Posts Tagged ‘England’

The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain: Evidence, Memories, Inventions

What constitutes ‘Britishness’ is turning out to be more complicated than many people previously believed. An innovative multidisciplinary research programme led by the University of Leicester is set to investigate its many dimensions and components.

The University is to receive a £1.37 million Research Programme Award granted by the Leverhulme Trust, over five years, to carry out a major study on The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain: Evidence, Memories, Inventions. This wide-ranging project will investigate the impact of the movement of people in the distant past on the cultural, linguistic and population history of the British Isles. It will also examine the influence of ancient diasporas – remembered or suppressed, perhaps exaggerated or even invented – on the construction of British identities, past and present.

Dr Joanna Story of the School of Historical Studies will direct the programme, alongside experts from Leicester’s world-class Department of Genetics, the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, The School of English, The Centre for English Local History, and the School of Management, as well as the Institute for Name-Studies at the University of Nottingham.

The basic population history of Britain, and the cultural and genetic roots of the historical nations of the island – the Welsh, Scots and English – are contentious subjects. Traditional interpretations have held that different groups of people – Celts, Angles, Saxons and Vikings – migrated in large numbers to the British Isles before AD1000 and that each migrant group contributed to the ‘blood’, language and culture of the ‘native’ communities.

However, many established assumptions are being challenged and re-examined by historians and archaeologists, now in collaboration with geneticists armed with new techniques for DNA analysis. Recent research has begun to suggest more complex origins for the British peoples.

The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain: evidence, memories, inventions is a programme of six interdisciplinary projects that will result in a greater understanding of the mechanisms of cultural change and the legacies of early, proto-historic diasporas on the population history of Britain. Key to the programme is the cross-disciplinary nature of the project, which will encourage a fresh look at old evidence and will question popular perceptions about the roots of the British in the light of new data.

Joanna Story commented: ‘History plays such an important role in modern perceptions of what it means to be British – and it was equally important 1000 years ago. This is a fantastic opportunity to reassess assumptions that have become embedded in popular culture and to test our longstanding academic theories with new evidence and methods’.

Professor Douglas Tallack, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the College of Arts, Humanities and Law, added: ‘The University of Leicester is extraordinarily well placed to study the impact of deep-time diasporas on British identity, and to bring the latest research methodologies to bear on a subject of continuing interest, not least to those in the East Midlands who have come from elsewhere but play such an important part in British society. I am delighted that Dr Story and colleagues from a number of Departments have been successful in this very competitive scheme, and I should like to express my thanks to the Leverhulme Trust for its generous support.’

The Leicester Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain programme is driven by six linked projects:

1) Surnames and the Y-Chromosome, which will focus on the Viking genetic legacy and its impact in different regions of Britain.

2) Modelling Migration, using computer simulations to provide a virtual laboratory to model processes of genetic change.

3) Genetics & early British population history, will use existing and new datasets to illuminate British population history, looking at genetic data on modern populations and seeking and validating new genetic markers for migration and diaspora.

4) Immigration and indigenism in popular historical discourses: using ‘social remembering’ across three generations this project will examine the cultural transmission of collective memories of community origins.

5a) Dialect in Diaspora: Linguistic Variation in Early Anglo-Saxon England, will examine the impact of Anglo-Saxon and Viking diasporas on the development of early English dialects. It will look at inscriptions on early Anglo-Saxon coins and Romano-Germanic votive stones, place names and personal names and analogies with later, global diasporas.

5b) People and Places: This doctoral project will look at the widespread genetic impact of the Viking diaspora through place-names to gauge the relative level of Scandinavian linguistic influence and compare it with levels of Scandinavian ancestry in the modern population.

6) Home and Away in Early England: this project will examine aspects of the idea of home and homelands, and its opposite – exile, exclusion and foreignness – in Anglo-Saxon England, the construction of a shared past on Anglo-Saxon identities and the importance of a sense of place and community.

