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Religion, Politics, and the Parish in Tudor England and Wales: A View from the Marches of Wales, 1534–1553

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Katharine K. Olson
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Abstract

Historians of early modern England benefit from a rich and varied array of contemporary accounts by individuals that shed light on the local, regional, and wider impact of religious and other policies of successive monarchs. These include the narrative of Robert Parkyn, a Yorkshire priest, of the years 1532–54, Rose Hickman's recollections of Protestant life during the reign of Mary Tudor, to the chronicle of Henry Machyn in 1550–1563, to name but a few. More broadly, too, the history of the book and its import in illuminating various aspects of medieval and early modern popular culture, devotion, piety, reading practices and other related topics has been widely recognised. They have been successfully mined in recent years by various scholars of medieval and early modern England, Ireland, and beyond, from Eamon Duffy to Salvador Ryan and Raymond Gillespie.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 527 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2011

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References

Notes

1 Dickens, A.G., ‘Robert Parkyn's narrative of the Reformation,’ English Historical Review 62 (1947), pp.64–82;Google Scholar Maria, Dowling and Joy, Shakespeare, ‘Religion and politics in Mid Tudor England through the eyes of an English Protestant woman: The recollections of Rose Hickman,’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 55 (1982), pp.94–102;Google Scholar Gary, G. Gibbs, ‘Marking the days: Henry Machyn's manuscript and the Mid-Tudor era,’ in Eamon, Duffy and David, Loades, eds. The Church of Mary Tudor (Aldershot, 2006), 281–306;Google Scholar Ian, Mortimer, ‘Tudor chronicler or sixteenth-century diarist?: Henry Machyn and the nature of his manuscript,’ Sixteenth Century Journal 33:4 (2002), pp.981–98.Google Scholar

2 E.g. Eamon, Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580 (New Haven, 1992,Google Scholar rev. ed. 2005); idem, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240—1570 (New Haven, 2006);Google Scholar Salvador, Ryan, ‘Windows on late medieval devotional practice: Maire Ni Mhaille's ‘Book of Piety’ (1513) and the world behind the texts,’ in Moss, R., O Clabaigh, C.N., and Ryan, S., eds. Art and Devotion in Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 2006), 1–15;Google Scholar Raymond, Gillespie, Devoted People: Belief and Religion in Early Modern Ireland (Manchester, 1997);Google Scholar idem, Reading Ireland: Print, Reading, and Social Change in Early Modern Ireland (Manchester, 2005).

3 Glanmor, Williams, Welsh Reformation Essays (Cardiff, 1967), p.11.Google Scholar

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5 E.g. Geraint Gruffydd, R., ‘Y print yn dwyn ffrwyth i'r Cymro: Yny lhyvyr hwnn, 1546,’ Y Llyfr yng Nghymru= Welsh Book Studies 1 (1998), pp.1–20;Google Scholar idem, ‘Yny lhyvyr hwnn (1546): The Earliest Welsh Printed Book,’ Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies XXII (1969), pp.105–16; Glanmor, Williams, ‘The achievement of William Salesbury’, Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society, 14 (1965), pp.75–96;Google Scholar idem, ‘Bishop William Morgan and the first Welsh Bible,’ in The Welsh and their religion (Cardiff, 1991), pp. 173–229.

6 E.g. Geraint Gruffydd, R., ‘Gwasg ddirgel yr ogof yn Rhiwledyn,’ Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society 9 (1958–65): 1–23;Google Scholar Y Drych Kristnogawl, ed. Geraint Bowen (Cardiff, 1996).

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8 Daniel, Huws, ‘Llyfrau Cymraeg yr Oesoedd Canol,’ Cof Cenedl 12, p.30;Google Scholar Rees, The Welsh Book Trade Before 1820, p.vi.

9 Ian Jack, Cf. R., The Sources of History: Studies in the Uses of Historical Evidence: Medieval Wales (Ithaca, 1972).Google Scholar

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11 For a fuller discussion of some of the difficulties faced by historians of medieval and early modern Wales, Katharine Olson, cf. and Huw, Pryce, ‘The Reluctant Medievalist?’ in Degrees of Influence: A Memorial Volume for Glanmor Williams, ed. Jenkins, G.H. and Jones, G.E. (Cardiff, 2008), pp.30–57;Google Scholar Jack, Medieval Wales.

