Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Medieval World: Culture & Conflict picks up where its sister magazines – Ancient Warfare and Ancient History – leave off. The publication features the rich history and material culture of the Middle Ages – broadly conceived geographically and temporally – expanding on the contents of the popular Medieval Warfare magazine. Through well-researched and lavishly illustrated articles, this accessible publication brings to light cultural activities in local and global contexts, historical figures and events, as well as political, religious, economic, and artistic facets of the Middle Ages..

Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Editorial

MARGINALIA

RONCEVAUX PASS • In the first of a series of articles looking at the wider consequences of some famous medieval battles, let’s look at Roncevaux Pass. This was a battle fought between the Basques of the Pyrenees and the rear- guard of the army of Charlemagne, led by a man whose name would become linked with chivalric virtue - Roland.

DROPPING YOUR AITCHES, PART II • In the previous issue (see MWCC 21), we explored the battle of Hedgeley Moor fought on 25 April 1464. A second, briefer, yet far more decisive battle was fought only a few weeks later at Hexham on 15 May. These conflicts were fought in Northumberland during the Wars of the Roses, bringing to an end the Lancastrian resistance to the Yorkist king Edward IV.

Sources for Hexham

FRANCIS OF ASSISI • Francis was one of the most striking and colourful figures of the Middle Ages. This fervent penitent became a prophetical teacher, who showed his listeners how to implement the principles of the New Testament in their daily lives. He was an exceptionally gifted preacher who drew large numbers to his homilies.

A SPLIT ORDER

CLARE OF ASSISI AND THE POOR CLARES

NATURE

BETWEEN TWO FATHERS • The Chiesa Nuova is situated somewhat off the main tour- ist routes in Assisi. It does not teem with those busy groups, hurrying from one end of the city to the other to venerate both tombs, Francis’ and Clare’s. These pilgrims or sight- seers miss a pretty site to remember Francis’ parents. A twentieth-century statue in front of the building reminds the visitor of Pietro di Bernardone and his wife, who may have carried the name Pica. We might expect parents of a saint to look happier than they do. There is a reason for it.

VISUALIZING A SAINT • Bonaventura Berlinghieri’s Saint Francis and Scenes from His Life and Afterlife (ca. 1235) is the first known large-scale painted altar- piece devoted to Francis. It was produced less than a decade after his death and just before papal confirmation of the stigmata. The icon captures a nascent moment of uncertainty when artists, theologians, and viewers determined how to visualize and venerate a man said to bear Christ’s wounds.

Francis of Assisi on the Fifth Crusade WHEN THE SAINT MET THE SULTAN • In 1219, a curious episode took place in Egypt during the Fifth Crusade when Francis of Assisi met Sultan Al-Malik Al-Kamil Nadir Ad-Din Muhammad (r. 1216-1238) and attempted to convert him to Christianity. When the sultan’s advisers pressed for Francis’ execution, al-Kamil made a surprising decision that sheds new light on the relationship between medieval Christianity and Islam - one that was more nuanced than we might expect.

Far-off travels, encounters, and spectacles FRANCISCAN MISSIONS BEYOND EUROPE • The medieval Franciscans were, above all, a missionary movement. The vision of the founder, Francis of Assisi, had been for what he described as a ‘gospel life' by which he meant a life like that of Christ and his disciples, who spread the word of God in their world. At the very first meeting of their General Chapter — the assembly that governed the Order — the friars identified five provinces through which they would carry their message:...