This thesis explores ceremonial entries in Renaissance France from the perspective of the townspeople who designed and produced them. Existing studies of French entries have tended to see them as expressions of monarchical power, with townspeople coming in submission before the majesty of the king. In contrast, this thesis demonstrates that ceremonial entries were nuanced civic ceremonies which demonstated urban pride and power. Chapter 1 details the weeks of preparations that went into staging a civic reception and the townspeople’s numerous efforts to ensure that the entry was a success. Chapter 2 examines the extramural greeting, where the civic council and other notables came out of the town in procession to greet the visitor and make the formal welcoming speech. The extramural greeting was an important part of the ceremony, as it was the first point of personal contact between the urban elite and the dignitary. The intramural procession is discussed in chapter three. During this part of the ceremony, the dignitary entered through the town gate and processed through the streets until they reached the town’s principal church, where a short service was held. The urban fabric was decorated with flowers, linens, triumphal arches and other decorative structures, while theatrical performances were staged along the length of the processional route. The streets were thronged with ordinary townspeople who had come to both watch and participate in the ceremony. Chapter 4 is concerned with the post-entry festivities, which included banquets, further processions and jousting. The exchange of gifts between the royal guest and the town council was an important element of the post-entry ceremonies, as it was the occasion when the civic councillors could win significant new economic grants for the crown in return for providing a valuable item of silverware.

This thesis examines the use and function of the human body as a surface that is inscribed with a number of socially significant meanings and how these inscriptions operate in the specific late medieval cultural production. Drawing on Jauss's notion of the social and political significance of medieval narrative, I seek to determine how specific texts contribute to a regulatory practice by thematizing bodies that are perceived as "other," that resist or defy an imagined social norm or stereotype. Each of the dissertation's four chapters treats a different set of notions about the human body. The first one examines Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale and The King of Tars as representations of ethnographic difference. I argue that the late Middle Ages did not have the notion of "race" as a signifier of ethnic difference: instead there is a highly unstable system of positions that place an individual in relation to Christian Salvation History. Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid is at the centre of chapter two that examines the moral issues surrounding leprosy as a stigmatized disease. Reading the text as a piece of medical historiography, I argue that one of the purposes of the narrative is to establish the link between Cresseid's sexual behaviour and her disease. A discussion of the homosocial underpinnings of late medieval feudal society, particularly in light of Duby's notion of "les jeunes," forms the basis of the final two chapters. Chapter three discusses Chaucer's Legend ofLucrece and the narrative function of rape as a pedagogical instrument with the aim to ensure the availability of untouched female bodies for a "traffic in women" between noblemen. Chapter four examines transgressive sexual acts as the objects of jokes in fabliaux, such as Chaucer's Miller's Tale. By using shame and ridicule as their main strategy, these texts, I argue, fulfil an exemplary function and act as a warning to young noblemen to maintain an erotic discipline as future heads of feudal houses and as an upcoming political elite.

In the last years of the pontificate of Paul II and for the whole of the pontificate of Sixtus IV, nearly six hundred Scottish clerics supplicated to the pope for a variety of reasons, although the majority concerned their holding of benefices. The clerics ranged from those who were unbeneficed to those who were of prelatial rank and also included a small group who were familiars of the pope and of cardinals. Their supplications are contained within the Registra Supplicationum, a Vatican Archive source, which has long been regarded as an important source for the study of the late medieval Scottish Church in light of the paucity of native ecclesiastical source material. In order to analyse almost 1,200 supplications (for the period January 1470 to August 1484) to the best effect, the study has employed the use of a relational database. Methodological issues such as record linkage are therefore discussed in detail, in addition to results of analysis. In essence the research has been conducted as much to determine what issues can, and should be addressed as to provide definitive conclusions. Nevertheless, use of such methodology has imparted greater clarity to results of analysis than has hitherto been possible. The study reveals, for example, that a disproportionate number of supplications were made by, or on behalf of a distinct group of papal or cardinal familiars. Furthermore, in terms of relations to the papacy, a marked variation from diocese to diocese can be noted. The dioceses of St Andrews, Glasgow, and, to a lesser degree, Aberdeen were not only the most popular dioceses in which aspiring clerics sought benefices, but clergy from these dioceses were more likely to seek favour from the pope.

