Office: Holton 328
Phone: (414) 229-5767
Messages: History Department, tel. (414) 229-4361
E-mail: carlin@uwm.edu
Home page: http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:00-2:00 PM, and by appointment
The medieval castle was much more than a fortress; it was medieval society in microcosm. Castles were the homes not only of the lords and ladies who owned them, but also of the master builders who designed and built them, the young people who studied and trained in them, and the knights, priests, clerks, physicians, accountants, lawyers, tutors, trainers, administrators, entertainers, cooks, artisans, servants and soldiers who worked in them. In this course we will use original medieval texts and images, surviving buildings, archaeological evidence, and the work of modern scholars to examine the many facets of life in the medieval castle.
You will require an e-mail account and access to the Internet for this class. All registered students at UWM are assigned free UWM e-mail accounts, and have free Internet access from UWM computers.
Grading and deadlines: There will be two class meetings each week. You will be assessed on both your class participation and your written work. Fifty percent of your grade will be based on your class attendance and participation. This includes doing the assigned reading on time, before coming to class, and taking an active part in discussions and other in-class work. The other fifty percent of your grade will be based on your weekly research and writing assignments (described at end of syllabus).
Your grade will be lowered if you miss class, except in genuine cases of illness or emergency. Assignments are due on the dates specified. Late work will not be accepted, except in genuine cases of illness or emergency.
If you have a disability, please contact me early in the semester for
any help or accommodations you may need.
There are two required textbooks:
Gies, Joseph and Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval Castle (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1974; rpt Harper & Row, 1979. (Listed below in Topics and Readings as "Gies and Gies, Life.")
Macaulay, David. Castle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
There will also be required reading assignments from Internet
resources (see Topics and Readings) and from the books and articles listed
below, which are on reserve in the library and are also available on e-reserve.
RESERVE READINGS FOR HISTORY 192
Bennett, Matthew. "The Medieval Warhorse Reconsidered." In Medieval
Knighthood, V. Papers from the Sixth Strawberry Hill Conference, 1994.
Ed. Stephen Church and Ruth Harvey. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press,
1995, pp. 19-40.
Call no.: CR4513 I34 1994
----------. "The Status of the Squire: The Northern Evidence." In The
Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood. Papers from the First and Second
Strawberry Hill Conferences. Ed. Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey.
Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1986, pp. 1-11.
Call no.: CR4513 I34 1986
Gies, Frances, and Joseph Gies. Marriage and Family in the Middle
Ages. New York: Harper and Row, Perennial Library, 1987.
Call no.: HQ513 G53 1987
----------. Women in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper and Row,
Perennial Library, 1978.
Call no.: Q1143 G53 1978
Holmes, Urban Tigner, Jr.. Daily Living in the Twelfth Century.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952.
Call no.: CB353 H65
Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century.
New York: Barnes and Noble, 1965.
Call nos.: DA185 L3 and DA185 L3 1980
Paterson, Linda M. "Military Surgery: Knights, Sergeants, and Raimon
of Avignon's Version of the Chirurgia of Roger of Salerno (1180-1209)."
In The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood, II. Papers from the
Third Strawberry Hill Conference, 1986. Ed. Christopher Harper-Bill
and Ruth Harvey. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1988, pp. 117-146.
Call no.: CR4513 .I34 1988
Peirce, Ian. "The Knight, His Arms and Armour in the Eleventh and Twelfth
Centuries." In The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood. Papers
from the First and Second Strawberry Hill Conferences. Ed. Christopher
Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1986,
pp. 152-164.
Call no.: CR4513 I34 1986
Pisan, Christine de. The Treasure of the City of Ladies.
Trans. Sarah Lawson. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, and New York: Penguin,
1985, pp. 128-133.
Call no.: PQ1575 L56 E52x 1985
Pounds, N. J. G. The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Social
and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Call no.: DA660 P68 1990
Prestwich, Michael. Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English
Experience. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996.
Call no.: DA60 .P74 1996
Shahar, Shulamith. Childhood in the Middle Ages.
Trans. Chaya Galai. London and New York: Routledge, 1990, pp. 209-224,
320-325.
