The Times: 1399-1485
This period, which begins with the reign of the usurper King,
Henry IV, is dominated by war: the last half of the 100 year war
with France, which, with the help of Joan of Arc, took all
English land on the continent except the port of Calais, and the
War of the Roses in England. The barons and earls returned from
France with their private fighting units. Nobles employed men who
had returned from fighting to use their fighting skill in local
defense. All the great houses kept bands of armed retainers.
These retainers were given land or pay or both as well as
liveries [uniforms or badges] bearing the family crest. They came
to fight for the cause of one of the two royal family lines
competing for the throne. In the system of "livery and
maintenance", if the retainer was harassed by the law or by
enemies, the lord gave him protection [maintenance].
In both wars, the musket was used as well as the long-bow. Cannon
were used to besiege castles and destroy their walls, so many
castles were allowed to deteriorate. The existence of cannon
also limited the usefulness of town walls for defense.
Barons and earls settled their disputes in the field rather than
in the royal courts. And men relied increasingly on the
protection of the great men of their neighborhood and less on
the King's courts for the safety of their lives and land. Local
men involved in court functions usually owed allegiance to a lord
which compromised the exercise of justice. Men serving in an
assize often lied to please their lord instead of telling the
truth. Lords maintained, supported, or promoted litigation with
money or aid supplied to one party to the detriment of justice.
It was not unusual for lords to attend court with a great force
of retainers behind them. Royal justices were flouted or bribed.
The King's writ was denied or perverted. For 6-8s., a lord could
have the King instruct his sheriff to impanel a jury which would
find in his favor. A statute against riots, forcible entries,
and, excepting the King, magnates' liveries of uniform, food,
and badges to their retainers, except in war outside the nation,
was passed, but was difficult to enforce because the offenders
were lords, who dominated the Parliament and the council.
Since the power of the throne changed from one faction to
another, many bills of attainder caused lords to lose their
lands to the King. Fighting between lords and gangs of ruffians
holding the roads, breaking into and seizing manor houses, and
openly committing murders continued. The roads were not safe.
People turned to mysticism to escape from the everyday violent
world. They had no religious enthusiasm, but believed in magic
and sorcery.
With men so often gone to fight, their wives managed the
household alone. The typical wife had maidens of equal class to
whom she taught household management, spinning, weaving, carding
wool with iron wool-combs, heckling flax, embroidery, and making
garments. There were foot-treadles for spinning wheels. She
taught the children. Each day she scheduled the activities of
the household including music, conversation, dancing, chess,
reading, playing ball, and gathering flowers. She organized
picnics, rode horseback and went hunting, hawking to get birds,
and rabbit-ferreting. She was nurse to all around her. If her
husband died, she usually continued in this role because most
men named their wives as executors of their wills with full
power to act as she thought best.
For ladies, close-fitting jackets came to be worn over
close-fitting long gowns with low, square-cut necklines and
flowing sleeves, under which was worn a girdle. All her hair was
confined by a hair net. Headdresses were very elaborate and
heavy, trailing streamers of linen. Some were in the shape of
hearts, butterflies, crescents, double horns, or long cones. Men
also were wearing hats rather than hoods. They wore huge hats of
velvet, fur, or leather. Their hair was cut into a cap-like
shape on their heads, and later was shoulder-length. They wore
doublets with thick padding over the shoulders or short tunics
over the trucks of their bodies and tightened at the waist to
emphasize the shoulders. Their collars were high. Their sleeves
were long concoctions of velvet, damask, and satin, sometimes
worn wrapped around their arms in layers. Their legs were
covered with hose, often in different colors. Shoes were pointed
with upward pikes at the toes. At another time, shoes were broad
with blunt toes. Both men and women wore much jewelry and
ornamentation.
