Sir Thomas Gray's Scalacronica: a medieval chronicle and its historical and literary context

Sir Thomas Gray's Scalacronica is almost unique amongst medieval English chronicles in having been written by a knight, and it is therefore surprising that so little work has been done on it; this thesis attempts to remedy that omission. Gray's life is very well documented, as is that of his father (who was the source of much of the Scalacronica’s narrative of the reign of Edward II - and also its main subject). Thus, unusually with a medieval chronicle, it is possible to examine the work in the context of its author’s career, providing a valuable insight into the attitudes and learning of a member of the gentry classes in fourteenth-century England. The Scalacronica starts with a well known literary dream sequence in which Gray names some of his written sources. An analysis of this passage reveals much about Gray's learning and his methods as a historian - and about his literary pretensions. He also relied on stories gleaned from his father; the manner in which he integrated them with his written sources is equally revealing about his interests and priorities. As the elder Gray was close to the court of Edward II, his son's political commentary is particularly interesting, providing an alternative to the more usual pro-Lancastrian bias of medieval chroniclers. Furthermore, both the father and son were prominent in the administration of the Marches, so the Scalacronica has an obvious - but hitherto unrecognised - relevance to current historiographical debates on the role of the gentry. Finally, the Scalacronica has been widely regarded as a 'chivalric' chronicle, embodying the values of medieval romance. However, a close analysis of Gray's text reveals that while he admired and respected acts of martial heroism, his attitude to the trappings of fourteenth-century chivalric culture was highly disdainful, and even cynical

An analysis of the North East Worker Registration Scheme Data: A briefing paper for the Regional Migrant Worker Steering Group

It has recently been stated that the opening up of the UK labour market to the new accession countries (A8s) has initiated the largest ever in-migration to these shores . Whilst there are no accurate figures of the precise number of migrants involved in this, there are a number of statistical sources that provide data on it. One of these is the Worker Registration Scheme , which whilst carrying a number of ‘health warnings’ as to accuracy of flows is useful for labour market data. For the North East, though, the publicly available accession reports include Yorkshire and Humber in their overall totals. However, the author has obtained, through freedom of information, the full North East data set . What follows are the key regional headlines and then three more in-depth sections on (1) the nationality of North East A8 workers (2) their age and gender and (3) their occupation. The key regional headlines are: Between May 2004 and September 2006, 4,934 A8 workers registered to the Scheme in the North East. This is by far the lowest number of registered A8 workers of any UK region; Sixty-six per cent of these workers were Polish. This is slightly higher than the overall UK proportion of sixty-three per cent. With the only other notable group regionally being Lithuanians (13%) again slightly higher than the UK proportion (11%);The male:female ratio of registered workers was 64:36. This is a higher male proportion than at a national level where the ratio was 57:43. Seventy-four per cent of registered workers were aged 18-34. This, though, is lower than the UK proportion of eighty-two per cent; The most frequent occupation of A8 registered workers was factory process operative (1,660). A third of all regional registered workers were classified as undertaking this occupation

An analysis of the North East Worker Registration Scheme data: Second briefing paper for the Talent North East Steering Group

This is the second briefing paper for the Steering Group on registrations by A8 workers to the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) in the North East. It is based on a freedom of information request and contains the full data set for the North East region. This full set includes seven separate periods which allows some discussion of change over two distinct periods. The data does, though, carry a number of ‘health warnings’ as to accuracy of migration flow. This second set of data also has further caveats as it is now provided not with the original postcode of employers but with their postcode already broken down into local authority boundaries. What this means is that (1) currently up to six per cent of those who have registered are not now included. This is because they have originally not provided a completely accurate postcode and are therefore excluded when the sets are broken down into local authority boundaries. The occupation data set also contains only the top ten occupations. In both cases this means that some A8 registered workers who were included in briefing one are now not. For example this is most apparent with the occupation data and in particular the Administrative SOC2000 category which has been reduced from 112 to just 15; (2) the four separate data sets obtained (nationality, gender, age and occupation) have differing final and therefore sub?regional totals. The author has been informed that this is due to firstly people not answering all the questions when registering and secondly that the sets are now rounded to the nearest five as is common to maintain individual anonymity. As other national migration data sources, for example the national insurance number allocations for foreign workers and the labour force survey, also have their own limitations when used in a North East, sub?regional and local authority context. The WRS data still provides useful labour market A8 migration information for the region and is one part of a wider picture of change in our regional labour market since May 2004

Northumberland at War

At the Battle of Towton in 1461 the Lancastrian forces of Henry VI were defeated by the Yorkist forces of Edward IV. However Henry VI, with his wife, son and a few knights, fled north and found sanctuary in Scotland, where, in exchange for the town of Berwick, the Scots granted them finance, housing and troops. Henry was therefore able to maintain a presence in Northumberland and his supporters were able to claim that he was in fact as well as in theory sovereign resident in Northumberland. For three years and four months he was able to be maintained in this state and to offer a real challenge to Edward IV. This thesis seeks to answer the question, ‘how was it possible that the Lancastrian presence survived for such a long time?’ This under-researched episode in English history is the subject of this dissertation. It examines the lack of zest of Henry VI and how his wife, Margaret of Anjou, and some of her knights, notably Sir Ralph Percy and Henry, Duke of Somerset, made up for this by bravery and resource. It examines the lacklustre performance of the Scots and the reluctance of the French to get fully involved in England’s most northern county. It shows that the claim of almost all historians that Northumberland was a Lancastrian county is altogether false and that the number of local people who were involved in the fighting was in fact very small. This dissertation interrogates the secondary sources and tests them against both the primary sources and the logistical possibilities and restrictions of fifteenth-century warfare. The result is a retelling of a familiar story with surprising results

Plan analysis of the medieval boroughs of Northumberland.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D79954 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

IDENTIFYING A PREDICTABLE PROPERTY CRIME TREND MODEL IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND

This research examines the association of property crime sub-groups at police force district or basic command unit level, using official monthly police statistics and official claimant count (unemployment) data. The research focused on the region of the North East of England, encompassing the police force areas of Cleveland, Northumbria and Durham. The research used a post National Crime Recording Standards, (NCRS) sampling period, (April 2002 to March 2008) inclusive. The results based upon monthly time series data suggest that crime data is indeed integrated to the order one or I(1) and that there exists a co-integrating relationship between a number of property crime sub-groups, claimant counts and related crime sub-groups. The results suggest that the geographical area type has an influence on crime modelling. The research also gives an indication that further research may be warranted in the areas of crime substitution and crime recording practices at a sub-police force level. This research was supported by Cleveland Police and the National Police College Bramshill Fellowship Programme

An Occult and Alchemical Library

Essay on the acquisition of the Charles Rainsford collection of occult and alchemical manuscripts