The London Aldermen in the Fifteenth Century
Professor Caroline Barron
Caroline Barron is Emeritus Professor of the History of London in the University of London. She taught at Bedford College and then at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. Her interests have always centred on the medieval city of London, but this has led her to investigate the lives of medieval women, religious beliefs and practices, and the power struggles between London and the Crown (particularly in the reign of Richard II). She has published extensively, including her acclaimed London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200-1500 (Oxford University Press, 2004).
About the event
In 1446 the Clarencieux Herald was commissioned to provide images of the mayor, John Olney and each of the other twenty-four aldermen, together with the then Recorder of London, John Danvers. These remarkable images have been very little studied: why were they commissioned at that time? What can they tell us about the aldermen and what can we find out about these men? Half of them were MPs, and many of them were notable in the city and in the wider realm, but some were comparatively obscure. The remarkable survival of this collection of images provokes further questions: where did these men come from? How did they make (or lose) money? What can we find out about their family life or their children? This talk will be the beginning of an exploration, not the end.