Social History Archive
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The burh of Wallingford and its context in Wessex
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsThere are many reasons for holding that the 31 burhs listed in the Burghal Hidage constituted a system in its fullest sense. One of the most telling of these is that the burghal territories of these burhs – the areas assigned to them for their upkeep – form a spatial jigsaw whose individual elements interlock with each other within the shires or their precursors. -
The cost of enclosure and the benefits of convertible husbandry among peasant holdings in medieval England
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe present paper will attempt to address these issues and outline the attitudes of the peasantry in regard to the potential of enclosing land and adopting convertible husbandry. -
Halloween Customs in the Celtic World
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsIn Wales it is known as Hollantide, in Cornwall Allantide, and in Brittany Kala-Goanv. Samhain's equivalent on the Christian calendar is All Saints' Day, introduced by the Catholic church partly to supplant the pagan festival of the dead. -
The hanging of William Cragh: anatomy of a miracle
Posted on May 18, 2012 | No CommentsOn Monday 12 November 1291, Welsh rebels, William Cragh and Traharn ap Howel, were dragged from the dungeons of Swansea Castle and hanged on the nearby gallows. That, by all reason, should have been the end of the story – except that it was not. -
Azodi Hospital and University in Shiraz (10th – 14th Century AD)
Posted on May 17, 2012 | No CommentsHospitals have a long history throughout the history of medicine. First hospitals are originated from Persia in ancient times in the Sassanid Dynasty (2nd to 6th century AD). -
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced. -
Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education
Posted on May 6, 2012 | No CommentsVisual-kinetic communication systems are mentioned in a wide variety of texts up through the early Renaissance, but not often described in any detail. What seems to us such a strange and frustrating omission results from the very different nature and purpose of scholarly writing in premodern times. -
A Hotbed for Dissidence: Southeast England in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
Posted on May 2, 2012 | No CommentsWhat were the causes and circumstances that led not only to the ebullient revolt in Southeast Europe, but also to ist relative success? -
Call for Papers: Female Fury and the Masculine Spirit of Vengeance
Posted on April 30, 2012 | No Comments5-6 September 2012, University of Bristol, UK -
‘He contents the people wherever he goes’ Richard III: His Parliament and Government
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsIn recent years new biographies of great figures such as Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy have shed great light on key issues of English-European relations, while studies of Margaret Beaufort have redefined the political role of the women of this era. -
‘The inordinate excess in apparel’: Sumptuary Legislation in Tudor England
Posted on April 29, 2012 | No CommentsSumptuary legislation can be defined as a set of regulations, passed down by legislators through statutory law and parliamentary proclamations, that sought to regulate society by dictating what contemporaries could own or wear based on their position within society. -
Clerical Conceptions of Magic and the Stereotype of the Female Witch
Posted on April 24, 2012 | No CommentsOne of the specific aspects of witchcraft that has seen considerable attention in recent years is its relationship to gender. Both Bailey and Broedel have made admirable contributions to uncovering the historical development of a feminine witch concept. -
Personal Piety or Priestly Persuasion: Evidence of Pilgrimage Bequests in the Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsHowever, when we consider the number of individuals, particularly from the lower orders, who actually undertook a pilgrimage at some point in their lives, we find that we actually know remarkably little about them. -
The origin of chantries
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThroughout Western Europe, the chantry and the chantry chapel represented a characteristic form of late medieval piety, to which large resources were committed, both spiritual and temporal. -
William of Ockham’s Early Theory of Property Rights: Sources, Texts, and Contexts
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis is nominally about William of Ockham, a theologian who did not care to read potentially damning papal constitutions until tapped to do so by a superior (superiore mandate). Following a suggestion of R. G. Collingwood, a proper first question we should ask, is what was this supposedly unwilling theologian trying to do by composing the longest defense of Franciscan poverty ever written?
