A History of England

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A History of England

Volume I
Prehistory to 1714

Clayton Roberts
The Ohio State University

David Roberts
Dartmouth College

Douglas Bisson
Belmont University

Sixth Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Roberts, Clayton, 1923–
  A history of England / Clayton Roberts, The Ohio State University, David Roberts,
Dartmouth College, Douglas R. Bisson, Belmont University.—Sixth edition.
  volumes cm
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN-13: 978-0-205-86777-6 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
  ISBN-10: 0-205-86777-4 (v. 1 : alk. paper)
  ISBN-13: 978-0-205-86773-8 (v. 2 : alk. paper)
  ISBN-10: 0-205-86773-1 (v. 2 : alk. paper)  1.  Great Britain—History.  2.  England—
Civilization.  I.  Roberts, David, 1923–  II.  Bisson, Douglas R., 1954–  III.  Title.
  DA30.R58 2013
 942—dc23
2013028094

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 10: 0-205-86777-4

ISBN 13: 978-0-205-86777-6
 Contents

Preface  viii The Machinery of Government 49

Tyranny and Anarchy 50
1. The Land and the People 1 Further Reading 53
The Earliest Inhabitants 3
The Neolithic Revolution 4 5. The Angevins 54
The Early Bronze Age 6 The New Agriculture 54

Stonehenge 7 Wool, Trade, and Towns 56

The Late Bronze Age 9 The Twelfth-Century Renaissance 58

The Celts 9 The English Common Law 60

Further Reading 11 Henry II and the Church 62

The Angevin Empire 64
2. Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e. 13 Wales, Ireland, and Scotland 65
Hadrian’s Wall 16 Richard I and King John 67
The Roman Town 18 Magna Carta 68
The Countryside 19 Further Reading 70
The Collapse of Roman Rule 20
Further Reading 21 6. The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 71
Barons and Knights 71
3. Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 22 Manor and Village 73
The Conquest of Britain 22 Town and Guild 76
The Conversion to Christianity 25 Bishops, Priests, and Friars 78
The Creation of the English Monarchy 27 The Cathedral 79
Alfred the Great and His Successors 28 The University 83
Anglo-Saxon Government 30 Henry III and the Provisions of Oxford 84
The Structure of Society 32 Edward I and Statute Law 86
Open Fields and Royal Boroughs 33 Wales, Gascony, and Scotland 87
Monasticism and Learning 35 The Origins of Parliament 90
The Survival of the English Monarchy 37 Further Reading 92
Further Reading 38
7. War and Crisis: 1307–1399 93
4. Norman England 39 Edward II and the Barons 93
The Conquest of England 39 Edward III and the Hundred Years’ War 95
Feudalism 43 The Evolution of Parliament 97
Domesday Book and the Manors of England 45 The Transformation of the Manor 100
The Norman Church 46 The Impact of the Black Death 101

v
vi Contents

The Peasants’ Revolt 102 The Economic Crisis of 1551 160

John Wyclif and Lollardy 103 The Ascendancy of Northumberland 161
The Emergence of an English Nationality 105 The Accession of Queen Mary 163
Richard II and the Defeat of Absolutism 108 The Return to Rome 164
Further Reading 111 The Spanish Connection 166
Further Reading 167
8. Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 112
Henry IV and the Foundations of 12. Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 168
  Lancastrian Rule 112 Elizabeth and the Church 168
Henry V and the War in France 114 Elizabeth and Scotland 169
Henry VI and the Decline of the Monarchy 115 The Catholic Threat 171
The Wars of the Roses 117 The Puritan Threat 173
Edward IV and the Restoration of Royal Power 119 Economic Recovery 173
Depression and Economic Change 121 The Voyages of Discovery 175
Late Medieval Culture 122 The War against Spain 177
Richard III and the Fall of the House of York 124 Elizabeth and the Government of England 178
Further Reading 125 The Rise of the Gentry 181
Yeomen and Husbandmen 184
9. The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 126
Beggars and Vagabonds 184
Engrossment and Enclosure 128
The Ascendancy of London 185
Industry: Urban and Rural 130
The Elizabethan World Picture 187
Commerce: Foreign and Domestic 131
Postlude 190
The Consolidation of Power 133
Further Reading 191
The Revival of Royal Power 134
The New Learning 136 13. Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 193
Medieval and Modern 137 The Accession of James I 193
Further Reading 138 James and the Law 195
Government by Court Favorites 196
10. War and Reformation: 1509–1547 139
Charles I and the Arts 198
War and Diplomacy 140
Charles I and Parliament 200
The Divorce 142
The Eleven Years of Prerogative Government 202
Parliament and the Break with Rome 144
Economic Depression 203
Resistance and Rebellion 147
The Expansion of England 205
The Dissolution of the Monasteries 148
Further Reading 207
The Tudor Revolution in Government 149
Scotland and France 151 14. The English Revolution: 1640–1660 208
The Growth of Protestantism 153 The Causes of the English Revolution 208
Further Reading 156 The Failure of Reform 210
Roundheads and Cavaliers 213
11. Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 157
The Rise of Independency 215
Somerset and Reform 157
The Commonwealth 217
Ket’s Rebellion 159
The Triumph of Property 218
 Contents vii

Overseas Expansion 219 16. War and Society 245

The Search for Consent 221 The War of the League of Augsburg 245
The Restoration 224 The Financial Revolution 247
Further Reading 225 The Politics of War and Peace 247
The War of the Spanish Succession 249
15. Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 227
The Politics of Victory 252
The Scientific Revolution 228
The New World of Trade 253
Causes and Consequences 230
The Social Pyramid 254
Restoration Society 232
The Augustan Age 256
Rural Society 235
Marriage, Courtship, and the Family 258
The Restoration Settlement 236
The Act of Union with Scotland 260
The Failure of the Restoration Settlement 237
The Treaty of Utrecht 262
The Reign of James II 239
The Hanoverian Succession 263
The Glorious Revolution 241
Further Reading 263
The Revolutionary Settlement 242
Further Reading 243
Appendix 265
Index 269
 Preface

M ore than 30 years have passed since the first

­edition of A History of England appeared. F
and trends in scholarship have changed and this text
­ ashions
• Offers a section on the origins of the legal profession in
the thirteenth century
• Reviews the origins and cultural significance of the
­reflects some of these. Volume one of the sixth ­e dition ­legend of Robin Hood
­c ontains new or revised sections dealing with the • Reassesses the nature and impact of the Glorious
­e xperience of women in the middle ages, the develop- Revolution
ment of the legal profession in Angevin E ­ ngland, as well
as the origin of the Robin Hood legend and a reassessment I am grateful for the support and encouragement of Jeff
of the Glorious Revolution. The life of domestic servants Lasser, Executive Editor for Social Science and History,
and the criminal subculture of Victorian era are revisited and for the assistance of Rob DeGeorge, Associate Editor
in volume two; an account of the famine in Ireland has for Arts and Sciences.
been added. The eclipse of Labour after 13 years in office This text is available in a variety of formats—digital and
and the ­installation of the first coalition government since print. To learn more about our programs, pricing options,
the close of the Second World War are treated in the final and customization, visit www.pearsonhighered.com
chapter.
Douglas Bisson
Nashville, Tennessee
New to This Editon: April 2013
• Considers the lives of women in Roman Britain
• Examines the experience of women in the ­medieval
countryside and their contribution to the urban
economy

