other waste places, which previously was the lord's right. The
perpetuality of towns was recognized by statutes of 1391, which compared
town-held property to church-held property. The right of London to pass
ordinances was confirmed by charter. Some towns had a town clerk, who
was chief of full-time salaried officers. There was a guildhall to
maintain, a weigh-house, prison, and other public buildings, municipal
water supplies, wharves, cranes, quays, wash-houses, and public
lavatories.
After the experience of the black death, some sanitary measures were
taken. The notorious offenders in matters of public hygiene in the
towns, such as the butchers, the fishmongers, and the leather tanners
were assigned specific localities where their trades would do least
harm. The smiths and potters were excluded from the more densely
populated areas because they were fire risks. In the town of Salisbury,
there was Butcher Row, Ox Row, Fish Row, Ironmongers' Row, Wheelwrights'
Row, Smiths' Row, Pot Row, Silver Street, Cheese Market, and Wool
Market.
For water, most communities depended on rivers that ran near by or on
public wells that were dug to reach the water underground. Some towns
had water public water supply systems. Fresh water was brought into the
town from a spring or pond above the town by wood or lead pipes or open
conduits. Sometimes tree trunks were hollowed out and tapered at the
ends to fit into the funnel-shaped end of another. But they leaked a
lot. In London, a conduit piped water underground to a lead tank, from
which it was delivered to the public by means of pipes and brass taps in
the stone framework. This was London's chief water supply. Water
carriers carried water in wooden devices on their backs to houses.
The paving and proper drainage of the streets became a town concern.
Building contracts began specifying the provision of adequate cesspits
for the privies at town houses, whether the latrines were built into the
house or as an outhouse. Also, in the better houses, there grew a
practice of carting human and animal fecal matter at night to dung heaps
outside the city walls. There was one public latrine in each ward and
about twelve dung carts for the whole city. Country manor houses had
latrines on the ground floor and/or the basement level.
In London, the Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors [Tailors], Skinners, and
Girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized their power of
self-government as a company and their power to enforce their standards,
perhaps throughout the country. The Goldsmiths, the Mercers, and the
Saddlers became in 1394 the first guilds to receive charters of
incorporation, which gave them perpetual existence. As such they could
hold land in "mortmain" [dead hand], thus depriving the king of rights
that came to him on the death of a tenant-in-chief. They were authorized
to bestow livery on their members and were called Livery Companies. The
liverymen [freemen] of the trading companies elected London's
representatives to Parliament.
In all towns, the organization of craft associations spread rapidly
downwards through the trades. These associations sought self-government.
Craft guilds were gaining much power relative to the old merchant guilds
in governing the towns. The greater crafts such as the fishmongers,
skinners, and the corders (made rope, canvas, and pitch) organized and
ultimately were recognized by town authorities as self-governing craft
guilds. The building trade guilds such as the tilers, carpenters,
masons, and joiners, became important. Masons were still itinerant,
going to sites of churches, public buildings, or commanded by the king
to work on castles. The guild was not necessarily associated with a
specific product. For instance, a saddle and bridle were the result of
work of four crafts: joiner (woodworker), painter, saddler (leather),
and lorimer (metal trappings).
In London in 1392 craft guilds included: baker, fishmonger (cut up and
sold fish), fruitier, brewer, butcher, bird dealer, cook, apothecary
(sold potions he had ground up), cutler (made knives and spoons),
barber, tailor, shoemaker, glover (made gloves), skinner (sold furs),
girdler (made girdles of cloth to wear around one's waist), pouchmaker,
armorer, sheathmaker, weaver, fuller, painter, carpenter, joiner
(woodworker who finished interior woodwork such as doors and made
furniture), tiler, mason (cut stone for buildings), smith (made metal
tools for stonemasons and builders), tallow chandler (made candles and
sometimes soap from the fat and grease the housewife supplied), wax
chandler (made candles), stirrup maker, spurrier (made spurs), and
hosteler (innkeeper). However, the merchant guilds of the goldsmiths,
vintners (sold wine), mercers (sold cloth), grocers, and drapers
(finished and sold English cloth) were still strong. It was a long
custom in London that freemen in one company could practice the trade of
another company. There were paint mills and saw mills replacing human
labor. There were apothecary shops and women surgeons. Women who earned
their own living by spinning were called "spinsters".
