Secrets and lies: Espionage and diplomacy in the medieval world

In the period c. 1200–c. 1400, the arts of identifying and sharing reliable information, and conducting negotiations to secure personal, political or commercial interests, relied on a complex ecosystem of formal and informal participants. This unit explores the ways that medieval societies cultivated strategic relationships, discussed and disputed trade conditions, formed and broke alliances, gathered intelligence and negotiated peace and war. In this unit, you will consider the interests and strategies of state and non-state actors, such as the role of extended families and women as spies and spokespeople. You will also examine what kinds of primary sources preserve evidence of secret and sensitive information, and how historians should interpret them. Your investigation will centre in Christian Europe, but take in the diplomatic engagement of European institutions, kingdoms, cities and aristocratic families with Islamic and other powers, such as the Emperors of Byzantium, Princes of Kievan Rus, and the Mongol Khans of Central Asia and the Steppe. In this unit you will acquire a critical grasp of the ways in which histories of medieval espionage and diplomacy have changed, and develop skills in posing research questions that advance a field of study in a new direction. You will use this knowledge to design and conduct an original research project.