. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  697.  
  698. Green argues that Henry was a ruthless king (almost tyrannical) who possessed a titanic energy that he used to understand and manage the nobles and clergy around him. Green argues that Henry I was an imperialist who sought to expand his realm at the expense of his neighbors.
  699.  
  700. Find this resource:
  701.  
  702.  
  703. Hollister, C. Warren. Henry I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.
  704.  
  705. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  706.  
  707. Hollister sees Henry I as something of a personal hero who possessed a “visionary program” of government and kingship. Ultimately Hollister sees Henry as an architect who laid the foundation for a great administrative machine that would bear the weight of an increased and even more powerful central government under his grandson.
  708.  
  709. Find this resource:
  710.  
  711.  
  712. Stephen
  713.  
  714. The reign of Stephen (r. 1135–1154) is a difficult one to interpret. The Great Anarchy from 1135 to 1152 has led to Stephen being vilified by contemporary chroniclers and thus by historians. Histories of his reign range from Davis 1967, which sees Stephen as a weak, vacillating ruler, to King 2010, which finds him a fine man but a weak king, to Matthew 2002, which challenges chronicle accounts and argues that Stephen ruled effectively and well. In any event, Stephen faced a formidable opponent in the Empress Matilda, as Chibnall 1992 brings to light in a study of Henry II’s mother.
  715. Chibnall, Marjorie. The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother, and Lady of the English. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
  716.  
  717. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  718.  
  719. Chibnall places Matilda at the center of political events following her return to England and her marriage to Geoffrey Plantagenet. She wished the throne for herself, but when that failed she stood behind her son, Henry, and helped him rule Normandy after he became king in 1154.
  720.  
  721. Find this resource:
  722.  
  723.  
  724. Davis, Ralph H. C. King Stephen: 1135–1154. London: Longmans, 1967.
  725.  
  726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727.  
  728. Davis frames Stephen’s reign and the Great Anarchy in the context of the monarch himself. For Davis, Stephen was a king of great activity but little judgment. He finds Stephen weak and vacillating when situations called for sterner measures that bolder kings like Henry I would have applied.
  729.  
  730. Find this resource:
  731.  
  732.  
  733. King, Edmund. King Stephen. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
  734.  
  735. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  736.  
  737. King demonstrates that Stephen was a monarch who was unpretentious and generous. He seemed to ignore no one, regardless of rank or degree. He spoke to common people with ease and even let them eat at his board without prejudice, and not all noblemen and noblewomen thought this good. He sees Stephen as a ruler who was made and not born and this, King writes, caused many problems in the reign.
  738.  
  739. Find this resource:
  740.  
  741.  
  742. Matthew, Donald. King Stephen. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2002.
  743.  
  744. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  745.  
  746. Matthew argues that Stephen was a competent and legitimate king who ruled England well and that the Great Anarchy and the anti-Stephen slant of the chronicles of this period are misleading.
  747.  
  748. Find this resource:
  749.  
  750.  
  751. Henry II
  752.  
  753. The reign of Henry II (r. 1154–1189) is an important one, because the king worked to restore the powers to the Crown that his grandfather enjoyed. Warren 1973 is a study of the administrative aspects of the reign and deals with the king’s personality. Keefe 1983 focuses on the political community in Henry’s reign, and Hosler 2007 focuses on the king’s military campaigns. Knowles 1970 and Barlow 1986 focus on the position of Thomas Becket, chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury, in Henry’s reign, first as the king’s friend and intimate and then as his greatest foe.
  754. Barlow, Frank. Thomas Becket. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
  755.  
  756. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  757.  
  758. This is the standard biography of the controversial character of Thomas Becket.
  759.  
  760. Find this resource:
  761.  
  762.  
  763. Hosler, John D. Henry II: A Medieval Soldier at War, 1147–1189. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic, 2007.
  764.  
  765. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004157248.i-275Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  766.  
  767. Hosler places Henry in the context of a 12th-century soldier, studying the king’s campaigns, military organization, strategy, tactics and logistics, including fortress construction and sieges. He finds that while Henry was not always successful in bringing his grand strategies to fruition, he was nevertheless a very successful warrior-king.
  768.  
  769. Find this resource:
  770.  
  771.  
  772. Keefe, Thomas K. Feudal Assessments and the Political Community under Henry II and His Sons. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
  773.  
  774. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  775.  
  776. Keefe assesses Henry II through the lens of his feudal policy, patronage, and use of feudal surveys and scutage. The appendixes listing the knights’ service due the king from the Chartae Baronum (1166) and the Infeudationes Militum (1172) and the frequencies of scutages and feudal aids are especially useful.
  777.  
  778. Find this resource:
  779.  
  780.  
  781. Knowles, David. Thomas Becket. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1970.
  782.  
  783. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  784.  
  785. Knowles’s short biography sees Henry and Becket as champions for competitive causes from which neither could retreat. He also argues that Becket did not die as a martyr.
  786.  
  787. Find this resource:
  788.  
  789.  
  790. Warren, W. L. Henry II. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
  791.  
  792. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  793.  
  794. Warren argues that Henry II was an enigmatic figure of boundless energy whom even contemporaries found secretive and opaque. Understanding this administrative renaissance is central to Warren’s argument, and he spends the middle third of his book on the machinery of governance, the recovery of justice, and finance.
  795.  
  796. Find this resource:
  797.  
  798.  
  799. Richard I “Coeur de Leon”
  800.  
  801. Like William the Conqueror, Richard I (r. 1189–1199) has received more than his share of good press from chroniclers and historians from the 12th century onward. Many studies, like Norgate 1924, are little more than thinly veiled hero worship. Wilkinson 1944 and Gillingham 1999 are both solid attempts to place the king in proper context and to study how Richard governed and whom he called on to help him govern. Painter 1933 is a study of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, one of the greatest knights in the history of medieval Europe and an unflagging supporter of the Angevin dynasty.
  802. Gillingham, John. Richard I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
  803.  
  804. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  805.  
