Politics and Society in Mid Thirteenth-Century England: The Troubled Realm
By Peter Coss
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198924289
The English government under King Henry III faced significant political turmoil as tensions between the crown and the nobility escalated. This book delves into how these clashes culminated in a crisis and explores their broader implications for the course of English history.
Excerpt
In this book I offer an alternative, less idealistic, and more down-to-earth approach which is anchored in the social mores and cultural values of thirteenth-century England. More emphasis is placed upon the interests, ambitions, and needs of contemporaries, upon social networks of various kinds, and upon how interests both clashed and cohered as people strove to improve or preserve their positions. It was a crisis born of political instability, but in the context of institutional, administrative, and legal growth, that is to say at a particular point in the evolution of the state. This book deals, then, with the generation of the crisis, the factors which influenced its course, and its (partial) resolution. In short, it explores the anatomy and physiology of a troubled realm.
Who is this book for?
This book will appeal to readers fascinated by 13th-century England, especially its politics, governance, and the revolt led by Simon de Montfort. The author presents a fresh perspective on these events, offering a more critical and less idealised interpretation than the traditional views of English historians.
The Author
Peter R. Coss is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University. He describes his himself as “author of 6 monographs and editor of 3 editions of medieval documents. Editor of 12 books of essays and author 0f 50+ essays. Social historian of England and Italy. Particular interests: gentry and aristocracy, literature and society, urban history.” You can learn more on Peter through his Academia.edu page.
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