Medieval England: Power, Politics & Culture

This mid-week symposium, Medieval England: Politics, Power & Culture, the latest in our highly successful series, brings together leading academics and independent scholars for thirteen 40-minute talks. The lectures, exploring history and religion, art and architecture, range from the Anglo Saxon era to the Wars of the Roses. Some take a long view, others a sharp focus. All promise to add detail and perspective to our appreciation of this broad period.

The delightful Swan Hotel, Lavenham, is our host. Lavenham, famous for its extensive group of medieval buildings, reflects the prosperity of the cloth trade in 15th-century East Anglia (its subsequent decline accounts in part for their survival). A special concert by Gothic Voices, world-renowned for the refinement and spirituality of its performances of medieval music, will take place for participants in the magnificent church of St Peter and St Paul.

Speakers

Mark Bailey is Professor of Late Medieval History at the University of East Anglia and High Master of St Paul’s School, London. He has taught at the university of Cambridge and was Visiting Fellow in History at All Souls College, Oxford. He delivered the Ford Lectures in British History at the University of Oxford in 2019. He was previously an England rugby footballer.

Paul Binski is Professor of the History of Medieval Art at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. A Foreign Advisor, International Center of Medieval Art, The Cloisters, New York, he serves on the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission and is chairman of the Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies.

Sarah Foot is the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and a Canon of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. An expert on the Anglo-Saxons, she has published on various aspects of the early English Church (especially monasticism and the experiences of religious women), kings and royal power, and English identity. Her most recent book is Æthelstan: the first King of England (Yale, 2011).

Marc Morris is a historian and broadcaster specialising in the Middle Ages. He has taught at the universities of London and Oxford, and presented the acclaimed TV series, Castle. His books include The Norman Conquest, A Great & Terrible King: Edward I & the Forging of Britain, and King John: Treachery, Tyranny & the Road to Magna Carta. He is currently writing a book on the Anglo Saxons.

Ian Mortimer is author of the best-selling Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England and numerous histories exploring England between the Middle Ages and the 18th century. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, he is a recipient of that body’s Alexander Prize, awarded for his work on the history of medicine.

Richard Plant is an architectural historian and lecturer, with an interest in the medieval and the modern. He studied at Cambridge and the Courtauld, where he obtained a PhD on English Romanesque and the Holy Roman Empire. He has taught at the Courtauld, as well as at University College and Queen Mary College, London. He was formerly the Deputy Academic Director at Christie’s Education.

Heather Gilderdale Scott received research degrees and a PhD from the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute and completed a post-doctoral post at the University of York. She has published broadly on late medieval English art, with a specialism in stained glass. She is editor of Vidimus, the online stained glass magazine, and secretary of Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (GB), the national survey of medieval stained glass.

Gothic Voices

For more than thirty years Gothic Voices has been renowned for the excellence, refinement and beauty of its performances of medieval music, promoting previously unfamiliar music – predominantly from the 11th to 15th centuries – to audiences all over the world.

Gothic Voices’ ground-breaking recording of the music of Hildegard of Bingen, A Feather on the Breath of God, remains one of the best-selling recordings of pre-classical music ever made. It forms part of an award-winning discography of more than twenty CDs, three of which have won the coveted Gramophone Early Music Award. Their most recent disc for Linn Records, The Dufay Spectacle has received great praise from the critics: ‘magnificently transporting us to their 15th-century sound world’ (Gramophone).

The ensemble has toured widely in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, North and South America to great acclaim. Recent highlights include a tour of Spain, BRQ Vantaa, Three Choirs, and Norfolk and Norwich Festivals and the closing concert of Laus Polyphoniae festival.