In 1290, an English lord called William de Briouze ordered that Welshman named William Cragh be hanged by the neck until dead. Almost 20 years later, a papal commission would interview the formerly dead Cragh, and a number of other people, about his seemingly-miraculous return to life and whether it was the result of the heavenly intercession of Thomas de Cantilupe, late bishop of Hereford and then candidate for sainthood. Robert Bartlett uses the surviving commission records to provide the framework for an exploration of the mental world of those inhabiting the Welsh Marches in the early fourteenth century: their ideas about faith, politics, inquiry, time and space among others.

For those who are relatively unfamiliar with medieval history, Bartlett’s study will provide an interesting introduction both to the topic and to how a historian can use a microhistorical study to provide a glimpse of another world. He writes accessibly and clearly. However, this is not a straightforward narrative history or even one entirely focused on the eponymous Hanged Man (Bartlett doesn’t even venture a guess as to the physiological mechanism that could explain Cragh’s survival, but I suppose in the absence of any evidence beyond the commission records it couldn’t be anything other than a wild guess), and some lay readers may find it frustrating on that ground. (Although the fact that there are no ultimate conclusions or neat ends to the story is also part of the point!) For those with more of a background in medieval history, there will likely be not much new here. ( )

This book was a gift from a friend, so I feel bad saying this, but man was this boring! It is all about an incident in which a man was hanged but came back to life (or was never actually completely dead) and the incident's role in the canonization commission for Thomas de Cantilupe. The author tells the story (over and over again) and also discusses medieval hangings in general (as well as how people remembered things, etc.). There were a couple interesting points for me--the way in which the story overlapped with the stuff in Dante's Inferno (which I just read recently and was written around the same time this story took place) and the overlap with Braveheart (William Wallace & Robert Bruce). ( )