A woodland manor in the west of Worcestershire, Hanley was held by the Crown from 1075, and then by wealthy magnates from 1217. The Anglo-Saxon landscape, in spite of considerable woodland, gave scope for the farming communities described in the region in Domesday Book. 1-lanley not only supported a robust agricultural economy in its priJne, supplemented by woodland industries such as pottery manufacture, but it was also, with its castle built by king John, the headquarters of the royal forest and chase of Malvem. The forest covered about one hundred square miles of the Malvem plain from Worcester to Gloucester, although Corse was detached in theory in the early thirteenth century. 1-lanley's agriculture was based on open fields, along with smaller irregular fields, and crofts held in severalty. Demesne and tenant land was expanded by assarting in the twelfth century, followed by some retrenchment and a gradual decline from the early fourteenth. The assarting led to a new demesne and the growth of settlement in the west of the manor, reinforcing and adding to the pattern of dispersed hamlets, but there was an old nucleus and focal settlement in the east, near the Severn. Here lay the early demesne, the open fields, the markets, the quay, the castle, and the pre-Conquest church. A vigorous land market demonstrated by surviving deeds suggests many confident peasants, some of whom can be seen progressing towards gentry status.

The historiography of Scotland and the British army in the early eighteenth century largely concerns the suppression of the Jacobite risings and the growing assimilation of Highland soldiers into its ranks during and after the Seven Years War. This thesis seeks to redress this by foregrounding all Scots and their earlier contribution to the British army. It does this by analysing the transition of Scottish soldiers from mercenaries in foreign service to soldiers of the British army. Additionally, the wider role of the British army in Scotland is investigated, including the legal constraints it operated under. The career patterns of prominent Scottish soldiers are also appraised, revealing issues of identity, motivation and nationality. Scottish auxiliary forces are then examined, especially where their function, administration and utilisation are particular to Scotland. Finally, an analysis is made of Scotland’s fortifications and their development and significance regarding the defence of Scotland and Great Britain. The thesis concludes by extending Colley’s suggestion that ‘Britishness’ stemmed from a common threat from France to include Jacobitism, evidenced by the large-scale presence of Scots of all origins in military service well before William Pitt the Elder boasted of ‘harnessing’ the military resources of the Highlands in 1762.

Casualties during the First World War were far higher than had been anticipated in pre-war planning. They required rapid replacement in order to maintain operational effectiveness. This Thesis considers the provision and management of British Other Rank replacements for Infantry battalions on the Western Front. The initial influx of volunteers meant a much larger Army, which in turn required an increased number of draft-finding units and changes to reinforcement procedures for its maintenance. It has previously been assumed that these changes, together with the introduction of conscription, destroyed the previous cohesion of regiments. A chronological approach is used in order to trace the evolution of changes. Although predominantly pitched at the management level, implicit in this examination are the effects of political decisions together with the impact on battalions of changes in the drafting and reinforcement process. Amongst the conclusions reached are that there is little or no evidence that the Government actively withheld reinforcements. Analysis of details of soldiers of selected Infantry battalions from the English/Welsh Marches also indicates that, despite the growing scarcity of men, drafts continued to be provided to a large extent from Western Command even at the end of the war.

This study argues that Leo X’s naming Henry VIII ‘fidei defensor’ (1521) represented the culmination of a political strategy aimed at protecting the papacy from France since 1509. Based on full reconstruction of the Anglo-papal narrative, this was found to be motivated by a xenophobia rooted in England’s historic rivalry with France and further fuelled by the prospect that French hegemony in Italy would limit papal ‘independence’. While Henry preferred military means to pursue this, limitations of English power and geography sometimes forced him to employ peaceful methods to divert the French from Italy (1517 on). This thesis was tested on several aspects of the Anglo-papal relationship: papal honours, censures, the influencing of conclaves and composition of the cardinalate. In each, Henry acted as the papacy’s ‘loyal’ defender against France, expecting active support from and to be appropriately rewarded by Rome, particularly by the politicised invocation of papal ‘spiritual’ authority. Furthermore, popes cultivated this English self-perception when they sought support against France. In consequent attempts by both parties to assert political leverage over each other, Henry occasionally succeeded in gaining concessions from Rome (a cardinal’s hat here, an honorary award there), but often found it difficult to capitalise on this.

Along with causewayed enclosures, the tor enclosures of Cornwall and Devon represent the earliest enclosure of large open spaces in Britain and are the earliest form of surviving non-funerary monument. Their importance is at least as great as that of causewayed enclosures, and it might be argued that their proposed associations with settlement, farming, industry, trade and warfare indicate that they could reveal more about the Early Neolithic than many causewayed enclosure sites. Yet, despite being recognised as Neolithic in date as early as the 1920s, they have been subject to a disproportionately small amount of work. Indeed, the southwest, Cornwall especially, is almost treated like another country by many of those studying the Early Neolithic of southern Britain. When mentioned, this region is more likely to be included in studies of Ireland and the Irish Sea zone than studies concerning England. Perhaps this is due, in part, to interpretations of Carn Brea and Helman Tor as defended settlements of people who relied upon agriculture for the bulk of their subsistence, conducted economic trade with other areas, and formed a quasi-political unity through warfare. This interpretation does not sit well with post-processual suggestions of a mobile, wild resource based early Neolithic, with the emphasis on cultural change, in neighbouring Wessex chalkland areas. The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the evidence from the southwest and to interpret it with reference to and in contrast with the potentially radically different interpretations of the Early Neolithic in nearby Wessex. By understanding the southwestern landscapes before the tors were enclosed, placing the tor enclosures in their cultural landscape contexts, using ethnographic analogy and re-examining the existing archaeological record, it is possible to achieve a better understanding of tor enclosures and to demonstrate their importance for understanding other elements of the Early Neolithic in Britain.