Cooking and the serving of meals was also elaborate. There were
many courses of a variety of meats, fish, stews, and soups, with
a variety of spices. The standard number of meals was three:
breakfast, dinner, and supper. The diet of an ordinary family
such as that of a small shopholder or yeoman farmer included
beef, mutton, pork, a variety of fish, both fresh and salted,
venison, nuts, peas, oatmeal, honey, grapes, apples, pears, and
fresh vegetables. Cattle and sheep were driven from Wales to
English markets. This droving lasted for five centuries.
Many types of people besides the nobility and knights now had
property and thus were considered gentry: female lines of the
nobility, merchants and their sons, lawyers, auditors, squires,
and peasant-yeomen. The burgess grew rich as the knight dropped
lower. The great merchants lived in mansions which could occupy
whole blocks. Typically, there would be an oak-paneled great
hall, with adjoining kitchen, pantry, and buttery on one end and
a great parlor to receive guests, bedrooms, wardrobes, servants'
rooms, and a chapel on the other end or on a second floor. The
beds were surrounded by heavy draperies to keep out cold drafts.
Master and servants ceased to eat together in the same hall. In
towns these mansions were entered through a gate through a row
of shops on the street. A lesser dwelling would have these rooms
on three floors over a shop on the first floor. An average
Londoner would have a shop, a storeroom, a hall, a kitchen, and
a buttery on the first floor, and three bedrooms on the second
floor. Artisans and shopkeepers of more modest means lived in
rows of dwellings, each with a shop and small storage room on
the first floor, and a combination parlor-bedroom on the second
floor. The humblest residents crowded their shop and family into
one 6 by 10 foot room for rent of a few shillings a year. All
except the last would also have a small garden. The best gardens
had a fruit tree, herbs, flowers, a well, and a privy. There
were common and public privies for those without their own.
Kitchen slops and casual refuse continued to be thrown into the
street. Floors of stone or planks were strewn with rushes. There
was some tile flooring. Most dwellings had glass windows. Candles
were used for lighting at night. Torches and oil-burning
lanterns were portable lights. Furnishings were still sparse.
Men sat on benches or joint stools and women sat on cushions on
the floor. Hall and parlor had a table and benches and perhaps
one chair. Bedrooms had a curtained bed and a chest. On the
feather bed were pillows, blankets, and sheets. Better homes had
wall hanging and cupboards displaying plate. Laundresses washed
clothes in the streams, rivers, and public conduits. Country
peasants still lived in wood, straw, and mud huts with earth
floors and a smoky hearth in the center or a kitchen area under
the eaves of the hut.
In 1442, bricks began to be manufactured in the nation and so
there was more use of bricks in buildings. Chimneys were
introduced into manor houses where stone had been too expensive.
This was necessary if a second floor was added, so the smoke
would not damage the floor above it and would eventually go out
of the house.
Nobles and their retinue moved from manor to manor, as they had
for centuries, to keep watch upon their lands and to consume the
produce thereof; it was easier to bring the household to the
estate than to transport the yield of the estate to the
household. Also, at regular intervals sewage had to be removed
from the cellar pits.
Jousting tournaments were held for entertainment purposes only
and were followed by banquets of several courses of food served
on dishes of gold, silver, pewter, or wood on a linen cloth
covering the table. Hands were washed before and after the meal.
People washed their faces every morning after getting up. Teeth
were cleaned with powders. Fragrant leaves were chewed for bad
breath. Garlic was used for indigestion and other ailments. Feet
were rubbed with salt and vinegar to remove calluses. Good
manners included not slumping against a post, fidgeting,
sticking one's finger into one's nose, putting one's hands into
one's hose to scratch the privy parts, spitting over the table
or too far, licking one's plate, picking one's teeth, breathing
stinking breath into the face of the lord, blowing on one's
food, stuffing masses of bread into one's mouth, scratching
one's head, loosening one's girdle to belch, and probing one's
teeth with a knife.
Fishing and hunting were reserved for the nobility rather than
just the King.
As many lords became less wealthy because of the cost of war,
some peasants, villein and free, became prosperous, especially
those who also worked at a craft, e.g. butchers, bakers, smiths,
shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, and clothworkers.
