CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE
At Richard's accession we may pause to glance at the condition of the
people of England 420 years ago, not in any minute detail, not probing
the matter to any depth, but with the object of having the general
surroundings in our minds, while contemplating the brief reign of our
last Plantagenet.
The Lancastrian usurpation, effected by Henry of Bolingbroke (Duke of
Lancaster), caused much ruthless slaughter, and led to the atrocious
Act _De heretico comburendo_, passed to secure the support of the
clergy for the usurper. His son, Henry of Monmouth, was a fanatic, but
otherwise a man of a far nobler nature than his father. He secured his
position by a popular but most unjust war with France, and by his own
fascinating personality. From his landing at Havre to the death of
Talbot at Chatillon, this war covered a period of thirty-eight years,
from 1415 to 1453. It did not, however, exhaust the wealth of the
country, nor did the other more odious policy of the Lancastrians in
passing an Act for the burning of heretics, destroy all freedom of
thought. But the war filled the country with lawless military
adventurers, and the persecution unsettled men's minds.
{104}
The cause of the War of the Roses was the misgovernment of the faction
which ruled in the name of Henry of Windsor, the feeble-minded grandson
of Charles VI. of France, whose malady he inherited. Recognition
during half a century had made the parliamentary title of the usurpers
secure. Owing to the absence of an hereditary title, the House of
Commons had never been more powerful. The Speakers were practically
Chancellors of the Exchequer, and prepared the budgets. Speaker
Tresham, who was murdered in 1450 by Lord Grey de Ruthyn, was the first
to propose a graduated income tax, and was a great statesman. But the
House was not strong enough to control an unprincipled executive. The
usurpation would never have been challenged, after a Parliamentary
recognition of sixty years, if the administration of the usurping
faction had not been intolerably bad. The Duke of York was the
rightful hereditary heir to the throne. His grandfather had been
recognised as heir by a Parliament of Richard II. The Duke was a just
and moderate statesman. Until a month before the battle of Wakefield
his sole purpose had been the reform of abuses.
The war, however, was not a war of the people. Although London warmly
supported the house of York, it was a war fought out by two parties of
the nobles and their retainers, including some old veterans of the
French war. The struggle did not in the least degree affect the
ordinary life of England. Mr. Thorold Rogers tells us that, though he
has read hundreds of documents compiled for private inspection only,
chiefly manorial accounts, covering the whole period of the war, he has
never met a single allusion to the troubles. 'The people,' he adds,
'were absolutely indifferent. {105} Except the outrages of Margaret's
army in 1461, no injury was done to neutrals. The war was as little
injurious to the great mass of the people, in its immediate effects, as
summer lightning. It had no bearing on work or wages.'
[Sidenote: The Peerage]
It is also a mistake, though a frequently reiterated one, that the
English nobility, as a class, was almost destroyed by the War of the
Roses. Nothing of the sort happened. Several noblemen fell in battle,
others lost their lives on the scaffold. There are long lists of
traitors in the bills of attainder. But the death of a nobleman did
not include the deaths of his heirs; and most of those who were
attainted eventually received pardons. After the heat of battle was
over, Edward IV. was placable and good-natured. He never refused a
petition for pardon.[1] Only two peerages became extinct from causes
connected with the war. The Beauforts came to an end, and the Tiptoft
peerage lapsed, the accomplished Earl of Worcester being childless.
The lay peerage, including peers temporarily under attainder, numbered
fifty-four on the accession of Richard III., quite as numerous as it
was before the war.
We have not, therefore, to contemplate a devastated country and a
decimated peerage at the time when our last Plantagenet King ascended
the throne. England was fairly prosperous, and the numbers and wealth
of the nobility had not been reduced. But how different was the whole
face of the country! The outlines of the hills are alone the same.
There were immense areas of forest and swamp where now the landscape
consists of enclosed fields like a green chessboard. There were few
enclosures,[2] but tracts of common land for each {106} manor, and
cultivation in long strips near the villages and manor houses. The
beaten tracks, some following the lines of the old Roman roads leading
to the towns and castles, were often almost impassable in winter. King
Richard was the first to establish any kind of post. The scenery was
very beautiful on the hills and in the forests, in the quiet valleys,
and in the swampy fens. Wild animals, many now extinct, were then
abundant, hunted occasionally, but, to a great extent, left in peace
over vast areas of absolute solitude. It was a very beautiful England,
but how utterly different from the England of the twentieth century!
