Symeon Issue 6

ISSUE SIX The magazine for Durham University History alumni 2016 02 SYMEON • Issue six 03 As historians, we are all to some extent concerned with ‘frontiers’. Marx’s Communist Manifesto famously opens by arguing that ‘the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’. The economic frontier – the driver of Marx’s universe – is just one of those considered by historians. We find frontiers in the inter-actions between religions, ethnicities, genders, cultures and political creeds, to name just a few. We, as historians, also confront methodological frontiers. How can we reach beyond the boundaries of nation and discipline to conceive the past and discuss our reconstructions in a useful way? It is a mark of the centrality of these attempted to understand, Paris and the these images sum up the magazine’s issues to historical study that, though French. John-Henry Clay, an historian aim: to remind readers of their many Symeon articles are not commissioned with a foot in the dual-worlds of ‘fact’ hours spent (fruitfully, we hope) reading, on any particular theme, ‘the frontier’ and ‘fiction’, considers whether the reflecting on, and discussing historical reoccurs throughout this edition. Andy two are really as irreconcilable as they subjects. We hope the image of well- Burn writes on power-dynamics in may seem at the outset. Finally, Peter worn tomes on a cluttered shelf will early modern England through the use Johnson, an alumnus of the Department, encourage readers to consider how their of libels. Jack Hepworth meanwhile reflects on the often significant frontier years spent in Durham informed their questions the narrative of conflict dividing communities from their past, understanding of the world and the ways between English and Irish communities explaining how the National Army in which they pursue their lives today. in the North West. Kathleen Reynolds Museum is reorganising its collections to We sincerely hope that Symeon will provides a window onto the gender help the public understand, appreciate, help to build a continuing connection dynamics in the provision of healthcare and take possession of their own history. between the current Departmental in early modern England. Alex Jordan community and its alumni. discusses the puns and innuendos Behind the scenes, Symeon has crossed found in serious biographies of frontiers of its own. Kathleen Reynolds, We as editors, and many colleagues medieval saints, and whether they are and longstanding editors Matt Wright in the Department, have been very as incongruous as they first appear. and George Stevenson, have stepped gratified in recent years to have Elsewhere, Jo Fox addresses both down from the editorial team. The received correspondence, reflections geographical and methodological present editors – and, we’re sure, and articles from alumni in response to frontiers, reflecting on the conceptual Symeon’s many readers – are grateful Symeon – if you so wish, please do get insights we gain through engagement for their heroic exertions in years past. in touch using the contact details on with researchers from across the world. Fellow PhD candidates Jenine de Vries the penultimate page. In a similar, though fundamentally and Mark Bennett have stepped into In the meantime – we very much hope distinct, vein, Victoria Eberts considers the large shoes of these former editors you enjoy this year’s Symeon! the ways in which writers from the and have already made a significant impact on Symeon. British Isles, cut off from the continent TOM RODGER, MARK BENNETT AND JENINE for a generation by the wars of 1792- DE VRIES. Each of Symeon’s six editions features 1815, came into contact with, and Symeon Editorial Team on its cover a bookshelf. In many ways, 05 CONTENTS ‘The poor, there is more than goes from door to door’: threats, libels and social relations in early modern England 06 Anglo-Irish Relations in Victorian Preston 10 ‘I wish my dear you don’t overdoe it’: The influence of wives and physicians in eighteenth century healthcare 14 Intended Puns in Medieval Hagiography 20 Department News 24 Report of Conferences in Honour of Richard Britnell 28 Historians without Borders: teaching and researching in a globalising world 30 Lady Morgan in Paris 36 Living in the Past 40 Past, Present, Future: The National Army Museum’s Redevelopment 44 Contact us 50 06 SYMEON • Issue six THREATS, LIBELS AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND FIRST THING ONE MORNING IN NOVEMBER 1630... ... a cleaner was sweeping the porch of Dr Richman’s ANDY BURN Postdoctoral Research house in Wye, near Ashford in Kent. She picked up a Assistant (Early Modern scrap of paper and took it straight to her employer. It British History) was a strange note with a disguised handwriting made Andy Burn is up of mixed capitals and lower case, and different a postdoctoral styles and letter forms – a classic cut-and-paste researcher in the Department of ransom note avant la lettre. Shocked by what he read, History, working on Richman took the ‘libel’ (as these documents were a project funded by usually known) to the Sheriff of Kent, who in turn the Leverhulme Trust: ‘Social relations sent it straight to the King’s Privy Council for further and everyday life in investigation.