History Today

Christmas is a time for children... an adage the Middle Ages took literally by promoting choir boys into bishops at ceremonies linked to the festive season.

To the greater glory of God – but not forgetting to include the patron – was the guiding principle of the creative art of the Middle Ages.

The formidable intellectual challenge to the English church by Wyclif and the pastoral work of his followers challenged the hitherto unquestioned acceptance of clerical authority and opened the door to individual judgement and conscience in religious matters.

Pamela Tudor-Craig looks at complex allegories, moral and theological, conveyed in images of considerable beauty which are still being recovered today.

Juliet and Malcolm Vale trace through the web of secular status and religious instincts that made up the codes of conduct of English chivalry.

Christian king or swashbuckling hero? The immense popularity of King Arthur in medieval romance gave considerable scope for a range of images.

Jonathan Alexander, the organiser of an exhibition on English Gothic Art at the Royal Academy, outlines its contents and objectives.

Janet Backhouse explores the Illuminated Books of Gothic England.

Is there a direct link between Julius Caesar, the Rome of the 1st century BC and a medieval world map in Hereford Cathedral? Peter Wiseman investigates the origins and purpose of one of the Age of Chivalry's exhibits.

What did the Pilgrim Fathers and other settlers write to the Old Country about? In a new study of their transatlantic correspondence, we find close connections between old and new worlds.