Medieval Europe
Medieval Christianity: More complicated than you might think (or at least more complicated than I thought)
For one reason and another I’ve been hanging out in that dark and troubled period between the “fall” of Rome and the rise of Charlemagne.* It seemed like the conflict between believers in Arianism and other versions of Christianity popped up wherever I went. Which confused me. Everything I knew about Arianism could be summed…
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Warriors, Bishops and Long-Haired Kings
These days I’m not reading many Big Fat History Books that I’m prepared to recommend to the Marginalia. It’s not that I’m not reading. At the moment I have five different library cards on active rotation in my wallet and carefully segregated piles of books from three different libraries on my study floor. When I…
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Isabella of Castile: Europe’s First Great Queen
A while back I reviewed Sarah Gristwood’s Game of Queens, a wonderful account of the powerful women who ruled (directly or indirectly) in sixteenth century Europe. Giles Tremlett’s masterful biography of Isabella of Castile is in some ways the prequel to Gristwood’s account. Tremlett sums up the theme of his book in its sub-title: Europe’s…
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