Medieval Europeans : Studies in Ethnic Identity and National Perspectives in Medieval Europe

Annotation A team of leading scholars in the fields of Medieval Literature and History examine the origins of European ethnic groups which subsequently developed into the nations of Europe. The contributors look at evidence for the existence of an ethnic consciousness among the dominant European groups; this later formed the basis of nation states. The reconstruction and invention of the past by medieval writers in search of ethnic origins for their own particular political or tribal groups is also studied from a literary and historical point of view Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Law and Ethnic Identity in the Western Kingdoms in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries....Pages 1-23 The Emergence of English Identity, 700–1000....Pages 24-52 The Making of England and Germany, 850–1050: Points of Comparison and Difference....Pages 53-70 National Identity in Medieval Wales....Pages 71-84 John of Fordun and the Independent Identity of the Scots....Pages 85-102 Higden’s Britain....Pages 103-118 ‘National’ Requisitioning for ‘Public’ Use of ‘Private’ Castles in Pre-Nation State France....Pages 119-134 The Trojan Origins of the French: The Commencement of a Myth’s Demise, 1450–1520....Pages 135-179 The Invention of Rus(sia)(s): Some Remarks on Medieval and Modern Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity....Pages 180-195 Civic Pride versus Feelings for Italy in the Age of Dante....Pages 196-216 The Notion of ‘Lombard’ and ‘Lombardy’ in the Middle Ages....Pages 217-232 European Nationality, Race and Commonwealth in the Writings of Sir Francis Palgrave, 1788–1861....Pages 233-253 Back Matter....Pages 254-284 With Medieval Europeans, a team of leading scholars in the fields of medieval literature and history examines the origins of the European ethnic groups that subsequently developed into the nations of Europe