Central and late medieval Europe

Scales, L.

Central and late medieval Europe

Scales, L.

Authors

Professor Len Scales l.e.scales@durham.ac.uk
Head of Department

Contributors

Donald Bloxham
Editor

A. Dirk Moses
Editor

Abstract

For some, genocide is Europe’s peculiar gift to the world. Others insist that, far from being atavistic, genocide is a crime of – as well as against – civilisation. Where, then, to place those centuries – between, approximately, the years 1000 and 1500 – in which, if some very distinguished medieval historians are to be believed, European civilisation itself was formed? On the whole, sunny vistas still prevail here – especially on that formative period between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries which is sometimes called the ‘high’ Middle Ages. Here was a Europe of cathedrals and universities, of mind and spirit, in which the peaceful arts prospered in growing towns, new orders of monks sought a foretaste of heaven on earth, and the values of chivalry began to soften the violence of the dark-age warlord. ‘Humanism’ found a home already in the twelfth no less than the fifteenth century. A ‘Europe of sensibility’ was being born, which ‘brooked no internal boundaries’. Where to look for the dark side? Was there, from the present volume’s perspective, a ‘dark side’ at all? The history of genocidal thought and action in medieval Europe remains unwritten. Perhaps that is because there is none to write.

Citation

Scales, L. (2010). Central and late medieval Europe. In D. Bloxham, & A. D. Moses (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of genocide studies (280-303). Oxford University Press

Publication Date	Jan 1, 2010
Deposit Date	Feb 3, 2011
Publicly Available Date	Mar 6, 2015
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Pages	280-303
Book Title	The Oxford handbook of genocide studies.
Chapter Number	14
ISBN	9780199232116
Publisher URL	http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199232116.do

Files

Accepted Book Chapter (272 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This is a draft of a chapter that was accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the book 'After The Oxford handbook of genocide studies' edited by Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses and published in 2010.