Few fifteenth-century barons had more remarkable lives than Ralph, Lord Cromwell (d.1456).² His long career has three distinct aspects. The first is that of the long-serving royal administrator, who devoted himself to the service of the house of Lancaster from the bright optimism of Henry V’s reign to the failure and alienation of the strife-torn 1450s. Then, beset by his enemies, he turned for protection to those who would later bring down the dynasty he had served so long. The second is that of a great builder, who, in his lifetime, created three great edifices – the castle at Tattershall...

London was as much a city of the dead as it was of the living. Generations of lay investment in city churches had given rise to a sky-scape of spires, church towers and steeples; the city churches and monasteries represented a multi-layered legacy of building activities funded by Londoners as patrons and benefactors. Nowhere was this investment remembered so visibly as in their funerary monuments. And yet in the early part of the twenty-first century only thirty-five medieval monuments remain in city churches. But if the surviving evidence is poor, the written record is rich. This essay will consider the...

‘Qui gerit S’: he who wears the S. Thus is Henry of Bolingbroke, earl of Derby, described by John Gower in hisCronica Tripertita, a metrical chronicle written at the close of the fourteenth century as a sequel to hisVox Clamantis. The poem proceeds to compare the device, and by association the individual it represents, to a heavenly gift. For Gower, the collar of SS was clearly the most widely recognised means of identifying the earl. For the next century and a half the livery collar would attract similar attention from many a commentator, chronicler and artisan.² References to...

In an age of recurring epidemics, poor health care, intermittent war and economic depressions, death – and the fate of the soul after death – was a paramount concern for the men and women of late medieval England.¹ The doctrine of purgatory taught that salvation could be influenced by the prayers of the living. It was believed that through careful ‘strategies for eternity’ one might be remembered in intercessory prayer.² These strategies might include the foundation of a religious house or a chantry chapel at which a salaried priest would offer prayers for a deceased benefactor, or it might include...

‘John Wakeryng, otherwise Blakberd … was served by John Cok during the whole of his mastership. John Cok put down in writing all the famous works of this master because it is memorable to recollect his wondrous wisdom and extraordinary discretion.’¹ So begins the account of John Wakeryng, master of St. Bartholomew’s hospital from 1423 to 1466, in the fifteenth-century cartulary of the house.² Taken at face value, this statement may seem to be little more than hagiography: the posthumous apotheosis of a master, courtesy of his doting servant. Yet, in Wakeryng’s case, John Cok’s flattery may have substance, for...

Among medieval urban historians, one topic that has received increasing scholastic attention in recent decades is the way in which relationships were conducted among religious institutions, civic governors and the crown.¹ By observing the processes involved it has become clear that such bodies negotiated matters of jurisdiction, authority, superiority and the exercise of power, all of which were vital in the construction of corporate identity. Through the use of conflict, compromise and co-operation in various combinations over time, and sometimes even concurrently, relations between these groups were often in a state of flux, frequently necessitating further interventions, alliances and negotiations....

Opinion on the spiritual merits of the friars of late medieval England is much divided. In their own time, the fraternal orders attracted considerable criticism, stemming initially from their fierce battles with the secular clergy with whose ministry they were in direct competition. Indeed, as modern literary and theology scholars have observed, late medieval criticism of the friars was in large part rooted in stereotypes derived from the exegetically-charged debates of the mid thirteenth century. Richard Fitzralph, John Wyclif and even Geoffrey Chaucer drew upon them in their critiques.¹ By contrast, modern historians – certainly in recent years – have...

On 20 November 1399 John Dare of Swansea, of whom nothing is otherwise known, was issued with a royal pardon which covered ‘all treasons and felonies’ committed by him before 19 November 1399, the day Henry IV’s first parliament was dissolved. The only exceptions were murders and rapes. Moreover, the pardon was valid only if John Dare had not been indicted as a common thief before 19 November, had not turned approver, had not been appealed for a killing (de morte hominis), had not been taken with stolen goods (mainour) and had not broken out of a royal prison prior...

In the fifteenth century England had one unified national currency, under the sole control of the monarch, in principle at least. This had been the case since the tenth century but it was an exceptional situation in medieval Europe.¹ The king appointed mint officials and received a share of the profits they made. Offences against the king’s coinage were felonies or treason, to be punished in his courts. There were limits to royal control of the coinage, however. The rights to the production and profits of coinage were delegated to the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishop of...

A fresh overview of the fifteenth-century English economy needs no justification, as the debate about its character has persisted for well over a century, and has still not been resolved. I will begin with a brief reminder of some of the arguments of those who see the century as a period mainly of decline, and then I will explore some alternative approaches. There is much common ground between the various schools of thought, and it is worth saying at the outset that everyone agrees that the whole period between c.1380 and c.1520 saw low population levels, in the region of...