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21594 results in Regional history after 1500

Page 283 of 1080

  • Conclusion

  • Christopher Michael Berard
  • Book:
    Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 301-308

  • Summary

    The Welsh chronicler and ‘soldier of Calais’, Elis Gruffydd (1490–1552), observes in his world history (Creation–1552) that the English criticize the Welsh for taking excessive pride in Arthur and, in defense of his countrymen, he delivers this riposte:

    Ac etto j mae yn vwy j son wyntt [sc. y Sayson] amdanno ef [sc. Arthur] no nnyni [sc. y Kymru]; kanis j maentt twy [sc y Sayson] yn dywedud ac yn koelio yn gadarn j kyuyd ef [sc. Arthur] dracheuyn j vod yn vrenin. Yr hrain yn i hoppiniwn a ddywaid j vod ef ynn kysgu mewn googoff dan vryn garllaw Glasynbri. Ac yn wir pe gellid hroddi koel j ai[r] ymrauaelion bobl o'r ardal hwnw, yvo ymddangoses ac a ymddiuannodd a llawer o bobyl mewn llawer modd hryuedd er ys trychant o vylnyddoedd.

    (And yet they [sc. the English] talk much more about him [sc. Arthur] than we [sc. the Welsh] do; for they [sc. the English] say and firmly believe that he [sc. Arthur] will rise again to be king. They in their opinion say that he is sleeping in a cave under a hill near Glastonbury. And indeed, if credence could be given to the word of various people of that region, he has for three hundred years been appearing to and conversing with many people in many a marvellous way.)

    Gruffydd's observation seems to have been as true for the twelfth century as it was for the sixteenth. We do not have any early Welsh, Cornish, or Breton statements of belief in King Arthur's survival, but, beginning with the Gesta regum Anglorum (c. 1125) of William of Malmesbury, we encounter a series of claims made by Anglo-Norman and Continental writers that the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons believed Arthur had never died and would return.

    The English and Continental formulation of exspectare Arthurum, which was exploited by the court writers of Henry II, implies that Arthur escaped the way of all flesh and was a special messianic figure for his Brittonic kinsmen. This idea is at odds with the fundamental Christian teaching that Jesus Christ is the one true messiah and that salvation comes through him alone.

  • 2 - Arthurianism during the reign of Richard I, 1189–1199

  • Christopher Michael Berard
  • Book:
    Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 77-140

  • Summary

    Arthur of Brittany and the discovery of Arthur's bones

    The competition for Arthur's legacy during Henry II's reign manifested as a contest of ideas involving rival interpretations of history and political prophecy. Was Arthur primarily a Brittonic resistance fighter or a conquering sovereign? Did Arthur die? Was he destined to return and, if so, how? As Henry's reign drew to its close, the political exploitation of the figure of Arthur in the Plantagenet world moved beyond hermeneutics in two notable ways. First, at Easter (29 March) 1187, the posthumous son of Geoffrey Plantagenet by Constance of Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany, was born at Nantes. He was christened Arthur and acclaimed the longawaited Arthurus redivivus. Second, around the year 1191, Arthur's remains were ‘discovered’ and excavated at the Benedictine abbey of Glastonbury in Somerset. Both events had major implications for the Arthurian tradition. The birth of the new Arthur, who was of Plantagenet and Breton stock, was heralded as the fulfillment of the Breton Hope. The discovery of Arthur's bones, if genuine, stood as positive proof that King Arthur had truly died, was buried, and would not rise again in fulfillment of the prophecy – at least in his original body.

    These two real-life developments in the Arthurian tradition are the focus of this chapter. The genesis of these events has considerable implications for our understanding of Arthurianism in Plantagenet England. For instance, if the Crown orchestrated the Glastonbury discovery, then it is reasonable to conclude that the Plantagenet kings perceived the Breton Hope as an enduring threat to their rule. Henry II's stance in relation to the naming of his grandson Arthur is also consequential. If Henry approved of the name choice, then we are observing a heightened appropriation of King Arthur for the hegemonic interests of the Plantagenets: Henry was making his grandson the new focalization of the Breton Hope. On the basis of his lineage, Arthur of Brittany had unique potential in this regard. Not only was his maternal grandfather, Conan IV, a native duke of Brittany, his maternal grandmother, Margaret, was sister to two successive kings of Scotland: Malcolm IV (r. 1153–65) and William I (r. 1165–1214).

