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(16) Summary of research proposal
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MEDIEVAL HISTORY OPTION 3
Conspicuous Consumption and Patronage Habits of Late
Medieval English Noblewomen
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-STRIDE Scholarship (Student Research in Departments) for top 10% of incoming
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students, promote conferences, plan events (e.g. film viewings), update website
(2000-01, 2002-03)
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-Archaeology Fieldwor: University of York Archaeology Field School (summer 2000);
Carini & Associates (Connecticut, summers 2001-02)
-Writing, editing, publishing: The Siren, Smith College art & literary magazine.
Organize annual poetry readings (2000-01, 2002-03)
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Firstname Lastname-Research Proposal for MPhil in Medieval History
option 3
The study of medieval noblewomen in England is a subject that appeals to a wide
audience, general as well as scholarly, especially in light of feminist reinterpretations of
the traditional emphases on marriage, childbirth and romantic chivalric ideals. This broad
interest is perhaps why, as Dr. Christine Carpenter pointed out in our correspondence,
much of the scholarship that has been done on medieval noblewomen has been on a
mainly descriptive level, except in the areas of women's legal position with respect to
their and their husbands' property. Indeed, scholars such as Rowena Archer have
published valuable research on upper class women as household administrators.
However, since historians have come to appreciate the wealth of information pertaining
to noble and gentry women contained in probate records, household accounts, and
correspondences such as the Paston and Stonor letters, the study of these women has
become a rapidly growing branch of socio-cultural history. Jennifer Ward, among others,
has worked on the role of noblewomen in their larger communities. Through examining
the ways in which medieval women actively constructed and influenced their social
identities through their friendship networks and patronage habits, such research has
begun to fill in the gaps of a history that has traditionally discussed women largely in
terms of marriage and childbirth.
Building on this recent research, I propose to study the public lives of late
medieval English noble and gentry women, who, as widows or wives running the
household and conducting business on behalf of absent husbands, were active in
conventionally male spheres. There are many approaches to such a study, but I believe
that it would be highly worthwhile, given the importance of display and conspicuous
consumption as a means of conveying sociopolitical influence among the late medieval
upper classes, to examine visible expressions of female authority. Conspicuous
consumption, patronage, and the use of heraldry and livery are aspects of authority
usually associated with the male nobility, and although there is interesting documentary
and material evidence for such practices among women, I have not come across a study
specifically relating gender and power in terms of patronage and display.
I would use a microcosmic approach, studying household accounts, probate
records, royal records, correspondences and material evidence (where available)
pertaining to a particular woman or family. I would supplement this research with
appropriate comparative examples of other women in order to develop a more
comprehensive analysis of the ways in which upper class women used wealth to construct
their social identities. A useful case study would be that of Joan de Bohun, the widowed
countess of Hereford and Essex in the late fourteenth century. As the mother-in-law of
both Henry IV and the murdered duke of Gloucester, she wielded a great deal of local
and national power, and would exemplify the aspects of female authority I wish to
examine, including the patronage of urban guilds. Dr. Carpenter, who will be taking on a
few MPhil students in 2003-2004, has indicated support for my project (see attached email), and her supervision would be extremely helpful if I were accepted into the
program. In particular, Dr. Carpenter's research on the Stonor family has demonstrated
that valuable contributions to a wider social history can result from examining a group of
highly specific documents. In laying the groundwork for a larger PhD thesis, my work for
the MPhil would allow me make my own contribution to the growing body of research
that is rapidly transforming the study of medieval noblewomen into a serious scholarly
subject.
From: "xxxxxx xxxxxx" <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx >
To:
Firstname Lastname
Date: Thursday - July 25, 2002 5:17 AM
Subject: Your e-mails
Dear xxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for your messages and attachments, all of which I have now read.
