Social Attitudes and Political Structures in the Fifteenth Century

Tim Thornton

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780750927055
• eBook ISBN: 9780752494814
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This volume includes papers on political, religious, social and economic history and the history of ideas during the 15th century. The papers challenge existing conceptions and open new avenues of discussion on longstanding debates. Themes covered include parliaments and their relationships with the monarchs of the period, both in Scotland and in England; queens and their role in the 15th century English polity; the ideas that lay behind the English claims to the French throne, and the rituals of peace-making in the Hundred Years War. Debates over the importance of lordship and service are also touched upon, in a paper which examines Lord Hastings' retainers in the defence of Calais, while another chapter discusses the local politics of a small Welsh marcher lordship. The crucial subject of Lancastrian government finances in the 1450s also receives a fresh examination. In religious history, papers examine the activity of monastic propagandists and the religious life of cathedrals through the activity of fraternities based in them. There are also considerations of a noble widow, and of the 15th century rural economy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Abbreviations
• 1. Tim Thornton: British Postgraduate Research in Fifteenth-century History, 1919–99
• 2. James G. Clark: Selling the Holy Places: Monastic Efforts to Win Back the People in Fifteenth-century England
• 3. Elizabeth New: Fraternities in English Cathedrals in the Later Medieval Period
• 4. Joanna L. Laynesmith: Fertility Rite or Authority Ritual? The Queen’s Coronation in England, 1445–87
• 5. Hannes Kleineke: Lady Joan Dinham: A Fifteenth-century West-country Matriarch
• 6. Nicolas Offenstadt: The Rituals of Peace During the Civil War in France, 1409–19: Politics and the Public Sphere
• 7. Roland Tanner: ‘I Arest You, Sir, in the Name of the Three Astattes in Perlement’: The Scottish Parliament and Resistance to the Crown in the Fifteenth Century
• 8. Gwilym Dodd: Conflict or Consensus: Henry IV and Parliament, 1399–1406
• 9. David Grummitt: William, Lord Hastings and the Defence of Calais, 1471–83.
• 10. Bill Smith: The Financial Priorities of Lancastrian Government, 1450–55
• 11. Margaret Yates: Watermills in the Local Economy of a Late Medieval Manor in Berkshire
• 12. Francesca Bumpus: The ‘Middling Sort’ in the Lordship of Blakemere, Shropshire, c. 1380–c. 1420
• 13. Sean Cunningham: Henry VII, Sir Thomas Butler and the Stanley Family: Regional Politics and the Assertion of Royal Influence in North-Western England, 1471–1521