Chapter 9

The Times: 1348-1399

Waves of the black death, named for the black spots on the

body, swept over the nation. The black blotches were caused by

extensive internal bleeding. The plague was carried in the blood of

black rats and transmitted to humans by the bite of the rat flea, but

this cause was then unknown. The first wave of this plague, in 1348,

lasted for three years and desolated the nation by about one half the

population in the towns and one third in the country. People tried to

avoid the plague by flight. The agony and death of so many good people

caused some to question their belief in God. Also, it was hard to

understand why priests who fled were less likely to die than priests

who stayed with the dying to give them the last rites. Legal and

judicial, as well as other public business weere interrupted by

theplague and ceased for two years. Thus begins a long period of

disorganization, unrest, and social instability. Customary ways were so

upset that authority and tradition were no longer automatically

accepted. Fields lay waste and sheep and cattle wandered over the

countryside. Local courts could seldom be held. Some monasteries in

need of cash sold annuities to be paid in the form of food, drink,

clothing, and lodging during the annuitant's life, and sometimes that

of his widow also. Guilds and rich men made contributions to the poor

and ships with provisions were sent to various parts of the country for

the relief of starving people. In London, many tradesmen and artisans

formed parish fraternities which united people of all social levels and

women on almost equal terms with men, in communal devotion and mutual

support, such as help in resolving disputes, moral guidance, money when

needed, and burial and masses.

Farm workers were so rare that they were able to demand wages

at double or triple the pre-plague rate. The pre-plague had been 4-6d.

daily for masons, carpenters, plasterers, and tilers and 3d. for their

laborers. These laborers could buy 12 cheap loaves, 3 gallons of ale,

and a gallon of cheap wine or half a pair of shoes. Prices did not go

up nearly as much as wages. Villeins relinquished their tenements, and

deserted their manors, to get better wages elsewhere. They became

nomadic, roaming from place to place, seeking day work for good wages

where they could get it, and resorting to thievery on the highways or

beggary where they could not. The Robin Hood legends were popular among

them. In them, Robin Hood is pure outlaw and does not contribute money

to the poor. Nor does he court Maid Marion.

Villeins spread political songs among each other, such as: "To

seek silver to the King, I my seed sold; wherefore my land lieth fallow

and learneth to sleep. Since they fetched my fair cattle in my fold;

when I think of my old wealth, well nigh I weep. Thus breedeth many

beggars bold; and there wakeneth in the world dismay and woe, for as

good is death anon as so for to toil."

Groups of armed men took lands, manors, goods, and women by

force. The villeins agreed to assist each other in resisting by force

their lords' efforts to return them to servitude. A statute of laborers

passed in 1351 for wages to be set at the pre-plague rates was

ineffectual. Justices became afraid to administer the law. Villeins,

free peasants, and craftsmen joined together and learned to use the

tactics of association and strikes against their employers.

The office of Justice of the Peace was created for every county

to deal with rioting and vagrants. This office required no education

and was filled by volunteers. Cooperation by officials of other

counties was mandated to deal with fugitives from its justice.

The Black Death visited again in 1361 and in 1369. The Black

Death reduced the population from about 5 million to about 2 1/2

million. It was to rise to about 4 million by 1600.

When there were attempts to enforce the legal servitude of the

villeins, they spread rhymes of their condition and need to revolt. A

secret league, called the "Great Society" linked the centers of

intrigue. A high poll tax, graduated from 20s. to 12d., that was to be

raised for a war with France, touched off a spontaneous riot all over

the nation in 1381. This tax included people not taxed before, such as

laborers, the village smith, and the village tiler. Each area had its

own specific grievances. There was no common political motive, except

maladministration in general.

In this Peasants' Revolt, mobs overran the counties around

London. The upper classes fled to the woods. Written records of the

servitude of villeins were burned in their halls, which were also

looted. Title deeds of landlords were burned. Rate rolls of general

taxation were destroyed. Prisoners were released from gaols. Men

connected with tax collection, law enforcement, attorneys, and alien

merchants were beheaded. The Chief Justice was murdered while fleeing.

The archbishop, who was a notoriously exploitive landlord, the

chancellor, and the treasurer were murdered. Severed heads were posted

on London Bridge. A mob took control of the king's empty bedchamber in

the Tower. The villeins demanded that service to a lord be by agreement

instead of by servitude, a commutation of villein service for rents of

a maximum of 4d. per acre yearly, abolition of a lord's right for their

work on demand (e.g. just before a hail storm so only his crops were

saved), and the right to hunt and fish. The sokemen protested having to

use the lord's mill and having to attend his court.

The revolt was suppressed and its leaders punished. The king

issued proclamations forbidding unauthorized gatherings and ordering

tenants of land to perform their customary services. The poll tax was

dropped. For the future, the duty to deal with rioting and vagrants was

given to royal justices, sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, and constables as

well as the Justices of the Peace. There was a high Justice of the

Peace in each hundred and a petty constable in each parish. Justices of

the Peace could swear in neighbors as unpaid special constables when

disorder broke out.

The sheriff was responsible for seeing that men of the lower

classes were organized into groups of ten for police and surety

purposes, and for holding of hundred and county courts, arresting

suspects, guarding prisoners awaiting trial, carrying out the penalties

adjudged by the courts, and collecting Crown revenue through his

bailiffs. Royal writs were addressed to the sheriff. Because many

sheriffs had taken fines and ransoms for their own use, a term limit of

one year was imposed. Sheriffs, hundreders, and bailiffs had to have

lands in the same counties or bailiwicks [so they could be held

answerable to the King].

Efforts were made to keep laborers at the plough and cart

rather than learn a craft or entering and being educated by the church.

The new colleges at the universities ceased to accept villeins as

students.

Due to the shortage of labor, landlords' returns had decreased

from about 20% to about 5%. But some found new methods of using land

that were more profitable than the customary services of villeins who

had holdings of land or the paid labor of practically free men who paid

a money rent for land holdings. One method was to turn the land to

sheep breeding. Others leased their demesne land, which transferred the

burden of getting laborers from the landlord to the lessee-tenant. The

payment was called a "farm" and the tenant a "farmer". First, there

were stock-and-land leases, in which both the land and everything

required to cultivate it were let together. After 50 years, when the

farmers had acquired assets, there were pure land leases. Landlords

preferred to lease their land at will instead of for a term of years to

prevent the tenant from depleting the soil with a few richer crops

during the last years of his tenancy. The commutation of labor services

into a money payment developed into a general commutation of virtually

all services. Lords in need of money gladly sold manumissions to their

villeins.

