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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1103: The Materiality of Power in the Later Middle Ages

Wednesday 8 July 2015, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Anna Boeles Rowland, Merton College, University of Oxford
Moderator/Chair:Rachel E. Moss, Université de Paris I
Paper 1103-aThe Exchange of Marriage Tokens in Late Medieval London
(Language: English)
Anna Boeles Rowland, Merton College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Gender Studies, Law, Social History
Paper 1103-b'Feirer is none, though it were fore a kyng': Opulence and Power in the 15th-Century Female Household
(Language: English)
Rachel Delman, University College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Architecture - Secular, Gender Studies
Paper 1103-cThe Politics of Pageantry: Chivalric Display at the Court of Juan II of Castile
(Language: English)
James Ellis, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Heraldry, Language and Literature - Spanish or Portuguese, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

This session will explore the ways in which power relationships were expressed and mediated through the use of material objects and the physical environment in the late medieval period. Focusing on domestic space, gift giving, and pageantry, the papers will investigate the multifaceted nature of power in the middle ages, drawing on diverse sources, including litigation records, household accounts, and chronicles. The speakers will consider how factors such as gender, social rank, and situation, age, and legal status influenced the ways in which power relationships were formed, maintained, and sometimes broken by both groups and individuals in late medieval Europe.