Description: For over a hundred years scholars have written about late medieval kingship, and a vast body of published work now exists on the subject. However, in all this rich coverage, no accessible introduction to the subject exists. The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval Kingship addresses this need by bringing together, within a single volume, a series of themed chapters which consider key aspects of the workings of the English monarchy between 1200 and 1500. Featuring leading experts in the field, each chapter provides a concise and accessible guide, offering insights, synthesis and explanation to help readers understand not only how kings ruled, but also what made their rule more - or less - effective. By adopting a holistic approach to kingship, the contributors also consider how kingship impacted on the king's subjects, thereby illuminating the complex interplay of cooperation and conflict that shaped both the monarchy and the wider polity in late medieval England.
Brief description: Gwilym Dodd is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Justice and Grace: Private Petitioning and the English Parliament in the Late Middle Ages (2007), and over sixty scholarly articles and chapters, and editor and co-editor of numerous essay collections.
Review Quotes: 'An authoritative guide to medieval English kingship. Pen-portraits of the kings set the scene for new perspectives and insights on royal administration, relations between rulers and ruled, changing styles of princely rule, and contested assertions of sovereignty and the common good.' Michael Bennett, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Tasmania