  806. Gillingham’s work is not a study of the king’s personal relationships or of the king’s government. Gillingham argues that Richard I was a very successful king with a sense of humor and an application to business and one who mastered all of the skills necessary to be a successful 12th-century monarch.
  807.  
  808. Find this resource:
  809.  
  810.  
  811. Norgate, Kate. Richard the Lion Heart. London: Macmillan, 1924.
  812.  
  813. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. Norgate finds her king a brave crusader. She perceives him in a positive and heroic light and is at pains in her discussion of the massacre of Saracen prisoners at Acre to lay the blame on military necessity (it would have taken too many crusader soldiers to guard the approximately 2,600 prisoners).
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819.  
  820. Painter, Sidney. William Marshal, Knight Errant, Baron, and Regent of England. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1933.
  821.  
  822. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  823.  
  824. Painter’s book is based on the metrical contemporary biography of Marshal. He then supplements this narrative by contextualizing Marshal using other contemporary chronicles and government documents.
  825.  
  826. Find this resource:
  827.  
  828.  
  829. Wilkinson, Bertie. “The Government of England during the Absence of Richard I on the Third Crusade.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 28 (1944): 485–509.
  830.  
  831. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  832.  
  833. Wilkinson argues that the king’s mistrust of John led him to place government in the hands of a council of regency that was given divided powers, which led to “confusion and mistrust” (p. 486).
  834.  
  835. Find this resource:
  836.  
  837.  
  838. John “Lackland” or “Softsword”
  839.  
  840. John (r. 1199–1216) remains one of the most maligned of all medieval English kings. He has had his defenders, such as Norgate 1902 and Painter 1949, which perceive the nobles as disloyal knaves who looked after their own self-interests. Warren 1978, however, finds a flawed king who had flashes of brilliance mixed with the petulance of a petty tyrant. For obvious reasons much of the scholarship dealing with John’s reign turns on the Magna Carta, but Holt 1961 and Church 1999 have broadened the discussion of John and his reign by placing him in a more European context as a statesman. Powicke 1913 finds the loss of Normandy to be beneficial to both England and France, while McKechnie 1914, Thompson 1950, and Holt 1992 focus on various aspects of the Magna Carta.
  841. Church, S. D., ed. King John: New Interpretations. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1999.
  842.  
  843. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  844.  
  845. This is a collection of essays that brings together some of the most recent interpretations of John’s reign. What is refreshing about this collection is that it stays away from the well-worked issues of the Magna Carta and spends its time on the king himself, his wife Isabella, his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the king’s relations with Normandy, Scotland, and Ireland.
  846.  
  847. Find this resource:
  848.  
  849.  
  850. Holt, James C. The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
  851.  
  852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  853.  
  854. Holt studies the rebellion of the barons that led to the events at Runnymede. He views the baronial revolt as a novel event based on the notion that the barons were fighting for governmental principles laid down in the Magna Carta rather than as a rebellion for the cause of an individual or a group of nobles. He also discusses the critical role that the northern barons played in the process.
  855.  
  856. Find this resource:
  857.  
  858.  
  859. Holt, James C. Magna Carta. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  860.  
  861. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  862.  
  863. Holt chooses to place the charter in its political and administrative context rather than in a legal one. He examines the reasons for the Magna Carta, who brought it about, and what effect the charter had on the minds and policies of contemporary members of the English political community.
  864.  
  865. Find this resource:
  866.  
  867.  
  868. McKechnie, William Sharp. Magna Carta. 2d ed. Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1914.
  869.  
  870. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  871.  
  872. McKechnie, an attorney and a legal historian, provides an introduction to the Magna Carta through a narrative of events from the Norman Conquest to the reign of John. He also evaluates the success and weaknesses of the Great Charter and discusses each of the articles at great length.
  873.  
  874. Find this resource:
  875.  
  876.  
  877. Norgate, Kate. John Lackland. London: Macmillan, 1902.
  878.  
  879. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  880.  
  881. This work is a careful narrative of the events of the reign rather than a careful study of the period or of the king’s character. Nevertheless, Norgate likes the king and does her best to paint him in a positive light. She finds the barons who forced the Magna Carta on the king to be small men who were only pursuing their own self-interests and condemns them for seeking aid from Louis of France.
  882.  
  883. Find this resource:
  884.  
  885.  
  886. Painter, Sidney. The Reign of King John. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1949.
  887.  
  888. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  889.  
  890. Painter’s main goal was to provide a comprehensive background for the issuance of the Great Charter. Painter found King John to be an excellent king and found no justification for contemporaries or historians labeling him a tyrant. For Painter, John’s astuteness allowed him to befuddle his nobles, clergy, and even the most notorious of political and clerical opportunists, Pope Innocent III.
  891.  
  892. Find this resource:
  893.  
  894.  
  895. Powicke, Frederick M. The Loss of Normandy, 1189–1204. London: Longmans, 1913.
  896.  
  897. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  898.  
  899. Powicke argues that the loss of Normandy was essential for both England and France, as it allowed both kingdoms to become unified nations (p. 449).
  900.  
  901. Find this resource:
  902.  
  903.  
  904. Richardson, H. G. “The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angouleme.” English Historical Review 61 (1946): 289–314.
  905.  
  906. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/LXI.CCXLI.289Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  907.  
  908. This is a discussion of the political events surrounding John’s divorce and marriage to the young Isabella. While Richardson discounts the possibility of a love match between John and Isabella, relations were cordial to the extent that at least five children were born to them. Nevertheless, he sees Isabella as subordinate to John. She never acted as vice-regent when the king was out of the country.
  909.  
  910. Find this resource:
  911.  
  912.  
  913. Thompson, Faith. Magna Carta: Its Role in the Making of the English Constitution. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1950.
  914.  
  915. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  916.  
  917. Thompson argues that the principles laid down in the Magna Carta in 1215 carried on throughout the late Middle Ages and especially in the Tudor and Stuart periods, informing such reformers as Sir Edward Coke and the parliamentary authors of the Petition of Right.
