Family and Dynasty in Late Medieval England (Harlaxton Medieval Studies) - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

The book has eleven academic essays on the subject of family loyalties and connections in medieval society and politics. The aspirations and ideologies of both royal and powerful aristocratic families are inevitably central, but the book also considers the lives of merchant and clerical families and those of the lower aristocracy; the ideological role of genealogy in both advancing and justifying claims to inheritance is another theme, and the importance of patronage for dynastic reasons, of the church, of art and of books is another. In addition to the pursuit of power and prestige, the perennial problem of wealth, its accumulation, its management and its inevitable inadequacy, is frequently explored. The index reveals the enormous scope of the volume in terms of the number of families considered and their geographical distribution throughout England. Many of the families in this volume show a remarkable resilience to adversity. They could rise in favour as quickly as fall from it, bu

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