An agricultural slump caused poorer soils to fall back into
waste. The better soils were leased by peasants, who, with their
families, were in a better position to farm it than a great
lord, who found it hard to hire laborers at a reasonable cost.
Further, peasants' sheep, hens, pigs, ducks, goats, cattle,
bees, and crop made them almost self-sufficient in foodstuffs.
They lived in a huddle of cottages, pastured their animals on
common land, and used common meadows for hay-making. They
subsisted mainly on boiled bacon, an occasional chicken, worts
and beans grown in the cottage garden, and cereals. They wore
fine wool cloth in all their apparel. Brimless hats were
replacing hoods. They had an abundance of bed coverings in their
houses. And they had more free time. Village entertainment
included traveling jesters, acrobats, musicians, and bear-
baiter. Playing games and gambling were popular pastimes.
Most villeins were now being called "customary tenants" or
"copy-holders" of land because they held their acres by a copy
of the court-roll of the manor, which listed the number of
teams, the fines, the reliefs, and the services due to the lord
for each landholder. The Chancery court interpreted many of these
documents to include rights of inheritance. The common law courts
followed the lead of the Chancery and held that copyhold land
could be inherited as was land at common law. Evictions by lords
decreased.
The difference between villein and free man lessened but
landlords usually still had profits of villein bondage, such as
heriot, merchet, and chevage.
A class of laborers was arising who depended entirely on the
wages of industry for their subsistence. The cloth workers in
rural areas were isolated and weak and often at the mercy of
middle-men for employment and the amount of their wages.
Rural laborers went to towns to seek employment in the new
industries. They would work at first for any rate. This deepened
the cleavage of the classes in the towns.
The townspeople did not take part in the fighting of the War of
the Roses. Many boroughs sought and obtained formal
incorporation with perpetual existence, the right to sue and be
sued in their own name. Often, a borough would have its own
resident Justice of the Peace. Each incorporation involved a
review by a Justice of the Peace to make sure the charter of
incorporation rule didn't conflict with the law of the nation.
Henry IV granted the first charter of incorporation. A borough
typically had a mayor accompanied by his personal sword-bearer
and serjeants-at-mace bearing the borough regalia, bailiffs, a
sheriff, and chamberlains or a steward for financial
assistance. At many boroughs, aldermen, assisted by their
constables, kept the peace in their separate wards. There might
be coroners, a recorder, and a town clerk, with a host of lesser
officials including beadles, aletasters, sealers, searchers
[inspectors], weighers and keepers of the market, ferrymen and
porters, clock-keepers and criers, paviors [maintained the
roads], scavengers and other street cleaners, gatekeepers and
watchmen of several ranks and kinds. A wealthy borough would have
a chaplain and two or three minstrels.
In all towns, the wealthiest and most influential guilds were the
merchant traders of mercers, drapers, grocers, and goldsmiths.
From their ranks came most of the mayors. Next came the
shopholders of skinners, tailors, ironmongers, and corvisors
[shoemakers]. Thirdly came the humbler artisans, the sellers of
victuals, small shopkeepers, apprentices, and journeymen on the
rise. Lastly came unskilled laborers, who lived in crowded
tenements and hired themselves out. The first three groups were
the free men who voted, paid the scot and lot, and belonged to
guilds.
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
jail 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.
There was much overlapping in the two forms of association: the
craft guild and the religious fraternity.
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
repaired and cleaned the streets. Pot-holes were usually just
filled up with wood chips and compacted with hand rams. They 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. 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.
The King granted London all common soils, improvements, wastes,
streets, and ways in London and in the adjacent waters of the
Thames River and all the profits and rents to be derived
therefrom. Later the King granted London the liberty to purchase
lands and tenements worth up to 2,667 s. yearly. Each ward
nominated two men for alderman, the final choice being made by
the mayor and the other aldermen.
There were many craft guilds. In fact, every 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.
Apprentices were taken in to assure an adequate supply of
competent workers for the future. 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.
