Irish Townspeople : The Early Modern Urban Experience, C. 1400-C. 1640.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lennon, Colm.

Series:

Studies in Early Modern Irish History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns.

Ireland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (311 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2026.

Summary:

A work of Irish urban history that studies the society and culture of townspeople, including their integration as citizens, their membership of fraternities, guilds and parishes and their charity. As civic leaders they forged political and confessional identities that set them at odds with church and state in mid-seventeenth century Ireland.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Untitled

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright information

Dedication

Contents

Figure

Series editors' preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Notes

Chapter 1: Environment: buildings and boundaries, 1400-c.1550

Urban portraits: civic creativity and improvement

Drogheda

Dublin

Kilkenny

Waterford

Cork

Limerick

Galway

Location and population of late medieval Irish towns

Mural systems and power

Murage and other grants

Tholsels and town halls

Public spaces and commercial utilities

Religious and welfare institutions

Civic insignia and franchises

Conclusions

Chapter 2: Integration: forging communal ties through marriage and migration, c.1400-c.1600

Integration of newcomers

Women, marriage and the law

Urban wealth and its management

The urban Irish

Householding in the towns

Regulation of marriages and family life

Widowhood

Wealth and power of urban elite families

Enfranchisement in merchants' and trade guilds

Chapter 3: Association: the social kinship of religious confraternities, 1400-c.1550

The emergence of chantries and fraternities

Where and why fraternities were founded

Founders and members

Religious basis of guilds of arts and trades

Endowment and donation

Devotion, commemoration and the saints

The role of the chaplains

Chapter 4: Civic religion: symbiosis of sacred and secular, 1400-c.1550

Chantry chapels as impetus for parish church building and restoration

Lay and clerical guardians of parish property and liturgy

Interweaving of chantries, fraternities and guilds in parish churches

Civic religion: pan-urban corporations

Colleges and the parishes

Chantry colleges - definition and charters.

Chantry colleges - church buildings and residence

Chantry colleges as objects of donation in a civic setting

Chapter 5: Charity: from private mercy to municipal welfare, c.1500-c.1640

Lay benefactors and the role of the fratres cruciferi

Late medieval leper houses

Changing theory and practice in charity and welfare provision

Niche charities of the fifteenth century and the applying of social distinctions

Charity of the trade and craft guilds

Fraternities' role in charity and welfare

Broader tendency towards exclusion of the undeserving

Civic authorities' takeover of late medieval charity: health and education

Fresh thinking on charity: the response of the Irish urban sector

Chapter 6: Recusancy and the defence of secular and religious institutions, c.1600-c.1640

Recusancy and the testing of urban loyalty

Urban uprisings and displays of force

Townspeople's petitions and embassies to the English court

Negotiating the paths to office: the cursus honorum in Limerick and Cork

Negotiating the paths to office: the cursus honorum in Waterford and Kilkenny

Negotiating the paths to office: the cursus honorum in Dublin and Drogheda

St Nicholas's collegiate church, Galway, and defence of corporate religion

Obfuscation and equivocation: survival of fraternities and colleges after 1600

Clandestinity: private spaces for Masses, chantries and hospitals

Getting along with neighbours: charity and the 'familiar poor'

Chapter 7: Urban culture and identity: consciousness of the civic past

Tholsels

Civic ritual: processions, festivals and display

Riding the franchises

Civic display: regalia and attire

Town maps

Family pride and the wider civic context

Town histories and chronicles.

Views and perspectives

Records and muniments

Conservation of the medieval legacy of towns

Conclusion

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources

Ireland

England

Printed primary sources

Secondary works

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

1-5261-9341-8

1-5261-9343-4

OCLC:

1590084183