Month: March 2017

Power, Privilege and Politics in the Medieval Honour of Pontefract

 

Keirincx, Alexander, 1600-1652; Pontefract Castle

An Illustrated Lecture about the Medieval Honour of Pontefract by Dr Sarah Rose for Saddleworth Historical Society

From at least the twelfth century, Saddleworth was in the possession of the Stapletons, a knightly family based over forty miles away in Stapleton, south of Pontefract.  They held several manors of the Lacy dynasty who controlled the honour of Pontefract, a large, compact lordship, the core of which lay within the old West Riding of Yorkshire.

Created in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, the honour was atypical of many English honours in that it survived throughout the medieval period, not only as a physical entity, but also as a meaningful focus for authority and community, loyalty and reward. By examining the behaviour of its lords and leading tenants, as well as the significance of the honour’s institutions, this talk will demonstrate how the honour of Pontefract challenges perceptions of honorial decline and supports the notion of feudal continuity.

Dr Sarah Rose completed her PhD, ‘Landed Society in the honour of Pontefract, c.1086-1509’ at Lancaster University in 2010. Since then, she has worked within the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster on the Victoria County History of Cumbria project as Assistant Editor. She has also taught several medieval history modules at Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan Universities, including a specialist module on Richard III. Sarah also works for the British Association for Local History as the Reviews Editor for The Local Historian journal.

The lecture will be held at Saddleworth Museum, Uppermill, OL3 6AP on Wednesday 8th March, at 7:30 p.m.

Members Free, Non-Members £3

Medieval Section lecture 11th March 2017: Early Medieval Execution in England and the Problem of the North

Cotton Claudius BIV 59r hanging close-up 2
Cotton Claudius BIV 59r hanging close-up

The next talk in the spring programme will be given by Alyxandra Mattison, who will discuss the archaeological and historical evidence for execution in early medieval England. Anglo-Saxons had very specific beliefs surrounding judicial punishment and the treatment of criminals in death, many of which came to an end after the Norman Conquest. The impetuses behind these changes and what they meant for the future of criminality in England will be explored. The talk will then venture to the Yorkshire (and the Danelaw) and the problem of how it fit into this Anglo-Saxon scheme of punishment. Did the Danelaw use the same punishments and treatment of criminals as the rest of Anglo-Saxon England? What sort of evidence, or lack thereof, do we have for judicial punishment in the Danelaw? The venue for our meeting will be the Swarthmore Institute in Leeds. We will start at 2pm and there will be time for questions.

The speaker recently completed her PhD on early medieval judicial punishment at the University of Sheffield. She has  general interests in bioarchaeology and funerary studies, Anglo-Saxon England, the Norman Conquest, early medieval law, medieval theology, and the medieval view of the body. She currently work as a commercial archaeologist for Northern Archaeological Associates.

IMS Open Lecture Series: 'The Archaeology of Anarchy? Landscapes of War and Status in 12th-Century England'

Tuesday 7th March – 17.30

Presented by Professor Oliver Creighton

This lecture will examine material evidence for the conflict of the mid-12th century popularly known as ‘the Anarchy’, during the turbulent reign of Stephen, King of England (1135–54).

Drawing on new research and fieldwork, the lecture will provide an overview of the material record for this controversial period, covering castles, siege-castles, churches and settlements, alongside material culture including coins, pottery, seals and arms and armour, and question the ‘real’ impact of Stephen’s troubled reign on society and the English landscape.