viii
 Chapter 1

The Land and the People

A
Chapter Outline
land shapes its people. Britain is an island and the British
are an insular people—closely knit, enjoying continuity of devel-
■ The Earliest Inhabitants opment, conscious of their differences from others, proud of those dif-
ferences. Britain is also a small island, only 90,000 square miles (about
■ The Neolithic Revolution the size of Oregon). The Scots inhabit the island north of the Cheviot
hills. The Welsh occupy a mountain fastness to the west. The English
■ The Early Bronze Age dwell in the remaining 50,000 square miles (about the size of Ala-
bama), with a boundary that is 90 percent seacoast.
Because the English occupied a small land, clearly defined by sea
■ Stonehenge
and mountains, they achieved political unity long before the French
or the Spanish. And because the Channel formed a moat defensive to
■ The Late Bronze Age the realm, the English needed only a navy to repulse invaders. Had
­England possessed a defenseless land frontier to the east and west, as
■ The Celts did Prussia, it too might have developed militaristic traditions. But
England was defended by the sea and by its navy, and so Englishmen
could oppose standing armies as a threat to liberty. The same sea that
surrounds England also penetrates into its harbors, bays, channels, es-
tuaries, and rivers. No Englishman lives more than 75 miles from the
sea. The English therefore became a maritime people, not afraid to
venture upon the sea in search of profit and power. The most impor-
tant fact in British history may well be that Britain is an island, and the
most important date is that moment—about 6000 b.c.e.—when the
North Sea flooded over the lands that joined Britain to the Continent.
Yet the sea can be a highway as well as a barrier. England, because
it lies only 21 miles off Europe, escaped the stagnation that insularity
often brings. England’s location gave it access to the more advanced
civilizations of the Mediterranean world. A succession of invad-
ers and missionaries brought agriculture to England, then iron, then
­Roman government, and finally Christianity, the Renaissance, and
the ­Reformation. Then in the sixteenth century the center of com-
merce and culture moved from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and
­England, once situated on the distant edge of civilization, found itself
near the center. It was now well placed to colonize new lands and be-
come the entrepôt of the world’s trade.
Soil and climate have contributed much to English civilization as
well. The lowlands of Britain are uniquely suited for agriculture. The
chalk and limestone soil of Salisbury Plain, the Cotswolds, and the
1
2 A History of England

Physical Map of
Great Britain
Elevation
Below 500 feet SHETLAND
ISLANDS
Above 500 feet

0 50 100 Miles
ORKNEY
0 50 100 Kilometers ISLANDS

THE
WESTERN
ISLES

North
Atlantic Sea
Ocean

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HILLS
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ann

LAKE e es
TH
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DISTRICT
EP
EN
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LANCASHIRE R. A
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Irish
ES

PLAIN Hum
b er Estu
ar y
Tr e n t

Sea h
MERSEY as
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GAP Th
THE MIDLANDS
EAST
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THE
CAMBRIAN FOREST OF FENS ANGLIA
R.

MOUNTAINS ARDEN
R.
Sev
ern

WALES
l
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n
ha COTSWOLDS
’s C
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Ge Th a m e s
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THE SALISBURY NORTH DOWNS
MENDIPS PLAIN THE WEALD r
ve
EXMOOR
SOUTH DOWNS Do
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ai
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DARTMOOR

English Channel
 The Land and the People 3

North and South Downs offers excellent grazing for sheep rapidly disappearing, the English learned to smelt iron
and cattle. The heavy clay of the Weald and the Thames with coke (coal heated to a high temperature in the ab-
Valley yields rich crops of wheat, especially in Oxfordshire. sence of air). They also discovered how to use coal to drive
But the most fertile parts of England are the Midlands and steam engines, thus creating the chief source of energy for
East Anglia, where overlapping layers of limestone, clay, the Industrial Revolution. It was Britain’s good fortune to
and sand have produced a brown, loamy soil of great rich- have vast coal deposits near the surface on both sides of the
ness. Sufficient rainfall and sun cause this soil to yield up its Pennines. Without this iron and coal, Britain might have
riches. The average rainfall in England is about 30 inches remained as poor as Italy; with it, the nation became the
a year—rather more to the west, less to the east. Because greatest industrial power of the nineteenth century. Indeed,
the rain is distributed uniformly throughout the year, great the Reverend William Buckland, Professor of Geology at
works of irrigation and the despotic governments needed Oxford in 1845, taught that God had brought together coal
to build them were not necessary. Though England lies as and iron deposits near Birmingham with the express pur-
far north as Labrador, Canada, prevailing winds from the pose of making Britain the richest nation on Earth.
southwest bring moderate temperatures. The average tem-
perature in July is 63° Fahrenheit, in January, 39°. In the
west there is not enough sun to grow wheat, but oats thrive
The Earliest Inhabitants
there, as do pasture grasses. Wheat and barley are grown in Humankind is far older than the island of Britain. Humans
the Midlands and the east, maize only in Essex where the emerged during the Pleistocene era, on the open savan-
sun shines more often. But though the English have too lit- nahs of Africa, first as Australopithecus, a bipedal, erect
tle sun to grow much maize, they are fortunate in escaping primate ancestor, and then, over a million years ago, as
the droughts, floods, hurricanes, and blizzards that strike Homo erectus, a hominid with a cranial capacity mid-
other lands. way between the gorilla and Homo sapiens. If the ability
This prosperous agriculture, however, prevails only in to make tools distinguishes humans from other animals,
the south and the east. A line drawn from the mouth of then Australopithecus and Homo erectus must be regarded
the river Exe in the southwest to the mouth of the river as human. A ­ ustralopithecus made crude chopping and
Tees in the northeast divides the lowland zone of England cutting tools from pebbles of lava and quartz, and Homo
from the highland zone (though the Lancashire plain lying erectus fashioned an all-purpose hand ax by chipping off
north and west of this line belongs to the lowland zone). the outside of a rock until the core had a working edge.
South and east of the Exe-Tees line is the England of fertile The hand-ax culture of Africa spread north—to Morocco
soil, mild temperatures, valleys and plains, navigable rivers, by 400,000 b.c.e., to Abbeville and St. Acheul in France
and easy communications. North and west lie Dartmoor, by 300,000 b.c.e., and perhaps to southeastern Britain at
Exmoor, the mountains of Wales, the Pennines, the York- the same time. Coarsely worked hand axes found in Kent
shire moors, and the Lake District—a land of mountains, suggest the possibility that around 300,000 b.c.e. humans
rocks, barren moorland, scanty soil, and short, rushing began to occupy Britain, though the earliest clearly docu-
streams. This division of the land has influenced the his- mented occupation occurred around 200,000 b.c.e. The
tory of England through the centuries, creating (except in human ancestors who first entered Britain were not of the
the nineteenth century) a backward, impoverished, thinly species Homo erectus, but of a species intermediate be-
populated northwest, and a heavily populated, prosperous, tween Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Part of the skull
progressive southeast. Successive waves of invaders have of one of them was found at Swanscombe in the Thames
entered to the southeast, driving the native population into ­Valley. The size of the skull exceeds that of Homo erectus
the mountains of the north and west. and approaches that of modern man. Swanscombe man,
England is also rich in minerals. The tin of Cornwall, who probably lived about 200,000 b.c.e., manufactured a
which first brought Britain to the attention of the Romans, superior hand ax, a fact that illustrates the close connec-
continued to be a source of wealth until the nineteenth tion during humankind’s early history between technologi-
century. After the Romans departed, the most important cal advances and the growth of the size of the brain.
metal became iron, the ore of which is found throughout The development of humans in Britain occurred dur-
Britain. Since great amounts of charcoal (wood charred in ing the Great Ice Age. Four times during these 600,000
a kiln from which air is excluded) were needed to smelt years the temperature fell, the snow accumulated, and
iron, its production was centered in areas rich in forests— great sheets of ice crept southward—as far as the Thames
in the Weald of Kent, the Forest of Dean, and the Forest of in 325,000 b.c.e. Four times it grew warmer, and the ice
Arden. In the eighteenth century, when these forests were receded. The advancing glaciers molded the northern
4 A History of England