The lord and lady of some manors now ate with their family and

entertained guests in a private parlor [from French word 'to speak"] or

great chamber, where they could converse and which had its own

fireplace. The great chamber was usually at the fireplace end of the

great hall, where there was a high table. The great hall had been too

noisy for conversation and now was little used. There were also

separate chambers or bed-sitting rooms for guests or members the family

or household, in which one slept, received visitors, played games, and

occasionally ate.

Some farmers achieved enough wealth to employ others as

laborers on their farms. The laborers lived with their employer in his

barn, sleeping on hay in the loft, or in mud huts outside the barn. The

farmer's family lived at one end of the barn around an open fire. Their

possessions typically were: livestock, a chest, a trestle table,

benches, stools, an iron or bronze cauldron and pots, brooms, wooden

platters, wooden bowls, spoons, knives, wooden or leather jugs, a salt

box, straw mattresses, wool blankets, linen towels, iron tools, and

rush candles [used the pith of a rush reed for the wick]. Those who

could not afford rush candles could get a dim light by using a little

grease in a shallow container, with a few twisted strands of linen

thread afloat in it. The peasants ate dark bread and beans and drank

water from springs. Milk and cheese were a luxury for them. Those who

could not afford bread instead ate oat cakes made of pounded beans and

bran, cheese, and cabbage. They also had leeks, onions, and peas as

vegetables. Some farmers could afford to have a wooden four-posted

bedstead, hens, geese, pigs, a couple of cows, a couple of sheep, or

two-plough oxen. July was the month when the divide between rich and

poor became most apparent. The rich could survive on the contents of

their barns, but the poor tried to survive by grinding up the coarsest

of wheat bran and shriveled peas and beans to make some sort of bread.

Grain and bread prices soared during July. Farming still occupied the

vast majority of the population. Town inhabitants and university

students went into the fields to help with the harvest in the summer.

Parliament was suspended during the harvest.

Town people had more wealth than country people. Most

townspeople slept in nightgowns and nightcaps in beds with mattresses,

blankets, linen sheets, and pillows. Beds were made every morning.

Bathing was by sponging hot water from a basin over the body, sometimes

with herbs in it, rinsing with a splash of warm water, and drying off

with a towel. Tubs used only for baths came into use. There were

drapery rugs hung around beds, handheld mirrors of glass, and salt

cellars. The first meal of the day was a light breakfast, which broke

the fast that had lasted the night. Meals were often prepared according

to recipes from cook books which involved several preparation

procedures using flour, eggs, sugar, cheese, and grated bread, rather

than just simple seasoning. Menus were put together with foods that

tasted well together and served on plates in several courses.

Children's sweets included gingerbread and peppermint drops. Sheffield

cutlery was world famous. Table manners included not making sounds when

eating, not playing with one's spoon or knife, not placing one's elbows

on the table, keeping one's mouth clean with a napkin, and not being

boisterous. There were courtesies such as saying "Good Morning" when

meeting someone and not pointing one's finger at another person. King

Richard II invented the handkerchief for sneezing and blowing one's

nose. There were books on etiquette. Cats were the object of

superstition, but there was an Ancient and Honorable Order of the Men

Who Stroke Cats.

New burgesses were recruited locally, usually from within a 20

mile radius of town. Most of the freemen of the larger boroughs, like

Canterbury and London, came from smaller boroughs. An incoming burgess

was required to buy his right to trade either by way of a seven year

apprenticeship or by payment of an entry fee. To qualify, he needed

both a skill and social respectability.

Towns started acquiring from the king the right to vacant sites

and 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 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. 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 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.

A Bachelor of Arts degree was granted after four years of study

and an oral exam. Required reading in 1340 for the Bachelor's Degree

was the new logic of Aristotle ("Prior and Posterior Analytics" e.g. on

syllogistic logic and deduction, the "Topics", or the "Sophistical

Refutations", e.g. logical fallacies such as from 'All A are B' to 'All

B are A'), and a selection from these Aristotle works on physics: "Of

Heaven and Earth", "On the Soul", "Of meteors", "Of Birth and Decay",

or "Of Feeling and What is Felt" with "Of Memory and Recollection" and

"Of Sleep and Waking", or "Of the Movement of Animals" with "Of Minor

Points in Natural History".

A Master of Arts degree could be awarded after three more years

of study and teaching. A Doctorate degrees in theology required ten

more years of study. A Doctorate in civil or canon law required eight

more years. A man with a degree in canon law who wanted to practice in

a certain bishop's court had to first satisfy this bishop of his

competence.

Another source of legal learning was in London, where the

guilds gave rise to the Inns of Court. They used the Register of Writs,

the case law of the Year Books, and disputation to teach their students.

For a doctorate in medicine from Oxford or Cambridge, five more

years plus two years of practice were required. Surgery was not taught

because it was considered manual labor, and there was some feeling that

it was a sacrilege and dishonorable. Urinalysis and pulse beat were

used for diagnosis. Epilepsy and apoplexy were understood as spasms

inside the head. It was known what substances served as laxatives and

diuretics. Teeth were extracted, eye cataracts were removed with a

silver needle, and skin from the arm was grafted onto a mutilated face.

Englishmen who had collected books on philosophy, medicine,

astronomy, and history and literature books from the continent gave

their collections to the universities, which started their libraries.

Paper supplemented parchment, so there were more books.

England was still an agricultural rather than a manufacturing

country. Imported were cloth, silks, linen, velvets, furs, glass,

wines, candles, millstones, amber, iron, and mercury. Exported were

wool, leather, lead, tin, and alabaster for sculpturing. Merchant

adventurers came to manufacture cloth good enough for export and began

to buy up raw wool in such quantity that its export declined. They took

their cloth abroad to sell, personally or by agents.

An Oxford theologian and preacher, John Wyclif, voiced the

popular resentment of the materialism of the church, benefit of clergy,

immorality of priests, and the selling of indulgences and pardons.

