every London trade of twenty men had its own guild. The guild secured
good work for its members and the members maintained the reputation of
the work standards of the guild. Bad work was punished and night work
prohibited as leading to bad work. The guild exercised moral control
over its members and provided sickness and death benefits for them.
There was much overlapping in the two forms of association: the craft
guild and the religious fraternity. Apprentices were taken in to assure
an adequate supply of competent workers for the future. The standard
indenture of an apprentice bound him to live in his master's house;
serve him diligently; obey reasonable commands; keep his master's
secrets; protect him from injury; abstain from dice, cards and haunting
of taverns; not marry; commit no fornication, and not absent himself
without permission. In return the master undertook to provide the boy or
girl with bed, board, and lodging and to instruct him or her in the
trade, craft, or mystery. When these apprentices had enough training
they were made journeymen with a higher rate of pay. Journeymen traveled
to see the work of their craft in other towns. Those journeymen rising
to master had the highest pay rate.
Occupations free of guild restrictions included horse dealers,
marbelers, bookbinders, jewelers, organ makers, feathermongers, pie
makers, basket makers, mirrorers, quilters, and parchment makers.
Non-citizens of London could not be prevented from selling leather,
metalwares, hay, meat, fruit, vegetables, butter, cheese, poultry, and
fish from their boats, though they had to sell in the morning and sell
all their goods before the market closed.
In the towns, many married women had independent businesses and wives
also played an active part in the businesses of their husbands. Wives of
well-to-do London merchants embroidered, sewed jewelry onto clothes, and
made silk garments. Widows often continued in their husband's
businesses, such as managing a large import-export trade, tailoring,
brewing, and metal shop. Socially lower women often ran their own
breweries, bakeries, and taverns. It was possible for wives to be free
burgesses in their own right in some towns.
Some ladies were patrons of writers. Some women were active in prison
reform in matters of reviews to insure that no man was in gaol without
due cause, overcharges for bed and board, brutality, and regulation of
prisoners being placed in irons. Many men and women left money in their
wills for food and clothing for prisoners, especially debtors. Wills
often left one-third of the wealth to the church, the poor, prisoners,
infirmaries, young girls' education; road, wall, and bridge repair;
water supply, markets and almshouses. Some infirmaries were for the
insane, who were generally thought to be possessed by the devil or
demons. Their treatment was usually by scourging the demons out of their
body by flogging. If this didn't work, torture could be used to drive
the demons from the body.
The guilds were being replaced by associations for the investment of
capital. In associations, journeymen were losing their chance of rising
to be a master. Competition among associations was starting to supplant
custom as the mainspring of trade.
The cloth exporters, who were mostly mercers, were unregulated and
banded together for mutual support and protection under the name of
Merchant Adventurers of London. The Merchant Adventurers was chartered
in 1407. It was the first and a prototype of regulated companies. That
is the company regulated the trade. Each merchant could ship on his own
a certain number of cloths each year, the number depending on the length
of his membership in the company. He could sell them himself or by his
factor at the place where the company had privileges of market. Strict
rules governed the conduct of each member. He was to make sales only at
certain hours on specified days. All disagreements were to be settled by
the company's governor, or his deputy in residence, and those officials
dealt with such disputes as arose between members of the company and
continental officials and buyers. A share in the ownership of one of
their vessels was a common form of investment by prosperous merchants.
By 1450, the merchant adventurers were dealing in linen cloths, buckrams
[a stiffened, coarse cloth], fustians [coarse cloth made of cotton
threads going in one direction and linen threads the other], satins,
jewels, fine woolen and linen wares, threads, potions, wood, oil, wine,
salt, copper, and iron. They began to replace trade by alien traders.
The history of the "Merchant Adventurers" was associated with the growth
of the mercantile system for more than 300 years. It eventually replaced
the staples system.
Paved roads in towns were usually gravel and sometimes cobble. They
were frequently muddy because of rain and spillage of water being
carried. Iron-shod wheels and overloaded carts made them very uneven.
London was the first town with paviors. They cleaned and repaired the
streets, filling up potholes with wood chips and compacting them with
hand rams. The paviors were organized as a city company in 1479. About
1482, towns besides London began appointing salaried road paviors to
repair roads and collect their expenses from the householders because
the policy of placing the burden on individual householders didn't work
well. London streets were lighted at night by public lanterns, under the
direction of the mayor. The residents were to light these candle
lanterns in winter from dusk to the 9 p.m. curfew. There were
fire-engines composed of a circular cistern with a pump and six feet of
inflexible hose on wheels pulled by two men on one end and pushed by two
men on the other end. In 1480 the city walls were rebuilt with a weekly
tax of 5d. per head.
