The James Lydon Lectures in Medieval History and Culture

Professor John Gillingham (London School of Economics, Emeritus)

‘A raid by Muirchertach Ua Briain against the men of Bréifne, and he plundered them and carried off their women and cattle to Munster’ (Annals of Inisfallen, 1111). In this series of lectures, John Gillingham analyses the conduct of war as slave raid, a type of warfare in which women and children were prized items of plunder. Gillingham places the evidence from Irish narrative sources into a Europe-wide context and explores (amongst other factors) the part played by Christian teaching from the writings of St Patrick onwards in the discontinuance of enslavement in warfare. The ending of this practice was a significant moment in the rise of chivalry and the notion of non-combatant immunity—a key norm in modern discussions of the ‘laws of war’.

Public Lecture:

Enslavement and War in Irish and European History

Tuesday 21 October 2014 at 7 pm

Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre (Room 2043)

Seminar 1

The Peace of God, the Laws of War and the Non-combatant Immunity of Women

Wednesday 22 October 2014 at 5.30 pm

Arts Faculty Conference Room (Room 2026)

Seminar 2

Slaving in European Warfare from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Where, When and Why did it die out?

Thursday 23 October 2014 at 5.30 pm

Arts Faculty Conference Room (Room 2026)