Source: University of Leicester

2 Sep 2010
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Lawyers Laid Bare: The Private Lives of Medieval and Early Tudor Lawyers

The results of a two year project will soon reveal new insights into the rise of lawyers in the medieval and Tudor periods. Professor Anthony Musson, a legal historian at the University of Exeter, is about to complete a new book entitled, Lawyers Laid Bare: The Private Lives of Medieval and Early Tudor Lawyers, which seeks to provide a broader picture outside of the familiar portrayal of lawyers as figures of fun or revulsion.

Professor Musson was supported by an £80,640 grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). His research examined lawyers in medieval and early modern society (years 1258-1558). This entailed identifying how they managed their estates, where they lived, what their families and households were like, how they conducted themselves, their religious beliefs, philanthropy, and the nature of their marriages and alliances.

Professor Musson said, ‘By scrutinizing generations of lawyers across three centuries the research shows how education and study of the law enabled class barriers to be transcended. Many lawyers came from humble backgrounds with little or no prospects, some were born illegitimate, but as a result of their legal know-how they were able to achieve high professional and social status.’

He added, ‘Securing advantageous marriages to young heiresses or influential rich widows was common place. This was beneficial to both parties with the family gaining valuable inside information about the legal process, potentially helping them with land disputes, wills or acquisition of land and for the lawyer to advance his social position and property portfolio. ’

The research concentrated on lawyers living outside London, focusing on Exeter, York, Bristol, Coventry, Norwich and Colchester. The flood of property on the market following the Black Death in the 14th Century and dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th Century, such as Forde Abbey in Somerset (acquired by Richard Pollard in 1543), meant there were advantageous opportunities for lawyers to gain considerable wealth and social and political advantage.

John Haydon, for example, built a house at Cadhay, near Exeter, using materials from the former college at Ottery St Mary. He also bought some of the buildings of Dunkeswell Abbey in Devon and part of the Marquess of Exeter’s forfeited estates. Ready money enabled Haydon and others like him to act as property agents, buying and selling monastic lands. Acquisition and accumulation of property enabled them to advance their social status and behave like landed gentlemen.

Greed, materialism and pride are some of the characteristics that people living over 500 years ago attributed to Judges and lawyers. Research indicates that opposition towards lawyers from the wider population sprang from changes in society, as the legal profession profited from litigiousness and an increasing public reliance on legal skills.

Using taxation information, inquests, wills, property deeds and private correspondence the research identifies how prosperity in the legal world affected lawyers and how they used the law to further their own position. It also looks at how lawyers managed to benefit financially when others were experiencing economic hardship. Lawyers tended to have the largest disposable income and their overt displays of wealth generated particular resentment within the community.

If lawyers were traditionally regarded as selfish creatures, the tax they paid on their accumulated lands, for which returns survive, and evidence of charity and philanthropy redress the balance, according to the research. Contrary to opinion, lawyers were not without conscience – they engaged in significant acts of charity. Lawyers’ wills displayed a concern for the welfare of disadvantaged groups in society above and beyond the conventional and indiscriminate alms dole. Provision for education was especially significant for them, since it was a catalyst for professional success and social mobility.

Genuine philanthropy on the part of lawyers was also found in their attempts to improve the lives of others, particularly the sick and the elderly. The foundation of hospitals and almshouses, notably Wynards Hospital (founded in Exeter by William Wynard in 1435 and still operational at the end of the 19th century), offered long term benefit to the community in practical alleviation of suffering.

Professor Musson explained, ‘The project illustrates how lawyers exploited opportunities and how they collectively offered a convenient scapegoat for ills of the age. They became the focus for social frustrations and economic jealousies that flourished in times of hardship, especially when it was felt that lawyers were profiting at other’s expense. It is only on a personal level that they can be judged more appropriately and that it is possible to form a balanced view of the criticisms levelled against lawyers.’