In schools, there was a renaissance of learning from original sources
of knowledge written in Greek and rebirth of the Greek pursuit of the
truth and scientific spirit of inquiry. There was a striking increase in
the number of schools founded by wealthy merchants or town guilds. Every
cathedral, monastery, and college had a grammar school. Merchants tended
to send their sons to private boarding schools, instead of having them
tutored at home as did the nobility. Well-to-do parents still sent sons
to live in the house of some noble to serve them as pages in return for
being educated with the noble's son by the household priest. They often
wore their master's coat of arms and became their squires as part of
their knightly education. Sometimes girls were sent to live in another
house to receive education from a tutor there under the supervision of
the lady of the house. Every man, free or villein, could send his sons
and daughters to school. In every village, there were some who could
read and write.
In 1428, Lincoln's Inn required barristers normally resident in London
and the county of Middlesex to remain in residence and pay commons
during the periods between sessions of court and during vacations, so
that the formal education of students would be continuous. In 1442, a
similar requirement was extended to all members.
The book "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was written about an
incident in the court of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere in which a
green knight challenges Arthur's knights to live up to their reputation
for valor and awesome deeds. The knight Gawain answers the challenge,
but is shown that he could be false and cowardly when death seemed to be
imminent. Thereafter, he wears a green girdle around his waist to remind
him not to be proud.
Other literature read included "London Lickpenny", a satire on London
and its expensive services and products, "Fall of Princes" by John
Lydgate, social history by Thomas Hoccleve, "The Cuckoo and the
Nightengale", and "The Flower and Leaf" on morality as secular common
sense. King James I of Scotland wrote a book about how he fell in love.
Chaucer, Cicero, Ovid, and Aesops's Fables were widely read. Malory's
new version of the Arthurian stories was popular. Margery Kempe wrote
the first true autobiography. She was a woman who had a normal married
life with children, but one day had visions and voices which led her to
leave her husband to take up a life of wandering and praying in holy
possession. There were religious folk ballads such as "The Cherry Tree
Carol", about the command of Jesus from Mary's womb for a cherry tree to
bend down so that Mary could have some cherries from it. The common
people developed ballads, e.g. about their love of the forest, their
wish to hunt, and their hatred of the forest laws.
About 30% of Londoners could read English. Books were bought in London
in such quantities by 1403 that the craft organizations of text-letter
writers, illuminators, bookbinders, and book sellers was sanctioned by
ordinance. "Unto the honorable lords, and wise, the mayor and aldermen
of the city of London, pray very humbly all the good folks, freemen of
the said city, of the trades of writers of text-letter, limners
[illuminator of books], and other folks of London who are wont to bind
and to sell books, that it may please your great sagenesses to grant
unto them that they may elect yearly two reputable men, the one a
limner, the other a text- writer, to be wardens of the said trades, and
that the names of the wardens so elected may be presented each year
before the mayor for the time being, and they be there sworn well and
diligently to oversee that good rule and governance is had and exercised
by all folks of the same trades in all works unto the said trades
pertaining, to the praise and good fame of the loyal good men of the
said trades and to the shame and blame of the bad and disloyal men of
the same. And that the same wardens may call together all the men of the
said trades honorably and peacefully when need shall be, as well for the
good rule and governance of the said city as of the trades aforesaid.
And that the same wardens, in performing their due office, may present
from time to time all the defaults of the said bad and disloyal men to
the chamberlain at the Guildhall for the time being, to the end that the
same may there, according to the wise and prudent discretion of the
governors of the said city, be corrected, punished, and duly redressed.
And that all who are rebellious against the said wardens as to the
survey and good rule of the same trades may be punished according to the
general ordinance made as to rebellious persons in trades of the said
city [fines and imprisonment]. And that it may please you to command
that this petition, by your sagenesses granted, may be entered of record
for time to come, for the love of God and as a work of charity."
Gutenberg's printing press, which used movable type of small blocks
with letters on them, was brought to London in 1476 by a mercer: William
Caxton. It supplemented the text-writer and monastic copyist. It was a
wood and iron frame with a mounted platform on which were placed small
metal frames into which words with small letters of lead had been set
up. Each line of text had to be carried from the type case to the press.
Beside the press were pots filled with ink and inking balls. When enough
lines of type to make a page had been assembled on the press, the balls
would be dipped in ink and drawn over the type. Then a sheet of paper
would be placed on the form and a lever pulled to press the paper
against the type. Linen usually replaced the more expensive parchment
for the book pages.
The printing press made books more accessible to all literate people.
