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About Me

Amy Livingstone is the Head of the School of History and Heritage and Professor of History at the University of Lincoln, UK. Her research focuses on the history of the aristocracy in eleventh and twelfth-century France.  She has published widely on the history of women and the aristocratic family. Her books include Out of Love for My Kin: Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, c. 1000-1200 and Medieval Lives: The World of the Beaugency Family, c. 1000-1292. In 2017 she was awarded the Medieval Academy/CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Livingstone is the co-editor of the newly re-launched journal, Medieval People. She is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Her current research project is writing the life of Countess Ermengarde of Brittany.

Recent Publications

Monographs:

 Out of Love for My Kin: Aristocratic Family Life in the Lands of the Loire, 1000-1200 AD. Cornell University Press, 2010 (paperback 2015). This book challenges many assumptions about the aristocratic family, specifically the dominance of patrilineage, primogeniture, and patriarchy. It offers a new interpretation of medieval family life  that emphasizes the affection that bound family members together.

 Medieval Lives, c. 1000-1285: The World of the Beaugency Family (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2018) This is a short monograph that tells the history of the Central Middle Ages by examining the life experiences of the members of one aristocratic family, the Beaugency family. A Digital Humanities project accompanies this book to provide readers with a portal into the medieval past. It can be accessed at: https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/medievalportal/9781138677098.php

 Edited Volumes:

 Those Who Pray, Those Who Fight, and Those Who Work: Essays in Honor of Joel Rosenthal.

Co-editor with Caroline Barron. This is a special volume (volume 33) of Medieval Prosopography honoring one of the founding editors.

Writing Medieval Women’s Lives, co-edited with Charlotte Newman Goldy, Palgrave, 2013. Co-wrote the introduction and contributed an essay. (paperback 2016)

Medieval Monks: Ideals and Realities, Essays in Honor of Richard E. Sullivan, co-edited with David Blanks and Michael Frassetto, Brill, 2006. Wrote the introduction, “We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants” and contributed an essay.

Articles and Essays since 2013:

 “Into the Wild West: Medieval Clergy’s View of Brittany.” In Author, Worldview and Identity in Medieval Europe, ed. Christian Raffensperger, Routledge, 2022, pp. 219-237.

“‘Daughter of Fulk, Glory of Brittany:’ Countess Ermengarde of Brittany,” Anglo-Norman  Studies 40 (2018): 165-178.

“The Lives of Unremarkable Men: Two Lords of Beaugency,” in Louis VII and His  World, ed. Michael Bardot and Larry Marvin, Brill, 2018, pp. 146-166.         

 “‘You will dwell with barbarous and uneducated men:’ Countess Ermengarde and Political Culture in  Twelfth-Century Brittany” in History: The Journal of the Historical Association 102 (December 2017): 858-873.            

 “Pious Women in a ‘Den of Scorpions:’ The Piety and Patronage of the Countesses of Brittany, c. 1050-1150,” Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques 43 (2017): 45-61.

 “Inheritance in the Lands of the Loire, 1050-1200 AD, A Contrast to Nordic Practice,” in Donations and Inheritance: Strategies, Relations and Historical Developments from the Late Roman Period to Modern Times, ed. Helle Vogt and Helle Sigh, Routledge, 2017, pp. 115-129.

“Recalculating the Equation: Powerful Woman = Extraordinary,” Medieval Feminist Forum,  vol. 51, no. 2 (2016): 17-29.

“Extraordinairement ordinaire: Ermengarde de Bretagne, femmes de l’aristocratie et pouvoir en France au Moyen Age, v. 1090-1135,”Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l’Ouest, 21(2014): 7-24.

“Climbing the Tree of Jesse: Aristocratic Marriage in the Lands of the Loire,” in Les stratégies matrimoniales, ed. Martin Aurell, Brepols, 2013, pp. 101-119.

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Expertise by Geography

England, France, Western Europe

Expertise by Chronology

Medieval

Expertise by Topic

Family, Gender, Material Culture, Religion, Women