Contesting the City: The Politics of Citizenship in English Towns, 1250–1530, by Christian D. Liddy

Abstract

In this book, Christian Liddy offers an important new interpretation of urban politics in late medieval English towns, by focusing on the ‘inherently unstable’ (p. 206) concept of citizenship. He demonstrates that citizenship was a contested identity, and one that generated conflict. This overarching thesis is thoroughly grounded in a fascinating analysis of the archival sources and a subtle appreciation of the language of town politics. Liddy adopts a comparative approach, stressing that native traditions of urban citizenship were unlike the classical models of the Italian city states. Rather than this leading to an argument for English exceptionalism, Liddy stresses that this was, in fact, the picture in other European urban centres. His focus on the five major English cities of Norwich, Coventry, Bristol, York and London allows him to challenge the stereotype of English towns as less populous and less well documented than their European counterparts. Each of the...