Louise J Wilkinson – författare

A detailed investigation of the place of women in thirteenth-century society, using individual case studies to reappraise orthodox opinion.This book offers the first regional study of women in thirteenth-century England, making pioneering use of charters, chronicles, government records and some of the earliest manorial court rolls to examine the interaction of gender, status and life-cycle in shaping women's experiences in Lincolnshire. The author investigates the lives of noblewomen, gentlewomen, townswomen, peasant women, criminal women and women religious from a variety of angles. Not onlydoes she consider how far women were partners alongside men, especially within the family, but she also explores whether they might have been both at once constrained and yet, to an extent, empowered by religious and biological ideas about gender difference which found expression in inheritance practices and the common law. Valuable light on the avenues for political influence open to elite women is shed through case studies of Nicholaa de la Haye (d. 1230), sheriff of Lincoln, Hawise de Quency (d. 1243), countess of Lincoln, and Margaret de Lacy (d. 1266), countess of Lincoln. The book also addresses women's roles within the rural and urban labour markets before the Black Death.LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln,

A detailed investigation of the place of women in thirteenth-century society, using individual case studies to reappraise orthodox opinion.This book offers the first regional study of women in thirteenth-century England, making pioneering use of charters, chronicles, government records and some of the earliest manorial court rolls to examine the interaction of gender, status and life-cycle in shaping women's experiences in Lincolnshire. The author investigates the lives of noblewomen, gentlewomen, townswomen, peasant women, criminal women and women religious from a variety of angles. Not onlydoes she consider how far women were partners alongside men, especially within the family, but she also explores whether they might have been both at once constrained and yet, to an extent, empowered by religious and biological ideas about gender difference which found expression in inheritance practices and the common law. Valuable light on the avenues for political influence open to elite women is shed through case studies of Nicholaa de la Haye (d. 1230), sheriff of Lincoln, Hawise de Quency (d. 1243), countess of Lincoln, and Margaret de Lacy (d. 1266), countess of Lincoln. The book also addresses women's roles within the rural and urban labour markets before the Black Death.LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln.

The Middle Ages (800–1400) were a rich and vibrant period in the history of European culture, society, and intellectual thought. Emerging state powers, economic expansion and contraction, the growing influence of the Christian Church, and demographic change all influenced the ideals and realities of childhood and family life. Movements for Church reform brought the spiritual and moral concerns of the laity into sharper focus, profoundly shaping attitudes towards gender and sexuality and how these might be applied to family roles. At the same time, the growth of trade, the spread of literacy and learning, shifting patterns of settlement, and the process of urbanization transformed childhood.This volume explores the ideas and practices which underpinned contemporary perceptions of childhood in the medieval West, and illuminates the enduring importance of the family as a dynamic economic, political, and social unit. A Cultural History of Childhood and Family in the Middle Ages presents essays on family relationships, community, economy, geography and the environment, education, life cycle, the state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.

A survey of the complexity and sophistication of English royal government in the thirteenth century, a period of radical change.The years between 1258 and 1276 comprise one of the most influential periods in the Middle Ages in Britain. This turbulent decade witnessed a bitter power struggle between Henry III and his barons over who should control the government of the realm. Before England eventually descended into civil war, a significant proportion of the baronage had attempted to transform its governance by imposing on the crown a programme of legislative and administrative reform far more radical and wide-ranging than Magna Carta in 1215. Constituting a critical stage in the development of parliament, the reformist movement would remain unsurpassed in its radicalism until the upheavals of the seventeenth century. Simon de Montfort, the baronial champion, became the first leader of a political movement to seize power and govern in the king's name. The essays here draw on material available for the first time via the completion of the project to calendar all the Fine Rolls of Henry III; these rolls comprise the last series of records of the English Chancery from that period to become readily available in a convenient form, thereby transforming accessto several important fields of research, including financial, legal, political and social issues. The volume covers topics including the evidential value of the fine rolls themselves and their wider significance for the English polity, developments in legal and financial administration, the roles of women and the church, and the fascinating details of the development of the office of escheator. Related or parallel developments in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are also dealt with, giving a broader British dimension.LOUISE J. WILKINSON is Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Lincoln; DAVID CROOK is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Notthingham.Contributors: Nick Barratt, Paul Brand, David Carpenter, David Crook, Paul Dryburgh, Beth Hartland, Philippa Hoskin, Charles Insley, Adrian Jobson, Tony Moore, Alice Taylor, Nicholas Vincent, Scott Waugh, Louise Wilkinson

