Pre-Orders of Matthew Ward's paperback book available from August

The paperback edition of Matthew Ward's book will be released in the autumn, with preorders available in August.

The Livery Collar in Late Medieval England and Wales: Politics, Identity and Affinity

About the book

First full examination of the medieval livery collar, form, function, and significance.The livery collar had a pervasive presence in late-medieval England. Worn about the neck to denote service to a lord, references to the collar abound in government records, contemporary chronicles and correspondence, and many depictions of the collar can be found in illuminated manuscripts and on church monuments. From the fifteenth century the collar was regarded as a powerful symbol of royal power, the artefact associating the recipient with the king; it also played a significant function in the construction and articulation of political and other group identities during the period.

This first book-length study of the livery collar examines its cultural and political significance from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, in particular between 1450 and 1500, the period associated with the Wars of the Roses. It explores the principal meanings bestowed on the collar, considers the item in its various political contexts, and places the collar within the sphere of medieval identity construction. It also investigates the motives which lay behind its distribution, shedding new light on the nature and understanding of royal power at the time.

About the author

Matthew Ward is a History teaching associate at the University of Nottingham.

"My primary interest is in the interplay between politics and culture in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century, particularly the Wars of the Roses and their immediate aftermath. I utilise a range of source materials, primarily textual, but also visual and material."

Currently I am researching the theme of loyalty in the fifteenth century and am preparing a monograph entitled 'The Culture of Loyalty in the Later Middle Ages'."

For more information and to pre-order a copy head to Boydell & Brewer.