A n Illustrated History of Britain

and hon esty. The appo int ment of lan ded gentry as
JPs made the middle classes, th at class of peopl e
who were neithe r nob les nor peasants, st ill
stro nger. Through th e system of JPs th e lan ded
gentry too k th e place of th e nobility as th e local
aurhorirv. During th e Wars of th e Roses th e no bles
used th eir pri vate armie s to force JPs and judges to
do what th ey wanted. But th is was the last time th e
nobility in Britai n tried to destroy the authority of
th e kin g. The JPs remained the on ly form of local
govern ment in the co untrys ide until 1888. T hey
still exist to deal with sma ll offences.

The condition of women

Littl e is know n about the life of women in the
Middle Ages, but witho ut do ubt it was hard . The
C hurch taught th at women sho uld obey their
husbands. It also spread two very different ideas
abo ut women: that they sho uld be pure and holy
like the Virgin Mary; and that, like Eve , they could
not be trusted and were a moral danger to men .
Such religious teach ing led men both to worsh ip
-and also to look down on wome n , and led women
to give in to men 's authority.
Marriage was usually the single most important
event in th e lives of men and women . But the
dec ision itself was made by the family, not th e
coup le th emselves. Th is was because by marriage a Women defending their casrle. Throughoul the Middle Ages, ifa castle or
manor Uill au-xked u:hile its lord \Lw awa)'. it Uill the duty of 1W u>ife. !he
family cou ld improve its wealth and socia l position. "chatelalne" (or "casrlekeeper"). to defend it. A /ad)' had to know
Everyone, bot h rich and poor , married for mainly etleT)'rhing aboul administering her lord's manor and lands, forshe \LW
resporuible \L'hen he was away, One lady \L'M did nor completely rrust ha
financial reasons. Once married , a woman had to lord's abiliry to manage while she was awa)'. wrote to him, "Keep all weU
acce pt her hu sband as her master. A disobedient about you till I come home. and treat nut [do nor enter into business
alTangements} withour me. and rhen all rhi1lRs shall be well. "
wife was usually beaten . It is unlikely tha t love
played much of a part in most marr iages.
T he fi rst duty of every wife was to give her husband
ch ildren, preferab ly sons. Because so man y children
died as babies, and because there was littl e th at
villagers, th e harvest and th e an imals. She also had
co uld be don e if a birth went wrong, produ cing
to defend th e man or if it was attacked. She had to
ch ildren was dan gerous and exha usting. Yet this
run the househ old, welcome visitors. and store
was th e futur e for eve ry wife from twenty or
eno ugh food, including salted meat, for win ter. She
younger un til she was forty.
was expected to have eno ugh knowledge of herbs
The wife of a noble had ot he r respon sibilities. and plants to make suitab le medicin es for th ose in
W hen her lord was away, she was in cha rge of th e th e village who were sick. She proba bly visited the
manor and the village lands, all the servants and poor and the sick in the village, sho wing th at th e
62
 9 G cvc m me n r and soc iety

Bay LeafFarm . a fifteen f.h-century Kentfarmhouse. a limber-frame building

with waIls made of "wat lle anddaub" . basically sticks and mud. This was a
very ef!eClil,,'f! rypeof building, but requiTed skilled carpenters to !1'U1ke a
srrong frame. One man who did nor like this J1t'W method called f.hese houses
link more than "paper wark". But examples are sliUlived in as ordinary
homes in manyparrs of England.

rulers "c ared" for them . Sh e had littl e t ime for her A woma n's posit ion improved if her hu sband died.
own ch ildren , who in any case were often sent away She could get control of th e mon ey her family had
at the age of eight to an other manor, the boys to given the husban d at the t ime of marriage, usually
"be made into men". about one -th ird of his total land and wealth . But
she might have to marry again : men wanted her
Most women, of course, were peasants, busy
land , and it was difficult to look afte r it without the
making food, making cloth and making clothes
help of a man.
from th e c1orh . They worked in the fi elds, looked
after the children, the geese, the pigs and th e
sheep, made the cheese and grew the vegetab les.
The an ima ls probably sha red th e famil y shelter at
night. The family home was dark and smelly.