Some prices in London were: a hen pastry 5d., a capon pastry 8d., a
roast pheasant 13d., a roast heron 18d., roast goose 7d., a hen 4d., a
capon 6d., three roast thrushes 2d., ten larks 3d., ten finches 1d, and
ten cooked eggs 1d.
Many of the guilds bought sites on which they built a chapel, which was
later used as a secular meeting place. The guild officers commonly
included an alderman, stewards, a dean, and a clerk, who were elected.
The guild officers sat as a guild court to determine discipline for
offenses such as false weights or measures or false workmanship or work
and decided trade disputes. The brethren in guild fraternity were
classified as masters, journeymen, or apprentices. They were expected to
contribute to the support of the sick and impoverished in their
fellowship. Their code required social action such as ostracizing a man
of the craft who was living in adultery until he mended his ways.
The rules of the Company of Glovers were:
1. None but a freeman of the city shall make or sell gloves.
2. No glover may be admitted to the freedom of the city unless with the
assent of the wardens of the trade.
3. No one shall entice away the servant of another.
4. If a servant in the trade makes away with his master's chattels to
the value of 12d., the wardens shall make good the loss; and if the
servant refuses to be judged by the wardens, he shall be taken
before the mayor and aldermen.
5. No one may sell his goods by candlelight.
6. Any false work found shall be taken before the mayor and aldermen by
the wardens.
7. All things touching the trade within the city between those who are
not freemen shall be forfeited.
8. Journeymen shall be paid their present rate of wages.
9. Persons who entice away journeymen glovers to make gloves in their
own houses shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.
10. Any one of the trade who refuses to obey these regulations shall be
brought before the mayor and aldermen.
Cordwainers [workers in soft cordovan leather from Spain, especially
shoes] of good repute petitioned the city of London in 1375 for
ordinances on their trade as follows:
"To the mayor and aldermen of the city of London pray the good folks of
the trade of cordwainers of the same city, that it may please you to
grant unto them the articles that follow, for the profit of the common
people; that so, what is good and right may be done unto all manner of
folks, for saving the honor of the city and lawfully governing the said
trade.
In the first place - that if any one of the trade shall sell to any
person shoes of bazen [sheepskin tanned in oak or larch-bark] as being
cordwain, or of calf-leather for ox-leather, in deceit of the common
people, and to the scandal of the trade, he shall pay to the Chamber of
the Guildhall, the first time that he shall be convicted thereof, forty
pence; the second time, 7s. half a mark; and the third time the same,
and further, at the discretion of the mayor and aldermen.
Also - that no one of the trade shall keep house within the franchise if
he be not free [invested with the rights or privileges] of the city and
one knowing his trade, and that no one shall be admitted to the freedom
without the presence of the wardens of the trade bearing witness to his
standing, on the pain aforesaid.
Also - if any one of the trade shall be found offending touching the
trade, or rebellious against the wardens thereof, such person shall not
make complaint to any one of another trade, by reason of the discord or
dissension that may have arisen between them; but he shall be ruled by
the good folks of his own trade. And if he shall differ from them as
acting against right, then let the offense be adjudged upon before the
mayor and aldermen; and if he be found rebellious against the ordinance,
let him pay to the Chamber the sum above mentioned.
Also - that no one of the trade shall entice or purloin the servant of
another from the service of his master by paying him more than is
ordained by the trade, on the pain aforesaid.
Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares connected with
his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except only at a certain place
situated between Soperesland and the Conduit; and that at a certain time
of the day, that is to say, between prime [the first hour of the day]
and noon. And that no shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so
that the wares may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because
of the deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the scandal of
the trade, on the pain aforesaid.
Also - that no one shall expose his wares openly for sale in market on
Sundays at any place, but only within his own dwelling to serve the
common people, on the pain aforesaid.
Also - that if any one sells old shoes, he shall not mix new shoes among
the old in deceit of the common people and to the scandal of the trade,
on the pain aforesaid."
Smithfield was a field outside the city gates at which horses were sold
and raced. In 1372, the horse dealers and drovers petitioned for a tax
on animals sold there to pay for cleaning the field. The city ordinance
reads as follows: "On Wednesday next after the Feast of St. Margaret the
Virgin came reputable men, the horse dealers and drovers, and delivered
unto the mayor and aldermen a certain petition in these words: 'To the
mayor, recorder, and aldermen show the dealers of Smithfield, that is to
say, the coursers and drovers, that for the amendment of the said field
they have granted and assented among them that for the term of three
years next ensuing after the date of this petition for every horse sold
in the said field there shall be paid one penny, for every ox and cow
one halfpenny, for every eight sheep one penny, and for every swine one
penny by the seller and the same by the purchaser who buys the same for
resale.` Afterwards, on the eleventh day of August in the same year,
Adam Fernham, keeper of the gaol at Newgate, Hugh, Averelle, bailiff of
Smithfield, and William Godhewe, weaver, were chosen and sworn
faithfully to collect and receive the said pennies in form aforesaid and
to clean the field of Smithfield from time to time during such term of
three years when necessary."
Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even brick
and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However, chimneys were still
a luxury of the rich. They were made of stone, tile, or plaster. There
were windows of glass and a guild of glaziers was chartered by the King.
A typical merchant's house had a cellar; a ground floor with a shop and
storage space; a first floor with a parlor to receive guests, a spacious
hall for dining, and perhaps a kitchen; and at the top, a large family
bedroom and a servant's room. Stairwells between floors had narrow and
winding steps. Many single-roomed houses added a second-floor room for
sleeping, which was approached by a wooden or stone staircase from the
outside. Their goods were displayed on a booth outside the door of the
house or hung in the windows. They were stored at night in the cellar.
Over the booths swung huge signs, which had to be nine feet above street
level to allow a man on horseback to ride underneath. There were no
sidewalks. Street repair work for wages was supervised by a stone
master. The streets sloped down from the middle so that the filth of the
streets would run down the sides of the road. There were many wood chips
in the streets due to cutting up of firewood before taking it indoors.
People often threw the rubbish from their houses onto the street
although they were supposed to cart it outside the city walls and to
clean the frontage of their houses once a week. Dustmen scavenged
through the rubbish on the streets. Pigs and geese were no longer
allowed to run at large in the streets, but had to be fed at home. There
were other city rules on building, public order, the use of fountains,
precautions against fire, trading rights in various districts, closing
time of taverns, and when refuse could be thrown into the streets, e.g.
nighttime.
Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and weights,
wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of the fishing nets,
which had to be at least two inches wide. They saw that the taverns were
shut when curfew was rung and arrested anyone on the street after curfew
who had a weapon, for no one with a sword was allowed on the streets
unless he was some great lord or other substantial person of good
reputation. Wards provided citizens to guard the gates in their
respective neighborhood and keep its key.
The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought in
court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church obstructing
passageway on the street or plumbers melting their solder with a lower
than usual shaft of the furnace so smoke was inhaled by people nearby.
Crime in London was rare. Murder, burglary, highway robbery, and gross
theft were punishable by hanging. Forgery and fraud, were punishable by
the placement in the pillory or stocks or by imprisonment. Perjury was
punished by confession from a high stool for the first offense, and the
pillory for the second. Slander and telling lies were punished by the
pillory and wearing a whetstone around one's neck. There was an
ordinance passed against prostitutes in 1351. London as well as other
port towns had not only prostitutes, but syphilis.
