7.

THE LATE MIDDLE AGES:

THE CENRUTURY OF WAR, PLAGUE AND DISORDER.

1. THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.

Edward III and his eldest son, the Black Prince, were greatly admired in England for their
courage on the battlefield and for their curtly manners. They became symbols of the code of
chivalry, the way in which a perfect knight should behave.

According to the code of chivalry, the perfect knight fought for his good name if insulted,
served God and the King, and defended any lady in need. These ideas were expressed in the
legend of the Round Table, around which King Arthur and his knights sat as equals in holy
brotherhood.

Edward chose as members of the order 24 knights, the same number the legendary Arthur had
chosen. They met once a year on St. George´s Day at Windsor Castle, where King Arthur´s
Round Table was supposed to have been.

Chivalry was a useful way of persuading men to fight by creating the idea that war was a noble
and glorious thing. War could also be profitable. But in fact cruelty, death, destruction and
theft were the reality of war, as they are today. The Black Prince was feared in France for his
cruelty.

2. THE CENTURY OF PLAGUES.

In 1348 the terrible plague, known as the Black Death, reached almost every part of Britain.
Probably more than 1/3 of the entire population of Britain died, and fewer than one person in
ten who caught the plague managed to survive it. Whole villages disappeared, and some towns
were almost completely deserted until the plague itself died out.

The Black Death was the first natural disaster of the 14 th century, nor the last.

After the Black Death there were other plagues during the rest of the century which killed
mostly the young and healthy. By the end of the century it was probably hardly half that figure,
and it only began to grow again in the second half of the 15th century. Even so, it took until the
17th century before the population reached four million again.

At the end of the 13th century the sharp rise in prices had led an increasing number of
landlords to stop paying workers for their labour, and to go back to serf labour in order to
avoid losses. After the Black Death there were so few people to work on the land that the
remaining workers could ask for more money for their labour. This finally led to the end of
serfdom.

Because of the shortage and expensive labour, landlords returned to the 20th century practice
of letting out their land to energetic freeman farmers who bit by bit added to their own land.
By the mid 20th century few landlords had home farms at all. They became an important part
of the agricultural economy, and have always remained so.
Agricultural land production shrank, but those who survived the disasters of the 14th century
enjoyed a greater share of the agricultural economy. Even for peasants life became more
comfortable. For the first time they had enough money to build more solid houses, in stone
where it was available, in place of huts made of wood, mud and thatch.

There had been other economic changes during the 14 th century. The most important was the
replacement of wool by finished cloth as England´s main export. Merchants decided they could
increase their profits further by buying wool in England at half price for which it was sold in
Flanders, and produce finished cloth for export. Hundreds of skilled Flemings came to England
in search of work. They were encouraged to do so by Edward III because there was a clear
benefit to England in exporting a finished product rather than a raw material.

The wool export towns declined. They were replaced by towns and villages with fast- flowing
rivers useful for the new process of cleaning and treating wool. Much of the cloth making
process was done in the workers´ own homes.

Wales and Yorkshire in the north did well from the change in cloth making. But London
remained much larger and richer.

3. THE POOR IN REVOLT.

Edward III was an expensive king at a time when many people were miserably poor and sick
with plagues. At the time of Black Death he was busy with expensive wars against France and
Scotland. But Edward III handled these people with skill.

Edward´s grandson, Richard, was less fortunate. Richard II inherited the problems of
discontent but had neither the diplomatic skill of his grandfather. Added to this he became
king when he was only eleven, and so others governed for him. In the year he became king,
these advisers introduced tax payment for every person over the age of fifteen. Two years
later, this tax was enforced again.

In 1381 this tax was enforced for a third time. There was an immediate revolt in East Anglia
and in Kent, two of the richer parts of the country.

The new tax had led revolt, but there were also other reasons for discontent. The landlords
had been trying for some time to force the peasants back into serfdom. The leader of the
revolt, Wat Tyler, was the first to call for fair treatment of England´s poor people.

The idea that God had created all people equal called for an end of feudalism and respect for
honest labour. But the Peasant´s Revolt only lasted for four weeks. During that period the
peasants took control of much of London.

When Wat Tyler was killed, Richard II skilfully quietened the angry crowd. He promised to
meet all the people´s demands, including an end to serfdom, and the people peacefully went
home. As soon as they had gone Richard´s position changed. Although he did not try to
enforce the tax, he refused to keep his promise to give the peasants their other demands. But
the danger of revolt by the angry poor was a warning to the king, the nobles and to the
wealthy of the city of London.