Family and Power in the Middle Ages

This two day conference on the theme of Family and Power took place place at Canterbury Christ Church University on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th April 2017.

The Centre for Kent Heritage and History at Canterbury Christ Church University was delighted to hold an interesting and thought-provoking two-day conference along the theme ‘Family and Power in the Middle Ages’.

There was a wonderful conference programme with a wide selection of papers discussing family and power spanning the entire Middle Ages. We had two fabulous keynote speakers in Lindy Grant and Jennifer Ward who spoke on ‘Blanche of Castile and the Power of Family’ and ‘The Role of the Grandmother in the Late Medieval English Family’, respectively.

Some of the other themes explored included: families in literature, the legal position of women within the family, naming patterns, queens within their families and households, the rise and fall of royal and aristocratic families and episcopal networking.