Early Fourteenth-century England Research Articles

COMMEMORATING CANTILUPE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND’S SECOND ST THOMAS

2020 saw the celebration of significant anniversaries connected with several medieval English saints, led most notably by the triple anniversary of the birth (1120), death (1170) and translation (1220) of St Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70, canonised 1173). This offered scholars an occasion to review and revisit important aspects of the documentary sources and material culture relating to the saints’ cults in England and across Europe. The celebrations of St Thomas Becket also coincided with the 700th anniversary of the canonisation of St Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford (1275–82, canonised 1320). Renewed scholarly interest in Cantilupe’s posthumous cult has particularly offered insights into daily life and devotion in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England and Wales. Likewise, it has recently been demonstrated that, in the wake of the Cantilupe cult at Hereford Cathedral, a period of intense church building occurred throughout the diocese. This paper is the first to assemble and publish a comprehensive catalogue of all known lost and surviving iconographical images of Cantilupe from the Middle Ages. More significantly, keeping the 2020 celebrations of both the Becket and Cantilupe cults in mind, this paper is the first to bring attention to all the examples of medieval iconography that associate England’s two Thomases, demonstrating how Becket was utilised as a model of sanctity par excellence with Cantilupe presented as a ‘second Becket’.

The Taymouth Hours: Stories and the Construction of the Self in Late Medieval England by Kathryn A. Smith (review)

Reviewed by: The Taymouth Hours: Stories and the Construction of the Self in Late Medieval England by Kathryn A. Smith Emily Runde Kathryn A. Smith, The Taymouth Hours: Stories and the Construction of the Self in Late Medieval England (London: British Library 2012) xxii + 369 pp. The Taymouth Hours (London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 13) is an English manuscript best known for its juxtapositions. Latin and vernacular languages and traditions, prayers and narratives presented in word and image, and visual expressions of sacred and secular power all proclaim the manuscript’s great interpretive potential. Previous scholarship has tended either towards the comprehensive cataloguing of the manuscript’s textual and pictorial contents or towards more focused interpretations of particular idiosyncracies. The manuscript continues to tantalize scholars with the promise of insights into medieval reading and devotional practices as well as networks of manuscript patronage and ownership within the royal circles of early fourteenth-century England. Kathryn Smith takes up all of these gauntlets in this ambitious monograph, the first study of this length dedicated to the Taymouth Hours. Here she newly postulates the manuscript’s patron and intended recipient and uncovers how the Taymouth Hours might have participated in and specifically shaped its owner’s construction of self. Smith first addresses questions of the book’s commission, production, and ownership, building a convincing argument in her first chapter for the identities of both its patron and its intended recipient. She positions this significant piece of scholarship as fundamental to the discussion of the next three chapters, all of which explore the implications of the book’s illustrative and textual programs as reflective and even constructive of the identity of the manuscript’s putative owner. Taking as her point of departure prevalent medieval metaphors identifying the book with the self, and specifically as a mirror of the self, Smith proposes in her introduction that “the later medieval one-off illustrated devotional book” could have furnished “a mirror that reflected and mediated [End Page 336] both the inner and outward dimensions of its owner’s personhood—her conscience, values and ambitions, her habits of thought, feeling and response, her conduct, and her sense of social and spiritual place” (3–4). Smith proposes in her first chapter that the person thus reflected in the Taymouth Hours is Eleanor of Woodstock. Meticulous research and thoughtful analysis of the manuscript’s owner portraits support Smith’s argument that the book was commissioned c. 1331 as a gift for the princess by her sister-in-law and guardian, Philippa of Hainault, on the occasion of the betrothal of Eleanor to Reinald II, count of Guelders. Though other royal female patrons and recipients have been proposed for the Taymouth Hours—notably Isabella of France as potential patron or recipient and Philippa of Hainault or Eleanor’s sister, Joan of the Tower, as potential recipients—Smith makes a solid case for Philippa as patron and Eleanor as recipient. She harmonizes detailed accounts of Eleanor’s betrothal and departure for the Continent and evidence from royal documents with the manuscript’s pictorial and textual contents and what is known about the book’s production. Smith is careful not to overstate her case— she acknowledges not only the conjectural nature of her argument for Eleanor’s ownership, but also the fact that, were this book indeed for Eleanor, there is no evidence that she ever received or used it. Yet the manuscript still rewards a reading in light of its possible affiliations to Philippa and Eleanor, she concludes. Implicit in this chapter—though more explicit in the book’s afterword—is that these proposed affiliations also complicate prevalent assumptions regarding the public roles and priorities adopted by these two royal women. In the three chapters that follow, Smith conducts a detailed investigation of the manuscript’s texts and copious illuminations with an eye to their particular resonance with Eleanor’s spiritual and worldly experience. She proceeds in linear fashion from the book’s beginning to its end, dividing her analysis according to transitions in the texts and bas-de-page narratives and teasing out thematic concerns within or across these textual and visual sections. The first of these chapters hones...