mountains, reshaped river valleys, and laid down the clay of displayed by earlier humans. The most remarkable display
the Midlands. During the interglacial periods, the seas rose of this esthetic sense can be found in the cave paintings of
and old land surfaces became seafloor. Humans probably Altamira and Lascaux in southern France, where the art-
first entered Britain during a warm phase of the second gla- ists, with remarkable naturalism, captured the movements
ciation, in pursuit of the reindeer, the bison, the musk-ox, of the bison, the reindeer, and the rhinoceros. Paintings
and the woolly rhinoceros. During the interglacial periods, such as these are not found in Britain, but the blade cul-
they hunted red deer, roe deer, wild ox, and wild boar. ture of France did come to Britain, to the Creswell Crags of
Life during the Old Stone Age was, as Thomas Hobbes Derbyshire, where flint tools for dressing leather and carv-
imagined it to be, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” ing bones have been found. Gradually, a distinct Creswell-
Survival beyond the age of 40 was rare; life expectancy av- ian culture emerged, distinct enough to be called the first
eraged 25 years. Of four or five children born, only two or British culture. And that culture encompassed art, for at
three would survive to maturity. The men spent the day Creswell Crags an unknown British artist scratched upon a
tracking animals, while the women and children gathered fragment of bone a naturalistic engraving of a horse’s head.
fruits, roots, and grubs. Because it requires 200 square About 8300 b.c.e., the Great Ice Age suddenly came to
miles of land to support one person in a hunting s­ ociety, an end. The tundra and steppe, on which Paleolithic people
there were probably no more than 500 people in all of had hunted the bison, the reindeer, and the rhinoceros,
­Britain. They huddled in caves, starved when drought gave way to forests—first of birch, then of pine, finally of
drove away game, died of infectious diseases, and fled oak, elm, and lime. This profound change in environment
south when the ice advanced. destroyed the foundations of the Paleolithic economy and
Despite these conditions, humans slowly extended their gave rise to the Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age) hunter.
mastery over the forces of nature. The Paleolithic (or Old To survive, humans had to learn to fish, to catch fowl, and
Stone Age) inhabitants of what is now Clacton, Essex, made to hunt deer and elk. They now needed dugout canoes, har-
their hand axes by striking flakes from a central core. They poons, fishnets, spears, and bow and arrow. Two cultures,
also discovered that the flakes themselves made useful tools. one from the shores of the North Sea (the Maglemosian)
But the true revolution in toolmaking came when the people and the other from what is now France (the Tardenosian)
of Levallois (near modern Paris) deliberately began to make supplied these Mesolithic skills to Britain. The Maglemo-
tools from the flakes. A whole range of specialized flake tools sians developed axes and adzes with which to fell trees and
now replaced the all-purpose hand ax. During the third in- make dugouts. They made bows of tapered wood and pad-
terglacial period, this Levalloisian culture spread to Britain. dles for their canoes. The Tardenosians were skilled in the
Closely allied to it was the Mousterian culture, in manufacture of microliths, or small flints. These ­microliths
which flaked tools were struck from small, disclike cores. were mounted on wooden or bone shafts to make spears,
The makers of these tools were Neanderthals, whose cra- harpoons, and arrows. In Britain these Mesolithic cul-
nial capacity exceeded that of modern humans but whose tures flowed together and gave rise to native cultures, one
chinless, heavily browed faces resembled those of apes. of which was that of Horsham. The people of Horsham
­Neanderthal people fashioned skin clothing, used fire, and used the microliths of the Tardenosians, adopted the heavy
buried their dead with care. The attention paid to the buri- axes of the Maglemosians, and built the first dwelling in
als suggests that humans were now aware of the briefness ­Britain—a pit eight feet wide and four feet deep, roofed
of their existence on Earth and guessed at the presence of over with boughs or sod.
unseen powers in the world.
But the future did not lie with the Neanderthals. They
and their culture died out by 40,000 b.c.e., replaced by
The Neolithic Revolution
Cro-Magnons who, if suitably clothed, could walk down Triticum dioccoides is the ancestor of our wheat, Hordeum
London’s Regent Street today without causing a head to spontaneum of our barley. Both grew wild in the arc of land
turn. These were true Homo sapiens—tall, erect, robust. that extends from Syria through the foothills of Turkey and
They transformed the flint industry by producing long, Iraq to Iran. In these same foothills wild sheep roamed.
narrow, parallel-sided blades, rather than flakes, thereby Here, about 6000 b.c.e., sun, soil, water, seed, animal life,
discovering the principle of the cutting knife. They also and people came together to bring about an economic
invented a chisel, with which they could work antler and revolution. Humans learned to cultivate plants and to do-
bone into spearheads, harpoons, arrows, and fishing tackle. mesticate animals. No other event before the Industrial
The chisel was also used to carve and engrave jewelry, for Revolution had so profound an influence on human life.
advanced Paleolithic people possessed an esthetic sense not The new agricultural economy could support a population
 The Land and the People 5

ten or more times greater than that which a hunting econ- the ground, then cultivating it with hoe and spade. They
omy could support. Agriculture allowed a settled way harvested the grain with flint sickles and ground it by rub-
of life, one that gave men and women the opportunity to bing a small stone round and round on a larger, concave
weave cloth, make pottery, search for metals, and trade one. The women produced simple pottery vessels, but there
their wares. was no weaving; they still fashioned clothing from skins.
Various Mediterranean peoples, slightly built, dark, At various places on the Downs, Neolithic people
with long, rather narrow heads, carried this new culture built camps that served as headquarters. The camps were
up the Danube, through Europe, and across the C ­ hannel. formed of concentric rings of ditches and embankments,
Others carried it by sea to Spain, and then along the frequently broken by causeways leading into the center.
coasts of ­Brittany to Cornwall, Ireland, and Scotland. By The greatest of these camps was built at Windmill Hill,
3800 B.C.E., Neolithic (or New Stone Age) farmers had es- ­Avebury. Its outer circle encompassed 23 acres, the in-
tablished themselves on the chalk soil of the Downlands of ner circle one-fourth of that area. The great number of
England. The new culture gradually replaced the Mesolithic causeways across the circles suggests that the camps were
hunting cultures, which now disappeared. But though they designed to protect cattle from attack. Some camps were
disappeared, they should not be ignored, for measured by places of habitation, but others were merely meeting places
the span of time that elapsed, nine-tenths of the history of for trading, festivals, sacrifices, and the rituals accompany-
humans in Britain concerns the struggle of the Paleolithic ing burials. The houses in which the Neolithic people lived,
and Mesolithic people to improve their crude stone tools, whether in camps or in isolated settlements, were at first
to perfect their hunting skills, and possibly to begin the rude pits surrounded by oaken stakes supporting a roof,
herding of animals, particularly deer. which was probably made of skins. Later they built houses
The Neolithic colonists settled at first on limestone that were wholly above the ground. To hew the oaken
uplands, on sandy tracts near the coast, and on the chalk stakes they needed flint axes, and to find the flints large
Downs of southern England, lands that were forest until enough for such axes they needed to mine the chalk soil
cleared by the Neolithic settlers. In time they also settled where flint was buried. The Windmill Hill people brought
on lower valley ground. These settlers were a pastoral and mining to Britain. They sank shafts 30 to 40 feet into the
nomadic people who tended broad-skulled, large-horned chalk, and then dug a network of galleries out from the
cattle. They commonly kept pigs, as well as a few goats and bottom of each shaft. Flint taken from the mines was then
sheep. Though the growth of grain was subsidiary to the manufactured into axes. The flint miners and ax makers of
raising of cattle, they did plant small fields with wheat and Norfolk, Sussex, and Wessex formed the first specialized
barley, first crisscrossing the field with a plow to break up industrial community in Britain.

Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands is the most complete Neolithic village in Europe.  (Jule_Berlin)
6 A History of England

On nearly every ridge in Sussex one could find in now they look to developments within the British Isles. In
­Neolithic times a causeway camp, a flint mine, and a cluster 1940, for example, Professor Gordon Childe argued that
of long barrows. The long barrows were designed for the col- the megalithic tombs in Britain were derived from the east-
lective burial of the dead; they were between 100 and 400 feet ern Mediterranean, but radiocarbon dating shows that such
long, between 30 and 50 feet wide, and about 12 feet high. tombs existed in Britain a thousand years before their sup-
They were built of earth heaped over an unroofed chamber posed eastern Mediterranean ­prototypes. The megaliths of
of timber and turf. Within these chambers archaeologists Europe did not have a single origin, but developed indepen-
have found skeletons in a crouched position, the scattered dently in Malta, Portugal, Denmark, and Britain.
bones of other skeletons, and grave goods such as vases and The same is true of the art of metallurgy. Prehistorians
ornaments. They have also occasionally found female figu- once thought that the Beaker Folk brought a knowledge
rines and phallic symbols, suggesting that these tombs were of metallurgy with them from the Rhine, but archaeologi-
in part dedicated to the fertility of man and beast. cal evidence now suggests that they purchased their cop-
To the west, in the Cotswolds, barrows were built by pil- per daggers and axes from an Irish metal industry that was
ing smaller stones over elaborate burial chambers built of already in existence. The art of metallurgy probably trav-
great stones, or megaliths. These stone vaults, which con- eled originally from Egypt to Spain, from which the mega-
tained as few as 5 and as many as 50 persons, could be used lith builders brought it to Ireland in late Neolithic times.
for successive burials over many years. The privilege of burial Ireland possessed copper ore, which Irish smiths worked
in such vaults was probably limited to the ruling family. The into flat axes and halberds (a combination of an axe and a
Cotswold gallery graves, however, were not the only mega- pike). About 2000 b.c.e. they began to manufacture these
lithic monuments built in the British Isles during Neolithic implements in bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, using a
times. Hundreds were built in Ireland, southwest Scotland, ready supply of tin in Cornwall. The Beaker Folk may have
the Western Isles, northern Scotland, the ­Shetlands, and brought the idea of a bronze alloy, but they brought neither
Orkney. Some had a long passage into a circular chamber; bronze implements nor the skills to make them. The Irish
others had chambers built of vertical megalithic slabs, with smiths may have seized on the idea. They created a thriving
horizontal slabs breaking the chamber into segments. The British-Irish bronze industry that, though constantly influ-
stones used in megalithic architecture weighed as much as enced by continental ideas, maintained its insular character.
four, eight, and ten tons. The labor of quarrying, transport- Until about 1400 b.c.e., stone weapons and tools, mostly of
ing, and erecting these great stones suggests the existence of flint, continued to be widely used; after that date, the supe-
a political unit larger than the family. But more intriguing rior bronze daggers and axes drove out the flint ones.
than the social significance of these monuments is their reli- The Beaker Folk who invaded Britain about 3000 b.c.e.
gious meaning. The grave goods may have been placed there were a nomadic people from the Rhine Valley. Armed with
to assist the deceased in their passage into the next world. bows and arrows and daggers, they crossed the North Sea
But the idea of rebirth is also a common one in primitive and the Channel, occupied most of Britain, and mixed with
societies, and the vaults may have been built to protect the the Neolithic inhabitants, some of whom adopted the lifestyle
spirit of the departed until it could once again enter into a of the Beaker Folk. They are called the Beaker Folk after a
living person. Whatever the belief, it led to the erection of ­beaker-shaped pot in common use among them that may have
monuments that can still be seen, stark and bold, on the hills been used to drink a fermented beverage. The raising of crops
of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. played only a small role in their lives, for they were essentially
herders. They lived in tents or pits sunk into the ground and
covered by wattle, but though their houses were inferior to
The Early Bronze Age those of the Neolithic people, their pottery was more skillfully
The discovery of radiocarbon dating caused a revolu- made and they wore linen and woolen clothes, held together
tion in the writing of British prehistory. Where it was once by buttons. They buried their dead singly, in graves contain-
thought that the Neolithic people first came to Britain about ing a dagger, a bow and arrow, some ornaments, and a beaker.
2500 b.c.e., it is now known that they came between 4000 and Over this grave they piled earth in a round mound.
3400. ­Similarly, where it was once believed that the ­Beaker In Wessex, about 1900 b.c.e., there appeared graves con-
Folk first came to Britain in 1900 b.c.e., it is now known that taining riches far beyond those found in ordinary graves.
they came as early as 3000. The revolution in dating has led to These special graves contained daggers strengthened by
a revolution in historical explanation. Forty years ago, prehis- flanged sides, slitted cups, gold pendants, bone tweezers,
torians attributed almost all change in Britain to the migration dress pins, and finely designed pottery. Clearly, these were
of peoples and the diffusion of ideas, mostly Mediterranean; the graves of a warrior aristocracy, who either emerged out
 The Land and the People 7

of the Beaker society itself or came over from Brittany. The to the north) on so ambitious a scale. At Stonehenge II there
striking similarity between Breton and Wessex graves at were 82 bluestones, each weighing about five tons, all of
this time suggests that they may have been Breton warriors. them brought from distant Wales. But the two concentric
But whether they were a native or a foreign aristocracy, they circles of bluestones were soon taken down by the ­Wessex
reflected the political power and social distinctions that ex- chieftains who built Stonehenge III. They erected one great
isted in the densely populated, wealthy Wessex of that time. circle of sarsen stones, each weighing 25 tons, brought
from Marlborough Downs 20 miles to the north. Across
the tops of these stones were placed other stones, the lin-
Stonehenge tels, each weighing about seven tons. This continuous circle
The wealth, political organization, learning, and religious was 97 feet in circumference. Within it they erected, in the
zeal of Wessex were displayed even more magnificently in shape of a horseshoe whose open end faced the heel stone,
the great stone monuments its inhabitants built. The most five great trilithons. A trilithon is made of three stones,
impressive of these is Stonehenge, which rises boldly and two of them upright and the third laid across the tops. The
mysteriously out of Salisbury Plain. Like a Gothic cathe- upright stones of the trilithon were 25 feet in height and
dral, Stonehenge was built over many centuries. Sometime weighed from 40 to 50 tons each. Sometime later, the build-
between 2900 and 2500 b.c.e., the Neolithic people of ers of Stonehenge III added a horseshoe of free-standing
Salisbury Plain built Stonehenge I. This was a great ditch bluestones within the sarsen circle. This impressive struc-
with banks built up on both sides, 380 feet in circumfer- ture of bluestone and trilithon horseshoes, surrounded by
ence, with an avenue leading out of it. One hundred feet bluestone and sarsen circles, encompassed by ditch and
outside the circle, down the avenue, stood a great stone, bank, with avenue and heel stone, formed the great monu-
now called the heel stone. Standing at the center of Stone- ment whose remains inspire awe to this day.
henge, one can see the midsummer sunrise, or summer What did it all mean? That it reflected the compelling
solstice, over the heel stone. Within the ditch, there were power of religion cannot be doubted, for it is hard to find
once four stones that formed a rectangle which stood at any other impulse that would have led people to build not
right angles to the line of the midsummer sunrise. only Stonehenge, but the great stone circle at Avebury and
About 2000 b.c.e., the Beaker Folk built Stonehenge II, the mysterious hill at Silbury, which lies near Avebury and
two concentric rings of large stones placed within the ditch is the largest artificial mound in Europe. It is likely that
and banks. The Beaker Folk, and the Megalithic people be- Stonehenge was a temple dedicated to the worship of the
fore them, often built such circles of stones on the hills and sun, for the line of the midsummer sunrise forms the main
moorlands of Britain, but never (except at Avebury 15 miles axis of the whole monument.

