In the second half of the 19th century, Alexandra Princess of Wales and later Queen Consort to her husband Edward VII became one of the most recognizable women of the period. Her image was circulated around the globe by the million and her every movement recorded daily in The Times. Despite her contemporary celebrity, she has become a lesser-known figure in modern history. With little in the way of political influence, Alexandra recognized that her ppearance in public was powerful. She used clothes throughout her life to both display and disguise herself. despite the centrality of dress in her life, no other study has ever examined her remaining items of clothing until now. This thesis considers in detail those garments that have survived from Queen Alexandra’s wardrobe, most of which, owing to their geographic spread, have never been studied before. This object-led approach allows an analysis of a life, which has been considered before in more traditional biographies. However, the close examination of the garments and of Alexandra’s approach to her clothing reveals aspects never before considered. It has also prompted the consideration of previously under researched areas such as royal laundry, the role of the dresser and the logistics of 19th century royal travel. As a multi-disciplinary project it has shed new light onto Alexandra’s life and dispelled certain apocryphal stories which only the material culture itself could reveal.

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This thesis examines the last years of the Walpole ministry. It attempts to shed light on the inner workings of that ministry through an examination of its foreign policy, exploring the origins and impact of the 1739 war with Spain. This dissertation is the only extended modem study of the Anglo-Spanish diplomacy in these years. It is the only work to give adequate consideration both to the varying influence of British domestic pressures and to Spanish concerns. The thesis attempts to treat Spain's negotiations as variable, contingent on chance and on personalities, as well as on certain intractable beliefs and principles. Events are viewed largely from the perspective of the centre, the handful of leading ministers and diplomats who discussed and made political and diplomatic decisions. The personalities of ministers both in Spain and England, their interactions and rivalries and their differing views, are important to understanding how diplomacy worked. Though concentrating mainly on such interactions, and particularly the growing rivalry between Newcastle and Walpole, the thesis tries to show how influential others were. The inner circle of British ministers was preoccupied with the voice of those `without doors', and public opinion set limits to diplomacy even in Spain. The domestic context of British foreign policy included also a developing popular patriotism. The thesis contends that the Walpole ministry nearly succeeded in procuring a genuine commercial peace with Spain, and that the reasons for failure did not arise exclusively from domestic political clamour. Royal prestige and individual ministerial personalitites, in both countries, affected the outcome at least as much. The full explanation of a complex breakdown can only be found in a close attention to the chronology of negotiation. The thesis is therefore mainly chronological in form. In each chapter, though, an attempt is made to take up relevant themes and develop them with a less strict regard to chronology. Some issues, such as the role of monarchy, and of public opinion, the press campaign and Opposition tactics, the contribution of the South Sea Company, recur.

The dissertation investigates the increasing number and complexity of towns between c. 850 and c. 1100, through the detailed study of Lincoln in this period. Utilising archaeological and documentary evidence to trace the multifaceted nature of early medieval towns, it confirms that economic change was the principal cause of urban growth. Pottery and coin evidence shed some light upon the progress and nature of economic development. The role of a significant elite centre or an elite-founded wic are both disputed in considering the origins of urban Lincoln. The questioning of the importance of these reinforces the view that the Vikings had a considerable impact on the development of Lincoln. The nature of their role was to create a small concentration of population, which then served as a focus for the economic growth already underway in the rural economy; which the Great Army must have initially disrupted. The key role of Viking rulers or West Saxon kings in the later economic and urban development at Lincoln is disputed. Instead the thesis considers that subsequent topographical and economic change is mostly attributable to urban elites in Lincoln rather than to distant political figures. Many of these developments were utilised by Viking and West Saxon rulers but they were not influential in creating them. Once established Lincoln's development seems to have been most pronounced in the tenth century, with urban status rapidly attained. Lincoln had an impact on the surrounding area through trade, and tenurial links can also be identified in the late eleventh century. Lincoln did not however dominate the surrounding area, although it may have brought about greater landholding complexity and influenced the composition of the surrounding rural populace.

