MEDIEVAL STUDIES MAGAZINE FROM MEDIEVALISTS.NET

MedievalVolume 2 Number 4 February 22, 2016

Dealing with Greek Debt,the Crusader way

Discovering a MedievalTown in Poland

An Interview with NancyGoldstone

8 11 26

The

Lost Battlefields of Wales

Magazine

Umberto Eco1932-2016

The Medieval Magazine February 22, 2016

How did medieval Europeansdeal with Greek debt? Theysacked their capital city

How archaeologissts were able to findNowa Nieszawa.

Discovering a Lost MedievalTown in Poland

Umberto Eco, medievalist andnovelist, passes away

He was both a leading scholar and a world-famous author who penned the medievalmurder mystery, The Name of the Rose.

The historian talks about her new bookThe Rival Queens.

An Interview with NancyGoldstone

Page 8

Page 11

Page 17

Page 26

A look at the crusaders decsion to divertthe Fourth Crusade to Byzantium.

THE MEDIEVAL MAGAZINE

Edited by:Peter Konieczny Website: www.medievalists.net This digital magazine is published eachMonday. Cover Photo: Umberto Eco in 1984 -photo from Dutch National Archives /Wikimedia Commons

4 7 8 11 17 21 23 26 30 34

Nearly 100 Medieval Skeletons discovered in Aberdeen Sweetheart Abbey Breviary acquired by National Library of Scotland How did medieval Europeans deal with Greek debt? They sacked their capital city Discovering a Lost Medieval Town in Poland Umberto Eco, medievalist and novelist, passes away Umberto Eco: In His Own Words Ragnar Shaggy-Trousers and Eystein Foul-Fart: the truth behind Viking names Interview with Nancy Goldstone Book Excerpt: Lost Battlefields of Wales Tales from Sacchetti: Roast Goose

Table of Contents

Nearly 100MedievalSkeletons

discovered inAberdeen

Medieval News

Nearly 100 medieval skeletons have been found by archaeologistsduring renovations to Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland. The galleryis undergoing a £30million transformation to create a world classcultural centre celebrating art and music..

Christine Rew, Aberdeen Art Gallery andMuseums Manager, said: "One of the planningconditions of Aberdeen Art Galleryredevelopment was to have anarchaeological watching brief as therenovation works took place. This reflectedthe importance of the site - the Dominicanfriary of the Black Friars - being within themediaeval heart of the city. "It is known that the friary included agraveyard, and that that a bone had beenfound just beyond the Art Gallery, when pre-development site investigations took placein 2012 and 2013. Earlier construction workin the 19thand 20thcenturies in the area alsofound burials.

"The archaeologists from AOC Archaeologyhave been on-site during the demolitions ofthe back premises, and within the gallery asexcavations were being made for thefoundations of the new main staircase. "Under the back premises, around 40disarticulated skeletons were found, in threewooden coffins and placed in a brick-builtchamber (known as a charnel house).Significant quantities of coffin wood, fixtures,fittings and furniture, and textile were alsofound. The find suggests that during aprevious development of the Gallery(possibly 19thcentury), these bodies werelifted and moved from where the buildingwork was taking place, boxed and put into thebrick chamber.

"Within the gallery itself, 52 skeletons werefound, as well as coins, coffin fixtures andfittings, coffin wood, textiles, ceramics, stoneartefacts, bricks, tiles and quantities ofanimal bone and shell. "As discovered and recorded, all theskeletons and other finds have been takenoff-site to the archaeology company's store.They are being cleaned and sorted first, andthen appropriate tests, including DNA, willbe undertaken to determine the approximatedate of the finds. A post-research report onthe excavations will also be written. "As a consequence of the finds constructionwork has been delayed by six weeks howeverit is not a critical time delay. The contractorhas indicated his intention to still completeon time, however we are now reviewing ourtimelines in case he is unable to. There is alsoa period of time between completion ofconstruction to enable air handling systemsto stabilise, and fit out the exhibitions priorto the planned date for opening in late 2017. "The Roman Catholic Bishop of Aberdeen hasindicated his wish to arrange thereinternment of the body found last year atthe corner of the Art Gallery, just outside thegateway to Robert Gordon College'squadrangle. These remains were discoveredwhen the Robert Gordon University engagedSSE to lay a new electric cable. It is expectedthat he will also wish to arrange a similarburial for the bodies found here." "We believe that this find contributesconsiderably to the knowledge we have ofthe medieval centre of the city, and we willlook to using this in telling more of the storyof the site when we re-open the Art Gallery,and will also use it in other ways. We will alsoapply to have the material finds returned tothe city once they have been analysed. Thereis a government process to determine wherefinds are located." Martin Cook, AOC project manager, said: "We

are hugely excited to be working on such anexciting project which will provide so muchinformation on Medieval Aberdeen. "Articulated skeletal remains of more than 50individuals have also been recovered fromformal graves. There is clear intercutting ofgraves, though each individual grave appearsto contain a single inhumation. "Further disarticulated remains includingfragments of skull have been recovered fromthe deposits associated with the formalburials. "In addition to the skeletal remains a largeartefact assemblage has been recoveredassociated with both the charnel and theformal burials. "The artefacts comprise metal objectsincluding significant quantities of coins,coffin fixtures and fittings, organic findsincluding coffin wood and textiles, ceramics,stone artefacts, bricks, tiles and quantities ofanimal bone and shell." Bruce Mann, archaeologist for AberdeenshireCouncil, who is contracted to work for the CityCouncil on this project, said: "We expectedto find some remains underneath the ArtGallery, but the 19thcentury building worksactually left more burials intact than we everimagined. This now presents a fantasticwindow into medieval life in Aberdeen." Jason Finch, curator of archaeology andmaritime history, for Aberdeen Art Gallery &Museums, said: "The finds are an exciting mixthat adds to the story of Medieval Aberdeenand everyday life in it. By examining theburials, we can learn about the lives peopleled and the injuries they suffered.

"Researching the surviving textiles andpersonal objects will give us a betterunderstanding of how people dressed, animalbones, and shells can tell us about their dietwhile pottery finds could show what they ateand drank from." In medieval times the focus of Aberdeen wasaround its large natural harbour and the mainstreets of Broad Street, Gallowgate and CastleStreet. The town was a centre for trade; potterywas imported by sea from England, NorthernFrance, the Low Countries and Rhineland. Silkfrom Italy and even a piece of elephant ivorywere excavated in Queen Street, showing howfar Aberdeen's trade links spread. At first thecivic life of Aberdeen was by the harbour butin the early 14thCentury this moved to thearea of Castlegate, due in part to flooding onthe waterfront. Religious life was important, fulfilling not onlypeople's spiritual needs but also providingeducation and social services. Whilst the siteof St Machar's Cathedral had been a focus forChristian activity since 6thCentury, there were

numerous churches and religious orders in thetown. A Dominican Friary was establishedbetween 1222 and 1249 on what was the edgeof Aberdeen and is now Schoolhill, where theArt Gallery stands within its grounds. Most of the people would have lived in housesmade of wattle-and-daub hatched withheather, rushes or straw. Some of the largerbuildings would have been roofed withpottery tiles but only a few would have beenbuilt of stone. Everyday life would be similartoday many people would have worked in theindustries and shops in the town while thediscovering of a bone skate in Queen Streetshows even in medieval times people wentice-skating.

