THE MAKING OF BRITAIN

'iithe Middle Ages

THE MAKING OF BRITAIN

"ithe M.iddle Ages

edited by

Lesley M. Smith

g#1if 4

FOUR BOOK

MACMILLAN

© London Weekend Television 1985

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published 1985

Published by Higher and Further Education Division MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

Typeset and designed by Columns of Reading

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Middle Ages - (The Making of Britain) 1. Great Britain - History - Medieval period, 1066-1485 I. Smith, Lesley II. Series 941 DA 175 ISBN 978-0-333-38001-7 ISBN 978-1-349-17669-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17669-4

(Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations vu Acknowledgements xu Preface Xlll

Introduction 1 Lesley M. Smith

1 The Outer Edge of the Earth 7 W.L. Warren

2 The New Europeans 23 Anne Duggan

3 Magna Carta and Royal Government 41 John Gillingham

4 War, Politics and Parliament 55 Chris Given-Wilson

5 The Triumph of Scotland 71 Alexander Grant

6 Working the Land 87 David Carpenter

7 The Lords of the Manor 101 Caroline Barron

8 Towns and Trade 119 Richard Mackenney

vi CONTENTS

9 The Church and the Love of Christ 135 David Carpenter

10 The King's Peace 149 John Post

11 The Written Word: from Domesday Book to Caxton 163 M. T. Clanchy

12 Europe and the Wider World 179 Geoffrey Parker

Notes 195 Notes on Contributors 210 Index 213

lI.cist of Maps and Illustrations Chapter 1

1. An eleventh century map of the world 8 2. A mosaic showing the Holy City of Jerusalem 9 3. Christ on the Cross 10 4. Knights on crusade 13 5. The equipment of a knight 15 6. The seal of William the Lion, King of Scots 15 7. The Norman monastery at Jumieges 17 8. Foot soldiers and cavalry 19 9. Reconstruction of a motte and bailey castle 20

10. The cathedral and castle at Durham, dominating the city 22

Chapter 2 1. Medieval Islamic scholars at work in a library 24 2. A page from an arabic translation of Euclid 24 3. Centres of learning in the twelfth century 27 4. Hugh of St Victor teaching 27 5. A page from an early English decretal collection 29 6. Pope Gregory IX (from the Smithfield Decretals) 31 7. Artist's reconstruction of the exchequer at work 32 8. Wells Cathedral 34 9. The Prior's door, Ely 36

10. Lincoln Cathedral 37 11. Wells Cathedral: detail of carvings 37 12a. Mosaic at Palermo showing the death of the Virgin 39 12b. Illustration of the death of the Virgin from the

Winchester Psalter 39

viii LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Chapter 3 1. Detail of Magna Carta 42 2. Victorian representation of John setting his seal to

Magna Carta 43 3a. The Angevin Empire in 1200 46 3b. The Angevin Empire in 1204 47 4. The seal of King John 48 5. Henry II (top left), Richard I (top right), John

(bottom left), Henry III (bottom right) 49 6. Magna Carta 51 7. John's funeral monument in Worcester Cathedral 53

Chapter 4 1a. A medieval battle scene 56 1 b. Detail showing a medieval knight 56 2. The battle of Agincourt 57 3. Henry V of England 58 4. Soldiers looting a house 59 5. Soldiers carousing after the fall of a town 60 6. John 'the Mediocre' of France 61 7. Windsor Castle: St George's Chapel 61 8. Mons Meg 63 9. The Palace of Westminster before the fire of 1834 66

10. Parliament of Henry VIII, showing the Speaker of the Commons 68

Chapter 5 1. The Kingdom of Scotland . 72 2. Illuminated initial from the Kelso Charter showing

David I and Malcolm IV 73 3. The seal of the Guardians of Scotland showing

St Andrew 77 4. The Declaration of Arbroath 78 5. The seal of King Robert I 78 6. A fifteenth century impression of the battle of

Bannockburn 80 7. James II, King of Scots 81 8. James IV, King of Scots 85

Chapter 6 1. Interior of Willingham Church 88 2. Sixteenth century plan of Willingham 88 3. Broughton Castle 89

LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS ix

4. The founders of Broughton Castle 89 5. Breaking the land 91 6. Ploughing the land 92 7. Clearing the forest 92 8. Gathering the harvest 93 9. Victims of the Black Death 94

10. Sowing seed 95 11. Illustration of the Peasants' Revolt from Froissart's

Chronicles 97

Chapter 7 1a. Preparing food for the household 102 lb. Cooking food for the household 102 2. John Paston's tomb, now used as the altar in Paston