  918.  
  919. Find this resource:
  920.  
  921.  
  922. Warren, W. L. King John. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
  923.  
  924. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  925.  
  926. Warren writes: “[John] subdued nations to his will, but brought only the peace of fear; he was an ingenious administrator, but expedients came before policy; he was a notable judge, but chicanery went along with justice; he was an able ruler, but he did not know when he was squeezing too hard; he was a clever strategist, but his military operations lacked that vital ingredient of success—boldness. He had the mental abilities of a great king, but the inclinations of a petty tyrant” (p. 259). First published in 1961 (New York: Longmans).
  927.  
  928. Find this resource:
  929.  
  930.  
  931. Henry III
  932.  
  933. The reign of Henry III (r. 1216–1272) is a long and complex one. Older historiography, such as Powicke 1947, tends to focus on the king himself and his personal failings, which reflect his failure as a king. Carpenter 1990 and Carpenter 1996 place Henry III in a broader context. David A. Carpenter contends that the nobility was fundamental in the long years of Henry’s minority and that as king Henry was not always the complete failure that earlier historians painted him to be. Treharne 1932 focuses on the baronial reform movement.
  934. Carpenter, David A. The Minority of Henry III. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
  935.  
  936. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  937.  
  938. Carpenter argues that the minority of Henry III was one of the most significant periods in English history. The minority fundamentally changed the nature of English kingship. Carpenter contends that William Marshall, Hugh de Burgh, and Panulf (the papal legate) were instrumental in bringing governmental order back to England and removing the French.
  939.  
  940. Find this resource:
  941.  
  942.  
  943. Carpenter, David A. The Reign of Henry III. London: Hambledon, 1996.
  944.  
  945. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  946.  
  947. This book is a collection of Carpenter’s essays. It contains a number of articles on the king, the office of sheriff, Simon de Montfort as the leader of a political movement, and Lord Edward. There is also a nice article that considers the political place of English peasantry in the period of the baronial reform movement (1258–1267).
  948.  
  949. Find this resource:
  950.  
  951.  
  952. Powicke, Frederick M. Henry III and the Lord Edward. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947.
  953.  
  954. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  955.  
  956. Powicke’s king was ambitious, intelligent, and eager for adventure (Vol. 1, pp. 70–71), but his ambitions overmatched his abilities. For Powicke, Henry was “an amateur statesman, because he was an amateur in the things of his life and an amateur Christian (Vol. 1, p. 156). Powicke’s Edward I was an opportunist working all his life to do his duty as king and to his people (Vol. 2, pp. 694, 724, 725).
  957.  
  958. Find this resource:
  959.  
  960.  
  961. Treharne, Reginald F. The Baronial Plan of Reform, 1258–1263. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1932.
  962.  
  963. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  964.  
  965. Treharne saw the baronial reform movement as the first time in English history that baronial reformers rallied around an idea of what good government was rather than around a specific individual (or group of individuals) who possessed a plan of action. The barons failed not only because of royal opposition but also because of their own “vested interest, conservatism and selfishness”.
  966.  
  967. Find this resource:
  968.  
  969.  
  970. Edward I “Longshanks”
  971.  
  972. Edward I “Longshanks” (r. 1272–1307) is traditionally seen as one of the greatest kings of England. Historians have tended to follow this line of argument. Powicke 1947 is more concerned with Edward as king, while Morris 1901, Sutherland 1963, and Prestwich 1988 focus more on his administrative and military successes. Stones and Simpson 1978 focuses on Edward’s dealing with the Great Cause in Scotland. Parsons 1995 and St. John 2012 open new ground by considering the role of the queen in politics and court culture.
  973. Morris, John E. The Welsh Wars of Edward I. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1901.
  974.  
  975. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  976.  
  977. Morris produced the first in-depth study of Edward I’s conquest of Wales from the documents. He works through the composition of Edward’s army, including the feudal and paid portions of the host. He then moves through a discussion of the Welsh campaigns of 1277, 1282, and 1283.
  978.  
  979. Find this resource:
  980.  
  981.  
  982. Parsons, John Cami. Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995.
  983.  
  984. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  985.  
  986. Parsons works to place Eleanor in the context of her fellow royal consorts in the 13th century. He not only contextualizes the life of a queen who has little documentation of her own actions but also works to provide a history of her legend, how it was born and grew over time and space.
  987.  
  988. Find this resource:
  989.  
  990.  
  991. Powicke, Frederick M. Henry III and the Lord Edward. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947.
  992.  
  993. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  994.  
  995. Powicke’s Edward I was perhaps the greatest king ever to rule England. He was demanding and tyrannical when times called for it. He sees him as an opportunist in the best sense of the word and as a king who worked all his life to do his duty to his people.
  996.  
  997. Find this resource:
  998.  
  999.  
  1000. Prestwich, Michael. Edward I. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
  1001.  
  1002. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1003.  
  1004. Prestwich thinks a lot of this king and sees him in a very positive light. His discussion of the conquest of Wales, the Great Cause, and the subsequent Scottish wars is especially good and robust. Edward’s titanic abilities and personality dominated the period, and in his final analysis Prestwich finds the reign to be “a great one.”
  1005.  
  1006. Find this resource:
  1007.  
  1008.  
  1009. St. John, Lisa Benz. Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England. London: Palgrave, 2012.
  1010.  
  1011. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1012.  
  1013. This is a study of the three queens of Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III. The author places them in the contexts of their husbands and the times in which they lived. She portrays all three as being very powerful and influential figures in politics and in the royal household.
  1014.  
  1015. Find this resource:
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018. Stones, Edward L. G., and Grant G. Simpson, eds. Edward I and the Throne of Scotland, 1290–1296: An Edition of the Record Sources for the Great Cause. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
  1019.  
  1020. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1021.  
  1022. Stones and Simpson gathered a great bulk of documents relating to the Great Cause and edited them. However, they did not translate them into English. The first volume contains a commentary by the editors of how the documents came into being and how they were used by contemporaries.
  1023.  
