Aelred of Rievaulx's Rhetoric and Morale at the Battle of the Standard, 1138

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. E. Bliese
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Military History ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Single Factor ◽  
Fighting Spirit ◽  
The Face ◽  
Intangible Factor ◽  
Considerable Detail ◽  
The Middle Ages

The morale or fighting spirit of an army has always been a most important if intangible factor in military success. Clausewitz believed that “the moral [psychological] elements are among the most important in war.” Field-Marshal Montgomery went so far as to claim that “the morale of the soldier is the greatest single factor in war.” And Napoleon's dictum has often been quoted: in war “the moral is to the physical as three is to one.” Since morale is such an elusive quality, however, its role in military history can be nearly lost in the study of battles of long ago. Indeed, the historians of medieval warfare have been little concerned with it. Philippe Contamine, in hisWar in the Middle Ages, includes a short chapter on courage, which focuses on theological definitions of courage as a virtue and risk assessment in the wars of the later middle ages. J. F. Verbruggen makes a number of valuable comments on the psychology of war. But these two are notable exceptions. Of course, the evidence for mental states in medieval battles is severely limited, but even what little there is has been largely overlooked.For at least one significant battle, the Battle of the Standard, there is evidence which shows the psychology of one of the two armies which faced one another on a foggy August morning in 1138. We can see in considerable detail the low morale of the northern English forces as they tried in desperation to stop a devastating invasion by the king of Scotland. We can see their concerns and fears, and some of the attempts by the leaders to overcome them and rouse their spirits. We indeed get a remarkable glimpse of “the face of battle”—or at least the pre-battle. Military historians of the middle ages have neglected this building of battle morale entirely; although other historians have made passing reference to it. Since the evidence for the morale of the English army at the Battle of the Standard is so unusual and full, it deserves greater attention. The developments leading up to the battle will be considered briefly, and then evidence that reveals the psychology of a medieval army will be considered in detail.

Introduction

2007 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Lasker
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The Face ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
New Religion ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
Rational Arguments

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the historical relationship between Judaism and Christianity, which had not been peaceful. Through the ages, Christian thinkers had made Judaism the object of attack, hoping to convince Jews to abandon their ancestral faith. From the earliest days of the new religion, when Christianity was just emerging from Judaism, Christians sought to demonstrate to Jews that Jesus was the expected messiah and that the doctrines he taught were true. Many Jews did not remain passive in the face of the Christian challenge to their religion. Talmudic and midrashic literature offers evidence that Jews were aware of the story of Jesus as related in the Gospels and basic Christian doctrines, against which they argued. In a later period, Jewish thinkers in Muslim countries polemicized against Christianity. This book therefore studies the Jewish philosophical polemic against Christianity in the Middle Ages. In combating the doctrines of Christianity, Jewish polemicists employed a variety of types of argumentation to strengthen their own beliefs. These arguments may be divided into three distinct categories: exegetical arguments, historical arguments, and rational arguments.

Social Change and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Some Danish Evidence

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knud J. V. Jespersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Military History ◽  
Decisive Factor ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
The Middle Ages

There is general agreement among scholars of military history on the main features of military developments during the transition from the middle ages to the early modern period. A brief sketch of the broad outlines of these developments may therefore suffice as a preface to an investigation of Danish knight service in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The decisive factor in the medieval army was the fully armoured, lancebearing mounted knight. The battlefield was totally dominated by the combat technique of these bands of qualifizierten Einzelkämpfern, offensive combat at close quarters. The remaining forces, in contrast, functioned merely as auxiliaries to the main arm - the heavy mounted knights.

scholarly journals CIRCE PAINTINGS BY JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE IN THE CONTEXT OF FEMINISM

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (73) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Patriarchal System ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Witch ◽  
The Middle Ages

Feminism is a way of thinking that deals with the pressures, obstacles and difficulties women experience due to their being women, and includes the elimination of these separating attitudes and the struggle of women to be equal with men in all areas of life. The fact that women are not equated with men in social life goes back a long time. The Middle Ages can be defined as a dark age in terms of equality between women and men, as in many other aspects. In this context, it was found important that the majority of those killed during the witch age period in the Middle Ages were women and most of these women were healers who benefited from nature. Witches are defined as a concept in which nature and women are together as the enemy of the patriarchal system. In this article, depictions of women witches increasing in the art of painting following witch courts will be mentioned, the concept of femme fatale into which the image of a witch has transformed, and the paintings of Circe, the femme fatale (the woman who caused disaster), one of the important painters of her time, will be examined in the context of feminism. Waterhouse, one of the painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, depicted scenes from different stories, influenced by one of the most common features of the movement, mythological stories and poems. Choosing the most critical scenes of these stories, Waterhouse reinforces the image of a strong, wild woman. Can Circe be a symbol of the Feminine Power in the face of the perceptions and social pressures that are being tried to be destroyed, oppressed, not allowed to be herself, and still continue today? Keywords: Circe, Feminism, Waterhouse, femme fatale

scholarly journals The Review of impacts regarding Sacerdotalism on religious and moral conduct of Christianity

ĪQĀN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (04) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Rizwan Elahi ◽  
Dr. Sajid Asdullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Human History ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Moral Conduct ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

Freedom of human mind, essential to intellectual progress, has been trampled unprecedentedly by the Christian Church, in human history. The despotism displayed by the Priest was unmatchable even to the absolutism, manifested by Alexander and the Caesar. In the middle Ages, when every other institution of society was awakening from slumber of superstitions and advancing towards Renaissance, the church had rooted its totalitarianism with such dexterity that it was unshakable. If it had been exponent of divinity instated of despicable activities, the history of human enlightenment would not have been checked by murk of cruelty, ignorance and usurpation. It is need of our time to wash out the blemish of rigidity, intolerance and fanaticism, thrust upon the face of Islam. To abolish brutality and inhumanity, engulfing the whole planet, it is inevitable to diagnose the origin of this viciousness. In this regard, the exploration of the divine revelation of Testaments may be helpful. It is conjectured that the perusal would be conducive to bring to lime light, the strings of havoc waged in the name of Sacerdotalism. The forces trying to defame Islam in itself have been the epitome of narrowness, dogmatism and bigotry.