Stonehenge, showing the trilithons and sarsen stones.  (© Justin Black)

8 A History of England

stone holes, mounds), extended lines through 120 pairs

of the charted points, and placed this information in a
computer. He discovered that Stonehenge I had 11 key
­positions, which pointed to 10 of the 12 extremes of the sun
and moon. (The sun has four extreme positions in a year:
midwinter s­ unrise, midwinter sunset, midsummer sun-
rise, and midsummer sunset; the moon, because it comes
north and returns south twice in a year, has eight, of which
Stonehenge I failed to measure only two.) He then found
that ­Stonehenge III, with its trilithons and sarsen circle,
pointed to eight of these positions. In 1964, he discovered
that alignments at S­ tonehenge pointed to sunrise, sun-
set, moonrise, and moonset at the equinox (March 21 and
­September 23). Stonehenge, if Gerald Hawkins is right, was
not only a temple but an astronomical observatory.
Such an observatory could have had practical, religious,
and scientific uses. It may have furnished a calendar that told
people when to plant crops. It may have enabled the priest to
summon the people together at the proper time to witness
the risings and settings of sun and moon—for all forms of
worship require a calendar in order to keep their festivals on
the right day. And finally, it may have led some people to see a
pattern in the puzzling movements of the sun and the moon.
A diagram of Stonehenge.  (English Heritage-National Monuments These are matters of speculation. What is more certain
Record) is the social and political significance of Stonehenge, for
only a society that was wealthy, stable, and politically cen-
tralized could have built such a monument. Experiments
But it might be more than a temple. In 1962 an carried out by the British Broadcasting Corporation indi-
a­ stronomer affiliated with the Smithsonian ­Astrophysical cate that it took 100 men to move one bluestone one mile
­O bservatory, Gerald S. Hawkins, visited Stonehenge, in a day and 700 men to move one sarsen stone one mile.
charted 165 recognized Stonehenge I positions (stones, Based on these calculations, it has been estimated that it

Stonehenge, a view of the stone circle.  (The Bridgeman Art Library International Ltd.)
 The Land and the People 9

required 1.5 million days of labor to build Stonehenge. A crops, which in turn supported a population that may have
rude, primitive society could not have organized and ad- approached a million by the end of the Bronze Age.
ministered a labor force of such formidable proportions; The late Bronze Age also witnessed striking advances
nor could a society unskilled in engineering have joined in the bronze industry. The bronzesmiths of Britain now
lintels to uprights by such sophisticated techniques as began to manufacture the slashing sword, the socketed ax,
mortice and tenon. Stonehenge is more than a monument and the pegged spearhead. These were for warriors. For the
to the sun; it is a monument to the skill and organization farmer and householder, they produced sickles, buckets,
of the peoples who built it. knives for daily use, and cauldrons for hanging over the
fire. And they produced these weapons and tools in greater
numbers and more inexpensively than ever. The introduc-
The Late Bronze Age tion of iron in 600 b.c.e. only accelerated a process already
Between 2000 and 1100 b.c.e., the Neolithic population begun: the widespread use of metal tools and weapons.
of Britain absorbed the Beaker Folk and the Wessex chief-
tains. The result was the emergence of two new cultures:
the Food Vessel culture north of the Thames and the Urn
The Celts
culture south of it. The Food Vessel people got their name When did the Celts first enter Britain? The question is dif-
from the vases they buried with their dead. They were a ficult to answer, since the word Celt refers to a language,
pastoral people who made badly fired pottery, used only not a race or a culture, and a language leaves few traces
the simplest of bronze implements, and yet adorned their behind. It is certain that the inhabitants of Britain spoke
women with earrings of gold and necklaces of Yorkshire Celtic when the Romans came. It is also certain that the
jet. The Urn peoples cremated their dead, whom they bur- Belgae, who invaded the island in the first century b.c.e.,
ied in urns. They grew flax for linen, wove woolen cloth spoke Celtic. And there is solid evidence that the warriors
to a fineness of 33 threads to an inch, tended their flocks, who carried the La Tene culture to Britain in the third cen-
cultivated wheat and barley with a hoe, and lived in round tury b.c.e. were Celts. Most historians would agree that
stone huts, clustered in circles. The Urn peoples eventually the peoples who brought the Hallstatt culture of Upper
spread north, into Yorkshire, Lancashire, and even Scot- Austria to Britain in the seventh century b.c.e. also spoke
land, establishing a uniform culture throughout the British Celtic. The Beaker Folk may have spoken Celtic, for they
Isles. The years that followed, unlike those that saw the ar- came from the upper Rhine. But there is no way to prove
rival of the Beaker Folk and the rise of the Wessex chief- it. What is certain is that the Celtic-speaking peoples who
tains, were years of calm. Society remained pastoral and came between the seventh and the first centuries b.c.e.
the bronzesmiths improved their art. transformed British life. They brought iron, introduced
About 1400 b.c.e., profound changes occurred both in the use of money, founded kingdoms, instituted the priest-
agriculture and metallurgy. Archaeologists once attributed hood, and created a new art. Iron, money, kings, priests,
these changes to the migration of a new people from cen- and art—hallmarks of modern civilization—emerged with
tral Europe into southern England, but the evidence for the coming of the Celts.
such a migration is slim. Archaeologists now believe that The Cimmerians, who swept into Europe in the eighth
this new culture, called the Deverel-Rimbury culture, was a century b.c.e. from north of the Caucasus, taught the
native development caused by the exhaustion of the soil on use of iron to the Celts of central Europe. Then, early in
the uplands. As a result, the inhabitants of England made the seventh century b.c.e., some of these Celts invaded
a concerted attack upon the richer, more demanding low- ­E ngland—the warriors with iron daggers and broad-
land soils, which could sustain a longer period of use. They swords, the farmers with iron sickles, axes, and narrow
now placed more emphasis on growing cereal crops, with plowshares. Later invaders built two-wheeled chariots
the result that a well-balanced, mixed farming now replaced with wheels cased in iron and used iron bits for guiding
the pastoralism of an earlier age. By discovering how to sow the horses. The Belgae were even more highly skilled in
wheat and barley in the winter (using the hulled variety of iron work. With their iron axes they could fell timber and
each), farmers provided a steady supply of food through- with their plows they could even turn over the heavy clay
out the year. These new farmers grew grain in neat, rect- soil of the valleys.
angular fields, perhaps a quarter of an acre in size. They The Celtic inhabitants of Britain also used iron bars as
enclosed their pastures, the boundaries of which can still be currency. At Glastonbury in the late second century b.c.e.,
seen in Sussex and Dorset. In these enclosed fields one can, merchants used flat iron bars weighing 309.7 grams as a
perhaps, see the beginnings of a private property in land. standard of value and a medium of exchange. The people
This early agricultural revolution produced more bountiful of Glastonbury, who lived on an island in the marshes of
10 A History of England