Call no.: HQ792 E8 S53 1990
There is a useful online Timeline of British History, 1066-1487,
which includes brief biographies of English kings, at:
http://www.britannia.com/history/time2.html
TOPICS AND READINGS FOR CLASS
Week 1 INTRODUCTION; THE NORMANS COME TO ENGLAND
3 September Introduction to course
Important: before class on 5 September, send an e-mail message,
giving your name,
e-mail address, postal address, and telephone number, to Prof. Carlin at
carlin@uwm.edu
5 September Gies and Gies, Life, pp. 8-20 (mid-page)
J. H. Robinson: Why study history through primary sources? (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: William I (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1186ASChron-William1.html
Week 2 EARLY CASTLES AND THEIR LORDS
10 September Assignment 1 due (map assignment)
Gies and Gies, Life, pp. 1-7, 20-31
Labarge, Introduction (pp. 9-17)
12 September Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 2 (pp. 32-56)
Henry of Huntingdon: Baronial behavior in Stephen's reign,
1135-54 (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/henry-hunt1.html
Week 3 BUILDING THE CASTLE
17 September Assignment 2 due
Macaulay, pp. 5-37
Pounds, pp. 102-6, 126-9
19 September (Freshman Scholars Picnic, 10:45 am - 1:30 pm, Holton Green)
Macaulay, pp. 38-63
Master James of St. George: biographical sketch, and letter concerning
building progress at Beaumaris Castle (see both URLs below)
http://www.castlewales.com/jsgeorge.html
http://www.castlewales.com/beau3.html
Week 4 THE CASTLE AS A HOUSE
24 September Assignment 3 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 3 (pp. 57-74)
Holmes, pp. 18, 178-195
26 September Labarge, Chap. 1 (pp. 18-37)
Holmes, pp. 82-87
Description of a manor house, 1265 (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chingford.html
A poor knight's household, from Chrétien de Troyes, Erec and
Enide,
vv. 342-546 (URL below)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Erec/
Week 5 THE LADY OF THE CASTLE
1 October Assignment 4 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 4 (pp. 75-94)
Labarge, Chap. 2 (pp. 38-52)
3 October Gies and Gies, Women in the Middle Ages,
Chap. 7 (pp. 120-142) [Note that
this is a different book by the Gieses than your course textbook!]
Pisan, Part II, Chaps. 9-10, pp. 128-133: "Of baronesses," and "How
ladies and young women who live on their manors ought to manage their
households and estates"
Week 6 THE CASTLE HOUSEHOLD AND ECONOMY
8 October Assignment 5 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 5 (pp. 95-108)
Labarge, Chap. 3 (pp. 53-70)
10 October Labarge, Chap. 4 (pp. 71-85), Chap. 6 (pp. 102-115), Appendix (pp. 189-201)
Household Expenses of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, 1313-14 (7-8 Edw.
II)
(URL below)
http://www.saradouglass.com/primdocs/expenses.html
Week 7 LIFE IN THE CASTLE
15 October Assignment 6 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 6 (pp. 109- 124), and Chap. 11 (pp. 206-216)
John Russell, Boke of Nurture (15th cent.): How to serve one's
master
(URL below)
http://www.saradouglass.com/primdocs.bedtime.html
17 October Labarge, Chaps. 7-8 (pp. 116-149)
Holmes, pp. 87 (bottom)-94
Week 8 CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE IN THE CASTLE
22 October Assignment 7 due
Gies and Gies, Marriage and the Family, pp. 196-217 [Note that this
is a different
book by the Gieses than your course textbook!]
