MHS Lectures Online

Women in Medieval Wales and the Marches
Saturday 27th January 2024

Lay lady, lay: Rediscovering skilled medieval women in Wales ☛☛
– Dr Erin Lloyd Jones
‘The Clare Women: Stories of female freedom and fear in the Welsh Marches’ ☛☛
– Sarah Sprules, MA

Writing the past: Great historical fiction and the medieval history that inspires it
Saturday 25th November 2023

Research – the search for accuracy and a journey towards truth ☛☛
– Toby Clements, author of the King Maker series
Recovering England’s earliest women writers ☛☛
– Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain
“To my right worshipful husband, John Paston. Be this delivered in haste” ☛☛
– Anne O’Brien, Sunday Times best-selling author

Autumn Symposium 2023
Saturday 7th October 2023

Betrayal in the Belfry – Bishop Anian and the demise of Llywelyn the Last ☛☛
– Dr Shaun McGuiness
The Mysterious Fate of Edward II ☛☛
– Kathryn Warner
The Mortimer Solution to the Princes in the Tower ☛☛
– Matt Lewis
‘Anne Mortimer’s Arthurian Legacy to the House of York ☛☛
– Dr J L Laynesmith
Autumn Symposium: Panel Discussion ☛☛

Marriage, Sex, and Dynasty Building
Saturday 20th May 2023

Aristocratic marriage in England and the March of Wales in the 12th & 13th centuries ☛☛
– Dr Emma Cavell
Sex in the Middle Ages ☛☛
– Dr Katherine Harvey
Dynastic Marriage: Mortimer’s Greatest Legacy ☛☛
– Dr Chloë R. Mckenzie
The Spares’: Church, Army, and Administration ☛☛
– Philip Hume FSA

Education and Learning in Medieval Wales and the Marches
Online Conference – Saturday 28th January 2023
Evening Talks – Wednesday evenings 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd in February 2023

Elementary education in the late mediaeval Marches: exploring the manuscripts ☛☛
– Dr David Thomson
Wales, the Marches and Universities ☛☛
– Dr Rhun Emlyn
Changing Boundaries: Astronomy & the 12th Century Welsh Marches ☛☛
– Dr Katharine Bader
‘Adam Usk (c. 1350-1430): Clerk, lawyer, Welshman, traitor’ ☛☛
– Professor Chris Given-Wilson
‘Ny bydd ynad neb heb ddysc’: Legal Learning in Medieval Wales ☛☛
– Dr Sara Elin Roberts
“Gerald of Wales: A Twelfth-Century Writer and Cleric” ☛☛
– Dr Georgia Henley
Walter Brut: Astronomer, Farmer, Heretic, Rebel ☛☛
– Dr Rhun Emlyn

Castles Symposium: Castles in Wales and the Marches
8th October 2022 – a day conference held in Ludlow Assembly Rooms

The priest and knight may come in” ….. but who else populated the medieval castle? ☛☛
– Dr Pamela Marshall FSA
Edward I’s Castles in Wales ☛☛
– Dr Andy King
Raglan Castle ☛☛
– Dr John Kenyon, FSA
Castrum Leonis Roars Again: Reconstruction Holt Castle, Denbighshire ☛☛
– Chris Jones-Jenkins FSA
The royal castles of Edward I & the English control of North Wales, 1283-1400 ☛☛
– Dr Jeremy Ashbee, FSA

How to Build a Castle
30th July 2022 – a day conference held in Ludlow Assembly Rooms and Ludlow Castle
How to Build a Castle Part 1: Fundamentals ☛☛
– Dr Malcolm Hislop
The Norman Castle at Ludlow, c. 1085- c. 1177: Design and Context ☛☛
– Prof Matt Strickland
Ludlow Castle and its domestic developments from the late thirteenth century ☛☛
– Dr John Kenyon
Usk and the Mortimers
9th July 2022 – a half-day conference in memory of John Grove,
founder of the Mortimer History Society and of the Usk Castle Friends

Usk Castle – its History and Buildings ☛☛
– Will Davies, Cadw
The Contested History of the Lordship of Usk ☛☛
– Kirsten Lawton-Smith MA
The Mortimers and Usk ☛☛
– Connor Williams

The Rupture of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy after the fall of ducal Normandy 1204
22nd June 2022 – the inaugural John Grove Memorial Lecture
– Professor Daniel Power – available to members of MHS on application to the Secretary
Mayhem, Murder and Marriage:
The Mortimers and the Welsh Princes