The Homestead Moat: Security or Status?

The conventional wisdom on the origins and purpose of homestead moats is that they functioned as indicators of status. But that makes no distinction between manorial and homestead moats, and fails to take account of the combination of circumstances in early fourteenth-century England that resulted in a subsistence crisis of devastating proportions: the worst, it is now believed, in our recorded history. In 1300, many rural areas were already dangerously overcrowded. But it was the Agrarian Crisis of 1315–22, starting with back-to-back harvest failures and the Great European Famine of 1315–17, that caused the starving ‘undersettles’ to turn to crime and brought a tide of criminal violence to the localities. Harvests improved, but the violence continued until the Black Death (1348–49), fuelled by poverty and unprecedented taxes. And it is the argument of this paper that homestead moats, far from being the trophy assets of a would-be gentry class, were in reality precautions against the criminal activity to which all well-off householders were exposed.

John Bromyard on Church and State. The Summa Predicantium and Early Fourteenth-Century England: A Dominican’s Books and Guide for Preachers (review)

John Bromyard on Church and State. The Summa Predicantium and Early Fourteenth-Century England: A Dominican’s Books and Guide for Preachers (review)

Edward III's Round Table at Windsor by Richard Barber, Richard Brown, and Julian Munby (review)

Il8ARTHURIANA shows the existence ofindoorand outdoor performances, frequententertainments by minstrels at ceremonial and social events, seasonal dramas at Christmas, Shrovetide, and Midsummer, household entertainments, and receptions for royal and noble visitors (all of which are listed in an Appendix whenever the records suggest some sort ofpublic display). The records that follow are divided into four localities, then subdivided by place and date, an arrangement that works especially well for situating Chester among its neighboring towns and parishes. Not surprisingly Chester claims center stage, given the wealth ofinformation that can be culled from sheriffs' rolls, mayors' lists, guild accounts, court records and other arms ofa record-keeping civic bureaucracy. A full apparatus of descriptions of the documents, explanatory and textual notes, translations, glossaries and index accompanies the records. While that apparatus is densewith valuable information, it can nonetheless be difficult for the non-specialist to locate everything needed to make sense of a particular entry, for instance, to be alerted that the mayors' list entry for 1269-70, which claims that 'In this yeare Whitson playes were invented in Chester by one Rondoll Higden...' derives from later revisions and so cannot be taken as thirteenth-century evidence of the date or authorship ofChester civic plays. For the specialist, however, these two fat volumes give the clearest, fullest picture of dramatic activity in Cheshire that scholarship can yield. Cheshire including Chester is the last in the series of REED volumes on the west of England, and thus fills in the final lines on the map of drama in that region. Like the other REED volumes that preceded it, this one makes available a wealth of information about early English drama and its cultural contexts and is an essential research tool for scholars of medieval theatricality and regional cultures. It makes a very welcome addition indeed to the history of performance. CLAIRE SPONSLER University of Iowa Richard barber, Richard brown, and julian MUNBY, EdwardIll's Round Table at Windsor. Woodbridge, UK, and Rochester, NY: The Boydell Press, 2007. Pp. xiv, 282. isbn: 978-1-84383-313-0. $47.95. In August 2006 a limited excavation took place at Windsor Castle on the site thought to be that of the Round Table built by Edward III in 1344. Construction of this building is well documented in the royal Exchequer accounts, and there is a brief description of it in Thomas Walsingham's chronicle. Edward abandoned the project before its completion, however, and no remains of the fabric survive above ground. The excavation, which took place over the three days of a public holiday weekend, was a limited one. Nonetheless, it identified the foundation trench of a large circular hall ofexactly the kind suggested, in their different ways, by both the chroniclers and the Exchequer accounts. The construction of the hall and its place in the world ofArthurian re-enactment form the twin subjects ofthis book. Richard Barber surveys late thirteenth-century Arthurian literature and the models which it REVIEWS119 afforded for a hall ofthis kind, whileJulian Munby offers a reconstruction ofits likely appearance, identifying contemporary parallels (notably Bellver in Majorca), and Munby again and the third co-author, Richard Brown, analyse the buildingaccounts and summarise the excavation finds. The great value ofthis multi-authored volume is that it highlights the close interaction ofimaginative literature and fourteenth-century chivalric practice. In a key contribution Richard Barber shows that, while there was a developing tradition in early fourteenth-century England of the construction of circular or octagonal buildings (think ofthe Ely Octagon), the main source on which Edward drew is likely to have been the hall described in the poem Perceforest. In a laterchapter, Barberoffers stimulatingsuggestions on the possible place ofthe Round Table in Edward's political and military thinking at this time. Placing the Round Table in the context of the role played by orders of chivalry in state formation, he plausibly suggests that the proposed company of knights was expected to support royal authority and to assist in military recruitment. Murimuth tells us that the Round Table was launched after a tournament in January 1344. Yet before the year was out, the project was abandoned and the half-finished building left incomplete. The authors...