Iron Age hill fort known as the British Camp. It is located on top of H
­ erefordshire Beacon in
the Malvern Hills.  (© Martin Fowler)

Somerset, raised cereals, bred cattle, made excellent pot- into Cymbeline. Cunobelin located the center of his
tery, traded with their neighbors, and gambled away their kingdom in Hertfordshire and Essex, but extended his
earnings at dice. The iron bars they used as currency rep- power into Oxfordshire, the Fens, and Kent. ­Throughout
resented a wide economic area, not a political unit. In the the southeast, people left their hill forts and settled
next century, the Belgae used minted coins rather than peacefully in homesteads and large unfortified towns.
iron bars and introduced into Britain the potter’s wheel. Julius Caesar, who conquered the Celtic tribes of Gaul,
By the end of the century, Britain exported grain, iron, observed of the Celts that there were among them only
tin, leather, and hunting dogs to the Continent. two classes of people who counted: the warriors and
The people of Glastonbury, who defended their is- the priests. The priests, who were called Druids, taught
land with palisaded fortifications, were not alone in this that the human soul was immortal and at death passed
­concern for defense. Between 1200 and 150 b.c.e. forti- from one person to another. They also taught that spirits,
fied settlements, particularly on hilltops, dotted the many of them evil, dwelled in forests, streams, springs,
landscape. These hill forts served in part as religious and rocks. They held the mistletoe in particular venera-
centers, in part as meeting places, and in part as pas- tion and chose groves of oak as their special retreat. To
toral enclosures, but were principally a defense against protect those who were going into battle or to help those
an invader, or a stronghold built by a successful in- who were ill, they offered human sacrifices. The Druids
vader. The Celts, particularly in the fifth century, came were more than priests; they were also physicians, teach-
as aristocratic ­w arriors. In thinly populated areas like ers, prophets, and judges. They taught young people their
Yorkshire, they established an oligarchic rule over their magic lore, and they were judges in matters of crime and
own followers. When they confronted a native popula- disputed boundaries. Powerful and esteemed, they coun-
tion, as in the south, they reduced them to the status of selled kings and instructed the people.
tenants. The aristocratic nature of Celtic society is viv- The Celtic aristocracy sought pleasure in beauty as well
idly demonstrated by the resplendent graves of the war- as consolation in religion. Out of Scythian and Greek in-
rior chieftains. They were buried fully clad, with swords fluences, their artists developed a brilliant abstract art.
and helmets, along with flagons of wine and their two- From the Scythians, who entered central Europe about
wheeled chariots. The hill forts of southeast England 500 b.c.e., they learned a decorative vocabulary of curves,
disappeared when the Belgae created kingdoms strong countercurves, spirals, and interlaces. From the Greeks they
enough to end the fierce strife of tribe against tribe. The learned new ways of giving expression to living forms. The
most powerful of these kingdoms was that created in Celtic artist copied the Greek designs in a free, spontaneous
25 C.E. by Cunobelin, whom Shakespeare transformed manner, thereby creating a style marked by graceful curves,
 The Land and the People 11

Two examples of Celtic art: the Desborough Mirror  (The British Museum, London. Werner Forman Archive); the Battersea Shield. (The British
Museum, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

scroll patterns, and perfect proportions. The artists engraved Further Reading
these ingenious curve patterns on bronze shields, sword R. J. C. Atkinson. Stonehenge. London, 1956. Presents the es-
scabbards, sacrificial dishes, and mirrors. At ­Glastonbury sential facts about the structure and construction of Stone-
the art of the few became the art of the many when potters henge, but also speculates on the inspiration and social
inscribed these designs on pottery, but the curving patterns conditions that enabled the monument to be built.
of the earlier style now became more purely geometrical. Richard Bradley. The Prehistoric Settlement of Britain. ­London,
The growing influence of Rome after 20 b.c.e. caused the 1978. A study in “settlement archaeology” that summarizes
symmetry to become even more formal and the designs un- recent work on woodland and grassland clearance, arable
imaginative. The Roman invasion itself put an end to this and pastoral farming, and field systems.
extraordinary art, except in distant Ireland. V. Gordon Childe. Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles.
Thus, when the Romans arrived in Britain in 55 b.c.e., it New York, 1972. A wide-ranging, brilliant synthesis, first
was not an empty land that they found, nor a land inhab- published in 1940; shows how continental cultures were
ited by a rude and ignorant people. Rather, they found a adapted to an insular environment.
people who enjoyed a settled agriculture, possessed weap- Barry Cunliffe. Iron Age Communities in Britain. 4th ed. London,
ons and implements of iron, used money, made excellent 2005. A comprehensive survey that covers the whole of Britain
pottery, guessed at the meaning of human existence, and and all aspects of Iron Age life.
strove toward political unity. It was a level of civilization far Timothy Darvill. Prehistoric Britain. New ­Haven, CT, 1987.
below that of Rome, but at the same time it was infinitely The most recent synthesis of current scholarship; covers
the entire prehistory of ­England, Wales, and Scotland; well
higher than that enjoyed by the first inhabitants of Britain
illustrated.
200,000 years before.
12 A History of England

Peter Fowler. The Farming of Prehistoric Britain. Cambridge, Lloyd Laing and Jennifer Laing. The Origins of Britain.
England, 1983. A survey of the evolution of British farm- ­L ondon, 1980. A brief, nontechnical introduction to
ing during the last two millenia b.c.e.; argues that agrarian ­prehistoric Britain; excellent illustrations.
history is central to our understanding of the prehistoric Stuart Piggott. The Neolithic Cultures of the B ­ ritish Isles.
world. ­Cambridge, England, 1954. Remains the classic account.
Gerald S. Hawkins, in collaboration with John B.  White. Derek Roe. The Lower and Middle Paleolithic ­Periods in B ­ ritain.
­Stonehenge Decoded. Garden City, NY, 1965. An ingenious, London, 1981. Technical, yet clearly written; stresses the need
though controversial, investigation into the astronomical for the British Paleolithic to be seen in its European context.
purposes of Stonehenge.
 Chapter 2

Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e.

L
Chapter Outline
ate on an august evening in 55 b.c.e., two Roman legions,
some 10,000 men, sailed from Boulogne in 80 ships. Led by Julius
■ Hadrian’s Wall ­Caesar, they reached Dover the next day, where they saw the formi-
dable chalk cliffs lined with Britons. Sailing north a few miles, pursued
■ The Roman Town by the ­defenders, the Romans finally ran their ships onto the open
beach. The Britons waded out into the sea to oppose them. A fierce
■ The Countryside skirmish followed, until the Britons, outflanked and outfought, fled in
panic. The Romans had won a beachhead.
Julius Caesar, a Roman general, an ambitious politician, and
■ The Collapse of Roman Rule
the conqueror of Gaul, launched this expedition for a variety of
­m otives. In the first place, he wished to punish the Britons for
­giving refuge to Celtic rebels fleeing from Gaul. He had also heard
of the wealth of B ­ ritain, of the gold and silver, the lead and tin, the
grain and slaves. Then there was the prestige he would gain by add-
ing a new province to the empire, one that lay shrouded in mystery
beyond the ocean. Though these motives were personal to Caesar,
they reflected the needs and character of the expanding Roman
Empire. Economically that e­ mpire depended on the tribute exacted
from the provinces; p ­ olitically it was dominated by ambitious gen-
erals and senators; psychologically it was sustained by victories and
fresh triumphs.
Finding that the Britons were stronger than he had thought, C ­ aesar
left within a month, describing the expedition in his ­Commentaries
as a reconnaissance. In 54 b.c.e., he returned with 800 ships and
25,000 men. He now drove inland, forded the Thames, and defeated
­C assivelaunus, the most powerful of British kings. But news of an
­insurrection in Gaul forced his withdrawal within two months, and
he never returned. The Roman conquest of Britain was delayed for a
century, a century during which the Roman Republic fell. Augustus
created the empire, Cicero wrote his famous letters, Christ preached to
the world, and St. Paul addressed the Romans.
Augustus, the first Roman emperor, having suffered a disas-
trous d­ efeat in Germany, resolved that the empire should be con-
tained within its existing boundaries. But Claudius, who became
­e mperor in 41 c.e., and who had led a sheltered life owing to a
physical ­deformity, needed a military victory in order to establish