But 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 Merchant Adventurers was chartered in 1407. A share in the
ownership of one of their vessels was a common form of
investment by prosperous merchants. By 1450, they 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, drugs, 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.)
In London, shopkeepers appealed to passers-by to buy their goods,
sometimes even seizing people by the sleeve. The drapers had
several roomy shops containing shelves piled with cloths of all
colors and grades, tapestries, pillows, and 'bankers and
dorsers' to soften hard wooden benches. A rear storeroom held
more cloth for import or export. Many shops of skinners were on
Fur Row. There were shops of leather-sellers, hosiers, gold and
silver cups, and silks. At the Stocks Market were fishmongers,
butchers, and poulterers. The Fishmongers were incorporated in
1433, the Cordwainers in 1439, and the Pewterers in 1468. London
grocers imported spices, canvas, ropery, drugs, unguents, soap,
confections, garlic, cabbages, onions, apples, oranges, almonds,
figs, dates, raisins, dye- stuffs, woad, madder, scarlet grains,
saffron, iron, and steel. They were retailers as well as
wholesalers and had shops selling honey, licorice, salt,
vinegar, rice, sugar loaves, syrups, spices, garden seeds, dyes,
alum, soap, brimstone, paper, varnish, canvas, rope, musk,
incense, treacle of Genoa, and mercury. The Grocers did some
money-lending, usually at 12% interest. The guilds did not
restrict themselves to dealing in the goods for which they had a
right of inspection, and so many dealt in wine that it was a
medium of exchange. There was no sharp distinction between
retail and wholesale trading.
Grocers sold herbs for medicinal as well as eating purposes.
Breadcarts sold penny wheat loaves. Foreigners set up stalls on
certain days of the week to sell meat, canvas, linen, cloth,
ironmongery, and lead. There were great houses, churches,
monasteries, inns, guildhalls, warehouses, and the King's Beam
for weighing wool to be exported. The Mercers and Goldsmiths
were in the prosperous part of town. The Goldsmiths' shops sold
gold and silver plate, jewels, rings, water pitchers, drinking
goblets, basins to hold water for the hands, and covered
saltcellars. The grain market was on Cornhill. Halfway up the
street, there was a supply of water which had been brought up in
pipes. On the top was a cage where riotous folk had been
incarcerated by the night watch and the stocks and pillory,
where fraudulent schemers were exposed to ridicule.
Outside the London city walls were tenements, Smithfield cattle
market, Westminster Hall, green fields of crops, and some marsh
land.
On the Thames River to London were large ships with cargos; small
boats rowed by tough boatmen offering passage for a penny; small
private barges of great men with carved wood, gay banners, and
oarsmen with velvet gowns; the banks covered with masts and
tackle; the nineteen arch London Bridge supporting a street of
shops and houses and a drawbridge in the middle; quays;
warehouses, and great cranes lifting bales from ship to wharf.
Merchant guilds which imported or exported each had their own
wharves and warehouses. Downstream, pirates hung on gallows at
the low-water mark to remain until three tides had overflowed
their bodies.
The large scale of London trade promoted the specialization of
the manufacturer versus the merchant versus the shipper.
Merchants had enough wealth to make loans to the government or
for new commercial enterprises. Some London merchants were
knighted by the King. Many bought country estates and turned
themselves into gentry.
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. 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. At the universities,
the bachelor's degree came into existence to denote a preliminary
stage in the course of becoming a master.
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 King is Quair"" by King James I of Scotland about how he
fell in love, "The Cuckoo and the Nightengale", and "The Flower
and Leaf" on morality as secular common sense. Chaucer, Cicero,
and Ovid 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. 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 the people could read English. Books were bought in
London in such quantities by 1403 that the organization of
text-letter writers, book-binders, 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."
The printing press 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
eyeglasses to correct near-sightedness.
Old-established London families began to choose the law as a
profession for their sons, in preference to an apprenticeship in
trade. Many borough burgesses in Parliament were lawyers.