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This thesis examines the household of James IV and the people within it. It is the first dedicated study of the royal household in this reign, which contemporaries and historians agree was a high water mark for the Scottish court. Chapter 1 explores the historiography of the court in the fifteenth and sixteenth century and the distinction between the terms ‘court’ and ‘household’. The household was defined by the rules and structures it brought to the world of the court, and those people who served and received rewards according to them, whereas the court was defined as the space around the king and those who occupied it. Chapter 2 considers the forms of structure that the household brought to the court in more detail. The household had two main definitions. In its wider form, expressed by the bill of household from 1508, it encompassed any man of the social standing of gentleman or above, all of whom were theoretically entitled to the king’s hospitality at court, as well as a long list of specified officers, servants and individuals sorted into groups which included the king’s council, chapel royal and officers of arms. Across these definitions and sub-divisions, the household was also ordered according to hierarchy, and this ordering both respected forms of hierarchy in society more broadly, whilst offering opportunities to rise in status, at least in the environment of the court, through household service. Chapter 3 compares this blueprint of the household to the evidence for actual attendance and service at court by members of the household. It shows that the bill of household reflected those who were at court on or near the time it was written, but that the frequency and duration of their attendance varied according to seasons and events, and on a day-to-day basis because of the itinerant movements of the court. It also suggests that household officers operated within broadly defined areas, and that the area they operated in was not necessarily dictated by the office they held. Chapter 4 shows that there was more to life at court for members of the household than just providing service to the king. Members of the household were differentiated by the variety of rewards they could receive, and they could seek advantage for members of their family. The court was also a centre for events that promoted social integration whilst maintaining hierarchical divisions. Chapter 5 looks at some of the ways the household had an effect on the world beyond the physical confines of the court. The wider impact of the household, or, at least, the idea of the household, can be detected in the rental of royal lands and the holding of non-household offices by members of the household, as well as the use of language in documents in the Register of the Great Seal, which also shows how an individual could be associated with the household without being formally attached to it. The household, then, gave structure to, and its members were physically at the core of, the court of James IV, and it provided a framework for day-to-day interaction outside of the formal business of institutions of government such as parliament, council and exchequer. It was an influence on the lives of its members both inside and outside the court.

The subject of Scottish lay religious faith in the eighty years prior to the Reformation of 1559-60 is one in which a variety of concepts and concerns emerge. The choice which has been made reflects the constraints of time and space. Some attempt has also been made to address those areas which have been overlooked by historians, or rarely discussed, such as the role of Mary in lay religious faith. It was necessary to explain lay images of the afterlife in order to understand the path which laypeople chose to attain salvation, so chapters on the Day of Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory should be seen as the context for understanding the chapters on God, Mary and Jesus. The first chapters discusses the Day of Judgement, an event which must be understood in order to interpret all lay religious attitudes and actions. The basic assumption of the Scots was that all people would be judged at the Day of Judgement, so decisions were made on earth in terms of their understanding of God's expectations on this final day. There were, in effect, two "Days of Judgement", a particular and a general one. An understanding of the nature of these two Days of Judgement illuminates understanding of the laity's conception of the function of purgatory, in particular, and also the importance to salvation of church rituals such as the Eucharist, as well as saintly and human intercession after death. Part of the thesis discusses heaven, hell and purgatory, those states of being which were the laity's future after death.

This thesis explores the process of archaeological interpretation by considering how we can interpret the Iron Age settlement in Wigtownshire, SW Scotland. Traditional images of Iron Age warfaring hierarchical societies have persisted through the use of well-established classifications, such as ‘fort’ or ‘roundhouse’ and by the uncritical acceptance of the definition and identification of ‘settlement’ in the archaeological record. Alternative interpretations of Iron Age settlement landscapes are possible by considering a variety of other observations, which traditional classifications ignore, such as the landscape context of specific monuments. This thesis presents a critical review of these alternative interpretations and other more traditional classifications used to define Iron Age settlement and illustrates how multiple narratives of the past can co-exist. This thesis emphasises the essential part classification plays in archaeological interpretation. Interpretation is a complex and ongoing process and it is important to be aware of the assumptions that we make and how these may affect further interpretations of the archaeological evidence. Common standardised classifications stress the importance of certain morphological characteristics over other observations and the interpretations of the archaeological evidence are therefore restricted. Traditional approaches neglect the importance of context, which is integral to the interpretation of the archaeology on many levels. Understudied, but archaeologically rich, Wigtownshire is an ideal case-study. Rather than limiting the discussion of archaeological features by only comparing them through traditional ‘typologies’, here experiential observations of the evidence – within their landscape context – offer an alternative approach by which the iron Age in Wigtownshire can be considered. A flexible process of classification is advocated – dependent upon the research questions that are addressed in particular studies. My approach to the re-evaluation of the Iron Age settlement in Wigtownshire is also influenced by a critique of the definition of the term ‘settlement’ in archaeology. The identification of ‘domestic’ practices in contrast to ‘ritualised’ ones in the Iron Age evidence is questioned and from a variety of perspectives the complex processes of settlement in the Iron Age are explored.