The Armburgh Papers – The Brokholes Inheritance in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, c.1417–c.1453 - Hardcover

Carpenter, Christine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085115624X ISBN 13: 9780851156248

Publisher: Boydell Press, 1998

Synopsis

Newly-discovered family correspondence to stand alongside the Paston letters and Stonor papers. The collection of fifteenth-century letters printed here for the first time stands alongside the Paston and Stonor correspondence in its intrinsic interest and the light it sheds on contemporary gentry life. Edited from a recentlydiscovered manuscript in Chetham's Library, Manchester (Mun.E.6.10 (4)), the letters deal largely with the prolonged dispute over the Brokholes inheritance in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex, and are concerned principallywith the affairs of one of the claimants, Joan Armburgh, and her husband Robert. The material mostly derives from the period c.1420-50, one of growing unease in national politics, which the letters reflect; but they are more concerned with affairs closer to home, and provide fascinating insights on local politics, the networks of "bastard feudalism" which bound the gentry to their lords and to each other, on the impact of lengthy litigation on a gentry family (especially its finances), and, more generally, on the management of their lands and business affairs. The startlingly vivid language of some of the less formal entries brings the writers strikingly to life. Professor CHRISTINE CARPENTER is Reader in Medieval English History at Cambridge University.

About this title

About the Author

Dr CHRISTINE CARPENTER is a Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge, and Reader in Medieval English History at Cambridge University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Boydell Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 085115624X
• ISBN 13: 9780851156248
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224