King's Towns: Identity and Survival in Late Medieval English Boroughs

by Lorraine Christine Attreed

Overview

The King’s Towns is the first book to study the relationship between England’s central government and four royally constituted towns of the provinces from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. This critical time period presented such challenges as the post-plague economy and the Wars of the Roses. The work’s comparative approach permits an in-depth study of such topics as urban violence and commercial activity. Its chronological scope reveals the evolution of monarchical power interfacing with the localities, and sheds light on the debate concerning the «New Monarchy» developing across Europe. This is a study about the search for identity, as civic officials and townspeople learned to live with and exercise their hard-won liberties. The work reveals how medieval towns embodied political philosophies of self-determination as well as ideals of social and economic advancement still recognizable today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820451633
Publisher:	Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Publication date:	03/28/2001
Series:	American University Studies Series , #197
Pages:	359
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

The Author: Lorraine Attreed is Associate Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She received her Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, as well as a postgraduate degree in medieval studies from the University of York, England, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She is the author of The York House Books, 1461-1490, as well as numerous journal articles on medieval urban and social history and film studies.

Editorial Reviews

A comparative study tracking the development of four royal towns through the reign of eight kings. The royal towns acted as centers of authority delegated to them by the royal government in order to contribute to the realm's peace and were responsible for a significant share of the realm's peacekeeping, defense, judicial process, and financial process. The major concern of Attreed (history, College of the Holy Cross) is how these towns developed under such a directive during the challenging economic climate following the first bouts of plague. She focuses on the development of the officeholding class and argues that they were constantly trying to expand their privileges, while attempting to break free of the dependent relationship that granted those freedoms in the first place. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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