First, do by all means put in an application for the medieval History MPhil in
2003-4. But I should tell you that my particular group of classes will almost
certainly not be happening in that year because I am certainly on leave in the
Michaelmas Term and hope to be on leave in Lent (so that would cut out the two
terms in which we do Option 3 classes). However, during this coming year, when
I am on leave for the whole year, thanks to a British Academy Fellowship, there
will be an excellent alternative set of classes, on kingship, done by a group of
mostly younger Cambridge scholars, and these will include centre/locality themes
and I am expecting that these will be more or less replicated the following year if I
am indeed off for two terms. Whatever happens, I shall be taking one or two
MPhil students in 2003-4 so you could certainly name me as a possible
supervisor. I shall be in Cambridge throughout this period of leave but the
decision on admitting you will be, as always, in the hands of the MPhil committee
(I normally sit on this but of course won't be in the coming year), so I can't make
any promises about admission (or indeed about supporting your application to
the committee until I have seen a fully formulated proposal and a sample of your
work).
As far as your proposal goes, I have to admit that I think most of the work on
medieval queens and upper-class women has been intellectually feeble and it is
not a subject which attracts the better class of historian. However, I do think there
are worthwhile subjects relating to women's role in so-to-speak minding the shop
(economically, politically and administratively) in their husbands' absences and in
widowhood and, related to this, to their legal position with respect to their and
their husbands' property, and the legal area is really the only one in which
respectable work has been done on upper-class women. A very obvious thing to
do, but one that's surprisingly not yet done, except at a purely descriptive level,
would be to take Margaret Paston, as wife and widow, and extrapolate from her
through the formal documents which is all we have for most other gentry women
of the period, and see what was revealed by this means about how women's
roles in active affairs were perceived by them and by the men among their
families and in their locality.
I look forward to hearing from you further.
Best wishes
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
From: "xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx" <xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx >
To:
Firstname Lastname
Date: Wednesday - August 21, 2002 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: enquiries regarding graduate research and attached writing sample
For an MPhil, all that you need is a convincing proposal (one which you could
change in detail if it doesn't work out). So, you should explain your interest in
noble/gentry women and then set out a proposal and the sort of records you
would look at (as you do in your letter to me). Personally, I think it's better to go
into research via a subject than via a group of records, though the subject has of
course to be viable in record terms (or at least look potentially viable when you
apply). Apart from anything else, a lot of outstanding research has been done by
looking again at well-combed records or using them in conjunction with less well
used ones.
I'm afraid I haven't read your attachments because they will come to me anyway
if you apply here (especially if you put my name on the form) and, until you put in
your application and it has gone through the various offices, I have no standing in
the process. I hope you will forgive me this negligence but I am extremely busy
and, as I said, they WILL come to me eventually.
Best wishes
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
To the Graduate Admissions Committee:
The original hard copy of this essay, which included illustrations, was lost in the post
when I attempted to send it home to myself from the University of St. Andrews. It was
written as coursework for The Medieval Castle, a module taught by Hugh Kennedy,
Professor of Middle Eastern History, Department of Medieval History, University of St.
Andrews. Thank you for your consideration.
The Building Accounts of Tattershall Castle:
a Microcosmic Approach to the Problem of
Conspicuous Display in the Late Medieval Fortified Dwelling
Firstname Lastname
ME3411
The Medieval Castle
7th May, 2002
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
It is a matter of general consensus among architectural historians of late
Medieval England that Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England from 1433 to
1443, was the initiator of one of the greatest secular building programs of the second
quarter of the fifteenth century. He held more than forty manors, and his building
projects ranged from alterations to his family house at Lambley in Nottinghamshire to
more substantial works at his manors of South Wingfield and Tattershall, including the
addition of the impressive, semi-fortified brick towerhouse at the latter (Figure 1).
Aside from the extraordinary range and scale of his building-he tended to have multiple
projects in hand at the same time-Cromwell had much in common with his
contemporaries. By Cromwell's time, siege warfare had been largely eclipsed by
decisive encounters on the battlefield. Yet in an age when small-scale raids and assaults
instigated by feuding members of the nobility were on the rise, and society was
simultaneously mobile and sharply stratified, it is not surprising that men of wealth and
status undertook to build anew or modify their older dwellings in a manner that was
nearly always visually impressive, yet tended to be of limited military value.
