The concept of -political culture- has become very fashionable in the last thirty years, but only recently has it been consciously taken up by practitioners of late-medieval English history, who have argued for the need to acknowledge the role of ideas in politics. While this work has focused on elite political culture, interest in the subject has been growing among historians of towns and villages, especially as they have begun to recognise the importance of both internal politics and national government in the affairs of townsmen and peasants. This volume, the product of a conference on...

The essays collected here provide fresh insight into a range of important topics across the period. They discuss religion (both orthodox, as revealed by the lives of anchoresses living in Norwich, and heretical, as practised by lollards living in Coventry); politics (exploring the motivations of individuals seeking election to parliament, and how the way Cade's Rebellion was recorded by contemporaries affected its subsequent perception); law (whether it may be deduced from manorial court rolls that lawyers were employed by peasants, and an examination of the process of peace-making in feuds...

The theme of conflict is central to the essays gathered in this volume. Apart from the renewed armed struggle with France in the final stages of the Hundred Years War, subjects covered include the theoretical foundations of the Wars of the Roses, the impact of this conflict in the provinces, the frequently strained relationship between the English, the Irish and the Welsh, and the effects of intermittent warfare between England and Scotland. Other themes that emerge include the evolution of the English constitution, clerical practice at the centre and in the regions, and the competence (or...

A variety of new perspectives and fresh insights into people and society in fifteenth-century England and France are gathered together here. We learn from contemporary accounts of the battle of Anthon how regional politics in the Dauphine were enmeshed in the broader conflict over the French throne; subtle inferences about East Anglian politics in the fifteenth century are derived not only from a detailed study of stained glass, but also from a close examination of Sir John Fastolf's papers; the motivations of members of guilds in founding almshouses in their towns, and how such...