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The definition of the Crusades have experienced a change since the crusades of the holy land 1095-1291. The very interpretation of what the crusades were never changed in principle, a holy alliance of the European Christianity against the Saracen of the east. Nevertheless, there is a significant gap between the Crusades and the Anti-Ottoman Alliance. It has become obvious that the crusades have been used as an umbrella term even for the post-1291 campaigns against the Muslim states. As Constantinople fell, the European powers remained in awe. 1453 not only saw the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire but the end of the Hundred Years’ War. With Europe fresh out of a conflict of their own, not many were keen on living up to their Crusading past. A new enemy was on the horizon, the Ottoman. Mehmed Fatih had proven to Europe that he was no mere conquering Muslim like those that Europe had previously faced. Mostly all in Europe feared confrontation with the new Kayser-i Rum. All but one, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. A Valois of tremendous power and influence found himself at the helm lobbying a campaign against the Conqueror Sultan and retake Constantinople and even Jerusalem. Only weeks after the fall of Constantinople, Philip the Good hosted a feast in his favored castle Lille, attended by some hundred lords and high army officials, out of which many were members of Philips’ own Order, the Order of the Golden Fleece. The feast came to be known as the “Feast of the Pheasant” and marks the beginning of Philips arduous quest to unite Europe against a common enemy. Philips’ quest was riddled with disappointments however. Not only did he receive direct threats from Mehmed II upon hearing of Philip’s plan to retake Constantinople, but his closest allies who initially lent their words that they would join or facilitate Philip’s cause, either pulled out or died. In the end, Philip died never amounting to a Crusade against the Ottomans. He died pleasing to god that he could forgive him for his inability to carry out his holy mission. Nevertheless, although he died never going into a battle against the Ottoman, his plan played a role in transforming the Crusades into an Anti-Ottoman Alliance, which many know, began the new epoch of European-Ottoman wars.
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The article suggests a detailed analysis of the foreign political relationships of the Bulgarian kingdom on the eve of the Ottoman conquest. The author, on the basis of the work of some home and foreign (Greek, Italian, Turkish and Hungarian) sources, reaches the following conclusions: 1. The Balkan ruling classes do not adequately appreciate the situation arose after the invasion of the infidel conqueror. The Ottomans are looked upon as an aggressor of a transitional importance, not concerning the ambitions for a lasting colonization on the peninsula. 2. The underlined anti-West politics of tsar Joan Alexander leads to an international isolation of the kingdom, helped by the concluded Bulgaro-Turkish unity during the 60s of the century. 3. The anti-catholic mood of the aristocracy and the clergy spoils the attempts for creation of a big anti-Turkish coalition, whose organizer and inspirer at that moment could only be the Magyar state.
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The article makes an attempt to collect and analyse all the facts about the feminine donorship in Mediaeval Bulgaria and to obtain maximum information out of it. In correspondence with this aim the donorship is divided into two aspects. From the one side the author tries to find out the place of the phenomenon in the spiritual life of the women in the Bulgarian kingdom in the Middle Ages. The donorship is looked upon as a specific manifestation of a non-ceremonial religious behaviour and the motives, determining its existence are revealed. On the basis of the available sources the evolution in the social expression of the women in the foundership process is followed, as they become generally known to the society because of the portraits with which they are immortalized. The second aspect analyses the data about the feminine donorship and concerns the problem of the participation of the women in the economic life of Mediaeval Bulgaria. Donorship and economic activity seem incompatible, but the religious gifts contain information about the use of money by the women and this is pointed in the article.
