Power, Identity and Miracles on a Medieval Frontier by Catherine A.M. Clarke

Author:Catherine A.M. Clarke [Clarke, Catherine A.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367030063
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

The resuscitation of Roger of Conwy: a Cantilupe miracle and the society of Edwardian north Wales

Susan J. Ridyarda and Jeremy A. Ashbeeb

aHistory, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, United States of America; bEnglish Heritage, Holborn, London, United Kingdom

This article uses one of Thomas Cantilupe’s miracles of resuscitation as a lens through which to view the society of late thirteenth-century Conwy, a centre of English power in the recently conquered territory of north Wales. Combining the evidence of the Cantilupe canonisation process, contained in The Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. Lat. 4015, with what is known of the history, topography and architecture of town and castle, it examines the relationship between town and castle and, more generally, the structure, operation and spatial expression of hierarchy in Conwy. Taking a micro-historical approach, it further suggests ways in which memories of the miracle itself – the resuscitation of the toddler son of a castle servant – were shaped by that hierarchy and, especially, in a silent negotiation between the powerful and the relatively powerless.

On 23 October 1307 a small boy was brought before the bishops of London and Mende, commissioners appointed by the papacy to inquire into the life, reputation and miracles of Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford.1 The men examined the child’s face and head, looked at those parts of his limbs not hidden by his clothes and scrutinised the way that he walked. They also asked him whether he knew anything about what had happened to him on the day when he was said to have fallen from a drawbridge into the rock-cut ditch of Conwy Castle, died, and been miraculously resuscitated. ‘No’, he answered – ‘but I don’t want to go onto the bridge any more.’2

The small boy was Roger, son of Gervase, a cook serving the constable of Conwy Castle, and his wife Dionysia. Unlike William Cragh, on whose miracle this special issue centres – but like many others believed to be dead and resuscitated – Roger had no memory of what happened during the crucial hours. Those who knew more, and who were fully interrogated in 1307, were Simon of Watford, perpetual vicar of the church of Conwy; Richard of Newcastle, priest of Conwy; John Siward, burgess of Conwy; Simon of Flint, resident of Conwy; John of Gyffin and John de Boys, respectively gate-keeper and steward of Conwy Castle; and of course Roger’s parents, Gervase and Dionysia. Furthermore, the commissioners had before them a uniquely authoritative piece of evidence, a letter patent, to which some of the most influential people of the time had appended their seals and which was dated 7 September 1303, probably the day after the miracle.3 This letter, unparalleled elsewhere in the Cantilupe canonisation process, provides rare evidence of how a miracle was understood in its immediate aftermath. Taken together, the letter and the witnesses’ depositions offer multiple insights into the society of Conwy, a new town founded by Edward I as a centre of English power in north Wales.

In particular, these rich sources afford insight into three themes.

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