PARERGON

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ISSN:: 0313-6221
Category:: MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE STUDIES
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Medieval English Attitudes to the Outside World

2025-11-27

Matthew Firth

Medieval English texts reflect a society that was more interested in, and connected with, the wider world than is often recognised. Using the case study of an almsgiving mission sent by Alfred the Great to ‘India’ in 883, this essay offers a glimpse into how English perceptions of the world shifted over time. It then surveys the approaches taken in this special issue to the topic of medieval English conceptions of a wide and complex world. These essays arise out of the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects ‘The First English Speakers in their own Words (DP230101057; CI: Erin Sebo) and ‘Contesting Conquests: Pre-Modern Attempts to Come to Terms with the Past’ (DE250100116; CI: Matthew Firth).

Elephants in English Literature, Art, and Material Culture before the Reign of Henry III

2025-11-27

Alison Hudson

For animals that are not definitely known to have lived on the island of Britain until the reign of Henry III, elephants feature in a notable number of English texts and art before the thirteenth century. Moreover, carvers continued to use elephant ivory throughout the early Middle Ages. However, English speakers’ knowledge of elephants’ anatomy was still limited before the late twelfth century. Building on previous literary, art historical, and historical scholarship, this article uses elephants to examine the limits of early English speakers’ understandings of the wider world.

English Queenship from the Mid-Fifteenth to Mid-Sixteenth Centuries and England’s Place in the European World

2025-11-27

Michele Seah

English kings had long sought consorts from outside England for various reasons. Yet, of England’s ten queens consort from the mid-1400s to mid-1500s, all but three were native-born. This article addresses the relationship between this development in English queenship and awareness during this period about England’s place in the world. It considers whether the changes in queens’ backgrounds was symptomatic of a regression in English political ambition. In so doing, it demonstrates that English kings remained invested in the wider world no matter where their queens came from and increasingly sure of the place they and England occupied in that world.