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home > Transactions > Volume 31 - 2025 > WELSH HISTORIANS AND THE MEMORY OF THE MORTIMERS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WALES

WELSH HISTORIANS AND THE MEMORY OF THE MORTIMERS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WALES

This article will investigate how the Mortimers, one of the most important families in the medieval Welsh Marches, were remembered by Welsh historians during the sixteenth century. In doing so, it will draw on a central theme in memory studies, namely the past as a human construct.1 This article will also build on studies of memory in the early modern period including work by Harriet Lyon, Alexandra Walsham, Judith Pollmann, and Philip Schwyzer.2 These have drawn attention to the diverse ways that the past was used and influenced early modern society and culture. This is not the first time that historical writings written about the Mortimers have been studied: Chris Given-Wilson and Georgia Henley argued that Mortimerian Chronicles aimed to further the family’s dynastic ambitions in England, by placing them into a mythic British past, and drawing on their Anglo-Norman and royal pedigree.

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