The focus of the study is the Templar estates in Lincolnshire during the first four decades of the fourteenth century. Within this context, two themes are explored in some detail. The first theme is that of the characteristics of Templar farming and estate management as illustrated in the accounts of 1308-13 following the arrest of the Templars. The second theme is that of the fate of the former Templar properties between 1312 and 1338. The introduction gives a brief historical background to the Templars followed by the aims of the thesis and a description of the primary sources. The historiography places the present research within the context of both Templar research and that of medieval agriculture. In chapter one, the distribution of Templar properties within the Lincolnshire landscape is discussed. Based upon archaeological and documentary evidence the physical characteristics which were common to the Lincolnshire preceptories are defined. Further, those aspects which were individual to a preceptory reflecting its size and function are identified. The following three chapters concentrate on different aspects of Templar agriculture in Lincolnshire, placing them within the context of other studies of medieval agriculture. Arable farming, livestock other than sheep and sheep farming are discussed in some detail. Chapter five explores the nature of the personnel who worked on the Templar estates and those who were dependent upon them; the priests and the corrodiaries. In addition it follows the fate of the Lincolnshire Templars following their arrest in 1308. Further, it identifies the beneficiaries of Edward II's patronage using Templar property. Chapter six considers the tortuous transfer of the former Templar estates to the Hospitallers and the extent to which that was successful. The thesis is supported by extensive appendices which are themselves tabulations and calculations based upon primary sources.

This thesis represents the most detailed investigation into English royal funeral ceremonies 1570-1625 yet undertaken. It builds on earlier scholarship dealing with the French royal funeral and with the social history of death and burial in early modern England. When gathering my source material I consulted manuscript and early printed material at the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Library of Westminster Abbey, the College of Arms and the Bibliothèque Nationale. My approach is to consider royal funeral rituals in terms of performance. I endeavour to place each of the royal funerals in its immediate performance and broader cultural context. The evidence is analysed using an approach which seeks to take account of both the political and affective implications of ritual. Preliminary chapters establish the form of the English heraldic funeral and the French royal funeral, and assess the impact of the English Reformation on funeral ritual. I go on to discuss the funerals of Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, Prince Henry Stuart, Anne of Denmark and James I respectively. Included is a bridging chapter which briefly summarises the religious and cultural changes which took place under James I and their impact on funeral ritual. Royal funerals are seen as flexible rather than fixed. They were modified to meet changing political needs but such modifications were always in accord with broader cultural trends. My thesis demonstrates that royal funeral rituals were highly dependent on their performance and cultural contexts. The Epilogue looks at the implications my research has for readings of stage representations of funeral ritual and funeral symbolism in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. I show that royal funerals formed an important aspect of playhouse audience experience. Dramatists exploited that experience to show the operative nature of funeral ritual performance and the potency of its symbols for political propaganda.