  • Introduction: Architecture as a Story

  • Audrey M. Thorstad
  • Book:
    The Culture of Castles in Tudor England and Wales
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    17 October 2019
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 1-20

  • Summary

    In 1577 Raphael Holinshed published a history of the British Isles in two volumes entitled The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. Within it was included William Harrison's most famous work, A Description of England, a treatise dedicated to describing England's geographic, economic, social, religious, and political events. For example, Chapter 14, ‘Of castels and holds’, tells an illuminating tale of the history of the castle in England. Harrison begins:

    There haue beene in times past great sotre of castels and places of defense within the realme of England, of which some were builded by the Britons, manie by the Romans, Saxons, and Danes, but most of all by the barons of the realme […].

    The tale continues with King Stephen, Henry II, and Henry III, after which we reach Henry VIII:

    The most prouident prince that euer reigned in this land, for forticiation thereof against all outward enimies, was the late prince of famous memorie, king Henrie the eight, who, beside that he repared most of such as were alreadie standing, builded sundrie out of the ground.

    For Harrison there was a clear connection between threats – internal and external – and the building of castles. Similarly, for many modern scholars this link between conflict and defensive architecture was straightforward. Moreover, however – and which is more relevant to the pages that follow – Harrison constantly refers to the people who built them, expressing the intimate relationship between castles and those who built and occupied them. This association is the crux of this book.

    This study takes a firmly interdisciplinary approach to the socio-cultural understanding of castles in the early Tudor period. Its central focus is not on the architectural prototypes or the typological features of the early Tudor castle, nor does it make much comment on architectural form. Instead, working from the assumption that both space and objects are meaningful, and that their meanings both affected people and were affected by the people who interacted in the built environment, it focuses on the people and everyday activities that were associated with the castle in early Tudor England and Wales. It explores how the spatial organisation of the castle influenced the interactions between the different groups of people who lived in, worked in, and visited these buildings, and thereby illuminates the semiotics and the socio-cultural associations of people, objects, and space.

  • 6 - Memory and Commemoration

  • Audrey M. Thorstad
  • Book:
    The Culture of Castles in Tudor England and Wales
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    17 October 2019
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 179-208

  • Summary

    Secular and religious landscapes of commemoration in England and Wales were deeply interconnected and used a variety of techniques to advance the memory of the individual. Lay communities were very conscious of perpetuating the memory of their own community, as well as their familial or collective memory. Local magnates were particularly eager to establish, promote, and perpetuate the memory of their family. This helped to bind the local community to the lordship and vice versa, while at the same time helping to cement their place in the spiritual memory of religious institutions. The importance of memory for the early Tudor elite is substantiated by the multitude of ways that a family or individual might attempt to commemorate themselves. Visible means of commemoration and remembrance took the form of architectural features such as heraldry in and around the castle and effigies and tombs in the local parish churches, as well as financial donations towards the fabric of religious institutions and, arguably, the building of the castle itself. Being remembered, and attempting to be remembered, functioned in various ways to tie communities to the leading families in the region.

    There is, however, another layer to commemoration: the desire to receive salvation. The soteriological economy of late medieval Europe dictated that an individual's sin outweighed the power of prayer. In such an economy, the route to Heaven was bound up in the ability of an individual to request prayers from the community of which they were a part. One of the most common forms of religious exchange in late medieval Europe was the purchase of posthumous prayers and masses said by religious communities. In this way, memory was intimately connected to salvation, as the ability of an individual or family to remind the living to pray for their soul with financial incentives would quicken their purgatorial suffering.

    The prayer economy during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was material in nature, in that money exchanged hands for spiritual goods. Prayers could be bought and sold. Parishioners could, for example, pay to have a special mass said in memory of a deceased loved one or themselves, or they could purchase an indulgence to shorten their time, or someone else's time, in purgatory.

  • 1 - Arthurianism during the reign of Henry II, 1154–1189

  • Christopher Michael Berard
  • Book:
    Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 13-76

