History Commons^™

Aristocratic Women’S Kinship Ties In Twelfth- And Thirteenth-Century Flanders And Champagne, Sydne Reid Johnson

Masters Theses

Georges Duby pioneered the study of family and marriage in medieval France, but his models for family and marriage have since either been accepted or rejected. I take a middle approach in that some models still are applicable to describing marriage and family, while others require reevaluation. Duby argued that during this period women were treated with suspicion in their husband’s households, marriage was essential for the future of both families, and that family connections were deteriorating. In this thesis, I will explore family ties within the kinship network of the aristocracy of Flanders and Champagne in the twelfth and …

Nobility V. Nation: Conflicting Justices In The Early French Revolution Trials Of Lambesc, Besenval, And Favras (1789-1790), Michael Arin

Senior Theses

Despite the wealth of information on the French Revolution, the courts of law remain an understudied subject matter, in particular the inconsistent application of criminal law in pursuit of suspects of lèse-nation by the Comité des recherches and Châtelet. This study bridges this gap using archival research of court documents and a holistic approach to historians of the time, of the crime, and of the cases in question. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the trials of the prince de Lambesc, baron de Besenval, and marquis de Favras paint a battleground of a multitude of conflicting justices—social, political, and judicial—resulting …

An Expensive Imitation: How The Vanderbilt Family Became The House Of Vanderbilt, Hugh Long

Global Tides

By examining a range of sources from Gilded Age newspaper articles to architectural photographs to historical commentaries, this paper attempts to prove that the esteemed Vanderbilt family was imitating European Aristocracy. By examining first hand accounts of parties that family members threw, houses that they built, and places they traveled to, the paper develops its thesis. The use of primary sources is abundant and attempts to integrate the family’s story of progression from a small clan to one of the most powerful American “houses” into the concrete evidence. Pictures and visual evidence are key in showing material examples of how …

[Review Of The Book Icons Of Democracy: American Leaders As Heroes, Aristocrats, Dissenters And Democrats], Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] Icons of Democracy is a welcome change from the rather arid, often quantified analyses of political leadership so prevalent in academic writing. Well read in both primary and secondary sources, Miroff has deeply grounded his ideas in the rich historical context. In addition, he carefully chose his subjects and drew from their experiences central themes which, in divergent fashion, they also held in common. The resulting collective biography engages and challenges the reader. While partial to leaders in the dissenting tradition (they are "our true subversives and at times our truest democrats"), Miroff consistently points to the complexity of …

“Behind Folding Shutters In Whittingehame House”: Alice Blanche Balfour (1850–1936) And Amateur Natural History, Donald L. Opitz Phd

Donald L. Opitz

Review Essay: John Taylor And Wendy Childs, Eds., Politics And Crisis In Fourteenth-Century England, Kenneth G. Madison

Quidditas

John Taylor and Wendy Childs, eds., Politics and Crisis in Fourteenth-Century England, Alan Sutton, 1990, xvi, 157 pp., index, $30.00.

5. The Rise Of National Feeling, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold A. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section V: The Rise of Capitalism and the National State to 1500

In the centuries under review in this chapter the self-sufficient manor, the feudal aristocracy, and the cultural isolation of Europe fell before the forces of economic change. In much the same way and for many of the same reasons the political institutions and practices of feudalism succumbed to the joint attacks or monarchs and the middle class. Even in its day of glory feudalism had within itself certain weaknesses. It had never been able to maintain more than a modicum of order, and indeed under the chivalric code the proper occupation of the knight was warfare. To the interminable civil …