  1024. Find this resource:
  1025.  
  1026.  
  1027. Sutherland, Donald W. Quo Warranto Proceedings in the Reign of Edward I, 1278–1294. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963.
  1028.  
  1029. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1030.  
  1031. Sutherland’s study centers on the early period of the reign, when the king used administration to increase the power of the Crown at the expense of the nobility. In the end, Sutherland concludes that the king overreached his ability to bring all of the cases before his commissioners and adjudicate them effectively.
  1032.  
  1033. Find this resource:
  1034.  
  1035.  
  1036. Edward II
  1037.  
  1038. Edward II (r. 1307–1327) is much maligned by historical tradition, and historians have tended to be divided in their appraisal of the king and his reign. Rather than concentrate on the king himself, Tout 1914 and Davies 1918 focus instead on Edward’s government and Edwards 1944 on the role the great churchmen played in the events of the reign. Fryde 1979 finds that Edward was very much to blame for his own deposition. Hamilton 1988 argues that the issues with the king’s chief favorite in the early part of his reign were due to Piers Gaveston’s restriction of royal patronage, while Chaplais 1994 argues against a homosexual relationship with Edward II. Maddicott 1970 puts perhaps the most important nobleman in the reign, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, into a proper context, while Phillips 1972 and Phillips 2010 provide fair and evenhanded discussions of the king and his reign, noting both Edward’s successes and his failures.
  1039. Chaplais, Pierre. Piers Gaveston: Edward II’s Adoptive Brother. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
  1040.  
  1041. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1042.  
  1043. Chaplais argues that Edward’s relationship with Gaveston was familial but not homosexual. His close reading of documents challenges many preconceptions about Gaveston and his role in events.
  1044.  
  1045. Find this resource:
  1046.  
  1047.  
  1048. Davies, James. The Baronial Opposition to Edward II: Its Character and Policy. London: Frank Cass, 1918.
  1049.  
  1050. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1051.  
  1052. Davies perceived the baronial opposition to Edward II as unjust and treasonous. But he thought the rebellion was not merely against Edward himself but against his administration, literally the machinery of government (p. v).
  1053.  
  1054. Find this resource:
  1055.  
  1056.  
  1057. Edwards, Kathleen. “The Political Importance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II.” English Historical Review 59 (1944): 311–347.
  1058.  
  1059. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/LIX.CCXXXV.311Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1060.  
  1061. Edwards argues that as a whole the episcopate was not a group of inert or inept men who did little to help the cause of Edward II. Rather, the role bishops played depended on who they were and what their connections were to the Crown or to the great baronial houses.
  1062.  
  1063. Find this resource:
  1064.  
  1065.  
  1066. Fryde, Natalie. The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II, 1321–1326. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
  1067.  
  1068. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511560231Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1069.  
  1070. Fryde questions the traditional view of the Despensers as tyrannical advisers to the king. It is clear that the king and the Despensers worked diligently in these years to gather great sums of cash for the royal coffers. Fryde concludes that Edward never learned that the loyalty of the political community was worth more than endless supplies of cash.
  1071.  
  1072. Find this resource:
  1073.  
  1074.  
  1075. Hamilton, J. S. Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, 1307–1312: Politics and Patronage in the Reign of Edward II. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988.
  1076.  
  1077. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1078.  
  1079. This work focuses on the person of the Earl of Cornwall and his place in the reign of Edward II. Hamilton argues with great force that the key issues the barons had with Gaveston lay in his restricting their access to royal patronage. This constriction of the king’s largesse to the greater nobles of the realm created a crisis that resulted in the summary execution of Gaveston in 1312.
  1080.  
  1081. Find this resource:
  1082.  
  1083.  
  1084. Maddicott, John R. Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
  1085.  
  1086. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1087.  
  1088. Maddicott argues that Thomas was not the evil, self-serving fool that previous historians had painted him. Rather, Lancaster was a complex character who successfully managed his vast estates, understood administration, and possessed enough personality and leadership qualities to lead a vast affinity. The opposition to the Crown that he led was not a broad-minded reform of ideas but was based on the personal ambitions of the barons who revolted against Edward II.
  1089.  
  1090. Find this resource:
  1091.  
  1092.  
  1093. Phillips, John R. S. Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, 1307–1324: Baronial Politics in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
  1094.  
  1095. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1096.  
  1097. Phillips argues that the key to understanding the turbulent reign of Edward II rests in interpreting the series of complex relationships that existed between and among Edward II and his nobles. He perceives Valence as a mediocre politician rather than the leader of a “middle party”.
  1098.  
  1099. Find this resource:
  1100.  
  1101.  
  1102. Phillips, John R. S. Edward II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
  1103.  
  1104. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1105.  
  1106. Phillips sees Edward II as neither heroic nor successful, but he was not always unsuccessful at every turn. The author perceives Edward as not very different from his predecessors or successors. The most lasting contribution of Edward II’s reign to English history, Phillips argues, was the precedent of his deposition that “poisoned English politics for generations to come” (p. 613).
  1107.  
  1108. Find this resource:
  1109.  
  1110.  
  1111. Tout, Thomas F. The Place of Edward II in English History. New York: Longmans, 1914.
  1112.  
  1113. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1114.  
  1115. Tout viewed the reign through the lens of an administrative historian, and he worked through a mountain of documents and government records to which William Stubbs never had access. The reforms that focused on the king’s household lasted throughout the Middle Ages and all the way down to 1782. Reforms of the Exchequer in these years too long outlasted the king and his opponents.
  1116.  
  1117. Find this resource:
  1118.  
  1119.  
  1120. Edward III
  1121.  
  1122. Edward III’s long reign (1327–1377) was one of the most significant of the Middle Ages. Historians have been captivated by Edward’s military campaigns and his fondness for chivalry; see Longman 1969. Waugh 1991 downplays Edward’s personal management of affairs and sees his talents as only one factor in a number that brought change to England in the 14th century. Harriss 1975 looks at the growth of Parliament during the reign and the king’s role in that development. Green 2007 focuses a discussion of the period on the person of Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince and heir to the throne. Ormrod 1990 and Ormrod 2012 perceive Edward as a political manager who was connected with all classes in English society for half a century.
