Vol 83, No 1 (2022)

The article focuses on the emergence of scientific interest, among the antiquarians and historians of the 17th century, for medieval seals as a historical source. The author shows that during this period seals which previously attracted attention mainly of genealogists and specialists in heraldry gradually became a self-sufficient object of research, at least in England, Flanders and Italy. In France interest for medieval seals became apparent somewhat later and was connected with the publication of Jean Mabillon’s treatise De Re Diplomatica in 1681. Its main aim was defining the authenticity of historical documents. The French historian proposed to solve this problem by making use of different data including those contained in seals. This very new approach to the study of seals implied subduing sigillography to the needs of diplomatics and putting the cultural and symbolic aspects of medieval seals into the shade. The author thinks that despite the significance of Mabillon’s work for the development of historical research and the importance which he assigned to the study of seals, his method did not become the basis for the diversified and holistic study of seals as historical sources. Its roots should be searched for rather in the 17th century research in England, Flanders and Italy.

The article is dedicated to the function of the descriptions of war in the Chronicon of Regino of Prüm. Regino notably gives more attention to the war that the Franks and the Bretons waged against the Normans. By comparing the successes of the Bretons and the failures of the Franks, Regino comments on the dangerous disunity in their kingdoms. Moreover, some textual characteristics of the Normans are assigned to the Regino’s contemporary leaders of the Franks, such as Zwentibold and Adalbert Babenberg, thus drawing a parallel between their atrocity and that of the pagan Normans.

The aim of this article is to reveal the specificity of English medieval manorial courts’ – functioning in the 13th–14th centuries. It is an attempt to show in what way they correlated with the courts of the Common Law of England and what were their legal borrowings from the Common Law system. To reveal the procedural growth in the process of establishment of the main legal manorial institutions (the Jury, presentments on the basis of inquisition, documentary proof of the judgment) is also one of the basic tasks of the article. In what way did medieval English manor make the transition from ordeals, compurgation and “peasant halimots” to a more civilized procedure (adversarial courts) partly based on the Common Law legal principles? It is also worth bearing in mind that procedural growth in the manorial courts was closely connected with everyday life of medieval English peasantry, including influence of immemorial customs on its development. Fundamental meaning of manorial customs (and their links with everyday life) gives an opportunity to stress the formation and development of customary law, which may be regarded as an important regulator between manorial powers and English peasantry, maintaining traditional social, economic, rental, behavioral etc. rules in medieval English manor in order to keep «peaceful life» within the estate as well as to promote to growth of the lord’s incomes and to definite security of the peasants’ rights (especially in the sphere of valid yearly rents). All these important aspects of manorial life were vital for specific development of English medieval and Early Modern peasantry in historical perspective.

From the end of the 14th century the Peloponnese was under threat of Turkish conquest. The government of Byzantine Morea was the first to meet the need to revive Hexamilion, a late antique defensive wall against barbarians which was built across the Isthmus of Corinth. Since that time, Byzantine diplomacy started to include the issue of restoring the Isthmian fortifications on the agenda. Limited resources of the Morean despotat at first did not allow this plan to be realized on alone, so Theodore I Palaeologus was forced to seek an alliance with the Venetian Republic and the Hospitallers. Only after large-scale restoration work, carried out first by Manuel II Palaeologus, and then by his son Constantine XI, the Hexamilion wall acquired a serious military-defensive potential. Study of the Isthmian protection problem in the Byzantine policy of the late 14th – first half of the 15th centuries is the purpose of this research.

The participation of representatives of the clergy in government in the Middle Ages and early modern times has long attracted the attention of scholars. However, it is mainly representatives of the episcopate and their participation in central government, court politics and diplomatic missions that have come under the spotlight. The career of Thomas Magnus, a clergyman who never held the bishopric but played a key role in the administration of the Scottish border counties for several decades, provides a better picture of both royal policy in the Anglo-Scottish borderlands and the use of clerics in the royal service under the early Tudors.

29 декабря 2021 г. кафедра всеобщей истории и международных отношений Смоленского государственного университета понесла тяжелую утрату: ушел из жизни выдающийся историк, ученый широкой эрудиции, профессор, заслуженный деятель науки Российской Федерации Юрий Евгеньевич Ивонин, признанный специалист по истории международных отношений раннего Нового времени, истории Англии XVI в., Священной Римской империи и Германии XVI–ХVIII вв.

The article undertakes a detailed analysis of the first monographic study devoted to the problem of describing the history of Joan of Arc in the English sources of the 15th–19th centuries. The book of Gail Orgelfinger, to a certain extent, filled a crucial gap in the études johanniques that existed for several centuries. It analyzed texts of various genres: official correspondence, chronicles, historical writings, fiction and poetry. On this material, the author tries to demonstrate how the attitude towards Joan of Arc of her yesterday’s enemies has changed, what epithets they awarded her, what figures of silence and fiction they used describing the events of the Hundred Years’ War, how they argued their position. Despite the significant shortcomings noted in the review, the appearance of this monograph can be welcomed: it will serve as a basis (both in source studies and in historiographical terms) for subsequent studies of the proposed issues.