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The study is an attempt to clarify the notion of the mediaeval authors from the 13th – 14th centuries about the social structure of the ruling class according to the terminology of the different sources from the Middle Ages – saints’ lives, panegyrics, marginal notes, translated and domestic chronicles. According to the data at our disposal, we can say, there are various social terms for those who have the power in mediaeval Bulgaria: “boljarin”, “vlastel”, “velmozha”, “knjaz”. In our opinion, their presence in the sources is a landmark in the development of the concept of lordship in the High Bulgarian Middle Ages. The most used term is “boljarin”. From the restoration of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, it is a general term for the representatives of the ruling class. Yet, from the middle of the 13th century another meaning begins to dominate in the connotation of the term — the sense of the owner, especially the landowner. In addition, the sources show that the expression “great-small” boljars is not an estate division, but a simpler one, making no difference whoever it is. But the division in the ruling class existed, and another group were the “vlastels”. In the 13th – 14th centuries with “vlastel” were indicated state and king ministers, no matter what their rank in the society was. The main distinction between the “vlastels” and the “boljars” was the origin of their power. The “vlastels” possessed part of the public authority, the others owed their position in society to the land ownership. In the beginning of the 14th century mainly from the “vlastels” derive two terminologically distinguished groups – the “velmozha’s” and the “knjaz’s”. The new terms show a process of stratification, that the traditional term “boljarin” cannot mark.
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In the article entitled »Where the first Franciscan monastery in Medieval Bosnia was built« the author brought to light a fact previously unknown that in june of 1348. friar Nicolas, »quardianus Bosne«, made trip to Venice on account of community of Split. The author connected this trip with the fact that the chapter of the Split archbishopric elected friar Peregrin some time earlier, the head of the F. Franciscan vicariat of Bosnia, the Split archbishop.
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Bosnian rulers and feudal lords were cured at their request by physicians in the permanent service of the Republic of Dubrovnik. They were both local people and foreigners, mostly Italians. The records of the Historical Archive in Dubrovnik show that in the period from 1323 to 1460 there were 13 Italians - the Dubrovnik physicians - at the Bosnian feudal courts, eight of whom were physics, three were surgeons, one barber, and one was attributed generally as a »medicus«. Their visits were financed by the Dubrovnik government or by the sick feudal lord himself. Quite often a special fee was given to them after the treatment.
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Enacted “Jus Valachicum” in South Transylvania (14th-18th Centuries). The case studies presented in our approach analyse from the perspective of legal history several medieval and premodern historical documents. They reflect enactments of the Jus Valachicum in South Transylvania among the Romanians living on the Saxon Land, in Mărginimea Sibiului, and in its vicinity, in the citadel and Land of Făgăraş. Illustrations and prescriptions of enacted Romanian customary law are included in: the Romanian-Saxon peace convention of Cristian (13 January 1383); the protocol of the seat of Sălişte (16th-18th centuries); Constitutio gremialis Sedis Szeliste (1585); Cartea ocolniță from Răşinari (22 May 1488); Transmissionales in causa Possesionis Resinar contra Liberam Regiamque Civitatem Cibiniensem (1784); the Jura (Rights) of Răşinari (15th-18th centuries); the Statutes of Făgăraş (15 May 1508). These enactments of Jus Valachicum abolish the bias of a strictly oral, unwritten and unstructured Romanian customary law. They also confirm de iure the legal situation extant de facto, thus proving the long uninterrupted use of Jus Valachicum among the South-Transylvanian Romanians during the 14th-18th centuries.
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The Cetina prince (knez) Ivaniš Nelipčić belongs to those Croatian feudal landlords who cleverly knew how to link honours at the Croatian mainland with the honours and rule in the Dalmatian cities. In his rise, so characteristic for the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, three phases could be seen: I from 1393 to 1403, II from 1403 to 1408, III from 1408 to 1420.
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Taking for his starting point an unpublished document dealing with the dispute of the bishop of Trogir with his commune owing to an interdiction by which the bishop punished the leaders of the commune after they had established formal contacts with the followers of the Bosnian dulist “heretic” church, the author endeavours to give an outline of the basic elements on which, for two and half centuries, was built the attitude of the eastern Adriatic communes towards the Bosnian heresy.