Deconstructing identities on the scaffold: the execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, 1326

In this article, I will argue that the public execution of aristocratic traitors should be read in a wider socio-cultural context in conjunction with the more common interpretation of treason executions as state-controlled legalised violence. The latter approach tends to obscure the issues of honour and status which define identities created in a decidedly public sphere. This is in particular relevant for the limited number of elaborate executions of male aristocratic traitors in late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England. Concerning only a handful of men, these executions stand out in their emphasis on public humiliation and degradation, as well as in their insistence on destroying the integrity of the traitor's body. This implies a shared cultural understanding of aristocratic masculinities, founded in notions of nobility of lineage, loyalty, military prowess and physical health. Treason, as breach of loyalty, undermined this image of nobility, and indeed created a contradiction in terms: conceptually, corrupted nobility could not exist. By examining these executions in the light of aristocratic masculine self-representations, it becomes clear that these events are as much about punishing crimes and the breach of loyalty as about re-aligning cultural notions of nobility and ignobility by means of the traitor's body.

Political Thought in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham. Cary J. Nederman

<i>Political Thought in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham</i>. Cary J. Nederman

Politcal thought in early fourteenth-century England: treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham

Politcal thought in early fourteenth-century England: treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham

The Mobilization of Labour in the Milling Industry of Thirteenth- and Early Fourteenth-century England

The recourse to wage labour has traditionally been seen by historians as a second-rate option for medieval people, where access to land remained the key factor for ensuring their survival. Yet, labour opportunities, especially for craftsmen, were seemingly attractive for much of the thirteenth century at least, both in relation to the levels of pay and the probability of finding work during a time of notable investment, particularly in building. This article investigates the opportunities for labour in the milling industry of thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century England. By using mill data drawn from manorial accounts for the construction, operation and maintenance of water-mills and windmills, it was possible to estimate the equivalent full-time labour requirement for the industry. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, this ranged from 15,000 to 25,000 equivalent full-time workers per year. Employment opportunities of this scale reveal the power of industries like milling to draw substantial and varied workforces around them. The milling industry, however, peaked around 1315, after which opportunities for employment seemingly declined. Considering this in the context of the medieval economy as a whole, there seems to be a case for thinking of the adversities of the early fourteenth century in terms of recession rather than purely as a crisis in subsistence.

