Faculty
Dr. Daniel Franke
Associate Professor of History
Contact Information:
Ernst Hall 131(804) 862-6100 ext. 8580
dfranke@rbc.edu
Education & Publications:
Undergraduate:
Rice University, 2005Graduate:
University of Rochester, 2008Doctorate:
University of Rochester, 2014Publications:
Edited volumes:The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Military Strategy. Edited by Daniel P. Franke and John D. Hosler. Routledge, 2025.
Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society: Studies in Honor of Richard W. Kaeuper. Edited by Daniel P. Franke and Craig M. Nakashian. Leiden, Brill: 2017
Articles:
"The Last March to Jerusalem: Military Calculation and Eyewitnesses in the Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa." In The Third Crusade: New Interpretations. Edited by John D. Hosler and Stephen Bennett. Woodbridge: Boydell, forthcoming 2025.
“From Defeat to Victory in Northern Italy: Comparing Staufen Strategy and Operations at Legnano and Cortenuova, 1176-1237.” In Nuova Antologia Militare vol 5.2 (2021). Pp. 27-52.
“Strategy, the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy, and the First Crusade.” Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean. Edited by Georgios Theotokis. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020. Pp. 211-224.
“Prowess and Privilege: Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, and the Reality of Chivalry in 14th-Century England.” In Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society: Studies in Honor of Richard W. Kaeuper. Edited by Daniel P. Franke and Craig M. Nakashian. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Pp. 62-84.
“Crusade, Empire, and the Process of War in Staufen Germany, 1180-1220.” In The Crusader World, edited by Adrian Boas. London: Routledge, 2015. Pp. 128-143.
“The Capture of Tifford.” In The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook. Edited by Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015. Pp. 106-107.
“The Crusades and Medieval Anti-Judaism: Cause or Consequence?” In Seven Myths of the Crusades. Edited by Alfred Andrea and Andrew Holt. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2015. Pp. 48-69.
“War, Crisis, and East Anglia, 1334-1340: Towards a Reassessment.” In The Hundred Years War III: Further Considerations. Edited by Donald Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pp. 187-215.
Bio:
Dr. Daniel Franke teaches the Western Civilization and World History sequences, as well as specialized courses in medieval and modern European and World History such as History 240 Nazi Germany, History 242 The Crusades, and History 259 American Military History. He also advises the RBC History Club and directs RBC history program activities on campus.
Currently he is writing two monographs on medieval military history: a military biography of the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and a study of military intelligence in medieval warfare.
In 2024 he received a Franklin Grant from the American Philosophical Society to conduct research in Europe on German crusades in the 1100s and 1200s.
He is an active member of the Society for Military History; De Re Militari, the Society for Medieval Military History; and the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE).
