Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II

Dodd, Gwilym; Dodd, Gwilyn; Musson, Anthony

doi:10.1017/upo9781846155017.011

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“…116 The second half of Edward II's reign was clearly pivotal in all these developments, for it was in these years that the parliamentary Commons came of age, thrust into the political limelight in part because of the weakness of the Crown and the fragmentation of the nobility. 117 Without the strong proactive hand of the king, and in the absence of the local leadership of nobles, a culture of self-help and resourcefulness flourished in the regions. It is interesting to observe that similar conditions prevailed in the later fourteenth century, during the 1370s and 1380s, when county petitions were also presented in large numbers.…”

Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

County and Community in Medieval England

Dodd

2019

The English Historical Review

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The ‘county community’ is something of a hot potato amongst late medieval political historians. Since the publication of an influential article by Christine Carpenter in 1994, in which she condemned the county community as anachronistic and conceptually flawed, research on the political structures of late medieval England has mostly avoided the term and the idea. In other fields, the methodological challenges and conceptual complexities underpinning the idea of ‘community’ have been embraced and new, more nuanced understandings of how medieval people organised and represented themselves collectively have been achieved. It is now time for historians of politics and government in late medieval England to move beyond reductionist arguments about the existence or otherwise of county communities to investigate the assumptions and social realities that lay behind contemporary references to the ‘commonalty’, ‘commons’ or ‘people’ of one or more counties. This discussion offers the first in-depth analysis of the single most important evidence for grass-roots expressions of county solidarity: county community petitions. It argues that the county was not merely the creation of administrative expedience on the part of the Crown, but provided the basis for real and meaningful expressions of collective identity and corporate action locally. What underpinned the concept of the ‘county community’, and what gave it particular strength, was its inclusivity and flexibility. The discussion concludes by considering the particular circumstances of the early fourteenth century which helped stimulate a culture of corporate identity and self-help on the basis of the county unit.

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Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

County and Community in Medieval England

Dodd

2019

The English Historical Review

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‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’

Heyam

2020

The Reputation of Edward II, 1305-1697

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This chapter addresses the representation of Edward II’s agency and culpability in his sexual and political relationships with his favourites. I situate depictions of Edward’s favourites as irresistibly attractive in the context of wider early modern cultural anxiety concerning transgressive sexual attraction; and consider medieval and early modern writers’ changing negotiations of the question of Edward’s culpability for the disastrous political events of his reign compared to that of his favourites’ ‘evil counsel’. Although willingness to attach some blame to Edward himself increases over time – reflecting the increasing temporal remoteness of his reign – chroniclers consistently retained a level of strategic polyvocality, demonstrating their need to negotiate the engaging political pertinence of their subject matter with its risky, seditious potential.

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Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

County and Community in Medieval England

County and Community in Medieval England

‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’

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