Men like Cromwell, Sir John Fastolf, builder of Caister Castle, Sir Roger
Fiennes, who fortified his manor at Herstmonceux, and Sir Andrew Ogard, responsible
for the brick fortifications at Rye House, were self-made men. They were members of
the minor nobility who gained martial reputations in the French Wars of the early
fifteenth century, rose in the ranks of politics, or prospered through trade. Cromwell,
the son of a minor Lincolnshire baron, belonged to the first category. He fought with
Fastolf at Agincourt,s and his subsequent successful career in diplomacy, culminating in
his promotion to the position of Treasurer of England in 1433, provided him with the
means to express architecturally his newly acquired status.
Like other men of his time with sufficient means and standing, Cromwell
possessed a large household-one hundred persons recorded at Tattershall alone 6 –some
members of whom
1
A. Emery, The Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500 (Cambridge U.P., 2000), p.
313.
2
N.J.G. Pounds, The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a Social and Political History (1990), pp.
250-252; and P. Johnson, The National Trust Book of British Castles (1978), pp. 135-147.
M. Thompson, The Decline of the Castle (1987), pp. 73, 81-83; and Pounds, p. 251. Emery, p. 312.
5
C. Platt, The Castle in Medieval England and Wales (1982), pp. 165-166.
6
W. Douglas Simpson, The Building Accounts of Tattershall Castle (1960), p. xiii.
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
travelled with him from manor to manor and on his visits to the king. 7 This household
included large numbers of indentured retainers for whom accommodation needed to be
provided at the various manors, albeit in quarters separate from those of Cromwell
himself. Among Cromwell's indentured retainers were many estate administrators such
as receivers, auditors and accountants, 8 necessary components in the households of men
like Cromwell, who not only received the annual rents for his manors as well as his
income and the benefits of royal patronage, but also invested large amounts of capital in
his building projects. A few such indentured retainers who received an annual fee for
their services were three agents, Thomas Croxby, John Southwell and John Combe,
who served as `Supervisors of the Works of Ralph, Lord Cromwell at his Castle of
Tateshale...' respectively in 1434-35, 1445-46, and 1451-52. Among other tasks, these
men were responsible for recording the receipts and expenditures of the works at
Tattershall Castle.
These building accounts record annual outlays at Tattershall, and thus, unlike
the weekly accounts of Sir William Hastings' later Kirby Muxloe Castle, do not give the
reader a comprehensive view of the progress of planning and building from beginning
to end. Moreover, the Tattershall accounts unfortunately survive only in a fragmentary
state,9 giving evidence for only four seasons of work (1434-35; 1438-39; 1439-40;
1445-46), in addition to occasional records of minor repairs and alterations.
Nonetheless, the records provide valuable information about the sources of building
materials and the origins of the labourers and skilled craftsmen responsible for the
building itself, as well as occasional glimpses into the progress of construction, from
the mobilisation of funds and resources and the digging of ditches, to the finishing
touches of laying down roofing tiles.
Used in conjunction with known historical circumstances and other sources such
as contemporary building accounts and the architectural remains themselves, the accounts
provide a remarkable starting point for describing the process of `fortifying' a dwelling in
the late medieval context of baronial affinities and competition. A close reading of the
names and places mentioned in the accounts reveals many of Cromwell's economic and
social connections, and thus may help shed light on the feasibility of the various theories
about the possible precedents and sources of inspiration for the great ensemble at
Tattershall and its contemporary manors.
7
Pounds, p. 264.
Emery, p. 194.
9
Simpson, p. xxx.