Encouraged by the king, he argued against the supremacy of the papal

law over the King's courts and against payments to the papacy. He

opined that the church had no power to excommunicate. The friars had

become mere beggars and the church was still wealthy. He proposed that

all goods should be held in common by the righteous and that the church

should hold no property but be entirely spiritual. He believed that

people should rely on their individual consciences. He thought that the

Bible should be available to people who could read English so that the

people could have a direct access to God without priests or the pope.

Towards this end, he translated it from Latin into English in 1384. His

preachers spread his views throughout the country. The church then

possessed about one-third of the land of the nation.

Parliament met about twice a year and lasted from two weeks to

several months. There was a well-defined group of about fifty barons

and a few spiritual peers who were always summoned to Parliament and

who composed a House of Lords. "Peer" now meant a member of the House

of Lords. All peers had the right to approach the king with advice. The

baron peers reasoned that the custom of regular attendance was a right

that should be inherited by the eldest son, or by a female heir, if

there were no male heirs. However, the theory of nobility by blood as

conveying political privilege had no legal recognition. No female could

attend Parliament; the husband of a baroness attended Parliament in her

stead. Edward III and Richard II created new peers with various titles

of dignity, such as duke and marquess, which were above barons and

earls. The dukes and marquesses were identified with a territorial

designation such as an English county or county town. Whenever a

Parliament was assembled the commons were present. The commons was

composed of representatives from 100 boroughs and 37 counties. Each new

Parliament required an election of representatives. The members of the

commons were generally the most prominent and powerful economic and

political figures of the county and were repeatedly reelected. The

electors were usually influenced by the sheriff or a powerful lord who

suggested suitable men. The wealthy merchants typically represented the

boroughs and paid much of the taxes. Under Edward III, the commons took

a leading part in the granting of taxes and the presentation of

petitions and became a permanent and distinct body, the House of

Commons, with a spokesman or "speaker", chosen by the Crown, and a

clerk. The speaker came to be an intermediary between the Commons and

the king and between the Commons and the Lords. A clerk of Parliament

registered its acts and sat with the Lords. A clerk of the Crown

superintended the issue of writs and the receipt of the returns and

attested the signature of the king on statutes. It became a regular

practice for the Chancellor to open Parliament with an opportunity to

present petitions after his opening speech. The king then referred them

to certain peers and justices, who decided to which court, or

Parliament, they should be sent. During the 1300s, the number of barons

going to Parliament gradually decreased.

At the 1376 Parliament, ("the Good Parliament") the Commons,

which formerly had only consented to taxes, took political action by

complaining that the King's councilors had grown rich by war

profiteering at the cost of impoverishing the nation and the people

were too poor to endure any more taxation for the war and held a

hearing on financial malfeasance and dishonesty of two ministers. The

chamberlain had extorted enormous sums, had intercepted fines meant for

the king's treasury, and had sold a castle to the enemy. The steward

had bought debts of the king's. The House of Lords, the High Court of

Parliament, found the charges proved and dismissed them permanently

from office. This established the constitutional means for impeachment

and prosecution by the Commons and removal by the House of Lords of

ministers. By this process, there could be no royal intimidation, as

there could be in the ordinary courts. The Commons demanded that its

members be elected by county citizens rather than appointed by the

sheriff.

The roles of Parliament and the King's council are starting to

differentiate into legislative and executive, respectively. The

legislative function is lawmaking, and the executive is

regulation-making that refines and effectuates the laws of Parliament.

But the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities have not as

yet become so completely separated that they cannot on occasion work

together.

Sheriffs dealt directly with the king instead of through an

earl.

From 1150 to 1400, resistance was an ordinary remedy for

political disagreements. If a popular leader raised his standard in a

popular cause, an irregular army could be assembled in a day. (There

was no regular army, since England was protected by the sea from

invasion.) So misgovernment by a king would be quickly restrained.

Society recovered quickly from conflict and civil war because the

national wealth consisted chiefly in flocks and herds and in the simple

buildings inhabited by the people. In a week after armed resistance,

the agricultural worker was driving his team. There was little

furniture, stock of shops, manufactured goods, or machinery that could

be destroyed.

To support a war with France, the staple was reinstated by

statute of 1353 after an experiment without it in which profits of a

staple went to staples outside the nation. Wool exports were inspected

for quality and taxed through his officials only at the designated

staple ports. These officials included collectors, controllers,

searchers [inspectors], surveyors, clerks, weighers, and crane-keepers.

Wool, woolfells, leather, and lead sold for export had to go through

the staple town. The penalty was forfeiture of lands, tenements, goods,

and chattel. The mayor and constables of the staple were elected

annually by the native and foreign merchants of the place. The mayor

gave validity to contracts for a set fee, by seal of his office. He and

the constables had jurisdiction over all persons and things touching

the staple, which was regulated by the Law Merchant in all matters of

contract, covenant, debt, and felonies against foreign merchants. A hue

and cry was required to be raised and followed for anyone taking a cart

of merchandise or slaying a merchant, denizen [resident alien] or

alien, or the town would answer for the robbery and damage done. In

1363, Calais, a continental town held by the English, became the staple

town for lead, tin, cloth, and wool and was placed under a group of

London capitalists: the Merchants of the Staple. All exports of these

had to pass through Calais, where customs tax was collected. The staple

statute remained basically unchanged for the next 200 years.

Guns and cannon were common by 1372. In the 1300s and 1400s,

the king relied on mercenaries hired directly or by contract with his

great nobles for foreign wars. The King reimbursed the contractors with

the profits of war, such as the ransoms paid by the families of rich

prisoners. The fighting men supplemented their pay by plunder.

Featherbeds and blooded horses were favorite spoils of war brought back

to England from the continent. As new techniques with footmen came into

being, the footmen became the core of the army and the knightly

abilities of the feudal tenants-in-chief became less valuable.

Many lords got men to fight with them by livery and maintenance

employment agreements such as this one of 1374: "Bordeaux, February 15.

