Guilds and Society in Louth, Lincolnshire, c.1450-1550

This thesis combines a detailed study of the Holy Trinity and Blessed Virgin Mary Guilds in Louth, Lincolnshire, with reflections on wider issues among them pre-Reformation popular piety, sociability and the role of the guilds in the formation of community identities. The array of source materials for Louth can be used to trace the changing focus of the pre-Reformation guilds in the town. For these guilds, a range of evidence survives, including their 1389 guild returns from Richard II's national guild enquiry, documents of the guilds' incorporation, two detailed account books, churchwardens' account books, a number of wills, and the documents of the guilds' Dissolution. The period c.1450-1550 saw these associations develop from purely religious, devotional and voluntary outlets for parishioners into elite associations which leading members of the community, often merchants, used to gain access to political office and to exert influence locally.

The first chapter begins with the current state of guild scholarship the historiography of the subject, allowing the guilds of Louth to be placed in their historical context. The thesis then examines the foundation, economy, and administration of the town of Louth to demonstrate how and why it was that two guilds, in particular, came to be the leading associations there. The main body of the work discusses the membership, activities, income, expenditure and property ownership of the two guilds based on evidence found in their surviving accounts, at the same time as offering discussions on the guilds' part in the formation of a community identity. The last two chapters discuss the impact of early religious reforms introduced by Henry VIII, considering the involvement of guild members in the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536, and the disruption afforded by Edward VI's Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century.