Prominent Londoners sought to elevate their social position by having
their family marry into rural landholding families of position. For poor
boys with talent, the main routes for advancement were the church, the
law, and positions in great households.
Many master freemasons, who carved freestone or finely grained
sandstone and limestone artistically with mallet and chisel, left the
country for better wages after their wages were fixed by statute. The
curvilinear gothic style of architecture was replaced by the
perpendicular style, which was simpler and cheaper to build. Church
steeples now had clocks on them with dials and hands to supplement the
church bell ringing on the hour. Alabaster was often used for sepulchral
monuments instead of metal or stone. With it, closer portraiture could
be achieved.
In the 1300s and 1400s the London population suffered from
tuberculosis, typhus, influenza, leprosy, dysentery, smallpox,
diphtheria, measles, heart disease, fevers, coughs, cramps, catarrhs and
cataracts, scabs, boils, tumors, and "burning agues". There were also
many deaths by fires, burning by candles near straw beds when drunk,
falling downstairs when drunk, and drowning in the river or wells.
Children were often crushed by carts, trampled by horses, or mauled by
pigs.
Towns recognized surgery as a livelihood subject to admission and oath
to serve the social good. Master surgeons were admitted to practice in
1369 in London in full husting before the mayor and the aldermen and
swore to:
[1] faithfully serve the people in undertaking their cures,
[2] take reasonably from them,
[3] faithfully follow their calling,
[4] present to the said mayor and aldermen the defaults of others
undertaking, so often as should be necessary,
[5] to be ready, at all times when they should be warned, to attend the
maimed or wounded and others,
[6] to give truthful information to the officers of the city as to such
maimed, wounded, or others whether they be in peril of death or not, and
[7] to faithfully do all other things touching their calling.
Some young girls of good families were boarded at nunneries to be
taught there. Some upper class widows retired there. Only women were
allowed to be present at a birth, at which they spread the knowledge of
midwifery. As usual, many women died giving birth. Various ways to
prevent pregnancy were tried. It was believed that a baby grew from a
seed of the father planted in the woman's body.
Infant mortality was especially high in boroughs and burgess family
lines usually died out. A three-generation family span was exceptional
in the towns, despite family wealth.
After the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn to speak
Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead of Norman as of
1362. Bishops began to preach in English. English became the official
language of Parliament, in 1363, and in the courts, replacing Norman and
Latin.
The requirements of elementary and higher studies were adjusted in 1393
and began the public school system. William of Wykeham's school, St.
Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the prototype. The curriculum
was civil law, canon law, medicine, with astronomical instruments that
students made, theology, and the arts. The arts textbooks were still
grammar, logic, Donatus, and Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for
instance country gentry, merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of
clerics were now appointed to the great offices of state.
A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to
become an attorney and the other a merchant:
"Will of William de Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks
[1,333s.] each to my two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall
live upon the profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the
age of twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar
and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end of twenty
years, and the elder son wish to practice common law, and if it is known
that he would spend his time well in that faculty, I will that over and
above the profit of the said one hundred marks he shall have yearly from
my rents for the term of seven years five marks [67s.]. And if he should
waste his time aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and
unsuitably, I will that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.
And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or to
establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the age of
twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his praiseworthy progress
in his faculty or his carefulness in trading ... I will that he shall
receive five marks yearly in the manner described above for his
maintenance, over and above the profit of the said one hundred marks to
him bequeathed, for the space of seven years; and if he behave himself
otherwise, I will that thereupon he be excluded from the said five
marks. And in case the said bequest of 200 marks [2,667s.] to him and
his brother shall be annulled so that he shall have nothing therefrom
... then the said 200 marks shall be spent upon all the yearly chaplains
who can be had to celebrate divine service in the church of All Hallows
for my soul."