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. Town miracle plays on leading
incidents of the Bible and morality plays were popular. Vintners
portrayed the miracle of Cana where water was turned into wine
and Goldsmiths ornately dressed the three Kings coming from the
east. 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. 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.
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 fame. The monks got 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. People
turned to the writing of mystics, such as "Scale of Perfection"
and "Cloud of Unknowing", the latter describing how one may
better know God.
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 mechanical clocks
were in all towns and in the halls of the well- to-do. This
increased the sense of punctuality and higher standards of
efficiency.
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.
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 was used for navigation by the stars.
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.
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.
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. Leprosy disappeared.
Hospitals 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 his soul beyond Purgatory. Chantries
were built by wealthy men for this purpose.
Gold was minted into coins: noble, half noble, and farthing.
The commons gained much power in Parliament under Henry IV
because he needed so much taxes that the commons had a hold over
him. Also, as a usurper King, he did not carry the natural
authority of a King. The lords who helped his usurpation felt
they should share the natural power of the kingship. Also, the
commons gained power compared to the nobility because many
nobles had died in war. Shakespeare's histories deal with this
era. The Commons now has a speaker.
The Commons established an exclusive right to originate all money
grants to the King in 1407. The commons announced its money
grant only on the last day of the parliamentary session, after
the answers to its petitions had been declared. It tied its
grants by rule rather than just practice to certain
appropriations. For instance, tonnage 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 without alteration. It forced the King's
council appointees to be approved by Parliament, and auditors to
be appointed to audit the King's account to ensure past grants
had been spent according to their purpose.
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].
The King lost Parliamentary power. The magnates asserted that
their attendance at one Parliament established a hereditary
right to attend the others. The consent of the Commons to
legislation became so usual that the judges declared that it was
necessary. In 1426, the retainers of the barons in Parliament
were forbidden to bear arms, so they appeared with clubs on
their shoulders. The clubs were forbidden and they brought in
stones concealed in their clothing.
The authority of the King's privy seal had become a great office
of state which transmitted the King's wishes to the Chancery and
Exchequer, rather than the King's personal instrument for
sealing documents. Now the King used a signet kept by his
secretary as his personal seal. The position of secretary rose in
power under Edward IV.
King Edward IV introduced an elaborate spy system, the use of the
rack to torture people to confess, and other interferences with
justice, all of which the Tudors later used.
King Richard III prohibited the seizure of goods before
conviction of felony. He also liberated the unfree villeins on
royal estates.
It was declared under Parliamentary authority that there was a
preference for the Crown to pass to a King's eldest son, and to
his male issue after him. Formerly, a man could ascend to the
throne through his female ancestry as well.
The Law
The forcible entry statute is expanded to include peaceful entry
with forcible holding afterwards and to forcible holding with
departure before the justices arrived. Penalties are triple
damages, fine, and ransom to the King. A forceful possession
lasting three years is exempt.
Women of age fourteen or over shall have livery of their lands
and tenements by inheritance without question or difficulty.
Purposely cutting out another's tongue or putting out another's
eyes is a felony [penalty of loss of all property].
No one may keep swans unless he has lands and tenements of the
estate of freehold to a yearly value of 67s., because swans of
the King, lords, knights, and esquires have been stolen by
yeomen and husbandmen.
The wage ceiling for servants is: bailiff of agriculture 23s.4d.
per year, and clothing up to 5s., with meat and drink; chief
peasant, a carter, chief shepherd 20s. and clothing up to 4s.,
with meat and drink; common servant of agriculture 15s., and
clothing up to 3s.4d.; woman servant 10s., and clothing up to
4s., with meat and drink; infant under fourteen years 6s., and
clothing up to 3s., with meat and drink. Such as deserve less or
where there is a custom of less, that lesser amount shall be
given.
For laborers at harvest time: mower 4d. with meat and drink or
6d. without; reaper or carter: 3d. with or 5d. without; woman
laborer and other laborers: 2d with and 4d. without.