Caxton printed major English texts and some translations from French and
Latin. He commended different books to various kinds of readers, for
instance, for gentlemen who understand gentleness and science, or for
ladies and gentlewomen, or to all good folk. There were many cook books
in use. There were convex eyeglasses for reading and concave ones for
distance to correct near-sightedness. The first public library in London
was established from a bequest in a will in 1423.
Many carols were sung at the Christian festival of Christmas. Ballads
were sung on many features of social life of this age of disorder,
hatred of sheriffs, but faith in the King. The legend of Robin Hood was
popular, as were town miracle plays on leading incidents of the Bible
and morality plays. Vintners portrayed the miracle of Cana where water
was turned into wine and Goldsmiths ornately dressed the three Kings
coming from the east. In York, the building of Noah's Ark was performed
by the Shipwrights and the Flood performed by the Fishery and Mariners.
Short pantomimes and disguising, forerunners of costume parties, were
good recreation. Games of cards became popular as soon as cards were
introduced. The king, queen, and jack were dressed in contemporary
clothes. Men bowled, kicked footballs, and played tennis. In London,
Christmas was celebrated with masques and mummings. There was a great
tree in the main market place and evergreen decorations in churches,
houses, and streets. There were also games, dances, street bonfires in
front of building doors, and general relaxation of social controls.
Sometimes there was drunken licentiousness and revelry, with peasants
gathering together to make demands of lords for the best of his goods.
May Day was celebrated with crowns and garlands of spring flowers. The
village May Day pageant was often presided over by Robin Hood and Maid
Marion.
People turned to mysticism to escape from the everyday violent world.
They read works of mystics, such as "Scale of Perfection" and "Cloud of
Unknowing", the latter describing how one may better know God. They
believed in magic and sorcery, but had no religious enthusiasm because
the church was engendering more disrespect. Monks and nuns had long ago
resigned spiritual leadership to the friars; now the friars too lost
much of their good reputation. The monks became used to life with many
servants such as cooks, butlers, bakers, brewers, barbers, laundresses,
tailors, carpenters, and farm hands. The austerity of their diet had
vanished. The schedule of divine services was no longer followed by many
and the fostering of learning was abandoned. Into monasteries drifted
the lazy and miserable. Nunneries had become aristocratic boarding
houses. The practice of taking sanctuary was abused; criminals and
debtors sought it and were allowed to overstay the 40-day restriction
and to leave at night to commit robberies. There were numerous
chaplains, who were ordained because they received pay from private
persons for saying masses for the dead; They had much leisure time for
mischief because they had to forego wife and family. Church courts
became corrupt, but jealously guarded their jurisdiction from temporal
court encroachment. Peter's Pence was no longer paid by the people, so
the burden of papal exaction fell wholly on the clergy. But the church
was rich and powerful, paying almost a third of the whole taxation of
the nation and forming a majority in the House of Lords. Many families
had kinsmen in the clergy. Even the lowest cleric or clerk could read
and write in Latin.
People relied on saint's days as reference points in the year, because
they did not know dates of the year. But townspeople knew the hour and
minute of each day, because clocks driven by a descending weight on a
cord were in all towns and in the halls of the well-to-do. This
increased the sense of punctuality and lifted standards of efficiency.
These weight-driven clocks replaced water clocks, which had a problem of
water freezing, and sandclocks, which could measure only small time
intervals.
A linguistic unity and national pride was developing. London English
became the norm and predominated over rural dialects. Important news was
announced and spread by word of mouth in market squares and sometimes in
churches. As usual, traders provided one of the best sources of news;
they maintained an informal network of speedy messengers and accurate
reports because political changes so affected their ventures. News also
came from peddlers, who visited villages and farms to sell items that
could not be bought in the local village. These often included scissors,
eyeglasses, colored handkerchiefs, calendars, fancy leather goods,
watches, and clocks. Peddling was fairly profitable because of the lack
of competition. But peddlers were often viewed as tramps and suspected
of engaging in robbery as well as peddling.
A royal post service was established by relays of mounted messengers.
The first route was between London and the Scottish border, where there
were frequent battles for land between the Scotch and English.
The inland roads from town to town were still rough and without signs.
A horseman could make up to 40 miles a day. Common carriers took
passengers and parcels from various towns to London on scheduled
journeys. Now the common yeoman could order goods from the London
market, communicate readily with friends in London, and receive news of
the world frequently. Trade with London was so great and the common
carrier so efficient in transporting goods that the medieval fair began
to decline. First the Grocers and then the Mercers refused to allow
their members to sell goods at fairs. There was much highway robbery.
Most goods were still transported by boats along the coasts, with
trading at the ports.
Embroidery was exported. Imported were timber, pitch, tar, potash [for
cloth dying], furs, silk, satin, gold cloth, damask cloth, furred gowns,
gems, fruit, spices, and sugar. Imports were restricted by national
policy for the purpose of protecting native industries.