  • Summary

    The political orientation of the figure of King Arthur

    Between 1185 and 1216, Laʒamon, a priest of the Worcestershire village now known as Areley Kings, wrote a history of ‘England’ in early Middle English. In his preface, he announces ‘þet he wolde of Engle þa æðelæn tellen’ (that he would relate the noble origins of the English). This description is misleading because Laʒamon's text centers on the vicissitudes of the British ancestors of the Welsh and their eventual loss of the core of Britain to the Anglo-Saxons. Laʒamon's main source was Wace's Roman de Brut (1155), itself an Anglo-Norman verse translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britannie (c. 1136–8). Although Laʒamon amplified his source material, his adaptation largely upholds the symmetry of the Galfridian chronicle tradition. Arthur thus features prominently in Laʒamon's Brut. The text is distinctive not only for furnishing the earliest known appearance of Arthur in an Englishlanguage text but also for the extent of its anglicization of the king. Under Laʒamon's quill, Arthur became an epic hero after the fashion of his mortal enemies, the Anglo-Saxons. Laʒamon dressed Arthur in Anglo-Saxon battle dress. Arthur wore a corselet of woven steel and steel hose fashioned by an elven smith named Wygar, an analogue to Weland, the elven weapon smith who appears in Beowulf and the Old English Boethius. And although Laʒamon was expressly aware of the distinction between Britain and England, he ‘slipped’ into anachronism and spoke of Arthur as ruling over England on at least two occasions. Most remarkably, Laʒamon made Arthur a messianic hero not simply for the descendants of the Britons but for the English as well.

    Laʒamon lived only about an hour's ride from the Welsh March and conceivably had some knowledge of Welsh prophetic tradition, but he need not have drawn upon Welsh sources for his account of the myth of King Arthur's survival. Indeed, he likely did not turn to Welsh tradition in this instance. By the time he was writing, the idea that the Britons (the Bretons, the Cornish, and the Welsh) were awaiting Arthur's return had long been a cliché in Insular and Continental writing. Laʒamon perpetuated this stereotype of the Britons.

  • 8 - Servants to Others and Miscellaneous People

  • from PART II - WARDROBE BIOGRAPHIES
  • Melanie Schuessler Bond
  • Book:
    Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 607-650

  • Summary

    Those serving someone besides the Regent, including servants to the Regent's wife and children, appear in relatively small numbers and do not include any functionaries of the court or the wider government or military structure. They are few enough that they are most simply divided here based on whom they served. Within each group they are alphabetized by first name. These groups contain both upper and lower servants, and these are generally distinguishable by the quality of the clothing they were given.

    SERVANTS TO MARGARET DOUGLAS, LADY ARRAN

    Like many women of her station, the Regent's wife had a number of personal servants. Most of those receiving clothing were what are generally thought of today as ladies-in-waiting, but Lady Arran also employed a chaplain. The presence of these attendants formed an important part of her status and in many ways mimicked the arrangement of a royal court.

    Ladies-in-waiting graced many of the royal courts of Europe, but their duties and circumstances varied depending on the court, the person whom they served, their personality, and their own family's wealth and connections. Their clothing was of particular importance, primarily to uphold the consequence of their mistress, whether royal or noble, but secondarily to further their own interests. Two of the Regent's daughters served as maidens of the chamber to Marie de Guise, and several other contemporary examples furnish illustrations of the type of wardrobe that might be required upon assuming such a role.

    While they did provide service of various kinds, including companionship, entertainment (especially by dancing and making music), maintenance of clothing, dressing, and waiting at table, they also had the ear of their patron and others of influence at court and could bring their own or their family's causes to the attention of people in power. In addition, time at court served as something of a finishing school for young ladies, training them in various ways to move in powerful circles. And of course, they could find a valuable husband. Many maids of honor ended their term of service with marriage, although being married was no bar to such service.

  • 2 - Women's Garments

  • from PART I - GARMENTS
  • Melanie Schuessler Bond
  • Book:
    Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 78-122

  • Summary

    Sum wyfes of the borroustoun

    Sa wonder vaine ar, and wantoun.

    In warlde thay wait not quhat to weir,

    On claythis thay wair monye a croun:

    All for newfangilnes of geir.

    [Some wives of the borough-town

    So wondrous vain are, and wanton,

    They don't know what in the world to wear:

    On clothes they spend many a crown;

    And all for newfangled-ness of fashion.]

    —Satire on the Toun Ladyes by Richard Maitland

    The women's clothing records in the Accounts make up about a quarter of the total and include less variety of recipients. They are confined to the Regent's family, his servants and those of his wife and children, and those whom he considered his dependents. A very few charity gifts of clothing were also granted to women. Many listings are for main garments only, as for the most part only the women of the Regent's family and his wards received linens and accessories. The grants to those few, however, give detailed information regarding the colors and fabrics most commonly used for particular garments, the ways in which whole outfits might be assembled, and what types of garments were worn by which classes.