The noble and gentle families passed most of their time in their
counties, hawking and hunting, mustering their armed retainers, often
disputing about their respective rights, sometimes trying to settle
disputes by force regardless of law. Yet many were law-abiding and
maintainers of the King's peace, and a few were giving some attention
to the new learning to which Caxton was now opening the door. Some of
the elders had seen service in the French war which came to an end
thirty years before. Only a great noble could raise or command a
military force, but reliance was placed on the experience of some
veteran, such as Hall or Trollope, to organise and direct as chief of
the staff. In those troublous days the King might, at any time, have
to send forth commissions of array.
[Sidenote: Castles]
Castles then studded the country, and the ruins of some of them still
give a correct idea of their accommodation and general plan. Old
Norman keeps reared their massive fronts, surrounded by lodgings and
outworks of later construction. The keeps contained stately halls,
guard rooms, and chapels. The more modern and more comfortable
lodgings followed the lines of the {107} outer defences, generally
having covered communication with the keep. Such were King Richard's
home at Middleham, the royal castles of Richmond, Conisborough and
Tickhill. Hedingham, the home of the Veres in Essex, Rochester, the
Tower of London, and a few others are still standing. Lord Bourchier,
the Treasurer, had quite recently built a castle of brick at
Tattershall in Lincolnshire, with a lofty keep still intact. The
Treasurer's device of a purse frequently recurs there.
The castles of the later period were, however, generally built without
the central keep. They consisted of square angle towers connected by
curtains, one of which usually formed the great hall, as at Lumley.
These were more numerous and probably more commodious. Bolton and
Lumley are good examples. There was already a tendency to increase the
conveniences and amenities of the old castles by the enlargement of
windows and in other ways, as is shown by the fine oriel window at
Barnard Castle, the work of Richard himself. The royal residences at
Eltham, Sheen, and Windsor are believed to have been designed more for
comfort and pleasure than for defence; although Windsor is a place of
strength, with circular keep, and means to resist an enemy both in the
upper and lower wards. The general tendency, during the last half of
the fifteenth century, was to build for comfort rather than for defence.
In the courts and at the gates of the castles of noblemen there were
guards wearing more or less of defensive armour, morions or bacinets on
their heads, and brigandines of quilted linen or leather with small
plates of iron sewn on them. Glaives or bills, crossbows with quarrels
or darts, and bows and arrows were in the guard rooms.
{108}
The sons of the surrounding gentry were brought up and taught martial
exercises and the other accomplishments of a gentleman of the time, at
the castles of the lords their patrons, a custom which bound the
nobility and lesser gentry together by common interests and common
pursuits.
Much time was occupied in hunting and hawking, and the adherents of the
House of York were more especially the votaries of the noble art of
venery. The first English book of sport had the second Duke of York
for its author, and was entitled 'The Master of Game.' The Duke
declares that 'hunters live more joyfully than any other men,' and his
work shows that he was a keen observer with a wonderfully accurate
knowledge of natural history. With such a master and guide in their
family the scions of the royal House of York were the leading sportsmen
in the country, closely followed by their friends and numerous cousins
among the nobility and gentry. The 'Book of St. Albans' by Juliana
Berners the Prioress of Sopwell, treating of hawking, hunting, fishing,
and the laws of arms, was also a work of that period, and was first
printed at St. Albans Abbey, by John Insomuch, the Schoolmaster, in
1481.[3] Juliana divides the wild animals into beasts of venery--the
wolf, wild boar, stag, hart and hare; beasts of the chase of the sweet
foot--buck and doe and the roe--and of the stinking foot, wild cat,
badger, fox, weasel, marten, squirrel, and others. She is particular
in explaining the terms to be used in venery, that one must say a covey
of partridges but a bevy of quails, and so forth. Closely allied to
the arts of war and of venery was the law of arms, of which every
gentleman of that day had {110} some knowledge. Charges on shields and
standards, on surcoats and liveries were regulated by the heralds, and
after the ordinance of Henry V. were granted by the Sovereign. But in
the most flourishing days of chivalry, those of Edward III., this was
not essential. There was no Heralds' College,[4] and the only really
interesting armorial bearings are those used in the days of the
Plantagenets. With Tudors and Stuarts heraldry lost its chivalric
significance, and coats of arms subsequently granted are unmeaning and
vulgar.
