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English And British Royal Mistresses
In the English or British court, a royal mistress is a woman who is the lover of a member of the royal family; specifically, the king. She may be taken either before or after his accession to the throne. Although it generally is only used of females, by extrapolation, the relation can cover any lover of the monarch, whether male or female. Elizabeth I is said to have had many male favourites, including Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, although it is not known whether the relationships were sexual or not. Monarchs have had an incentive to take mistresses in that they generally made dynastic marriages of convenience, and there was often little love in them. Doctors also believed until the relatively recent past that it was unsafe for a man to have sex with a pregnant woman, which was another factor in regards to a king's decision to look outside of his marriage for intimacy. Beyond the physical relationship, the royal mistress has often exercised a profound influence over the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Fair Rosamund
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ) and later christened by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante chose to write in the vernacular, specifically, his own Tuscan dialect, at a time when much literature was still written in Latin, which was accessible only to educated readers, and many of his fellow Italian poets wrote in French or Provençal dialect, Provençal. His ' (''On Eloquence in the Vernacular'') was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Florentine dialect for works such as ''La Vita Nuova, The New Life'' (1295) and ''Divine Comedy'' helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language. His wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Brooks (historian)
Nicholas Peter Brooks, FBA (14 January 1941 – 2 February 2014) was an English medieval historian. Biography Nicholas Brooks was educated at Winchester College, and graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1961 with a degree in history. His doctoral studies on the Anglo-Saxon charters in the archive of Canterbury Cathedral, also undertaken at Oxford, were supervised by Dorothy Whitelock, and provided the basis for his monograph ''The Early History of the Church of Canterbury'', published in 1984. Brooks was lecturer and then senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of St Andrews from 1964 until 1985, when he was appointed to the chair of medieval history at the University of Birmingham; in 1989 he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy. From 1991 to 2013 he was chairman of the British Academy's Anglo-Saxon charters project, co-editing the two volumes on the Canterbury archive, published in 2013, with Susan Kelly; he also chaired the British Academy's Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liber Eliensis
The ''Liber Eliensis'' is a 12th-century English chronicle and history, written in Latin. Composed in three books, it was written at Ely Abbey on the island of Ely in the fenlands of eastern Cambridgeshire. Ely Abbey became the cathedral of a newly formed bishopric in 1109. Traditionally the author of the anonymous work has been given as Richard or Thomas, two monks at Ely, one of whom, Richard, has been identified with an official of the monastery, but some historians hold that neither Richard nor Thomas was the author. The ''Liber'' covers the period from the founding of the abbey in 673 until the middle of the 12th century, building on earlier historical works. It incorporates documents and stories of saints' lives. The work typifies a type of local history produced during the latter part of the 12th century. Similar books were written at other English monasteries. The longest of the contemporary local histories, the ''Liber'' chronicles the devastation that the Anarchy c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thegn
In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were held by a thane as well as the rank; an approximately equivalent modern title may be that of baron. The term ''thane'' was also used in Early Middle Ages, early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers, and ''thane (Scotland), thane'' was a title given to local royal officials in medieval eastern Scotland, equivalent in rank to the child of an earl. Etymology ''Thegn'' is only used once in the laws before the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939), but more frequently in charters. Apparently unconnected to the German language, German and Dutch language, Dutch word '' '' ('to serve'), H. M. Chadwick suggests "the sense of subordination must have been inherent... from the earliest time". It gradually expanded in meaning and use, to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealdorman
Ealdorman ( , ) ''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government in Anglo-Saxon England, government of Anglo-Saxon England. During the 11th century, it evolved into the title of earl. Early use The Old English word ''ealdorman'' was applied to high-ranking men. It was equated with several Latin titles, including , , , and . The title could be applied to kings of weaker territories who had submitted to a greater power. For example, a Anglo-Saxon charters, charter of King Offa of Mercia described Ealdred of Hwicce as "''Ecgberht, King of Wessex#Subregulus, subregulus''... ''et dux'' ()." In Wessex, the king appointed ealdormen to lead individual shires. Under Alfred the Great (), there were nine or ten ealdormen. Each West Saxon shire had one, and Kent had two (one for East Kent and o ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyril Roy Hart
