Politics and the Urban Sector in Fifteenth-Century England, 1413-1471

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-0-19-884442-6
Verlag: Sydney University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 142 mm x 218 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

Reihe: Oxford Historical Monographs

Since the mid-twentieth century, political histories of late medieval England have focused almost exclusively on the relationship between the Crown and aristocratic landholders. Such studies, however, neglect to consider that England after the Black Death was an urbanising society. Towns not only were the residence of a rising proportion of the population, but were also the stages on which power was asserted and the places where financial and military resources
were concentrated. Outside London, however, most English towns were small compared to those found in contemporary Italy or Flanders, and it has been easy for historians to under-estimate their ability to influence English politics.

Politics and the Urban Sector in Fifteenth-Century England, 1413-1471 offers a new approach for evaluating the role of urban society in late medieval English politics. Rather than focusing on English towns individually, it creates a model for assessing the political might that could be exerted by towns collectively as an 'urban sector'. Based on primary sources from twenty-two towns (ranging from the metropolis of London to the tiny Kentish town of Lydd), Politics and the Urban
Sector demonstrates how fluctuations in inter-urban relationships affected the content, pace, and language of English politics during the tumultuous fifteenth century. In particular, the volume presents a new interpretation of the Wars of the Roses, in which the relative strength of the 'urban sector' determined
the success of kings and their challengers and moulded the content of the political programmes they advocated.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hartrich, Eliza

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Eliza Hartrich joined the University of East Anglia in 2019 as a Lecturer in Late Medieval History. Prior to that, she was a Scouloudi Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, a Fellow-by-Examination (JRF) at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. She has published widely on urban history in late medieval England, with a particular focus on urban networks, rebellion, and councils. Her work has appeared in
publications such as the English Historical Review and Proceedings of the British Academy. Her current project addresses the role of urban networks in the medieval 'English empire' in Ireland, Wales, and France.