Mental Health in Late Medieval England: A Surprising History of Mental Illness and Its Treatment in Society

Examines mental health in late medieval England, focusing on cases like Viscount Beaumont and Henry VI.

In 1495, William, Viscount Beaumont, was declared unfit to take care of himself and given into the care of a guardian, due to unspecified mental health problems. Notably, his treatment was very kind, and runs contrary to many of our ideas of late medieval attitudes to mental illnesses.

Using William's example as well as other well—recorded cases, such as that of Henry VI, this book examines...