The resuscitation of Roger of Conwy: a Cantilupe miracle and the society of Edwardian north Wales

Abstract

This article uses one of Thomas Cantilupe's miracles of resuscitation as a lens through which to view the society of late thirteenth-century Conwy, a centre of English power in the recently conquered territory of north Wales. Combining the evidence of the Cantilupe canonisation process, contained in The Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. Lat. 4015, with what is known of the history, topography and architecture of town and castle, it examines the relationship between town and castle and, more generally, the structure, operation and spatial expression of hierarchy in Conwy. Taking a micro-historical approach, it further suggests ways in which memories of the miracle itself – the resuscitation of the toddler son of a castle servant – were shaped by that hierarchy and, especially, in a silent negotiation between the powerful and the relatively powerless.