======================================================================
{109}
[Sidenote: Peerage of Richard III]
PEERS
_Relations of the Sovereign_
* Duke of Suffolk (_brother-in-law_), K.G.
*+Earl of Lincoln (_nephew_), K.B.
*+Viscount Lovell (_dearest friend_),
Lord Chamberlain, K.G.
*+Earl of Northumberland (1_st cousin_), K.G.
* Lord Greystoke (1_st cousin_).
* Lord Abergavenny, K.B. }(_cousins_).
Earl of Westmoreland (_sick_) }
_Minors_
Duke of Buckingham } (_cousins_)
Earl of Essex }
Earl of Salisbury (_son_).
* Earl of Warwick (_nephew_).
Earl of Pembroke (_nephew_).
_Staunch and true_
*+Duke of Norfolk, Ld. Admiral, K.G.
*+Earl of Surrey, K.G.
* Lord Audley, Ld. Treasurer.
*+Lord Zouch, K.B.
*+Lord Ferrers.
Marching to join the King
* Earl of Kent, K.B.
* Lord Dacre.
* Lord FitzHugh.
* Lord Lumley.
* Lord Ogle in the Marches,
* 2 Lords Scrope.
_Other Peers_
* Earl of Arundel, K.G.
* Lord Maltravers, K.G.
* Earl of Nottingham.
* Earl of Huntingdon.
* Earl of Wiltshire.
* Lord Grey of Wilton.
* Lord Grey of Codnor.
* Lord Grey of Powys.
* Lord Beauchamp.
* Lord Morley.
* Lord Stourton.
* Lord Cobham.
Lord Mountjoy (at Calais).
Lord de la Warre (abroad).
Lord Dudley (very old).
_Minors_
Earl of Shrewsbury.
Lord Clifford.
Lord Hastings.
Lord Hungerford.
Peers 42
Minors 9
--
33
--
_Traitors_
#John Vere, Earl of Oxford (under attainder).
Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire.
Grey, Marquis of Dorset.
Woodville, Earl Rivers.
Lord Beaumont.
Lord Welles.
* Lord Lisle.
Lord Dynham.
#Jasper Tudor (late Earl of Pembroke).
#Henry Tudor (calling himself Earl of Richmond).
*#Lord Stanley (turned traitor at the end).
*#Lord Strange.
* At the coronation.
+ At Bosworth for the King.
# At Bosworth for H. Tudor.
======================================================================
Attendance at the court or the Parliament led to a demand for lodgings
in London. Baynard's Castle was the town residence of the Duke and
Duchess of York. Crosby Place, which is still standing, was the home
of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester during the short protectorate.
Cold Harbour, in Thames Street, alternately lodged the Earl of
Salisbury (1453), Anne Duchess of Exeter, and her brother the Duke of
Clarence. There were other houses of the nobility within the city,
including Ely Place in Holborn, with large gardens behind them; and
some of the richer citizens had handsome residences of which Crosby
Place was an example. It was on the occasion of visits to the capital
that opportunities were offered for those extravagant displays which
were the fashion of that age, especially at the great tournaments.
The House of York was closely knit to the nobility by ties of kindred.
Of the three Dukes, Suffolk was King Richard's brother-in-law,
Buckingham and Norfolk were his cousins, as were the Earls of
Northumberland, Westmoreland and Essex, and Lords Abergavenny and
Greystoke. Lincoln was his nephew. Richard, moreover, had four first
and several second {111} cousins among the Barons; and the Archbishop
of Canterbury was also his cousin. There must have been a feeling of
kinship as well as of loyalty when the nobles gathered round the
sovereign on state occasions.
