Place, identity and performance: spatial practices and social proxies in medieval Swansea

Abstract

The testimonies of the nine witnesses to the hanging of William Cragh in Swansea in 1290 offer a rare opportunity to investigate the social and spatial practices of figures from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds moving within the same urban environment. This paper maps the itineraries of the witnesses within the landscape of medieval Swansea and its environs, exploring how they negotiate various spaces, boundaries and thresholds within and around the town, as well as how their spatial practices and reported actions shape social identity, status and power. In particular the paper examines the ways in which certain individuals make use of ‘proxies’ to circumvent spatial constraints and regulation and to extend their sphere of action, raising implications for our understanding of medieval selfhood and agency. The paper advances new insights into the ways in which medieval identities and the medieval town were mutually constitutive, contingent and subject to continual re-making.