Dr Simon Payling

Senior Research Fellow, House of Commons, 1461-1504

spayling@histparl.ac.uk

Current Research/Role

I joined the History in 1993 and worked on the section for 1422-61 until its completion in 2020.  I wrote about 650 biographies and 36 surveys for the counties of the north, the midlands and the Welsh march, a total of about 1.4 million words. For the survey volume, I wrote sections on the Lords, the triers of petitions, borough representation, legislation relating to law and order, petitions from constituencies, retainers of Lords as MPs, MPs as the victims and perpetrators of violence, attainder and impeachment, the duchy of Lancaster and military service. I am now working on the successor volume for 1461-1504, again working my way through the midlands and the Welsh marcher counties.

Research Interests

Outside the History, my research interests include the legal profession, the law governing the descent of real property, marriage contracts and murder.

Publications

Book

Political Society in Lancastrian England: the Greater Gentry of Nottinghamshire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).

Chapters in Books

‘From the Welsh Marches to the Royal Household: the Leominster Riots of 1487 and Uncertain Allegiances at the Heart of Henry VII’s Régime’, in L. Clark and J. Ross (eds.), The Fifteenth Century XX: Essays Presented to Rowena E. Archer (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2024) [with S. Cunningham].   

‘“On ‘peyne of their lyfes … they shuld no verdit gif, but if they wold endite the seid William Tresham of his owen deth”: the murder of lawyers in fifteenth-century England’, in L. Clark (ed.), The Fifteenth Century XVII (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020),  pp. 99-115. 

‘Late Medieval Land Disputes and the Manipulation of the Inquisitions Post Mortem’, in M. Hicks (ed.), The Later Medieval Inquisitions Post Mortem (Woodbridge, Boydell, 2016), pp. 203-14.

‘Widows and the Wars of the Roses: the turbulent marital history of Edward IV’s putative mistress, Margaret, daughter of Sir Lewis John of West Horndon, Essex’, in L. Clark (ed.), The Fifteenth Century XIV: Essays Presented to Michael Hicks (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2015),  pp. 103-15.

‘The “grete laboure and the long and troublous tyme”: the Execution of the Will of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, and the Foundation of Tattershall College’, in L. Clark (ed.), The Fifteenth Century XIII: Exploring the Evidence: Commemoration, Administration and the Economy (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2014), pp. 1-30.

‘Edward IV and the Politics of Conciliation in the Early 1460s’, in H. Kleineke and C. Steer (eds.), The Yorkist Age:  Proceedings of the 2011 Harlaxton Symposium (Donington: Paul Watkins, 2013), pp. 81-94.

‘“A Beest envenymed thorough … covetize”: an Imposter Pilgrim and the Disputed Descent of the Manor of Dodford, 1306-1481’, in  H. Kleineke (ed.), The Fifteenth Century X: Parliament, Personalities and Power – Papers Presented to Linda S. Clark (Woodbridge, Boydell,  2011), pp. 17-38.

‘The House of Commons, 1307-1529’, in C. Jones (ed.), A Short History of Parliament: England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland (Woodbridge, Boydell,  2009), pp. 75-85.

‘War and Peace: Military and Administrative Service amongst the English Gentry in the Reign of Henry VI’, in P. Coss and C. Tyerman (eds.), Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen: Essays in Honour of Maurice Keen (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2009), pp. 240-58.

‘“Never Desire to be Great About Princes, for it is Daungeros”’, in J. Bertram (ed.), The Catesby Family and their Brasses at Ashby St. Ledgers, (London: Monumental Brass Society, 2006), pp. 1-17.

‘Identifiable Motives for Election to Parliament in the Reign of Henry VI: the Operation of Public and Private Factors’, in L. Clark (ed.) The Fifteenth Century VI: Identity and Insurgency in the Late Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2006), pp. 89-105.

‘The Rise of Lawyers in the Lower House, 1395-1536’, in L. Clark (ed.), Parchment and People: Parliament in the Middle Ages (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), pp. 103-20.

‘The Later Middle Ages’, in R. Smith and J.S. Moore (eds.), The House of Commons: Seven Hundred Years of British Tradition (London: Smith’s Peerage, 1996), pp. 48-69.

‘A Disputed Mortgage: Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Sir John Gra and the Manor of Multon Hall’ in R. E. Archer and S. Walker (eds.), Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England: Essays Presented to Gerald Harriss (London: Hambledon Continuum, 1995), pp. 117-36.

‘The Politics of Family: Late Medieval Marriage Contracts’, in R. H. Britnell and A. J. Pollard (eds.),  The McFarlane Legacy; Studies in Late Medieval Politics and Society (Stroud: Sutton, 1995), pp. 21-47.

‘The Widening Franchise – Parliamentary Elections in Lancastrian Nottinghamshire’, in D. Williams (ed.), England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987), pp. 167-85.

‘Law and Arbitration in Nottinghamshire, 1399-1461’, in J. Rosenthal and C. Richmond (eds.), People, Politics and Community in the Later Middle Ages (Gloucester: Sutton, 1987), pp. 140-60.

Journal Articles

‘The Rise of New Boroughs and the Decline of Electoral Localism: the Evolving Composition of the House of Commons, 1386-1558’, Parliamentary History 40:2 (2021), pp. 261-76

“Legal Right and Dispute Resolution in Late Medieval England: the Sale of the Lordship of Dunster’, English Historical Review 126:518 (2011), pp. 17-43.

‘The Economics of Marriage; a Reply to Spring’, Economic History Review 56:2 (2003), pp. 351-354.

‘The Economics of Marriage in Late Medieval England: the Marriage of Heiresses’, Economic History Review 54:3 (2001), pp.  413-429

‘County Parliamentary Elections in Fifteenth-Century England’, Parliamentary History 18:3 (1999), pp. 237-60.

‘Murder, Motive and Punishment in Fifteenth-Century England; Two Gentry Case Studies’, English Historical Review 113:450 (1998), pp. 1-17.

‘The Waning of Noble Lordship in Late Fifteenth-Century England?’, Parliamentary History 13:3 (1994), pp. 322-32.

‘Arbitration, Perpetual Entails and Collateral Warranties in Late-Medieval England: a Case Study’, Journal of Legal History, 13:1 (1992), pp. 32-62.

‘Social Mobility, Demographic Change and Landed Society in Late Medieval England’, Economic History Review 45:1 (1992), pp. 51-73.

‘The Ampthill Dispute: a Study in Aristocratic Lawlessness and the Breakdown of Lancastrian Government’, English Historical Review 104:413 (1989), pp.881-907. 

‘The Coventry Parliament of 1459: a Privy Seal Writ concerning the Election of Knights of the Shire’, Historical Research 60 (1987), pp.349-52.

‘Inheritance and Local Politics in the Later Middle Ages: the Case of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, and the Heriz Inheritance’, Nottingham Medieval Studies 30 (1986), pp.67-96.

Specialisms:  Late-Medieval Land Law, County Society, Parliamentary Representation