Craig Taylor
Professor of Medieval History

Research

Overview

Craig is an intellectual and cultural historian who studies the politics and aristocracies of fourteenth and fifteenth-century France and England. His research focuses upon recovering the voices of the medieval past as expressed through life-writings and other genres.

He has published books and articles on the Hundred Years War, chivalry, Joan of Arc, the Salic Law, propaganda, biography and the history of emotions (for full details, see his Academia.edu <https://york.academia.edu/CraigTaylor> page).

Craig’s book Chivalry, Honour and Knighthood in Late Medieval France (Cambridge University Press, 2013) examined French debates on the martial ideals of chivalry and knighthood during the period of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Faced by stunning military disasters and the collapse of public order, writers and intellectuals carefully scrutinized the martial qualities expected of knights and soldiers. They questioned when knights and men-at-arms could legitimately resort to violence, the true nature of courage, the importance of mercy, and the role of books and scholarly learning in the very practical world of military men.

His most recent monograph, A Virtuous Knight. Defending Marshal Boucicaut (Jean II Le Meingre, 1366-1421) (York Medieval Press, 2019) focused upon one of the most famous case-studies in medieval chivalric culture, that is to say Jean II Le Meingre, known as Marshal Boucicaut, one of the leading French military commanders of the late middle ages. His book  recounts the story of Boucicaut’s remarkable life and career in service to the French crown, on crusade, and as governor of Genoa, before then exploring the complex ways in which this controversial figure presented himself to contemporaries through his patronage of art and literature, and in particularly the unusual chivalric biography that was written during his lifetime. Craig also collaborated with Professor Jane Taylor (no relation) of the University of Durham to publish a translations of that book, The Chivalric Biography of Boucicaut, Jean II Le Meingre (Boydell & Brewer, 2016), as well as the ground-breaking medieval military memoir and autobiography, Jean de Bueil’s Le Jouvencel (Boydell & Brewer, 2020).

Craig is currently writing a book on the Nullification Trial of Joan of Arc that took place two decades after her execution in 1431. This project develops upon his earlier work in Joan of Arc, La Pucelle (Manchester University Press, 2006) and offers the first comprehensive study in English of this extremely complex legal process and the wider politics surrounding what was effectively an attempt at truth and reconciliation for the countless Frenchmen who had collaborated with the English occupiers of northern France. The heart of the book is a detailed examination of the testimony provided by over a hundred and twenty witnesses, and the information that they offer regarding not just Joan and her trial, but also deeper questions like memory, news and rumour, gender, class and emotions in the fifteenth century.

Craig was a co-investigator (20%) on the major AHRC-funded project on England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550 led by Professor Mark Ormrod, which created a fully-searchable database containing over 64,000 names of people known to have migrated to England during this period, as well as related teaching materials on the history of medieval migration for Key Stages 2-5.

Supervision

Carolyn Donohue, Public Display and the Construction of Monarchy in Yorkist England, 1460-1485 (PhD in History, completed 2013). Carolyn is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of York St. John.

Catherine Nall, The Production and Reception of Military Texts in the Aftermath of the Hundred Years War (PhD in Medieval Studies, completed 2005), co-supervised by Professor Felicity Riddy, Department of English. Catherine is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Chris Linsley, Nation, England and the French in Thomas Walsingham’s Chronica Maiora 1376-1420 (PhD in History, completed 2016).

Deborah Thorpe,  Writing and Reading in the Circle of Sir John Fastolf (PhD in Medieval Studies, completed in 2012), co-supervised with Professor Linne Mooney, Department of English. Deborah is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders, University of York, funded by the Wellcome Trust

Emily Hutchison, Pour le bien du roy et de son royaume: Burgundian Propaganda Under John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, 1405-1419 (PhD in Medieval Studies, completed 2006), co-supervised by Professor Peter Ainsworth of the Department of French, University of Sheffield. Emily is now a professor at Mount Royal University in Canada.

Erika Graham-Goering, Negotiating Princely Power in Late Medieval France: Jeanne de Penthièvre, Duchess of Brittany (c.1325–1384) (PhD in History, completed 2016). Erika is now a postdoctoral research fellow on the ERC-funded project 'STATE – Lordship and the Rise of the State in Western Europe, 1300-1600' at the University of Ghent.

Justin Sturgeon, Text & Image in René d’Anjou's Livre des tournois, c. 1460: Constructing Authority and Identity in Fifteenth-Century Court Culture (PhD in Medieval Studies, completed 2015), co-supervised with Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein, Department of the History of Art. Justin is now an assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of West Florida.

Kristin Bourassa, Counselling Charles VI of France: Christine de Pizan, Honorat Bovet, Philippe de Mézières, and Pierre Salmon (PhD in History, completed 2014). Kristin is now a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Medieval Literature at the University of Southern Denmark.

Luke Giraudet, Political Communication and Public Opinion in the Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris, 1405-1449 (PhD in Medieval Studies, completed 2020). Funded by a Wolfson Scholarship.

Rachael Whitbread, Tournaments, Jousts and Duels: Formal Combat in England and France, c.1380-1440  (PhD in History, completed 2014)

In addition, Craig has supervised a large number of MA dissertations, including recent studies of

An English Chronicle, 1377-1461

Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers and Lord Scales (d.1483)

Attainder and Treason in the Reign of Richard III

Charles de Blois (d.1364): A life and afterlife

Chivalry, Government and Warfare in Yorkist England

Chivalry in Thomas Gray's Scalachronica

Christine de Pizan's Response to Civil War in Early Fifteenth-Century France (1405-1413)

Constance de Rabastens and the Livre de révélations

Dubbing to Knighthood in Three Chivalric Works, c.1200 – c.1350

English Diplomacy and the Anglo-French Peace Negotiations During the Reign of Henry VI

Honour and Violence in Fourteenth-Century England

Le debat des heraulx d’armes de France et d’Angleterre

Margaret of Anjou and the Shrewsbury Book

Memorialising the Battle of Towton (1460)

Mercy in the Lancastrian Discourse of the Wars of the Roses

Popular Politics and the Earl of Warwick, 1450-1471

Prophecy in the chronicle of Adam Usk

Self-Censorship and Allusion in Thomas Walsingham’s Lancastrian Chronicles

Shame and Reputation in Christine de Pizan’s Livre des trois vertus and the Geoffroi de La Tour Landry

The Beauchamp Pageant, John Blacman’s Henry VI and the Reburial of Richard, Duke of York

The Black Book of Edward IV

John Vale’s Book

The Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris

The Opening Ceremonies of Parliament, 1399-1484

Violence and warfare in Froissart’s Chronicles: 1386-1391

William Worcester’s Boke of noblesse”

Teaching

Undergraduate

An example of modules taught:

• HIS00102C Extraordinary Lives: The Medieval Worlds of Princes, Monks & Unconventional Women
• HIS00153I Chivalry, Identity and Love 1350-1450
• HIS00148H Joan of Arc

Postgraduate

An example of modules taught:

• HIS00163M Medieval Lives