The hugely popular Medieval Canterbury Weekend returns this month with a host of inspirational talks and guided visits across the city, celebrating its rich heritage and important place within our national story.
Organised by the Centre for Kent History and Heritage at Canterbury Christ Church University, this year the medieval women take centre stage. Giving a voice to the once silenced females that were only considered as footnotes in history, regardless of their true significance and influence within medieval society.
Broadcaster, cultural historian and author of the instant Sunday Times bestseller Femina : A New History of the Middle Ages Through the Women Written Out of It, Dr Janina Ramirez, will be speaking on Saturday 27 April.
Her talk will be based on her groundbreaking book Femina, where she will dig beneath the surface of our bloodthirsty, patriarchal view of history, of male conquerors and kings, to show how women have been written out of history; erased from our past and explain why that matters for us today. She will re-examine the stories of some extraordinary women from the Middle Ages and use recent discoveries to find lost individuals like the Loftus Princess and the Birka Warrior Woman. Uncovering the incredible impacts these women had on medieval society, proving how our history has been manipulated and affected our view of the past.
Opening the weekend on Friday night, Professor Louise Wilkinson will be telling Maid Marian to move over as she explores the roles open to women in the medieval English royal forest. The royal forest in thirteenth-century England was home to a great many women from all social backgrounds, at least some of whom experienced just as eventful lives as the later literary heroine, Maid Marian.
The Black Death will feature in talks by Professor Mark Bailey, who will review the evidence and the arguments for one of the liveliest current debates in social history: whether the post-Black Death period really was a golden age for women in terms of their being able to enter the labour market? And Dr Alexandra Lee who will offer insights into the ways people in medieval Italy sought to ward off the plague.
Other topics to be explored over the weekend include finding out about the Kentish men who were hanged as traitors following their participation in the uprisings of 1450-51 (Cade’s rebellion); what it was like to live in a medieval urban house; the increase of Green Man images in churches in the 15th century, and Jews and Christians living as neighbours in medieval Kent.
Also returning are the popular guided visits to sites in Canterbury, such as the first hospital built after the Norman Conquest, a pre-Conquest gem of a church and Canterbury Cathedral’s Archives and Library Treasures.
Funds from the weekend will help to raise money for the Ian Coulson Memorial Postgraduate Award. A fund that supports Canterbury Christ Church University postgraduates studying Kent history and archaeology projects.
You can view the full programme of talks and tours here, as well as book tickets. There is a special student discount for some events.