Bonds of manrent were familiar and commonplace documents in late-fifteenth and sixteenth century Scottish society. They recorded the obligation of allegiance and service by men to their lords, obligations entered into, with few exceptions, for life, or passed on to their heirs. Some bonds described the obligation in very general terms; most gave a detailed account of what it involved, the main promises being to accompany the lord, to help and support him in all his actions and disputes, to give him counsel when he asked it and keep secret any counsel which he offered, and to warn him of harm and prevent it as for as possible. The making of these bonds was restricted almost entirely to men of power and wealth, the magnates and the lairds; and they brought under the obligation not only the individual but his kin, his friends and his followers. There are some 700 bonds still surviving, the primary source for this thesis, and these are listed in Appendix A. Their name, 'manrent', was the middle Scots form of a rare Anglo-Saxon word 'mannraedan', later 'manred', meaning allegiance or dependences literally, the state of being a man to a lord. The word was therefore etymologically the same as 'homage'; and it was the oath of homage, which by the fifteenth century had lost its binding force and was little used, that manrent replaced. The development of the lord-man relationship from the feudal to the non feudal form, culminating in the widespread use of the bond of manrent after c.1440, is the main theme of the first part of this thesis. There were features of the bonds which would have been familiar in the period of the feudal contract, but there were also changes of emphasis. The main change was that while bonds were sometimes given for land or money, the personal nature of the contract, which to an extont had been lost sight of, was once again paramount. Man no longer gave services primarily for material reward; they gave it for good lordship and protection, and at they normally received in return was a bond of maintenance. The second part of this thesis discusses the reasons why bonds were made and the effect they had. Their main importance lay not in national events but in local affairs. They were used by the magnates to bring under their control men of influence in the localities; for the lairds they offered the advantage of protection against attack, or redress possessions. The forming of large affinities dependent on a magnate whose power was thereby increased has traditionally been regarded as a principal factor in creating disorder and lawlessness in late-Mediaeval Scotland. But it is not axiomatic that the use of magnete power in Scotland was always sinister. On the contrary, one important element in the making of bonds was their place in maintaining law and order. It is clear that there was a strong survival of justice outrith the courts, based on the obligations of kinship; and the bond, as a means of imposing on those who were not of the lord's kin-group the same obligations which bound those who were, had an important place in settling dispute rather than creating it. In general, the nature of Scottish society was such that, while there wars abuses in the practice of bonding,, there was far more that was of positive benefit. And the crown itself, so often regarded as having feared and disliked the making of personal alliances,, in fact saw the advantages of these alliances and encouraged them.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Although the primary aim of this thesis was originally to explore the dynamic between King John and the Cistercians in Wales, it has been necessary to go beyond the bounds of this remit, namely to explore his relations with the Order in Ireland and England and also as a whole, to put his relations with the Cistercians in Wales into greater context. Primarily from an analysis of the charters John issued to individual abbeys, this thesis demonstrates that the interactions between John and individual Cistercian houses was not determined by where they were, rather their dynamic was more complex. John’s grants to individual houses were often an extension of his relationship with the abbey’s patron, when they were favoured their houses would prosper, when they fell from grace or defied John, their abbeys would suffer. Only however, by placing the charters John granted to individual houses into their wider political context can this correlation be appreciated, namely whether they were issued when John was trying to woo or punish the patron or at a time of hostility with the wider Order and as such clear demonstrations of royal favour. This was not the only dynamic that influenced the relationships between John and individual houses, those abbots who supported and opposed John were shown royal favour and anger respectively, and often this factor overrode all other concerns.

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The origins of the British eugenics movement have often been investigated with reference to social, political and economic questions. Eugenics has been seen as a pseudo-scientific explanation for social problems--a response to the perceived imperial and economic decline of Britain in the late nineteenth century--concealing a number of class, racial and other prejudices. But eugenics can also be understood as the product of a certain type of scientific philosophy, derived in part from a Newtonian model of explanation and from scientific discoveries and advances in evolutionary theory, genetics and statistics. This thesis suggests that the credibility of eugenics rested on an interpretation of these scientific findings guided by a concept of scientific explanation which denied the legitimacy of teleological and non-physicalist approaches to the explanation of social life.

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This is a plan to further develop baseball in Great Britain. This model draws on the successes and failures from the long history of baseball across Europe, and also on government policies affecting youth sport. Two models are included: a comprehensive initial model to increase participation and create pathways for players and coaches to excel; and an intermediate stage for intensive development amongst teenagers with high potential. The first model focuses on the improvement of baseball coaches, empowering them to get more children involved in the game. It also aims to make the structures they coach and play in more efficient and accessible. The second model, the creation of an elite academy, creates opportunities for the players emerging with talent and dedication to reach their potential. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

This main body of this work consists of a gazetteer of all of the main, and many of the minor, place-names of Staffordshire (meaning any places which are or were at any time known to have been in what was, or became, Staffordshire), with early spellings, and observations on the likely or possible derivation of those names, often in a rather more discursive form than standard works on place-names, particularly where uncertainty exists as to the derivation. Early place-name spellings have been collected from many sources, primarily the volumes of the Staffordshire Historical Collections, but also the volumes of archive indexes at Staffordshire Record Office, supplemented by Staffordshire place-names extracted from other sources, such as the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society and the printed Cartularies of Haughmond and Lilleshall Abbeys, both in Shropshire, and from the editorial notes produced during research by the Victoria County History of Staffordshire team. Those slips often contain early place-name spellings. The Staffordshire Encyclopaedia, a monumental compilation of material on the history and folk-lore of Staffordshire published in 2000, has provided a valuable key to material relating indirectly to place-name research, such as topographical and archaeological features. Other material has been extracted from early work on the place-names of Staffordshire and adjoining counties by W. H. Duignan and from other volumes on place-name research and the journals of The English Place-Name Society and The Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland. The analysis considers the early history of the county of Stafford, and reviews the place-name evidence under various headings, including the relationship of particular elements to Roman roads, the ancient boundaries, the Hundred meeting-places, and discussions on Scandinavian and French names and those considered to provide evidence of pagan religion. The analysis incorporates a list of personal names found in Staffordshire place-names, and of topographical and other elements.

The bronze age metalwork of northern East Anglia is well known, both for its quality and quantity. The main concentration occurs along the south-eastern fen edges which are recognised as one of the primary centres of metalwork in Britain. Due to the 'wet' nature of the fenland the metalwork from the area has formed one of the main supports for the belief, over the last 25 years, in a practice of bronze age wetland ritual or votive deposition. The main theme of this work examines this important issue. The fenland material has not been isolated but is put into a regional context by the examination of other finds from northern East Anglia. Although mainly using metalwork this study is principally concerned with the meaning of the metalwork assemblage rather than individual artefact analysis. Central to the work is the collation of important information on items reported earlier, together with a wealth of hitherto unrecorded material. Closely related is a detailed analysis of the locations of finds. An attempt is also made to resolve some of the problems that are basic to artifact research, such as the reasons for the distribution of finds and their interpretation. Several problems are highlighted by these studies, such as the need to research other contemporary material and analyse the effects of both depositional and post-depositional processes. In East Anglia the most important of these, which has probably caused enormous variation in the distribution of finds has been arable agriculture, some of the effects of which are examined and analysed. Whereas previous studies have been dependent on material not necessarily representative, accurately provenanced or numerically significant, this work provides, for the first time, a relatively sound basis, allowing some significant re-evaluations of the practices, organisation and settlement patterns of society in bronze age East Anglia.