IMC 2018: Sessions

Paper -a: In late medieval England, those who sought to escape justice could obtain a charter of pardon from the Crown. From the late 13th century, kings of England also started to remit their subjects in exchange of - or as reward for - military service. At the beginning of the Hundred Years War, the necessity to recruit combatants led Edward III to grant several hundreds of pardons annually. This apogee was rapidly followed by a dramatic decrease that continued until the Wars of the Roses. This paper will discuss the causes of the rise and decline of military pardons. Paper -b: This paper examines the uses of the Troy story for dynastic debate in late medieval England, with special attention to the transition from the Ricardian to the Lancastrian period. As the new dynasty sought to gather around itself the symbols of chivalric legitimacy - including the manuscripts and sometimes even the very auctors of the matter of Troy - the value of the classical inheritance was subverted and displaced. It will first briefly describe the Troy world of the 1380s and 90s before moving on to a set of early 15th-century writers whose application of the Trojan motif to the new kings resists the theme of Lancastrian valor. Paper -c: Writing during a period of considerable socio-political turmoil, John Gower offered a range of opinions, some of which appear contradictory, on the subjects of the correct roles and responsibilities for the chivalric elite and the appropriate use of violence, especially in the context of 'just wars'. This paper explores these contrasting attitudes, asking whether they reflect changing political realities as well as questioning the purpose of Gower's works and considering if Chaucer's famous appellation accurately reflects his friend's 'moral' certainties.