8
Page Missing
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
The fact that Cromwell's tower is not even mentioned as such-the `great tower
called le Dongeon'-until 1445, more than a decade after the works were initiated,
underscores the tower's changing function in the fifteenth century. While the keeps of the
Norman era were clearly intended as the defensive focus of the castle and were thus often
constructed first17, the fifteenth-century `dongeon' tended to function as the lord's
personal solar tower, providing more private accommodation and audience space
ancillary to the pre-existing hall and chamber blocks in the bailey. That such a hall
existed at Tattershall before the construction of the tower is confirmed not only by
archaeological remains and early drawings (Figure 5), but also by the building accounts,
which mention the `Renewing of a chimney ... namely for the hall of the said castle' in
1434,18 and one assumes that it was in this three-bay hall that the many workmen took
their board in the building season of 1434-35, consuming over £ 18 of victuals provided
by the warden of the household, John Crakehall.19
Tattershall's building accounts do not give explicit information about the internal
layout of the tower, which provides the key to its function as a high-status, private
residence for the lord and his family. They do, however, make mention of a chamber
termed the ‘parlour,' which may refer to the tower before it had reached a height meriting
the label of ‘le dongeon.' Thompson has suggested that, since the corresponding room at
Cromwell's courtyard house at South Wingfield served as an important mess hall or
retiring room for senior household officials, the ground floor room of the Tattershall
tower may have served the same purpose . 2 0 This assumption is further supported by the
presence of a fine chimneypiece in the ground floor room at Tattershall and the provision
of timber panelling mentioned in the 1434-35 expenditures, 2 1 along with the fact that the
room was reached through a doorway leading from the upper end of the adjacent hall,
although without access to the more private upper floors, which were accessed through a
separate door at ground level. Cromwell thus considered it important to provide
comfortable lodgings for his retinue while still making a statement about his own status
by emphasizing the private, ceremonial nature of his own chambers.
________________________________________________________________________
17
Johnson, pp. 42 and 48.
Simpson, p. 47.
19
lbid, p. 50.
20
Thompson, pp. 89-90.
21
lbid, p. 89; and Simpson p. 47.
18
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
A similar arrangement exists at the mid-fourteenth century tower at the nearby
manor of South Kyme, whose forests are mentioned in the accounts as a source of
timber22 and which was occupied in the fifteenth-century by Walter Tailboys, a friend
of Cromwell's whose brother was involved in the building of Tattershall. The tower at
South Kyme also abuts an adjacent hall block giving access to the upper floors
independently of the ground floor chamber.23 The suite of upper floor chambers at both
South Kyme and Tattershall, the latter apparently not alluded to in the accounts,
followed a fairly regular fifteenth-century pattern of first-floor private hall, secondfloor
audience chamber, and third-floor private chamber (Figure 6).
This single-chambered floor plan occurred in variations in other tower-houses,
depending on the needs and purposes of the builders. The more self-contained,
defensive towers at Raglan in Gwent and at Ashby-de-la Zouche, for example, included
kitchens and storerooms on the lower floors in addition to the pre-existing facilities in
their courtyards, and the latter incorporated a chapel in its third floor 24, whereas this
was located in a separate building to the east of the tower at Tattershall. Everywhere,
however, the emphasis in the fifteenth century was on residential comfort, and the
upper rooms of even the most imposing tower-houses were well furnished with
fireplaces and garderobes. 25
While the accounts of Tattershall do not make mention of the elaborate heraldic
detailing of the tower's fireplaces (Figure 7), or the angle tower chambers well-equipped
with closets and garderobes, a general picture of comfort and luxury emerges as we see
the scale of organization required and the care with which resources were mobilized in
order to gain materials of the highest quality for the works. The expenditures in 1434-35
mention the purchase of English floor-boards (`plaunches') and `waynscotts' for
panelling, purchased by Cromwell himself at the port of Hull, a good indication that the
timber for the wainscots was imported from the east, namely Prussia, because of Hull's
associations with Hanseatic merchants and the Teutonic order.26 In the same year,
Cromwell spent over £5 on more than one hundred feet of prepared glass, destined for the
`windows of the parlour above the chamber and on the west side of the hall,' nearly as
much as he did on stone for the castle's external dressings.27
______________________________________________________________________________
22
Simpson, p. 55.
Emery, p. 311.
24
Platt, pp. 157-158.
25
Ibid, pp. 156-157; and R.A. Brown, English Castles (1976), pp. 140-141.
