Janet Laughland Nelson

Margaret T. Gibson

Discusses the historical and political aspects of the reign of this ninth-century French king.

Court and Kingdom

Charles the Bald

Liverpool Museum (Liverpool, England)

The collection of late-antique and medieval ivory and bone carvings surveyed in this catalogue and housed in the Liverpool Museum has an international reputation. This book is both a catalogue and an assessment of each item from an historical as well as an art historical perspective.

Late Antique and Medieval Ivory and Bone Carving in Liverpool Museum and the Walker Art Gallery

The Liverpool Ivories

"An Italian cleric and teacher of established reputation, Lanfranc came to the Abbey of Bec in 1042 in search of obscurity and refuge from the affairs of the world. His brilliance could not, however, be concealed and he became prior. Amongst his pupils were the future Pope Alexander II and St Anselm, who was also destined to become an Archbishop of Canterbury. When William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, proposed to marry Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, the church opposed the match and Lanfranc voiced those objections. William ordered him out of Normandy, but the tale is told that when the prelate was slow to leave his Duke threatened to hurry him on his way with his boot. The response that giving him a decent horse would be more productive tickled William's sense of humour and started a lasting friendship. This no doubt led eight years later, in 1059, to Pope Nicholas II withdrawing the disapproval on condition that two religious houses, the Abbaye aux Dames and the Abbaye aux Hommes, were built in Caen. After the conquest of England, Lanfranc became Archbishop of Canterbury, an office he held from 1070 to 1089, during which time he wrote his consuetudines and made sweeping reforms in the English church, including enforcing celibacy on the priests."--Essential Norman Conquest.

Margaret T. Gibson

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