This indenture, made between our lord King John [of Gaunt, of Castile,

etc.] of the one part and Symkyn Molyneux, esquire, of the other part,

witnesses that the said Symkyn is retained and will remain with our

said lord for peace and for war for the term of his life, as follows:

that is to say, the said Symkyn shall be bound to serve our said lord

as well in time of peace as of war in whatsoever parts it shall please

our said lord, well and fitly arrayed. And he shall be boarded as well

in time of peace as of war. And he shall take for his fees by the year,

as well in time of peace as of war, ten marks sterling from the issues

of the Duchy of Lancaster by the hands of the receiver there who now is

or shall be in time to come, at the terms of Easter and Michaelmas by

even portions yearly for the whole of his life. And, moreover, our lord

has granted to him by the year in time of war five marks sterling by

the hands of the treasurer of war for the time being. And his year of

war shall begin the day when he shall move from his inn towards our

said lord by letters which shall be sent to him thereof, and

thenceforward he shall take wages coming and returning by reasonable

daily [payments] and he shall have fitting freightage for him, his men,

horses, and other harness within reason, and in respect of his war

horses taken and lost in the service of our said lord, and also in

respect to prisoners and other profits of war taken or gained by him or

any of his men, the said our lord will do to him as to other squires of

his rank."

Forecastles and stern castles on ships were lower and broader.

Underneath them were cabins. The English ship was still single masted

with a single square sail. A fleet was formed with over 200 ships

selected by the English admirals acting for the king at the ports. Men

were seized and pressed into service and criminals were pardoned from

crimes to become sailors in the fleet, which was led by the King's

ship. They used the superior longbow against the French sailor's

crossbow. In 1372, the Tower of London had four mounted fortress cannon

and the port of Dover had six.

The war's disruption of shipping caused trade to decline. But

the better policing of the narrow seas made piracy almost disappear.

English merchants may carry their merchandise in foreign ships

if there are no English ships available.

Anyone may ship or carry grain out of the nation, except to

enemies, after paying duties. But the council may restrain this passage

when necessary for the good of the nation. Any merchant, privy or

stranger, who was robbed of goods on the sea or lost his ship by

tempest or other misfortune on the sea banks, his goods coming to shore

could not be declared Wreck, but were to be delivered to the merchant

after he proves ownership in court by his marks on the goods or by good

and lawful merchants.

All stakes and obstacles set up in rivers impeding the passage

of boats shall be removed.

Waterpower was replacing foot power in driving the mills where

cloth was cleaned and fulled.

A boundary dispute between two barons resulted in the first

true survey map. Nine cow pastures were divided by a boundary marked by

a shield on a pole which the commission of true and sworn men had set

up.

King Richard II, an irresponsible sovereign, asserted an

absolute supremacy of the king over Parliament and declared certain

statutes which he claimed to have been forced on him to be revoked. He

interfered with county elections of knights to Parliament by directing

sheriffs to return certain named persons. He wanted to dispense

altogether with Parliament and instead have a committee of

representatives. He claimed that the goods of his subjects were his own

and illegally taxed the counties. There were many disputes as to who

should be his ministers. High treason was extended to include making a

riot and rumor, compassing or purposing to depose the King, revoking

one's homage or liege to the King, or attempting to repeal a statute.

When Henry Bolingbroke reported to Parliament that another lord had

cast doubt on the king's trustworthiness, a duel between them was

arranged. But Richard, probably fearing the gain of power of the lord

who won, instead exiled the two lords. He took possession of the

Lancaster estates to which Bolingbroke was heir and forbade this

inheritance. This made all propertied men anxious and they united

behind Bolingbroke in taking up arms against Richard. Richard was not a

warrior king and offered to resign the crown. The "Merciless

Parliament" of 1388 swept out Richard's friends. Parliament deposed and

imprisoned Richard. It revoked the extensions to the definition of high

treason. It elected Bolingbroke, who claimed to be a descendant of

Henry III, to be King Henry IV. This action established clearly that

royal decrees were subordinate to parliamentary statutes, that

Parliament was the ultimate legal arbiter of the realm, and that the

consent of Parliament was necessary in determining kingship. The House

of Commons became very powerful. It was responsible for the major part

of legislation. It's members began to assert the privilege of free

speech. That is, they wanted to discuss other matters than what was on

the king's agenda and they opposed punishment for what they said unless

it was treasonable. Henry IV agreed to their request not to consider

reports of proceedings unless they came to him through official

channels.

The Law

High treason was defined by statute in 1352 as levying war

against the King, aiding the King's enemies, compassing or imagining

the death of the King, Queen, or their eldest son and heir, or

violating the Queen or the eldest unmarried daughter or the wife of the

King's eldest son and heir; making or knowingly using counterfeits of

the King's great or privy seal or coinage; or slaying the Chancellor,

Treasurer, or any justice in the exercise of their duty. The penalty

was forfeit of life and lands.

Petty treason was defined by statute and included a servant

slaying his master, a wife her husband, or a man his lord, to whom was

owed faith and obedience.

No one shall tell false news or lies about prelates, dukes,

earls, barons, and other nobles and great men or the Chancellor,

Treasurer, a Justice, Clerk of the Privy Seal, Steward of the King's

house whereby debates and discords might arise between these lords or

between the lords and the commons. Cases shall be tried by the King's

Council, which included the Chancellor, Treasurer, and chief justices.

Preachers drawing crowds by ingenious sermons and inciting them

to riot shall be arrested by sheriffs and tried by the ecclesiastical

court.

Any stranger passing at night of whom any have suspicion shall

be arrested and taken to the Sheriff.

No man shall ride with a spear, upon pain of forfeiting it.

No servant of agriculture or laborer shall carry any sword or

dagger, or else forfeit it, except in time of war in defense of the

nation. He may carry bow and arrow [for practice] on Sundays and holy

days, when he should not play games such as tennis, football, or dice.

No one may enter another's land and tenements by strong hand

nor with a mob, upon pain of imprisonment and ransom at the King's will.

Charters, releases, obligations, quitclaim deeds and other

deeds burnt or destroyed in uprisings shall be reissued without fee,

after trial by the king and his council. Manumissions, obligations,

releases and other bonds and feoffments in land made by force, coercion

or duress during mob uprisings are void.

Men who rape and women consenting after a rape shall lose their

inheritance and dower and joint feoffments. The husbands, or father or

next of kin of such women may sue the rapist by inquisition, but not by

trial by combat. The penalty is loss of life and member.

The Statute of Laborers of 1351 required all workers, from

tailors to ploughmen, to work only at pre-plague wage rates and forced

the vagrant peasant to work for anyone who claimed him or her. It also

encouraged longer terms of employment as in the past rather than for a

day at a time. Statutory price controls on food limited profits to

reasonable ones according to the distance of the supply. Later, wages

were determined in each county by Justices of the Peace according to

the dearth of victuals while allowing a victualer a reasonable profit

and a penalty was specified as paying the value of the excess wages

given or received for the first offense, double this for the second

offense, and treble this or forty days imprisonment for the third

offense.