An Anglo-Saxon Royal Palace complexLyminge, Kent

Sweetheart AbbeyBreviary acquired byNational Library of

Scotland

The early 14th century Breviary, fromSweetheart Abbey near Dumfries, is theLibrary’s most important medievalmanuscript acquisition for 30 years. It is anextremely rare example of a medievalreligious manuscript which was both writtenand used in Scotland. Unlike many remaining Scottish liturgicalmanuscripts, which exist as fragments only,the Sweetheart Breviary is an entire volumein a remarkably good condition. It consists of200 vellum leaves, and contains the text formany of the monastic prayers used each yearin medieval Scotland. Sweetheart Abbey was the last Cistercianmonastery to be established in Scotland. Itwas founded in 1273 by Dervorgilla de Balliol,mother of the Scottish king John Balliol, inmemory of her husband John de Balliol. Onher death in 1290, she was laid to rest next toher husband’s embalmed heart and the abbeywas named in her memory. The Breviary waswritten between 1300 and 1350. The first leaf of the manuscript bears a largeinscription in a medieval hand: ‘Liber sanctaeMariae de dulci corde [a book of St. Mary ofSweetheart]‘. Only four other manuscriptssurvive from the library of this abbey, bearingsimilar inscriptions, but none of these

volumes was apparently written in Scotland. The Breviary is remarkably compact and,although comparatively modest in decoration,is a very attractive volume. It includes acalendar, featuring a number of Scottishsaints, which further confirms its strongScottish connections. The Cistercian elementsin the liturgy are also in keeping with its originsand use at Sweetheart Abbey. Its whereabouts were unknown for some 300years until it recently came on the open marketin an auction in Vienna. Prior to that, the lastknown trace was in 1715, when it wasdescribed in the printed library catalogue ofthe English antiquarian Ralph Thoresby(1658-1725). ‘We are delighted to have made this significantaddition to the national collection. It is a raresurvival that will shed new light on ourcollective past,’ said National Librarian Dr JohnScally. The manuscript was purchased last year atauction for $56,500 (US). The National Libraryof Scotland had assistance and contributionsfrom The Friends of the National Libraries, TheSoutar Trust, The National Library of ScotlandFoundation, and the B H Breslauer Foundationin the purchase of this manuscript.

A monastic treasure written in Scotland 700 years ago has beenacquired by the National Library of Scotland.

How did medievalEuropeans deal

with Greek debt?They sacked their

capital cityHistorians of the Fourth Crusade (1202-04) have been seekingexplanations why the crusaders decided to sail to the Byzantinecapital of Constantinople instead of Egypt. Some believe that thecrusaders were tricked into doing it by the Doge of Venice or someother conspirator, while others argue that the decision to go toConstantinople was almost an accident, where unforeseen eventsled to the crusader army. But Savvas Neocleous, writing in the Journal of Medieval History,states “the real reason for the diversion to Constantinople in 1203by the Venetians and the crusaders, and for their subsequent attackon the imperial capital in 1204, was a simpler and, in their minds,increasingly pressing concern: the payment of outstanding debts.”

Neocleous’ article, Financial, chivalric orreligious? The motives of the FourthCrusaders reconsidered, reconstructs theevents of the Fourth Crusade, and shows thecrucial role a 34,000 silver mark debt owedby the Frankish leaders of the Crusade to theVenetians, played in the story. This debt came

from an April 1201 agreement betweenseveral important barons and the Venetianauthorities. Neocleous writes that thecrusaders had promised to pay the Venetians85 000 silver marks to help them transportacross the sea what they expected to be33500 men. But when only about a third

of those crusaders showed up at Venice, theirleaders could not come up with all the moneythey owed, leaving them in debt to theVenetians to the amount of 34,000 silvermarks. Neocleous explains “while the crusaderswere wintering at Zara (in late 1202), theywere approached by envoys from Philip ofSwabia. The envoys delivered a proposalmade jointly by Philip and his brother-in-law,Prince Alexios, son of the deposed ByzantineEmperor Isaak II (1185–95, 1203–4) – Philiphad married Alexios’ sister Irene. According

to this proposal, if the crusade on its way tothe East were to restore Alexios and his fatherto the throne of Byzantium, the patriarchateof Constantinople would be obliged to submitto the Roman Church and the crusaders wouldreceive 200,000 silver marks, as well asprovisions. Moreover, Alexios would join thecrusade as it continued on to its finaldestination, or would provide it with an armyof 10,000 men for one year.” The offer split the crusaders – many werevehemently opposed to making a detour

The Capture of Constantinople in 1204, oil painting by Tintoretto from 1580

from Egypt to assist the Byzantine claimant,but Neocleous shows the those Frankishleaders who were in debt to the Venetianswere the ones who were most eager to acceptthe deal. Neocleous adds that while thesecrusade leaders tried to promote the idea thatthey were more interested in the provisionsthat the Byzantine emperor could supply, orthat they were religiously-minded and hopedto bring the Greek church under Papalauthority, these in fact were just excuses withthe real agenda being to get the Byzantinemoney. Even Pope Innocent III was not fooledby their claims, and wrote to the crusaderleadership that they “‘might claim that theylaboured to this end [ecclesiastical unity];nevertheless, it seems to other people thatwhat they did they did more so to justifythemselves than out of devotion to theChurch.” The fleet of the Fourth Crusade did make itsway to Constantinople, where Prince Alexioswas able to take control of the Byzantinethrone, becoming Alexios IV. But it soonbecame clear that he could not deliver on hisend of the deal and pay the crusaders the 200000 silver marks he owed them. Neocleous writes: The crusaders’ only concern was to extractevery penny of the money due to them. When,after mid-November 1203, Alexios IV began tocool in his attitude towards the crusaders andmade only token payments to them, thecrusading leaders, according to Villehardouin,‘often sent to him [Alexios IV] and asked himfor the payment of the moneys due, as he hadcovenanted’. Similarly, Robert of Clari recordsthat the crusading leaders twice ‘asked theemperor for their payment’. In early December,after the flow of funds had ceased altogether,the barons finally decided to send envoys toAlexios to ask him to honour their contract,otherwise the crusaders ‘would seek their dueby any means they could’. One of the emissariessent to the imperial palace was Villehardouin.According to his first-hand account, uponadmission to the audience chamber, the

crusader envoys demanded that the emperorfulfil his commitments to the crusaders. If hefailed to do so, the crusaders would ‘strive toobtain their due by all the means they could’.The rank- and-file crusaders were not ignorantof this ultimatum. Robert of Clari records that‘all the counts and leaders of the army gatheredand went to the emperor’s palace anddemanded their money at once … [I]f he did notpay them, they would seize so much of hisproperty that they would be paid’. Alexios IV’s dispute with the crusaders overmoney was not his only problem – by January1204, the people of Constantinople had risenup in protest against their new ruler, and onthe night of January 27th he was overthrownand imprisoned (and would be strangled todeath a few days later). But this not changethe situation for the crusaders – they soonapproached the new ruler, Alexios V,demanding 5000 pounds of gold, which wasthe equivalent of about 90,000 silver marks,the amount that Alexios IV still owed them.When the new Byzantine emperor refused, theCrusaders decided the only way to recouptheir debts was to attack the city, which led toits fall on April 12, 1204. Constantinople wasthoroughly looted, with hundreds of Christianrelics being stolen and sent back to WesternEurope. For many observers and historians,this attack on a Christian city is a seen as alow-point in history of the crusade. Savvas Neocleous concludes that “despitevigorously proclaiming a range of high-minded motives when it suited them, the realreason for the diversion to Constantinople in1203 by the Venetians and the crusaders, andfor their subsequent attack on the imperialcapital in 1204, was a simpler and, in theirminds, increasingly pressing concern: thepayment of outstanding debts.” Neocleous' article, “Financial, chivalric orreligious? The motives of the Fourth Crusadersreconsidered,” appears in the Journal ofMedieval History, Volume 38, Issue 2 (2012).