With the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 and the subsequent establishment of four Frankish states in the Middle East, individuals of European descent came to control and administer areas of the Levant. Frankish regional authority persisted until 1291, when their diminished coastal territories fell to the Mamluks. Yet, despite a Frankish assumption of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, what e↵ect this had on communities in the countryside is still unknown. The purpose of this thesis is to resolve some of this uncertainty, by examining the Frankish impact on rural settlements in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frankish impact on communities was investigated through an exploration of the medieval landscape and seigneurial obligations, two attributes that affected all rural sites in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, regardless of other settlement characteristics. Investigating physical qualities of the countryside through palaeoenvironmental information, medieval views of landscape, and the connection between natural attributes and settlement sites, suggested that despite a favourable climate, Frankish impact on rural communities was limited and regional. Likewise, exploration of seigneurial obligations imposed on settlements similarly implied that Frankish impact was localised to specific areas; however it also suggested that the Franks maintained a sound understanding of indigenous agricultural customs outside of areas they significantly a↵ected. It showed Frankish disinterest in intervening with local traditions when established conventions benefited landlords. This thesis contributes to the field of Crusader Studies by nuancing the current view of the e↵ect the Franks had on communities in the countryside. Frankish impact in rural environments is presented as localised and restricted, but consciously imposed in the settlements that were a↵ected.

Much concerning the disease termed leprosy is accepted as received knowledge, without thought to time and place, but there were many differences in how leprosy sufferers were treated across regions and eras, and so diversity should be regarded as normal. This thesis will examine what was meant by the term leprosy during primarily the medieval period between the sixth and fifteenth centuries in Ireland in order to see if this equates with the disease called Hansen’s Disease in the twenty-first century. The focus will fall around the twelfth century, but as the majority of the extant documentary evidence is mainly from the early modern period, this will, out of necessity, also be discussed. There has been much written on what exactly leprosy was in the past and this thesis will not attempt to answer that question directly, instead its aim will be to contextualise the situation in medieval Ireland by examining the presence of leprosy in comparative terms in the Middle Ages. Leprosy in medieval Ireland is a much neglected area of research due to the perception that there is a lack of evidence. Although extant documentary sources may be less than elsewhere in medieval Europe, this thesis will show that there are plenty of other forms of proof available. Ciara Crawford’s unpublished thesis of 2010, which examined general illness, including leprosy in the Irish annals, is the only other research undertaken this millennium regarding leprosy in medieval Ireland, as all of the other limited research in connection with this subject was undertaken during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This thesis employs all forms of extant evidence including, annals, documentary, hagiography, archaeology, paleopathology and place-names and using this multi-disciplinary approach provides confirmation of the presence of the disease, which was then termed leprosy, in medieval Ireland. This approach resulted in multiple methodological and terminology issues and this thesis will also attempt to address these in order to understand the extent and nature of leprosy in Ireland and its prevalence throughout the period under scrutiny. Employment of this multi-disciplinary approach has resulted in a surprising amount of Irish evidence concerning leprosy being gathered together for the first time. This approach enabled an image to emerge of how leprosy and its sufferers were treated and together with elsewhere, Ireland shows diverse outcomes. It must be taken into consideration however that the extant evidence is inconsistent and some geographical areas and time periods are better represented than others, resulting in an incomplete and uneven portrayal.