Most great lords were literate. Many stories described good men, who
set an example to be followed, and bad men, whose habits were to be
avoided. Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of ordinary
people to religious sites in England. Will Langland's poem "The Vision
of William Concerning Piers Plowman" portrays a pilgrimage of common
people to the shrine of Truth led by a virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote
practical advice with transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of
Perfection" attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing".
Richard Rolle wrote about spiritual matters, probably the "Prick of
Conscience". Richard de Bury wrote "Philobiblon" about book lovers. Jean
Froissart wrote the "Chronicles" on knights. Courtly ideals were
expressed in "Sir Gawaine and the Grene Knyght", wherein the adventures
of the hero, an Arthur knight, are allegorical in the struggle against
the world, the flesh, and the devil (1370). "Pearl" eulogized all that
is pure and innocent on the event of the death of a two year old child.
Marco Polo's book of discoveries on his journey to China was known.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a squire and diplomat of the king. His "Tales of
the Canterbury Pilgrims" portrayed characters of every social class,
including the knight with his squire, abbot, prioress, nun, priest,
monk, friar, poor parson of the country, summoner (who enforced the
jurisdiction and levied the dues of the church courts), pardoner (sold
pardons from the pope), scholar, attorney, doctor, merchant, sailor,
franklin, yeoman, haberdasher, tapestry- maker, ploughman, cook, weaver,
dyer, upholsterer, miller, reeve, carpenter. There were Chaucer stories
about a beautiful and virtuous wife disliked by her mother-in-law, the
difficulty of marriage between people of different religions, the hatred
of a poor person by his brother and his neighbor, rich merchants who
visited other kingdoms, the importance of a man himself following the
rules he sets for other people's behavior, the spite of a man for a
woman who rejected him, the relative lack of enthusiasm of a wife for
sex as compared to her husband, a mother giving up her own comfort for
that of her child, the revenge killing of a murderer by the dead man's
friends, the joy of seeing a loved one after years of separation, that
life is more sad than happy, that lost money can be retrieved, but time
lost is lost forever.
Other stories in the Canterbury Tales were about two men who did not
remain friends after they fell in love with the same woman, about a
child who preferred to learn from an older child than from his
schoolteacher, about a wife who convinced her husband not to avenge her
beating for the sake of peace, about a man who woke up from bad dreams
full of fear, about a man wanting to marry a beautiful woman but later
realizing a plain wife would not be pursued by other men, about a man
who drank so much wine that he lost his mental and physical powers,
about a woman who married for money instead of love, about a man who
said something in frustration which he didn't mean, about a person
brought up in poverty who endured adversity better than one brought up
in wealth, about a wife who was loving and wise, about a good marriage
being more valuable than money, about a virgin who committed suicide
rather than be raped, about a wife persuaded to adultery by a man who
said he would otherwise kill himself, about three men who found a pile
of gold and murdered each other to take it all, about an angry man who
wanted to kill, about a malicious man who had joy in seeing other men in
trouble and misfortune, about a man whose face turned red in shame,
about a wife expecting to have half of what her husband owned.
Political songs and poems were written about the evil times of King
Edward II, the military triumphs of King Edward III, and the complaints
of the poor against their oppressors, such as "Song of the Husbandman".
John Gower wrote moralizing poems on the villein's revolt, the sins of
the clergy and attorneys, and the bad rule of King Richard II, who in
1377 succeeded Edward III. Robin Hood ballads were popular. The
minstrel, who was a honorable person, replaced the troubadour of older
times.
There were many colleges at Oxford and Cambridge due to the prohibition
of gifts to the church. Laymen instead of ecclesiastics were appointed
as Chancellor. The Masters at Oxford got rid of ecclesiastical
supervision by a bishop and archdeacon by 1368. One could be admitted as
a student at age thirteen. The rate of maintenance for a student was
10d. weekly.