Landscape and Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Wakefield

This thesis explores the manor of Wakefield in the fourteenth century. Wakefield was unusual as an extremely large manor covering approximately 240 square miles, thus bringing a wide array of landscape types under the remit of one manorial institution. The thesis investigates how the interplay between humans, institutions, and landscape in Wakefield produced distinctive kinds of social and legal conflict. The thesis employs an interdisciplinary methodology, using a rich documentary source— the Wakefield manor court rolls— as its primary body of evidence, while focusing on issues of space, landscape, and lived experience. Breaking with the current dominance of quantitatively-driven research in manorial history, this thesis prioritises qualitative assessment of historical sources. Alongside this, the thesis builds upon recent theoretical innovations in landscape archaeology and anthropology, interpreting the historical data through the lens of bodily experience and physical action.

This methodology is deployed in three subject areas. The first is the effect of the landscape of Wakefield on the way in which residents of the manor negotiated conflict with one another. On this subject, the thesis concludes that the manorial environment made residents highly aware of the public nature of activity within the manor court or in some spaces outside of it, and that they were encouraged to prioritise the effects of their actions on the public standing and reputation of themselves and their opponents.

Following this, the thesis examines the impact of landscape on manorial governance, arguing that the large size of Wakefield contributed to a weaker bond between institutional authority and the authority exercised by leading tenants. Finally, the thesis considers the position of landscape in the display of status and prestige by tenants, finding that being able to control or modify the local landscape was central to the assertion of prestige and authority by Wakefield tenants.