Ceremony and Civility

Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

Barbara A. Hanawalt

The first full-length book treatment of civic ceremony in medieval London
Addresses the problem of how to educate a largely immigrant and illiterate population about civic officials, government, laws and ordinances, and expected behavior in medieval London
Includes descriptions and analyses of official ceremonies and rituals of both the government and various gilds, as well as the humiliation ceremonies for those who broke laws or slandered or attacked public figures

Ceremony and Civility

Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

Barbara A. Hanawalt

Description

In Ceremony and Civility, Barbara Hanawalt shows how, in the late Middle Ages, London's elected officials and elites used ceremony and ritual to establish their legitimacy and power. These civic ceremonies helped delineate the relationship between London's mayors and the crown, but also between denizens and their government, between gild wardens and their members, between masters and apprentices, and between parishioners and their churches.

London, like all premodern cities, had a largely immigrant population—only a small proportion of the inhabitants were citizens—and the newly arrived needed to be taught the civic culture of the city in order for that city to function peacefully. Ritual and ceremony played key roles in this acculturation process. In a society in which hierarchical authority was most commonly determined by inheritance of title and office, or sanctified by ordination, civic officials who had been elected to their posts relied on rituals to cement their authority, power, and dominance. Since the typical term of elected office was a year, elections and inaugurations had to be very public and visually distinct in order to quickly communicate with the masses: the robes of office needed to distinguish the officers so that everyone would know who they were. The result was a colorful civic pageantry.

Newcomers themselves found their places within this structure in various ways. Apprentices entering the city to take up a trade were educated in civic culture by their masters. Gilds similarly used rituals, oath swearing, and distinctive livery to mark their members' belonging. But these public shows of belonging and orderly civic life also had a dark side. Those who rebelled against authority and broke the civic ordinances were made spectacles through ritual humiliations and public parades through the streets so that others could take heed of these offenders of the law. At the parish level, and even at the level of the street, civic behavior was taught through example, through proclamations, and even through performances, like ballads.

An accessible look at late medieval London through the lens of civic ceremonies and dispute resolution, Ceremony and Civility synthesizes archival research in London with existing scholarship to show how newcomers in an ever-shifting population were enculturated into premodern London.

Ceremony and Civility

Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

Barbara A. Hanawalt

Preface and Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Urban Environment
Chapter 2: The City and the Crown
Chapter 3: Civic Rituals and Elected Officials
Chapter 4: Rebellion and Submission
Chapter 5: Gilds as Incubators for Citizenship
Chapter 6: Civic Lessons for the Masses
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Ceremony and Civility

Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

Barbara A. Hanawalt

Author Information

Barbara A. Hanawalt, King George III Professor of British History Emerita, Ohio State University

Barbara A. Hanawalt is King George III Professor of British History Emerita, Ohio State University. Her books include The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England (1986); Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History (1993); Of Good and Ill Repute: Gender and Social Control in Medieval England (1999); and The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law, and the Economy in Late Medieval London (2007).

Ceremony and Civility

Civic Culture in Late Medieval London

Barbara A. Hanawalt

Reviews and Awards

"In Ceremony and Civility, as in her earlier work, Hanawalt carefully sifts through the archival materials and listens to what the documents have to say about Londoners' ideas of order, their annual observances, and even the smells, sights, and sounds on the streets... The reader will soak in both the civic organization of medieval London and its rich ideological and performative accoutrements. As such, Ceremony and Civility has much to offer readers as they consider the complex use and meanings of space by and for medieval actors." - Kate Kelsey Staples, American Historical Review

"Hanawalt's long record of books that combine careful scholarship with an approachable style is extended here, with an appeal to general readers as well as to students....Highly recommended." - CHOICE

"Barbara Hanawalt's book is an excellent synthesis on London, exposing vividly nearly every aspect of urban life from the Guildhall to the ill-famed taverns. Her approach of the importance of the didactic nature of the ceremonies and rituals concerning the values and the power of the oligarchy is also very stimulating. Besides, it is well written and accessible to students and even a larger public, all the more so that it contains a glossary and an index of the notions, institutions and so on, explained in the book... This 'final book' of a fine historian is a great one and largely deserves to be read if one wants to understand the life of the most important city of late medieval England." - The Medieval Review