Cyril Roy Hart (born 1923) is an amateur historian of Anglo-Saxon England. He is a retired general practitioner who published books and articles on medical subjects, but who is mainly known for his extensive contributions to Anglo-Saxon history. Hart was born on 16 May 1923 at his grandparents' home, 12 Benson Avenue, East Ham, an eastern suburb of London. After Hart had qualified as a physician, he turned to the serious study of history and gained a master's degree at Leicester University under the supervision of Herbert Finberg. He published several studies of Anglo-Saxon charters which, in the view of Simon Keynes and Alfred Smyth, secured him a reputation on a par with leading professional historians. He went on to publish ''The Danelaw'', described by Keynes and Smyth as "a monumental work running to 700 pages of immensely detailed scholarship". In their view his researches "have revolutionised our understanding of Anglo-Saxon history". In 2006 leading historians published ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Williams (historian)
Ann Williams (born 1937) is an English medievalist, historian and author. Before retiring she worked at the Polytechnic of North London, where she was Senior Lecturer in Medieval History. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Society of Antiquaries and a research fellow at the University of East Anglia. Her numerous works include: * ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales, c.500–c.1050'', Routledge (1991), with Alfred P. Smyth and David Peter Kirby, D. P. Kirby. Williams wrote the English entries. * ''The English and the Norman Conquest'' (Woodbridge, 1995) * ''Land, Power and Politics: the family estates and patronage of Odda of Deerhurst'' (Deerhurst, 1997) * ''Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c. 500–1066'' (London, 1999) * ''Æthelred the Unready: the ill-counselled king'' (London, 2003) * ''The World Before Domesday: the English aristocracy, 900–1066'' (London, 2008) References * Williams, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury (; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of Classical antiquity, classical, patristic, and earlier medieval times as well as in the writings of his own contemporaries. Indeed William may well have been the most learned man in twelfth-century Western Europe." William was born about 1095 or 1096 in Wiltshire, England. His father was Normans, Norman and his mother English. He spent his whole life in England and his adult life as a monk at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. Biography Though the education William received at Malmesbury Abbey included a smattering of logic and physics, moral philosophy and history were the subjects to which he devoted the most attention. The earliest fact which he records of his career is tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Of Worcester
John of Worcester (died c. 1140) was an English monk and chronicler who worked at Worcester Priory. He is now usually held to be the author of the . Works John of Worcester's principal work was the (Latin for "Chronicle from Chronicles") or ''Chronicle of Chronicles'' (), also known as John of Worcester's Chronicle or Florence of Worcester's Chronicle. The is a world history which begins with the Creation and ends in 1140. The chronological framework of the was presented by the chronicle of Marianus Scotus (d. 1082). A great deal of additional material, particularly relating to English history, was grafted onto it. Authorship The greater part of the work, up to 1117 or 1118, was formerly attributed to Florence of Worcester on the basis of the entry for his death under the year 1118, which credits his skill and industry for making the chronicle such a prominent work. In this view, the other Worcester monk, John, merely wrote the final part of the work. However, there are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osbern Of Canterbury
Osbern of Canterbury or Monk Osbern ( 1050 – c. 1095) was a Benedictine monk, hagiographer and musician, precentor of Christ Church, Canterbury. Biography Osbern was born at Canterbury and brought up by Godric, who was dean from 1058 to 1080, his term living through the Norman Invasion. He became a monk, and later precentor of Christ Church, and was ordained by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury (d. 1089). He died probably between 1088 and 1093. He was acquaintances, and probably close friends, with Eadmer of Canterbury, a fellow monk and historian of Canterbury a few years his junior. Eadmer related a story in which the two, in the late 1080s, searched for the relics of Saint Audoen in the crypts of Christ Church, Canterbury. Upon finding the relics, they were delighted, but the same night, were haunted by "dreadful apparitions". Eadmer was greatly influenced by the writing style and memories of Osbern, who could better recall late Anglo-Saxon England, and he would later rewri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
