The Anglo-Bohemian political alliance, formalized in 1382 with the marriage of Anne of Bohemia to England’s King Richard II, would unexpectedly contribute to one of the most significant and controversial cultural exchanges of the later Middle Ages: that between the Wycliffites in England and the Hussites in Bohemia. Subsequent narratives of the exchange, up to the present day, are deeply indebted to sixteenth-century Protestant claims about official (and even divine) sponsorship of reformist positions and communication. Yet the manuscript record tells a very different story. Using this cultural interchange as a starting point, this talk will re-examine the Anglo-Bohemian relationship in terms of the realities of communication in a manuscript culture during the Great Schism of the Western Church, suggesting new ways of understanding the rise and fall of heretical communication between England and Bohemia.

This is a guest lecture by Michael van Dussen presented by The Group for Early Modern Studies and the UA Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Committee. Find out more about Michael van Dussen here http://www.mcgill.ca/english/staff/michael-van-dussen .