14th May 2022 – a one-day conference held at Knighton and also online

Competition and conquest: native Welsh society and the early Norman inroads ☛☛
– Dr Euryn Williams
The Land between Wye and Severn: a Mortimer obsession ☛☛
– Dr David Stephenson
Conflict and coexistence: Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and the Mortimers ☛☛
– Dr Rhun Emlyn
Cousins at War: Roger Mortimer and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd ☛☛
– Philip Hume FSA
A “notorious association”: Owain Glyndŵr and Sir Edmund Mortimer ☛☛
– Prof. Gruffudd Aled Williams
Question and Answer Session with the first three speakers ☛☛

Princely Ambition:
Ideology, Castle Building and Landscape in Gwynnedd 1194-1283
2nd March 2022 – the online launch of Dr Craig Owen Jones’ new book

– Craig Owen Jones’ talk ☛☛
– Question and Answer Session ☛☛

Passion and Power in the Marches
12th February 2022 – a half-day conference held online

Prince, Lord or Vassal: the Life of Gwenwynwyn ab Cyfeiliog, Prince of Powys ☛☛
– Dr Craig Owen Jones
The Corbets and Inter-Marcher Warfare: Reconsidering Definitions ☛☛
– Dr Melissa Julian-Jones
Nest ferch Rhys: Princess, Mistress, Mother ☛☛
– John Fleming MA

The House of Magnificence: Aspects of the Kingship of Edward III
4th December 2021 – a half-day conference held online

Edward III and a Plantagenet Appanage Policy ☛☛
– Dr David Green
Edward III and the lords of the Welsh March: Power and Privilege ☛☛
– Dr Matt Raven
Edmund Mortimer, Alice Perrers and the Good Parliament of 1376 ☛☛
– Dr Laura Tomkins
Question and Answer Session ☛☛

Patronage and Power in the Medieval March of Wales: One Family’s Story
25th November 2021 – the online launch of Dr David Stephenson’s new book

– Dr Stephenson’s talk ☛☛
– Questions to Dr Stephenson ☛☛

“The Murder of Evesham, for Battle it was None”:
The Second Barons’ War and the Battle of Evesham (1258-1265)
2nd October 2021 – a one-day conference held at Evesham and also online

Henry III: the Captive King ☛☛
– Prof David Carpenter
A Rebel Princess: Eleanor de Montfort and the 2nd Barons’ War ☛☛
– Prof Louise Wilkinson
The Leopard Prince: Lord Edward and the 2nd Barons’ War ☛☛
– Dr Andrew Spencer
And with his Lance he Struck him through the Neck:
Roger Mortimer and the 2nd Barons’ War
 ☛☛
– Dr Andy King
Question and Answer Session ☛☛

Perceptions of the Past in the March of Wales
22nd June 2021 – the MHS Summer Lecture held online because of pandemic restrictions
– Professor Huw Pryce ☛☛
“All those things he wished to accomplish, he wisely brought to an end”:
Edward I, Wales and the Marches

15th May 2021 – a half-day conference held online because of pandemic restrictions

The Lord Edward’s Marcher Lordship, 1254-1272 ☛☛
– Dr Alastair Ayton
Edward I and the Tale of two Audiences ☛☛
– Dr Kathleen Neal
Panel Discussion: Castles, with particular reference to the Edwardian castles in North Wales ☛☛
– an impromptu discussion due to the late indisposition of a speaker

Three Suns were seen in the Firmament:
The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross 1461
27th March 2021 – a half-day conference held online because of pandemic restrictions

The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross and its Political Legacy in the 15th Century ☛☛
– Dr Sean Cunningham
The Mortimer Retinue 1451-1469 ☛☛
– Steve David MA
Mortimer’s Cross 1461: The Elusive Battlefield ☛☛
– Anthony Rich TD, Battlefield Guide

Cherchez la Femme:
Queenship, Law & Marriage in Medieval Wales and its March
13th February 2021 – an afternoon conference held online because of pandemic restrictions

Far More Things Forbidden: Women and their Rights in Medieval Welsh Law ☛☛
– Dr Sara Elin Roberts
Joan, Lady of Wales: A Model of Welsh Queenship or an Exception to the Norm? ☛☛
– Dr Danna Messer
Willing Wives: Married Women, Wills & the Consistory Court of Hereford c.1400-1520 ☛☛
– Dr Cordelia Beattie

