Almshouse, Guild and Town Community: The Lord Leycester Hospital in its Urban Setting

这个博士项目的重点是莱斯特勋爵医院，一个沃里克郡的救济院，由罗伯特·达德利于1571年创立。它探讨了这个精英慈善组织在其成立的第一个世纪里是如何在地方、区域和国家框架内运作的，并质疑它与沃里克镇的关系在多大程度上是互惠的、互补的、有争议的？莱斯特勋爵医院及其建筑已有700多年的历史。它的建筑是英格兰最完整的中世纪建筑之一，因此具有巨大的文化意义和建筑价值，每年都吸引着游客和游客来到沃里克。它成立于1571年，最初是为退役军人提供的救济院，这些退伍军人继续住在医院的公寓里，并从医院的慈善事业中受益。然而，它的目的是独立于城镇，只有一些沃里克居民作为受益者。因此，与镇公司、沃里克城堡（由达德利的兄弟所有）、圣玛丽教堂和圣尼古拉斯教堂的关系经常紧张。它不仅是当地教区救济穷人的竞争机构，而且是由一个具有激进新教倾向的外部赞助人建立的。医院与“清教主义”的联系会让人很不舒服，因为大多数城镇居民都信奉较为温和的英国国教，更不用说那些保留天主教信仰的人了。因此，该项目着手调查在宗教和社会经济发生根本性变化的时期，救济院与其城市环境之间的关系。

This PhD project focuses on the Lord Leycester Hospital, a Warwickshire Almshouse, founded by Robert Dudley in 1571. It explores how this elite philanthropic organisation operated within local, regional, and national frameworks over its first century, questioning how far its relationship to the town of Warwick was reciprocal, complementary, contested? The history of the Lord Leycester Hospital and its buildings stretch over 700 years. Its buildings are one of the most intact examples of medieval buildings in England, and thus carry with them a huge cultural significance and architectural value that attracts tourists and visitors to Warwick every year. In 1571 it was founded as an almshouse for former servicemen, who continue to live in the Hospital's apartments and benefit from its philanthropy. However, it was intended to be independent of the town, with only some Warwick residents as its beneficiaries. As a result, relations with the town corporation, Warwick Castle (owned by Dudley's brother), and the churches of St Mary's and St Nicholas were often strained. It was not only a rival institution to local parish poor relief, but also founded by an external patron with radical Protestant leanings. The connection of the Hospital to 'Puritanism' would have sat uncomfortably alongside the more moderate Church of England course adhered to by the majority of the town's residents, not to speak of those retaining Catholic beliefs. This project therefore sets out to investigate the relationship between this almshouse and its urban setting at a time of fundamental religious and socio-economic change.