See also: Vultures, Whores, and Hypocrites: Images of Lawyers in Medieval Literature

Source: University of Exeter

1 Sep 2010
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‘She was ravished against her will, what so ever she say’: Female Consent in Rape and Ravishment in late-medieval England

‘She was ravished against her will, what so ever she say’: Female Consent in Rape and Ravishment in late-medieval England

By Emma Hawkes

Limina, Vol. 1 (1995)

Introduction: In July 1452 John Paston I wrote to Richard Southwell informing him of he Jane Boys ravishment case. He urged Southwell to support the prosecution’s claims that she had been abducted. Paston did this despite Boys’ own denial that she had been taken against her will – Paston dismissed her point of view by saying she had ’saide untrewly of her-selff’. Boys’ own motivations and actions were constructed by Paston as peripheral to the truly important question of whether Southwell would support the case or not. Paston’s attitudes and assumptions should be fitted into the framework of knowledge abVertout female consent in both rape and ravishment in late-medieval statute and case law.

Very little distinction was made between rape and ravishment in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although rape (forcible coition) and ravishment (abduction without necessarily implying forcible coition) are seen as two very different offences in the twentieth century, medieval legal records generally blurred the two crimes together. This process can be seen in the the language which was used to describe the two. Although the 1285 statute of Westminster II attempted to fix the term to be used for a ravishment (rapuit et abduxit), a variety of terms continued to be used (abstulit, cepit et abduxit). Confusingly, rape was also known by the term rapuit throughout this period. As rape and ravishment were associated in the late-medieval period and since both were predominantly offences against women, the two will be studied together in this article.

Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)

31 Aug 2010
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Medieval England to be featured in two BBC shows

Television viewers in the United Kingdom will have the chance to watch two new history programmes that feature medieval England. The BBC will start airing a new six-part series, Churches: How to Read Them, on September 1st on BBC Four. Presented by author Richard Taylor, it will examine how imagery, symbols and architecture of English parish churches have inspired, moved and enraged people down the centuries.

Churches: How to Read Them is about understanding just what we see in a British church – how the different styles of churches throughout the country reflect changing ideas of God, salvation, living and dying. Visiting some of England’s finest parish churches, Richard’s journey will be full of stories and contemporary accounts, touched with his insight, humour and sense of wonder at what he sees and interprets.

The series has been commissioned by Aaqil Ahmed, Head of Religion and Ethics, Commissioning Editor for Television, who says: “Britain has a huge range of eclectic parish churches. Uniquely, what this series does is put these different style of churches into a historical and religious context. By examining the symbolism in these churches we can see how Christian worship and social attitudes has changed throughout the ages.”

The first episode, Dark Beginnings, explains how churches were originally simple buildings intended to protect the altar and the most important Christian rite of all, the Eucharist. Richard visits Britain’s finest early medieval churches to untangle the mystery of why the Anglo-Saxons and Normans seem to have been unwilling to shake off their pre-Christian past and to have continued to fill their sacred buildings with mysterious pagan images.

BBC Two has also announced that next year they will be showing Filthy Cities, an immersive new series that will bring to life the stinking histories of London, New York and Paris. Hosted by Dan Snow, it shows how these modern capitals were forged in the dirt of the past, emerging from filthy cities to become the iconic modern metropolises we know today.

Taking the travelogue in a new direction, Dan will excavate the murky past in gruesome detail during defining periods in history. Using state-of-the-art CGI, he will go back in time to medieval London, revolutionary Paris and 19th-century New York, revealing that the story of our epic battle against filth through the ages is also the story of the birth of the modern metropolis.

Dan will step into the shoes of professionals such as the medieval muck-raker responsible for clearing tonnes of excrement from London streets; the pig handler helping to clear the New York streets of waste; and the Parisian undertaker, battling to cope with the human cost of a bloody revolution.

He will meet experts, asking them the questions that never make it into the history books, and put the past to the test by mounting a series of imaginative experiments and thought-provoking stunts to demonstrate the key moments in the fight against filth.

Marrying historical accounts with modern science, and combining ambitious reconstructions with CGI, Dan will build up a picture in deliciously dirty detail of the making of three great capital cities during a pivotal period of the past, and reveal the hidden history behind the modern metropolis.