A fugitive laborer will be outlawed, and when found, shall be

burnt in the forehead with the letter "F" for falsity.

Children who labored at the plough and cart or other

agriculture shall continue in that labor and may not go into a craft.

A statute of 1363 designed to stop hoarding various types of

merchandise until a type became scarce so to sell it at high prices,

required merchants to deal in only one type of merchandise. It also

required craftsmen to work in only one craft as before (except women

who traditionally did several types of handiwork). This was repealed a

year later.

Where scarcity has made the price of poultry high, it shall be

lowered to 8d. for a young capon, 7d. for an old capon or a goose, 9d.

for a hen, and 10d. for a pullet.

The fares for passage on boats on fresh waters and from Dover

to the continent shall remain at their old rate.

Any merchant selling at a fair after it has ended will forfeit

to the king twice the value of that sold.

Anyone finding and proving cloth contrary to the assize of

cloth shall have one-third of it for his labor.

No shoemaker nor cordwainer shall tan their leather and no

tanner shall make shoes, in order that tanning not be false or poorly

done.

All denizen [foreigner permitted to reside in the realm with

certain rights and privileges] and alien merchants may buy and sell

goods and merchandise, in gross, in any part of the country, despite

town charters or franchises, to anyone except an enemy of the King.

They may also sell small wares: victuals, fur, silk, coverchiefs [an

item of woman's apparel], silver wire, and gold wire in retail, but not

cloth or wine. They must sell their goods within three months of

arrival. Any alien bringing goods to the nation to sell must buy goods

of the nation to the value of at least one-half that of his merchandise

sold. These merchants must engage in no collusion to lower the price of

merchandise bought, take merchandise bought to the staple, and promise

to hold no staple beyond the sea for the same merchandise. An amendment

disallowed denizens from taking wools, leather, woolfells, or lead for

export, but only strangers.

Towns failing to bring disturbers of this right to justice

shall forfeit their franchise to the king and pay double damages to the

merchant. The disturber shall be imprisoned for a year.

Cloth may not be tacked nor folded for sale to merchants unless

they are opened to the buyers for inspection, for instance for

concealed inferior wool. Workers, weavers, and fullers shall put their

seals to every cloth. Anyone may bring his own wools, woolfells,

leather, and lead to the staple to sell without being compelled to sell

them in the country. Special streets or warehouses were appointed with

warehouse rent fixed by the mayor and constables with four of the

principal inhabitants. Customs duties were regulated and machinery

provided for their collection. No one may forestall or regrate, that

is, buy at one price and sell at a higher price in the same locale.

Forestallers were those who bought raw material on its way to market.

Regrators were those who tried to create a "corner" in the article in

the market itself.

Imported cloth shall be inspected by the King's officials for

non- standard measurements or defects [despite town franchises].

No one shall leave the nation except at designated ports, on

pain of one year's imprisonment.

Social distinctions by attire were mandated by statute of 1363.

A servant, his wife, son, or daughter, shall only wear cloth worth no

more than 27s. and shall not have more than one dish of meat or fish a

day. Carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxherds, cowherds,

shepherds, and all other people owning less than 40s. of goods and

chattels shall only wear blanket and russet worth no more than 12d. and

girdles of linen according to their estate. Craftsmen and free peasants

shall only wear cloth worth no more than 40s. Esquires and gentlemen

below the rank of knight with no land nor rent over 2,000s. a year

shall only wear cloth worth no more than 60s., no gold, silver, stone,

fur, or the color purple. Esquires with land up to 2,667s. per year may

wear 67s. cloth, cloth of silk and silver, miniver [grey squirrel] fur

and stones, except stones on the head. Merchants, citizens, burgesses,

artificers, and people of handicraft having goods and chattels worth

10,000s. shall wear cloth the same value as that worn by esquires and

gentlemen with land or rent within 2,000s. per year. The same merchants

and burgesses with goods and chattels worth 13,333s. and esquires and

gentlemen with land or rent within 400s. per year may not wear gold

cloth, miniver fur, ermine [white] fur, or embroidered stones. A knight

with land or rents within 2,667s. yearly are limited to cloth of 80s.,

but his wife may wear a stone on her head. Knights and ladies with land

or rents within 8,000s. to 20,000s. yearly may not wear fur of ermine

or of letuse, but may wear gold, and such ladies may wear pearls as

well as stones on their heads. The penalty is forfeiture of such

apparel. This statute is necessary because of "outrageous and excessive

apparel of diverse persons against their estate and degree, to the

great destruction and impoverishment of all the land".

If anyone finds a hawk [used to hunt birds, ducks, and

pheasant] that a lord has lost, he must take it to the sheriff for

keeping for the lord to claim. If there is no claim after four months,

the finder may have it only if he is a gentleman. If one steals a hawk

from a lord or conceals from him the fact that it has been found, he

shall pay the price of the hawk and be imprisoned for two years.

No laborer or any other man who does not have lands and

tenements of the value of 40s. per year shall keep a greyhound or other

hound or dog to hunt, nor shall they use nets or cords or other devices

to take deer, hare, rabbits, nor other gentlemen's game, upon pain of

one year imprisonment. (The rabbit had been introduced by the Normans.)

This 1390 law was primarily intended to stop the meetings of laborers

and artificers.

No man shall eat more than two courses of meat or fish in his

house or elsewhere, except at festivals, when three are allowed

[because great men ate costly meats to excess and the lesser people

were thereby impoverished].

No one may export silver, whether bullion or coinage, or wine

except foreign merchants may carry back the portion of their money not

used to buy English commodities. The penalty for bringing false or

counterfeit money into the nation is loss of life and member. An

assigned searcher [inspector] for coinage of the nation on the sea

passing out of the nation or bad money in the nation shall have one

third of it. No foreign money may be used in the nation.

Each goldsmith shall have an identifying mark, which shall be

placed on his vessel or work only after inspection by the King's

surveyor.

No one shall give anything to a beggar who is capable of

working.

