HIST 398
SYLLABUS
WEEKLY DISCUSSION MATERIALS
Tuesday:
Video:
“The Battle of Towton [1461]” [50 min.; watch 1:00-5:00; 7:00-11:24; 20:00- 26:30 (military surgery); 31:00-37:00 (weapons and injuries); 43:22-45:00 (wound sequencing)]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvvhtIx2DRc
Readings:
Paterson, “Military Surgery”
Mark Brennand, review of Blood Red Roses: The
Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461
https://web.archive.org/web/20090818193403/http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/issue6/Roses_web.html
Battle injuries: skeletons from the Battle of Towton, 1461
https://web.archive.org/web/20210415114429/http://www.the-exiles.org/Article%20Towton.htm
The Towton Mass Grave Project
https://web.archive.org/web/20110927065749/http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/resgrp/towton/
Brief account of the Battle of Towton (March 29, 1461):
https://web.archive.org/web/20080117131809/http://www.wars-of-the-roses.com/content/battles/towton.htm
Images:
Interactive map of the battlefield at Towton (N. Yorkshire):
https://web.archive.org/web/20110806075927/http://www.r3.org/archives/ricardian_britain/towton/caption/towtonmap.html
Photographs of Towton battlefield and surrounding area:
http://www.r3.org/richard-iii/ricardian-travel/yorkshire-north-eastern/towton/
Rolled up mail shirt found near the site of the battle of Kungslena, Sweden (1208)
Battle scenes from the Maciejowski Bible (Paris, c. 1234-44):
http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images/maciejowski/leaf10/otm10va&b.gif
http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images/maciejowski/leaf11/otm11ra&b.gif
http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images/maciejowski/leaf23/otm23va&b.gif
Skeletons from the battle of Visby on the island of Gotland, Sweden (July 1361):
Brief website on battle and skeletons
Skulls: with mail coif, with projectiles, with coif and smashed face
Coat of plates from one of the graves
The battle of Towton, Palm Sunday (March 29th), 1461:
Detail of mass burial
Sketch of mass burials
Soldier with poleaxe (detail of stained glass window):
https://web.archive.org/web/20070706095901/http://www.wars-of-the-roses.com/images/images2/wars_of_the_roses.jpg
Medicine and surgery:
Urine wheel, 14th cent. (parchment quick-reference text, meant to fold up and hang at the physician’s belt)
Uroscopy: physician examining a urine flask and physician or apothecary examining a customer’s urine flask (both 14th cent.),
parodied as monkey examining urine flask (Cambrai, BM, 87), and similar (Bodleian, MS 264)
Drawing teeth, early 14th cent.
Writings of John of Arderne, 1370s (in later manuscripts)
Medieval arrowheads (Museum of London)
“Wound man” (German, late 15th cent.,Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Cgm 597 )
Public dissection of cadaver, 15th cent.
Anatomical sculpture, ivory, c. 1500 (6-7 inches high)
Thursday:
Week 15 mini-paper due by 4:59 PM:
You have been injured during a siege. Describe your injuries and their treatment.
Readings:
Daniell, Death and Burial in Medieval England, Chapter 2 (pp. 27-58) (available online through the UWM Libraries: see link in “Required Readings” in syllabus)
Pounds, The Medieval Castle, Chapter 10 (pp. 249-260, 269-75), and Chapter 12 (pp. 295-300)
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 12 (pp. 218-224)
Images:
Confession, death, shrouding, funeral, burial (Morgan Library; French, c. 1490)
Soul saved by angel at moment of death
Hearse and effigy of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1439)
Corpse of Richard II in hearse
Mock funeral procession with animals (Gorleston Psalter)
Warkworth Castle (mid 1100s and late 1300s):
aerial view and aerial view of town and castle, controlling the crossing of the River Coquet
plan of castle
Great Tower; Great Tower reconstruction
Great Hall reconstruction
service doors in Great Hall
chapel interior
gatehouse and moat; detail of gatehouse; gatehouse interior
Lion Tower with carved lion (the Percy family badge) and detail
detail of latrine?
Details from other late medieval castles and palaces:
Penshurst Place, Kent (1341 and later): aerial view, hall interior, dais end of hall
Caerphilly Castle, Glamorgan (begun 1268; hall remodeled 1320s): exterior of hall (on right); interior
Great Hall at Penshurst Place, Kent (late 14th cent.)
Great Hall, Durham Castle, 14th cent.
Well-house with donkey treadmill, Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight
14th-century Great Hall; Buffet in 14th-century Great Hall at Dirleton Castle, East Lothian, Scotland
Kitchen, Windsor Castle, Berkshire (late 15th cent.; painted in 1818); aerial photo of fire damage at Windsor Castle in 1992; painting (1999) of restored kitchen after fire
Cotehele House (aerial photo), late 15th cent.
Oxford Colleges: aerial photograph
Great Hall, Christ Church College (early 16th cent.)
