Taylor Aucoin
I'm a social and cultural historian of medieval and early modern Britain, particularly interested in Carnival, festivity, and play ('ludicrus' being Latin for playful, sportive, theatrical, dramatic, etc.) and how these intersected with social relations, identities, and politics.
Currently, I'm a doctoral candidate at the University of Bristol, completing a thesis on medieval and early modern Shrovetide, or the British pre-Lenten Carnival.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
Early Modern Folklore Britain medieval Practical England Work
Coronations and the Festive Calendar in Medieval and Early Modern England
5 May 2023
In its artwork and design, the invitation to Charles III’s coronation on 6 May 2023 deliberately evokes the seasonal setting of the celebration. According to the official website...
Levels of Labour Law Enforcement in Early Modern England
10 January 2023
In 1563 the English Parliament passed the ‘Statute of Artificers’ (aka ‘the Statute’), which sought to regulate wage labour and ‘banish idleness, advance husbandry and yield...
1 March 2022
On Shrove Tuesday 1270, the monks of Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest rewarded their lay manorial workers with pancakes, with the youngest employees also receiving a feast of beef,...
Kings of the School: Britain’s Carnival Monarchs and Social Inversion
18 February 2021
Recalling his schoolboy days in Dornoch at the beginning of the 19th century, the Scottish minister Donald Sage wrote that cockfighting ‘took precedence over all…other...