Vagrants begging in London were banned by this 1359 ordinance:

"Forasmuch as many men and women, and others, of divers counties, who

might work, to the help of the common people, have betaken themselves

from out of their own country to the city of London and do go about

begging there so as to have their own ease and repose, not wishing to

labor or work for their sustenance, to the great damage of the common

people; and also do waste divers alms which would otherwise be given to

many poor folks, such as lepers, blind, halt, and persons oppressed

with old age and divers other maladies, to the destruction of the

support of the same - we do command on behalf of our lord the King,

whom may God preserve and bless, that all those who go about begging in

the said city and who are able to labor and work for the profit of the

common people shall quit the said city between now and Monday next

ensuing. And if any such shall be found begging after the day

aforesaid, the same shall be taken and put in the stocks on Cornhill

for half a day the first time, and the second time he shall remain in

the stocks one whole day, and the third time he shall be taken and

shall remain in prison for forty days and shall then forswear the said

city forever. And every constable and the beadle of every ward of the

said city shall be empowered to arrest such manner of folks and to put

them in the stocks in manner aforesaid."

The hundred year cry to "let the king live on his own" found

fruition in a 1352 statute requiring consent of the Parliament before

any commission of array for militia could be taken and a 1362 statute

requiring purchases of goods and means of conveyance for the king and

his household to be made only by agreement with the seller and with

payment to him before the king traveled on, instead of at the low

prices determined unilaterally by the king's purveyor.

Every man who has wood within the forest may take houseboot

[right to take wood for repair of one's house] and heyboot [right to

take material for the maintenance of hedges and fences, and the making

of farming utensils] in his wood without being arrested so long as it

take such within the view of the foresters.

No fecal matter, dung, garbage, or entrails of animals killed

shall be put into ditches or rivers or other waters, so that maladies

and diseases will not be caused by corrupted and infected air. The

penalty is 400s. to the king after trial by the Chancellor.

Gifts or alienation of land to guilds, fraternities, or towns

are forbidden. Instead, it escheats to its lord, or in his default, to

the King.

No man will be charged to go out of his county to do military

service except in case of an enemy invasion of the nation. Men who

chose to go into the king's service outside the nation shall be paid

wages by the king until their return.

Admiralty law came into being when ancient naval manners and

customs were written down as the "Black Book of the Admiralty". This

included the organization of the fleet under the Admiral, sea-maneuver

rules such as not laying anchor until the Admiral's ship had,

engagement rules, and the distribution of captured goods: one-fourth to

the vessel owner, one-fourth to the king if the seamen were paid by the

king's wages, and the rest divided among the crew and Admiral. Stealing

a boat or an anchor holding a boat was punishable by hanging. Stealing

an oar or an anchor was punishable by forty days imprisonment for the

first offense, six months imprisonment for the second, and hanging for

the third. Desertion was punishable by loss of double the amount of

wages earned and imprisonment for one year. Cases were tried by jury in

the Admiral's court.

Wines, vinegar, oil and honey imported shall be gauged by the

King's appointees.

Judicial Procedure

The office of Justice of the Peace was developed and filled by

knights, esquires and gentlemen who were closely associated with the

magnates. There was no salary nor any requirement of knowledge of the

law. They were to pursue, restrain, arrest, imprison, try, and duly

punish felons, trespassers, and rioters according to the law. They were

expected to arrest vagrants who would not work and imprison them until

sureties for good behavior was found for them. They also were empowered

to inspect weights and measures.

The writ of trespass developed into three kinds according to the type

of injury: to person, land, or chattels. Trespass included forcible

offenses of assault and battery, false imprisonment, breaking of a

fence enclosing private property, and taking away goods and chattels.

The action of trespass was replacing private suits for murder and for

personal injury.

Pardons may be given only for slaying another in one's own

defense or by misfortune [accident], and not for slaying by lying in

wait, assault, or malice aforethought.

Justices of Assize, sheriffs, and Justices of the Peace and

mayors shall have power to inquire of all vagabonds and compel them to

find surety of their good bearing or be imprisoned.

A reversioner shall be received in court to defend his right

when a tenant for a term of life, tenant in dower, or by curtesy of the

nation, or in [Fee] Tail after Possibility of Issue extinct are sued in

court for the land, so as to prevent collusion by the demandants.

A person in debt may not avoid his creditors by giving his

tenements or chattels to his friends in collusion to have the profits

at his will.

Where there was a garnishment given touching a plea of land, a

writ of deceit is also maintainable.

Actions of debt will be heard only in the county where the

contract was made. The action of debt includes enforcement of contracts

executed or under seal, e.g. rent due on a lease, hire of an archer,

contract of sale or repair of an item. Thus there is a growing

connection between the actions of debt and contract.

Executors have an action for trespass to their testators' goods

and chattels in like manner as did the testator when alive.

If a man dies intestate, his goods shall be administered by his

next and most lawful friends appointed. Such administrators shall have

the same powers and duties as executors and be accountable as are

executors to the ecclesiastical court.

Children born to English parents in parts beyond the sea may

inherit from their ancestors in the same manner as those born in the

nation.

A person grieved by a false oath in a town court proceeding may

appeal to the King's Bench or Common Pleas, regardless of any town

franchise.

It was exceptional for the King to sit on the Court of the

King's Bench, which worked independently of the King and became

confined to the established common law.

The Court of Common Pleas had three types of jurisdiction: 1)

common law jurisdiction between person and person, including actions

regarding land, which was exclusive, 2) personal actions of debt,

detinue, account and covenant, and 3) mixed actions, both personal and

regarding land, e.g. ejectment. It had shared jurisdiction with the

Court of the King's Bench in maintenance, conspiracy, other breaches of

statute, trespass, trespass on the case, and their derivatives. Most of

its business had to do with recovery of debt, from 40s. to thousands of

pounds. The King's Bench and Common Pleas courts vied with each other

for cases in order to get more profits of justice.

Grand juries were summoned by the sheriff to decide whether, on

the evidence of the prosecution, there was a case to go to trial. The

petty or trial jury heard all parties to a lawsuit and determined the

facts. In 1351 a statute required that no member of a grand jury could

sit on a petty jury if so challenged by the accused.

Decisions of the common law courts are appealable to the House

of Lords. The king's council members who are not peers, in particular

the justices and the Masters of the Chancery, are summoned by the House

of Lords only as mere assistants. Parliament may change the common law

by statute. The right of a peer to be tried for capital crimes by a

court composed of his peers was established. There was a widespread

belief that all the peers are by right the king's councilors.

