Elizabeth A. R. Brown

Last updated
Elizabeth A. R. Brown
Elizabeth A. R. Brown, juin 2013.jpg
Born16 February 1932  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (age 92)
Language English language   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Notable awardsFellow of the Medieval Academy of America  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Elizabeth Atkinson Rash Brown (born February 16, 1932) is a professor emerita of history at Brooklyn College, of the City University of New York, [1] a scholar and published author, known for her writings on feudalism. She received her B.A. from Swarthmore College and A.M. and PhD. from Radcliffe College and Harvard University. In 2009 Elizabeth A. R. Brown was elected the Second Vice-President of the Medieval Academy of America and in 2010-2011 served as its president. [2]

Contents

With her groundbreaking article "The Tyranny of a Construct: Feudalism and Historians of Medieval Europe" (1974) Brown initiated an ongoing inconclusive discussion as to whether use of the term feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society. [3] In her critique, Brown highlights the potential for constructs to influence research agendas and warns constructs that we use to analyze the past can be exclusive. [4]

Works

Monographs

ISBN   0-915651-00-9 (0-915651-00-9)
ISBN   0-87169-827-7 (0-87169-827-7)
ISBN   0-86698-155-1 (0-86698-155-1)
ISBN   0-86078-279-4 (0-86078-279-4)
ISBN   0-87169-785-8 (0-87169-785-8)
ISBN   0-86078-298-0 (0-86078-298-0)

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feudalism</span> Legal and military structure in medieval Europe

Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip IV of France</span> King of France from 1285 to 1314

Philip IV, called Philip the Fair, was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 1284 to 1305, as well as Count of Champagne. Although Philip was known to be handsome, hence the epithet le Bel, his rigid, autocratic, imposing, and inflexible personality gained him other nicknames, such as the Iron King. His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him: "He is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis X of France</span> King of France from 1314 to 1316

Louis X, known as the Quarrelsome, was King of France from 1314 and King of Navarre as Louis I from 1305 until his death. He emancipated serfs who could buy their freedom and readmitted Jews into the kingdom. His short reign in France was marked by tensions with the nobility, due to fiscal and centralisation reforms initiated during the reign of his father by Grand Chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip III of France</span> King of France from 1270 to 1285

Philip III, called the Bold, was King of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philip, who was accompanying him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip V of France</span> King of France from 1316 to 1322

Philip V, known as the Tall, was King of France and Navarre from 1316 to 1322. Philip engaged in a series of domestic reforms intended to improve the management of the kingdom. These reforms included the creation of an independent Court of Finances, the standardization of weights and measures, and the establishment of a single currency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fief</span> Right granted by overlord to vassal, central element of feudalism

A fief was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal allegiance, services, and/or payments. The fees were often lands, land revenue or revenue-producing real property like a watermill, held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting, fishing or felling trees, monopolies in trade, money rents and tax farms. There never existed a standard feudal system, nor did there exist only one type of fief. Over the ages, depending on the region, there was a broad variety of customs using the same basic legal principles in many variations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Principality of Achaea</span> Crusader principality in medieval Peloponnese, Greece

The Principality of Achaea or Principality of Morea was one of the vassal states of the Latin Empire, which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica was captured by Theodore, the despot of Epirus, in 1224. After this, Achaea became for a while the dominant power in Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France in the Middle Ages</span> France from the 10th to 15th centuries

The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities, and the creation and extension of administrative/state control in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Gaillard</span> French medieval castle in Les Andelys, Normandy

Château Gaillard is a medieval castle ruin overlooking the River Seine above the commune of Les Andelys, in the French department of Eure, in Normandy. It is located some 95 kilometres (59 mi) north-west of Paris and 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Rouen. Construction began in 1196 under the auspices of Richard the Lionheart, who was simultaneously King of England and feudal Duke of Normandy. The castle was expensive to build, but the majority of the work was done in an unusually short period of time. It took just two years and, at the same time, the town of Petit Andely was constructed. Château Gaillard has a complex and advanced design, and uses early principles of concentric fortification; it was also one of the earliest European castles to use machicolations. The castle consists of three enclosures separated by dry moats, with a keep in the inner enclosure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip III of Navarre</span> King of Navarre from 1328 to 1343