Discovering a LostMedieval Town in

Poland

A three-dimensional, artistic digital reconstruction of New Nieszawa/Dybow onthe basis of non-invasive data (by J. Zakrzewski, S. Rzeznik, P. Wroniecki).

By Marcin Jaworski and Piotr Wroniecki

The 15th century city of Nieszawa, known bytwo names Nowa Nieszawa (New Nieszawa)or Dybów was a prosperous urban centre onthe border of the Polish Kingdom and theTeutonic Order. In nearly 40 years of itsexistence the city became the main rival ofthe Order’s city of Torun (Thorn), a memberof the Hanseatic League. The circumstancesof the town’s founding as well as destructionand translocation to the place where it islocated today were inseparably connectedwith the history of Polish-Teutonic strugglefor domination in the region and profit fromtrade in the middle and upper course of the

Vistula river – an important trade routeconnecting the Poland with the Baltic Sea.Nieszawa was deliberately located oppositeto Teutonic Torun in order to become aneconomic and political weapon in thisconflict. Nowa Nieszawa’s dynamicdevelopment could not be stopped neitherby Teutonic Order’s political demands,neither by its armed assaults, yet the city’ssuccessful competition was in the endawarded by destruction and translocation.Due to very fortunate coincidences the relictsof the city remained largely undisturbed forfive and half centuries until

modern archaeological techniques enabledto conduct non-invasive archaeologicalsurveys which brought it back on the mapsof medieval history. The history of the first location ofMedieval Nieszawa It is believed that in 1423 AD by the will ofPolish King and Lithuanian Grand DukeWladysław Jagiełło (Jogaila) a village calledNieszawa was located on the western bankof the Vistula river, opposite to TeutonicTorun. Not later than in the beginning of theyear 1424 the King granted town rights tothe settlement. Nowa Nieszawa developedvery rapidly, benefitting from its profitablelocation on the Vistula, near the bordercrossing through the from the rich Kuyaviaregion of Poland, through the Teutonic landsto the shore of the Baltic Sea. Its buildingswere mainly raised in timber or wattle anddaub construction, but the municipal andreligious structures (like the town hall orchurches) were built in brick. In the vicinityof the city to the east the Polish king built abrick castle called the Dybów Castle inbetween the years 1427-1430. The development of the city was stoppedwhen a successful raid in 1431by Teutonicknights and the townspeople of Torundestroyed it and put the area under Order’sjurisdiction for the next years. The overtakenDybów castle became the temporary seat ofthe Teutonic state’s administrative unit(called a commandry) formed on theoccupied lands on the western bank ofVistula. The area opposite to Torun, togetherwith the lands in Kuyavia and the Dybowskicastle returned to Poland after the treatysigned in 1436. It marked the reconstructionof Nieszawa and a new period of rapiddevelopment. Its basis consisted again of thefar-reaching trade of goods such as grain, fish,oil and beer. Economic rivalry on the Vistularesulted in numerous conflicts withmerchants from Teutonic Prussia. In the sameperiod, the citizenship in Nieszawa was

granted to refugees from the oppressivestate, and what is most interesting their socialstatus was irrelevant as they originated fromvarious layers of social stratum (knighthood,townsfolk or peasantry), which is testified byhistorical documents. Nieszawa was also ahome for a multicultural society consisting ofPoles, Germans, English, Czech, Dutch and aJewish community. With the rebellion of Prussian townspeopleagainst the Teutonic rule in 1454 came apolitical shift. After handing the authorityover the city to the Polish king, the rebelliouscitizens of Torun, who consequentlydemanded the destruction of Nieszawareceived a promise of fulfilment fromWładysław Jagiełło's son, KazimierzJagiellonczyk (Casimir IV) who ruled Polandat that time. The king postponed his decision,but the pressure in this period of economiccrisis forced him to subdue to the demands.He ordered the city to be destroyed andrelocated up the Vistula’s course. By the fallof 1464 the destruction of Nowa Nieszawawas complete, leaving only the Dybow castleon the grounds opposite to Torun. Nieszaware-emerged in the new area where it existsuntil present in the distance of over 30 kmseast of the place where it originallyprospered. Fifteen years of research The memory of the thriving city faded. Itsoriginal area was partially destroyed andtransformed in time through regulation ofVistula’s course, construction of anti-floodembankments and development of modernurban infrastructure. The interest in the pasturban organism was raised duringarchaeological fieldwork at the Dybow castlecommissioned to Lidia Grzeszkiewicz-Kotlewska by Torun’s Heritage Office.Fieldwork in the surroundings of the castlestarted in 1990 through application of a GPR,followed in consequent seasons by testtrenching.

Aerial photography revealing details of constructions in the western part of thestudied area with a clearly emerging frontage and a centrally located object, June

2012 (by W. Stępien).

By 2002 a number of 32 trenches have beendocumented, revealing a cultural layer datedto 15th c, including relicts of building inwooden and brick construction. Aerial surveyof the fields west to the castle started in 2001as documentation of the excavations, butturned into a consequent annual observationand documentation of the vast area. In 2006,through the application of aerialarchaeology, it was possible to registervisible crop marks, forming regular patternsof rectangular shapes. Their recurrence infollowing years allowed to assume that theremight be a system of archaeologicalstructures present in the subsoil. This initial archaeological and aerial surveymotivated a large scale, complex non-invasive survey with the application ofgeophysical methods. The fieldwork in2012-2014 consisted of magnetic, earthresistance and magnetic susceptibility

measurements that covered the overall areaof almost 50 hectares. The survey registeredgeophysical anomalies that testified to theexistence of remains of a vast urban organismwith a clearly organised spatial pattern.Integration and juxtaposition of the obtaineddata, together with the results of previousstudies resulted in recreation of the spatiallayout of the city and creation of digital 3Dmodels reconstructing the hypotheticalshape of the city. On the basis of the current state of researchon the site of Medieval Nieszawa, we canpicture a city located by the Vistula river,occupying an area of nearly 22 hectares onthe span of 700 metres. The central place ofthe city was its town square in a shape of arectangle with sides measuring up to 120metres. Inside this space administrativebuildings such as the town square with theweight building as well as commercial

