The world of the Stonors : a gentry society / Elizabeth Noble.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noble, Elizabeth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stonor family.

Gentry.

History.

England--Social life and customs--1066-1485.

England.

Manners and customs.

Gentry--England--History--To 1500.

Physical Description:

viii, 224 pages : genealogical tables, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge ; Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 2009.

Summary:

Exciting the letters emphasise the determining role that familial, political and social relationships played in the lives of gentry families illuminate[s] the litigation process, and all its attendant characteristics, with an unprecedented attention to detail. Speculum Dr Carpenter has put all students of fifteenth-century history and literature in her debt. Medium aevum.

The collection of letters printed here stands alongside the Paston and Stonor correspondence in its intrinsic interest and the light it sheds on contemporary gentry life. The period was one of growing unease in national politics, which the letters reflects; 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, the impact of lengthy litigation on a gentry family (especially its finances), and, more generally, on the management of land and business affairs.

The Pastons: A Family in the Wars of the Roses Richard Barber

Attractive selection the letters are presented in modernised form with spare but informative linking commentary. The Selection conveys well [the Pastons'] recurrent concerns with land, money, civil violence, flirtation, marriage and the purchase of ginger and lace. Medium Aevum

Within three generations (1426 to 1485), and through the dangerous years of the Wars of the Roses, the Pastons established themselves as a family of consequence, both in their native Norfolk and within court circles. Ambitious and highly mobile, they kept in touch by correspondence, usually but not invariably through the medium of a clerk. Their letters impart the urgency, and sometimes the violence, of their preoccupations: defending property, fighting court cases, making the right alliances, and on the domestic side, managing their estates, conducting their courtships, stocking their cupboards.

Contents:

Introduction: Approaching the Stonors and their Papers 1

1 The Stonors: A Gentry Family Biography 15

2 Lineage 39

3 Landed Estate 67

4 The Stonors' Lords 99

5 Early Social Networks: Judge John to Thomas I 129

6 Later Social Networks and Gentry Values: Thomas II and William 160.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [199]-215) and index.

ISBN:

9781843834298

1843834294

OCLC:

260208850