Martin Aurell whose works about the first Plantagenets were read by medievalists all over the world, has passed away at the age of 67.
8 February saw the sudden passing of Martin Aurell, professor of Medieval History at the University of Poitiers and director of the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, lecturer at the universities of Rouen and Sorbonne, member of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton and of the Institut Universitaire de France, editor of Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale.
Professor Aurell was expected on Sunday, 9 February in Angers to present his latest book, a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, for which he received the “Point” prize at the Nimes Biographie Festival on 25 January, alas, he never appeared.
Prolific and exemplary historian with a mastery of archival research, his field of expertise was nobility, chivalry, kinship and power in Catalonia, Provence, Languedoc and in the Angevin Empire. He taught students in universities all over Europe. I found myself inconsolable when in 2021 I could not listen to his lectures delivered at the University of Szczecin (my native Poland), where he discussed respectively myths and misconceptions surrounding Eleanor of Aquitaine, mixed marriages between Christian and Muslims, and the role of sword in medieval aristocratic culture.
His most recent work focused on the Angevin Empire and its orbit, but also on the Arthurian literature; troubadours and trouvères; Christian-Muslim relations. He wrote mostly in French, only some of his books and essays having been written or translated into English. These included: The Plantagenet Empire, 1154-1224 (2003) and The Lettered Knight: Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (2017). His contributions in English can be found, among others, in Henry II: New Interpretations (ed. Christopher Harper-Bill), Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe: Concepts, Origins, Transformations (ed. Anne Duggan) and in Anglo-Norman Studies (ed. Stephen Church).
With his passing the first Plantagenets lost their champion across the Narrow Sea, in their continental domains, whereas the world lost one of the greatest experts in the Angevin Empire.
Katarzyna Ogrodnik-Fujcik specializes in British literature and history, her area of expertise being the first Plantagenets (the Angevins). She lives in Poland. She writes for different magazines and websites on Polish and European Middle Ages. She runs a blog dedicated to Henry the Young King.
Top Image: Photo by Librairie Mollat / Wikimedia Commons
By Katarzyna Ogrodnik-Fujcik
Martin Aurell whose works about the first Plantagenets were read by medievalists all over the world, has passed away at the age of 67.
8 February saw the sudden passing of Martin Aurell, professor of Medieval History at the University of Poitiers and director of the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, lecturer at the universities of Rouen and Sorbonne, member of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton and of the Institut Universitaire de France, editor of Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale.
Professor Aurell was expected on Sunday, 9 February in Angers to present his latest book, a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, for which he received the “Point” prize at the Nimes Biographie Festival on 25 January, alas, he never appeared.
Prolific and exemplary historian with a mastery of archival research, his field of expertise was nobility, chivalry, kinship and power in Catalonia, Provence, Languedoc and in the Angevin Empire. He taught students in universities all over Europe. I found myself inconsolable when in 2021 I could not listen to his lectures delivered at the University of Szczecin (my native Poland), where he discussed respectively myths and misconceptions surrounding Eleanor of Aquitaine, mixed marriages between Christian and Muslims, and the role of sword in medieval aristocratic culture.
His most recent work focused on the Angevin Empire and its orbit, but also on the Arthurian literature; troubadours and trouvères; Christian-Muslim relations. He wrote mostly in French, only some of his books and essays having been written or translated into English. These included: The Plantagenet Empire, 1154-1224 (2003) and The Lettered Knight: Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (2017). His contributions in English can be found, among others, in Henry II: New Interpretations (ed. Christopher Harper-Bill), Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe: Concepts, Origins, Transformations (ed. Anne Duggan) and in Anglo-Norman Studies (ed. Stephen Church).
With his passing the first Plantagenets lost their champion across the Narrow Sea, in their continental domains, whereas the world lost one of the greatest experts in the Angevin Empire.
Click here to view Martin Aurell’s Academia.edu page
Katarzyna Ogrodnik-Fujcik specializes in British literature and history, her area of expertise being the first Plantagenets (the Angevins). She lives in Poland. She writes for different magazines and websites on Polish and European Middle Ages. She runs a blog dedicated to Henry the Young King.
Top Image: Photo by Librairie Mollat / Wikimedia Commons
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