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widows may have class interests or political interests, which they defend, but they are also subject to categories of gender which interacted with their other identities. The importance of multiple identities in twelfth-century culture has 2 introduction recently been investigated by Ian Short, who argues that the AngloNorman English sought to maintain a sense of cultural distinctiveness, and in so doing they perpetuated a sense of social exclusiveness.6 This model of self-definition thus unconsciously draws on elements of closure theory to explain increasing twelfth
way the intervention of that government might affect their lives. The surviving records cover twelve counties in England: Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Middlesex. Women from all ranks of the landholding classes are represented in the rolls relating to the twelve counties surveyed: from the twice widowed Margaret duchess of Brittany and countess of Richmond and sister of the Scottish king, who is listed as holding land worth £55 2s and eight marks per
noblewomen and power 7 Seals Representation, image and identity here are over 145 extant secular women’s seals from the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.1 They present the historian with unique opportunities to study the portrayal of female identity in twelfth-century England. Seals were visual representations of power, and they conveyed notions of authority and legitimacy. They publicly presented a view of both men and women which visibly crystallised ideas about gender, class and lordship. The modern historian of seals owes a considerable debt to
-emphasised the mutuality between parties, that is, between donor(s) and beneficiary, could be symbolic and were usually voluntary.2 This approach is similar to that of Barbara Rosenwein, who stressed the relationships between donors which were created when gifts were exchanged.3 Dominique Barthélemy argues that social class was exhibited when precious objects such as gold rings were exchanged.4 Stephen White also argues that the social context of gift exchange is important because countergifts were tangible expressions of specific social hierarchies and served to define the
power and portrayal 2 Power and portrayal lthough the twelfth century is often presented as a ‘Golden Age’ of English historical writing, few historians have discussed the portrayal of twelfth-century women. An important exception, Marjorie Chibnall’s study of women in Orderic Vitalis, is valuable for the way it explores Orderic’s presentation of noblewomen according to their marital status, class and wealth.1 Essentially, Chibnall agreed with Eileen Power that the image of women in literature was complex and reflected the place of women in society generally.2
–7 above. 18 Tabuteau states that for Norman churches the length of a witness list was not a particular concern – practice varied from church to church – and that neither rank nor class made an individual suitable to witness: Transfers of Property, p. 156; Hudson, Land, Law, and Lordship, p. 159; J. Hudson, The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from the Norman Conquest to Magna Carta (London: Longman, 1996), p. 42. 19 Mowbray Charters, p. lvii, where the lord’s family were supplemented by members of the household, knights and those who held
? Stereotypes of social class, especially alleged rusticity, also abounded in connection with ID. The medieval peasant often was an object of contempt and derision to his contemporaries, described as rough, dirty, boorish and foolish. One may note here the image of the ‘stupid’ peasant, referring to the entire class of peasants, not just individuals, as being mentally less able than their social superiors. ‘Peasants were supposed to be stupid, an enduring image of the countryman common across boundaries and time.’ 104 Boorish , of course, is the adjective pertaining to the
defence of their own territories along the frontier, their military acumen was a key determinant of their wider success or failure. The growth of seigniorial households and affinities was in part a result of the increasing demands of medieval warfare, made more necessary for the Lacys by the collateral administration of their transmarine interests. The necessary personnel was supplied by the emerging knightly class whose members were also courted by the king of England. No study of aristocratic lordship in this period can ignore the impact of expanding royal lordship
workers, English peasant and aristocratic societies, the Venetian nobility, Venetian rape cases and Florentine sodomy trials and in a range of studies on the family. 5 To a greater or lesser degree, all approaches demonstrate the view articulated by Peter Laslett in 1995: ‘Together with gender, ethnicity and class, aging is one of the four dimensions of individual and social
argue that these riddles hinge on questions not just of ethnicity but also of class. Like the Anglo-Saxons, some Welsh were enslaved and others were warrior elite. The setting of these riddles on the Welsh mearc underscores the reputation of the Welsh borderlands as rife with cattle raiding. Contrary to the common perception that the Welsh borderlands in Anglo-Saxon England were defined by Offa’s Dyke, these riddles – coupled with historical evidence of drove roads – suggest that this region is better understood as a permeable zone within which both AngloSaxons and