[Sidenote: Magnificence of the court]
Magnificence in dress was not a sign of ostentation and vanity, but of
what was felt to be due to high rank and to ceremonial functions of
state; and it was undoubtedly good for trade. Long gowns with high
collars were the indoor and civil dresses, and they lent themselves to
displays of great splendour. Thus, in the wardrobe accounts, we find
among the materials for doublets and gowns, black velvet, crimson
velvet, blue velvet figured with tawny, white velvet, white damask with
flowers of divers colours, chequered motley velvet, cloth of gold,
silks and satins, sarsenet, as well as embroidered shoes, and ostrich
feathers. We find green, scarlet and white cloth, ermines, sables,
fringes, gowns of blue velvet lined with white satin, golden aiglettes,
and various furs. The keeper of the King's wardrobe also had in charge
feather beds and bolsters, bed clothes, cushions, table cloths and
napkins, and the King's carriage. Presents from the wardrobe are
recorded as being given to the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Grey, Lord
Stanley, Sir W. Parr, Sir J. Borough, Lord Audley and the College of
Windsor. When the Duchess of Burgundy came to visit her brother, all
her attendants were ordered to be clothed in cloth jackets of murrey
and blue, while the knights appointed to attend upon her received gowns
of velvet. The velvet was ten shillings a yard, the ostrich feathers
ten shillings each. These wardrobe accounts of the last years of
Edward IV. bear silent testimony to the lavish splendour of the court,
and of court ceremonial in those days.
{112}
Increasing wealth resulted to the merchants and traders of the City,
the Guilds flourished and increased in numbers, and there were
periodical fairs in the country. At the Stourbridge fair, which was
the chief mart of Lombard Exchange, glass, silks and velvets were sold
by the Venetian and Genoese merchants, linen of Liege and Ghent by the
Flemish weavers, hardware by Spaniards, tar and pitch by Norwegians,
wine by Gascons, furs and amber by the Hanse Towns. Millstones came
from Paris. Our own products were hides and woolpacks, the produce of
the tin mines, and iron from Sussex. At Abingdon there was a cattle
fair, at Winchester a wool and cloth fair. King Richard's Parliament
gave much attention to the advancement of trade.
In London the wealthy merchants lived in handsome houses with gardens.
The lawyers lived in the Inns of Court, and there were not wanting good
inns and hostelries for passing travellers. We hear of the 'White
Hart' in Southwark, the 'George' at Paul's Wharf, and several others.
The City Companies were acquiring great influence. The Skinners'
Company founded the 'Brethren of the fraternity of Corpus Christi' of
which the Duke of York and his sons Edward IV. and the Dukes of
Clarence and Gloucester were members. Disputes between City Companies
were amicably settled. There was one between the Skinners' and
Merchant Taylors' with reference to precedence in City processions. In
the reign of Richard III., 10 April, 1484, the two companies agreed to
abide by the judgment of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.
The award was that the Skinners should invite the Merchant Taylors to
dinner every year, on the Vigil of {113} Corpus Christi, and that the
Merchant Taylors should invite the Skinners on the Feast of the
Nativity of John the Baptist. On the first year after the arbitration
the Skinners were to walk in all processions before the Merchant
Taylors, on the next year the Merchant Taylors before the Skinners, and
so on. Thus was arbitration established in the City during Richard's
reign, a course always favoured and practised by the King himself.
[Sidenote: Introduction of printing]
The great glory of the Yorkist kings was the introduction of printing
into England, in which their sister of Burgundy also took a liberal and
enlightened part. Caxton tells us he was born in the Weald of Kent in
1422, and was apprenticed to Robert Large, a mercer of London and Lord
Mayor in 1439. His house was in the north end of the Old Jewry, and
here young Caxton lived until his master died in 1441, leaving him
twenty marks. Caxton went to Bruges in 1441, and in 1453 he was
admitted to the livery of the Mercers' Company. The Merchant
Adventurers were an association of merchants trading to foreign
countries, chiefly mercers. They had a 'domus Angliae' at Bruges, and
in 1464 Caxton was chosen 'Governor beyond seas.' In 1468 he attended
the marriage of the young English Princess Margaret with Duke Charles
of Burgundy, which was celebrated with great pomp. Caxton was not only
a leading merchant at Bruges, he also took a great interest in
literature and in the new art of printing. In 1469 he began the
translation of 'Le Recueil des Histoires de Troyes,' and in the
following year, when Duke Charles was invested with the Garter, Caxton
made his first essay at printing, with the oration of Dr. Russell on
that occasion. When, in October 1470, Edward IV. and his young brother
Richard {114} took refuge in Flanders, they received active assistance
from the loyal merchant and printer, and in the same year Caxton
entered the service of the Duchess Margaret and managed her trading in
English wool for her. He was surrounded hy literary influences at
Bruges, where there was a printing press encouraged by the Duchess.
