Here begins nothing ...

Hello and welcome. My name is Joseph Brown and I have just completed a Masters in Medieval History at the University of Oxford, where I achieved a Merit, having previously done an Undergraduate degree there in (mostly medieval) history in which I achieved a 2:1. I am highly passionate about medieval history, as has been the case pretty much from as early as I can remember, going back to my early childhood fascination with knights and castles (still think they're pretty awesome today in my personal opinion). My interests in medieval history are very broad, both in terms of time period and geographical area, but in terms of the content of this blog on Western and Central Europe in the period c.700 - 1200. This particular period really fascinates me in part on account of its formativeness in European history - over the course of this period most of the classic features of medieval society as we tend to envision it (including, surprise, surprise, knights and castles) took shape, around which many rich historiographical controversies to get one's teeth stuck in abound. But history isn't all about linear progress, and this period is also full of lots of intriguing dead-ends and might-have-beens. Above all, its full of all kinds of dramatic and exciting events to give life to it - the rise and fall of the Carolingians, the conversion of the Scandinavia and East Central Europe to Christianity, the Norman Conquest of England, the Investiture Controversy, the first three crusades and the Twelfth Century Renaissance to name just half a dozen. This is not a strict limitation - when I feel like it I might make posts about the late Roman and post-Roman periods or the Later Middle Ages too, as well as exploring some connections and comparisons here and there with other parts of the Old World/ Afro-Eurasia (whatever one's supposed to call it) in this period. Through this blog I hope to share my knowledge, theories and musings (and the odd incoherent ramble) on this period and give insights into what research/ translating of original texts I'm doing. I hope that someday I'll do a PhD, likely one building from my Masters thesis on political culture in tenth century West Francia as seen by the controversial chronicler Richer of Rheims (fl. 991 - 998), but this is very much a moot point right now. What I hope most to achieve is to make this fascinating period interesting and accessible, and this blog is I hope a small step towards that.