structures were located. Pairs of broadstreets led away from the square, formingNieszawa’s arteries and blocks of urban plots.Plots consisted of a frontal building and fewor no structures in its back. The west side ofthe city is where a secondary open area waslocated, probably serving as a market place.On the opposite east side a church waslocated, that survived until 18th century,dedicated to St. Nicolaus. Its remains werestudied by Lidia Grzeszkiewicz-Kotlewska. Nowa Nieszawa was a vibrant merchant city,inhabited by a few thousand people from allaround the Polish Kingdom andcontemporary European states. It possesseda dense architectural structure, an enormoustown square, carefully plotted blocks ofurban plots with space for religious andmunicipal buildings, commercial areas andstorage buildings for trade goods (like f.ex.the granaries for grain). Past years ofarchaeological research resulted in theconclusion that the effort put in location and

development of Nowa Nieszawa was anextensive economical and political strategyaimed against the Teutonic Order and its plansfor domination in the river trade and region. Past fifteen years of experience A summary of past fifteen years of experiencehas been published in a form of a monographpublication called In search for the lost city:15 years of research of Medieval location ofNieszawa. The book is published by the Lodzcity branch of Scientific Association of PolishArchaeologists (SNAP Lodz) and The Instituteof Archaeology of Lodz University as acollective work consisting of theme papersprepared by the circle of scholars involved inthe research on the course of past one andhalf decade. The book consists of anelaboration of historic sources concerningthe city, followed by reports on various stagesof field exploration.

Detailed results of magnetic gradiometry prospection. A) Possible western gatewith bridge, B) Remnants of the St. Nicholas Church, C) Town Square, D) Western

town district (P. Wroniecki)

A three-dimensional,artistic digital

reconstruction of NewNieszawa, view from

the Vistula (by J.Zakrzewski, T.

Mełnicki).

The cover of themonographpublication

summarising 15 yearsof research ofMedieval New

Nieszawa (by J.Sikora).

A geomorphological report studies thenatural conditions present at the site. Aerialsurvey conducted in the years 2001-2014 issummarised and illustrated by numerouspictures of the site in annually changingconditions. A summary of all seasons ofexcavations is accompanied by archivephotographic documentation and drawingsof artefacts. Results of geophysical surveywith application of magnetic, Earthresistance and magnetic susceptibilitymeasurements are aided by illustrations ofthe results and their interpretation. The textis filled with digital three-dimensionalartistic reconstructions of the city. Thecurrent state of knowledge is summarised inan urban analysis based on historic,archaeological and non-invasive data.Although published and intended for thePolish scientific community the publicationcontains also a summary in English. The publication provides a complex scientificdescription of individual stages of research,first aimed at location of the city’s site,afterwards at recognition of its spatial layout.The research effort consisting of historical

documents’ query, test trenching, aerialprospection, environmental analysis,magnetic prospection, Earth resistance andsoil susceptibility surveys, digital modellingand spatial analysis resulted in creation of acomplex work summarising the state ofknowledge about the forgotten 15th centuryNowa Nieszawa. What’s most important isthat the reconstruction in its main part isbased on non-invasive prospection, thatallowed for recreation of the urban structureand its confrontation with previousdocumentation and historical sources. Theresults of non-destructive prospectionshowed clearly that the investment in thelocation of the city was a deliberate effortundertaken in order to provide benefit in thecenturies old conflict of the Polish Kingdomwith the State of the Teutonic Order. The publication of the monograph was co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture andNational Heritage. The book is soon to bepublished online on the project’s site:staranieszawa.pl. You can also watch a digitalreconstruction of the city in this video:

This account, from the History of the Journeyof Jerusalem by Albert of Aachen, illustratesa little-known aspect of the First Crusade -that while the crusaders were fighting onegroup of Muslims, they were also workingwith another group. In this artic

Umberto Eco,medievalist

and novelist,passes away

Umberto Eco, who gained international fame for his novelThe Name of the Rose, passed away on Friday. He was 84. Born in Alessandria, Italy, Eco studied medievalphilosophy and literature at the University of Turin, writinga thesis on St. Thomas Aquinas. In an interview from2008, he was asked about his interest in the Middle Ages: If I had to explain it, I would say that it’s because the periodis exactly the opposite of the way people imagine it. Tome, they were not the Dark Ages. They were a luminoustime, the fertile soil out of which would spring theRenaissance. A period of chaotic and effervescenttransition—the birth of the modern city, of the bankingsystem, of the university, of our modern idea of Europe,with its languages, nations, and cultures.

This account, from the History of the Journeyof Jerusalem by Albert of Aachen, illustratesa little-known aspect of the First Crusade -that while the crusaders were fighting onegroup of Muslims, they were also workingwith another group. In this artic

Eco would continue his academic career inItaly, and in 1959 published Sviluppodell’estetica medievale (this would betranslated into English in 1985 under the titleArt and Beauty in the Middle Ages), whichsummarized his views on medieval aestheticideas. His academic career continued toflourish as he became a leading expert insemiotics - the study of signs and symbolsand how they are used. His research wouldencompass a vast number of topics, rangingfrom media studies to anthropology and fromSuperman to differences between Apple andMicrosoft computers. Eco would also teach at Columbia Universityand Harvard University, before retiring asprofessor emeritus at the University ofBologna in 2008. According to a statementfrom the University of Bologna, “he was anextraordinary intellectual, a deep and acutethinker, the last of the great writers able toembrace all forms of knowledge. It was hewho taught us that in order to subvertlanguages and expression, it is necessary firstof all to understand them.”

Umberto Eco once said, “I think of myself asa serious professor who, during the weekend,writes novels.” His novels, however, gainedhim worldwide fame, beginning with TheName of the Rose, which was first publishedin Italian in 1980. Soon translated into otherlanguages, the work would sell more than 14million copies and be made into a Hollywoodfilm. Set in in Italian abbey during the year1327, it follows a monk named William ofBaskerville as he tries to deal with both heresyand murder at the monastery. As onereviewer commented, “although the workstands on its own as a murder mystery, it ismore accurately seen as a questioning of‘truth’ from theological, philosophical,scholarly, and historical perspectives.” Nancy Marie Brown, who has authored severalbest-selling non-fiction works on the MiddleAges, recalls the influence this work had onher: “I was in graduate school studyingmedieval literature when "The Name of theRose" came out and reading it was a mind-blowing experience. It made me realize Ididn't have to choose between writing booksand studying them--I could do

both. And that so-called "popular" bookscould be as intellectually demanding--andrewarding--as anything written for theacademy. The Ivory Tower was a myth.” Eco would go on to write several more novels,most of which were set in past historicalperiods. His novel, Baudolino, published in2000, gives us the story of a 13th-centuryknight who meets the Byzantine historianNiketas Choniates and tells him his life-story.The account he offers is full of wild eventsand strange lands, leaving the reader todebate how much of it could be true. His final novel, Numero Zero, was releasedlast year. Set in Italy in 1992, the work is athriller involving journalists who discover adeadly conspiracy. Meanwhile, over theyears he has produced several non-fictionworks, including Semiotics and thePhilosophy of Language, Travels inHyperreality, and Kant and the Platypus:Essays on Language and Cognition. His 2011book, Confessions of a Young Novelist, offersa look at his own writing process and someof the important influences on both hisscholarship and his literary skills. Many medievalists have commented on theimpact Eco has had on their field. RichardScott Nokes, Associate Professor of Englishat Troy University, explained that “perhapsEco's important influence was indirect. Bymarrying rich philosophical and linguistictraditions with popular culture, his work

acted as an example to medievalists studyingpopular medievalism. The field might havebeen vapid or silly, but Eco's work set adaunting standard. Simply put, you had to beon your scholarly game to avoid lookingfoolish next to Eco.” When asked about his writings and legacy,Eco gave this answer: I don’t believe one writes for oneself. I thinkthat writing is an act of love—you write in orderto give something to someone else. Tocommunicate something. To have other peopleshare your feelings. This problem of how longyour work can survive is fundamental for everywriter, not just for a novelist or a poet. The truthis, the philosopher writes his book in order toconvince a lot of people of his theories, and hehopes that in the next three thousand yearspeople will still read that book. It is just as youhope that your kids survive you, and that if youhave a grandchild he survives your children.One hopes for a sense of continuity. When awriter says, I am not interested in the destinyof my book, he is simply a liar. He says so toplease the interviewer. Umberto Eco passed away on February 19th,after a two-year battle with cancer. He issurvived by wife, Renate Ramge Eco, aGerman art teacher whom he married in 1962and their son and daughter.