The ceiling wage rate for craftsmen per day is: free mason or
master carpenter 4d. with meat & drink or 5d. without; master
tiler or slater, rough mason, and mesne carpenter and other
artificiers in building 3d. with meat and drink or 4d. without;
every other laborer 2d. with meat and drink or 3d. without. In
winter the respective wages were less: mason category: 3d. with
or 4d. without; master tiler category: 2d. with or 4d. without;
others: 1d. with or 3d. without meat and drink.
Any servant of agriculture who is serving a term with a master
and covenants to serve another man at the end of this term and
that other man shall notify the master by the middle of his term
so he can get a replacement worker. Otherwise, the servant shall
continue to serve the first master.
No man or woman may put their son or daughter to serve as an
apprentice in a craft within any borough, but may send the child
to school, unless he or she has land or rent to the value of
20s. per year. [because of scarcity of laborers and other
servants of agriculture]
No laborer may be hired by the week.
Masons may no longer congregate yearly, because it has led to
violation of the statute of laborers.
No games may be played by laborers because they lead to murders
and robberies.
Apparel worn must be appropriate to one's status to preserve the
industry of agriculture. The following list of classes shows the
lowest class, which could wear certain apparel:
1. Lords - gold cloth, gold corses, sable fur, purple silk
2. Knights - velvet, branched satin, ermine fur
3. Esquires and gentlemen with possessions to the value of 800
s. per year, daughters of a person who has possessions to the
value of 2,000s. a year - damask, silk, kerchiefs up to 5s. in
value.
4. Esquires and gentlemen with possessions to the yearly value
of 800s. 40 pounds - fur of martron or letuse, gold or silver
girdles, silk corse not made in the nation, kerchief up to 3s.4d
in value
5. Men with possessions of the yearly value of 40s. excluding
the above three classes - fustian, bustian, scarlet cloth in
grain
6. Men with possessions under the yearly value of 40s. excluding
the first three classes - black or white lamb fur, stuffing of
wool, cotton, or cadas.
7. Yeomen - cloth up to the value of 2s., hose up to the value
of 14s., a girdle with silver, kerchief up to 12d.
8. Servants of agriculture, laborer, servant, country craftsman
- none of the above clothes
Gowns and jackets must cover the entire trunk of the body,
including the private parts. Shoes may not have pikes over two
inches.
Every town shall have at its cost a common balance with weights
according to the standard of the Exchequer. All citizens may
weigh goods for free. All cloth to be sold shall be sealed
according to this measure.
There is a standard bushel of grain throughout the nation.
There are standard measures for plain tile, roof tile, and gutter
tile throughout the nation.
No gold or silver may be taken out of the nation.
The price of silver is fixed at 30s. for a pound, to increase the
value of silver coinage, which has become scarce due to its
higher value when in plate or masse.
A designee of the King will inspect and seal cloth with lead to
prevent deceit. Cloth may not be tacked together before
inspection. No cloth may be sold until sealed.
Heads of arrows shall be hardened at the points with steel and
marked with the mark of the arrowsmith who made it, so they are
not faulty.
Shoemakers and cordwainers may tan their leather, but all leather
must be inspected and marked by a town official before it is
sold.
Cordwainers shall not tan leather [to prevent deceitful tanning].
Tanners who make a notorious default in leather which is found
by a cordwainer shall make a forfeiture.
Defective embroidery for sale shall be forfeited.
No fishing net may be fastened or tacked to posts, boats, or
anchors, but may be used by hand, so that fish are preserved and
vessels may pass.
No one may import any articles which could be made in the nation,
including silks, bows, woolen cloths, iron and hardware goods,
harness and saddlery, and excepting printed books.
