Immigrants and Intermarriage in Late Medieval England
January 2018
|
Chapter
|
Resident Aliens in Later Medieval England
SBTMR
"Becoming English": Nationality, terminology, and changing sides in the Late Middle Ages
July 2017
|
Journal article
|
Medieval Worlds
Late medieval English chronicles contain several puzzling references to the idea of people ›becoming English‹ by changing allegiance, usually in the context of war. How does this fit in with the predominantly ›racial‹ understanding of nationhood that permeated late-medieval English literary texts and official rhetoric, based on well-established ideas about birth, blood and heredity? These assumptions provided a powerfully persistent backdrop to late-medieval English writers’ constructions of national identity and culture, which had an impact not only in literary spheres but also on government rhetoric and policy. Was it possible for a person to change nationality by changing sides? It is argued that these scattered references by certain chroniclers to ›becoming‹ English, French or Scottish refer not to an actual change in nationality as a legal and political status but act as a shorthand way of describing an anomalous change of political allegiance. Such instances of changing sides went against the grain of the political behaviour expected from a person born into a certain nationality but they did not change that nationality, which was associated with blood and birth. The essay goes on to examine the language of denization, by which foreigners were granted the legal rights and privileges of a native-born English person. From a close examination of the range of Latin vocabulary used in official documents, it is argued that even denization did not effect a change in the perceived nationality of the recipient, but only allowed for them to be treated as if they were English, in certain circumstances. Moreover, this new legal status did not automatically remove the alien social and cultural identity of recipients in the eyes of local political society, particularly at times of political tension such as the Glyn Dŵr revolt in Wales or outbreaks of war with France. By teasing out the implications of these puzzling uses of language and terminology, it is possible to refine and complicate our understanding of the intersection of ideas about race, subject-hood, allegiance, and nationality in both the texts and the politics of late medieval England.
aliens, national identity, nationality, immigration, denization, allegiance, war, medieval England, ethnicity, race, English, Welsh
The English 'nation' and the Plantagenet 'empire' at the Council of Constance
September 2016
|
Conference paper
|
The Plantagenet empire, 1259-1453: Proceedings of 2014 Harlaxton Medieval Symposium, ed. P. Crooks, D. Green and M. Ormrod
English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth Century, by Andrea Ruddick
June 2016
|
Book
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
Local politics and ecclesiastical patronage in gentry letters.
January 2015
|
Chapter
|
Political Society in Later Medieval England: A Festschrift for Christine Carpenter
Gascony and the Limits of British Isles History
January 2009
|
Chapter
|
Ireland and the English World in the Late Middle Ages
National Sentiment and Religious Vocabulary in Fourteenth-Century England
January 2009
|
Journal article
|
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
5004 Religious Studies, 4303 Historical Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
National and political identity in Anglo-Scottish relations, c. 1286-1377: A governmental perspective
January 2007
|
Chapter
|
England and Scotland in the Fourteenth Century: New Perspectives
Ethnic identity and political language in the King of England's dominions: a fourteenth-century perspective.