Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Late Medieval Origins of Early Modern Networks
- 3 Post-Reformation Kinship and Social Networks
- 4 Architecture, Gardens, and Cultural Networks
- 5 Catholics, Political Life, and Citizenship
- 6 Catholic Networks, Patronage, and Clientage
- 7 Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Late Medieval Origins of Early Modern Networks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Late Medieval Origins of Early Modern Networks
- 3 Post-Reformation Kinship and Social Networks
- 4 Architecture, Gardens, and Cultural Networks
- 5 Catholics, Political Life, and Citizenship
- 6 Catholic Networks, Patronage, and Clientage
- 7 Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter establishes the medieval origins of the post-Reformation kinship networks that are the focus of the book. It establishes the long-term qualities of networks, the strategies families used to build and maintain networks of support, and the role of gender in medieval network formation. Through crown and government service, and through sociability within local and county communities, social bonds developed that resulted in intermarriage between families. Affinity groups grew over time into large multidimensional networks with varying levels of connection. Late medieval networks helped gentry families to navigate fifteenth-century political upheaval and established the foundations that fostered post- Reformation kinship and social networks.
Keywords: medieval, family, networks, war, affinity
In 1471, Sir William Vaux and Sir Thomas Tresham, courtiers to Queen Margaret of Anjou, were killed within days of one another. Vaux was killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury; shortly thereafter, Yorkist forces executed Tresham along with several other men. The two gentlemen, cousins through their mothers, were buried in the Tewkesbury Abbey church in Gloucestershire. Their sons, Sir Nicholas and Sir John, worked together in Northamptonshire government in the first two decades of the sixteenth century. The men were bound by ties of kinship and friendship; in 1520, Sir John named Sir Nicholas as supervisor of his will, a role assigned to someone deeply trusted by a testator. As decades passed, the two families and their cousins, the Catesbys and Throckmortons, strengthened earlier connections through additional marriages, godparentage, and friendship. In the late sixteenth century, William, third Baron Vaux, and Sir Thomas Tresham were close friends and brothers-in-law. Tresham's sister Mary was Vaux's wife, and his favorite niece, Muriel Vaux, was named for Tresham's wife. These families inhabited a network built upon ancient family connections, made up of the descendants of some of the most esteemed families in fifteenth-century England. As Catholics in Protestant England, Lord William and Sir Thomas relied on their kinship connections and the wider social networks to which they belonged for protection, promotion, and moral support.
The Vaux–Tresham example highlights patterns of continuity and change in kinship and social networks between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Catholic Social Networks in Early Modern EnglandKinship, Gender, and Coexistence, pp. 39 - 68Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021