The Honor of Wallingford
The Honor of Wallingford was a great landed estate of the kind William the Conqueror carved out for his leading men after his successful conquest of England in 1066. Encompassing properties dispersed across seven counties around the great castle of Wallingford on the River Thames, the lordship of Wallingford was unusual among baronial estates in being vested with apparently vast jurisdictional powers that set it outside the normal scope of royal administration. At the same time, the honor of Wallingford was a extremely closely connected to the king and royal family, forming part of a princely appendage to support younger sons of the monarch. In 1337 it became the core of the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate that has supported the eldest sons of English monarchs ever since.
The centuries after the Norman Conquest witnessed profound change in the society and economies of Western Europe. In England the already powerful monarchy developed an administrative system of unprecedented complexity and power, while changes in ideas about law and custom, social hierarchy and land ownership, as well as the role of the monarch in relation to his subjects, helped to form a system of government that began to resemble the early modern parliamentary state. Through close analysis of the lords and tenants of the honor of Wallingford and the ways in which they interacted with one another and with the agents of the English church and monarchy, it is possible to gain a unique perspective on the ways in which power was mediated in society during this time of change and state-formation.
Dr Tilley's research on the honor of Wallingford is focused on original research of both published and unpublished sources produced by both local religious houses and the records of central government preserved in the UK National Archives.
The centuries after the Norman Conquest witnessed profound change in the society and economies of Western Europe. In England the already powerful monarchy developed an administrative system of unprecedented complexity and power, while changes in ideas about law and custom, social hierarchy and land ownership, as well as the role of the monarch in relation to his subjects, helped to form a system of government that began to resemble the early modern parliamentary state. Through close analysis of the lords and tenants of the honor of Wallingford and the ways in which they interacted with one another and with the agents of the English church and monarchy, it is possible to gain a unique perspective on the ways in which power was mediated in society during this time of change and state-formation.
Dr Tilley's research on the honor of Wallingford is focused on original research of both published and unpublished sources produced by both local religious houses and the records of central government preserved in the UK National Archives.