26
Simpson, p. 47.
27
Ibid, pp. 45 and 49.
23
Firstname Lastname
Writing Sample for MPhil in Medieval History
Indeed, Tattershall, more so than the contemporary fortified dwellings at Ashbyde-laZouche and Herstmonceux, belied its military pretensions in the way in which it
sacrificed security for luxury and show by its use of timber flooring and by outfitting its
walls, even at ground level, with large, two-light windows, especially on its western, or
"show" front (Figure 8). 28 However, even at Ashby, which contains no windows at
ground level, and Herstmonceux, where the ground-floor windows were located at a
sufficient height above the water of the moat, residential comfort was not sacrificed, for
the upper chambers were well-lit by increasingly larger windows (Figure 9), and the
ground floor at Ashby was probably the servants' hall.29
The Tattershall accounts again provide little information about the arrangements
of windows, doors, and decorative stone stringcourses and dressings on the faces and
four octagonal angle turrets of the tower. Nor do we hear of the double-tiered wallhead, with its elaborate stone machicolations surmounted by a battlemented parapet, or
of the false machicolations decorating the tops of the turrets. Happily, Cromwell's
tower survives intact, and has engendered much debate over the inspiration and
possible precursors for its imposing, decorative fagade. The Supervisors of the Works
at Tattershall did, however, provide us with abundant information about the building
materials used, a feature of the accounts that may throw light on the scholarly debates
of past decades.
An important trend in fifteenth-century architecture was the increasing
employment of brick as the primary building material, and Cromwell, at Tattershall,
made early extensive use of it. Separate accounts devoted to brick inventory were
drawn up each season, projecting the number of bricks required for various projects at
the castle. For example, in 1438-39, bricks were needed for lining the `contremure'
(revetment wall) of the inner ditch, the chimneys and windows of the stable, and the
partitions of the chimneys `within the said Castle' amounted to 619,000. In the
following season, over four million bricks were needed, over half of them to be devoted
to the ,raising the two galleries and likewise walls of the castle at the end of the kitchen
and its chimneys.' 30 With work on this scale, it is not surprising that Cromwell's agents
spent over £115 on the making, firing and carriage of bricks in 1434-35, nearly ten
times the amount spent on the purchase and carriage of the fine `asshelers' and
`formepeces' used in the external dressings. 31
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
28
Platt, pp. 156, 169-170; and Thompson, pp. 84-85.
29
Thompson, p. 93.
30
Simpson, p. 65 and 73. "
31
Ibid, pp. 44-46.
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Such extensive amounts of brick required the use of water transport, and
Cromwell, like his friend and former companion at arms John Fastolf and many other
contemporaries, 3 2 purchased boats on more than one occasion for carrying stones from
various local quarries to Tattershall, and for delivering thence bricks that had been
made-to-order at his own local brick kilns at Boston and Edlington Moore. 33 Although
cheaper to make and transport than the traditional stone, the bricks used in the facades
of Tattershall and other buildings were of high quality and served a mainly decorative
purpose, as demonstrated by the diapered patterning at Tattershall, the contemporary
gatehouse at Rye House and Hertfordshire (Figure 10) 34 and later at Kirby Muxloe
(Figure 11) and the more elaborate example at the tower of Farnham Castle, built by
Bishop William Waynflete of Winchester (Figure 1 2 ) . 3 5
Like the fine Asshby sandstone `formepeces' used at Tattershall, as well as at
the other costly buildings at Ashby-de-la-Zouche and Kirby Muxloe,36 the bricks for
such edifices had to be specially moulded and fired. The making of these purposemoulded bricks, or `hewentile' required the services of skilled `brekmasons' who were
more highly paid than `roughbrekmasons' responsible for the bulk of the main walls,
the former receiving £47 in 1438-1439 as opposed to the latter's £ 18. 37 The most
highly paid of these skilled brick masons, and the one whose name features most
frequently in the accounts, was Baldewyn Brekmaker, also known as Bawdwin
Docheman. Based on the sheer numbers of bricks he was charged with making at
Edlington Moore (nearly 500,000 in 1439, some of which were `at the disposal of
Baldewyn Brekmaker') and his other responsibilities, such as transporting and choosing
materials, he was probably the master brick mason, responsible for much of the
decorative work of the tower's facade.