Decorated in Glory:
Churches, Church Building and People in Herefordshire in the 14th century
21st November 2020 – a morning conference held online because of pandemic restrictions

Decorated in Glory: Church Building in Herefordshire in the 14th century ☛☛
– Prof. Nigel Saul
Reflected Glory? the Iconography of England’s two St Thomases in Herefordshire ☛☛
– Dr Ian Bass
Sins, Saints and Salvation: Medieval Wall Paintings in daily life ☛☛
– Tanya Heath

The King’s Writ does not run here: the Medieval Welsh Marcher Lordships
3rd October 2020 – a conference held online because of pandemic restrictions
The King’s Messenger will eat the Royal Message, Wax Seal and all ☛☛
– Philip Hume
It takes Two to Tango: The Welsh View of the March ☛☛
– Dr David Stephenson
Law and Lordship in the March of Wales ☛☛
– Dr Sara Elin Roberts
The Earldom of Pembroke ☛☛
– John Fleming
Questions to the Speakers ☛☛
Roger Mortimer (d1398) 4th Earl of March and Richard II:
Dynastic Policies and “Proximity” to the Crown

16th September 2020 – online because of pandemic restrictions
– Connor Williams ☛☛
Kings, Lords, Soldiers and Horses: The Reality of Medieval Warfare
15th February 2020 at Moor Park near Ludlow, Shropshire
The Place of Battle in the Context of Civil War 1100-c1217 ☛☛
– Prof. Matthew Strickland
The Soldier’s Experience ☛☛
– Dr Andy King
Lordship and Enduring Influence: The Mortimers in Medieval Ireland
30th November 2019 at Church Stretton School, Shropshire
Disputed Isle: The Foundations of Mortimer Power in Ireland ☛☛
– Dr Colin Veach
A Task too Great for One Dynasty? The Mortimers and Medieval Ireland c1340-c1398 ☛☛
– Dr Simon Egan
The Unravelling of Ireland and the Downfall of Richard II ☛☛
– Prof Nigel Saul
The Mortimer Inheritance: Key to the Yorkist Crown
29th June 2019 at St Laurence’s Church, Ludlow
The Fairytale of the Garter Knight and the Grandmother:
The Fall and Rise of the Mortimer Earls of March 1330-1360
☛☛
– Dr Paul Dryburgh
Mortimer and Lancaster: the Origins of a Dynastic Feud ☛☛ 
– Dr Matt Raven
Don’t Mention the Mortimers: How a Putative King became an Impotent Pawn ☛☛
– Prof Chris Given-Wilson
Richard, Duke of York: A Marcher Lord ☛☛
– Matthew Lewis
Richard III: From Ludlow to Bosworth ☛☛
– Matthew Lewis
The Mortimers to 1330: From Wigmore to Ruler of England
18th May 2019 at Leominster Priory, Herefordshire
The Genealogy of the Mortimer Family 1054-1300 ☛☛
– Dr Ian Mortimer
A Single Battle to Win a Country – nearly 200 years to Conquer a Welsh District:
The Mortimers’ Struggle to Control Maelienydd
☛☛
– Philip Hume
Mortimer Women in the 12th and 13th Centuries ☛☛
– Dr Emma Cavell
The Flickering Flame: Roger Mortimer and the Troubled Kingship of Edward II ☛☛
– Dr Paul Dryburgh
Hugh Despenser the Younger: The Rise and Fall of a Royal Favourite ☛☛
– Kathryn Warner
Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown: Roger Mortimer, Ruler and (Possible) Regicide ☛☛
– Dr Paul Dryburgh
On the Record: Writing the Mortimers into History 1066-1425
16th February 2019 at College Hall, Hereford Cathedral
Writing and Reading Chronicles in Medieval England ☛☛
– Prof Michael Staunton
Chronicles and Colleges: Constructing the Image of the Mortimers ☛☛
– Dr Philip Morgan
The Mortimers in the Writings of Iolo Goch and Adam Usk ☛☛
– Prof Helen Fulton

The supposed sarcophagus of Joan, Lady of Wales at Beaumaris

14th century ballflower decoration at Ledbury

Pembroke Castle

Richard, 3rd Duke of York

Part of the Chicago version
of the Wigmore Chronicle

A Sower in the 15thC

The Evil Whale

Dyeing

Reconstructed armour of the Black Prince
at Canterbury Cathedral