So, this past spring and summer I read a lot of history books* covering a huge span of time — from roughly the end of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the 16th century — in Western Europe in both French and English this summer, and thought it might be helpful to list them all in one place. It's all tangentially related to a writing project I'm working on, but I was also finding the more I read the vaster my gaps of knowledge seemed and the more I felt like I wanted to work on my historical education for its own sake.

While there are some themes that stand out — perhaps most especially the intricacies of feudalism, knights, tournaments, and queer & trans people throughout the so-called Middle Ages — it got pretty eclectic fast. Most of these books were consulted thanks to online university databases (accessed through my membership to the Grande Bibliothèque), my municipal library, the National Archives, or even public databases such as archive.org, or found by emailing/tweeting at medievalists and scholars and asking for help with obtaining copies of certain resources. Thank you especially to all who have reached out to me on Twitter whenever I've posted in the #MedievalTwitter hashtag, you've all been so helpful.

* I actually vlogged a bit about it over here, in my vlog titled "All I Wanna Do Is Be A Rogue Queer Historian!"

Books

Forgive the lack of a proper biographical style with publisher and publication dates, the vast majority of the following books are no longer in my possession and I often recorded hasty notes (sometimes only titles or authors) in my journal or in Scrivener. Here they are, in roughly the order I read them:

Title	Author(s)	Geography & Era	Topic	Notes
Rompez les lances ! Chevaliers et tournois au Moyen Âge	Sébastien Nadot	France, but also England and Germany, X to XV centuries	Tournaments, Knights, Feudalism	Very helpful point de départ, survey of the period and how tournaments affected politics/economy and vice-versa, lots of interesting materials and anectodes
Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal	Chrétien de Troyes	France, XII century	Arthurian myth, original text	...Dry.
Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe	Peter Heather	Western Europe, end of Roman Empire	Political and economic reorganization of Western Europe as the Roman Empire faded away	Very interesting book, need to re-borrow it from the library.
The Celtic Myths	Miranda Aldhouse-Green	Ancient Western Europe, from the Classical era of Antiquity	Celtic mythology and customs as recorded by the ancients and more recently	Included because I found in this book a really interesting discussion on the difference between the Celts of Antiquity and what we now understand as Celtic, which is a label that was defined in the 16th century by Classical Scholar George Buchanan
La Renaissance du XII Siècle	Jacques Verger	France, XII century	Intellectual and spiritual evolution in the XII century, examining common misconceptions	Very interesting book and had to return it to the library too soon, would appreciate another look-through, I concur with Étienne Anheim's notes on the book
Love Between Women	Bernadette J. Brooten	Western Europe, Antiquity to Medieval Period	Women, Homosexuality, Homosociality, Gender	Really fascinating book about the love and erotic relationships between women throughout the history of Western Europe despite how little clear information has survived to the modern day.
Crossing Borders, Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures	Sarah Ahmer	Ancient France and the ancient Arab world, X to XV centuries	Homosexuality, Homosociality, Women, Poetry, Erotic tradition, Gender	Absolutely fascinating. I need to reread this one, but it reminds me that I have a ton more research to do on the Literary, Sexual, and Spiritual Renaissance that occured in Al-Andaluz, and how the Church and Christian Europeans ruthlessly destroyed that after the tenth century.
Deux Hommes Sur Un Cheval	Didier Godart	Western Europe, Medieval Period	Religion, Homosexuality, Homosocial behaviours, Knights, Tournaments, War, Masculinity	I have a lot of thoughts but am currently rereading through the book and don't want to dive into it here, but as far as I can tell Godart proposes that the structures around Knighthood and Tournaments were a continuation of homosexual warrior mysteries that had existed in Antiquity.
Life In A Medieval Castle	Frances Gies, Joseph Gies	Western Europe, X-XIV century	Castles, War, Feudalism, Class	Very complete book, gives a clear snapshot of how the chateau-fort affected society and conflict in France especially for centuries.
Aliénor d’Aquitaine	Régine Pernoud	France, XII century	Historical Biography/Fiction, Aliénor d'Aquitaine, Crusades, England, France	I particularly enjoyed hearing about her early life, which I felt more unfamiliar with!
La chanson de Roland	Translation & notes by Léon Gautier	France, XI century	Original text, translation, and commentary	Not the more exciting read but essential.
Le roman de Silence de Heldris de Cornuälle	Translation by Sarah Roche-Mahdi	Cornwall, XIII century	Arthurian legend, Octosyllabic verse, Original text, Gender, Queer knights	Very, very, very interesting, and I plan on making a more complete blog post examining this roman in detail soon.