No attorney may practice law and also be a Justice of Assize.

No justice may take any gift except from the king nor give counsel to

any litigant before him.

In 1390, there was a statute against maintainers, instigators,

barretors, procurers, and embracers of quarrels and inquests because of

great and outrageous oppressions of parties in court. Because this

encouraged maintenance by the retinue of lords with fees, robes, and

other liveries, such maintainers were to be put out of their lords'

service, and could not be retained by another lord. No one was to give

livery to anyone else, except household members and those retained for

life for peace or for war. Justices of the Peace were authorized to

inquire about yeomen, or other of lower estate than squire, bearing

livery of any lord.

Whereas it is contained in the Magna Carta that none shall be

imprisoned nor put out of his freehold, nor of his franchises nor free

custom, unless it be by the law of the land; it is established that

from henceforth none shall be taken by petition or suggestion made to

the king unless by indictment of good and lawful people of the same

neighborhood where such deeds be done, in due manner, or by process

made by writ original at the common law; nor that none be out of his

franchise, nor of his freeholds, unless he be duly brought into answer

and before judges of the same by the course of law.

The Chancery came to have a separate and independent equitable

jurisdiction. It heard petitions of misconduct of government officials

or of powerful oppressors, fraud, accident, abuse of trust, wardship of

infants, dower, and rent charges. Because the common law and its

procedures had become technical and rigid, the Chancery was given

equity jurisdiction by statute in 1285. King Edward III proclaimed that

petitions for remedies that the common law didn't cover be addressed to

the Chancellor, who was not bound by established law, but could do

equity. In Chancery, if there is a case that is similar to a case for

which there is a writ, but is not in technical conformity with the

requirements of the common law for a remedy, then a new writ may be

made for that case by the Chancellor. These were "actions on the case".

Also, Parliament may create new remedies. There were so many cases that

were similar to a case with no remedy specified in the common law, that

litigants were flowing into the Chancery. The Chancellor gave swift and

equitable relief, which was summary. The Chancery Court had no jury.

With the backing of the council, the Chancellor made decisions

implementing the policy of the Statute of Laborers. Most of these

concerned occupational competency, for instance negligent activity of

carriers, builders, shepherds, doctors, cloth workers, smiths,

innkeepers, and gaolers. For instance, the common law action of detinue

could force return of cloth bailed for fulling or sheep bailed for

pasturing, but could not address damages due to faulty work. The

Chancellor addressed issues of loss of wool, dead lambs, and damaged

sheep, as well as dead sheep. He imposed a legal duty on innkeepers to

prevent injury or damage to a patron or his goods from third parties. A

dog bite or other damage by a dog known by its owner to be vicious was

made a more serious offense than general damage by any dog. A person

starting a fire was given a duty to prevent the fire from damaging

property of others. The King will fine instead of seize the land of his

tenants who sell or alienate their land, such fine to be determined by

the Chancellor by due process. The Chancery is now a court side by side

with the common law courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Exchequer.

Only barons who were peers of the House of Lords were entitled

to trial in the House of Lords. In practice, however, this pertained

only to major crimes.

Treason was tried by the lords in Parliament, by bill of

"attainder". It was often used for political purposes. Most attainders

were reversed as a term of peace made between competing factions.

Attorneys presided over manorial courts and made decisions with or

without the villeins in attendance based on the custom of the manor.

The King's coroner and a murderer who had taken sanctuary in a

church often agreed to the penalty of confession and perpetual

banishment from the nation as follows: "Memorandum that on July 6,

[1347], Henry de Roseye abjured the realm of England before John

Bernard, the King's coroner, at the church of Tendale in the County of

Kent in form following: 'Hear this, O lord the coroner, that I, Henry

de Roseye, have stolen an ox and a cow of the widow of John Welsshe of

Retherfeld; and I have stolen eighteen beasts from divers men in the

said county. And I acknowledge that I have feloniously killed Roger le

Swan in the town of Strete in the hundred of Strete in the rape [a

division of a county] of Lewes and that I am a felon of the lord King

of England. And because I have committed many ill deeds and thefts in

his land, I abjure the land of the Lord Edward King of England, and [I

acknowledge] that I ought to hasten to the port of Hastings, which thou

hast given me, and that I ought not to depart from the way, and if I do

so I am willing to be taken as a thief and felon of the lord King, and

that at Hastings I will diligently seek passage, and that I will not

wait there save for the flood and one ebb if I can have passage; and if

I cannot have passage within that period, I will go up to the knees

into the sea every day, endeavoring to cross; and unless I can do so

within forty days, I will return at once to the church, as a thief and

a felon of the lord King, so help me God."

Property damage by a tenant of a London building was assessed

in a 1374 case: "John Parker, butcher, was summoned to answer Clement

Spray in a plea of trespass, wherein the latter complained that the

said John, who had hired a tavern at the corner of St. Martin- le-Grand

from him for fifteen months, had committed waste and damage therein,

although by the custom of the city no tenant for a term of years was

entitled to destroy any portion of the buildings or fixtures let to

him. He alleged that the defendant had taken down the door post of the

tavern and also of the shop, the boarded door of a partition of the

tavern, a seat in the tavern, a plastered partition wall, the stone

flooring in the chamber, the hearth of the kitchen, and the mantelpiece

above it, a partition in the kitchen, two doors and other partitions,

of a total value of 21s. four pounds, 1s. 8d., and to his damage, 400s.

[20 pounds]. The defendant denied the trespass and put himself on the

country. Afterwards a jury [panel]... found the defendant guilty of the

aforesaid trespass to the plaintiff's damage, 40d. Judgment was given

for that amount and a fine of 1s. to the King, which the defendant paid

immediately in court."

The innkeeper's duty to safeguard the person and property of

his lodgers was applied in this case:

"John Trentedeus of Southwark was summoned to answer William Latymer

touching a plea why, whereas according to the law and custom of the

realm of England, innkeepers who keep a common inn are bound to keep

safely by day and by night without reduction or loss men who are

passing through the parts where such inns are and lodging their goods

within those inns, so that, by default of the innkeepers or their

servants, no damage should in any way happen to such their guests ...

