Maurice Keen

The First English Family Letters

Maurice Keen chronicles a set of 15th century letters - the product of everyday communication between English gentry and officialdom - and suggests how their contents may change the reader's views of the late middle ages. Helen Castor offered her own contemporary historiographical account in 2010.

Heraldry and the Medieval Gentlewoman

Maurice Keen looks at the significance of female lines of descent in heraldic arms, and what this tells us about women of noble and gentle birth in medieval England.

Robin Hood - A Peasant Hero

Maurice Keen describes how, in the years around the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Robin Hood emerged as the legendary hero of the common people of England.