Silchester

Medieval houses warrant the same holistic type of study that has been recently applied to medieval castles. Dartington Hall was a leading residence of the late fourteenth century and was subject to an important rebuilding programme nearly a hundred years later. Its construction, purpose and development extend far beyond any local consideration, with vital aspects that relate to the broader political and cultural context of late medieval England.     

Community regulation and its effects: the aggressive actions of parishioners against priests and women in Paris, 1483–1505

At the start of the sixteenth century, the archidiaconal court of Paris lacked centralised means of enforcement and relied heavily on parishioners to supervise one another and their priests. This article analyses cases from court registers dating from 1483 to 1505 that detail instances in which parishioners reacted aggressively to illicit contact between priests and women. It argues that the court appropriated parishioners' intimidating and sometimes violent separations of priests and women as a means to enforce ecclesiastical statutes calling for strict domestic segregation between the two. While the court relied upon the aggression of parishioners, it also protected priests, more than women, against extreme actions such as assault. The decisions made by the court created a system in which violence against women could be an acceptable means for enforcing its statutes at parish level.     

Material Messages: A Reassessment of the Double Portrait of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon

The double portrait of Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII of England, and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, has traditionally been dated to 1515. This attribution has led the portrait to be widely regarded as the earliest depiction of the style of headdress known as a French hood being worn by a member of the English court. However, the date of 1515 does not take into account the circumstances surrounding the marriage of the two sitters, circumstances that would have prevented the portrait from being commissioned at this time. It also ignores features of the sitters’ attire, which display elements of later 1530s fashions. Using both documentary and pictorial evidence, this paper will seek to propose a later creation date of 1532, establish a different reading of the portrait and reassess our understanding of the French hood at the English court in the early sixteenth century.     

The manor houses of the 1st Lord Baltimore in an English Atlantic World

SUMMARY: While much is known about the colonial activities of Sir George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore in Newfoundland and Maryland during the 1620s and early 1630s, less is known about his efforts to develop a settlement in one of the plantation schemes that was implemented in Ireland. At the time, he contemporaneously managed his various estates in England, Ireland and Newfoundland, which included the patronage of elite residences in Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire; Clohamon, Co. Wexford, in Ireland; and Ferryland on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. This article will trace the development of these manor houses in their differing geographical and cultural contexts. Differences in the form and layout of these buildings reflected the challenges and opportunities posed in developing settlements in the various regions, and offers insights into the commonalities and divergences experienced in the English colonization of the Atlantic world in the early 17th century.     

Working Museums and Historic Mills in the Textile Industry

Abstract

The making of worsteds was critical to the economic success of Norwich from 1400 to 1550, replacing woollens as the town's main industry. Critical to this success was the development of very high quality double worsted, woven and finished to give it qualities similar to silk. It was used for both clothing and home furnishings. In the second half of the fifteenth century double worsted became an important and profitable export. Double worsted declined in the second quarter of the sixteenth century as cheaper, continental light draperies entered the market. Historians have underestimated the importance of the double worsted, and have incorrectly viewed the early sixteenth century as a period of rapid decline. However, there is evidence that Norwich was reasonably successful in diversifying its worsted cloths to sustain its textile manufacturing, and that this prepared it for even greater success in the seventeenth century.     

‘Missing’ from policy history: the Dartington Hall Arts Enquiry, 1941–1947

Largely undocumented in the published accounts of cultural policy history in the UK, the Arts Enquiry was a privately funded survey of the arts in wartime England. It was launched in 1941 as an initiative of the Arts Department at Dartington Hall and funded by the trustees of Dartington Hall, who spent £19,000 on the study over its six-year history. The Enquiry brought together artists, intellectuals, philanthropists and arts professionals in specialist committees to examine the visual arts, music, drama and documentary film. Three book-length studies were published: The Visual Arts (1946), The Factual Film (1947) and Music (1949). This article examines the history of the Arts Enquiry, its entanglement in the cultural politics of the period and what it reveals about policy formation in the UK, as well as the historiography of cultural policy.     