In 1476 Caxton came to England, and in November 1477 he had established
a printing press in his house at Westminster, under the shadow of the
Abbey. It was in the Almonry near the old chapel of St. Anne, at the
gate leading into Tothill Street. Caxton's house was the sign of the
_red pale_.[5] John Esteney was then Abbot of Westminster (1474-98),
but it is not recorded that Caxton received help or patronage from him.
The first book printed in England was the 'Dictes and Sayings of
Philosophes,' by Lord Rivers, in 1477. Then followed 'Cordyale' in
1479, and 'Chronicles of England' in 1480, 'Description of Britain'
also in 1480. In that year the Duchess of Burgundy came to London to
visit her brothers, and no doubt she then paid a visit to the printing
press of her old friend Caxton. Five books came from that active press
in 1481. 'The Mirrour of the World' was translated and printed for a
citizen named Hugh Brice as a present to Lord Hastings. 'Reynard the
Fox' was translated by Caxton himself. The 'de senectute,' 'de
amicitia,' and 'declamatio' of Cicero were translated by the ill-fated
Earl of Worcester; as well as 'Godefroy de Boulogne.' A second edition
of 'The game and play of Chess' completed the publications for 1481.
During the whole of King Richard's reign, and under his enlightened
patronage, Caxton's printing press showed great activity. The
publications were {115} 'Pilgrimage of the Soul' 'Liber Festivalis,'
'Quatuor Sermones,' the 'Confessio Amantis' of Gower, the 'Golden
Legend,' 'Caton,' 'Knight of the Tower,' 'AEsop,' 'Paris and Vienna,'
'Life of Charles the Great,' the 'Canterbury Tales' of Chaucer, 'Life
of our Lady,' 'King Arthur,' by Sir T. Mallory, who finished his work
in 1470, and the 'Order of Chivalry' translated by Caxton and dedicated
to his redoubted Lord King Richard.
[Sidenote: Literary noblemen]
Literature was beginning to receive attention from several members of
the nobility, and the printing press gave this tendency very great
encouragement. Among the books in the Wardrobe Account of Edward IV.
which were ordered to be bound, were the 'Book of the Holy Trinity,'
the Bible, 'Government of Kings and Princes,' 'Froissart,' Titus
Livius, Josephus, 'Bible Historial,' 'La Forteresse de Foy'; and to
this royal library his brother Richard added several books including
the 'Romaunt of Tristram.'
Lord Rivers was an accomplished nobleman whose translations and
original compositions are well known. But John Tiptoft, Earl of
Worcester, was the most studious and learned, as well as the most
accomplished, author and statesman of Yorkist times. Born at Everton,
Cambridgeshire, Tiptoft was at Balliol College, and completed his
education by a residence of three years in Italy. He was twice Lord
High Treasurer, was Lord Deputy of Ireland, and was created Earl of
Worcester. But he fell a victim to Lancastrian rancour during
Warwick's brief usurpation. He was beheaded in 1470, and Caxton
eloquently mourned his untimely death.
'This book,' Caxton wrote, 'was translated by the virtuous and noble
Earl of Worcester into our English {116} tongue, son and heir to the
Lord Tiptoft, which in his time flowered in virtue and cunning, to whom
I know none like among the lords of the temporality in science and
moral virtue. I beseech Almighty God to have mercy on his soul, and
pray all them that shall read this little treatise, likewise of your
charity to remember his soul among your prayers. The right virtuous
and noble Earl of Worcester, which late piteously lost his life, whose
soul I recommend to your special prayers, also in his time made many
other virtuous works which I have heard of. O God, blessed Lord, what
great loss was it of that noble, virtuous and well disposed lord, when
I remember and advertise his life, his science and his virtue.
