6. John Wyclif\u27s Divine Dominion and the End of the Middle Ages

John Wyclif (c. 1320-1384) has been called both the last of the schoolmen and the morning star of the Reformation. A native Englishman and a Franciscan, he spent most of his life at the University of Oxford, first as scholar, later as teacher of theology, and, from 1356 to 1382, as master of Balliol College. He witnessed the opening battles of the Hundred Years\u27 War between England and France (1337-1453) with its heavy toll of life, the beginning of the Great Schism (1378-1417) during which there was one pope at and another at Avignon, and finally the spectacle of peasant revolts in France and England. The situation in England during Wyclif\u27s lifetime was complicated by the reluctance of Englishmen to support the policies and especially the heavy financial demands of a papacy which was operating from the French-dominated seat at Avignon. [excerpt

THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Este ensayo desea explicar la quiebra de la conciencia normativa hispana, asentada en un uso mimético de la historia, reconocida como magistra vita, que al tiempo que ofrece los modelos acreditados de conducta para el gobernante, los desconstruye desde una conciencia precisa de su inadaptación al presente. En este sentido, Saavedra experimenta en su tiempo y en el orden político, la misma duda metódica que Descartes en el campo de las ciencias. Sin embargo, su escepticismo está al servicio de un fideísmo final que le impide dar el paso constructivo de Hobbes y así apostar por el modelo de la soberanía moderno.This essay wishes to explain the breakdown of Spanish normative conscience, settled in a mimetic use of history, recognised as magistra vitae, which offers the accredited behavioural models for the ruler at the same time that it deconstructs them from a precise conscience of their non-adaptation to the present. In this sense, Saavedra experiences in his time and in the political order the same methodical doubt Descartes experienced in the field of sciences. Nonetheless, his scepticism serves an eventual fideism that prevents him from stepping into Hobbes’ constructivism and therefore commit to a modern model of sovereignty

Flodden 1513: re-examining British warfare at the end of the Middle Ages

Most recent accounts of the battle of Flodden, fought between English and Scottish forces on 9 September 1513 and which resulted in an English victory and the death of the Scottish king James IV, had stressed the novelty of Scottish tactics. This essay re-examines the structure, tactics and command of both armies and their application during the Flodden command. It suggests that it was the English under the leadership of Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, who were the more 'modern' of the two forces, both in terms of their weaponry and military structures, but also in the extent to which their commanders embraced new 'Renaissance' notions of command and military service

Urban identity at the end of the Middle Ages

Producción CientíficaSe analiza el desarrollo de los sentimientos de identidad común y sus consecuencias en los núcleos urbanos de la Corona de Castilla. Los factores que contribuyeron a su formación fueron: la posesión de un estatuto jurídico propio, el disfrute de privilegios, los intereses económicos comunes, el desarrollo del señorío colectivo y la puesta en escena de elementos simbólicos diversos. No obstante, los supuestos de la identidad común no fueron los mismos para todos los habitantes. Las oligarquías urbanas lo utilizaron para justificar su gobierno, mientras que al resto de vecinos le sirvió para apoyar sus reivindicaciones.The author analyzes the development of the feelings of common identity and its consequences in the cities of Castile. The causes of its development were: the possession of an own juridical statute, the enjoyment of privileges, the economic common interests, the development of the collective dominion and the symbolic elements; although, the bases of the common identity were not the same for all the inhabitants. The urban oligarchies used it to justify their government, whereas the rest of neighbours used it to support their claims

1. The Absolute Dynastic State

One of the most significant developments of the early modern period was the evolution of the national state from its beginnings in the feudal monarchy of the High and Late Middle Ages. The ghost of a universal state coincident with a universal church, which had lingered to the end of the Middle Ages, was finally laid to rest with the successful disruption of Christendom and recognition of the sovereignty of the national state. In its place there was a frank acceptance of the political fragmentation of Europe along the geographical lines which were already clearly discernible, at least in western Europe, by 1500. [excerpt

Religious Women in Andalusia at the end of the Middle Ages: Economic Foundation and Family Ties

The aim of this article is to study the collectives of religious women who lived at the end of the Middle Ages in Andalusia. Researches about this item multiplied in the last years, but the analysis has been made from an institutional perspective. The novelty of my investigation is based on the analysis of their economic basis and their religious vocation, as on their family ties that their lifestyle allowed them to keep unlike religious women living in enclosed environments. Even they didn’t renounce to maternity. Enter into the privacy of religious women’s lives has been possible thanks to the information contained in the compilation of Public Notaries’ official records preserved at the Municipal Archive of Jerez de la Frontera

Cost Accounting in Early Regulated Markets: The Case of the Royal Soap Factory of Seville, 1525-1692

(WP 16/03 Clave pdf) Regulated markets and state-owned monopolies characterized the economies of many Southern European territories around the end of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Although this economic form was of considerable importance in implementing public policy at the time, investigation into the functioning of cost accounting in such contexts has been consistently neglected in accounting research. In this paper, we examine the role of cost systems in early regulated markets by focusing on the case of the soap production and distribution monopoly in the City of Seville, Spain.Early cost accounting, Institutional sociology, Regulated markets

Experiments in fiction: framing and reframing romance at the end of the Middle Ages, and beyond

The préfaciers of fifteenth-century fictions and histories are comfortably self-congratulatory: the readers they have in mind, and whose tastes, they say with happy confidence, they are satisfying, are newly sophisticated, newly demanding, “plus agut[s] et soubtille[s]”, says Philippe de Vigneulles, than readers used to be, and thus appreciative of new and different modes and styles. These new readers prefer, says Philippe in the preface to his mise en prose of the Geste des Lorrains, “chose ..