Photo by hiroaki maeda / Flickr

Umberto Eco: Advice to the Young

Baudolino: Lying About the FutureProduces History

Umberto Eco: In His Own WordsOn being a scholar and a novelist: "I think if you look in the door of every academic person you find a novel or a book of poems.It's very difficult to say whether I would rather be a scholar or a novelist, because it dependson what I am writing at that moment. Psychologically I feel linked to the academic worldmore than these groups of writers. Voila, if you tell me I have to choose I would have preferredto be a scholar. With a sort of medieval pride for knowledge and scorn for the craftsmanshipof the writer. "You see, from the point of view of a man like Thomas Aquinas, theologians and philosopherswere dealing with truth, while a poet was dealing with lies, so his activity was certainly notconsidered a perfect activity like the contemplation of truth."

- The Guardian, August 14, 1993 On writing about his research: "When I presented my doctoral dissertation on the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas - a verycontroversial subject since at that time scholars believed there were no aesthetic reflectionsin his immense body of works - one of my examiners charged me with a sort of “narrativefallacy.” He said that a mature scholar, when setting out to do some research, inevitablyproceeds by trial and error, making and rejecting different hypotheses; but at the end ofthe inquiry, all those attempts should have been digested and the scholar should presentonly the conclusions. In contrast, he said, I told the story of my research as if it were adetective novel. The objection was made in a friendly manner, and suggested to me thefundamental idea that all research findings must be “narrated” this way. Every scientific bookmust be a sort of whodunnit - the report of a quest for some Holy Grail. And I think I havedone this in all my subsequent academic works."

- Confessions of a Young Novelist (2011) On Semiotics: "Semiotics is interested with all those devices we use in our everyday life to make somethingpresent which is not there. We can speak of God, mother, Ireland, Antarctica, we can do itthrough words, or maps, or through a photograph. It is our common human activity to gocontinuously beyond the limits of the crude physical presence. Semiotics is interested inall of this, and in trying to see if there is a unified set of intellectual instruments to analyzethese phenomena."

- Worcester Telegram & Gazette, December 6, 1996

He gives four answers on why he wrote The Name of the Rose: 1) "I was approaching my fifties, an age in which a gentleman usually escapes to MonteCarlo with a chorus girl. It was less expensive to write a novel." 2) "Every person has a narrative impulse. I told my kids beautiful stories. Then they grewup, so I had to find other kids to tell my stories to." 3) "To feel young. If I published another scholarly book, I knew the reaction it would get.I'm still excited by it, but it's no challenge. To start as a novelist was to pass an exam." 4) "At a certain moment I liked to do it. That is sufficient reason to do anything, providedit is not illegal."

- The Globe and Mail, June 21, 1983 On why The Name of the Rose reads like a medieval chronicle: "No author writes not to be understood. It was not by chance that I adopted the style of themedieval chronicle. The style of the medieval writer was very didactic - they explainedeverything. And I think by adopting this style, the book has been able to capture peoplewho would have otherwise escaped."

- The Globe and Mail, December 5, 1985 On his novel Baudolino: "Baudolino was a good opportunity to return to my beloved Middle Ages, to my personalroots, to my fascination with fakes. But this was not enough. I did not know how to start,what kind of style to use, or who my real hero was.... "I must acknowledge, however, that Baudolino likewise depends on a first, poignant image.I had long been fascinated by Constantinople, which I had never seen. In order to have areason to visit it, I needed to tell a story about this city and the Byzantine civilization. So Iwent to Constantinople. I explored its surface and the layers beneath, and I found thestartling image for my story: the city being set on fire by the Crusaders in 1204. "Take Constantinople in flames, a young liar, a German emperor, and some Asian monsters,and you have the novel. I admit that this does not sound like a convincing recipe, but forme it worked. "I must add that by reading widely on Byzantine culture, I discovered Niketas Choniates, aGreek historian of that period, and I decided to tell the whole story as a report by Baudolino- a supposed liar - to Niketas. I also had my metanarrative structure: a story in which notonly Niketas but even the narrator and the reader are never sure of what Baudolino isrecounting."

- Confessions of a Young Novelist (2011)

Vikings are pretty trendy of late. Marvel’s Thorfilms, for example, gave Viking mythology theHollywood treatment and plonked itscharacters in contemporary America. Therehave been multiple Viking exhibitions, andthe new season of the History channel’s showVikings, loosely based on the legendaryIcelandic sagas, is about to hit the smallscreen, too. So you may find it hard to avoid overhearingdetails of the adventures of Vikings' KingRagnar Lothbrok and his fellows in comingweeks. Undeniably, the names of thetelevision show’s characters, such as BjornIronside, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Ivarthe Boneless, stand out jarringly from theusual linguistic landscape, and with theconfirmation of new characters being addedto the cast, this horde of oddball Norse namesis sure only to get weirder. High time, I think, for a masterclass on Vikingnames.

In all societies names are important linguisticsignifiers of identity. They also carry historicalinformation in various ways. In the modernEnglish-speaking world, for example, peopleare familiar with the convention of givennames paired with a surname – e.g. JosephHenry Bloggs. But the names of Viking-Age Scandinavianstypically consisted of single given namescombined with patronymics marking paternaldescent. As an example, let’s take thelegendary hero Ragnar himself. Written in OldNorse, the sagas describe Ragnarr Sigurðsson(Ragnar, the son of Sigurd). This conventionis particularly useful for tracing genealogies.Rather than following the tangled branchesof a surname’s family tree, these names moreclearly convey genealogical information andcan be linked together to neatly unpack familyhistories. In all societies names are important linguisticsignifiers of identity. They also carry

Ragnar Shaggy-Trousers and

Eystein Foul-Fart:the truth behind

Viking namesBy Keith Ruiter

historical information in various ways. In themodern English-speaking world, forexample, people are familiar with theconvention of given names paired with asurname – e.g. Joseph Henry Bloggs. But the names of Viking-Age Scandinavianstypically consisted of single given namescombined with patronymics markingpaternal descent. As an example, let’s takethe legendary hero Ragnar himself. Writtenin Old Norse, the sagas describe RagnarrSigurðsson (Ragnar, the son of Sigurd). Thisconvention is particularly useful for tracinggenealogies. Rather than following thetangled branches of a surname’s family tree,these names more clearly conveygenealogical information and can be linkedtogether to neatly unpack family histories.For example, using the sagas, Ragnar’s name

could be expanded further to RagnarrSigurðsson, Randvéssonar (Ragnar, the sonof Sigurd, the son of Randvér). This structure,still in use in Iceland today, has allowedmodern Icelanders to reliably trace theirfamily histories for a millennium. But if he was born Ragnarr Sigurðsson, wheredoes Lothbrok come from, and what does itmean? The third common component ofViking-Age Scandinavian names was anickname, Ragnar’s being Lothbrok, orloðbrók in Old Norse. So his full name isRagnarr loðbrók Sigurðsson. Nicknames wereespecially important to Viking-AgeScandinavians, as evidence suggests thattheir stock of given names was extremelythin.

