IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 1534: Two Medieval Lives: Archbishop and Countess
Thursday 6 July 2023, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | Society for Fourteenth-Century Studies |
|---|---|
| Organiser: | Helen Lacey, Mansfield College, University of Oxford |
| Moderator/Chair: | Katherine J. Lewis, Department of History, University of Huddersfield |
| Respondent: | Helen Lacey, Mansfield College, University of Oxford |
| Paper 1534-a | Archbishop Arundel's Exile in Italy, 1397-1399 (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1534-b | Defrauding the In-Laws: Maud, Countess of Oxford, and the De Vere Estates, 1371-1413 (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Abstract | After being driven into exile and replaced as archbishop of Canterbury by Richard II in 1397, Thomas Arundel made his way to Italy where he spent most of the next two years. This was initially to try to persuade Boniface IX to reinstate him as archbishop, but after this failed he spent most of his time in Florence, which he described as a 'terrestrial paradise' and where he struck up a lasting friendship with the Chancellor of Florence, Coluccio Salutati, one of the foremost humanists of his time - a relationship which was maintained after he returned to England, and which influenced the restored archbishop's self-presentation as an intellectual. A widow for 42 years and holding half of the estates of the de Vere earls of Oxford, Maud de Vere (née Ufford), in the chaos following the forfeiture of her son, Robert, Duke of Ireland, in 1388, deliberately set out to do something very unusual for a noble widow, to alienate estates that she held in dower and jointure, to the detriment of the male line but also to her own relative impoverishment. Her motives, means, and success are explored in the paper. |