Sheila Sweetinburgh

Strategies of inheritance among Kentish fishing communities in the later Middle Ages

Anthropologists and historians have long been interested in the subject of inheritance. One area that has received considerable attention is the connections between property, production and the family. Researchers have noted the complexity of the systems used by donors and recipients whereby assets are transmitted, including matters of timing, life cycle stage and the formation of relationships. One of the most significant times is death. For the family, the death of a spouse often has severe implications for its production and reproduction, and the strategies of inheritance employed affect its subsequent history. Studies of post-mortem inheritance have primarily investigated agricultural communities. This article seeks to test their findings by exploring the links between occupation and inheritance, and between identity and inheritance with respect to the fishing families from two small late medieval Kentish towns. The exceptionally good testamentary materials for the fishermen of Lydd and Folkestone reveal the deployment of a number of post-mortem inheritance strategies. By indicating the importance of significant relations in the transference of material and symbolic capital at this critical time, the study provides a greater understanding of the role of inheritance in familial and communal replication.

Negotiating the political in Northern European urban society, c.1400-c.1600

Negotiating the Political is a fascinating and wide-ranging collection of case studies on the creation of identity in late medieval and Renaissance urban society. At a time of far-reaching political, religious and social changes, towns were at the forefront of this transformation of European society, their citizens frequently engaged in the struggle for autonomy. When negotiating relationships with the Church, the Crown and within the town’s own competing constituencies, townsmen were able to manipulate factors such as time and space in their pursuit of honour, status, commemoration, reputation and power. The resulting town studies are arranged thematically–the view from the inside; the view from the outside–being set within contemporary cultural developments. Thus the collection highlights the differing strategies and approaches employed by towns, seeing such variation as indicative of the importance of the particular within the study of European urban society. The introductory discussion explores overarching themes and cross-cultural similarities, and Professor Caroline Barron provides a masterly concluding essay. This volume is an exciting development that sheds fresh light on the history of northern European urban communities.