Methinketh God displeased over so great a loss of such a man,
considering his estate and cunning, and also the exercise of the same
with the great labours in going on pilgrimage unto Jerusalem, visiting
there the holy places, and what worship had he in Rome in the presence
of our holy father the Pope, and so in all other places until his
death, at which death every man that was there might learn to die, and
take his death patiently.'
[Sidenote: Education]
Rivers and Worcester were not the only men of their day with literary
tastes. The colleges at Oxford and Cambridge numbered among their
_alumni_ laymen as well as churchmen. The three great public schools
of England already existed. The grammar school of Westminster,
afterwards to become St. Peter's College under Queen Elizabeth, had a
continuous existence from the time of Edward I. Winchester College had
been founded by William of Wykeham. Eton College was a foundation due
to Henry of Windsor. All three were flourishing. Boys went very young
to the universities, and parents showed anxiety for their {117}
advancement in learning as well as for their due supply of clothing.
Mrs. Paston desired a tutor named Grenefeld to send her word how her
son Clement is doing his duty as regards his lessons. If he does not
do well, and will not amend, Grenefeld is to lash him until he does
amend, as his former tutor did, who was the best that ever he had at
Cambridge. She is no less particular about his clothes, which were to
be looked to. Clement had a short green gown, a short musterdevelers
(gown of grey woollen cloth), a short blue gown, and a russet gown
furred with beaver: a pretty good supply.
Later there was a Paston boy at Eton, one of whose letters has come
down to us (1478). He desires hose clothes to be sent to him, one pair
of some colour for holidays, and one for working days. It does not
matter how coarse the one for common use is. He also asks for a
stomacher, two shirts, and a pair of slippers. 'But,' adds the Eton
boy, 'if it lyke you that I may come by water, and sport me with you in
London a day or two this term time, then you may let all this be till
the time that I come; and then I shall tell you when I shall be ready
to come from Eton.' He wanted a holiday in the middle of term time,
and he wanted the fun of boating down the river. So it was with many
hundreds of other boys then as it is now; liking play better than work,
but still learning, with or without the lash which Mrs. Agnes Paston
believed to be so efficacious. The Etonian was about ten years younger
than King Richard.
The Church, in the Yorkist days, had deteriorated. The devil's compact
between Archbishop Arundel and Henry of Bolingbroke, by which Bishops
were to be allowed to burn heretics on condition that the {118}
usurpation was upheld by the Church, had alienated the people. The Act
_De heretico comburendo_ was not a dead letter. There were many
innocent sufferers. Henry of Monmouth was a fanatic. He argued with
heretics and would gladly pardon on recantation, but if his victim did
not recant he was actually present at executions and witnessed the
cruel tortures. Caxton, some years after Henry's death (1439), saw
with horror the burning on Tower Hill of the good Vicar of Deptford,
whose love and charity had endeared him to the poor. Such scenes would
not endear the Bishops to the people. The prelates were self-seeking
politicians for the most part, and occasionally the people made short
work of them. When Bishop de Moleyns, then Lord Privy Seal, came down
to Portsmouth to pay the sailors and kept back some of their dues, he
was seized by the mob and hanged in front of God's House. Bishop
Ayscough of Salisbury met a similar fate. Mr. Thorold Rogers formed a
very bad opinion of the clergy of the fifteenth century. He says 'the
Bishops were on the whole bad men, parochial clergy not much better,
monks worst of all. People deserted them for the secret but stirring
exhortations of the Bible men.' But there were exceptions. Dr.
Russell of Lincoln, King Richard's Chancellor, was a prelate and
statesman of the highest integrity, so were Stillington of Bath and
Wells, Alcock of Worcester, and Langton of St. David's.
The great monasteries still stood, in all their glorious architectural
beauty, among the woodlands and by the trout streams; and charity was
dispensed by their inmates. Religious foundations like Middleham
College by King Richard, and Acaster College by Bishop Stillington,
attest the piety of the age; and religious buildings proceeded apace.