19th century artist's impression of the death of Ragnar Lothbrok - Etching byHugo Hamilton

Apart from introductions, sagas tend todescribe their characters solely by their firstand nickname for easier identification. Thisis why we most often hear about Ragnarrloðbrók, rather than his full name. An individual’s nickname could even becomeso ubiquitous that it replaced a given name,as pointed out by Diana Whaley. Shehighlights examples from the sagas, such asa Thorgrim, named after his father (ÞorgrímrÞorgrímsson), who was renamed Snorri, anickname describing his tempestuousnature. Though Viking-Age Scandinavians placedgreater importance on nicknames than manyof us do today, their nicknames functionedin the same way we’re used to: eachdescribed a particular aspect of anindividual’s nature or life that carriedparticular resonance. This was not alwaysdesirable: names such as Ulf the Squint-Eyed,Eirik Ale-Lover, Eystein Foul-Fart and somethat are even worse demonstrate that peoplerarely had a say in the nicknames they carried. The makers of the Vikings TV series haveattempted to address the idea of Vikingnicknames and where they come from,particularly those of Ragnar’s sons, butRagnar’s nickname – Lothbrok – has goneunexplored and has even been used almostlike a surname in the series. This is probablybecause it means “shaggy trousers”. At firstthis hardly seems a nickname befitting aViking warrior king, but then again, neitherdoes Finehair, the nickname of one of theconfirmed new characters being introducedto the show, Haraldr Hárfagri. Heroic trousers But while some nicknames are downrightslanderous, Ragnar’s and Harald’s are in noway belittling. In fact, they actually containinformation about the heroic exploits of theirbearers. The sagas tell us that Ragnar earnedhis nickname from his use of shaggy

garments to protect against the bites of agiant serpent he killed, while Harald earnedhis by swearing never to cut nor comb his hairuntil he had conquered the whole of Norway. Other names convey something about thephysical attributes of their bearers: such asWalking Hrolf, who apparently was too big tobe borne by a horse, or Thorsteinn Dromund,who purportedly moved as slowly as a greatwarship. Some can even reveal somethingabout the way the individual dressed or theirinternational outlook: such as Bare-leggedMagnus, who is recorded in one source ashaving adopted a more Gaelic fashion sense,and Olaf Sandal, who seems to have taken towearing contemporary Irish footwear – whenhe is named in sources, his nickname evenusually appears in its Irish form. These nicknames are essential to historicalor fictional portrayals of these characters.Whether used in a medieval saga, or a moderntelevision series, they connect characters tocomplex webs of allusions, involving familyhistories, personal back stories, and evenmore distantly related tales. They were vitalin driving the narratives of the sagas andtoday are an under-utilised resource forreimaginings of these stories. Keith Ruiter is a Doctoral Candidate in

Scandinavian Studies, University ofAberdeen

This article was first published in The

Conversation

Interview withNancy Goldstone

Author of The Rival Queens

In her newest book, The Rival Queens: Catherine de’Medici, HerDaughter Margeurite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited aKingdom, Nancy Goldstone investigates the political and religiousturmoil of sixteenth-century France and the tense mother-daughter relationship at the centre of both. As with her other books,readers of The Rival Queens get a close look at the role of womenlargely forgotten by history and yet a pivotal part of it. I got in touchwith Nancy to ask her about her book, women in history, and thefamily whose idea of a great wedding is straight out of Game ofThrones.

By Danièle Cybulskie

DC: What drew you to the Valois court, and especially Marguerite, in the first place? NG: I am fascinated by the lives of powerful women who have been overlooked byhistorians. In the Medieval and Renaissance periods, this meant focusing on queens,as they typically exercised more authority than other aristocratic women (althoughthere were of course exceptions). Queens were also the most likely to be involvedin, and possibly influence, key European events like wars, or major shifts in the balanceof power or diplomacy. I had already researched and written books about several remarkable queens of the13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, and was curious about the 16th. Obviously, ElizabethI was a dominant figure who did not require investigating—there are certainly noshortage of works devoted to her reign! But because Elizabeth is so well known, shetends to overshadow the other important women in the period. What about the Valoiscourt in France, I thought?

After all, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is one of the central episodes of thecentury, right up there with the battle at Lepanto and the Spanish armada. And whatdid I—or anyone—really know about Marguerite de Valois, other than that she wasthe title character of Alexandre Dumas’s much beloved classic novel, La Reine Margot?So I started to research her life and understood instantly that she was nothing at alllike the woman portrayed in the Dumas novel or by historians, who generally mentiononly that she was the bride in the wedding that kicked off the massacre, and rarelyrefer to her again. In fact, Marguerite was highly intelligent, the best educated memberof her family (which is important because it is her mother who always gets the creditfor being well read), and a potent political force in her own right. In other words,exactly the kind of woman I like to write about. DC: There are certainly a lot of intrigues and antagonists in the French royal family(to say the least!). What made you decide to centralize Marguerite’s relationshipwith Catherine de Medici instead of, say, her relationship with Henri III (her brother)? NG: It became apparent early on that there was no way to explain Marguerite’s lifeor character (or the deliciously corrupt Valois court) without talking about her mother.Catherine’s was the dominant ethos in France for over a quarter century. Also, therehave been other books on Catherine de’ Medici, but none that focus on her relationshipwith her youngest daughter. That’s because the authors of those books

