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Is your knowledge of The Crusades less than tip-top? Maybe you're curious about Columbus, or you're desperate to read about the Black Death in all its gory detail? Whatever your starting point, this expert guide has it all - from kings, knights and anti-Popes, to invasion, famine, the Magna Carta and Joan of Arc (and a few rebellious peasants thrown in for good measure!). Get ready for a rip-roaring ride through the political, religious and cultural life of the Middle Ages, one of the most talked-about periods in history. Medieval History for Dummies includes: Part I: The Early Middl

Chapter 1. The Middle Ages - the History of an Idea -- Chapter 2. The Problem of Periodization -- Chapter 3. Some General Themes in Medieval History -- Chapter 4. The Sources of Medieval History -- Chapter 5. The Writing of History in the Middle Ages -- Chapter 6. Documentary Sources -- Chapter 7. Coins -- Chapter 8. The Material Record.

This is a major study of the ideas and practices involved in the making and breaking of peace treaties and truces from Classical Greece to the time of the Crusades. Leading specialists on war and peace in ancient and medieval history examine the creation of peace agreements, and explore the extent to which their terms could be manipulated to serve the interests of one side at the other's expense. The chapters discuss a wide range of uses to which treaties and other peace agreements were put by rulers and military commanders in pursuit of both individual and collective political aims. The book also considers the wider implications of these issues for our understanding of the nature of war and peace in the ancient and medieval periods. This broad-ranging account includes chapters on ancient Persia, the Roman and Byzantine Empires, Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings

Banishment from home is an old type of punishment, which was mainly used in regulating family relationships. It was first recorded in the Hammurabi's Code and subsequently envisaged in other legal systems. The first record of this punishment in Serbian legal history dates back to the medieval times, when King Stephen the First-Crowned banished his wife Eudokia for adultery. It was also recorded in the second Charter of Ziča, in Emperor Dušan's Code, in the abridged version of Mateus Blastares' Syntagma Canonum, and in the Code of Justinian, but not always as a form of punishment. It was more frequently envisaged in the medieval statutes of the Adriatic Sea coastal towns of Kotor, Budva and Skadar. Although it served various purposes, banishment was often used as a form of punishment. It was a common form of punishment for widows and widowers who failed to act on a pledge or failed to take proper care of the deceased spouse's property. It was also applicable in cases when parents (usually the father) wanted to punish their children for disobedience or failure to perform the duties they were expected to perform.