13
14 A History of England

himself in the eyes of the army. He sought that victory in The story of Boudicca and her daughters is known
­Britain, where the situation demanded action. The great to every English schoolchild. Less familiar is the tale
­Cunobelin, who had welcomed Roman traders, minted of ­C artimandua, queen of the Brigantes. She betrayed
money, established a capital at ­C olchester, and declared Caratacus, leader of the Silures, when he sought ref-
himself rex Britannorum, died in 42 c.e. His kingdom uge. C ­ artimandua may have inherited her throne un-
descended to two reckless sons, who at once invaded der native law, but regardless of her legal standing it is
the kingdom of the Atrebates and drove out their king, clear she and not her husband ruled the Brigantes. That
Verica, an ally of Rome. A failure to support Verica, she exchanged her husband for his armor-bearer oc-
­reasoned the politicians in Rome, would badly damage casioned outrage among her subjects, says Tacitus, but
the prestige of Rome. There were also other motives for the pragmatic R ­ omans would support a female ruler
an ­invasion. Since the Rhine garrison had grown danger- if it suited them, and she held her throne until 69. But
ously powerful, Claudius decided to weaken it by mov- Tacitus offered little comment on the women of the
ing two of its legions to Britain. At the same time, the ­Britons, aside from the heroic Boudicca and the scan-
Romans discovered that the suppression of Druidism dalous Cartimandua. We know nothing about the wom-
in Gaul would require its suppression in Britain. For all enfolk of Cogidubnus or Togodumnus or any of the 11
these reasons, in 43 c.e. Claudius ordered Aulus Plautius kings who surrendered to Claudius. Epitaphs and other
to sail against the British with 40,000 men. inscriptions provide much of what we know about non-
Unlike Caesar, who failed on both occasions to dis- royal women of ­Roman ­Britain, although we know little
cover the port of Richborough in Kent, Plautius sailed about any but those who were Romanized. Julia ­Lucilla,
directly to this sheltered harbor. His landing was un- a woman of senatorial rank, was the wife of Rufinus,
contested and his fleet was secure against storm. A commander at High ­R ochester. Living at a camp north
sweep through Kent, a contested passage across the of H
­ adrian’s Wall meant she would have lived a confined
Medway, and a march on ­C olchester were enough to life with little chance to venture alone. One scholar of
bring down the kingdom of ­Cunobelin. By 47 c.e., the Roman Britain has likened her experience to those of
Romans had conquered the lowlands of Britain and had officers’ wives on India’s northwest frontier in the nine-
constructed a cross-country road, later called Fosse teenth century. Boredom, fear, and loneliness would
Way, that ran from Exeter to L ­ incoln. By 61 c.e. they have marked her life, since ­Julia would have had little
had reached the island of Anglesey, a s­ acred center of opportunity to share her sorrows with women of similar
Druid mysteries and a center of resistance to Rome. social background. The tombstone of R ­ egina, who lived
There they slaughtered the Druid priests and the wild, during the second century, reveals her as a freedwoman
black-clothed women who, like furies, mingled with the and a member of the ­Catuvellaunian tribe. She was mar-
priests and urged them on. ried to Barates, a standard-maker from Syria. It is likely
The Iceni of East Anglia then rose in revolt against she was sold by her family to the master who became
­R oman rule. Heavily taxed, conscripted, plundered by her husband. Like women all over the empire, she lacked
corrupt officials, exploited by moneylenders, their lands political rights and would have remained a minor her
confiscated, the Iceni soon discovered what it was like to entire life. The balls of wool that appear on her tomb-
be a colonial people. It took only the flogging of Queen stone indicate the traditional expectation of a woman to
Boudicca, ruler of the Iceni, and the rape of her daughters make cloth for the household. Attention to a detail like
to spark a rebellion. Other tribes joined the Iceni and fell this reveals that archaeologists know much more about
savagely upon the Romans in Camulodunum ­(Colchester), the material culture of Britain than the interior lives of
Verulamium (St. Albans), and Londinium (London). its inhabitants.
They massacred thousands—70,000, reported the ­Roman The Romans accomplished in 18 years what it took the
historian Tacitus. Only the quick march of Governor Anglo-Saxons a century and a half to achieve: the con-
­Suetonius Paulinus from Anglesey saved ­Roman rule in quest of lowland Britain. The explanation for their success
Britain. With 10,000 legionaries he met and defeated the lies in their greater political organization and their supe-
vast army that followed Queen Boudicca. Boudicca, who rior military skills. The Romans were a highly central-
led her troops into battle after making a fiery speech to ized people facing a number of tribal kingdoms. D ­ ivide
them, escaped captivity by drinking poison (though oth- et impera, which means “Divide and rule,” was the Roman
ers reported she died of illness). Nothing now prevented maxim, and there were many Celtic chiefs who allied with
Paulinus from laying waste, with fire and sword, the rebels Rome in order to secure themselves against a powerful
and their lands. neighbor. There was military resistance—at the Medway,
 Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e. 15

in the west, during Boudicca’s revolt—but the Romans legionaries would then hurl their seven-foot javelins at
quickly overcame it. The Celtic war chariots made a thun- the enemy, trot forward in wedge formation, thrust with
dering noise as they dashed across the battlefield, but their shields, and stab with their short swords—while the
they were no match for the heavy cavalry of the Romans cavalry outflanked and surrounded the enemy. In this
and useless if the Romans had time to plant stakes and manner Roman discipline and superior weapons defeated
ropes. The Britons attacked with desperate fury but could Queen Boudicca’s untrained army at Mancetter in the
not disrupt the Romans, who remained in close forma- Midlands. According to reports, 80,000 Britons fell, but
tion, protected by shields and flexible body armor. The only 400 Romans.

