IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1750: Status, Rank, or Office?: Social Boundaries in England, 900-1100, III - Clerics, Women, and Status

Thursday 9 July 2020, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Haskins Society / Department of History & Philosophy, State University of New York, Old Westbury
Organisers:	Mary Blanchard, Department of History, Ave Maria University, Florida Chelsea Shields-Más, Department of History, University of York
Moderator/Chair:	Laura Gathagan, Department of History, State University of New York, Cortland
Paper 1750-a	How Can We Define the Social Status of the Anglo-Saxon Clergy in the 10th and 11th Centuries? (Language: English) Julia Steuart Barrow, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Ecclesiastical History, Social History
Paper 1750-b	Lay Piety as Political Capital?: Unexpected Insights From Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Language: English) Isabelle Beaudoin, Magdalen College, University of Oxford Index terms: Hagiography, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History
Paper 1750-c	Where There's a Will There's a Way?: Documentary Evidence for Women's Status in the Early English Kingdom (Language: English) Alison Hudson, Ancient, Medieval & Early Modern Manuscripts, British Library Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Law, Social History
Abstract	These sessions explore where status ended and office began in England c. 900-1100 and seek to encourage a dialogue among those working on different aspects of pre-Conquest society. Status and the social order were becoming more important during these centuries, signaled by increasing conspicuous consumption and an ecclesiastical interest in tracts on status. In a world where the secular and spiritual were often closely intertwined, what can the men and women who gained status and office in the ecclesiastical sphere tell us about those who obtained the same thing in the secular world? Among the laity, what can a discussion of the lowest thegns contribute to our understanding of the men who became reeves or ealdormen? By asking and attempting to answer these and other questions, these sessions aim to start a discussion and further a multifaceted understanding of the period and its people.