Click here to go to the Churches: How to Read Them website

Source: BBC

30 Aug 2010
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William Wallace’s Invasion of Northern England in 1297

William Wallace’s Invasion of Northern England in 1297

By C.J. McNamee

Northern History v.26 (1990)

Introduction: In the winter of 1297 William Wallace, fresh from his victory over the English at Stirling Bridge, presided over a ferocious and prolonged devastation of northern England. There had been raiding in the previous year when the Anglo-Scottish war had first opened, but nothing on this scale. Something of the extent of the destruction, and its impact on life in the region is conveyed by a contemporary chronicler:

At that time the praise of God ceased in all the monasteries and churches of the whole province from Newcastle
to Carlisle. All the monks, canons regular and the rest of the priests and ministers of the Lord, together with
almost the whole of the people fled from the face of the Scot.

Modern narratives have tended to describe the invasion only in general terms, for in two respects the episode has been overshadowed. Historians of England have tended to concentrate on the prolonged phase of Scottish raiding which lasted from 1311 to 1322, historians of Scotland to focus on the importance of the Wallace invasion in the interpretation of the critical situation north of the border. This paper takes a closer look at the invasion of 1297, and the findings have significance both for our understanding of the state of affairs in contemporary Scotland, and for the parallels drawn between Wallace’s invasion and the raids of Robert Bruce and his supporters in the early fourteenth century.

The evidence which allows a reconstruction of the Wallace invasion falls into three main categories. Of the narrative sources, the near-contemporary Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough is much to be preferred. It can be supplemented in places by the Lanercost chronicle, the Scalachronica of Sir Thomas Gray composed circa 1362, Peter Langtoft’s rhyming chronicle, and the works of the Scottish writer John of Fordun. Blind Harry’s Wallace is, however, of little value, as it imputes to Wallace much of the itinerary of Bruce’s invasion of Yorkshire in 1322. Secondly, in the register of John Halton, Bishop of Carlisle, exists a schedule of reductions of parish valuations in the diocese of Carlisle for the triennial tenth of 1301, tax allowances granted in view of the destruction inflicted by the Scots. Thirdly, financial accounts of northern manors then in the King’s hand are preserved on the Pipe Roll. Fortunately, a relatively large number of properties were in this condition at the time of the invasion, most of them recently escheated from cross-Border landowners who sided with the Scots in 1296. These accounts contain details of damage inflicted by the Scots and, occasionally, the dates when it occurred.

The invasion of his own realm marked the nadir of Edward I’s attempts to control Scotland; attempts which until then had met with remarkable success. In 1296 Edward had overrun Scotland in a matter of months. He had taken prisoner King John Balliol and many of the nobles, occupied all the major castles, and imposed on the country sheriffs and custodians of his own choosing, most of them English. He had established his own government based at Berwick-on-Tweed, acting in his name as feudal overlord of Scotland. Edward departed for Flanders on 22 August 1297, confident that the situation in Scotland was well in hand. Not until September did it become apparent that the real struggle for Scotland was beginning, and about to spill over into England; but already in May 1297 the English occupation was menaced by three risings: Andrew Murray led a rising with widespread popular support north of the Forth; another was led by Sir William Douglas, James the Stewart of Scotland, Sir Alexander de Lindsay and Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, in the south-west of Scotland; and William Wallace became active at around the same time, when he killed the Sheriff of Lanark and chased the English Justiciar from Scone.

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30 Aug 2010
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Interview with author Jayden Woods – August 29, 2010


Last week, we reviewed a book entitled “Eadric the Grasper: Sons of Mercia Vol. I”.  I had the pleasure of interviewing author Jayden Woods about her upcoming book, background, and future novels.

Jayden graduated from the University of Southern California’s Writing for Screen and Television program and lived Los Angeles for five years before deciding to leave Hollywood and become an author.

“Eadric the Grasper” is her first book set in tumultuous 11th century England. It’s a fast paced historical fiction novel based on the life of Eadric Streona, often considered one of the worst villains in English history. This book tells a different side to his story. It will be released on Amazon.com on October 5th.

