The commandery of the Temple of Barbera (Tarragona) was one of the leading ones of the Crown of Aragon, thanks in part to the collaboration of one of the most notable ‘Templar families’: ...Queralt-Timor of Santa Coloma. From the beginning of this commandery in the last decades of the twelfth century, they had been its main benefactors and, later on, provided the Militia with knights of the first rank (Pere II de Queralt, Jaume de Timor, Arnau de Timor, Dalmau de Timor...). They were all professional warriors and took an active part in the conquests which the monarchy carried out in the thirteenth century. But in addition, the Queralt family developed a continuous matrimonial policy which linked it by marriage to the different main lineages of the country, also connected to the Temple: Castellnou, Anglesola, Rocaberti… This article is particularly interested in the life and activities of these individuals with the intention of re-evaluating their contribution and giving them the place they deserve in the history of the Temple.
Abstract This article aims to elaborate on the relationships between Georges Castriota Scanderbeg and noble families from Drivasto. Drivasto was an Albanian medieval city located in the Northern ...Albania, about 12 km away from Shkodra. Its origin dates to antiquity but it has achieved its cultural, economic, and political peak during the Middle Age. Drivasto had its schools, church, and social life. The city elite consisted of noble families, such as Engjelli, Spani, Suma, Moneta, and Dushmani. The city elite played an important role in the resistance against the establishment of Ottoman rule in Albanian lands, so many figures deriving from that elite closely cooperated with Georges Castriota Scanderbeg. They used their diplomatic and military background to transmit Scanderbeg’s claims abroad or to fight against the Ottomans. Therefore, this article aims also to elaborate on the social aspects of the society of Drivasto and its role in political circumstances, aiming thus to present to the audience some historical and social features and international relations during the Middle Age. The first part of this scientific research provides a brief presentation about the city of Drivasto during the Middle Age, continues with noble families and their role and cooperation with Scanderbeg; lastly summarises circumstances that derived from the return of Scanderbeg until the year 1478 when Drivasto fell under the Ottoman rule. The work “The nobility of Drivasto and Scanderbeg” derived of intensive scientific research. The comparative and synthetic methodologies have been used to draft this article.
When the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, jubilant crusaders returned home to Europe bringing with them stories, sacred relics, and other memorabilia, including banners, ...jewelry, and weapons. In the ensuing decades, the memory of the crusaders' bravery and pious sacrifice was invoked widely among the noble families of western Christendom. Popes preaching future crusades would count on these very same families for financing, leadership, and for the willing warriors who would lay down their lives on the battlefield. Despite the great risks and financial hardships associated with crusading, descendants of those who suffered and died on crusade would continue to take the cross, in some cases over several generations. Indeed, as Nicholas L. Paul reveals inTo Follow in Their Footsteps, crusading was very much a family affair.
Scholars of the crusades have long pointed to the importance of dynastic tradition and ties of kinship in the crusading movement but have failed to address more fundamental questions about the operation of these social processes. What is a "family tradition"? How are such traditions constructed and maintained, and by whom? How did crusading families confront the loss of their kin in distant lands? Making creative use of Latin dynastic narratives as well as vernacular literature, personal possessions and art objects, and architecture from across western Europe, Paul shows how traditions of crusading were established and reinforced in the collective memories of noble families throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Even rulers who never fulfilled crusading vows found their political lives dominated and, in some ways, directed by the memory of their crusading ancestors. Filled with unique insights and careful analysis,To Follow in Their Footstepsreveals the lasting impact of the crusades, beyond the expeditions themselves, on the formation of dynastic identity and the culture of the medieval European nobility.
Late medieval and early modern Scottish history has seen much recent work on 'kingship' and 'lordship'. But the 15th century and the 16th century are usually studied separately. This book brings them ...together in a fitting collection in tribute to Jenny Wormald, one of the few scholars to bridge this divide. Inspired by Jenny's work, the contributors tackle questions including: How far can medieval themes such as 'lordship' function in the late 16th-century world of Reformation and state formation? How did the Scottish realm fit into wider British and European patterns? What did it mean for Scotland to be a 'medieval' kingdom, and when did it cease to be one? The volume contains detailed studies of particular episodes alongside thematic pieces which cover longer periods, while some chapters also range beyond Scotland. It takes stock of the continuities and contrasts between medieval and early modern Scotland, and challenges traditional demarcations between these two periods.?