Politics and faction at the court of Francis I: the Duchesse D'Etampes, Montmorency and the Dauphin Henri

There has been a growing interest in faction at the court ofFrance in the sixteenth century, alongside the continuing dissectionof clientelism. The later years of Francis I, until recentlyrelatively little understood, have been revealed as a periodof intensely unstable power relations at the centre of the court.This stemmed from the dominance of the Constable de Montmorencyin the years 1537–1540, his step-by-step removal frompower in 1540–1541 and the emergence of the king's mistress,the duchesse d'Etampes as the dominant political figure to whomall the contenders for authority: Admiral Chabot de Brion, Cardinalde Tournon and Admiral Claude d'Annebault had to adjust. Thisstudy examines these relationships, particularly in the lightof the despatches of imperial ambassadors, who sought both toobserve what they thought to be alarming developments in Franceand to encourage the dauphin, an increasingly important figure,to take a hand in the removal of the king's mistress and thesetting aside of his father.     

Jerusalem Transformed in Post-Reformation England: The Case of the Cliffords and Beamsley Hospital

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the Tudor religious reforms in the rural upland parish of Kirkby Malhamdale, Craven, in the Yorkshire Dales, from the late medieval period, when it was dominated by the economic power of the monasteries, during the Dissolution and subsequent changes, to 1603. Although early churchwardens' accounts have not survived for the parish, the analysis draws upon a variety of contemporary sources including wills, ecclesiastical documents, manor court rolls and other miscellaneous material, as well as the fabric and structure of the parish church itself. Aspects of worship and ritual in Kirkby Malham, the response to the reforms, and the extent to which conformity in the reformed Church of England was established in the parish by the end of the sixteenth century, are examined.     

Methods of Russian Heritage Site Dating on the Spitsbergen Archipelago

Abstract

Russian Pomor people used Spitsbergen as a hunting and trapping area for over 300 years, from the early sixteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. The early dating of Pomor activity is discussed with respect to written sources, dendrochronology, epigraphy, direct dating and geomorphological relationships.     

Lancastrian rule and the resources of the prince of Wales, 1456–61

This paper challenges the idea that the Lancastrian regime of the late 1450s was distinctive for its reliance, from the midlands, on the principality of Wales and the palatinate of Chester. The common emphasis on its association with Cheshire is a product of the late sixteenth century, and, beyond that, contemporary and near-contemporary perceptions even of a link with the midlands were limited. When the court moved to the midlands in 1456 the resources of the principality and earldom were far from easily accessible, and even thereafter the efforts made to draw on them were limited in their ambition and impact. Financial flows to the regime were restricted, and the political networks established, especially in the North and in Cheshire, were limited and highly dependent on the Stanleys. By 1459–60, therefore, the regime found little to rely on there, and the Yorkists were able to supplant them with relative ease.     

Aspects of gift giving in Denmark in the sixteenth century and the case of the Rose Flower Cup

The concept of an ancient system of gift exchange gradually being replaced by a market economy during the middle ages and early modern period has been rightly challenged by many recent studies. As it will appear from this essay on gift giving at the Danish court of King Frederik II (1559–88), gifts and favours continued to play an important role in the organisation of power and society. Several examples from sixteenth-century Denmark are discussed, including Frederik II's patronage of the astronomer Tycho Brahe. Special emphasis is put on a gift from the Danish noble couple Hans Skovgaard and Anne Parsberg on the occasion of the baptism in 1577 of their godson, the eldest son of Frederik II. Donations at rites of passage like baptism were a convention at the time, yet the huge gilt silver cup known as the ‘Rose Flower’ was more than that. It was an elegant way of reciprocating an earlier, royal wedding gift. At the same time the cup and its symbolism hinted at the ideal of the generous lord, stressing the hospitality and accessibility expected from the king, an ideal as common to king and nobility at the renaissance court of the sixteenth century as it had been in the previous centuries. The more humble gifts mentioned in private account books of the time point to the fact that people did not necessarily give someone a gift to obtain something in return. Sometimes gifts were simply given to sustain the social order of which the donors were a part.     