38
A number of precedents have been named as possible inspirations for the 'showfront' fagade of the tower at Tattershall, and for the general use of brick there and
elsewhere, and none of these scholarly theories can be ruled out based on the evidence
available in the building accounts. Most scholars have long agreed that the influence for
Tattershall's machicolated wall_____________________________________________________________________________________________
32
Pounds, p. 260, and Thompson, pp. 74 and 80.
33
Simpson, p. 46.
34
Thompson, p. 87.
35
The latter's castle was no doubt directly inspired by Tattershall, for he was the main executor of Cromwell's
will, responsible for building the college of priests erected for Cromwell posthumously at Tattershall, where
bricks were also employed, being bought from Tattershall as early as 1445-46 (Simpson, pp. xiii and 74.)
36
/bid, pp. 44-45.
37
/bid, pp. 60 and 65.
38
Ibid, pp. xxvii, 44 and 73
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head is to be found in France, where similar examples of tall towers with angle turrets,
machicolated parapets and elaborately fenestrated facades may be found at the late
fifteenthcentury donjon of the Palais de Justice at Poitiers, at Pierrefonds, built at the
turn of the fifteenth century, and at the mid-fifteenth century tower-house at Rambures
(Figures 13-15). A French influence is certainly not out of the question in light of
Cromwell's early military experience, and surely it is no coincidence that the veteran
soldier Fastolf also furnished his tower at Caister with machicolation in the French
manner, as did Hastings, who fought in France towards the end of the Hundred Years
War, at Ashby-de-la-Zouche.39
While the building accounts neither affirm nor deny a French influence for
Tattershall's lofty machicolations, we are on firmer ground when it comes to the use of
brick. It is true that Rambures employs brick in its fabric, but its late date makes it an
unlikely precursor for Tattershall itself. Brick as the principle building material was
more common in the Low Countries and in Germany. While some of Cromwell's
contemporaries, including Fastolf may have seen military action, and fortification, in
Flanders,40 W. Douglas Simpson makes a convincing case for German antecedents,
which the accounts seem to uphold. The 'Eastland' timber imported into the Hanse port
of Hull has already been mentioned, and Fastolf, Cromwell's close friend, erected his
slender tower resembling the Wasserburgen of the Rhineland at Caister near Yarmouth,
another Hanse centre in England (Figure 16). 41
Baldwin `the Dutchman' and his colleagues have been identified as having
originated from either Flanders or Germany. While it is known that skilled brick
masons with Flemish names were employed in England at this time, Simpson has
pointed out that the label `Dutchman' tended to be used in the sense of Deutsch,
especially in fifteenth-century London. Another of the leading brick masons at
Tattershall, Godfrey Brekman, received wages `at London on his first engagement and
retention by my lord, in part payment... for this whole engagement by his indenture. 42 If
Baldwin, Godfrey and at least six other creditors with the surnames `Brekmason,'
`Brekmaker' and `Docheman'43 were indeed German, it is possible that they made
Cromwell aware of the East Prussian brick diapering tradition, and more specifically,
the heavily
______________________________________________________________________
39
Platt, pp. 157-158, 166.
Pounds, p. 260 and 270.
41
Brown, p. 139; and Simpson, pp. xxvi-xxvii.
42
Simpson, pp. xxvi and 59.
43
/bid, pp. 64-65.