Sophie Oosterwijk, "The Medieval Child: An Unknown Phenomenon?" (URL below)
http://orb.rhodes.edu/non_spec/missteps/Ch6.html
24 October Gies and Gies, Marriage and the Family, pp. 141-145
Shahar, Chap. 10, pp. 209-224 (with notes on pp. 320-325): "Education in the nobility"
John Harding, "Training for a Squire," 15th century (URL below)
http://www.chronique.com/Library/Knights/harding.htm
Week 9 EDUCATION AND MANNERS
29 October Assignment 8 due
Guibert of Nogent (d. 1124): Autobiography, Book I, extracts
(URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/nogent-auto.html
"Distichs of Cato" (a medieval schoolbook for teaching Latin); read introduction,
and then click on "The Monostichs, as `Prologue'" and read that page also
(URL below)
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/authors/cato
31 October Two guides to table manners (URL below; scroll
down to click on both of the following texts):
1) "The Duenna's Advice on Table Manners," from Jean de Meun's continuation
of
The Romance of the Rose, late 13th century
2) "The Little Childrenes Little Boke," circa 1480
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/lifemann/manners
Week 10 THE MAKING OF A KNIGHT; ARMS AND ARMOR
5 November Assignment 9 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 9 (pp. 166-185)
Fief ceremonies, 12th cent. (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/feud-fief1.html
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "In Praise of the New Knighthood," read
editor's
note and Chapter 4 (URL below)
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html
7 November Peirce, "The Knight, His Arms and Armour"
"Male clothing and knightly armor of the 1250s" (URL below)
http://www.bumply.com/Medieval/Kit/kit.htm
Manufacturing chain mail (URL below)
http://www.liebaart.org/photo20.htm
Re-enactors of c. 1265 and c. 1300: look at the following
photos
to see how clothing and armor actually fit (URLs below)
http://www.bumply.com/Medieval/character.htm
http://www.bumply.com/Medieval/Gallery/22.htm
http://www.liebaart.org/photo22.htm
http://www.liebaart.org/photo11.htm
http://www.liebaart.org/photo26.htm
Week 11 HORSES, HUNTING, AND TRANSPORT
12 November Assignment 10 due
Bennett, "The Medieval Warhorse"
Prestwich, pp. 30-37
14 November Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 7 (pp. 125-146)
Dame Juliana Barnes, The Boke of St Albans (treatise on hunting,
15th cent.):
how to cut up a deer after a hunt (graphic modern photographs illustrate
this
medieval text; URL below)
http://www.arch-projects.org.uk/unmaking2.htm
Labarge, Chap. 9 (pp. 150-165)
Week 12 THE CASTLE AT WAR
19 November Assignment 11 due
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 10 (pp. 186-205)
Macaulay, pp. 64-78
The Lanercost Chronicle: Robert Bruce besieges Carlisle, 1316 (URL below)
http://members.iinet.net.au/~rmine/carlisle.html
21 November Pounds, pp. 106-13 ("siegecraft and defence")
Prestwich, pp. 1-4, 11, 219-22, 231-43
Week 13 WAR SUPPLIES, SIEGE ENGINES, AND STRATEGIES
26 November Assignment 12 due
Pound, pp. 122-5 ("garrison and supplies")
Prestwich, pp. 185-193, 198-200, 206-218, 245-54
28 NOVEMBER 2002: THANKSGIVING DAY. NO CLASS.
Week 14 WARFARE AND SIEGE
3 December Assignment 13 due
Pounds, pp. 113-21 ("castles in medieval warfare")
Fulk of Chartres: The Capture of Jerusalem, 1099 (URL below)
http:www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk2.html
Prof. Michael Prestwich: Lecture notes on castles and sieges (URL below)
http://www.uwm.edu/~carlin/castle.prestwich.htm
Warfare Between England and Scotland, 1299 - 1301, according to
Documents from the English Government (URL below)
http://www.deremilitari.org/1299.htm
5 December Prestwich, pp. 281-304
Jean Froissart (1338-1410?), Chronicle (read all three of
the following
selections at the URL below):
1) editor's introduction
2) "A few Scots capture Berwick"
3) "The English recapture Berwick"
http://www.unipissing.ca/department/history/froissart/tales.htm
Week 15 BATTLE AND INJURY; THE LATE MEDIEVAL CASTLE
10 December Assignment 14 due [This assignment is optional, for extra credit.]
Paterson, "Military Surgery"
Frederick Butzen, review of Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a
Mass Grave From the Battle of Towton AD 1461 (URL below)
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v286n21/ffull/jbk1205-4.html
Battle injuries: skeletons from the Battle of Towton, 1461 (URL below)
http://www.the-exiles.org/Article%20Towton.htm
12 December Pounds, pp. 249-260, 269-75, 295-300
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 12 (pp. 218-224)
ASSIGNMENTS FOR HISTORY 192
Assignment 1 (map assignment):
On the map of "England and Wales at the End of the Thirteenth Century" that you received in class, mark the following features. Make sure that you write your name on your map.