Enquiries into the medieval history of south Wales have in the past tended to focus on the 'soap opera' history of the elite. This thesis differs in that it examines two aspects that are occasionally touched upon, and which are inextricably linked, but rarely considered in detail: namely the system of transport and trade. Due to the paucity of surviving evidence the study covers a time span of some three hundred years from the reign of Henry I (1100) to the Glyndwr rebellion (1400). It charts the development of trade in an age that saw great political changes leading to the construction of planned towns and, in some places, villages, as well as complex fortifications and the introduction of Latin monasticism. The thesis examines the respective roles of the key influences on transport and trading activity, namely: (i) the players, be they the marcher lords and the Crown, the monasteries, and the merchants and traders themselves; (ii) the places such as towns and villages, ports and landing places; and (iii) the processes that influenced trade including the linkages between settlements - with particular attention to the medieval road system - and markets and fairs. A model is advanced which describes how initially autonomous open country settlements and farmsteads were integrated into a regional network, within and between lordships, as rural commodity producers and consumers grew increasingly dependent on the retail goods and services found in the market towns. These developments are charted as the population grew and rural settlement intensified, so much so that by 1300 South Wales had achieved a level of prosperity unprecedented in its history. It was not to last. Population pressure had driven families to the margins of cultivable land. The imbalance between livestock husbandry and arable risked the danger of soil exhaustion. Disease such as the sheep scab epidemic of the 1280s and the agricultural crises which affected much of Britain between 1315 and 1322 led to famine. Political and social unrest, notably the revolts of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd in 1214, Rhys ap Maredudd in 1295 and Llewelyn Bren in 1316, allied to the decline in seigneurial influence caused the South Wales economy to repeatedly falter. Outbreaks of the plague in the middle of the fourteenth century added to the woe. The Glyndwr rebellion dealt the final fatal blow when many commercial settlements were attacked, including some that were not directly touched by earlier upsets. Prior to the Norman Conquest trade in South Wales had taken place in the open country. By 1400 the dependency that had been built in the preceding three hundred years on the transport and trading network of market towns and rural producers and consumers was shattered sending the economy into long term decline.

This thesis is the micro-history of Roger Machado, who is best known as Leicester Herald for Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III, and the senior herald, Richmond King of Arms, for Henry VII. Prior to this thesis, Machado has only been sparsely considered by scholars because he is elusive in the historical record. There is, in the College of Arms, his extant memorandum book, but otherwise, sources referring to him are few and far between. However, in the 1970s, Machado’s Southampton residence was excavated, which unearthed a rich artefact assemblage associated with his occupancy. This discovery has allowed for a fresh perspective on Machado’s life. This thesis, therefore, uses both documentary and archaeological sources to unlock the man from the records, and consequently, places a strong emphasis on the importance of interdisciplinary research. By pursuing a micro-historical approach that focusses on Machado’s engagement with objects, this thesis uses Machado as a window into the world in which he lived. Machado lived through the later years of the Wars of the Roses and through the entire reign of the Tudor dynasty’s first monarch, Henry VII. Therefore, his life is well placed to enable this thesis to consider broader themes. The first chapter discusses the micro-historical approach. The second chapter discusses how Machado, as a foreigner, came to work and live in England, how he came to join the exiled Henry Tudor, and examines the herald and Office of Arms in the fifteenth century. The third chapter considers the ceremonial role that Machado and the heralds played at the Yorkist and early Tudor courts. The fourth chapter considers Machado’s life and home in early Tudor Southampton, using the objects excavated from his house and others recorded in his extant inventory. The fifth chapter discusses how Machado would have used such objects in dining.

Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) was an Italian writer who was one of the first to make a living from the printing press. As the 'scourge of princes' he was notorious across Europe for his acerbic wit. However after his death his fame sank when his entire works were placed on the Papal Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. In the century that followed Aretino was a controversial figure, associated with pornography and atheism in the popular imagination and, like Machiavelli, became synonymous with Italian vice in the minds of foreign readers. Despite the complex history of his posthumous reputation abroad, surprisingly little research has been done on the topic. Instead we are left with a few disconnected articles which tend to focus on specific instances of Aretino's works being used as sources for later writers. This thesis therefore provides the first unified approach to examining Aretino's posthumous reputation in the early modern period. It does so by treating his afterlife not as a finished product to be referred to by later readers, but uncovers the processes by which Aretino's reputation mutated through the mediation of editors, translators, writers, readers, engravers and purveyors of erotic art. This thesis is divided into three main phases of Aretino's afterlife, which were previously compressed into a simple 'cause and effect' narrative of Aretino's work being censored in 1559 and his reputation immediately suffering because of it. In the first phase, Aretino's writing is still positively received by editors in England and the Low Countries attempting to restore his work back to their pre-censored state, and by English writers who see Aretino as an extemporal wit and a model for their growing professional aspirations. In the second phase, Aretino's reputation for bawdry and atheism is beginning to impact the way in which he is presented to later readers in Spain, the Low Countries, England, Germany and France, as translators and commentators begin to reframe his writing along newly enforced moral lines. In the third phase, two pornographic works with which Aretino initially had only a tangential relationship are misattributed to him and multiple images and texts from Italy, the Low Countries, England, and France are reproduced as 'Aretine' products. While the majority of the literary references to Aretino in this thesis are to English writers, as this overview makes clear this is not a traditional bilateral comparative study of cultural exchange between Italy and England. Instead it places the English reception of Aretino within an European context, with the Low Countries proving to be unexpectedly prominent in the circulation of his work, even though up till now this connection has never been studied by critics outside of the Netherlands.

<p> This thesis explores the role of town-and-gown violence as a constructive force during the rise of three universities in medieval France: the university in Paris in the thirteenth century and the universities in Orl&eacute;ans and Toulouse in the fourteenth century. These universities became established fixtures in the social and political spaces of their respective cities partly as a result of violence between scholars and townspeople and the protracted arbitration and litigation that succeeded a violent incident. More specifically, various instances of town-and-gown violence created the circumstances through which the scholars and the townspeople in each city could negotiate new terms of coexistence, often through royal and papal mediation. In Paris, Orl&eacute;ans, and Toulouse, the involvement of the French monarchy in these conflicts became one of the major points of contention. Violence and conflict served as mechanisms by which the scholars and the townspeople sought to debate the way royal power was weighted. In each city, violent encounters and subsequent resolutions of conflict allowed the scholars to establish themselves as members of an enduring structure, defining their roles within the social and political networks of the city.</p><p>

The earldom of Ross was a dominant force in medieval Scotland. This was primarily due to its strategic importance as the northern gateway into the Hebrides to the west, and Caithness and Sutherland to the north. The power derived from the earldom’s strategic situation was enhanced by the status of its earls. From 1215 to 1372 the earldom was ruled by an uninterrupted MacTaggart comital dynasty which was able to capitalise on this longevity to establish itself as an indispensable authority in Scotland north of the Forth. By the fifteenth century the earldom had passed to an equally powerful dynasty, the MacDonald lords of the Isles, and became a part of one of the most powerful regional hegemonies of medieval Scotland. The earldom and the power of its earls are acknowledged by most scholars, yet it remains a relatively under-analysed subject, as scholarship tends to gravitate towards viewing Ross through the MacDonald lordship of the Isles, or through the Scottish kings. This has led to Ross being treated as a secondary subject. Moreover, little has been done to compare the two principal dynasties that ruled the earldom and explore issues of continuity between the two. This thesis will study Ross through the comital dynasties that ruled it and the important local magnates within it, and will provide a Ross-centred platform from which to analyse the political development of the earldom. The thesis will also address issues of continuity, beginning with the origins of the Mac ant t-sagairt earldom and trace its political evolution until the MacDonald claim to Ross was finally extinguished in the early sixteenth century. This thesis will be the first long duree study of this Scottish earldom, and will increase our understanding of Ross and its earls who were so vital to Scotland’s medieval history.