Intentionality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Crane
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Intentional State ◽  
Intentional States ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy ◽  
Physical Phenomena ◽  
The Middle Ages

Intentionality is the mind’s capacity to direct itself on things. Mental states like thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes (and others) exhibit intentionality in the sense that they are always directed on, or at, something: if you hope, believe or desire, you must hope, believe or desire something. Hope, belief, desire and other mental states which are directed at something, are known as intentional states. Intentionality in this sense has only a peripheral connection to the ordinary ideas of intention and intending. An intention to do something is an intentional state, since one cannot intend without intending something; but intentions are only one of many kinds of intentional mental states. The terminology of intentionality derives from the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, and was revived by Brentano in 1874. Brentano characterized intentionality in terms of the mind’s direction upon an object, and he also claimed that it is the intentionality of mental phenomena that distinguishes them from physical phenomena. These ideas of Brentano’s provide the background to twentieth-century discussions of intentionality, in both the phenomenological and analytic traditions. Among these discussions, we can distinguish two general projects. The first is to characterize the essential features of intentionality. For example, is intentionality a relation? If it is, what does it relate, if the object of an intentional state need not exist in order to be thought about? The second is to explain how intentionality can occur in the natural world. How can biological creatures be in states that exhibit intentionality? The aim of this second project is to explain intentionality in nonintentional terms.

scholarly journals Palabras públicas y privadas en el Libro de los engaños

Medievalia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-38
Author(s):  
José Carlos Vilchis Fraustro ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
First Impression ◽  
The Face ◽  
Explosive Reaction ◽  
Narrative Spaces ◽  
The Middle Ages

When the stepmother allegorizes the figure of King Alcos with that of a pig in the Libro de los engaños, it does not show any evident symptom of anger or passion that snatches the judgment. This is striking considering that, at this point in the narrative, the king is immersed in a process where he is deciding whether or not to kill his own and only son, in the face of an explosive reaction of ira regia. It should be considered that a private, previously, showed a forceful worldview of the power of the royal figure by symbolizing the figure of a monarch with that of a lion. A first impression of this could make us think that Alcos has been insulted by the woman, and there seems to be no explanation for his passivity towards it. This situational and conceptual paradigm, behind its apparent simplicity, can make us reflect on the figure of the king in the contextual situation of the first translation of the Libro de los engaños in Spain in the Middle Ages. It can give us data and clues of a sociocultural worldview and the fabric of power closest to the king portrayed in the text, but also provide us with an idea of the complicated handling of narrative spaces with which we could understand the reasons why Alcos, powerful and passionate, keep calm when compared to a pig, and give us an idea of the unsuspected spatial arrangement of the story, which was perhaps understandable for a mind like the medieval.

A Destiny Repeated: Episodes of Destruction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriston R. Rennie
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
The Face ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter introduces numerous historical witnesses to the abbey’s past, whose perspectives are preserved from the Middle Ages to the present day. Telling their stories is fundamental to understanding the abbey’s representation over time. This historical exercise is critical also to framing Monte Cassino’s resilience and rationalisation in the face of great adversity, which is a necessary step towards explaining its full-scale resurrection in the aftermath of destruction. Treating each case in tandem provides a wider view of the abbey’s ‘destruction tradition’ over fourteen centuries; its focus also explains and positions these episodes in the construction of Monte Cassino’s true identity during the process of recovery, which inevitably followed.

Inventing Gregory “the Great”: Memory, Authority, and the Afterlives of the Letania Septiformis

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Jacob A. Latham
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Gregory The Great ◽  
The Face ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
Pope Gregory I ◽  
Great Memory ◽  
The Middle Ages

In modern scholarship, Pope Gregory I “the Great” (590–604) is often simultaneously considered the final scion of classical Rome and the first medieval pope. The letania septiformis, a procession organized into seven groups that Gregory instituted in 590 in the face of plague and disease (and performed only once thereafter in 603), has similarly been construed as the very moment when Antiquity died and the Middle Ages were born. However, his Roman contemporaries in the papal curia largely ignored Gregory and his purportedly epochal procession. In fact, memory of the procession languished in Italy until the late-eighth century when Paul the Deacon made it the center of his Life of Gregory. At Rome, remembrance of the procession lay dormant in the papal archives until John the Deacon dug it out in the late-ninth century. How then did the letania septiformis come to be judged so pivotal? Over the course of centuries, the letania septiformis was inventively re-elaborated in literature, liturgy, and legend as part of the re-fashioning of the memory of Gregory. Shorn of its context, the letania septiformis gained greater imaginative power, becoming the emblem of Gregory's pontificate, if not also of an historical era.

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