simply accepted the prevailing historical opinion that Marguerite was a marginalfigure at court, a sort of a sixteenth-century good-time party girl who put her ownsexual needs ahead of her responsibilities to the kingdom. I obviously disagree. Butmore to the point, there was the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre to address. A weddingthat went that spectacularly bad—that was a mother-daughter relationship worthpoking into, I thought. DC: You begin each chapter with a quote from Machiavelli’s The Prince. Why did youwant to draw this connection between Machiavelli and your two queens? NG: It is a commonplace that Catherine de’ Medici was a disciple of Machiavelli, andthat she cunningly played off the various factions at court—Catholic and Huguenot—according to the sinister blueprint provided in The Prince. But although I’m sureshe was familiar with the book, she seems not to have grasped what she was readingvery well. If you look at the quotes I include at the beginning of each chapter, youwill see that in almost every case she does exactly the opposite of what Machiavellirecommends! I would go so far as to say that it is Machiavelli who is maligned byhaving Catherine associated with his philosophy, rather than the other way around.I did not find Catherine to be particularly intelligent in her handling of the court, orthe kingdom at large. She was simply expedient, and frequently made promises andnegotiated treaties that she had no intention of keeping, and after awhile her subjectsknew that her word could not be trusted and this worked against her. DC: Is there one character or story you came across in your research that you wouldhave liked to explore more in depth? NG: I would definitely have liked to be able to discuss the later stages of Henry IV’scareer—what he did after he divorced Marguerite and became king of France—as itwas during this period that he developed into one of history’s great monarchs. But itwas already getting to be a long book and there just wasn’t time for that. I would alsohave loved to go more deeply into the lives of Marguerite’s two sisters, Elizabeth,who married Philip II, king of Spain (poor girl), and Claude, who married the duke ofLorraine. Again, it was a matter of having so much material to get through just onMarguerite and Catherine that there wasn’t space left to pursue tangential characters,however fascinating. DC: You seem to be drawn to important women whom history has in large partforgotten or vilified (Yolande of Aragon, Joanna of Naples, Marguerite de Valois).What is it about them that you find so compelling? NG: When I was growing up, if I wanted to read about a woman who had actuallyaccomplished something, I had exactly three choices: Florence Nightingale, ClaraBarton, and Helen Keller. Even when I studied history in college, the only time I canever remember that women were mentioned was during my American colonial periodclass. The women were of course the Salem witches, and as most of them were hanged,they could hardly be considered powerful female role models.

It wasn’t until I was older, and writing European history, that I stumbled across amention in the chronicle of Matthew Paris, a 13th century Benedictine monk, of thefour daughters of the count of Provence who all became queens—queen of France,queen of England, queen of Germany (queen of the Romans), and queen of Sicily.Even from the little I was able to glean from the chronicle I could see that thesewomen, who I had never heard of, exercised real power. Instantly curious, I went tofind a book about them. Of course there was nothing and it was then that I realizedthat if I wanted to read a book about these sisters, I was going to have to write itmyself. So I did, and discovered that it was impossible to really understand what wasgoing on in 13th century Western Europe without this family. That taught me a big lesson: history makes a lot more sense when you put the womenback in. So that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. DC: I couldn’t agree more! So, what are you working on next? NG: I’m writing a book about an unbelievably courageous woman, Elizabeth Stuart(granddaughter of Mary, queen of Scots), and her four daughters, Elizabeth, LouiseHollandine, Henrietta Maria, and Sophia. Elizabeth Stuart, known as the Winter Queen,has been credited with starting the Thirty Years’ War when she and her husband,Frederick, accepted the crown of Bohemia. Hers is an epic tale—danger, romance,adventure, intrigue, tragedy, sometimes when I’m doing the research I am so caughtup in the documents that I barely breathe—and her daughters are even better. Theeldest, Elizabeth, was an internationally recognized scholar and Descartes’s muse;the second daughter, Louise Hollandine, was an accomplished painter (and this isduring the time of the golden age of the Dutch, one of the great periods in art history),the third sister, Henrietta Maria, married the prince of Transylvania; and the youngest,Sophia, a gifted writer who employed Leibniz as her personal secretary, inheritedEngland. The members of the current royal family, up to and including Prince Williamand Kate Middleton’s adorable children, are all descended in an unbroken line directlyfrom Sophia. As a family saga, it’s sort of a combination Gone With the Wind andPride and Prejudice—Sophia wrote her memoirs and, hilariously, she sounds just likeJane Austen—and I feel absolutely privileged having the opportunity to tell it! DC: And we’re excited to read it! My thanks to Nancy Goldstone for speaking with usabout The Rival Queens. For more from Nancy Goldstone, check out Four Queens:The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe; The Maid and the Queen: The Secret Historyof Joan of Arc; and The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples,Jerusalem, and Sicily.

Follow Danièle Cybulskie on Twitter@5MinMedievalist

LostBattlefields

of WalesBy Martin Hackett Amberley Publishing, 2016ISBN: 9781445655222The rugged but beautiful land of Wales was a refuge for the ancient Britons aswaves of invaders attacked and settled other parts of Britain. The Britons enduredin the mountain strongholds against these raids, eventually becoming the Welshpeople, the ancestors of the Cymry of today; forming a land of small kingdomsruled by Welsh princes. In this book, Martin Hackett takes us on a journey through the military historyof Wales, looking at the armies involved and the weapons they used. He coversthe length and breadth of the country, examining in detail twenty-four battlesthat have shaped the history of Wales, beginning with the guerrilla campaignsof the Celts against the Romans and moving through the defensive wars againstthe Saxons and Normans, followed by the great rebellions of the Llywelyns andOwain Glyndwr against the English invaders. The book is completed by theEnglish Civil War and the French invasion of Fishguard during the NapoleonicWars. Profusely illustrated throughout with maps and photographs, this book bringsto life these forgotten milestones of Welsh history, many of which are truly lostbattlefields without memorials to commemorate their turbulent past.

Read an excerpt: 893 Buttington (Welshpool) – Powys Buttington today is a very small hamlet situated on the wide plain of the Severn Valley,some 4 miles inside the Welsh border, and it lies close to the modern course of theRiver Severn. There is an inn and a church and a small number of houses and farmsand, recently, a small industrial estate. The market town of Welshpool is a furthermile to the west and the remains of the important Dark Age monument of Offa’s Dykerun close by. With regard to the majority of Dark Age battle sites, modern historianshave little or no written evidence to enable them to identify one location from another;this, when coupled with the lack of archaeological evidence available for those battlesfought more than 1,000 years ago, makes an exact identification of a battle site evenharder.

Given the literary evidence available from cross referencing the entry for the year893 in the ASC, together with the archaeological evidence from the ArchaeologiaCambrenesis, it is clear that this hamlet of Buttington is the exact site of a Dark Agebattle and as such it makes Buttington a gem among all battlesites in both Wales andBritain. This is what the ASC says:

When the King had turned west with the army towards Exeter, as I have said before,and the Danish army had laid siege to the borough, they went to their ships whenhe arrived there. When he [the king] was occupied against the army there in the west,and the [other] two Danish armies were assembled at Shoebury in Essex, and hadmade a fortress there, they went both together up along the Thames, and a greatreinforcement came to them both from the East Angles and the Northumbrians. Theythen went up along the Thames until they reached the Severn, then up along theSevern. Then Ealdorman Ethelred and Ealdorman Aethelhelm and EaldormanAethelnoth and the King’s thegns who then were at home at the fortresses assembledfrom every borough east of the Parret, and both west and east of the Selwood, andalso north of the Thames and west of the Severn, and also some portion of the Welshpeople. When they were all assembled, they overtook the Danish army at Buttington,on the bank of the Severn, and besieged it on every side in a fortress. Then when theyhad encamped for many weeks on the two sides of the river, and the King was occupiedin the west in Devon against the naval force, the besieged were oppressed by famine,and had eaten the greater part of their horses and the rest had died of starvation.Then they came out against the men who were encamped on the east side of theriver, and fought against them, and the Christians had the victory. And the King’sthegn Ordheah and also many other King’s thegns were killed and very great slaughterof the Danes was made, and the part that escaped were saved by flight.

