The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow in the Central and North Welsh Marches
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Fleecing the Pious: the Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow in the Central and North Welsh Marches 1400-1530 Judith Louise Bailey A thesis submitted to the University of Adelaide in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, School of Humanities July 2020 Contents Tables and maps ............................................................................................................ 2 Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 4 Thesis declaration .......................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 7 Notes .............................................................................................................................. 8 Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 9 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1: Historiographical Context, Primary Sources and Methodology .................. 18 Chapter 2: Political Geography, Political Economy, and the Religious Landscape: 1100- 1450 ............................................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 3: Ludlow: The Palmers’ Guild in the Town .................................................. 120 Chapter 4: Ludlow’s Hinterland: The Guild in County and Lordship ........................... 171 Chapter 5: Central and North Welsh Marches: Piety and Trade ................................. 244 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 313 Postscript ................................................................................................................... 319 Appendix 1: Palmers’ Guild Wardens 1401 to 1551. .................................................. 329 Appendix 2: Palmers’ Guild Stewards 1406 to 1551 ................................................... 330 Appendix 3: Registrations from the Gentry, Higher Clergy and Nobility ................... 332 Appendix 4: Timeline of Religious Changes in the 1530s and 1540s .......................... 335 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 337 1 Tables and maps Figure 1: Palmers’ Guild Manuscripts in the Shropshire Archives ................................ 57 Figure 2: Palmers' Guild Riding Books and Membership Registers ............................... 57 Figure 3: Membership Register for 1507-8 .................................................................. 58 Figure 4: Oswestry and its Hinterland in the Riding Book for 1505-6 .......................... 59 Figure 5: List of Wills .................................................................................................... 66 Figure 6: Sample Sheet from Membership Registers ................................................... 75 Figure 7: Merging of Information from Membership Registers and Riding Books ....... 76 Figure 8: Cloth Trade Occupations in Fifteenth-Century Ludlow ................................ 136 Figure 9: Plan of Ludlow: 1906 .................................................................................. 140 Figure 10: Purchases for the Annual Guild Feast in the Accounts for 1427-8 ............ 142 Figure 11: The Internal Structure of St Laurence’s Tower in Ludlow ......................... 150 Figure 12: St Laurence’s Tower and Octagonal Porch (built c1470s) ......................... 151 Figure 13: Ludlow’s Demographic Statistics .............................................................. 154 Figure 14: Occupations of Ludlow Recruits and Members ........................................ 160 Figure 15: Annual Breakdown of ‘Souls’ .................................................................... 166 Figure 16: Members by Geographical Area (1485-9, 1505-9 and 1515-16) ............... 168 Figure 17: Map of Ludlow’s Hinterland. ..................................................................... 178 Figure 18: Market Towns in Ludlow's Hinterland ..................................................... 184 Figure 19: The Hinterland’s Demographic Statistics for 1501-8 ................................ 189 Figure 20: Members from the Two Regions .............................................................. 190 Figure 21: Map of Leominster Ore showing the Area Visited by the Steward ............ 196 2 Figure 22: The Best Wool Growing Areas in the Fifteenth Century .......................... 201 Figure 23: Page Entitled Lemster Ore ........................................................................ 204 Figure 24: Occupational Groups in Leominster ......................................................... 208 Figure 25: The Phelyps and Noblet Families .............................................................. 209 Figure 26: Map of Corvedale and Cleoland ................................................................ 213 Figure 27: Map of Cloneland and Terra Episcopo ....................................................... 223 Figure 28: Clun’s Defensive Church Tower Attached to the Nave ............................. 231 Figure 29: Map of Wigmoreland ................................................................................ 232 Figure 30: The Langford and Bradshaw families ........................................................ 238 Figure 31: Map of the North Welsh Marches ............................................................ 248 Figure 32: Map of the Central Welsh Marches ........................................................... 249 Figure 33: Main Towns in the Central and North Welsh Marches, Ranked by Number of Registrations ............................................................................................................. 255 Figure 34: First Recording of Fulling Mills by Present Day County ............................. 267 Figure 35: Statistics for the Central and North Welsh Marches for 1503-6 ............... 275 Figure 36: Welsh Women from Machynlleth, Holywell and Oswestry areas ............. 282 Figure 37: Shropshire Registrations in the 1515-16 Riding Book ............................... 283 Figure 38: The Intermeshing of Networks: The Palmers’ Guild and the Drapers’ Guild of Shrewsbury ............................................................................................................... 292 Figure 39: Names of People from Llanrwst on the Page Entitled 'Denbigh' .............. 296 Figure 40: Registrations in the Western Towns of the Central Marches for 1503-6 .. 301 Figure 41: Stewards' Journeys or ‘Ridings' in 1533-4 and 1538-9 .............................. 322 3 Abstract This thesis examines the role of a late medieval religious institution, the Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow, in the Central and North Welsh Marches from 1400 to 1530. It investigates the geopolitical climate which saw the rise of the Guild from the mid fifteenth century. It argues that the region of study is complex, culturally diverse, and also suffered continual war and conflict for many centuries prior to the fifteenth century. It was in a constant state of tension. The fragmented political economy and the inhospitable landscape were also factors which set this region apart. These tensions in the Central and North Welsh Marches led to religious uncertainty by the mid fifteenth century. Monasteries never had a stranglehold on people’s piety in the region, mostly because of the endemic political instability which worked against the monastic orders gaining anything more than an early tenuous foothold in the landscape. Instead, by the mid to late fifteenth century, people were drawn to their local parish church and less structured institutions like the mendicant friars and religious guilds. These changing religious patterns saw the Palmers’ Guild become an important supplier of religious services and a catalyst for economic and social stability in the region. Ludlow leveraged its influence through its Guild to expand into this region in response to a weakening of religious infrastructure due to the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion. The key primary sources for this thesis are the membership registers and riding books of the Palmers’ Guild. A quantitative analysis of over 3,500 names from these records, offers the opportunity for a reassessment of the role of this religious guild in the Central and North Welsh Marches. It is clear from these records that the Guild 4 maximised its efforts in this culturally diverse region to extract the greatest returns for the Guild and the town of Ludlow. This was achieved in three main ways. First, it infiltrated the political economy by providing strong, secure networks to facilitate the cloth trade. Second, it used its connections, which were built on royal patronage, to build up its influence in the region. The last factor was its trump card. By offering religious hope to thousands of people in the Welsh Marches, it ensured it was the religious institution of choice, if the parish church could not offer support as death drew near. In this culturally