William Stubbs,Parliament and the Medieval English Constitution

The name of William Stubbs will forever be associated with the birth of modern scholarship on the late medieval English parliament. At the core of his Constitutional History, a three‐volume work published in the 1870s, is a brilliant synthesis of the development of the early parliament. Since its publication, however, Stubbs's work has generated varied reactions, as scholars have positioned themselves at different points on a sliding scale of praise through to criticism; that is, between praising the Constitutional History for its depth of scholarship and pioneering methodologies, on the one hand, to criticising the work for its present‐minded approach and whiggish agenda, on the other. The aim of this discussion is to strike a balance between these two extremes. While it acknowledges the undoubted flaws of Stubbs's narrative, it also argues for a more nuanced and holistic approach to his work. It suggests that the taint of whiggism has for too long acted as a barrier to a true appreciation of the scholarly merit of the work, merit that extends beyond simply acknowledging its ambition, originality and legacy. The discussion considers some key areas of parliamentary development between c.1290 and c.1406 and notes the continued synergies that exist between what Stubbs wrote 140 years ago and current interpretations and understandings.     

中世纪英国公地共同体与穷人

本文探讨了中世纪英国穷人群体的社会特征、基本生活状况,公地共同体中公共地和公共权利对于穷人的巨大救济作用,公地共同体成员对穷人的其他救助措施,高度评价了公地制度救助穷人的社会功能。     

The Origins of Tunnage and Poundage: Parliament and the Estate of Merchants in the 14th Century

By establishing the dates and political context of all early grants of the subsidy of tunnage and poundage, this study provides new evidence for the relationship between parliament and the so-called 'estate of merchants' during the third quarter of the 14th century. Until the 1370s, tunnage and poundage was granted by the king's council with the assent of groups of merchants; it was only at the end of Edward III's reign that grants of the tax began to be made in parliament, and only from the mid 1380s that it became fully integrated into the customs system. Throughout the period of experimentation, the subsidy was intended for a specific purpose: the defence of the coasts and of English shipping. This partly explains why the crown chose to discuss it with groups of mariners and merchants rather than with the Lords and Commons in parliament. The chronology therefore calls into question assumptions about the collapse of the estate of merchants in the 1350s and the take-over of its fiscal and political agenda by the burgesses in the parliamentary Commons. Through an analysis of petitions made in the name of the 'merchants of England', it can be shown that crown and parliament alike continued to recognize this group as a distinct political entity for the rest of Edward III's reign. The decisive shift came not in the 1350s but in 1382, when the merchants themselves acknowledged that the appropriate place to determine the crown's financial policies was, indeed, in parliament.     

中世纪和近代早期英格兰敞田经营制度再认识

大村庄的定居方式是中世纪英国平原开阔地带盛行敞田经营制度的重要原因。在中世纪和近代早期的生产力水平下,敞田经营制度是一种有效率的产权安排,并且还具有分散风险的作用。近代早期虽然出现了圈地,并且从长期来看它确实促进了农业生产力的大幅度增长,但敞田经营制度并没有成为当时农业进步的障碍。     

Parliament as Viewed Through a Woman's Eyes: Gender and Space in the 19th‐Century Commons

The 19th‐century house of commons is traditionally viewed as a masculine space overlooking the presence of female tourists, waitresses, housekeepers, servants, spectators, and residents. This essay demonstrates that, even when formally excluded from the Commons, women were determined to colonize spaces to witness debates. In the pre‐1834 Commons they created their own observation gallery in an attic high above the chamber, peeping through a light fitting to listen to parliamentary sessions. After 1834, they were accommodated in their own galleries in the temporary and new house of commons, growing increasingly assertive and protective of their rights to attend debates and participate in parliamentary political culture. Far from being exclusively male, parliament was increasingly viewed through women's eyes.     

Magnate Counsel and Parliament,c.1340–76: The Place of the Lords in the Era of the Commons

The mid 14th century has long been identified as a crucial period in the emergence of the Commons. Its rise fundamentally reconfigured the traditional landscape of representation, in which the magnates embodied the ‘community of the realm’. It is the place of the Commons that has drawn the bulk of scholarly attention. Through a close examination of the surviving Parliament Rolls for the period 1340–76, this article argues that magnate counsel, especially on the interrelated themes of warfare, diplomacy, and supply, remained integral to meetings of parliament in the ‘era of the Commons’. Parliament formed a crucial ‘point of contact’ between the king and a broad political society that actively pushed the practice and performance of noble advice‐giving, in line with common assumptions about the ideal social composition of the king's counsellors.     

People,possessions and domestic space in the late medieval escheators’ records

ABSTRACT

The medieval English escheator was a royal official who seized the goods and chattels of felons, fugitives and outlaws for the crown’s benefit. This article uses escheators’ inquests and accounts to ask what information exists about the location of forfeited possessions at the point of their appraisal by the escheator, and what is revealed about the use of space in the houses and outbuildings of lower status people? We also ask more general questions about contemporary understanding of the relationship between domestic objects and space. We find that there was limited interest in describing possessions according to their position within buildings. Nonetheless, one may use the order of items as they are recorded in the escheators’ lists of forfeited goods to explore the issues raised in the article. The records reveal an emphasis on the difference between ‘household utensils’ and other movables, especially crops and livestock.     

Enthesopathies and activity patterns in the Early Medieval Great Moravian population: Evidence of division of labour

Bone remodelling in the areas of entheses is frequently supposed to be associated with physical stress and the activity patterns of ancient populations. The main aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence of enthesopathies among individuals living in different life conditions. A total of 197 individuals from the Early Medieval (9th century) Mikulčice site were analysed for enthesopathies ‐ 117 adult individuals from Mikulčice castle and 80 individuals from its hinterland. While the inhabitants of the castle were probably ranked among the higher echelons of society, the hinterland was predominantly inhabited by a farming population. It is hypothesized that individuals from the castle were exposed to lower physical stress than individuals from the hinterland. 9 fibrocartilaginous entheses of the upper and lower limbs were evaluated. Enthesopathies occurred in at least one enthesis in 76% of individuals younger than 50 years of age. Significant differences were observed in the occurrence of enthesopathies between castle and hinterland. Males from the agricultural hinterland show the highest prevalence of enthesopathies of all the population groups, while the lowest prevalence of the marker was recorded in males from the castle. Females in the castle were more affected by entheseal changes than females from the hinterland. Sexual dimorphism was more evident in the hinterland. The present study confirmed presumptions based on the archaeological finds, especially for males. This hypothesis cannot be accepted for females. We may suppose that in the 9th century, women living in Mikulčice castle did not represent a privileged social class. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Migrants,inequalities and social research in the 1920s: The story of Two Portuguese Communities in New England

In this article, I analyse the production and reception of a 1923 social monograph on migrant communities in New England and in doing so: (1) outline an archaeology of the social sciences in the U.S., by analysing aspects of their development, dynamics, institutional politics and research agendas; (2) discuss the tensions between social, racial and cultural interpretations of inequalities in the political economy of the 1920s; (3) analyse the pervasiveness of racialist thinking in science, society and politics, its impact in the hierarchization of groups for purposes of border control, and how the targeted groups responded to it.