63
An Illustrated Histo ry of Britain

Language and culture aloud. The stor ies themselves are not C ha ncer's
own . He used old stories, but rewro te th em in an
With the spread of literacy, cultural life in Britain interesting and amusing way. The first cha pter, in
naturally developed also. In the cities, plays were which he describes his cha racters, is th e result of
performed at important religious festivals. They C hancer's own deep und erstanding of hum an
were called "mystery plays" because of th e nature. It remains aston ish ingly fresh even afte r six
mysterious nature of events in the Bible, and they hundred years. It is a un ique descrip tion of a
were a popular form of culture. In the larger cities nation : young and old, kni ght and peasant , priest
some guilds made the mselves respon sible for and merchant , good and bad, town sman and
particul ar plays, which beca me tradit ion al yearly countryman. Here is part of C ha ncer's descript ion
eve nts. (in a modern ised version ) of the kni gh t, and his
T he language itself was cha nging. Fren ch had been son , th e squire:
used less and less by th e Nor man rulers d uring th e
th irtee nt h century. In th e fo urtee nt h century
Edward III had actually forbidden the speaking of
Fren ch in his army. It was a way of making the
whole army aware of its Englishness.
A fter th e Norman Conquest English (t he old
An glo-Saxon language ) continued to be spoken by
ordinary peop le but was no lon ger writt en . By th e
en d of the fourteen th cen tury, however, English
was once again a written language , because it was
bein g used instead of Fren ch by th e rulin g, literate
class. But "M iddle English", the lan guage of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was very
different from A nglo-Saxon, T his was partly
because it had no t been writt en for three hundred
years, and partly beca use it had borrowed so much
T here was a knight, a most distinguished man ,
from Norma n Fren ch .
W ho from the da y on which he fi rst bega n
Two writers, above all ot hers, hel ped in the rebirth T o ride abroad had followed ch ivalry,
of English literature. O ne was William Langland, a Truth . hon our, genero usness and co urtesy . ..
mid-four teen th ce ntury priest , whose poem Piers He had his son with h im, a fine young squire,
Plowman gives a powerful descr iption of the times A lover and cade t, a lad of fi re
in wh ich he lived. The o the r, Ge offrey C ha ucer, W ith locks as curly as if they had been pressed.
has become much more famous. He lived at about He was some twen ty years of age, I guessed
the same time as Langland. His most famo us work He was embro idered like a meadow bright
was Th e Canterbur~ T ales, writte n at the end of th e And full of freshest flowers, red an d whi te.
fourteent h ce ntu ry. Singing he was, or fl ut ing all the day;
He was as fresh as is the month of May.
Th e C anterbury T ales describe a group of pilgrims
Short was his gow n, the slee ves were lon g and
travelling from Lond on to the tomb of T ho mas
wide;
Becker at C anterbury, a common reli gious act in
He kn ew the way to sit a horse and ride.
England in the Middle Ages. Durin g the journey
He co uld make songs and poem s and reci te ,
eac h cha racte r te lls a story. Collec tions of stor ies
Knew how to joust and dance , to draw and write.
were popular at this t ime because almost all
He loved so hotl y t hat ti ll dawn grew pale
literature, un like today. was written to be read out
He slept as little as a nigh tingale.
64
 9 Govcrn rncnr and society

By th e end of th e Middle Ages, English as well as newly ed ucated peop le of the fifteent h century, and
Latin was being used in legal writing, and also in encouraged literacy. Caxron avo ided pr int ing any
elementary schools. Educat ion developed dangerou s literature. But th e children and
enormously dur ing the fi fteenth century, and man y grandch ildren of these literate peop le were to use
schools were found ed by powerful men. O ne of printing as a powerful weapon ro cha nge th e world
these was W illiam of Wy keham , Bishop of in which they lived.
Winc hester and Lord C ha ncellor of England , who
founded bot h W inc hester Schoo l, in 1382 , and
New College, O xford. Like Hen ry VI's lat er
foundarions at Eton and Ca mbridge th ey have
remained famous for the ir high qua lity. Man y ot her
schoo ls were also opened at th is time , because th ere
was a growin g need for educated people who co uld
administer the gove rnment, th e C hurch , th e law
and trade. C lerks sta rted grammar schools whe re
students could learn the skills of reading and
writing. These schools offered the ir pupil s a future
in the C hurch or the civ il serv ice, or at the
universities of Oxford and Ca mbridge . T he
universit ies the mselves con tinued to grow as
colleges and halls where the students cou ld both
live and be taugh t were built. The co llege syste m
remains the basis of organisation in these two
universities.
The Middl e Ages ended with a major techn ical
developm ent: Wi lliam C ax ron's first English
print ing press, set up in 1476. Caxton had learn t
the skill of printing in G ermany, A t first he printed
popular books, such as C haucer's Canterbury Tales
and Malory's Morte J'Arthur. This prose work
described th e advent ures of the legendary King
Arthur, including A rth ur's last bat tle , his death ,
and the death of othe r kn ights of the Round Tab le.
Almost certa in ly Malory had in mind th e
Thechapel of King's College, Cambridge, with its fan-vaulted roofand large
destructi on of th e English nobility in the Wa rs of areas of glass and delicate stone work, marks the highest point of Gochic
the Roses, which were taking place as he wrot e, architecture in ETlRland. The t 'ttu/[ wa.s completed tU che beginninR" of che
sixteenthcentury. andthe uooden crrgan screen ccross the centre of the chapel
Caxron's printing press was as dram at ic for h is age is of Tl«ltrr design.

as radio, television and the techn ological

revolution ate for our own . Books suddenly became
cheaper and more plentiful, as the quic ker printing
process replaced slow and expe nsive copywriting by
hand. Printing began ro standa rdise spelling and
grammar, though this process was a long one . More
importa nt, just as radio brough t inform ation and
ideas to the illiterate peop le of the twentieth
century, C axron 's press prov ided books for the
65