  1123. Bothwell, James S. Edward III and the English Peerage. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2004.
  1124.  
  1125. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1126.  
  1127. Bothwell’s book looks at Edward III’s relationships with the parliamentary peerage through the use of patronage. Bothwell sees the king’s “patronage programme as the last real success story in the Middle Ages of royal use of largesse on a mass scale for the sake of influencing the composition and behavior of the English nobility” (p. 159).
  1128.  
  1129. Find this resource:
  1130.  
  1131.  
  1132. Green, David. Edward the Black Prince: Power in Medieval Europe. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman, 2007.
  1133.  
  1134. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1135.  
  1136. A study of aristocratic society in general and a discussion of the Black Prince himself. Politics and war in the middle decades of the century are seen through this study that centers on the Black Prince.
  1137.  
  1138. Find this resource:
  1139.  
  1140.  
  1141. Harriss, Gerald L. King, Parliament, and Public Finance in Medieval England to 1369. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.
  1142.  
  1143. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1144.  
  1145. Harriss’s work is a discussion of the growth and development of taxation in England. While the first chapters discuss the origins of taxation, the bulk of the work centers on the reign of Edward III. Harriss argues that the growth of Parliament and public finance came from the king’s need for extraordinary taxation.
  1146.  
  1147. Find this resource:
  1148.  
  1149.  
  1150. Longman, William. The History of the Life and Times of Edward III. 2 vols. New York: Burt Franklin, 1969.
  1151.  
  1152. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1153.  
  1154. Longman sees Edward III as possessing manly vigor and an indomitable will. He finds Edward III a king who was fond of splendor and chivalry but who pursued the fleeting glory of war and battle rather than the more solid pursuits of wise foresight and direction of policy. First published London: Longmans, 1869.
  1155.  
  1156. Find this resource:
  1157.  
  1158.  
  1159. Ormrod, William M. The Reign of Edward III. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
  1160.  
  1161. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1162.  
  1163. Ormrod sees Edward III as a consummate political manager. Edward made common cause with his nobility and engaged them in a series of foreign wars in France that brought fame and fortune for them all. Edward knew the people around him well, whether they were clergy, bureaucrats, nobles, Parliament, or family, and with a few exceptions managed them very effectively.
  1164.  
  1165. Find this resource:
  1166.  
  1167.  
  1168. Ormrod, William M. Edward III. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
  1169.  
  1170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1171.  
  1172. Ormrod sees Edward as a consummate political manager but here argues that the king possessed the unique ability to connect with virtually everyone in his kingdom and so they support him and his endeavors. He created an aura about himself that his sons, nobles, and subjects found captivating and brought unparalleled internal peace, security, and unity of purpose to England for half a century.
  1173.  
  1174. Find this resource:
  1175.  
  1176.  
  1177. Waugh, Scott L. England in the Reign of Edward III. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  1178.  
  1179. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139167918Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1180.  
  1181. Waugh finds Edward less a manager of people and more a unifying force and only one factor in a great century of change that saw broad economic changes, both independent of and brought on by the Black Death. Nevertheless, Waugh’s Edward III was one who understood his nobles, clergy, and Parliaments and was willing to make concessions at the moment to attain his long-range goals.
  1182.  
  1183. Find this resource:
  1184.  
  1185.  
  1186. Richard II
  1187.  
  1188. The reign of Richard II (r. 1377–1399) is controversial. Historians have studied the king’s mental state and how this contributed to his tyranny and eventual deposition in 1399; see Steel 1940 and Saul 1997. Bennett 1999 argues that the revolution of 1399 was orchestrated by Henry of Lancaster, while Biggs 2006 sees it instead as a coalition of disaffected nobles, clergy, and gentry with Henry of Lancaster as a nominal head who came together out of necessity. Given-Wilson 1986 (cited under Other Studies) places Richard II’s reign in the context of his affinity, while Fletcher 2008 takes a different slant altogether, studying the concept of manhood and youth as part of Richard’s troubled reign. Goodman 1971, Goodman 1992, and Walker 1990 concentrate on the role of the nobility in the reign of Richard II.
  1189. Bennett, Michael J. Richard II and the Revolution of 1399. Stroud, UK: Alan Sutton, 1999.
  1190.  
  1191. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1192.  
  1193. Bennett argues that Richard II did indeed act tyrannically but does not paint the king with a personality disorder or perceive him as insane. Bennett also argues that Henry of Bolingbroke was a well-educated, thoughtful, self-confident, and powerful nobleman who orchestrated events in the summer of 1399 with ease and grace. Henry was, for Bennett, the “all conquering hero” of 1399.
  1194.  
  1195. Find this resource:
  1196.  
  1197.  
  1198. Biggs, Douglas. Three Armies in Britain: The Irish Expedition of Richard II and the Usurpation of Henry IV, 1397–1399. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.
  1199.  
  1200. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1201.  
  1202. This monograph argues that Richard II was neither insane nor possessed of some form of personality disorder in the last years of his reign. The revolution of 1399 was not a movement created and led by a self-confident Henry of Bolingbroke but rather was a group of disparate individuals who had come together around a common cause, each with his or her own ambitions and desires.
  1203.  
  1204. Find this resource:
  1205.  
  1206.  
  1207. Fletcher, Christopher. Richard II: Manhood, Youth, and Politics, 1377–99. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  1208.  
  1209. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1210.  
  1211. Fletcher explores the rhetoric of youth and thus the lack of manhood that Richard’s opponents used against him. Richard’s failures in war, together with the opulent style of his court and poor choice of counsel, led to this rhetoric being used against him.
  1212.  
  1213. Find this resource:
  1214.  
  1215.  
  1216. Goodman, Anthony. The Loyal Conspiracy: The Lords Appellant under Richard II. Coral Gables: University of Florida Press, 1971.
  1217.  