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On the basis of the presented data, it can be said that Prijepolje with its surroundings were definitely included into the Ottoman Empire in 1465. Under the new historical circumstances, Prijepolje for a relatively long period retained its earlier urban physiognomy, its earlier structure of production as well as its confessional and social structure.
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The interest toward the treaty between Bulgaria and Dubrovnik from 1253 results from the fact that it is one of the small in number preserved textual treaties of Mediaeval Bulgaria. In the article an attempt is made for a thorough examination of the treaty from an international law point of view, and it is for the first time in our literature. The preservation and the publications of the treaty are examined, as well as the treaty procedure of its conclusions. A conclusion is made that it is influenced by the treaty practice in Byzantium and Venice. The international law character of some treaty procedures is looked upon, such as negotiations, the constitution of the charters, oaths, rituals, etc. The main clauses of the treaty with Dubrovnik are pointed and systematized: they are – war-political, commercial, customs, real, hereditary and juridical. Because of this the treaty is characterized not only as a war-political and commercial agreement, as commonly pointed in the literature, but as a treaty, arranging a complex of questions from the political, economic, military, law and other collaborations between Bulgaria and Dubrovnik. The final valuation of the treaty from international law point of view is that it is a document of the comparatively high level of the treaty activity and practice of the Bulgarian state in the Middle Ages.
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In the history of medieval Bohemia, the figure of Jan Hus has its own unique dimension, and his life and work reach far beyond the Czech context. The Hussite theme has grown into a separate specialization in international medieval studies. Jan Hus has had several biographies so far, and the latest work by Pavel Soukup will probably not be the last. What distinguishes the book from its predecessors is the particular emphasis on the role of the pulpit and Hus's preaching activity, which is also reflected in its title. For Hus, the pulpit became the basic tool for promoting the ideas of the Reformation. The main issue, therefore, is the question of the grounds for his choice of the pulpit, which determined the life of the Czech reformer. The turning point was Hus’s activity in the pulpit of the Bethlehem Chapel. P. Soukup emphasizes the practicality of the pulpit, the only mass medium capable of propagating ideological content, and he rightly calls the Bethlehem Chapel “a unique center of reform”. Let us add, however, to the author’s arguments that Hus chose the pulpit not only for practical but equally ideological reasons. The choice of the pulpit by Hus is a belief in the effectiveness of sermons, the power of words, and the performative function of speech. In his sermons, Hus quoted the main metaphor from the sermon that we know from the foundation document of the Bethlehem Chapel, namely the word of God compared to a seed (semen, semeno, sieme). According to one of his sermons, unlike the Mass, only a worthy sermon makes the souls of some unite in love with Christ. The adopted framework of the biography did not encourage detailed comments. It is, however, to the author’s merit that he traces the life of Hus through the prism of preaching activity.
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The history of Western Anatolian principalities was investigated widely enough in Russian historiography. The Russian historian T. D. Florinskiy in the mid-19th century in his monographs which was dedicated to foreign policy of Byzantium also touched upon the historical problems of Anatolian principalities. Next year’s historians like V. V. Bartold and V. A. Gordlevskiy in their researches into the history of Anatolia investigated. During the Soviet period in Russian historiography special attention was paid to the history of Turks and Turkology science began to develop. P. I. Javoronkov, M. S. Mayer, A. D. Novichev, S. F. Oreshkova, A. S. Tveritinova can be noted among these historians. From 1980’s economic and historical problems of Western Anatolian principalities including commercial relationships become an object of works by Russian historian K. A. Jukov. Modern Russian historians investigate Anatolian history of 13-14th century mostly in researches connected with Byzantium. Among them, we should specifically mention the famous historians S. P. Karpov and R. M. Shukurov. The foreign policy of the Anatolian principalities has been extensively studied in the works of these historians.
