The Medieval City
The 2025 Harlaxton Medieval Symposium
at Madingley Hall, Cambridge
Please note that this is a draft programme which may be subject to change.
Monday 18th August
1:00 pm Registration opens
1:45 pm Welcome
Session 1
2:00-3:30 pm
Ad Putter: Urban Expansion in Chrétien de Troyes’s Conte du Graal and its Continuations and Adaptations
Julia Boffey: ‘No cytie to it lyke’: writing the urban geography of late medieval London
3:30-4:00 pm Tea/Coffee
Session 2
4:00-5:30 pm
Adele L. Ryan Sykes: Politics and Poetry: Uncovering Ralph Strode, Oxford philosopher, London lawyer and Chaucer dedicatee
Eliza Hartrich: Walter Lincoln Dies: Waterford, Bristol, and the Case of the Stolen Charter
6:30 pm BBQ Dinner
8:00 pm Drinks Reception and PGR/ECR presentations
Sponsored by the Yorkist History Trust
Tuesday 19th August
7:30-8:30 am Breakfast
Session 3
9:00-10:30 am
Kate Giles: Guild Life: The art and architecture of Stratford upon Avon’s Holy Cross Guild Chapel and its patron, Hugh Clopton
Alexandra Gajewski: The Urban Transformation of Papal Avignon in the second half of the fourteenth century
10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee
Session 4
11:00-12:30 pm
Alma Poloni: The Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie: Economic change, social mobility and political shift in Tuscan cities in the second half of the fourteenth century
Shannon McSheffrey: Labour Grievance, Stolen Birthrights, and Xenophobia: The Early Sixteenth-Century London Skinners’ Company and the 1517 Evil May Day Riot
12:30-1:15 pm Lunch
1:30 pm Excursion: Coach departs for visit to Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Dinner out in Cambridge (individual arrangements)
7:30 pm: Coach departs from Fitzwilliam Museum for Madingley Hall
Wednesday 20th August
7:30-8:30 am Breakfast
Session 5
9:00-10:30 am
Jelle Haemers: Women and urban politics in the late medieval Low Countries
Lisa Demets: Narratives of Sexual Violence by Urban Chroniclers in Late Medieval Flanders
10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee
Session 6
11:00-12:30 pm
Janna Coomans: Fire Risk and Urban Adaptation in the Low Countries, 1300-1550
Joe Chick: A Plague on Bognor Houses: Households and Possessions in Small Towns after the Black Death
12:30-2:00 pm Lunch
Session 7: The Pamela Tudor-Craig Memorial Lecture
2:00-3:15 pm
Caroline M. Barron: The Absent Dynasties of Medieval London
3:15-3:45 pm Tea/Coffee
Session 8
3:45-5:15pm
Anthony Gross: Craft, Piety and the Development of Civic Identity: Enamelling at Limoges 1250-1520 – a Case Study
Eliot Benbow: “Diversis Haberdasshrie”: Overseas Trade and the Growth of the London Haberdashers c.1400-1500
7:00 pm Reception and Book Launch
7:30 pm Conference Dinner (black tie optional)
Thursday 21st August
7:30-8:30 am Breakfast
8:30-9:00 am Check out of rooms
Session 9
9:00-10:30 am
Julian Luxford: Images of Cities and Towns in Medieval English Art
Helen Fulton: Caerleon in the Medieval Imagination: Britain and the Roman Monument
10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee
Session 10
11:00 am-12:30 pm
Zoe Opacic: The Rostock Scroll as a Mirror of a Late Medieval City
Martha W. Driver: Collecting John Speed, London Antiquary and Cartographer
12:30 pm Closing remarks
The Symposium gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of the Yorkist History Trust.