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–28, at pp. 21–8. S. L. Waugh, The Lordship of England: Royal Wardships and Marriages in English Society and Politics, 1217–1327 (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 119. 8 T. Keefe, Feudal Assessments and the Political Community under Henry II and his Sons (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1983), p. 118. Milsom argued that Henry II merely tried to make feudal society work according to its own rules: Milsom, ‘Inheritance by women’; see, for example, the discussion of women inheriting, pp. 64–9. 9 Gillingham, Angevin Empire, pp. 55–9. 10
up with acts of denization, could be one of suspicion and resistance. As we saw in chapter 2 , the crown undertook a series of measures across the course of the fourteenth century to ensure that the foreign-born inmates of the alien priories were placed under proper surveillance, culminating in the development of the idea that the priories themselves could enjoy denizen status. This, however, did not stop local people, or the political community at large, from believing that the alien priories were filled with infiltrators and spies. In 1295, a man named Warin of
raised by this means, and the householder rate was not fixed so high as to suggest a real attempt to exploit alien wealth. Rather, the original intention of the subsidy was probably two-fold: to top up the income the crown derived from taxation of the population at large; and to provide a very crude form of alien registration so as to give an assurance to sections of the political community that ‘something was being done’ about the potential security risk posed by the presence of foreigners within the realm. This new form of security measure
’ and the rational foundation of the community. 24 Justice is inherently linked to oikeiôsis (expressed by Cicero here as ‘ commendatio ’); each person will wish to endear himself to others, not because this is intrinsically rational, but because it is the best possible manner to ensure the good of the political community. Correct exercise of duties in extending care from one’s family to others can lead to reverence from other members of the polity, as expressed by Cicero in De officiis , II. 46: One wins commendation primarily, then, for
-eminence within Wales as a whole. Thus Joan’s status as daughter of King John and wife of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth facilitated her participation in the political affairs of Gwynedd and acted as an important link between the kingdom of Gwynedd and the English royal court. Her filial status combined with her marriage to give her political legitimacy within the political community of Gwynedd, and, by extension, her title claimed ‘Wales’. Further, the concept of queenship was developing in twelfth-century Wales, to a point where Gerald of Wales in c . 1202
this may have acted as an inducement to Scots who consciously sought to make a permanent move to southern and eastern England. However, a state of war temporarily prevailed between 1480 and 1484. The English, having lost control of Berwick upon Tweed in 1461, took the town back again in 1482, though the costs of the campaign and the continued anxieties over border security produced a rather critical response from the political community at home that manifested itself in the anti-Scots legislation of 1490, discussed in chapter 2 . 61 It is possible, therefore, that
the political community that the recovery of royal authority was necessary for the fair and effective administration of the realm, especially since that authority was to be clearly circumscribed by the precepts of Magna Carta.5 Consequently, leading up to, and largely during, the great crises of the 1220s and 1230s, the Crown was able to claw back a great deal of power, albeit a power wielded in concert with the greatest men of the realm. Magna Carta, 1216 King John’s death left the royalist barons the task of winning the civil war. As an executor of John’s will
1340s. Although the Order promoted a general interest in George since the confraternity offered a congregation of prestige and aspiration for non-royal and non-knightly Englishmen, it remained an exclusive upper-class circle. Scottish noblemen, if only in small numbers, took part in crusades organised by the Teutonic Order, which used George and the Virgin Mary as its spiritual guides.24 Since only 2 per cent of the people belonged to either the army or the political community in England, for most people the saint constituted no more (nor less) than an important
aliens, and the whole estate of Holy Church [is] brought into less reverence than used to be the case in the past’. 95 The official remedy came in the Statute of Provisors (1351) and subsequent extensions and amendments to this legislation, which aimed to limit the number of papal provisions (whether for English or foreign clergy) to English benefices. It was in the interests of the crown to adopt a selective approach to the enforcement of this legislation, with the result that the political community often remained dissatisfied. 96 While
political community responses. The risk that Owain took in his attack on Cenarth Bychan castle was thus explained by the Brut in terms of untamed sexual passion. Thus the whole episode is charged with multiple and complex meanings within a larger narrative of Welsh resistance and action to maintain territories and to explain the complexities of shifting Welsh political allegiances. It is interlaid with gender stereotypes: here Owain represents the active, war-like male aggressor, while Nest is the passive female who is acted upon, but who nevertheless takes action to