Robert B. Patterson – författare

The Earl, The Kings, And The Chronicler is the first full length biography of Robert (c.1088-1147), grandson of William the Conqueror and eldest son of King Henry I of England (1100-35), who could not succeed his father because he was a bastard. Instead, as the earl of Gloucester, he helped change the course of English history by keeping alive the prospects for an Angevin succession through his leadership of its supporters against his father's successor, King Stephen (1135-54) in the civil war known as the Anarchy. Robert of Gloucester is one of the great figures of Anglo-Norman history (1066-1154). He occupies important niches in the era's literature, from comprehensive political studies of Henry I's and Stephen's reigns and an array of specialized fields to the 'Brother Cadfael' novels of Ellis Peters. Gloucester was one of only three landed super-magnates of his day, a model post-Conquest great baron, Marcher lord, borough developer, and patron of the rising merchant class. His trans-Channel barony stretched from western Lower Normandy across England to south Wales. Robert was both a product and a significant agent of the contemporary cultural revival known as the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, being bi-lingual, well educated, and a significant literary patron. In this last role he is especially notable for commissioning the greatest English historian since Bede, William of Malmesbury, to produce a history of their times which justified the empress Matilda's claim to the English throne and Earl Robert's support of it.

New research covering the political and social history of the British Isles from 10c-13c, with related material on Western Europe.The Charles Homer Haskin Society was founded for the study of and research into the political and social history of the Western European world, through the Viking age and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to the break-up of the Carolingianstate in the mid 13th century. The principal focus is on the British Isles, and on France where events relate to developments in Britain. Its Journal is an annual volume of papers in this area of interest, presented at Society meetings by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic; special studies are also commissioned.Contributors: ROBERT S. BABCOCK, JESSE L. BYOCK and SKIA, CASSANDRA POTTS, G.A. LOUD, DAVID S. SPEAR, JOHN GILLINGHAM, TED JOHNSON-SOUTH, THOMAS CALLAHAN Jr, RICHARD HEISER, MARVIN L. COLKER

Studies in medieval history including papers on King Stephen, 12c crusaders and a portrait of a medieval anti-semite.The Haskins Society 11th International Conference, University of Houston 1992 produced a varied collection of papers including Domesday Jurors, presenting new evidence on landownership in 1086; an essay reassessing the impact of the early explorers arguing that Columbus and Vasco de Gama were simply a phase in a history of European expansion; and an unusual paper on the twelfth-century biography of William Marshal (d. 1219) asking what it reveals about the context of its composition.Contributors: HUGH THOMAS, C.P. LEWIS, J.R.S.PHILLIPS, GEORGE BEECH, C. WARREN HOLLISTER, ROBERT HELMERICHS, THOMAS KEEFE, DAVID CROUCH.

New research on aspects of the political, social and religious history of the British Isles from 10c-13c, with related material on western Europe.The 1993 International Conference of the Haskins Society, held at the University of Houston, produced a varied collection of papers on numerous aspects of the medieval history of the British Isles, with related material on other Western European countries. The articles in this volume, most of which derive from the conference, focus strongly on the topic of religion, with stimulating essays on women religious, Archbishop Lanfranc and the Anglo-Saxon hagiographic tradition; however, other subjects are also explored, including Anglo-Norman litigation and the turbulent state of Denmark in the ninth century.Contributors: CARY L. DIER, SUSAN J. RIDYARD, K.L. MAUND, EDWARD J. SCHOENFELD, ROBIN FLEMING, BERNARD S. BACHRACH, PATRICIA HALPIN, EMILY ALBU HANAWALT, DANIEL F. CALLAHAN, H.E.J. COWDREY, DAVID ROFFE