[1] England, 1500-1640’. He specializes in early modern economic and social history, particularly the history of work, and of Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East. 07 The fact that this libel survives in its alehouse. The rhyming verse was easy original form is a happy coincidence to remember and recite, and a passing for the historian. They were ephemeral literate person (sometimes professional documents, to be used and thrown away. scribes or musicians) could be roped in But growing anxieties about ‘damaging to write the libel up. [6] The Kent libel’s words’ at the turn of the seventeenth erratic spelling and mixture of cases, century meant that a number were combined with the almost, but not painstakingly transcribed as evidence quite, alphabetic order of the signatures, in law suits.[3] They reveal a popular suggests the authors were teasing the culture of composing, replicating and minister with semi-literacy as well. [7] singing memorable verses, and contain Who are we? ‘Will you knowe my name, a sophisticated political repertoire. The you must be wise in the same’. Die elster auf dem galgen Kent libel has been used to suggest the (the magpie on the gallows) desperation of very hungry people, but Some libels mixed written text and Pieter Brueghel the Elder (d. 1569) in fact it was cleverly put together.[4] It symbolic action, which could be just as Wikimedia Commons teased the authorities’ biggest fears, rich with meaning. In 1612, a Somerset and legitimized collective protests as a yeoman’s mare was stolen by his way to correct social injustices.[5] The neighbours. They shaved her mane, put authors felt Richman, the local Christian a pair of horns on her head, and pinned The libel’s childish look masked a minister, should be on their side: ‘you an obscene libel to her tail, slandering [8] seditious, menacing tone. It was that are set in place see that youre his wife. The horns implied she intentionally shocking. ‘The corne is so profesion you doe not disgrace’. But was ‘cuckolding’ him, or symbolically [9] dear’, it read, ‘I dout [i.e. I’m afraid] Richman and his peers cared less about emasculating him by being unfaithful. mani will starve this yeare … if you starvation than sin: ‘our souls they are In Yarmouth, magistrate and merchant see not to this, sum of you will speed dear, for our bodyes have sume ceare’. William Crow was treated to a cloying a mis’. Find some food for us, in other The implication of callous hypocrisy was anonymous epitaph pinned ceremonially words, or some of you will quickly come profoundly and deliberately insulting. to his coffin cloth, which punned to harm. On its own, in a time of social adoringly on his name: the ‘Crowe of [10] calm, such threats might have been less This sophistication does not necessarily state ... is flowne to heavenly blisse’. serious. But the 1620s was a hungry imply that the authors were fully literate; Incensed by this undeserved praise, a time and the sheriff saw a developing they often weren’t. They collaborated group of Crow’s neighbours composed pattern of food-related disorder – mobs together, cooking up a libel and a course an answer: ‘Yarmouth come laugh come that ‘fall upon such as carry corne … in of action over a pint or a few in the joye, come singe, and chuce yt not a the highwais’.[2] A few weeks earlier, at Woodchurch, ‘20 or 30 men & woemen Vijf boeren aan tafel mett’ one convoy of food and ‘broke in de buitenlucht away the corne, crying out the one half (Five farmers at a was for the K[ing]s & the other for them’. table outdoors) The sheriff was beginning to worry that Gottlieb Friedrich his authority was outnumbered and Riedel, Johann surrounded. This was understood and Gradmann (c. 1600-1750) exploited by the note’s authors, too, in Rijksmuseum, an ominous footnote: ‘the pore, there Netherlands is more then goes from dore to dore’ – when we ‘arise’, there will be far more than just the usual beggars, and you’d better watch out. [1] The National Archives, State Papers SP 16/175, ff.156-7. [5] Peter Clark, ‘Popular protest and disturbance in Kent, [7] I have my ‘Early modern England: a social history’ 1558-1640’, The Economic History Review, 2nd ser. XXIX seminars to thank for this observation. [2] Ibid., f. 156r.

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