    Most of the women represented in the Accounts were members of the upper reaches of society or their personal servants, so the basic list of clothing worn was similar for all, though the quality and specific style of the garments varied based on the status of the wearer. A woman of high rank would begin with a white linen smock and over that wore a kirtle that might be stiffened in the bodice to provide bust support. The kirtle sometimes had sleeves, or separate undersleeves might have been worn with it. A gown was worn over the kirtle and might have been one of several different styles. A partlet of velvet or satin was sometimes worn over the gown. Hose (reaching to the knee and most likely secured with garters tied around the leg just below the knee), shoes, and some form of headwear would have completed the ensemble.

    A number of other garments for women are mentioned in the Accounts, among them cloaks, skirts, hoods, hats, safeguards (for riding), and many accessories.

  • In Closing: Architecture as Legacy

  • Audrey M. Thorstad
  • Book:
    The Culture of Castles in Tudor England and Wales
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    17 October 2019
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 209-216

  • Summary

    Legend has it that the ancient poet, Simonides of Ceos, miraculously escaped from a dining hall mere seconds before it collapsed, killing everyone inside. By accessing his mental image of the hall filled with the diners, Simonides was able to recall the exact seating plan and help identify the dead. He was the first to use the ‘memory palace’, or the method of loci. This method, popular in the early modern period, advises its practitioner to memorise large amounts of information by placing them in separate rooms in a palace. To recall the information, one simply needs to walk through the palace to find the chamber in which the data is stored. Although a large house or palace with many rooms is said to work best, advocates of this method of memorisation posit that any loci can be used. That this method uses architecture as a way to compartmentalise knowledge and memories is quite telling: physical structures carry a lot of emotional and mental power. Architecture is and was meant to evoke an emotional response. Whether it is the house you grew up in or your first school, buildings feature strongly in our memories, reminding us of our individual past as well as a collective past, either familial or collegiate. Buildings are the keepers of our memories. It is therefore not surprising that architecture could – and still does – transform words, needs, and desires into actuality, into physicality. Our visions can become reality. The physicality of architecture and the space that it creates provides a theatre in which lives are enacted. This interaction of movement, action, events, and space creates a special relationship between physical structures and our lives. In doing so, architecture and space hold the essence of memory, manipulating and even romanticising it in our minds. There is no doubt that architecture means something to people, as the commonly quoted passage from Maurice Halbwachs's Space and Collective Memory demonstrates:

    The great majority [of a city's inhabitants] may well be more sensitive to a certain street being torn up, or a certain building or home being razed, than to the gravest national, political, or religious events…not only homes and walls persist through the centuries, but also that whole portion of the group in continuous contact with them, its life merged with things.

  • 7 - People Serving the Court and the Regent

  • from PART II - WARDROBE BIOGRAPHIES
  • Melanie Schuessler Bond
  • Book:
    Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543–1553
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 March 2020
    Print publication:
    19 April 2019, pp 520-606

  • Summary

    Some people receiving clothing in the regency Accounts were simply part of the government structure. They had charge of castles or played a role in military readiness. Some had served the court during the reign of King James V and stayed in their positions after his death or received perquisites for past service. Others were part of the Regent's own household, though because he was the head of the court, even these might be considered to be serving the interests of the court rather than him personally. Regardless of their exact status, it is clear that the Regent felt entirely justified in using public funds to pay for grants of clothing to all of the above.

    The Accounts describe many in this group as “servant.” The word is somewhat misleading to the modern mind, as it implies people of low status. In fact, many of the Regent's servants had quite high status—it was not unusual at that time for the well-born to enter service to someone of greater rank. Some were even the Regent's relations, by either blood or marriage. Hamiltons, many probably from the numerous lesser branches of the family, make up a large percentage of the Regent's household. Others, however, seem to have been of humbler origins. Thus, there are extreme variations in the amount and quality of clothing given to people in this group.

    To make more sense of the wide array of people represented here, they have been divided by function:

  • • “Personal Servants to the Regent” include his pages, those serving in his chamber and wardrobe, two churchmen, and several who seem to have done all manner of errands for him.

  • • The “Treasury and Secretarial” category contains the messengers, a few members of management, and the writers and clerks.

  • • “Food Preparation and Service” comprises a wide variety of personnel, from the cooks and the butcher to the Master of the Pantry.

  • • “Household Management” covers those ensuring the smooth running of the operation, including the Master of Household, porters, animal handlers, and a few others.

  • • “Castles and Military” personnel took charge of various properties, oversaw the Regent's building program, and built and used weapons.

Page 283 of 1080