12 In two parts: National Library of Wales (NLW), MSs 5276D and NLW, MS. 3054D. Jones, Cf. T., ‘A Welsh chronicler in Tudor England’, Welsh History Review 1 (1960–63), pp.1–17;Google Scholar Lloyd-Morgan, C., ‘Elis Gruffydd a thraddodiad Cymraeg Calais a Chlwyd’, Cof Cenedl 11 (1996), pp.31–58;Google Scholar Jerry, Hunter, Soffestri'r Saeson (Cardiff, 2000).Google Scholar

13 A much fuller consideration of various aspects of this manuscript, including the scribe, his life, purpose, sources, and circulation, is forthcoming. Cf. also Katharine Olson, ‘Y Ganrif Fawr?’ Popular Piety, literature, and patronage in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Wales,’ Studies in Church History, vol. 48, The Church and Literature (forthcoming, 2012). One unreferenced note about John Eyton was transcribed (though not with total accuracy) in Welsh in Lloyd, J.Y.W., The History of the Princes, The Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen, and Meirionydd, 2 vols (London, 1881–82), vol. II, p. 177.Google Scholar Select Welsh memoranda were transcribed in Evans, J.G., Report on MSS in the Welsh Language, vol. II, pp. 568–79.Google Scholar A few of these were subsequently translated by Palmer, A.N. (1847–1915) in his A History of the Parish of Ruabon (1908–9 typescript, printed Wrexham, 2002), p.90,Google Scholar and have been reprinted in subsequent works on the basis of his translations and interpretations of these.

14 Bromfield, known in Welsh as Maelor Gymraeg (Welsh Maelor) was comprised of the parishes of Eglwysegl, Erbistock, Gresford, Marchwiel, Ruabon, and Wrexham, Holt, and Bangor Is y Coed (Bangor on Dee). Palmer, Cf. A.N.. Ancient Tenures of North Wales, 2nd ed. (Wrexham, 1910).Google Scholar

15 ‘Michael Rogers, ‘Origins and development to the sixteenth century,’ in Helen, Watt, ed. Welsh Manors and their Records (Aberystwyth, 2000), pp.11–12.Google Scholar

16 NLW, Llanstephan MS. 117D, p.45.

17 NLW, Llanstephan MS. 117D, p.19.

18 NLW, SA1579/R3, f.28r.

19 Palmer, Ancient Tenures, p.186; NLW, Duchy of Cornwall Welsh Records, M2, 1481–2; The National Archives (TNA), E179/220/166, 32d.

20 (TNA), E179/220/166, 31–31d.

21 Daniel Huws, Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes (forthcoming, 2010 draft).

22 ‘Les Quinze Oraisons Attribuées a Sainte Birgitte du Livre Blanc de Hergest,’ Études Celtiques 2 (1937), 310–33; Bowen, D.J., ‘Y Gwasanaeth Bwrdd,’ Studia Celtica 15 (1954), 116–20;Google Scholar Brinley, Roberts, ‘Pymtheg Fweddi San Ffraid a'r Pardwn,’ BBCS 16 (1956), 254–68;Google Scholar idem, ‘Tri Cyfieithiad Cymraeg o'r Weddi ‘Anima Christi,’ BBCS 16 (1956), 268–73; idem, ‘Transitus Beatae Mariae a Thestunau Cyffelyb,’ BBCS 18 (1960), 131–57; idem, ‘Rhai Gweddiau Preifat Cymraeg,’ BBCS 25 (1974), 145–55; Williams, ‘Welsh Versions of the Purgatorium S. Patricii,’ pp.121–94; Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, ‘Darogan yr Olew Bendigaid: Chwedl o'r Bymtheged Ganrif,’ Llen Cymru 14 (1982–84), 64–85; Catherine Byfield and Martha Bayless, ‘Y Gorcheston: The Welsh Ioca Monachorum: Texts, Translations, and Commentary,’ Studia Celtica 30 (1996), pp.197–222.

23 Huws, Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes, n.p.

24 Lloyd, T.H., ‘Early Elizabethan Investigations into Exchange and the Value of Sterling, 1558–1568,’ The Economic History Review 53:1 (2000), pp.61–2;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Challis, C.E., ‘The Debasement of the Coinage, 1542–1551,’ The Economic History Review 20:3 (1967), pp.441–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Maelor Gymraeg, or Welsh Maelor. See above, footnote 14.

26 NLW Llanstephan MS. 117D, p.36.

27 Peter, Roberts, ‘Tudor Legislation and the Political Status of ‘the British Tongue,’ in Geraint, Jenkins, ed. The Welsh Language Before the Industrial Revolution (Cardiff, 1997), p.125.Google Scholar

28 Jones, Cf. M. K., ‘Sir William Stanley of Holt: politics and family allegiance in the late fifteenth century,’ Welsh History Review 14 (1988–9), pp.1–22.Google Scholar

29 See, for example, Ralph, Flenley, Six Town Chronicles of England (Oxford, 1911).Google Scholar

30 NLW Llanstephan MS. 117D, p.13.

31 See above, note 13.