This thesis tested a methodology for tracing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century migrants, based on the Cambridge Group reconstitution methods. It began with a sample from Whitbourne parish in the under-researched county of Herefordshire, investigating the effect of regional urbanisation and industrialisation on migration choices. Longitudinal family dispersal patterns were traced, and comparisons were made with studies in other regions. The method focused on out-migration, setting spatial mobility in its wider context, and increasing its representativeness by incorporating additional search strategies for less visible groups, including married women. A high tracing rate was achieved, and the method is proposed as a viable tool for analysing migration from small rural parishes which are considered unsuitable for conventional reconstitution studies. The west midlands industrial areas were not apparently a destination for this population until the second quarter of the nineteenth century, but there were early migrants to Worcester, London, and later to Cheltenham, Cheshire and elsewhere, especially for domestic service and urban service trades. Some familial trends were observable, and others related to land holding, occupation and geographical propinquity. Marriage and dependent children did not prevent migration, but literacy and transport networks were found to be strongly associated with occupational options and distances moved.

This thesis seeks to explore the memorial texts that developed as a result of the First World War, composed primarily by those whose sons, husbands and fathers had died between 1914 and 1918. Visitors to the military cemeteries of the First World War are interested to read the inscriptions left by the bereaved at the foot of individual headstones, yet this aspect of post-war commemoration is still largely unexplored. This thesis seeks to explore these responses: by considering the process through which the bereaved were permitted to select inscriptions, the sources from which they derived consolation, and the narratives that they pursued throughout the post-war period to 1930. Parallel to these permanent headstone inscriptions are considered the ephemeral commemoration of the newspaper in memoriam column, a source of material that has received scant attention but which promises a rich glimpse into the conventions of early-twentieth-century mourning – conventions which are still resonant almost a century after the First World War broke out. To contextualise post-war responses, the thesis introduces commemorative practices used to remember those who died in the South African War and in the sinking of the Titanic, many of which were used again in the aftermath of 1918.

This thesis studies the ranks of secular clergy and their changing career patterns in the diocese of Hereford between 1400 and 1535. This diocesan study will contribute to the developing research of the late medieval English clergy. The printed episcopal registers of Hereford are examined as the major source for the present thesis. Other additional records, for example, the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, are also introduced as supplementary evidence. The study consists of five aspects relating to the clerical career in the late medieval diocese of Hereford. The changing patterns of clerical recruitment during the studied period are analysed in virtue of the calculation of acolytes and priests which were included in the ordination lists. The clerical movement across the diocesan boundaries in the phase of ordination is demonstrated through the calculation of letters dimissory held by ordinands. Various titles presented by individuals during the ordinations are categorised and analysed to indicate the different economic resources in the early stage of a clerical career. The other two aspects concern clerical careers after the ordination. The admission to a benefice is discussed through the analysis of the exercise of patronage regarding the parochial advowsons held by various patrons. The actual economic status of a parochial incumbent on the eve of the Reformation is demonstrated by the information extracted from the Valor Ecclesiasticus. Based on the analyses of this thesis, the clerical career still had its attractiveness in the pre-Reformation diocese of Hereford, and secular clergy was a rank with the activeness and significance within the late medieval church and had close connections with the contemporary secular society.

This thesis evaluates cultural constructs of the courtier in Elizabethan England. It focuses particularly on Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier. The Courtier is generally recognised as one of the most influential texts in Renaissance Europe. It was originally published in Venice in 1528; the first English translation was produced by Thomas Hoby in 1561. This thesis aims to provide an integrated analysis of Castiglione’s contribution to English political culture throughout the second half of the sixteenth century. It considers the circumstances in which Hoby translated the Courtier, and his motives for doing so. It identifies two distinct models of courtliness delineated by the Urbino interlocutors, and assesses the extent to which these models influenced the self-presentation of leading Elizabethan politicians. The thesis also engages with negative characterisations of the courtier. In particular, it examines the adaptation of traditional anti-courtier discourse to voice new concerns about the nature and legitimacy of court politics towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign.

This thesis examines the impact of the First World War on the town of Wednesbury. Although receiving limited scholarly consideration to date, it is contended that this Black Country town played an important wartime role and this study, based upon extensive archival research, has investigated the key economic, political and social consequences and changes occurring during this period. Embedded within the broader contexts of time and place, it draws extensively on the experiences of the town's working-class community to demonstrate how a local history can enrich our appreciation of the lives of working people and inform our understanding of the national picture. Following the establishment of the rationale, methodology and the principal historiographical debates, life and society in Wednesbury on the eve of war are described. Reaction to the outbreak of hostilities, economic and manpower mobilization, and wartime industrial relations are assessed. Also charted are the main social and political developments. There is a chapter devoted to the locality's first air raid, when the German Navy's airships bombed Wednesbury, Bradley, Tipton and Walsall. In evaluating this community's patriotism, it is concluded that whilst the adjustment of attitudes was unavoidable, many aspects of Wednesbury's contribution should be viewed as truly unique.