For more information about Jayden Woods and her work , please visit her website: http://www.jaydenwoods.com/

1.) You graduated from USC in screen and television writing; what made you decide to leave this career and pursue writing novels? Were you disenchanted with the Hollywood “scene”?

Before I pursued my degree of Writing for Screen and Television, I already wrote novels. But I also dabbled in some artwork and musical composition. I wanted to combine all my skills and make my stories come fully to life on the screen. And what better way to accomplish that than to go to arguably the best film school there is, USC in Los Angeles?

I lived in Los Angeles for five years in all. I met a great deal of successful people in the business. I received a fantastic education. I made short films, interned with a production company, and worked as a writers’ assistant on a primetime TV show (“Numb3rs”). I even got commissioned at one point to write a feature script for a production company (though it will probably never get made). In a lot of people’s eyes, I was really on my way to success.

But indeed, I became “disenchanted.” I saw that most blockbuster scripts went through so many people and revisions before production that they often became warped into something else by the end. I also saw that most of the people who found success did so by devoting years upon years of their life to miserable assistant jobs and/or by social networking. As for the first task, I found it self-defeating. If I put all my energy into a lousy job (and I am talking about jobs in which someone may literally work 60-80 hours in one week), I wouldn’t have the time or passion to write. As for social networking, I must confess, that has never been my strong suit. I’m an introvert, for goodness sakes! And I’m certainly not the only artist with that challenge. But to make a long story short, I felt as if I needed to turn over my entire life, and even change my personality, in order to get where I wanted in Hollywood. And I simply wasn’t willing to do that.

I haven’t lost my dream of bringing my stories to the big screen. In fact, I now think that starting by publishing a book may be the best way to achieve that. Popular books are a “safe” product for studios to invest in, and the writer’s original work is guaranteed respect, because it already has a fan-base. But even if it never comes to that, I am so happy writing novels and soon sharing them with the world.

2.) What interests you in this particular period of the Middle Ages? Will you be expanding into other areas of the Middles Ages for future books?

What intrigued me about the early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, is that so little is known about them. As an artist, this allowed me to step into the genre of historical fiction and bring my somewhat rampant imagination along with me. During the Viking Age in particular, the Vikings burned valuable items and manuscripts left and right, items which otherwise might have preserved history. So it remains an especially mysterious time. I wanted to be able to use known facts as a plot-base but still have enough freedom to craft my own story. So the first book begins in 1002, and the next two books follow two subsequent generations, concluding a few years after the Norman Conquest.

3.) What drew you to Eadric’s story?

Interestingly enough, I already had a story I wanted to write long before I stumbled upon Eadric Streona’s wikipedia page. You can say my inspiration came from two major sources: the intriguing history of Eadric Streona and my life-long love of the 80’s TV version of “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Sir Percy Blakeney was one of my childhood heroes. What does this have to do with Eadric Streona? When I finally read Baroness Orczy’s book, I was rather disappointed by the simplicity of some of the characters, but most especially by Percy’s wife, Marguerite. I wanted to write a story about a man with the skill and charm to achieve whatever he wanted, though sometimes what he wanted was not necessarily “good.” I also wanted him to play off someone equally strong, but dogmatic and self-righteous to a fault. I already had a light plot drafted out incorporating Vikings and Anglo-Saxons when I found Eadric Streona, and it was as if a light shone down from heaven. He was the man I needed to write about, and everything else fell into place from there.

4.) Eadric has been vilified in historical treatises; William of Malmesbury described Eadric as, “The refuse of mankind and a reproach unto the English” ; what made you decide to reform this view of Eadric?

I am fascinated by the way society views “heroes,” and also why history remembers some figures more favorably than others. To me, it seems that Eadric was vilified because he lacked what one might call patriotism, or at least loyalty to a single king’s bloodline. He switched sides. He changed his mind. He wasn’t dogmatic. I find this especially interesting from a modern perspective, now that open-mindedness is more often embraced. Eadric certainly killed a few individuals, but he also prevented a major battle from taking place, and in that way saved hundreds of lives. His actions eventually brought England and Scandinavia together under a single king (at least for a little while). So should we vilify him while glorifying the people who wanted the wars to keep going indefinitely? After two-hundred something years of Viking attacks, what were the Anglo-Saxons still fighting for but an incompetent king? I do not want to turn Eadric into a hero, for he certainly wasn’t that. But I want people to question their definition of one.

