Dr Steve Tibble – ‘Crusader Criminals – Pirates, Gangsters and Bandits in the Medieval Holy Land’
Strange as it may seem, the real problem of the crusades was not religion.

It was young men.

Dislocated. Disinhibited. And in disturbingly large numbers. They were the propellant that stoked two centuries of unceasing warfare and shocking levels of criminality.

‘Crusader Criminals’ takes an innovative look at what was so different about the crusades and the unforeseen consequences that they brought with them. It identifies the primal forces which pushed vast numbers of young, disoriented men into the region, and in turn created a massive spike in violence and law-breaking. It examines how macro trends such as climate change, migration and demographic distortion played out over a two hundred year period – and how, by pulling successive waves of rootless men into the Holy Land, this arguably caused as much social chaos and disruption as the wars of the crusades themselves.

‘Crusader Criminals’ charts the downward spiral of demographic shock and desensitisation that grew out of the horrors of incessant warfare – and in doing so it uncovers some of the most surprising stories of the time. It introduces remarkable and barely known characters into an era already full of larger-than-life personalities.

Presented by one of the foremost historians working in the field of crusading studies, this is a talk about crime and the violation of social norms in the most unlikely of places – the medieval Holy Land. Bringing largely unused material together for the first time, it provides extraordinary evidence of a pervasive crusading underworld – the gangsters, bandits, muggers and pirates who lurked under the bigger events that dominated the chronicles.

Dr Alastair Ayton – ‘Friends in High Places: Roger Mortimer (d. 1282), lord of Wigmore, and the English Crown in the reign of Henry III’
Despite the academic attention given to several Mortimers in recent years, Roger Mortimer (d. 1282), lord of Wigmore, remains an elusive figure. He features sporadically in most studies of the thirteenth century and no detailed biography currently exists. This gap in the scholarship is all the more surprising given Roger’s role in the making of his family’s fortunes – from prominent regional powerbrokers to figures of much wider territorial and political significance. This paper looks afresh at Roger’s life and lordship, his rise in the estimations of the English crown, and his relationship with Henry III and the Lord Edward. His career and contribution to events during the period of baronial reform and revolution in England (1258–1267), and beyond, will be examined alongside the rewards he received for his steadfast royal service. Especial attention will be given to the land grants bestowed upon the Mortimers in the aftermath of the battle of Evesham (1265), which, it will be argued, not only enhanced the family’s standing and widened its political horizons but enabled Roger to forge a mighty legacy for himself and his successors.

Cathy Clarke – Power and Patronage in the Shropshire March
The years following 1066 were years of crisis in the Shropshire March, with the rebellion of Earl Eadwine marking the end of Mercian rule. His replacement, Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury refounded the old Mercian house of Wenlock and created a new Benedictine house at Shrewsbury. Over the next hundred years, the Norman elite continued to establish religious communities with the foundation of the monastic houses at Haughmond, Buildwas and Lilleshall. Donations to the houses reflected the networks of loyalty and political allegiances of their benefactors, in the unstable borderlands far from the political core. Each of the houses enjoyed a period of expansion as their patrons displayed their power and influence in the county through grants of land, mills, churches and resources, whilst monastic fashion and church reform was reflected in the order chosen by the founder to populate each house. The story of the establishment of the major monastic houses of Shropshire is the story of the development of the county’s political elite in the first hundred years after the Norman conquest.

Gabriella Williams – ‘The Mortimers in Yorkist Iconography’
This paper explores the representation and significance of the Mortimer line within the iconography of the House of York, particularly that of Richard, Duke of York and his sons Edward IV and Richard III. It discusses the extent to which the Mortimer legacy was a crucial component of Yorkist identity and propaganda, as well as a tool for political legitimisation.

Dr Ian Mortimer – ‘Medieval Horizons. Why the Middle Ages Matter’
From the murder of Thomas Becket to the Peasants’ Revolt and the Black Death, we sometimes think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time, characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. But we couldn’t be more wrong. Ian Mortimer shows how between 1000 and 1600 the medieval world was in fact a revolutionary age marking the transition between a warrior-led society and the Elizabethan Age.