  1218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1219.  
  1220. This fine book explores the careers of the five appellant lords and their aims. Each of the appellants is given his own brief biography together with a discussion of why they appealed treason against the king’s friends.
  1221.  
  1222. Find this resource:
  1223.  
  1224.  
  1225. Goodman, Anthony. John of Gaunt: The Exercise of Princely Power in Fourteenth-Century Europe. London: Longman, 1992.
  1226.  
  1227. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1228.  
  1229. Goodman sees John of Gaunt as one of the great statesmen of Europe in the last half of the 14th century. This is a study of a prince with European-wide ambitions, not merely English ones.
  1230.  
  1231. Find this resource:
  1232.  
  1233.  
  1234. Oman, Charles. The Great Revolt of 1381. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1906.
  1235.  
  1236. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1237.  
  1238. This is a classic study of the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 and is still in print. Oman provides a detailed narrative of the Poll Tax of 1380, how the returns were collected, how some were falsified, and how the collection of the tax became an administrative quagmire.
  1239.  
  1240. Find this resource:
  1241.  
  1242.  
  1243. Saul, Nigel. Richard II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
  1244.  
  1245. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1246.  
  1247. Although Saul does not perceive Richard II as insane, he does argue that the king possessed a serious personality disorder: narcissism. Saul perceives Richard’s actions from 1397 onward as particularly tyrannical, and these actions, aided by his personality disorder, helped create a political climate where his deposition was necessary.
  1248.  
  1249. Find this resource:
  1250.  
  1251.  
  1252. Steel, Anthony B. Richard II. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1940.
  1253.  
  1254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1255.  
  1256. Steel argues that Richard of Bordeaux was a hopeless neurotic who in the last years of his life became insane. For Steel, the only connection Richard possessed with reality was his wife, Anne. Her untimely death in 1394 drove the king so far into melancholia that by 1399 it was “impossible to rouse him” (pp. 278–279). He became increasingly tyrannical and was removed as king in 1399.
  1257.  
  1258. Find this resource:
  1259.  
  1260.  
  1261. Walker, Simon K. The Lancastrian Affinity, 1361–1399. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  1262.  
  1263. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1264.  
  1265. Walker presents a study of the princely power of John of Gaunt through the vehicle of his affinity. The work is an in-depth discussion of how Gaunt built a base of power among the gentry in nearly every county in England. Though the cost to the duke was great, the rewards he received in terms of influence and power were greater.
  1266.  
  1267. Find this resource:
  1268.  
  1269.  
  1270. Henry IV
  1271.  
  1272. Henry IV (r. 1399–1413) spent a troubled thirteen years on the throne, beset by rebellions throughout the first half of his reign. Historians have seen Henry as a strong and powerful ruler who was laid low by illness from 1406 onward; see Wylie 1884–1898. McFarlane 1972 (cited under Other Studies), Kirby 1970, and Brown 1972 find Henry to be a weak and grasping monarch who gave money freely to keep himself on the throne, which in turn led to impoverishment of the Crown. Biggs 2000 argues that Henry was a strong monarch based on his father’s great affinity and never wanted for support from the political community. The essays in Dodd and Biggs 2003 argue that Henry was not so much a strong monarch as one who created a political community governed by people of Lancastrian sympathy who did most of the work of governance. Betcherman 1966 argues that the Crown carefully and closely controlled those who were elevated to the episcopate, and McNiven 1985 focuses attention on the king’s health as the chief cause of the major shifts in English policy in the last years of the reign.
  1273. Betcherman, Lita-Rose. “The Making of Bishops in the Lancastrian Period.” English Historical Review 41 (1966): 397–419.
  1274.  
  1275. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1276.  
  1277. Betcherman argues that in the Lancastrian period men rose to become bishops through extended time in the “civil service.” Legal training enhanced the careers of many who rose to high office. Once these clerks rose to the keepership of the privy seal or a seat on the royal council, “the mitre was assured” (p. 398).
  1278.  
  1279. Find this resource:
  1280.  
  1281.  
  1282. Biggs, Douglas L. “The Reign of Henry IV: The Revolution of 1399 and the Establishment of the Lancastrian Regime.” In Fourteenth Century England, I. Edited by Nigel Saul, 195–210. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2000.
  1283.  
  1284. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1285.  
  1286. This article is a rebuttal to A. L. Brown’s interpretation of the revolution of 1399. Biggs perceives Henry as a confident and self-assured monarch whose first years on the throne were a systematic process of Lancastrianizing the kingdom. Biggs’s Henry IV is a strong and powerful king who maintained his position on his throne by virtue of his father’s Lancastrian affinity, supplemented by his own.
  1287.  
  1288. Find this resource:
  1289.  
  1290.  
  1291. Brown, A. L. “The Reign of Henry IV: The Revolution of 1399 and the Establishment of the Lancastrian Regime, 1399–1406.” In Fifteenth-Century England. Edited by S. B. Chrimes, Charles Derek Ross, and Ralph Alan Griffiths, 1–24. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1972.
  1292.  
  1293. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1294.  
  1295. Brown argues that Henry was a weak monarch swept to the throne on a wave of popular support. He was largely incapable of governing his kingdom or successfully managing appointments of local officials. In Brown’s ultimate view Henry was an honest man who wished to do significant things to reform the abuses of Richard II, but reform and perhaps even the ability to govern were beyond him.
  1296.  
  1297. Find this resource:
  1298.  
  1299.  
  1300. Dodd, Gwilym, and Douglas Biggs, eds. Henry IV: The Establishment of the Regime, 1399–1406. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2003.
  1301.  
  1302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1303.  
  1304. See also the editors’ The Reign of Henry IV: Rebellion and Survival, 1403–1413 (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2008). These two collections of essays were the first major scholarship on Henry IV’s reign in nearly three decades. The main thrust of the authors in these collections is to suggest that Henry IV was not a weak, grasping monarch but rather a strong and powerful king. Much of this power came from his father’s great affinity, which he used to fill government offices at every level.