Church 103 3. The ruins of Somerton Church 104 4. Letter to John Paston with the word 'churles' cut out 105 5. The entrance to Bromholm Priory 107 6. Places visted by Margaret Paston in 1465 108 7. A view of London in the early sixteenth century 109 8. A landed gentleman at home with his servants 112 9. The Paston family tree 114

10. A page from Lydgate's Siege of Thebes 115 11. An inventory of John Paston's books 116

Chapter 8 1. Chaucer's pilgrims 120 2. The Gough Map, showing England's towns in the

fourteenth century 121 3. Taking the harvest to market 122 4. English builders at work 123 5. Scene from the Luttrell Psalter 124 6. Italian bankers at work 125 7. Rural workers carding and spinning wool, as well

as working on the land 127 8. Site of the Norman castle and cathedral at Old Sarum 128 9. Tavern scene 130

10. Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York: the Great Hall 131

Chapter 9 1. Clerical misconduct 13 8 2. The murder of Thomas Becket 140 3. Rievaulx Abbey 142

x LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

4. St Francis of Assisi 5. The confirmation of the Order of St Francis 6. Pope Boniface VIII and his cardinals

Chapter 10 1. Edward I: a contemporary 'portrait' from a legal

143 145 146

record 150 2. List of fines levied from offenders in the Court of

the King's Bench 151 3. Legal records 153 4. Record of the trial of Wakelin the son of Ranulf 154 5. Confession and accusations of William Rose 155 6. Trial by battle from a legal record 157 7. Charter of pardon and list of subscribers 158 8. Bequest to the Cliftons in the will of the wife of

Sir Thomas West 160 9. Illustration of a fifteenth century court of law 161

Chapter 11

1. Detail from Domesday Book 164 2. Part of the initial from the beginning of the Book of

Genesis, the Winchester Bible 165 3. Eadwin, 'prince of writers' 166 4. Three parallel texts, with glosses and translations,

from Eadwin's text of the psalms 166 5. Griffith falling to his death from the Tower of

London, drawn by Matthew Paris 167 6. The benefactors of Crowland Abbey, crowding

forward with their charters 168 7. Forged charter in the name of the first Norman

bishop of Durham 169 8. The Whaddon Folio: the Court of King's Bench 171 9. The Annunciation, depicting the Virgin and the

donors with books 173 10. The Gutenberg Bible 175 11. The Psalter of 1457 175 12. Printed indulgence form of 1455 176

Chapter 12

1. Sebastian Cabot 180 2. Antwerp in the early sixteenth century 181 3. Engraving of Venice showing the busy seafront 183 4a. Western half of the Catalan Atlas, 1375 186

UST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRA nONS xi

4b. Eastern half of the Catalan Atlas, 1375 5. The Martellus Map: Mappa Mundi 6. Medieval shipbuilding 7. Early navigation instruments in use 8. The waterfront at Lisbon 9. Christopher Columbus

10. The landfall of Christopher Columbus in the New World

187 188 188 190 191 192

193

Acknowlegements

The publishers wish to acknowledge the following illustration sources:

The trustees of the British Museum; Foto Scala; Mr Leonard von Matt; Trinity College, Cambridge; The Dean and Chapter, Durham Cathedral; Tapisserie de Bayeux; Lutterworth Press; The Bodleian Library; John Freeman Photographic library; Woodman sterne Publi­cations Ltd.; The Mansell Collection; Giraudon; Scottish Develop­ment Department; H.M. The Queen; National Library of Scotland; Scottish Record Office; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Cambridgeshire Record Office; Biblio­theque de Dijon; Society of Antiquaries; St John's College, Cam­bridge; Public Record Office; BBC Hulton Picture Library; The Dean and Chapter, Winchester Cathedral; The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple; National Maritime Museum.

Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

Preface

This volume is based on the second series of The Making of Britain produced by London Weekend Television. Once again I am grateful to all those at London Weekend Television involved in the series, Barry Cox, Mick Pilsworth and David Coulter, and to our commissioning editor at Channel Four, Naomi Sargeant. My thanks are due also to the contributors to the series and book, who generously shared their enthusiasm and expertise and, with great patience and tact, saved me from many errors. Other scholars shared their knowledge with me during the preparation of the series and this book, and I should like in particular to thank Professor Rodney Hilton and John Hatcher, who explained to me in great detail the workings of the medieval rurai economy, and also Professor Geoffrey Barrow, Brenda Bolton, Elizabeth Hallam-Smith, Paul Hyams, Professor Henry Loyn, Michael Prestwich and Nigel Saul. I am grateful for the help and encourage­ment I received from our editor at Macmillan, Vanessa Peerless, while Pam Wilkinson, Jane Crush and Beverly Spurdens typed a difficult manuscript quickly and with great care.

L.M.S. London, May 1984