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"Monarchy and nobility in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1099-1131: establishment and origins By Alan V. Murray PhD Dissertation, University of St Andrews, 1988 Abstract: The starting-point of this thesis is the question of the origin of the nobility in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem up to 1131. This is discussed in parallel with the question of the origins of the monarchy itself and that of relations between the two institutions."

"Introduction: Between the mid-11th and late-15th centuries, an historically specific configuration of material and ideational factors gave rise to a constellation of religious wars that have come to be known as "the crusades". This constellation included Church-organized wars in the Holy Land, Iberia and along the Baltic frontier as well as within Latin Christendom itself.[1] The Crusades to the Holy Land were "wars of liberation" initially launched by the Church to restore Jerusalem to Christian rule. Following the First Crusade and the establishment of the crusader principalities (the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem - collectively known as Outremer), these expeditions were conducted primarily to defend the Holy Places against Muslim attempts at reconquest or, following its loss in 1187 and again in 1244, to recover Jerusalem for Latin Christendom. While authorized by, and fought on behalf of, the Church these wars were prosecuted by princes, nobles and knights from every corner of Latin Christendom as well as by so-called "para-crusaders" (milites ad terminum), and members of military orders such as the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights.[2] They were fought primarily against a range of Muslim powers, although the Fourth Crusade ended up being waged largely against adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite. Although the idea of launching additional expeditions to liberate Jerusalem persisted for a considerable time, the Crusades to the Holy Land effectively came to an end with the fall of the last Christian stronghold in Palestine - Acre - in 1291.[3]"

"The Catholicon was the first such dictionary to have all of its entries arranged in alphabetical order. The positioning of vernacular words first, with Latin equivalents following, shows that it was intended to be used for Latin composition not translation. It would have been of particular utility in the grammar schools that were being founded in large numbers during the 15th century. "

Frontier Warfare in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Campaign of Jacob's Ford, 1178-79

This study argues that in addition to protecting the kingdom of Jerusalem against perceived enemies from without, these strongholds are evidence of the military orders' involvement in policing nomads roaming within and traversing through the kingdom.

The Romance language group (or Gallo-Romance) in the north of France is that of the langue d'oïl, the languages which use oïl (in modern usage, oui) for "yes". These languages, like Picard, Walloon, and Francien, were influenced by the Germanic languages spoken by the Frankish invaders; Norman was later also heavily influenced by the Norse settlers who founded the Norman state of Normandy. From the time period Clovis I on, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around Paris and Ile-de-France (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory). Oïl derives from the Latin hoc ille ("that is it").

The English language has been shaped by a number of other languages over the centuries, and many English speakers know that Latin and German were two of the most important. What many people don't realize is how much the French language has influenced English.

The Dark Origins of Britain is a landmark series dealing with the greatest unresolved mystery in our history - how the modern nations of England, Wales and Scotland were born out of the chaos of the Dark Ages. In 400 AD, when Roman power collapsed in Britain, we were a province inhabited by Celtic peoples speaking a mixture of early Welsh and Latin. But only two hundred years later, the foundations of a new, Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking nation were being laid.

The many thousands of surviving medieval manorial accounts (sometimes known as compotus rolls and in their enrolled form as Pipe Rolls) contain all the information necessary for the precise calculation of the yields of specified crops, on named demesne farms, in dated years. Each account enumerates the cash and stock received and expended on a single demesne farm managed by or on behalf of a manorial lord over the course of an agricultural year, usually from Michaelmas (29 September) to Michaelmas. Typically, each account records the amount of grain (both threshed and as yet un-threshed) received from the previous year's harvest and the quantity of seed sown in preparation for the next harvest (see 'Woodhay 1254-5 grange account'). The information is hand-written on parchment in abbreviated Latin using Roman numerals and the form of the entries is usually formulaic so that with a little practice they are not difficult to interpret. The following extract recording the amounts of barley (Ordeum) received and expended in 1378-9 on the Battle Abbey manor of Alciston in East Sussex (East Sussex Record Office, SAS/G44/34) is an example of one of the more enigmatic types of entry that can be encountered.

The defense of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the blooming of the spirit of chivalry were the determinant causes that induced the "frates" to become "equites et servientes armigeri". By the will of Innocent III, the initial hospitaller tasks were supplemented with military functions. It was an original fusion: military forces defending the Christian dominions, and hospitaller charity defending life.

The Hospitallers and the Holy Land: financing the Latin East, 1187-1274