Dr Richard Allen
Dr Richard Allen
Junior Research Fellow in History
Research Interests
My research focuses on ducal Normandy and the ecclesiastical history of northern France in the High Middle Ages. I work primarily with the acta — that is, charters and documents — of the Norman episcopate of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Such material, the vast majority of which remains unpublished, is critical to our understanding of the development of administrative and legal practices in the medieval Church. There are, moreover, few aspects of medieval history that do not make use of at least some charter material, while charter scholarship continues to make important contributions to the study of a wide variety of subjects, including literacy, orality, ritual, gender, law and the exercise of power. My ultimate aim is to publish, diocese by diocese, and beginning with those bishoprics in western Normandy, critical editions of these acta in a Norman equivalent to the English Episcopal Acta series, which is currently published by the OUP for the British Academy.
Recent Publications
- ‘Un évêque et sa ville: les évêques d'Avranches de 990 à 1134’, Revue de l'Avranchin et du pays de Granville, 86 (2009), pp. 1-49
- ‘The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium: study and edition’, Tabularia ‘Documents’, 9 (2009), pp. 1-66
- ‘Robert Curthose and the Norman episcopate’, Haskins Society Journal, 21 (2009), pp. 87-112
- ‘'A proud and headstrong man': John of Ivry, bishop of Avranches and archbishop of Rouen, 1060-79’, Historical Research, 83 (2010), pp. 189-227
- ‘Les actes des évêques d'Avranches de 911 à 1252’, Revue de l'Avranchin et du pays de Granville, 87 (2010), pp. 373-380
- ‘Five charters concerning the early history of the chapter at Avranches: an edition revisited’, Tabularia ‘Documents’, 10 (2010), pp. 37-44
- ‘Les reliques de la cathédrale d'Avranches’, in Recueil d'études offert en hommage à Emmanuel Poulle, Revue de l'Avranchin et du pays de Granville, 87 (2010), pp. 501-535
- ‘The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium and urban ecclesiastical rivalry in eleventh-century Normandy’, in Cathedrals, communities and conflict in the Anglo-Norman world, ed. P. Dalton, C. Insley and L.J. Wilkinson (Woodbridge, 2011), pp. 77-97
- ‘Avant Lanfranc. Un réexamen de la carrière de Mauger, archevêque de Rouen (1037-1054/55)’, in Autour de Lanfranc (1010-2010): réforme et réformateurs dans l'Europe du Nord-Ouest (XIe-XIIe siècles), ed. V. Gazeau, J. Barrow and F. Delivré (forthcoming)
- ‘'Praesul praecipue, atque venerande': the career of Robert, archbishop of Rouen, 989-1037’, in Society and culture in a medieval city: Rouen 989-1300, ed. Leonie Hicks (forthcoming)
- ‘Robert Cénalis et l'histoire épiscopale d'Avranches de 1100 à 1253’, Annales de Normandie (forthcoming)