Two medieval plague treatises and their afterlife in early modern England

This study of an adaptation of the popular John of Burgundy plague treatise by Thomas Moulton, a Dominican friar, ca. 1475, and a translation of the so-called Canutus plague treatise by Thomas Paynell, printed 1534, shows how the medieval traditions they represent were carried forward, well into the sixteenth century, and also subjected to change in light of religious, moral, and medical concerns of early modern England. The former had a long life in print, ca. 1530-1580, whereas Paynell's translation exists in one printed version. Moulton's adaptation differs from its original and from the Canutus treatise in putting great emphasis on the idea that onsets of plague were acts of divine retribution for human sinfulness. In this respect, Moulton reshaped the tradition of the medieval plague treatise and anticipated the religious and social construction of plague that would take shape in the first half of the sixteenth century. Its long history in print indicates that Moulton's treatise expressed the spirit of that construction and probably influenced the construction as well. The contrasting histories of the two treatises attest not only to the dramatic change brought about by religious and social forces in the sixteenth century, but to a growing recognition of the value of the printing press for disseminating medical information-in forms that served social and ideological ends.     

Aspects of gift giving in Denmark in the sixteenth century and the case of the Rose Flower Cup

The concept of an ancient system of gift exchange gradually being replaced by a market economy during the middle ages and early modern period has been rightly challenged by many recent studies. As it will appear from this essay on gift giving at the Danish court of King Frederik II (1559-88), gifts and favours continued to play an important role in the organisation of power and society. Several examples from sixteenth-century Denmark are discussed, including Frederik II’s patronage of the astronomer Tycho Brahe. Special emphasis is put on a gift from the Danish noble couple Hans Skovgaard and Anne Parsberg on the occasion of the baptism in 1577 of their godson, the eldest son of Frederik II. Donations at rites of passage like baptism were a convention at the time, yet the huge gilt silver cup known as the ‘Rose Flower’ was more than that. It was an elegant way of reciprocating an earlier, royal wedding gift. At the same time the cup and its symbolism hinted at the ideal of the generous lord, stressing the hospitality and accessibility expected from the king, an ideal as common to king and nobility at the renaissance court of the sixteenth century as it had been in the previous centuries. The more humble gifts mentioned in private account books of the time point to the fact that people did not necessarily give someone a gift to obtain something in return. Sometimes gifts were simply given to sustain the social order of which the donors were a part.     

Later Historical Archaeology in Iceland: A Review

This paper offers a general review of past and present archaeological work on the later historic period of Iceland, i.e. from the sixteenth century to the present day. Introduced by a brief sketch of the nature of Iceland??s history and archaeology, a chronological approach is taken in presenting previous and current research on sites and material of the later historic period. Starting in the mid-twentieth century, with minor work focused on a single ordinary farmstead, the 1970s and 1980s witnessed a growth of excavations largely on elite residences. Since the 1990s and into the present, such a focus has continued while also seeing a rise in development-led projects. Despite this, lack of publication or even general discussion of the archaeology of this period dominates the field in Iceland, problems which are only now being addressed.     

晚清国人的民族国家认同及其困境——以国籍问题为中心

中国近代化的历程也是一个逐步纳入以民族国家体系为基础的世界体系之中的过程 ,中国本身也经历着从传统的帝国向民族国家的转型。本文以 1 9世纪末 2 0世纪初国籍问题为中心 ,尤其是清朝朝野对荷兰 1 90 7年出台的《新订爪哇殖民籍新律》的反应 ,来分析中国民族国家转型过程中 ,不同群体民族国家身份认同的多样性和复杂性以及认同的焦虑和危机     

