Monarchy, State and Political Culture in Late Medieval England

New approaches to the political culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, considering its complex relation to monarchy and state.

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.

GWILYM DODD is Associate Professor of History, University of Nottingham; CRAIG TAYLOR is a Reader in Medieval History at the University of York.

Contributors: Elizabeth Biggs, James Bothwell, Gwilym Dodd, Helen Killick, Helen Lacey, Joanna Laynesmith, Jonathan Mackman, Anthony Musson, Sarah Rees Jones, E.H. Watt.

Professor W. Mark Ormrod: A Personal Appreciation - Sarah Rees Jones
The 'Unfortunate' Fraudster: Thomas de Boulton and the East Riding Lay Subsidy of 1332 - Jonathan Mackman
Negotiating and Creating Collegiate Statutes in the Fourteenth Century - Elizabeth Biggs
An Emotional Pragmatism: Edward III and Death - J. S. Bothwell
Defaming the King: Reporting Disloyal Speech in Fourteenth-Century England - Helen Lacey
Law and Arms: the Politics of Chivalry in Late Medieval England - Anthony Musson
'Nother by addicions, nother by diminucions': the Parliament of April 1414 and the Drafting of Late Medieval English Legislation - Gwilym Dodd
The Medieval 'Side-Hustler': Thomas Hoccleve's Career in, and out, of the Privy Seal - Helen Killick
The Order, Rules and Constructions of the House of the Most Excellent Princess Cecily, Duchess of York - Joanna Laynesmith
Archbishops' Registers Revealed: Church, State and Society in the Registers of the Archbishops of York, 1225-c. 1650 - Helen Watt