5.) What sources did you use in your research? How long did it take to do research for this book?

Because Eadric Streona is so often described as a despicable man, sometimes without explanation, I wanted to start with the source texts and go from there: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles by Florence of Worcester, the Chronicles of the Kings of England by William of Malmesbury, and so on. I tried to draw my own conclusions from those sources (at least as far as the characters and their personalities) before moving on to more recent compositions. I went on to read many other great texts from historians like Edward Freeman, James Henry Ramsay, James Campbell, and others, so that I could combine old knowledge with the new. I spent a few weeks researching vigorously before starting the book, and continued to deepen my research as I worked.

6.) What are your upcoming projects? The Eadric novel is part of a larger series entitled, “The Sons of Mercia”, what can we expect from upcoming novels in the series?

The next volume is “Godric the Kingslayer,” the story of Eadric’s bastard son, Godric. Godric is fictional, but many of the events in the book are not. Canute the Great is a prominent character of Volume 2. Godric wishes to kill King Canute and avenge his father’s death—a goal that comes to consume his entire life. His quest begins as a righteous one, but he watches himself become his own worst enemy, and eventually he must change his ways or tear his own world apart.

The third volume (which is the one I’m writing now) follows another descendant of Eadric Streona, Edric the Wild. Edric is more of a typical protagonist: charming, kind-hearted, and full of good deeds. He is a man who will later inspire the legendary tales of Robin Hood. He seeks to rise up against William the Conqueror and the Norman takeover—even if his battle becomes a losing one.

I see the entire trilogy as an exploration of what makes a hero, what makes a villain, and why we perceive certain men or women as such. Whenever I write, I like to turn black and white into as many other shades as possible. My villains tend to have good traits and intentions; my “heroes” tend to be seriously flawed.

7.) Can you tell us a bit more about your other series, “The Lost Tales of Mercia” and when it will be available to your readers?

“The Lost Tales of Mercia” are already available to readers free and online. As I write this interview, eight of the ten short stories have already been released, and the last two will be out by the time “Eadric the Grasper” releases. “The Lost Tales of Mercia” introduce minor and major characters from the novel and expose details from their lives that are not fully revealed in the book. The novel and the short stories strongly complement each other, but I wrote the book first. You can certainly read “Eadric the Grasper” alone; you will simply be a step ahead of other readers if you’ve read the Lost Tales. On the flip-side, you may finish reading “Eadric the Grasper” first and then wish to dive deeper into one of the characters’ lives; the Lost Tales allow you to do so.

The stories are available on my blog, http://talesofmercia.wordpress.com, and many other ebook distribution channels across the web. I also plan to release a printed version very soon, and people who prefer a physical book will be able to purchase one on Amazon. Otherwise, enjoy them for free online!

We would like to thank Jayden for taking the time to answer our questions ~ Peter & Sandra

29 Aug 2010
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Medieval Festival at Herstmonceux Castle takes place this weekend

The Medieval Festival at Herstmonceux Castle, which is taking place this weekend in the English county of East Sussex, is expected to draw its biggest-ever attendance this year. Last year over 30,000 visitors flocked through the gates at the three-day Festival, already the largest of its kind in Northern Europe.

This year, the Festival has been enlarged and expanded and includes more performers, artists and attractions than ever before. The unique mix of entertainment and hospitality is set for a record number of visitors joining in the medieval fun.

A complete medieval village has been reconstructed, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the everyday life and times of the fifteenth century. Meanwhile, a full-size jousting arena on the Castle grounds gives visitors a taste of the tournament experience.

Some of Europe’s finest bowmen will also be on hand to demonstrate their precision with the longbow, and to pass on their expertise to any members of the public who care to try their hand.