In 893, King Alfred the Great, ruler of Wessex, was preoccupied with a Danish invasionin the south-west of England. This is supported by evidence elsewhere in the mostimportant written source for the period, the ASC, where the entry for 893 states thattwo Danish fleets with a combined force of 140 ships was making for Exeter. At thistime, another Danish force, apparently made up from four different armies, was makingits way up the River Thames and then up the River Severn until it was overtaken byEnglish and Welsh forces at Buttington, near Welshpool. Accordingly, King Alfred sentthree ealdormen to gather what men they could to tackle this new threat, which hadappeared so surprisingly far inland. An ealdorman was an appointed and sometimeshereditary title carried by a man who, in conjunction with the sheriff, was responsiblefor the administration of a shire. Their importance in military terms is that they werealso responsible for commanding the armed force of their shire, the levy or fyrd, onbehalf of the king whenever, and to wherever, the monarch so commanded. At Buttington the Danes either occupied an existing fort or earthwork or constructeda defensive position of their own. From the east came an English army and a similarlysized Welsh force appeared on the west bank opposite them; although the Saxonsand the Welsh were often at war, the appearance of a Viking force meant that old

differences were put aside for the moment as the Vikings were in this instance theenemies of all. This position meant that effectively the heathens were surroundedand they were then besieged in this state for some weeks. This was an impossibleposition for the Danes; they had no way of escape without conflict and very littlechance of their supplies being replenished by any kind of relief force. Accordingly,with their food supplies gone and their numbers and fitness declining, they were leftwith no alternative but to try and fight their way out. To head west would be suicidal;they would have needed to cross the Severn and fight a Welsh army with the advantageof ground and with an English army at their heels. The only logical way was thereforeeast and back down the Severn valley, but straight into the arms of the waiting Englishtroops. This meant that the Danes would only have been facing one enemy, as theWelsh army would probably have been forced to remain isolated on the far bank ofthe Severn as it seems unlikely that there was any means of crossing the Severnquickly; for the Vikings to have arrived there at all meant that the River Severn hadbeen in a swollen state to allow the Viking ships to progress so far inland. It is the author’s belief that this Danish army made its way to Buttington by water.The Danes, in common with other Vikings, were master boat builders and built avariety of differently sized ships based on their requirements. All Danish ships wereof shallow draught and capable of moving fast, even when rowed against wind andtide while carrying not only men but also horses and supplies. These ships werecapable of carrying anything from a dozen to 100 men, and when on long voyagesthe men on the ships would work in shifts, half of the men resting while the othersrowed; this meant that the ships could be kept moving at all times. When returningdownriver, the river would carry them and their booty, meaning that the majority ofthe crew could rest before their return home, whether that was a base on the Britishmainland or a distant fjord in Scandinavia. The Severn is known to have been navigableas far as Poolquay, just 2 miles north-east of Welshpool, until the last century.Wroxeter, located 5 miles west of modern Shrewsbury, was the key Roman town inShropshire; in the second century AD it was serviced by Roman craft making theirway up the Severn. Indeed, the stone from which the church at Wroxeter is constructedcarries marks indicating that the stones were once part of the Roman quay that servedthe 200-acre site of the Roman and then British city.

Click here to visit the Amberley Publishingto learn more about this book

Messer Filippo Cavalcanti, a canon of Florence, expects to eat roast goose onthe evening of All Saints' Day, but he is deprived of it in a very strange manner. I will now relate the tale of a goose, which was stuffed with larks and other fat birds,and which, as soon as it was cooked, fell into the hands of certain persons who ate itup, while he to whom it belonged was left supperless on the evening of All Saints'Day. Not many years ago there dwelt in Florence, in the Porta del Duomo, certainyouths who determined among themselves to keep the feast of All Saints withouttrouble and without cost, at the expense of someone else. So on the evening of AllSaints they went about to certain bakehouses and took away the roast geese fromthe men and maid-servants who were carrying them home. It was very late when theycame to the bakehouse in the Piazza de' Bonizi, and standing without, well concealed,they watched the servants coming to fetch their dishes from the oven, and heard onesay, "Give me the goose for the Ricci." When the youths heard the name of Ricci theysaid, "We cannot take this"; and if the servants said for the Medici, or the Adimari,the youths refrained, from touching it likewise. At last there came a servant of Bergamowho said, "Give me the goose belonging to Messer Filippo Cavalcanti " (he was acanon of Santa Reparata), and the youths said one to another, "This is the goose for us.” And when the servant had got the goose in the covered dish, as was usual, he set outto carry it to the house of Messer Filippo, who live in that street below the towerwhere there is a tavern and it is very dark. When the youths saw the man walk awaythey followed him, and when he reached the door, which was fastened, and began to

Tales from Sacchetti

Roast GooseWe bring you another tale from a work called Novelle by FrancoSacchetti. Sacchetti was a 14th-century Italian novelist and poet,who spent most of his life in Florence. He wrote various works, butis most remembered for the about 300 short stories he made. Itis difficult to know which tales are real and which parts are fictitious,but often they are very funny and offer a look at the daily lives ofmedieval people that we rarely see.

knock, two seized his arms, one took the goose, while a fourth laid hold of the manfrom behind, and then, suddenly letting go of him, they all fled away like goats. In aloud voice the servant then began to call to Messer Filippo, who had not yet openedthe door: "Oh! Messer Filippo, the goose is running away. Oh! Messer Filippo, the goose isrunning away!" Hearing that, Messer Filippo hastened to the door, crying, “How can the goose runaway? And a pox on you! Is it not killed and cooked?" Bnt the servant only repeated: "I tell you that it is running away! Come quickly!" "May you be cut in pieces; but how can it run away? Is it alive?" And with these wordsMesser Filippo reached the door and opened it. And the servant cried: "Alas, master, some gluttons have stolen the goose from me!" Said Messer Filippo: "Wherefore couldn’t you not say, ‘The goose hath been stolen?’ May you be hanged, as surely they will be!” And he ran full twenty paces down the street, crying, "Thieves!" The neighbours rushed forth, asking, "What is it? What is it?" And he replied: "How the devil say’s, 'What is it?’ My goose hath been stolen as itcame from the oven!” Then said the servant : "You spoke roughly to me because I said that the goose wasrunning away, and now you say that it was coming from the oven. How could comeif it was dead and not alive!" Messer Filippo gazed fixedly at the man and said: "This is worse than all, that myservant should begin to argue with me after he had let the goose be taken from him.Get you gone, and see to it that we have garlic for supper, and a pox on you and mayall evil befall you!" Some neighbours, who were holding their sides with laughter in the darkness, nowsaid: "Have patience, Messer Filippo." And be replied, " Patience why! Is it not enough to make one deny one's faith?" "Will you not come and sup with me?" asked one of the neighbours. But he was soexcited that either he did not hear or did not understand; all his thoughts were intentupon those little birds with which the goose was stuffed and which were helping it

to fly away. Then he returned to his house, and all the evening he quarrelled with theservant and kept saying: "If I can but discover who had taken it, that man shall neverlook upon a goose again in his life without aversion." But they were vain word, and he was obliged to go without the goose and eat somethingelse, and he lamented over it for a very long time. There is a saying, "The glutton holds one opinion, and the innkeeper another." Andwe are told to have patience, but so far there are few or none who desire it.

Detail of a duck or goose from a medieval manuscript - British Library MS Additional 26968 f. 249v

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