Philip III, called the Noble or the Wise, was King of Navarre from 1328 until his death. He was born a minor member of the French royal family but gained prominence when the Capetian main line went extinct, as he and his wife and cousin, Joan II of Navarre, acquired the Iberian kingdom and a number of French fiefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crisis of the late Middle Ages</span> Unstable period in European history, 14th-15th century

The crisis of the late Middle Ages was a series of events in the 14th and 15th centuries that ended centuries of European stability during the late Middle Ages. Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society: demographic collapse, political instability, and religious upheavals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aragonese Crusade</span> 13th-century military campaign

The Aragonese Crusade (1284–1285), also known as the Crusade of Aragon, was a military venture waged by the Kingdom of France against the Crown of Aragon. Fought as an extension of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), the crusade was called by Pope Martin IV in retribution for Peter III of Aragon's intervention in Sicily, which had damaged the political ambitions of the papacy and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humbert II of Viennois</span> 14th-century French nobleman

Humbert II de la Tour-du-Pin was the Dauphin of the Viennois from 1333 to 16 July 1349. Humbert was the last dauphin before the title went to the French crown, to be bestowed on the heir apparent.

Li livres de jostice et de plet(z) is an Old French legal treatise compiled by the postglossators of the school of Orléans in the mid-thirteenth century. It was influenced by canon law, Roman law, the customary law of the Orléanais, and the legislation of the Capetian Kings of France. It does not have the sense of a finished work, possesses lacunae, and is somewhat disorganised, being possibly the work of a student of the University of Orléans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry I of France</span> King of the Franks from 1031 to 1060

Henry I was King of the Franks from 1031 to 1060. The royal demesne of France reached its smallest size during his reign, and for this reason he is often seen as emblematic of the weakness of the early Capetians. This is not entirely agreed upon, however, as other historians regard him as a strong but realistic king, who was forced to conduct a policy mindful of the limitations of the French monarchy.

A chancery or chancellery is a medieval writing office, responsible for the production of official documents. The title of chancellor, for the head of the office, came to be held by important ministers in a number of states, and remains the title of the heads of government in modern Germany and Austria. Chancery hand is a term for various types of handwriting associated with chanceries.

Gabrielle Michele Spiegel is an American historian of medieval France, and the current Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University where she served as chair for the history department for six years, and acting and interim dean of faculty. She also served as dean of humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004–2005, and, from 2008 to 2009, she was the president of the American Historical Association. In 2011, she was elected as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Blanche of France, nun at Longchamp Abbey, was the fourth and youngest daughter of King Philip V of France and Countess Joan II of Burgundy.

A Loveday was a day, in Medieval England, assigned to arbitrate between parties and resolve legal differences under arbitration rather than common law. They were held between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, by which time they had died out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affinity (medieval)</span> Group of men a lord gathered around him

In post-classical history, an affinity was a collective name for the group (retinue) of (usually) men whom a lord gathered around himself in his service; it has been described by one modern historian as "the servants, retainers, and other followers of a lord", and as "part of the normal fabric of society". It is considered a fundamental aspect of bastard feudalism, and acted as a means of tying magnates to the lower nobility, just as feudalism had done in a different way.

References

  1. "Fall 08 Newsletter" (PDF). Medieval Academy News. 161 (Fall 2008): 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-19.
  2. "MAA Annual Meeting 2009 Report". Archived from the original on 2008-12-25. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  3. Amitrajeet, Amitrajeet A. "Review of "The Coming of Neo Feudalism" by Joel Kotkin". Rochester Institute of Technology.
  4. Laughlin, Kathleen A. et all (2010). "Is It Time to Jump Ship? Historians Rethink the Waves Metaphor". Feminist Formations. 22 (1): 76–135. doi:10.1353/nwsa.0.0118. S2CID   145237650.