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Among historical records used in this research, an example of the yarligh by Iranian Ilkhan on the appointment of a head of a caravan is of key importance. This edict is incorporated into the treatise for penmen “Dastur al-katib”, which was written in the 1360s by Mukhammad ibn Khindushakh Nakhchivani, a Persian official. The document is translated into Russian for the first time and provided with interdisciplinary scholarly commentary. The data of the yarligh, combined with further relevant accounts, provide a rather seminal record on issues of security for caravans and trade routes in the Black Sea area, which in the 13th to 14th centuries was divided into parts between successor states of the Mongol Empire — the Golden Horde (the Ulus of Jochi) and the state of the Khulaguids in Iran, — and evaluate the effectiveness of the protective measures the Genghisids rulers have taken to respond to those challenges.
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The paper clarifies the nature and composition of the coin complex discovered during archaeological research of 2019 on the territory of the hillfort called Saraishyq. The total number of coins is 140 items. Two of these are silver coins of the 15th century, the rest are copper pūls of the 14th century and of the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. In four excavation units, medieval house buildings were revealed to be filled with soil at the end of the 14th century. In the 15th century, more building remains as well as subsequent burials have been deposited there. As a result, archaeologists most often may deal with redeposited occupation layers, and numismatic finds could hardly have been associated with undisturbed contexts at the site. It is perhaps due to the desolation of the occupation area under study, that the overall composition of the coin complex displays a break in coin losses in the 1360s — 1370s. In the 14th century until the 1360s, local markets were provided with pūls bearing names of mints located in the Lower Volga region. The chronological composition of surface finds does not statistically correspond to that of the coins found deep in the ground. The loss of coins on the right bank of the Ural River, in the medieval town of Saraychuq, is established to begin in the 1320s. In 2019, pūls dated back to the turn of the 14th — 15th centuries with unusual tamgha signs were discovered for the first time in the hillfort layers. They could have been minted in the town of Saraychuq since such coins have never been reported to be found elsewhere.
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The paper clarifies the nature and composition of the coin complex discovered during archaeological research of 2019 on the territory of the hillfort called Saraishyq. The total number of coins is 140 items. Two of these are silver coins of the 15th century, the rest are copper pūls of the 14th century and of the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. In four excavation units, medieval house buildings were revealed to be filled with soil at the end of the 14th century. In the 15th century, more building remains as well as subsequent burials have been deposited there. As a result, archaeologists most often may deal with redeposited occupation layers, and numismatic finds could hardly have been associated with undisturbed contexts at the site. It is perhaps due to the desolation of the occupation area under study, that the overall composition of the coin complex displays a break in coin losses in the 1360s — 1370s. In the 14th century until the 1360s, local markets were provided with pūls bearing names of mints located in the Lower Volga region. The chronological composition of surface finds does not statistically correspond to that of the coins found deep in the ground. The loss of coins on the right bank of the Ural River, in the medieval town of Saraychuq, is established to begin in the 1320s. In 2019, pūls dated back to the turn of the 14th — 15th centuries with unusual tamgha signs were discovered for the first time in the hillfort layers. They could have been minted in the town of Saraychuq since such coins have never been reported to be found elsewhere.
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Review of: Krzysztof Fokt - Nagirnyy, Vitaliy. Urzędnicy Ziemi Kijowskiej od drugiej połowy XI do pierwszej połowy XIII wieku. Studium prozopograficzne. Kraków: Historia Iagellonica, 2021, 390 pp.
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Narcissus appears as imbued with melancholy both in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in the poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the Middle Ages, the association between this figure and melancholy can be perceived in its various uses. But the Narcissus who seems the most melancholic is the one that Jean Froissart includes in Joli buisson de jeunesse, profoundly modifying the Ovidian myth. The researchers consider this one to represent the archetype of the lover. However, the author of the paper suggests that Froissart goes beyond the domain of love and the theme of courtly love: it is no longer the question of the inaccessibility of the object, nor exclusively of the loss of the object, but of any loss inherent in the passage of time. The association of narcissism with mourning entails the nostalgia that seems specific to Froissart’s work since it is found, in different forms, both in his Chronicles and in his lyrical work.
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