The beautiful {119} chapel of St. George at Windsor was approaching
completion in King Richard's time, and many fine church towers,
especially in Suffolk, date from this period.
There were superstitious pilgrimages to shrines such as those of St.
Thomas at Canterbury and of Our Lady at Walsingham, while obits and
saints' days were scrupulously observed. Letters were almost always
referred to saints' days, scarcely ever to the days of the month. In
the 'Paston Letters' we have 'Monday next after St. Edmund the King,'
'the day next after St. Kateryn,' 'St. Pernall,' 'St. Leonard's Eve,'
'St. Erkenwald's,' and so on: even, in one instance, the date is fixed
by the collect of the preceding Sunday. 'Wednesday next after _Deus
qui errantibus_.' This seems to show that religion, or at least its
rites and ceremonies, was really part of the actual life of the people.
Miracle plays, such as those performed by the Corpus Christi guild at
York, served to keep alive an interest in religion. There were also
allegorical plays, and it seems that 'Every Man,' which has interested
so many in these modern times, may have been acted before, and have
impressed audiences in the days of the Yorkist kings.
[Sidenote: The Church and the law]
The law was presided over by conscientious and learned judges. Old
Fuller says of Markham and Fortescue that they were the 'Chief Justices
of the Chief Justices.' Markham boldly resisted any attempt to
intimidate him, and by his firm stand against King Edward established
an important maxim in constitutional law. He did not confine his
judgments to the bench, but upbraided evil-doers when he met them in
the street. John Heydon, Recorder of Norwich, was stopped by the judge
and brought to book in public, {120} for putting away his wife and
living with another; and also for his unjust conduct towards John
Paston, in enforcing the doubtful claim of Lord Moleyns.
[Sidenote: Condition of the people]
But the country was in a lawless state. Upright judgments were
pronounced, but they could not always be enforced. Noblemen, like Lord
Moleyns, occasionally acted in defiance of the law, and often there was
no redress. We hear of 'a great multitude of misruled people at the
house of Robert Ledeham who issue at their pleasure, sometimes thirty
and more, armed in steel caps and jackets, with bows and bills,
overriding the country, oppressing the people, and doing many horrible
and abominable deeds.' There is a letter from Paston's wife reporting
that 'they have made bars to bar the doors crossways, and wickets at
every corner of the house to shoot out at, both with bows and hand
guns.' This sounds like an expected siege. For she adds--'My
worshipful husband, I pray you to get some cross bows and wyndacs with
quarrels, for your holes have been made so low that my men cannot shoot
out with a long bow, though we had ever so much need. Also get two or
three short pole axes to keep the doors.' Then we are told of Robert
Letham killing John Wilson's bullocks for arrears of rent, eating them,
and then beating Wilson himself in Plumstead churchyard until he was in
doubt of his life, besides beating John Coke's mother. When Sir Philip
Wentford wants to settle a dispute, instead of going to law, he rides
to Colchester with a hundred armed men. These were not altogether
peaceful times. They were exciting, full of adventure, and there was
much fun to be got out of them. Different, more eventful, perhaps less
safe, than our days of policemen and penitentiaries, but far from
unendurable.
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These were trifles, and on the whole the country gentry of the
fifteenth century lived in comfort on their manors. These manors
included the lord's domain cultivated by his bailiff, the small estates
of freeholders paying quit rents, the tenements and lands of the
labourers held for services, and the waste or common on which all
tenants had right of pasture. The manor house was usually built of
stone, though brick was beginning to come into use. The house was
generally divided into three principal rooms: the hall, the
dormitories, and the solar or parlour with a southern aspect. In the
hall the family and household dined. It was also used for the manor
courts, for levying fines, and passing judicial sentences. The table
was on trestles, there were a few stools and benches, and some chests
for linen. Here would also be seen a pot of brass, several dishes,
platters, and trenchers, iron or lateen candlesticks, a brass ewer and
basin, and a box of salt. The walls were hung with mattocks, scythes,
reaping hooks, buckets and corn measures. In the dairy were the pails,
pans, churn, and cheese press. In the grange were the sacks of corn.
The manor land was ploughed twice, but half the arable remained fallow.
