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Dr Alex Brown's Outputs (17)

Robin Hood: Social Hierarchy and Social Mobility (2024)
Book Chapter
Brown, A. T. Robin Hood: Social Hierarchy and Social Mobility. In S. H. Rigby (Ed.), Historians on Robin Hood: The Outlaw's Legend in the Later Middle Ages. Boydell & Brewer

Oaths of Fidelity: Loyalty and Officeholding in Late Medieval Durham (2024)
Journal Article
Brown, A. T. (2024). Oaths of Fidelity: Loyalty and Officeholding in Late Medieval Durham. History, 109(384-385), 34-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.13384

Oaths of fidelity, homage and fealty were ubiquitous in late medieval England. Variously given by tenants, officeholders and retainers, such oaths represented a promise of loyalty and goodwill towards a lord. Individuals might make many such professi... Read More about Oaths of Fidelity: Loyalty and Officeholding in Late Medieval Durham.

Institutional memory and legal conflict in the Old Borough of Durham, 1300–1450 (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, A. T., & Cox, B. (2023). Institutional memory and legal conflict in the Old Borough of Durham, 1300–1450. Continuity and Change, 38(3), 255 - 281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416023000322

Historians have long used the archives of major institutions to shed light on medieval society, but in more recent decades the focus has turned towards the proliferation of legal documentation possessed by those lower down the social order and the in... Read More about Institutional memory and legal conflict in the Old Borough of Durham, 1300–1450.

Social Security in Late Medieval England: Corrodies in the Hospitals and Almshouses of Durham Priory (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, A. T. (2024). Social Security in Late Medieval England: Corrodies in the Hospitals and Almshouses of Durham Priory. Historical Research, 97(276), 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htad033

Historians have debated the extent of poor relief and social security provision in late medieval England, yet our knowledge about the inmates of hospitals and almshouses remains limited. Corrodies – grants of food, clothes and shelter – have been see... Read More about Social Security in Late Medieval England: Corrodies in the Hospitals and Almshouses of Durham Priory.

Health inequality in Britain before 1750 (2021)
Journal Article
Kendall, E. J., Brown, A. T., Doran, T., Gowland, R., & Cookson, R. (2021). Health inequality in Britain before 1750. SSM - Population Health, 16, Article 100957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100957

Background This study examines the claim that social inequality in health in European populations was absent prior to 1750. This claim is primarily based on comparisons of life expectancy at birth in England between general and ducal (elite aristocra... Read More about Health inequality in Britain before 1750.

The Fear of Downward Social Mobility in Late Medieval England (2019)
Journal Article
Brown, A. (2019). The Fear of Downward Social Mobility in Late Medieval England. Journal of Medieval History, 45(5), 597-617. https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2019.1660206

Studies of medieval social mobility have tended to focus upon the success of socially ambitious, generally male, careerists. Alongside this tendency to use social mobility as a synonym for upward mobility has been a tradition of assigning the most ag... Read More about The Fear of Downward Social Mobility in Late Medieval England.

Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society, 1300-1800: Revisiting Postan and Tawney (2016)
Book
Brown, A., & Bowen, J. P. (Eds.). (2016). Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society, 1300-1800: Revisiting Postan and Tawney. University of Hertfordshire Press

English rural society underwent fundamental changes between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries with urbanisation, commercialisation and industrialisation producing new challenges and opportunities for inhabitants of rural communities. However, o... Read More about Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society, 1300-1800: Revisiting Postan and Tawney.

Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society (2016)
Book Chapter
Brown, A., & Bowen, J. P. (2016). Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society. In A. Brown, & J. P. Bowen (Eds.), Custom and Commercialisation in English Rural Society, 1300-1800: Revisiting Postan and Tawney. University of Hertfordshire Press

Crises in Economic and Social History: A Comparative Perspective (2015)
Book
Brown, A., Burn, A., & Doherty, R. (Eds.). (2015). Crises in Economic and Social History: A Comparative Perspective. Boydell Press

This collection of essays brings together historians examining social and economic crises from the thirteenth century to the twenty-first. Crisis is an almost ubiquitous concept for historians, applicable across (amongst others) the histories of agri... Read More about Crises in Economic and Social History: A Comparative Perspective.

Rural Society and Economic Change in County Durham: Recession and Recovery, c.1400-1640 (2015)
Book
Brown, A. (2015). Rural Society and Economic Change in County Durham: Recession and Recovery, c.1400-1640. Boydell & Brewer

In the middle of the fifteenth-century, the economy of north-east England was beset by crises: population was low, production was stagnant and many landowners faced penury. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, the precocious development of t... Read More about Rural Society and Economic Change in County Durham: Recession and Recovery, c.1400-1640.

Economic Life (2015)
Book Chapter
Brown, A. (2015). Economic Life. In R. Swanson (Ed.), The Routledge History of Medieval Christianity, 1050-1500 (295-308). Routledge

This chapter explores the role played by the Church in the economic life of medieval Europe, both as a major landowner and a moral instructor. As such, it shows the diverse economic interests of the Church, from the old and wealthy Benedictine founda... Read More about Economic Life.

Estate Management and Institutional Constraints in Pre-Industrial England: the Ecclesiastical Estates of Durham, c.1400-1640 (2013)
Journal Article
Brown, A. (2014). Estate Management and Institutional Constraints in Pre-Industrial England: the Ecclesiastical Estates of Durham, c.1400-1640. The Economic History Review, 67(3), 699-719. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0289.12036

This article explores how far estate management and institutional constraints help to explain the transformations of rural society in England from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The monks of Durham Cathedral Priory and the bishops of Du... Read More about Estate Management and Institutional Constraints in Pre-Industrial England: the Ecclesiastical Estates of Durham, c.1400-1640.

Surviving the mid-fifteenth-century recession : Durham cathedral priory, 1400-1520 (2010)
Journal Article
Brown, A. (2010). Surviving the mid-fifteenth-century recession : Durham cathedral priory, 1400-1520. Northern History, 47(2), 209-231. https://doi.org/10.1179/007817210x12738429860707

The exact chronology of the fifteenth-century recession and its impact on medieval landowners is still far from clear, whilst the stimulus and timing of recovery are even more uncertain. Recent research has shown that the economy of the North-East of... Read More about Surviving the mid-fifteenth-century recession : Durham cathedral priory, 1400-1520.