The Ardens

Abstract

Chapter two focuses on the feud between Edward Arden and the earls of Warwick and Leicester, outlining the unique cultural identity of the Arden family in Warwickshire and their descent from the Saxon magnate, Turchil, the most significant landowner in the Midlands after the Norman conquest whose lands later formed the patrimony of the Beaumont earls of Warwick. The Beauchamps co-opted him into the lineage of the Warwick earldom to link their earldom with the legendary Guy of Warwick, which led to a dispute over lineage between Arden and the Dudleys, in which Edward Arden tried to use his ancestry to challenge their authority in the county. We also look at how this reinvigorated Guy of Warwick as a cultural icon, which can be linked to Shakespeare’s involvement in a play about Guy and his later interest in this legendary figure. The Dudleys responded with increased pressure on Arden through legal cases that threatened his tenure of his estate, and which became widely known as the cases moved from court to court, including the Warwick assizes and Star Chamber. These cases show how the Dudley ascendancy and the Arden dispute created an assault on popular memory in the county, through legal arguments creating pressure on social structures and requiring Warwickshire people to make choices reflecting both the political struggles within the county and the wider contests of the Elizabethan Reformation.