Session1301
TitleRitual, Rhetoric, and Gesture in Chronicles and Charters
Date/TimeWednesday 12 July 2006: 16.30-18.00
 
OrganiserLouise J. Wilkinson, School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln
 
Moderator/ChairJinty Nelson, Department of History, King's College London
 
Paper 1301-a Demonstrative Kingship in Late Anglo-Saxon Charters
(Language: English)
Charles Insley, Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies / Department of History, University of Manchester
Index Terms: Charters and Diplomatics; Genealogy and Prosopography; Manuscripts and Palaeography; Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1301-b False Pregnancies and Feminine Cunning: Images and Self-Images of 13th-Century Queens of Scotland
(Language: English)
Jessica Nelson, The National Archives, Kew
Index Terms: Gender Studies; Genealogy and Prosopography; Sexuality; Women’s Studies
Paper 1301-c Sentiment and Cynicism in Women's Charters: Shropshire, 1150-1350
(Language: English)
Emma Cavell, Department of History, Swansea University
Index Terms: Charters and Diplomatics; Gender Studies; Lay Piety; Women’s Studies
 
AbstractThis session examines the significance of the ritual and rhetorical devices employed by royal and noble dynasties in the Middle Ages through the medium of charters and chronicles. Charles Insley's paper briefly surveys the strategies, rhetorical and demonstrative, deployed by late Anglo-Saxon kings in their charters. Jess Nelson's paper compares the chronicle portrayals of the two wives of King Alexander II and the two wives of King Alexander III of Scotland, and considers the importance of fertility and maternity to those portrayals. She asks how accurately the chronicles reflect the contemporary images and self-images of these queens. Finally, Emma Cavell's paper explores the motives and sentiments behind women's religious benefactions in Shropshire between 1150 and 1350, and investigates the many factors - from genuine piety to social aggrandisement - that had a bearing on women's religious benefactions.