Description

The Department of History announces with great pleasure the PhD success of Sarah Rose's thesis, 'Landed Society and The Honour of Pontefract, c.1086-1509'. The external examiner, Professor David Carpenter (KCL) expressed his view that the thesis should be published at the earliest opportunity.

The thesis examines the honour of Pontefract between the late eleventh century and the end of the fifteenth century, from the perspective of its lords and leading tenants. Lateral and hierarchical relationships within Pontefract's landed society are analysed in order to assess the honour's long-term survival as a meaningful socio-political entity. In so doing, the study challenges perceptions of honorial decline, and argues instead that in the case of Pontefract, at least, the honour remained a valid unit of lordship and community over the longue duree of four centuries.