Debating Medieval Europe

Debating medieval Europe serves as an entry point for studying and teaching medieval history. Where other textbooks simply present foundational knowledge or introduce sources, this collection of essays provides the reader with the frameworks they will need in order to understand the unique historiography of this fascinating period. Digging beneath the accounts provided elsewhere, it exposes the contested foundations of apparently settled narratives, opening a space for discussion and debate, as well as providing essential context for the intimidating array of specialist scholarship. This second volume covers the central and later Middle Ages, c. 1050 - c. 1450. The chapters move from discussion of the 'great institutions' of medieval Europe - the papacy and the empire, both of which traced their inheritance from Roman antiquity - to consider central themes in the study of its different geographical regions across this long period, from France and Iberia through the British Isles and the German-speaking lands to Sicily and the Latin East.