The following merchandise shall not be brought into the nation
already wrought: woolen cloth or caps, silk laces, ribbons,
fringes, and embroidery, gold laces, saddles, stirrups,
harnesses, spurs, bridles, gridirons, locks, hammers, fire
tongs, dripping pans, dice, tennis balls, points, purses, gloves,
girdles, harness for girdles of iron steel or of tin, any thing
wrought of any treated leather, towed furs, shoes, galoshes,
corks, knives, daggers, woodknives, thick blunt needles, sheers
for tailors, scissors, razors, sheaths, playing cards, pins,
pattens [wooden shoes on iron supports worn in wet weather], pack
needles, painted ware, forcers, caskets, rings of copper or of
gilt sheet metal, chaffing dishes, hanging candlesticks,
chaffing balls, Mass bells, rings for curtains, ladles,
skimmers, counterfeit felt hat moulds, water pitchers with wide
spouts, hats, brushes, cards for wool, white iron wire, upon
pain of their forfeiture. One half this forfeiture goes to the
King and the other half to the person seizing the wares.
No sheep may be exported, because being shorn elsewhere would
deprive the King of customs.
No wheat, rye, or barley may be imported unless the prices are
such that national agriculture is not hurt.
Clothmakers must pay their laborers, such as carders and
spinsters, in current coin and not in pins and girdles and the
like.
The term "freemen" in the Magna Carta includes women.
The election of a knight from a shire to go to Parliament shall
be proclaimed by the sheriff in the full county so all may
attend and none shall be commanded to do something else at that
time. Election results will be sealed and sent to Parliament.
To be elected to Parliament, a knight must reside in the county
and have free land or tenements to the value of 40s. per year,
because participation in elections of too many people of little
substance or worth had led to homicides, assaults, and feuds.
(These "yeomen" were about one sixth of the population. Most
former voters and every leaseholder and every copyholder were
excluded. The requirement lasted for 400 years.)
London ordinances forbade placing rubbish or dung in the Thames
River or any town ditch or casting water or anything else out of
a window. The roads were maintained with tolls on carts and
horses bringing victuals or grains into the city and on
merchandise unloaded from ships at the port. No carter shall
drive his cart more quickly when it is unloaded than when it is
loaded. No pie bakers shall sell beef pies as venison pies, or
make any meat pie with entrails. To assist the poor, bread and
ale shall be sold by the farthing.
Desertion by a soldier is penalized by forfeiture of all land and
property.
The common law held that a bailee is entitled to possession
against all persons except the owner of the bailed property.
Former judge Sir Thomas Littleton wrote a legal textbook
describing tenancies in dower; the tenures of socage, knight's
service, serjeanty, and burgage; estates in fee simple, fee
tail, and fee conditional. For instance, "Also, if feoffment be
made upon such condition, that if the feoffor pay to the feofee
at a certain day, etc., 800s. forty pounds of money, that then
the feoffor may re-enter, etc., in this case the feoffee is
called tenant in mortgage, ... and if he doth not pay, then the
land which he puts in pledge upon condition for the payment of
the money is gone from him for ever, and so dead as to the
tenant, etc."
Joint tenants are distinguished from tenants in common by
Littleton thus: "Joint-tenants are, as if a man be seised of
certain lands or tenements, etc., and thereof enfeoffeth two, or
three, or four, or more, to have and to hold to them (and to
their heirs, or letteth to them) for term of their lives, or for
term of another's life; by force of which feoffment or lease they
are seised, such are joint-tenants. ... And it is to be
understood, that the nature of joint-tenancy is, that he that
surviveth shall have solely the entire tenancy, according to
such estate as he hath, ..." "Tenants in common are they that
have lands or tenements in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of
life, etc., the which have such lands and tenements by several
title, and not by joint title, and neither of them knoweth
thereof his severalty, but they ought by the law to occupy such
lands or tenements in common pro indiviso, to take the profits in
common. ...As if a man enfeoff two joint-tenants in fee, and the
one of them alien that which to him belongeth to another in fee,
now the other joint-tenant and the alienee are tenants in
common, because they are in such tenements by several titles,
..."
