New approaches to the political culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, considering its complex relation to monarchy and state. The essays collected here celebrate mark the distinguished career of Professor W. Mark Ormrod, reflecting the vibrancy and range of his scholarship on the structures, personalities and culture of ruling late medieval England. Encompassing political, administrative, Church and social history, the volume focusses on three main themes: monarchy, state and political culture. For the first, it explores Edward III's reactions to the deaths of his kinfolk and cases of political defamation across the fourteenth century. The workings of the "state" are examined through studies of tax and ecclesiastical records, the Court of Chivalry, fifteenth-century legislation, and the working practicesof the privy seal clerk, Thomas Hoccleve. Finally, separate discussions of collegiate statutes and the household ordinances of Cecily, duchess of York consider the political culture of regulation and code-making.

This original study examines how members of the English medieval nobility and their families fell, usually dramatically and often violently, from position and power in the period 1075-1455. It also considers what those who survived this fall did while out of favour and what some families did to attempt to revive their fortunes. For those noble dynasties that managed to survive such downturns, there was usually an attempt to return to position, if not power - though the road was never easy and, this book argues, increasingly involved sustained efforts by wives, mothers and daughters. Based on extensive research in chronicle, administrative, artistic and other interdisciplinary sources, Falling from grace spans almost four centuries, from the Earls' Revolt of 1075 to the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, and will be of considerable interest to both academic and general audiences. -- .

This original study examines how members of the English medieval nobility and their families fell, usually dramatically and often violently, from position and power in the period 1075-1455. It also considers what those who survived this fall did while out of favour and what some families did to attempt to revive their fortunes. For those noble dynasties that managed to survive such downturns, there was usually an attempt to return to position, if not power - though the road was never easy and, this book argues, increasingly involved sustained efforts by wives, mothers and daughters. Based on extensive research in chronicle, administrative, artistic and other interdisciplinary sources, Falling from grace spans almost four centuries, from the Earls' Revolt of 1075 to the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, and will be of considerable interest to both academic and general audiences. -- .

Fresh perspectives on many facets - political, social, legal, military, and diplomatic - of the reign of one of the most important late medieval kings. With a sharp focus on high politics, this is a cohesive and exemplary collection of rewarding scholarship. HISTORY The studies in this book add colour and depth to the reign of one of the most important and fascinating of late medieval kings. New research addresses received ideas about Edward III's kingship, including the way he came to power and how he kept it; his use of nobility and sergeants-at-arms [his political and military elite]; hispreoccupation with justice; military campaigns in the Hundred Years War; and the propaganda and packaging of his rule, both in terms of his English throne and his claims to France. The collection is drawn together in a critical introduction written by Chris Given-Wilson and Michael Prestwich. Contributors: CAROLINE SHENTON, JAMES BOTHWELL, DAVID GREEN, ANTHONY MUSSON, RICHARD PARTINGTON, ANDREW AYTON, W.M. ORMROD, CRAIG TAYLOR, A.K. McHARDY, CLIFFORD J. ROGERS, MICHAEL BENNETT.

An interdisciplinary approach to a crucial part of the systems of medieval authority and governance. In the medieval world, what happened when a figure of recognised authority was absent? What terminology, principles and solutions of proxy authority were developed and adopted? Did these solutions differ and change over time depending on whether the absence was short or long and caused by issues of incapacity, minority, disputed succession, geography or elective absenteeism? Did the models of proxy authority adopted by ruling dynasties and large institutions influence the proxy choices of lesser authority? The circumstances and consequences of absentee authority, a major aspect of the systems of medieval power, are the focus of this volume. Ranging across the realms of medieval Europe (but with a focus upon the British Isles and France), its essays embrace a wide variety of experience - royal, parliamentary, conciliar, magnatial, military, ecclesiastical (papal to parochial), burghal, household, minoror major, male or female, exiled, captive or infirm - and explore not merely political developments, but the dynastic, diplomatic, financial, ideological, religious and cultural ramifications of such episodes. Frederique Lachaud is Professor of medieval history at the Universite de Lorraine, France; Michael Penman is Senior Lecturer in history at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Contributors: James Bothwell Michelle Bubenicek, Leonard Dauphant , Bruno Dumezil, Laurent Hablot, Torsten Hiltmann, Tom Horler-Underwood, Robert Houghton, Olivier de Laborderie, Frederique Lachaud, Hans Jacob Orning, Michael Penman. Norman Reid

Fourteenth Century England has quickly established for itself a deserved reputation for its scope and scholarship and for admirably filling a gap in the publication of medieval studies. HISTORY This collection represents the fruits of new research, by both established and young scholars, on the politics, society and culture of England and its dependencies in the fourteenth century. Drawing on a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, the studies offer a range of methods, from micro-history and prosopography to the study of institutions, texts and events. The early fourteenth century provides a particular focus of interest, with studies contributing new reflections on the personnel of parliament, the household of Edward II, the politics of Edward III's minority, and reactions to the great famine of 1315-22 and the Black Death of 1348-9. The wars withScotland and France give the opportunity for significant new assessments of international diplomacy, the role of the mariner in the logistics of war, English loyalties in Gascony and the pious practices of medieval knights. Richlytextured with personal and local detail, these new studies provide numerous insights into the lives of great and small in this tumultuous period of medieval history. W. Mark Ormrod is Professor of Medieval History atthe University of York. Contributors: Benoit Grevin, Alison K. McHardy, J.S. Hamilton, Guilhem Pepin, Eliza Hartrich, Phil Bradford, J.S. Bothwell, Craig Lambert, Andrew Ayton, Graham St John, Christopher Phillpotts