40
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machicolated and elaborately fenestrated 'show-front' of the palace of the Grand Master
of the Teutonic Order at Marienburg in Prussia (Figure 17).44
Disputed origins aside, Cromwell hired Baldwin and Godfrey et al. because one
way or another he had been alerted of their skill: it is significant that Godfrey had
apparently just arrived in London, probably invited by Cromwell himself, for his wages
were listed under the Receipts heading `Cash from my lord's coffers.' The trend caught
on, and skilled Low Countries/German brick masons came to be employed at other
fifteenth-century building sites, including Kirby Muxloe and Bishop Waynflete's
Farnham Castle.45 It has been pointed out that English antecedents for brick facades
should not be ruled out, and the late-fourteenth century Lincolnshire gatehouse at
Thornton Abbey provides a notable example, although without the "skilful use'of cut and
moulded brick" evident at Tattershal1.46 The earlier date may indicate that skilled foreign
brick masons were not employed.
Cromwell, a "new man" striving to express his status by building with the highest
quality, most fashionable material possible, was at the forefront of introducing these
workers into England, but as the brick masons settled in their new home, they surely
passed on their skills to native craftsmen. Kirby Muxloe's master bricklayer, John Home,
seems, for example, to have been English .47 It is also true that the majority of labourers
and craftsmen working at Tattershall and elsewhere were English,48 or at least possessed
English trade names. In some cases, the origins of the workers are mentioned. The
accounts list wages for an Agnes Besyngham of nearby Kyme and a John Mason of
`Waynflet,' as well as for workers who lived as far afield as Robert Mason of Yorkshire.49
The varied origins of the craftsmen and labourers mentioned in the accounts give
an indication of the fluidity of baronial affinities and the ease with which precedents and
fashions were transmitted among the social climbing fifteenth-century nobility. Bishop
Waynflete's Farnham and Kirby Muxloe certainly bear a striking resemblance to the
tower at Tattershall, but a more intimate connection is established by the evidence in the
accounts for exchange of labour
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
44
Ibid, p. xxvi.
Thompson, pp. 98-99.
46
Simpson, p. xxvii.
47
Platt, p. 161.
48
Emery, p. 312.
49
Simpson, pp. 45 and 72.
45
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between Waynflete and Kyme and Tattershall, for instance, and by the fact that Hastings
employed John Couper of the works at Tattershall as his master mason for Kirby
Muxloe.50
The number of workers employed at Tattershall, both foreign and local, the costs
spent on their wages and on making, importing and transporting high quality building
materials, are all signs of the sheer scale of effort and expenditure brought to bear on the
works at Cromwell's manorial estate. During the course of the works, Cromwell's agents
spent approximately £450 per building season 51 a sum that tended slightly to exceed the
total annual receipts for the works, and which represented an enormous outlay compared
with Cromwell's regular annual income of about £2,500 from his manor revenues and
official fees combined.52
Clearly, a less wealthy man who did not benefit from the royal patronage
accompanying his privileged position of Lord Treasurer would not have been able to
afford such conspicuous consumption. It must be remembered, too, that Cromwell was
engaged upon several building projects simultaneously during his tenure as treasurer. The
sale of bricks in 1445 to the warden of Tattershall college, founded five years previously,
has already been noted, and the account of 1438-39 mentions `costs incurred at the manor
of Whitehall' and the accountant's own salary for the time when `my lord's household was
at Colyweston,' where works were also in progress.53 The building accounts of Tattershall
Castle make it clear that Ralph, Lord Cromwell, was a busy, ambitious man. They make
no mention of his political or official activities, but when we remember that he was
simultaneously wrangling with the downward-spiraling budget of the troubled
Lancastrian monarchy, his achievement at Tattershall becomes all the more remarkable.
______________________________________________________________________________________
50
Platt, p. 161.
51
Simpson, pp. 54 and 63.
52
Emery, p. 313.
53
/bid, p. 313; and Simpson, p. 61.
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Bibliography
Brown, R.A., English Castles (1976).
Emery, A., The Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales,1300-1500
(Cambridge U.P., 2000).
Johnson, P., The National Trust Book of British Castles (1978).
Platt, C., The Castle in Medieval England and Wales (1982).
Pounds, N.J.G., The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a Social and
Political History (1990).
Simpson, W. Douglas, The Building Accounts of Tattershall Castle (1960).
Thompson, M.W., The Decline of the Castle (1987).