But the centrepiece of the festivities are the two massive and colourful set battles staged each day during the Festival. These battles, which recreate the bloody struggles of the Houses of York and Lancaster, are fought out by over 2,000 members of Medieval groups based throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Complete with showers of arrows from squads of supporting bowmen and cannon fire from ancient artillery pieces, these (usually bloodless!) clashes put the spectator right at the heart of the action.

Bringing history to life and allowing people to experience it first hand is the secret of the attraction, Festival Director Clive Geisler believes. Jenan Dollie, commented on her blog Ramblings of a Newbie Pagan that in this year’s festival, “there are always things for the children to learn, activities to play. Quite a few for the adults too. From weaving, brass rubbings, chicken catching (they got out again), how to fire guns, shoot arrows, skin rabbits the list is endless.”

England’s Medieval Festival at Herstmonceux Castle began as a half-day fund-raising event for Queen’s University, Kingston, who own and run Herstmonceux Castle as an International Study Centre. Over the years it has grown into a three-day event that is the biggest event of its kind in Northern Europe. The moated castle itself dates from the fifteenth century, and funds from the Festival still provide welcome support for its upkeep. The Festival now covers most of the 500-acre site, and is held annually over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Click here for more information about the Festival

Sources: Ramblings of a Newbie Pagan, England’s Medieval Festival

29 Aug 2010
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Servant to England: The Biography of Adam Marsh (de Marisco)

Servant to England: The Biography of Adam Marsh (de Marisco)

By Jason A.S. Drake

Honors BA Thesis, College of William and Mary, 2008

Introduction: The friend and confidante of Robert Grosseteste, the teacher of such academic luminaries as Thomas of York and Roger Bacon, and the spiritual advisor and counselor to great magnates such as Simon de Montfort and King Henry III, Adam Marsh has long been recognized by scholars as an important figure in England’s tumultuous thirteenth century. Still, it is only in the biographies of these other great men that he can be found; to date, there are no published studies of Adam Marsh. While Adam’s achievements have been acknowledged, they have also been overshadowed by those of his contemporaries. In regards to his character, he has often been used as a foil or indicator of these other men’s personalities. Thus R.F. Treharne might characterize Simon de Montfort as possessing an active and morally sensitive mind due to “his learned friendships with men such as [Adam] Marsh,” without any attempt to explain just who Adam Marsh was.

It is the purpose of this thesis then to elucidate the life and character of Adam Marsh on his own terms. More than just a background character, Adam himself was a complex human being with his own worldview. Late in life he abandoned the prospect of a comfortable secular career to live the ascetic life of the Franciscan, and to become the humble servant of all men. That he did so at a time when the Franciscan Order was undergoing an important period of change and transition only makes his story all the more compelling. In many ways, Adam’s career as a Franciscan reflected the significant shift in identity the Order underwent its founder’s death. Where Francis had delighted in the simplicity of his early companions, Adam was a theologian with a continental reputation. The first Franciscan to hold a chair in Theology at Oxford, the academic infrastructure of England and the reputation of the Franciscan school there owe much to his efforts. Also much unlike Francis, Adam moved and worked in the highest social circles of his day, serving kings and popes alike as advisor and ambassador. In turn, he relied on the patronage and support of these great men in the furtherance of his goals. Ultimately, however, he remained true to the Franciscan spirit and mission, embracing the physical and social formalities of poverty even as he equipped himself with sophisticated tools for the salvation of men’s souls.

In studying Adam’s life it will eventually become necessary to consider his relationships with the great men of his day. Indeed, Adam spent much of his time and energy in service to one important figure or another. This is not to suggest that we should necessarily consider Adam as being the lesser agent in these arrangements. While historians have long recognized the important role Adam played as agent and counselor to great men, they have rarely followed this to its full implication: that the respected advisor often himself wields a certain power. Thus no less a moral authority than Robert Grosseteste himself found in Adam Marsh more than just a good friend. He instead found his conscience and a trusted confidante.

