Two dozen and more Silkwomen of Fifteenth-Century London
This article attempts to record systematically all the silkwomen of London who were daughters or wives of London mercers between 1400 and 1499.
The Bankside Stews: Prostitution in London 1161-1546
Although historians frequently associate prostitution with a number of social, political and cultural concerns, including society’s attitudes toward both women and sexuality, and the spread of venereal disease, remarkably few have made it the central focus of their inquiries.
Philippa Russell and the Wills of London’s Late Medieval Singlewomen
Never-married women were common in the streets and lanes of late medieval London, but few of their wills survive. Philippa Russell is one of only 15 such testators recorded in London probate courts between 1450 and 1500, and her will is especially long and informative.
Cheapside: commerce and commemoration
The broad street of Cheapside, Vanessa Harding shows, was a central location in the lives and minds of early modern Londoners. In a crowded city it was a significant open space where public events could be staged and important issues communicated to a wide audience. The everyday reality of shop and market trading — where qualities and values were scrutinized and false dealing punished – enhanced its association with truth and patency. Normally dominated by the authorities, it was on occasion captured by oppositional groups, though their activities tended to reinforce Cheapside’s identity as a place of publicity and validation.
Identifying Women Proprietors in Wills from Fifteenth-Century London
Most Londoners lodged their post obit requests with the Husting Court, the county court of London. The testators were primarily wealthy artisans and merchants, since one needed to possess a substantial amount of property in order to register the details of the division of that property.
The Interrogation of of a Male Transvestite Prostitute in Fourteenth Century London
Despite the general rule that sexual offenses were matters for the church courts, in some cases the city of London took charge of these offenses. Prostitution and procuring, for example, involved public order; the temporal courts dealt with them for that reason, so that the same people might be prosecuted in both jusrisdictions for the same offense.
Burial ground discovered in London may be victims of Black Death
Thirteen skeletons have been uncovered lying in two carefully laid out rows on the edge of Charterhouse Square at Farringdon, and are believed to be up to 660 years old.
The tailors of London and their guild, c.1300-1500
The unusually full medieval records of the guild of London tailors, known from 1503 as the Merchant Taylors’ Company, provides a rare opportunity to assess the variety of roles which these organisations played in late-medieval London.
The Danish attacks on London and Southwark in ‘1016’
This incident has been fatally embroidered by many local historians, taking their cue from various sources, so that the popular accounts have distorted what was already a confusing set of events.
City and Countryside in Medieval England
An impressive array of data, ranging over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, has been collected by two full-time researchers, James Galloway and Margaret Murphy. Of primary importance for the project are demesne farming accounts and inquisitions post mortem (detailing manorial land and other assets, especially again those of the demesne), both of which sources survive in very large numbers for the period under review. Also, the project incorpor- ates large amounts of data from urban records, particularly those dealing with merchants who were prominent in organizing London’s food supply.
The Curious Career and Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck
Was Warbeck just another in a long line of pretenders to the throne of England, or did his appearance in Ireland in 1491 prove the innocence
of Richard III, whom most historians accuse of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower?
Flemings in the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381
While the Peasants’ Revolt has been studied in depth by generations of medieval historians, the same cannot be said of England’s foreign-born inhabitants, and the largest group among these, the so-called Flemings (a term which was also applied to those from other principalities in the Low Countries besides Flanders).
‘In the Beginning’: The London Medieval Graduate Network Inaugural Conference
This is a summary of the The London Medieval Graduate Network Inaugural Conference by Rachel Scott. The conference was held on November 2nd at King’s College London.
The Disposal of Human Waste: A comparison between Ancient Rome and Medieval London
This essay examines the waste disposal options used in Ancient Rome and Medieval London, two cities that dealt with sewage in different ways.
Apprentices and Apprenticeship in Early Fourteenth-Century London
What was the nature of the medieval institution which in the early modern period became such a prominent feature of London life?
The King’s Mercy. An Attribute of Later Medieval English Monarchy
Modern assumptions about medieval justice still tend to see this process of amelioration as merely occasional and exceptional: mercy needed to be applied only where special circumstances made it inappropriate to apply the full rigours of the law. This, however, is seriously to misunderstand both the purpose and the pervasiveness of mercy in the operation of medieval justice.
The Lost Leprosy Hospitals Of London: Leprosia
By focusing upon the institutional provision made available for victims of leprosy in London between 1100 and 1500, we can explore the complexity of reactions to a disease that might be regarded as either a punishment for sin or a mark of divine favour.
London Medieval Society
The British capital is home to numerous universities, museums and archives. It is also home to the London Medieval Society, an organization that provides a forum for medievalists to gather and exchange ideas.
Ancient DNA analysis indicates the first English lions originated from North Africa
Although the Royal Menagerie and its animals are known from documentary records, few physical re- mains survive (O’Regan et al., 2005). Amongst the rare exceptions are two lion skulls that were recovered from the moat of the Tower of London during excava- tions in 1936-1937. These skulls were recently radio- carbon-dated to AD1280-1385 and AD1420-1480.
Cranial Trauma and Treatment: A Case Study from the Medieval Cemetery of St. Mary Spital, London
The individual under examination was context number 19893, from a burial pit situated to the southwest of an early 14th century charnel house.
The Government of London and its relations with the Crown 1400 – 1450
The Aldermen and civic officials emerge as conservative, but conscientious, men who might press hardly upon minority interests, but had constantly before their eyes the needs of the City as a whole.