A survey of the complexity and sophistication of English royal government in the thirteenth century, a period of radical change.The years between 1258 and 1276 comprise one of the most influential periods in the Middle Ages in Britain. This turbulent decade witnessed a bitter power struggle between Henry III and his barons over who should control the government of the realm. Before England eventually descended into civil war, a significant proportion of the baronage had attempted to transform its governance by imposing on the crown a programme of legislative and administrative reform far more radical and wide-ranging than Magna Carta in 1215. Constituting a critical stage in the development of parliament, the reformist movement would remain unsurpassed in its radicalism until the upheavals of the seventeenth century. Simon de Montfort, the baronial champion, became the first leader of a political movement to seize power and govern in the king's name. The essays here draw on material available for the first time via the completion of the project to calendar all the Fine Rolls of Henry III; these rolls comprise the last series of records of the English Chancery from that period to become readily available in a convenient form, thereby transforming accessto several important fields of research, including financial, legal, political and social issues. The volume covers topics including the evidential value of the fine rolls themselves and their wider significance for the English polity, developments in legal and financial administration, the roles of women and the church, and the fascinating details of the development of the office of escheator. Related or parallel developments in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are also dealt with, giving a broader British dimension.

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Sources, the transformative successor to Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History (first published in 1964), provides a unique venue for scholars to offer fresh readings of evidence from the period 400–1600. This annual is dedicated to the fundamental scholarship of analysis and interpretation led by direct engagement with the sources—written, visual, material—in any form, from editions, translations, and commentaries to reports, notes, and reflections. By foregrounding the most basic approach of working outwards from the evidence, it aims to foster conversations across disciplines, regions, and periods, as well as to become a reference point for original approaches and new discoveries.This supplementary volume comprises essays on sources from the pre-modern world authored by members of the Medieval Studies Research Group, University of Lincoln, to mark the launch of the new (fourth) series.

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Sources, the transformative successor to Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History (first published in 1964), provides a unique venue for scholars to offer fresh readings of evidence from the period 400–1600. This annual is dedicated to the fundamental scholarship of analysis and interpretation led by direct engagement with the sources—written, visual, material—in any form, from editions, translations, and commentaries to reports, notes, and reflections. By foregrounding the most basic approach of working outwards from the evidence, it aims to foster conversations across disciplines, regions, and periods, as well as to become a reference point for original approaches and new discoveries.This supplementary volume comprises essays on sources from the pre-modern world authored by members of the Medieval Studies Research Group, University of Lincoln, to mark the launch of the new (fourth) series.

The fourth series of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Sources (first published in 1964 as Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History) provides a unique venue for scholars to offer fresh readings of evidence from the period 400–1600. This annual is dedicated to the fundamental scholarship of analysis and interpretation led by direct engagement with the sources—written, visual, or material—in any form, from editions, translations, and commentaries to reports, notes, and reflections. By foregrounding the most basic approach of working outwards from the evidence, the annual aims to foster conversations across disciplines, regions, and periods, as well as to become a reference point for original approaches and new discoveries.

The true importance of cathedrals during the Anglo-Norman period is here brought out, through an examination of the most important aspects of their history.Cathedrals dominated the ecclesiastical (and physical) landscape of the British Isles and Normandy in the middle ages; yet, in comparison with the history of monasteries, theirs has received significantly less attention. This volume helps to redress the balance by examining major themes in their development between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. These include the composition, life, corporate identity and memory of cathedral communities; the relationships, sometimes supportive, sometimes conflicting, that they had with kings (e.g. King John), aristocracies, and neighbouring urban and religious communities; the importance of cathedrals as centres of lordship and patronage; their role in promoting and utilizing saints' cults (e.g. that of St Thomas Becket); episcopal relations; and the involvement of cathedrals in religious and political conflicts, and in the settlement of disputes. A critical introduction locates medieval cathedrals in space and time, and against a backdrop of wider ecclesiastical change in the period.Contributors: Paul Dalton, Charles Insley, Louise J. Wilkinson, Ann Williams, C.P. Lewis, RichardAllen, John Reuben Davies, Thomas Roche, Stephen Marritt, Michael Staunton, Sheila Sweetinburgh, Paul Webster, Nicholas Vincent