On Monday after the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary in the

fourth year of the now King by default of the said John, certain

malefactors took and carried away two small portable chests with 533s.

and also with charters and writings, to wit two writings obligatory, in

the one of which is contained that a certain Robert Bour is bound to

the said William in 2,000s. and in the other that a certain John Pusele

is bound to the same William in 800s. 40 pounds ... and with other

muniments [writings defending claims or rights] of the same William, to

wit his return of all the writs of the lord King for the counties of

Somerset and Dorset, whereof the same William was then sheriff, for the

morrow of the Purification of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in the year

aforesaid, as well before the same lord the King in his Chancery and in

his Bench as before the justices of the King's Common Bench and his

barons of his Exchequer, returnable at Westminster on the said morrow,

and likewise the rolls of the court of Cranestock for all the courts

held there from the first year of the reign of the said lord the King

until the said Monday, contained in the same chests being lodged within

the inn of the same John at Southwark

And the said John ... says that on the said Monday about the second

hour after noon the said William entered his inn to be lodged there,

and at once when he entered, the same John assigned to the said William

a certain chamber being in that inn, fitting for his rank, with a door

and a lock affixed to the same door with sufficient nails, so that he

should lie there and put and keep his things there, and delivered to

the said William the key to the door of the said chamber, which chamber

the said William accepted...

William says that ... when the said John had delivered to him the said

chamber and key as above, the same William, being occupied about divers

businesses to be done in the city of London, went out from the said inn

into the city to expedite the said businesses and handed over the key

of the door to a certain servant of the said William to take care of in

meantime, ordering the servant to remain in the inn meanwhile and to

take care of his horses there; and afterwards, when night was falling,

the same William being in the city and the key still in the keeping of

the said servant, the wife of the said John called unto her into her

hall the said servant who had the key, giving him food and drink with a

merry countenance and asking him divers questions and occupying him

thus for a long time, until the staple of the lock of the door

aforesaid was thrust on one side out of its right place and the door of

the chamber was thereby opened and his goods, being in the inn of the

said John, were taken and carried off by the said malefactors ... The

said John says ...[that his wife did not call the servant into the

hall, but that] when the said servant came into the said hall and asked

his wife for bread and ale and other necessaries to be brought to the

said chamber of his master, his wife immediately and without delay

delivered to the same servant the things for which he asked ...

protesting that no goods of the same William in the said inn were

carried away by the said John his servant or any strange malefactors

other than the persons of the household of the said William."

On the Coram Rege Roll of 1395 is a case on the issue of

whether a court crier can be seized by officers of a staple:

"Edmund Hikelyng, 'crier', sues William Baddele and wife Maud, John

Olney, and William Knyghtbrugge for assault and imprisonment at

Westminster, attacking him with a stick and imprisoning him for one

hour on Wednesday before St. Martin, 19 Richard II.

Baddele says Mark Faire of Winchester was prosecuting a bill of debt

for 18s. against Edmund and John More before William Brampton, mayor of

the staple of Westminster, and Thomas Alby and William Askham,

constables of the said staple, and on that day the Mayor and the

constables issued a writ of capias against Edmund and John to answer

Mark and be before the Mayor and the constables at the next court. This

writ was delivered to Baddele as sergeant of the staple, and by virtue

of it he took and imprisoned Edmund in the staple. Maud and the others

say they aided Baddele by virtue of the said writ.

Edmund does not acknowledge Baddele to be sergeant of the staple or

Mark a merchant of the staple or that he was taken in the staple. He is

minister of the King's Court of his Bench and is crier under Thomas

Thorne, the chief crier, his master. Every servant of the court is

under special protection while doing his duty or on his way to do it.

On the day in question, he was at Westminster carrying his master's

staff of office before Hugh Huls, one of the King's justices, and

William took him in the presence of the said justice and imprisoned him.

The case is adjourned for consideration from Hilary to Easter."

A law of equity began to be developed from decisions by the

Chancellor in his court of conscience from around 1370. One such case

was that of Godwyne v. Profyt sometime after 1393. This petition was

made to the Chancellor: To the most reverend Father in God, and most

gracious Lord, the bishop of Exeter, Chancellor of England. Thomas

Godwyne and Joan his wife, late wife of Peter at More of Southwerk,

most humbly beseech that, whereas at Michaelmas in the 17th year of our

most excellent lord King Richard who now is, the said Peter at More in

his lifetime enfeoffed Thomas Profyt parson of St. George's church

Southwerk, Richard Saundre, and John Denewey, in a tenement with the

appurtenances situated in Southwerk and 24 acres of land 6 acres of

meadow in the said parish of St. George and in the parish of our Lady

of Newington, on the conditions following, to wit, that the said three

feoffees should, immediately after the death of the said Peter, enfeoff

the said Joan in all the said lands and tenements with all their

appurtenances for the life of the said Joan, with remainder after her

decease to one Nicholas at More, brother of the said Peter, to hold to

him and the heirs of his body begotten, and for default of issue, then

to be sold by four worthy people of the said parish, and the money to

be received for the same to be given to Holy Church for his soul;

whereupon the said Peter died. And after his death two of the said

feoffees, Richard and John, by the procurement of one John Solas,

released all their estate in the said lands and tenements to the said

Thomas Profyt, on the said conditions, out of the great trust that they

had in the said Thomas Profyt, who was their confessor, that he would

perform the will of the said Peter [at More] in the form aforesaid; and

this well and lawfully to do the said Thomas Profyt swore on his Verbum

Dei and to perform the said conditions on all points. And since the

release was so made, the said Thomas Profyt, through the scheming and

false covin of the said John Solas, has sold all the lands and

tenements aforesaid to the same John Solas for ever. And the said John

Solas is bound to the said Thomas Profyt in 100 pounds by a bond to

make defense of the said lands and tenements by the bribery and

maintenance against every one; and so by their false interpretation and

conspiracy the said Joan, Nicholas, and Holy Church are like to be

disinherited and put out of their estate and right, as is abovesaid,

for ever, tortiously, against the said conditions, and contrary to the

will of the said Peter [at More]. May it please your most righteous

Lordship to command the said Thomas Profyt, Richard Saundre, and John

Denewy to come before you, and to examine them to tell the truth of all

the said matter, so that the said Joan, who has not the wherewithal to

live, may have her right in the said lands and tenements, as by the

examination before you, most gracious Lord, shall be found and proved;

for God and in way of holy charity.