Vision and revision: on and ‘not seeing’ God in Dublin Apocalypse

Abstract Anomalous in text, picture cycle and format, the early fourteenthcentury Dublin Apocalypse1 comprises a familiar English Gothic paradigm which has been uniquely revised to the special requirements of a new patron. In contrast with the half-page horizontal layout of miniatures in such well-known Gothic Apocalypses as Douce, Trinity and Lambeth,2 Dublin's impressive cycle of 73 almost full-page illustrations stands vertically framed within large hexafoils and octafoils.3 Radically transformed into a captioned picture-book, the Dublin manuscript constitutes a critical response to what had already become a traditional book model, thus signalling an important shift to a new set of reader expectations in early fourteenth-century England.

Urban society in early fourteenth-century England: the evidence of the Lay Subsidies

Urban society in early fourteenth-century England: the evidence of the Lay Subsidies

Les tribunaux de la forêt royale

The Courts of the Royal Forest Forest Law, whose initial purpose was to preserve vast tracts of land as exclusive hunting grounds for the kings, weighed heavily on the peasantry of thirteenth and early fourteenth century England. It impeded, though it did not prevent, access to a wide range of forest ressources, and imposed a significant burden on forest dwellers, in fines for offences against the law and through widespread involvement in its cumbersome procedures. Harassment by foresters further aggravated the situation. Though baronial and gentry hostility to forest law is better known, peasant hostility was well-grounded and can often be demonstrated.

War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J.O. Prestwich.

This volume of essays to mark the seventieth birthday of J. O. Prestwich is concerned with two themes which Mr Prestwich has made particularly his own. It will be an important contribution to the literature on medieval war and military organisation, as well as to such subjects as crusading activity and royal finance. The majority of the essays concentrate on the twelfth and thirteenth century, and the contents are as follows: Roger Collins, 'The Basques in Aquitaine and Navarre: problems of the frontier government'; R. Allen Brown, 'The Status of the Norman Knight'; Colin Morris, 'Policy and Visions. The case of the Holy Lance at Antioch'; Judith Green, 'The Lords of the Norman Vexin'; Marie-Therese Flanagan, 'Strongbow, Henry II and the Anglo-Norman intervention in Ireland'; John Gillingham, 'Richard I and the science of war in the Middle Ages'; J.C. Holt, 'The Loss of Normandy and Royal Finance'; David Carpenter, 'What happened in 1258?' ; Simon Lloyd, 'The Lord Edward's Crusade, 1270-2: its setting and significance'; Malcolm Vale, 'The Gascon Nobility and the Anglo-French War 1294-98'; Michael Prestwich, 'Cavalry Service in Early Fourteenth Century England'; Christopher Tyerman, 'Sed Nihil Fecit? The Last Capetians and the Recovery of the Holy Land'; Maurice Keen, 'The Jurisdiction and Origins of the Constable's Court'; J.M.W. Bean, 'The Financial Position of Richard, Duke of York'.

Some Thoughts on ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Proprietary’ Rights in Land under Customary Law in Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century England

A recent polemical essay by Alan Macfarlane constructed a picture of the social structure of medieval rural England premised on the notion that there was little difference in the nature of family attachment to land between freeholders and those who held their property ‘according to the customs of the manor.’ This essay has received severe criticism from R. H. Hilton, who argues that it ‘ignores the implications of the considerable predominance in many areas of customary land held in villein (i.e. servile) tenure, attempting to assimilate it to freehold as though it were equivalent to sixteenth century copyhold.’ The scale of the difference between these two positions may be attributed to the current state of research into the operation of customary law and its tribunals.

High Prices in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Causes and Consequences

High Prices in Early Fourteenth-Century England: Causes and Consequences

Pensions, Corrodies and Religious Houses: An Aspect of the Relations of Crown and Church in Early Fourteenth‐Century England

Journal of Religious HistoryVolume 8, Issue 2 p. 127-143 Pensions, Corrodies and Religious Houses: An Aspect of the Relations of Crown and Church in Early Fourteenth-Century England JOHN H. TILLOTSON, JOHN H. TILLOTSON Dr Tillotson. is ip the Department of History, School of General Studies, Australian National Umversity, Canberra.Search for more papers by this author JOHN H. TILLOTSON, JOHN H. TILLOTSON Dr Tillotson. is ip the Department of History, School of General Studies, Australian National Umversity, Canberra.Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1974 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.1974.tb00354.xCitations: 3Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume8, Issue2December 1974Pages 127-143 RelatedInformation