In the end, Adam Marsh was very much a man of his time and place. That this place was England during the early thirteenth century is part of Adam’s appeal. This was an important formative period for the English realm. The disintegration of the Angevin Empire and the terms of Magna Carta had greatly compromised the sovereignty of the king. The barons, not normally accustomed to participating in their own government, were being forced to slowly realize a new national political identity. Meanwhile, the English Church under the leadership of men such as Robert Grosseteste and Walter de Cantilupe were fighting hard to assert ecclesiastical rights and to rid the church of abuses. Presiding over all was Henry III, by all accounts not an evil man but ineffectual as a ruler. Over the years dissatisfaction with the crown’s government swelled, until in the summer of 1258 a unified reform movement of clerics and barons seized the government apparatus. At the head of this movement was Simon de Montfort, a conscientious but severe and acquisitive man. In was in this environment that Adam plied his career as an advisor, diplomat, and teacher, one which he himself ultimately played an important role in shaping.

Click here to read/download this thesis (PDF file)

28 Aug 2010
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‘Castles of Communities’: medieval town defences in England; Wales and Gascony

‘Castles of Communities’: medieval town defences in England; Wales and Gascony

By Oliver H. Creighton

Château Gaillard, Vol.22 (2006)

Introduction: This paper introduces the findings of a research project exploring the phenomenon of town defences in the later medieval period. The research is aiming to exploit the full range of available source material – including architectural, cartographic, documentary, archaeological and topographical data – to compile a database of fortified towns in the period c. 1050-1550. A secondary objective is the interpretation of town walls within the broader context of the townscapes they enclosed and the communities that built and maintained them. This paper serves two purposes: first, it provides a summary of key data regarding the number of fortified towns in England and Wales and the character of their defences; and, second, it presents a case study of the defences of bastide towns in England, Wales and ‘English’ Gascony.

This research is endeavouring to address deficiencies in our understanding of the subject in a number of areas. Overall, town defences have attracted comparatively little serious scholarship relative to their better studied cousins, castles. Perhaps lacking something of the glamour of ‘private’ fortifications and frequently leaving vestigial physical remains ravaged by development (or in numerous cases no aboveground evidence), urban defences are, at best, a neglected branch of scholarship and, in Britain at least, perhaps perceived as second-rate features of medieval fortification.

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26 Aug 2010
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Stubbs, Steel, and Richard II as Insane: The Origin and Evolution of an English Historiographical Myth

Stubbs, Steel, and Richard II as Insane: The Origin and Evolution of an English Historiographical Myth

By George B. Stow

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 143, No. 4 (1999)

Introduction: One of the more enduring problems of later medieval English history centers on the character and personality of King Richard II (1377–99). It has long been thought that “Richard’s personality—his natural or inherited character considered apart from the important actions of his life—was the chief cause of his downfall.” Whatever its perceived importance, the character of Richard II has defied precise definition, and it is a curious thing that Richard remains even in the present age a mysterious and misunderstood monarch. At the midpoint of the twentieth century Vivian H. Galbraith observed that “the key to Richard’s failure lies in his character, in the sort of man he was: and about that there is no agreement.”  A few years later George Holmes went even further, noting that although Richard’s personality was “the most important factor” in his reign, “just what his personality was is much more difficult to determine. . . . [Richard II] remains the most enigmatic of the kings of England.”

Although his character has undergone several metamorphoses across nearly six hundred years of historical scholarship, by far the most damning—if not the most far-fetched—is the twentieth-century depiction of Richard as a madman, whose gradual lapse into insanity led to his tragic end. This portrayal first achieved notoriety in Anthony Steel’s Richard II. In Steel’s view, Richard was disadvantaged from the start because his was “a schizoid mind”; and he became in his later years an “unbalanced widower, half-hearted autocrat and pitiful neurotic.”  At the very end of his reign, Richard had turned into a “mumbling neurotic, sinking rapidly into a state of acute melancholia, in which he could offer only the feeblest of resistance from the first, while before long it would be totally impossible to rouse him.”

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25 Aug 2010
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