1) Mountains/Hills (using highlighters or colored pencils, shade or hatch approximate extent of range):
Cheviots
Pennines
Cambrians (also add name)
2) Castles whose sites are shown on map (mark with highlighter or circle with pen or colored pencil):
Alnwick
Lewes
Arundel
London
Bamborough (or Bamburgh)
Newcastle
Beaumaris
Norwich
Berkeley
Odiham
Berwick
Pembroke
Ca(e)rnarvon
Rochester
Colchester
Scarborough
Dover
Warwick
Harlech
Windsor
Kenilworth
York
3) Castles whose sites are not marked on map (add dot and name, in pen or colored pencil):
Bodiam
Middleham
Chepstow
Raby
Hedingham
Raglan
Helmsley
Restormel
Writing assignments (Assignments 2-14): Write one full, double-spaced,
page (225-250 words -- no more, no less!) on the weekly topic. Document
your text fully with footnotes or endnotes and bibliography. (On
documentation, see handout). Do not use parenthetical citations.
You must use at least one primary source and one scholarly secondary
source for each assignment. (On primary and secondary sources, see FAQs,
below.) College-level writing, using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation,
is required. The point of these assignments is for you to produce a genuine
piece of historical research, packed with factual details, so no fantasy
and no "time-travelers," please.
Assignment 2:
It is the year 1290. You are a master mason who has been hired to design
a new castle for an English lord in Wales. Describe some special design
features that you intend to include.
Assignment 3:
The year is 1300. You are an elderly lady or lord, living in a castle
in Wales. Describe your castle's most inconvenient or uncomfortable features.
Assignment 4:
You are the lady of a castle. Is your life easier, or more difficult,
than that of the lord of a castle? Discuss.
Assignment 5:
You are a dishonest medieval castle steward. Describe your most
lucrative fraud.
Assignment 6:
You work in a castle kitchen as a cook or cook's assistant. Describe
a typical day's work.
Assignment 7:
You are a senior servant (male or female) who helps to look after the
young children of the lord of the castle. A new junior servant has
been ordered to assist you. Describe the most common hazards of castle
life from which the children must be protected.
Assignment 8:
You are an adolescent boy or girl being educated in a castle.
Which parts of your education do you enjoy the most? Which the least?
Assignment 9:
The year is 1250. You are a castle knight. Describe your weapons
and armor.
Assignment 10:
You are a guest (male or female) in a castle. A hunt is planned
for tomorrow, but you plan to avoid it because you dislike hunting.
Why?
Assignment 11:
You are a senior officer whose lord has asked for some military advice.
Describe the advantages and the difficulties of using a trebuchet in a
siege.
Assignment 12:
ORAL REPORT (to be delivered in class): You are a spy (male or female)
in a castle. What important information have you been ordered to
discover? How will you do this? How will you get the information
back to your lord?
Assignment 13:
You are a lord or lady who is defending a castle against a strong attack.
Describe your worst problems and how you might solve them.
Assignment 14:
You have been injured during a siege. Describe your injuries and their
treatment.
Frequently-Asked-Questions:
i) "How can I tell if something is a primary source?" Answer: A primary source is an "eyewitness" source, one that dates from the period that you are studying. Examples of primary sources for the medieval period include chronicles, account rolls, letters, and legal documents, and also works of art, architecture, pottery and other artifacts. A source that dates from a later period is a secondary source.
ii) "What defines a secondary source as 'scholarly'?" Answer: For the
purposes of this class, only works (including Internet sites) that are
fully
documented with footnotes or endnotes are considered scholarly. A bibliography
alone is not sufficient.