English single-masted ships began to be replaced by two or three masted
ships with high pointed bows to resist waves and sails enabling the ship
to sail closer to the wind. 200 tuns was the usual carrying capacity.
The increase in trade made piracy, even by merchants, profitable and
frequent until merchant vessels began sailing in groups for their mutual
protection. The astrolabe, which took altitude of sun and stars, was
used for navigation.
Consuls were appointed to assist English traders abroad.
Henry IV appointed the first admiral of the entire nation and resolved
to create a national fleet of warships instead of using merchant ships.
In 1417, the war navy had 27 ships. In 1421, Portsmouth was fortified as
a naval base. Henry V issued the orders that formed the basic law of
English admiralty and appointed surgeons to the navy and army.
For defense of the nation, especially the safeguard of the seas,
Parliament allotted the king for life, 3s. for every tun of wine
imported and an additional 3s. for every tun of sweet wine imported.
>From about 1413, tunnage on wine [tax per tun] and poundage [tax per
pound] on merchandise were duties on goods of merchants which were
regularly granted by Parliament to the king for life for upkeep of the
Navy. Before this time, such duties had been sporadic and temporary.
The most common ailments were eye problems, aching teeth, festering
ears, joint swelling and sudden paralysis of the bowels. Epidemics broke
out occasionally in the towns in the summers. The plague swept London in
1467 and the nation in 1407, 1445, and 1471. Leprosy disappeared.
Infirmaries were supported by a tax of the king levied on nearby
counties. The walls, ditches, gutters, sewers, and bridges on waterways
and the coast were kept in repair by laborers hired by commissions
appointed by the Chancellor. Those who benefited from these waterways
were taxed for the repairs in proportion to their use thereof.
Alabaster was sculptured into tombs surmounted with a recumbent effigy
of the deceased, and effigies of mourners on the sides. Few townsmen
choose to face death alone and planned memorial masses to be sung to
lift their souls beyond Purgatory. Chantries were built by wealthy men
for this purpose.
Chemical experimentation was still thought to be akin to sorcery, so was
forbidden by King Henry IV in 1404.
Gold was minted into coins: noble, half noble, and farthing.
King Henry IV lost power to the Commons and the Lords because he needed
revenue from taxes and as a usurper King, he did not carry the natural
authority of a King. The Commons acquired the right to elect its own
speaker. The lords who helped the usurpation felt they should share the
natural power of the kingship. The council became the instrument of the
Lords. Also, the Commons gained power compared to the nobility because
many nobles had died in war. The consent of the Commons to legislation
became so usual that the justices declared that it was necessary. The
Commons began to see itself as representative of the entire commons of
the realm instead of just their own counties. Its members had the
freedom to consider and debate every matter of public interest, foreign
or domestic, except for church matters. The Commons, the poorest of the
three estates, established an exclusive right to originate all money
grants to the king in 1407. The Speaker of the Commons announced its
money grant to the king only on the last day of the parliamentary
session, after the answers to its petitions had been declared, and after
the Lords had agreed to the money grant. It tied its grants by rule
rather than just practice to certain appropriations. For instance,
tunnage and poundage were appropriated for naval defenses. Wool customs
went to the maintenance of Calais, a port on the continent, and defense
of the nation. It also put the petitions in statutory form, called
"bills", to be enacted after consideration and amendment by all without
alteration. Each house had a right to deliberate in privacy. In the
Commons, members spoke in the order in which they stood up bareheaded.
Any member of Parliament or either house or the king could initiate a
bill. Both houses had the power to amend or reject a bill. There were
conferences between select committees of both houses to settle their
differences. The Commons required the appointment of auditors to audit
the King's accounts to ensure past grants had been spent according to
their purpose. It forced the King's council appointees to be approved by
Parliament and to be paid salaries. About 1430, kings' councilors were
required to take an oath not to accept gifts of land, not to maintain
private suits, not to reveal secrets, and not to neglect the king's
business. A quorum was fixed and rules made for removal from the
council. For the next fifty years, the council was responsible both to
the king and to Parliament. This was the first encroachment on the
King's right to summon, prorogue, or dismiss a Parliament at his
pleasure, determine an agenda of Parliament, veto or amend its bills,
exercise his discretion as to which lords he summoned to Parliament, and
create new peers by letters patent [official public letters]. Parliament
was affected by the factionalism of the times. The speaker of the
commons was often an officer of some great lord. In 1426, the retainers
of the barons in Parliament were forbidden to bear arms, so they
appeared with clubs on their shoulders. When the clubs were forbidden,
they came with stones concealed in their clothing.