Graduate Student, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Monash University (Australia), School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies
Thesis Title: Ancient Correspondence and English Government in the Late Thirteenth Century
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Carolyn James
Clare Monagle |
About
My research concerns the role of epistolary correspondence in late medieval English government. I am interested in the ways that letters reveal the personal interactions and dependencies upon which were built administrative, legal and governmental structures often interpreted as relatively mechanical and systematic. My approach is heavily influenced by diplomatic, reading letters not only for what they say, but the ways and words through which they do so, and interpreting the importance of phrases according to their rhetorical positions. Assessing such strategies across large numbers of letters and between categories (royal missives; royal commands; letters of request; etc.) reveals the letter as a site for the construction of social and political identities under delicate negotiation between the 'royal centre' and the wider community, and shows how the wheels of government and law were actually moved.
Aspects of this research concern the changing language of correspondence during the late thirteenth century from Latin to Anglo-Norman French, the 'French of England'. While a broad, evolutionary movement towards vernaculars can be traced across Europe, I argue that more political, personal, and specific reasons for language choice need to be sought in each given context.
I am also interested in the broader history of letters and letter writing, from which a consideration of the vast numbers of originals and drafts in late medieval archival collections is essentially missing.
