Civic government and identity in the provincial towns of late medieval England, c. 1370 to c. 1500
Authors
Carrel, Helen Mary
Date
2007-10-02Awarding Institution
University of Cambridge
Author Affiliation
Faculty of History
Qualification
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Type
Thesis
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Carrel, H. M. (2007). Civic government and identity in the provincial towns of late medieval England, c. 1370 to c. 1500 (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.16036
Description
My doctoral research explores civic government and identity in the provincial
towns of late medieval England and particularly focuses upon urban political culture
in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centlllies. Unlike most lay authority figures in the
period, town officials did not rule by hereditary right~~ by conquest, nor were they
appointed by their social superiors. Instead most were selected by a group of their
fellow-citizens, who were usually described as the 'worthy' men of the town -a loose
definition suggesting both wealth and moral integrity. Consequently, it was necessary
for contemporaries to develop an ideology to justify the power of these men and it is
this ideology and how it was put into practice which is the chief concern of the thesis.
Civic officials needed to present themselves as worthy of exercising legitimate
power. They did this through ostentatious acts of piety and charity and an intense
emphasis upon the personal morality and respectability of local officials. The project
considers how contemporary images of just rule were adapted by town leaders for the
urban setting and how religious rhetoric influenced their decisions in government
assemblies and when presiding in the local cou1ts. Ch1istian ideas concerning what
made a good or a bad city were important to town governments. Civic records
highlight the tensions inherent in attempts to emulate the heavenly Jerusalem and to
augment their own power through local building, cleaning and morality campaigns.
Ultimately, alas, creating heaven on earth remained an unobtainable goal, but given
the attractiveness of the imagery to local rulers, it is unsurpiising that they remained
intent on trying: 'The greatness and the wealth of the nations will be brought into the
city. But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful
things or tells lies' (Apocalypse 21: 26-7).