Ian Mortimer considers some of the key questions in Medieval history and rethinks the nature of historical evidence. In this important new work Ian Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, including whether Edward II was murdered, his possible later life in Italy, the weakness of the Lancastrian claim to the throne in 1399, and the origins of the idea of the royal pretender. Central to this book is his groundbreaking approach to medieval evidence. He explains how an information-based method allows a more certain reading of a series of texts. He criticises existing modes of arriving at consensus and outlines a process of historical analysis that ultimately leads to questioning historical doubts as well as historical facts, with profound implications for what we can say about the past with certainty. This is an important work from one of the most original and popular medieval historians writing today.
Ian Mortimer considers some of the key questions in Medieval history and rethinks the nature of historical evidence. In this important new work Ian Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, including whether Edward II was murdered, his possible later life in Italy, the weakness of the Lancastrian claim to the throne in 1399, and the origins of the idea of the royal pretender. Central to this book is his groundbreaking approach to medieval evidence. He explains how an information-based method allows a more certain reading of a series of texts. He criticises existing modes of arriving at consensus and outlines a process of historical analysis that ultimately leads to questioning historical doubts as well as historical facts, with profound implications for what we can say about the past with certainty. This is an important work from one of the most original and popular medieval historians writing today.
Preface; Information and Intrigue - Methodological Introduction; 1. The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle; 2. Sermons of Sodomy; 3. Legitimacy of the King; 4. What really happened to Edward II?; 5. Richard II and the Succession to the crown; 6. The Nature of the Pretender. Edward II and the succession; Bibliography; Index.
Ian Mortimer is the author of the bestselling The Time-Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, a series of four medieval historical biographies and a revolutionary study of medicine in early modern England. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (by whom he was awarded the Alexander Prize in 2004) and a qualified archivist
'[Mortimer] revisits the methodology of medieval history, analysing
numerous key historical texts in a new way to shed a refreshing
light on the facts.' --Sanford Lakoff
'His [Mortimer's] experimental and challenging approach finds
fertile ground in the intricacies and mysteries of court faction,
noble rebellion and royal intrigue.' --Sanford Lakoff
'Ian Mortimer has earned a well-deserved reputation as a writer
capable of communicating the fascination of medieval history ...
His speciality is the peculiar and the personal: the hidden springs
by which the actions of the past were moved ... he still has much
to communicate about his explorations of the forgotten corners of
Medieval England.' --Sanford Lakoff
'It is good that Mortimer is trying to come up with answers and his
book provides much food for thought. There is a fine mind at work
here.'--Sanford Lakoff
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