When harvest was over pigs and geese were turned into the stubble. The
means of supporting the stock in winter depended upon the supply of
hay, for there were no root crops. The rest of the stock had to be
killed down for salting on St. Martin's day (November 11). In the
garden and orchard were apples and pears, damsons, cherries, currants,
strawberries, kitchen herbs, onions and leeks, mustard, peas and beans,
and cabbage. Crab apples were collected to make verjuice.
We are informed of the commissions John Paston {122} received from his
wife, in her numerous letters. Besides weapons of offence and defence
she writes for ginger and almonds and sugar, also for frieze for their
growing child with a note of the best and cheapest shop. Next she
wants two dozen trenchers, syrup, quince preserve, oil for salads. As
regards luggage John Paston writes to his brother, who was at an
inn--the sign of the 'George' in Paul's Wharf--to put up in the mail
his tawny gown furred with black, the doublet of purple satin, the
doublet of black satin, and his writing box of cypress. These
commissions give a little insight into the domestic arrangements of the
time. But for a complete outfit of one of the lesser gentry equipped
for war we must read over the contents of Mr. Payn's luggage, robbed
from him by Jack Cade and his rabble at the sign of the 'White Hart'
near London Bridge.
There was a fine gown of mixed grey woollen cloth trimmed with fine
beavers. A pair of 'bregandyns,' which were coats of leather or cotton
quilted, having small iron plates sewn over them; also leg harness. A
bluish grey gown furred with martens. Two gowns furred with budge
(lamb skin). Lastly, a gown lined with frieze. But the greatest loss
was a set of Milan harness (armour). They forced Mr. Payn into the
battle on London Bridge, where he was wounded; and robbed his wife in
Kent of all but kirtle and smock. Those were exciting times, and
luggage was not always safe, but on the whole they were times of plenty.
The fifteenth century was the golden age of the labourer. At no time
were wages relatively so high. The people ate wheaten bread, drank
barley beer, and had plenty of cheap, though perhaps coarse, meat at a
farthing a pound (equal to 3_d._ now). If a labourer had to undertake
a journey, there were houses as well as {123} monasteries where doles
were given to all wayfarers. The cottages of the poor were built of
wattle and daub, but skilled labourers were fed at the table of the
lord of the manor below the salt; and some of them lodged in the
out-buildings. It is said that scurvy, in a virulent form, was a
common disorder; as all the poor, except the numerous class of
poachers, had to live on salt meat for six months, onions and cabbages
being the only esculents. But the prevalence of this disorder has been
exaggerated.
We have the evidence of Chief Justice Fortescue that the labouring
class in England was far better off as regards lodging, clothing, and
food than the peasantry of France and other countries of Europe.
PRICES--1484
Wheat, 5s. 3-3/4d. the quarter. | Hen, 2d.
Barley, 4s. 1-1/4d. | Swan, 2s. 6d.
Oats, 2s. 2-1/2d. | Duck, 2d.
Beans, 3s. 8d. | Charcoal, 6s. 5d. the load.
Oatmeal, 7d. | Firewood, 1s. 10-1/2d. the load.
Malt, 3s. 10-1/4d. | Hurdles, 2s. the dozen.
Hay, 2s. 2d. the load. | Salt, 4s. 8d. the quarter.
Wool, 5s. 4d. the ton. | Tiles, 6s. 10d. the 1,000.
Ox, 10s. | Bricks, 6s. 8d. the 1,000.
Calf, 3s. | Gascony wine, 9s. 8-1/2d. the dozen
Sheep, 1s. 4d. | gallons.
Pig, 5s. 4d. | Sugar, 19s. the dozen pounds.
Horse, 60s. | Pepper, 15s. " "
Capon, 3d. | Currants, 2s. 4d. " "
Goose, 1d. |
Wages--Carpenter 6d. per day, 3s. a week, L9 2s. 6d. a year.
Tiler 6d. "
Unskilled 4d. " 2s. "
[1] Thorold Rogers.
[2] The enclosure grievance was just beginning to be felt.
[3] The second edition was brought out by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496.
[4] It was created by Richard III. in 1484.
[5] The 'pale' in heraldry.
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