In Praise of Heresy: Hus,Luther, and the Ethos of Reformation

Reformation is confined neither chronologically nor geographically but is best understood as a series of efforts to recover particular visions of Christian faith and practice. These endeavours always have potential for religious and social change. The martyred Bohemian priest Jan Hus (1372–1415) has often been characterised as a forerunner of the European Reformations and Martin Luther frequently referred to him. Past scholarship has evaluated the relation between Hussite history and the Reformation, Hus and Luther, in a variety of ways arguing either for organic connections or dismissing the possibility of causal connections. I argue that what Hus and Luther shared was not theology, common principles of reform, or visions of religious practice as much as a particular ethos. That ethos can best be understood within the idea of heresy. This article examines what Hus and Luther were striving to achieve, assesses the assumptions about Hus current in the sixteenth century, evaluates the Hus myth, and argues for a reconsideration and rehabilitation of heresy, a concept that epitomises the shared ethos that made Hus relevant to sixteenth‐century reformers.     

Debt,distraint, display and dead men’s treasure: material culture in late medieval Aberdeen

ABSTRACT

This paper uses the burgh court records of Aberdeen to explore the material culture of medieval Scottish townspeople. Four main areas are explored: the use of pawning and pledges to facilitate commercial transactions and maintain solvency; the practice of distraint as a means of coercion and debt recovery; the passage of burgesses’ moveable goods to their heirs; and the significance of clothing in public display. Precious metal objects featured prominently among the goods deployed to enable their owners to fulfil their obligations although the poor sometimes had to part with the most basic goods. For some in Aberdeen, the sixteenth century saw a rise in ownership of luxuries, including expensive clothes, although this may not have spread to ordinary people in town and country, and possession itself was, for some, insecure. Nonetheless it is clear that Scotland participated in the growing consumerism evident elsewhere in later medieval and Renaissance Europe.     

Archaeological Observation on the Layout of the Three Courts and Five Gates of the Daming Palace of the Tang Dynasty

The system of Three Courts and Five Gates is an essential content of the designs of the capitals and palaces of ancient China. The Three Courts and Five Gates planning of the Daming Palace is the adoption of this rule and the application to the spatial designing of the palace city. The archaeological fieldwork revealed that within the Daming Palace, the Three Courts pattern with three walls as the borders, and Hanyuan Hall, Xuanzheng Hall, and Zichen Hall as the centers formed the outer court, middle court, and inner court plan, which was the embodiment of the new interpretation of the Tang Dynasty to the traditional Three Courts and Five Gates ritual system. Through the trimming of the archaeological data fetched in the past 60 years about the southern part, which is the official affair zone, of the Daming Palace, this paper discusses the spatial structure of the Three Courts and Five Gates pattern of the Daming Palace, and analyzes the substantial relationship between this pattern and the political demands of the ruling class.     

The Image of the Bedouin in Travel Literature and Western Researchers Who Visited Palestine in the Nineteenth Century

With the weakening of the Ottoman government from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, the Bedouin took over the control of the entire Country of Palestine. As the Bedouin were present across the country, western travelers and researches visiting the Holy Land as tourists, visitors, and investigators often met the Bedouin, especially during the robbery and plunder executed by the Bedouin upon travelers, and when hiring them as tour guides, renting their camels, or employing them as guards. On their return to their countries, these travelers reported on their experiences in the East in the form of books. These western travelers and researchers, in their writings, dealt with the Bedouin. They described them as providers of services to caravans, transporters of luggage, tour guides, and robbers. The writers and researchers explicitly described the traits, characters, food habits, clothing, residences, and occupations of the Bedouin.     

Bigamy: A Male Crime in Medieval Europe?

Crime is often gendered. This article argues that the crime of bigamy was a male crime in the fifteenth‐ and sixteenth‐century Catholic world. Courts prosecuted male bigamists far more often and more harshly than female offenders. However, drawing in particular on records from the fifteenth‐century bishop's court of Troyes, I argue that women also committed bigamy. Judicial and social gender biases identified only male bigamy as fully criminal behaviour.
The reasons for this gender difference lie in the different roles of spouses as prescribed in Christian law, theology and culture. For a man to commit bigamy fundamentally violated his responsibilities as a husband. Female bigamy, by contrast, was to an extent tolerated as a lesser evil. Better a woman have two living husbands, one present and one absent, than no husband at all.