Papers

Several if not most of these papers are chiefly literary rather than historical in nature. When possible, I've also included JSTOR links, or similar, to the articles so that others can find them, since I thankfully did record those. (Mostly.)

Title	Author(s)	Geography & Era	Topic	Notes
The Church and the Homosexual: An Historical Perspective, 1979	John Boswell	Western Europe, Medieval era	Roman Empire, Europe, Sexuality, Catholic Church	See Jane Vanderbosch below.
A short history of tournaments	Steven Muhlberger	Western Europe, X to XVI centuries	Knights, Feodalism, Tournaments	Good, quick survey to complement Rompez les lances ! above.
Pueri Sunt Pueri: Machismo, Chivalry, and the Aggressive Pastimes of the Medieval Male Youth	Sean McGlynn		Knights, Feodalism, Tournaments, War, Gender	Starts digging into the interplay between what we "understand" today as gender and past feudal knightly identity and activities.
Fragment inédit des tournois de Chauvenci de Jacques Bretel	Paul Meyer	France, XIII century	Knights, Tournaments, Primary Source	Original text, fascinating.
Killing the myth	John Clements	Western Europ, XI century	Knights, Feodalism, Tournaments, War	Detailed information on knightly fighting styles of the period, and how armour was utilized.
"Caritas" Begins at Home: Virtue and Domesticity in Chrétien's "Yvain"	Rebekah M. Fowler	France, XII century	Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian legends, Chivalric values, Religious values & worldview	Very interesting and makes me think in particular of the standards of hospitality in the ancient world, especially among the ancient Gauls, Saxons, Germanic tribes, and Nordic cultures.
'A Mayde, and Last of Youre Blood': Galahad's Asexuality and its Significance in "Le Morte d'Arthur"	Megan Arkenberg	England, France, 1485	Arthurian legends, (A)sexuality, Chivalric values, Thomas Mallory	To reread once I've completed a more thorough reading of Mallory Le Morte d'Arthur
Befriending the Medieval Queer: A Pedagogy for Literature Class	Richard E. Zeikowitz	Western Europe, Medieval Period	Gender	More of a literary lens for examinations of depictions of "masculinity" that clash with modern assumptions about "masculinity" than an examination of actual queer historical figures.
The Cypher of Chivalry: Violence as Courtly Play	Carl Grey Martin	England, France, XII to XV centuries	Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian legends, Chivalric values, Gender, Class, Tournaments, War	How violence and the chivalric courtesy/values of knights are closely related, and how chivalry obscures this violence.
Comment on John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality"	Jane Vanderbosch	Western Europe, Medieval Period	John Boswell	As far as I can tell John Boswell (who among other greatly influenced Didier Godart mentioned above) is controversial. I found Vanderbosch's comments particularly helpful.
The Man with No Name, Identity in French Arthurian Verse Romances	Sarah E. Gordon	Western Europe, Medieval Era	Arthurian romance, Identity, Chivalric virtues, Romance	A look at how identity is at the core of the early romantic genre as defined by Chrétien de Troyes, Guillaume LeClerc, or Raoul de Houdenc.

As several people had mentioned that they were interested in checking out these kinds of texts, here are the ones I've read so far. And, if you have any reading suggestions, especially about trans or queer people in Medieval Europe and especially Medieval France, please send them to me!

A Summer Steeped in Historical Sources and History Books

A round-up of some of the research done over the past months on feudalism, knights, tournaments, and queer & trans people throughout the so-called Middle Ages (mostly).

The comments section is open below. You can also throw a coin to your blogger, check out the guestbook before leaving, and come find me on the fediverse.