Judicial Procedure
People took grievances outside the confines of the rigid common
law to the Chancellor, who could give equitable remedies under
authority of a statute of 1285 (described in Chapter 8). The
Chancery heard many cases of breach of faith in the "use", a
form of trust in which three parties were involved: the holder
of land, feofees to whom the holder had made it over by
conveyance or "bargain and sale", and the beneficiary or
receiver of the profits of the land, who was often the holder,
his children, relatives, friends, an institution, or a
corporation. This system of using land had been created by the
friars to get around the prohibition against holding property.
Lords and gentry quickly adopted it. The advantages of the use
were that 1) there was no legal restriction to will away the
beneficial interest of the use although the land itself could
not be conveyed by will; 2) it was hard for the King to collect
feudal incidents because the feoffees were often unknown 3) the
original holder was protected from forfeiture of his land in
case of conviction of treason if the Crown went to someone he
had not supported. Chancery gave a remedy for dishonest or
defaulting feofees.
Chancery also provided the equitable relief of specific
performance in disputes over agreements, for instance,
conveyance of certain land, whereas the common law courts
awarded only monetary damages by the writ of covenant.
Chancery ordered accounts to be made in matters of foreign trade
because the common law courts were limited to accounts pursuant
to transactions made within the nation. It also involved itself
in the administration of assets and accounting of partners to
each other.
The Chancellor took jurisdiction of cases of debt, detinue, and
account which had been decided in other courts with oathhelping
by the defendant. He did not trust the reliance on friends of
the defendant swearing that his statement made in his defense
was true. An important evidentiary difference between procedures
of the Chancery and the common law courts was that the Chancellor
could orally question the plaintiff and the defendant under
oath. He also could order persons to appear at his court by
subpoena [under pain of punishment, such as a heavy fine].
Whereas the characteristic award of the common law courts was
seisin of land or monetary damages, Chancery often enjoined
certain action. Because malicious suits were a problem, the
Chancery identified such suits and issued injunctions against
taking them to any court.
The Chancery was given jurisdiction by statute over men of great
power taking by force women who had lands and tenements or goods
and not setting them free unless they bound themselves to pay
great sums to the offenders or to marry them. A statute also
gave Chancery jurisdiction over servants taking their masters'
goods at his death.
Justices of the Peace, appointed by the Crown, investigated all
riots and arrested rioters, by authority of statute. If they had
departed, the Justices certified the case to the King. The case
was then set for trial first before the King and his council and
then at the King's Bench. If the suspected rioters did not
appear at either trial, they could be convicted for default of
appearance. If a riot was not investigated and the rioters
sought, the Justice of the Peace nearest forfeited 2,000s.
Justices of the peace were not paid and need not have a legal
background. For complex cases and criminal cases with defendants
of high social status, they deferred to the Justices of Assize,
who rode on circuit once or twice a year.
Manor courts still formally admitted new tenants, registered
titles, sales of land and exchanges of land, and commutation of
services, enrolled leases and rules of succession, settled
boundary disputes, and regulated the village agriculture.
All attorneys shall be examined by the royal judges for their
learnedness in the law and, at their discretion, those that are
good and virtuous shall be received to make any suit in any
royal court. The attorneys shall be sworn to serve well and
truly in their offices.
Attorneys may plead on behalf of parties in the hundred courts.
A qualification for jurors was to have an estate to one's own use
or one of whom other persons have estates of fee simple, fee
tail, freehold in lands and tenements, or freehold, which was at
least 40s. per year in value. In a plea of land worth at least
40s. yearly or a personal plea with relief sought at least
800s., jurors had to have land in the bailiwick to the value of
at least 400s., because perjury was considered less likely in
the more sufficient men.
Jurors were separated from witnesses.
Justices of the Peace were to have lands worth 267s. yearly,
because those with less used the office for extortion and lost
the respect and obedience of the people.
A Sheriff was not to arrest, but to transfer indictments to the
Justices of the Peace of the county. He had to reside in his
bailiwick. The sheriff could be sued for misfeasance such as
bribery in the King's court.
Court of "Pie Powder" [French pie poudre: dust on the feet] were
established at the great fairs to decide conflicts of commercial
law there.