Key Features
* Novel bridging of separate periods in Scottish history
*Cutting edge work by leading scholars
*Sets Scotland in a broader context
Originally published in 1987. David Higgs's Nobles in Nineteenth-Century France: The Practice of Inegalitarianism provides a history of the nobility against the backdrop of changing French political ...conditions following the French Revolution. Since Jean Juarès, the influential historian of the French Revolution, many writers have argued that the French Revolution marked the political triumph of a capitalist bourgeoisie over a landed aristocracy. However, beginning with Alfred Cobban, some historians began to question this account by focusing on the continued presence of the nobility in France. This book contributes to this body of work by giving a panorama of the French nobility and three detailed case studies of noble families; the author then concludes with an examination of the nobility in political life, the church, and the private sphere. Professor Higgs finds that French nobles changed with their century, but given their small numbers in the national population, they maintained a grossly disproportionate presence in politics, in culture, among the wealthiest landowners, and in economic life.
Dress became a testing ground for masculine ideals in Renaissance Italy. With the establishment of the ducal regime in Florence in 1530, there was increasing debate about how to be a nobleman. Was ...fashionable clothing a sign of magnificence or a source of mockery? Was the graceful courtier virile or effeminate? How could a man dress for court without bankrupting himself? This book explores the whole story of clothing, from the tailor's workshop to spectacular court festivities, to show how the male nobility in one of Italy's main textile production centers used their appearances to project social, sexual, and professional identities. Sixteenth-century male fashion is often associated with swagger and ostentation but this book shows that Florentine clothing reflected manhood at a much deeper level, communicating a very Italian spectrum of male virtues and vices, from honor, courage, and restraint to luxury and excess. Situating dress at the heart of identity formation, Currie traces these codes through an array of sources, including unpublished archival records, surviving garments, portraiture, poetry, and personal correspondence between the Medici and their courtiers. Addressing important themes such as gender, politics, and consumption, Fashion and Masculinity in Renaissance Florence sheds fresh light on the sartorial culture of the Florentine court and Italy as a whole.
Individuals buried in two 17th–18th Century private chapels, each attached to a Franciscan Friary—one in Italy the other in Denmark—have been studied and sampled for trace element analysis. This ...selection of individuals allows a comparison of the trace element inventory of members of noble families against friars and townspeople, as well as a comparison between two very similar situations in Denmark and Italy. The relevance of this study is to see if and how differences in social status, and therefore likely differences in dietary habits, are reflected in the trace element chemistry of the bones. Samples of cortical and trabecular tissues have been procured from a long bone, preferentially the femur. The samples have been thoroughly decontaminated. 87 samples from 69 individuals have been analysed for Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Sr, Ba, and Pb by ICP-MS and Hg by CV-AAS. Sex and age at death have been established by anthropological analysis for all members of the two noble families. We find systematic differences between the noble family members and the friars (or townspeople) in both Italy and Denmark. The noble families are in both cases low in Sr and Ba compared to the friars and townspeople, which is interpreted as a dietary signal resulting from higher meat consumption than in the comparative groups. Lead concentrations are found to be higher in the noble family members than in the comparative groups, and the Pb concentration seems to increase with age in the Italian noble family, where both young and middle-aged individuals were investigated. Mercury concentrations are higher in some of the Italian noble family members compared to friars and townspeople; whereas in Denmark it seems that Hg was equally available to the noble family members and the friars alike. This is the first comprehensive and comparative study of post-medieval noble families in Denmark and Italy. The results show that there are distinct similarities in the trace element distribution patterns in the noble family members irrespective of country, which is tentatively suggested to be due to their higher social status.
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