  1305.  
  1306. Find this resource:
  1307.  
  1308.  
  1309. Kirby, John L. Henry IV of England. London: Constable, 1970.
  1310.  
  1311. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1312.  
  1313. This was the first attempt at a comprehensive biography of Henry IV in over thirty-five years. Kirby perceives Henry IV as a weak and grasping monarch who came to the throne on a wave of popular support but faded in popularity as his monarchy found itself beset by rebellions among noblemen and the Welsh and invasions from Scotland.
  1314.  
  1315. Find this resource:
  1316.  
  1317.  
  1318. McNiven, Peter. “The Problem of Henry IV’s Health, 1405–1413.” English Historical Review 100 (1985): 747–772.
  1319.  
  1320. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1321.  
  1322. McNiven argues that the great swings in policy in the last half of the reign were due to Henry’s failing health. He speculates that Henry IV suffered from a serious heart condition that left him incapacitated for long periods, brought on by the stress of trying to stay on the throne after facing so many rebellions early in the reign.
  1323.  
  1324. Find this resource:
  1325.  
  1326.  
  1327. Wylie, James H. History of England under Henry IV. 4 vols. London: Longmans, 1884–1898.
  1328.  
  1329. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1330.  
  1331. These four volumes are a prototypical late Victorian “universal history” of the period. The reign of Henry IV discussed in great detail, and the reign is placed in the context of the period and of Europe at the time. Wylie sees Henry of Lancaster as a strong and powerful king who was laid low by illness from the middle years of his reign onward.
  1332.  
  1333. Find this resource:
  1334.  
  1335.  
  1336. Henry V
  1337.  
  1338. Historians have found it difficult to overcome William Shakespeare’s view of Henry V (r. 1413–1422) as a great conqueror and a great king. McFarlane 1972 (cited under Other Studies), Allmand 1992, Harriss 1985, and Wylie and Waugh 1914–1923 all concur that Henry was a great general, a great leader, and a great administrator. Strohm 1998, using both literary and historical analysis, suggests that the Lancastrians were not always so comfortable on the English throne and needed to convince the political community of their position.
  1339. Allmand, Christopher T. Henry V. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
  1340.  
  1341. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1342.  
  1343. Allmand’s Henry V is a great king. Allmand not only puts Henry in his traditional 15th-century context as a soldier of superior abilities but broadens the context of his kingship to suggest that Henry worked both for and with his people. The reign was characterized by a marked sense of common cause that was fostered by the king himself (p. 436).
  1344.  
  1345. Find this resource:
  1346.  
  1347.  
  1348. Harriss, Gerald L., ed. Henry V: The Practice of Kingship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
  1349.  
  1350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1351.  
  1352. This collection of essays deals with a number of focused aspects of Henry V’s reign and kingship, such as his dealings with his nobles, his management of Parliament, his retainers and servants, his diplomatic abilities, and more. These all perceive Henry V as a great monarch, one of the greatest in English history, and his reign as a triumph of personal rule and the ultimate medieval expression of kingship.
  1353.  
  1354. Find this resource:
  1355.  
  1356.  
  1357. Strohm, Paul. England’s Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399–1422. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
  1358.  
  1359. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1360.  
  1361. Strohm argues that the Lancastrian dynasty needed to legitimize itself to its subjects and did so through a series of novel ceremonies and propaganda to demonstrate to the political community that they deserved to sit on the empty throne.
  1362.  
  1363. Find this resource:
  1364.  
  1365.  
  1366. Wylie, James H., and William T. Waugh. The Reign of Henry the Fifth. 3 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1914–1923.
  1367.  
  1368. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1369.  
  1370. As with his Henry IV, Wylie sought to write a universal history of Henry V. His illness and death left the completion of the work to Waugh. This is a fine work that, like Henry IV, is researched in great detail. The narrative is robust and good. The king emerges, not surprisingly, as the greatest king ever to rule England.
  1371.  
  1372. Find this resource:
  1373.  
  1374.  
  1375. Henry VI
  1376.  
  1377. The reign of Henry VI (r. 1422–1461, 1470) is a long and complex one that leads directly into the Wars of the Roses. Historical interpretations of the king have varied greatly, from Griffiths 1981, which sees Henry as a bystander overruled by overmighty nobles, while Wolffe 2001 lays much of the blame for the failures of the reign squarely on Henry VI’s shoulders. Watts 1996 argues that Henry was a useless incompetent and that the civil disorder culminating in the Wars of the Roses was the result of royal incompetence. Maurer 2003 places Queen Margaret of Anjou in the context of the court and power structures of her time.
  1378. Griffiths, Ralph Alan. The Reign of Henry VI. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
  1379.  
  1380. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1381.  
  1382. Griffiths sees Henry VI as more of a bystander when it came to politics and government, although he also argues that the king took a leading role in foreign affairs and in directing patronage at home. Griffiths sees the nobility as overmighty subjects who often perpetuated lawlessness in the counties that helped to drive the kingdom into civil disorder and eventually civil war.
  1383.  
  1384. Find this resource:
  1385.  
  1386.  
  1387. Maurer, Helen E. Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2003.
  1388.  
  1389. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1390.  
  1391. This is an in-depth study of Queen Margaret, who found herself at the center of events after her husband’s mental breakdown. Maurer argues that Margaret was the key figure in keeping the Lancastrian cause alive after many had abandoned it for the Yorkists. Margaret was a very competent and powerful leader.
  1392.  
  1393. Find this resource:
  1394.  
  1395.  
  1396. Watts, John L. Henry VI and the Politics of Kingship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  1397.  
  1398. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583179Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1399.  
  1400. Watts argues that the king was as useless and incompetent at governing the realm and managing people before his breakdown in 1453 as he was after it. The kingdom’s descent into civil disorder in the 1450s was a product of Henry VI’s doings—or perhaps more accurately, nondoings.
  1401.  
  1402. Find this resource:
  1403.  
  1404.  
  1405. Wolffe, Bertram P. Henry VI. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.
  1406.  
  1407. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1408.  
  1409. Wolffe challenges the traditional view that Henry stood ineptly by as his government lurched from one catastrophe to another. Wolffe considers the minority as one of the strengths of the reign and sees the king as a major player in government even before he reached his majority. The stresses of the reign soon overmatched the king’s abilities, and thus Henry himself was responsible for many of the disasters of the reign.
  1410.  
  1411. Find this resource:
  1412.  
  1413.  
  1414. Edward IV
  1415.  
  1416. Edward IV (r. 1461–1470, 1471–1483) has traditionally been seen as a lackluster king who often left the governance of the realm to others. Ross 1974 finds him a king of contrasts. Edward could be proactive and productive, but these periods were followed by periods of laziness and lethargy. Hicks 2004 finds him a much stronger king intent on restoring power to the Crown by restoring royal finance and other government offices, while Baldwin 2010 places Edward’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in a broader context. Kendall 1957 and Hicks 1998 discuss the life and career of Richard Neville, Duke of Warwick, one of the most significant noblemen in Edward’s reign.
  1417. Baldwin, David. Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. London: History, 2010.
  1418.  
  1419. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1420.  
  1421. Baldwin argues that the queen was usually at the center of events in Edward’s reign. He works through the charges leveled against her by her contemporary and subsequent critics and provides a picture of a powerful woman in her own right.
  1422.  
  1423. Find this resource:
  1424.  
  1425.  
  1426. Hicks, Michael A. Warwick the Kingmaker. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
  1427.  
  1428. DOI: 10.1002/9780470753415Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1429.  
  1430. Hicks sees Richard Neville as the equivalent of a modern workaholic. For Hicks, Warwick was nobleman who, as a younger son, was very ambitious, who married well (to Anne Beauchamp, heiress to the earldom of Warwick), and who involved himself in the very highest levels of government. Yet he also argues that Warwick was a nobleman driven by his own needs and rarely by those of the government or the political community as a whole.
  1431.  
  1432. Find this resource:
  1433.  
  1434.  
  1435. Hicks, Michael A. Edward IV. London: Hodder Arnold, 2004.
  1436.  
  1437. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1438.  
  1439. Hicks argues that Edward was the finest general of his day, brought England out of the chaos of the 1450s, and provided a strong, stable government for over two decades.
  1440.  
  1441. Find this resource:
  1442.  
  1443.  
  1444. Kendall, Paul M. Warwick the Kingmaker. New York: Norton, 1957.
  1445.  
  1446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1447.  
  1448. Kendall sees Neville as less an “overmighty subject” and more as a nobleman who stood for good governance and tried to restore sound government. But in the end his ambitions and those of others overwhelmed him.
  1449.  
  1450. Find this resource:
  1451.  
  1452.  
  1453. Ross, Charles D. Edward IV. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
  1454.  
  1455. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1456.  
  1457. Ross finds Edward a king of contrasting styles. On the one hand, he engaged in battle, which demonstrated that Edward could act with purpose and resolve. On the other hand, these periods of strong kingship were outweighed by long periods of inactivity. Edward IV was not a king usually interested in the details of kingship, he pandered to public opinion to ensure his popularity, and he forgave his enemies with a dangerous alacrity.
  1458.  
  1459. Find this resource:
  1460.  
  1461.  
  1462. Edward V
  1463.  
  1464. Edward V (r. 1483) is included here for the sake of completeness. As Hicks 2003 shows, Edward’s reign is merely a bridge between those of his father and his uncle.
  1465. Hicks, Michael A. Edward V. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2003.
  1466.  
  1467. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1468.  
  1469. This is an attempt at a biography for a minority reign that did not even last twelve weeks. The work really ends up being a discussion of the last years of Edward IV, the usurpation of Richard III, and the king’s murder.
  1470.  
  1471. Find this resource:
  1472.  
  1473.  
  1474. Richard III
  1475.  
  1476. Richard of Gloucester (r. 1483–1485) is best remembered for William Shakespeare’s portrayal of him. Historians reject the Shakespearian vision of Richard as a hunchbacked force of evil and see him, as in Kendall 1955, as both capable and ruthless. As both Ross 1981 and Horrox 1989 suggest, Richard III had a large amount of support in the northern part of the country, but his base of support was too narrow to sustain his monarchy for long. Pollard 1993 discusses the various interpretations of the fates of the princes in the tower.
  1477. Horrox, Rosemary. Richard III: A Study in Service. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  1478.  
  1479. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1480.  
  1481. This is less a biography of the king than a prosopographical study of the king’s household and affinity both as Duke of Gloucester and as king. Horrox argues that Richard used the resources available to him to create the most synthetic and powerful affinity in the realm, but it was too regionally based and could not sustain his rule for any great length of time.
  1482.  
  1483. Find this resource:
  1484.  
  1485.  
  1486. Kendall, Paul M. Richard III. London: Allen and Unwin, 1955.
  1487.  
  1488. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1489.  
  1490. Kendall works to set a picture of Richard III different from the more traditional view. He sees Richard as a wise, powerful king who wished to bring order from chaos. Kendall argues that the death of Richard’s nephews was possibly the doing of the Duke of Buckingham, who may have murdered them without Richard’s order.
  1491.  
  1492. Find this resource:
  1493.  
  1494.  
  1495. Pollard, A. J. Richard III and the Princes in the Tower. Stroud, UK: Alan Sutton, 1993.
  1496.  
  1497. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1498.  
  1499. While Pollard concludes that Richard III was responsible for his nephews’ deaths, he also explores other theories of their demise. The book is well illustrated.
  1500.  
  1501. Find this resource:
  1502.  
  1503.  
  1504. Ross, Charles D. Richard III. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
  1505.  
  1506. Ross considers Richard III a competent and thoughtful king. He argues that Richard spent a great amount of money, time, and effort on his affinity in the North during his brother’s reign, which proved effective. But when he brought these men south after 1483 and injected them into local politics, they brought on political disaster. Thus regionalism ensured Richard’s downfall.
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