Mons Graupius
Roman Britain
CALEDONIANS Showing Main Roads

Antonine Wall 0 30 60 Miles

VO
0 30 60 Kilometers
TA
D
SELGOVAE
INI

Hadrian’s Wall
North
Sea

York
BRIGANTES

Hum
ANGLESEY b e r Es
tuar y
Irish
Tr e n t

Lincoln
Sea Chester
R.

ash
eW
Th

ICENI
y
Wa

Towcester
e
ss
Fo

Dolaucothi Gloucester Colchester

Gold Field
St. Albans
Caerleon London
R.
Th a m e
s Richborough
Silchester

Dover

English Channel
16 A History of England

Hadrian’s Wall the north. Between the garrisons, and between them and
London, ran roads that were straight, wide (20 to 25 feet),
Though the Romans destroyed the Druids at Anglesey paved with stone, and kept open the year round. Their pur-
and defeated Queen Boudicca at Mancetter, they still pose was to move troops swiftly from place to place, but
faced two problems: how to govern and how to defend merchants soon made use of these roads, which formed
lowland Britain. a network some 7000 miles in length. Not until the nine-
The rebellion of the Iceni led in time to the adoption of teenth century could people and goods travel as swiftly
less restrictive policies by the Romans and to an attempt through Britain as during Roman times.
to Romanize life in the southeast. But it was not on gov- The Romans were more successful in subjugating the
ernment by consent that the Romans truly ­depended; it lowlands than in defending the frontier. Britain was a
was on the army. The Roman occupation of Britain was a weakly held border province. The Romans did finally con-
military occupation. Few L ­ atin-speaking peoples came to quer Wales by building roads through it and garrisoning
Britain, other than soldiers and o­ fficials, though there were forts along the roads. Julius Agricola, who became governor
about 60,000 of these. They made up only a small percent- of Britain in 78 c.e., completed the subjugation of Wales.
age of the population, which was about 4 million. He then turned to the problem of the ­Brigantes in north-
Until 100 c.e. the Romans maintained four legions in ern Britain. By the brilliant use of roads and forts (of which
Britain; after that they kept only three, which meant some there were 40), he forced them to bow to ­Roman rule.
40,000 men. These legions were garrisoned at Caerleon in But further north there remained the Votadini, the
South Wales, at Chester in the northwest, and at York in ­Selgovae, and the Caledonians. Against them Agricola ap-
plied the same methods that had proved so successful in
Wales and the north. He marched into what is now Scotland,
built forts, and defeated a Caledonian army at the Battle
of Mons Graupius, fought somewhere on the edge of the
Highlands. Agricola’s policy was clearcut: Rome should pro-
tect the south by conquering the whole of the British Isles.
But before he could carry out this policy, he was recalled to
Rome. Agricola had the good fortune to be the father-in-law
of Tacitus, one of the greatest of Roman historians. In his life
history of his father-in-law, Tacitus praises Agricola’s wis-
dom and regrets that he was recalled. There is no doubt that
Agricola governed Britain with wisdom and energy, but his
forward policy in Scotland might have bankrupted the prov-
ince. Britain already held 10 percent of the empire’s troops.
To hold Scotland also would have demanded four legions,
an excessive burden on an economy that could barely sup-
port three. Furthermore, that fourth legion was needed to
shore up the defenses of the empire on the Danube.
The Emperor Hadrian, who visited Britain in 122 c.e.,
proposed what he believed was a less expensive solution
to the problem of defense. It was an engineer’s solution:
Rome should build a wall from the mouth of the Tyne
River to Solway Firth. Between 122 and 128 c.e., Roman en-
gineers constructed such a wall. Built of stone in the east
and of turf in the west, it was 73 miles long, 15 feet high,
10 feet wide at the base, and 7 feet wide at the top. There
were numerous turrets, a small fort every mile, and quar-
ters for troops. To the north of the wall was a ditch, 27 feet
wide and 15 feet deep. To the south of it was another ditch
(a ­defense against the Brigantes). The Romans designed the
In Trajan’s Column one sees the “immense majesty” and despotic wall less to repulse the frontal assault of an invading army
power of the Roman Empire.  (Goran Bogicevic/Shutterstock.com) than to prevent plundering and raiding and to separate the
 Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e. 17

Hadrian’s Wall. Ruins of the Roman fort (Vercovicium) at Housesteads, Northumberland. 

(© Jule Berlin)

Since the stone was often used for local building, only portions of Hadrian’s Wall remain today. 
(© Jule Berlin)

Brigantes from their allies in the north. It was not a wall They held this wall, called Antonine’s Wall, for about
to be defended, like a city wall, but a fortified base from 20 years and then abandoned it. Severus, the ­e mperor
which to launch attacks on the enemy. That it saved on in 210 c.e., further strengthened Hadrian’s Wall, which
labor is doubtful, for it took about a million man-days to protected Britain until the legionaries abandoned it in
build and required some 9500 men to garrison. the late fourth century. Hadrian’s Wall was the most for-
The Romans were not even sure they had built it in the midable barrier of its kind in the Roman Empire, but it
right place, for in 143 c.e. they built another wall, 37 miles reflected the limitations of Roman power as much as its
long, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. greatness.
18 A History of England

The Roman Town long and nearly 60 feet wide, adorned with both local and
Italian marble. Latin civilization was all-pervasive. The ar-
Defended by Hadrian’s Wall and Agricola’s forts, the chitecture was classical—arches, columns, capitals, entabla-
­Britons in the south enjoyed 300 years of peace, shared in tures, pediments. There were temples for the worship of the
the famous Pax Romana. During those years, the govern- chief deities of Rome. The wealthy built houses of masonry,
ment sought to win the Celtic chieftains over to Roman roofed with tile, and paved with mosaics illustrating Roman
rule by granting them a measure of local ­self-government mythology. When they grew weary of Silchester or London,
and by holding out before them the charms of Latin they could always travel to Bath, where the Romans had dis-
­civilization. The chosen instrument for both purposes was covered the local hot springs and where they had used the
the town. Mediterranean culture had flowered in the city; local limestone and the lead of the Mendips to build sump-
Rome had begun as a city-state; it had grown by absorb- tuous baths and plunging pools, surrounded by arches and
ing other city-states. What would be more natural than to colonnades. It was the most splendid spa in Western Europe.
transmit to Britain its urban way of life through the town. Yet these towns were artificial creations, imposed on
Veterans from the army established the first four towns, people unaccustomed to them. The ordinary British nota-
called coloniae, at Colchester, Lincoln, Gloucester, and York. ble preferred life on his country estate to life in town. Aside
The government then conferred on the existing Celtic town from London, with its mint, its wharves, its mills, and its
at Verulamium the status of a city, under the title of a mu- radiating roads, no town had a sufficient economic base
nicipium. It may have granted the same status to London, to support it. The countryside produced only enough food
which was located where the Thames River is both narrow to support itself and the army of occupation. There was
enough to be bridged and broad enough to receive ocean- no surplus to support a considerable population engaged
going vessels. The imperial government also grouped the in trade and manufacturing. The towns were essentially
tribes of Britain into cantons, created capital towns for each ­instruments of government, and when the government fal-
canton, urged the Celtic aristocracy to live there, and gave tered in the fifth century, the towns decayed.
to these capitals the status of a town, or civitas. Because it was a border province, Britain came under
Whether a town was called a colonia, municipium, or the personal command of the emperor, who entrusted its
­civitas, it had a council composed of wealthy townsmen. immediate government to a legate, or governor. The gov-
The council in turn elected magistrates who dispensed ernor’s duties were largely military, but he also supervised
justice and maintained the public buildings, the streets, the civitates, directed the building of roads, recruited men
and the drains. Nor did their jurisdiction stop at the town
wall, for the towns of Britain governed the countryside that
­surrounded them. It was through the town, the council,
and the elected magistrates that the Romans created a soci-
ety dominated by the rule of law.
The town was also an instrument for disseminating the
civilization of Rome. Roman Britain, especially in the towns,
was a literate society, in which the ability to read and write
Latin was by no means restricted to an elite. The Romans
also instructed the Celts in the luxury of the bath and the
banquet, pleasures to be found mainly in towns. There were
in Britain some 20 to 30 large Roman towns, ranging in size
from London, with its 15,000 inhabitants, and Silchester,
with its 2500, to the smaller civitas with about 1000. These
towns were laid out in the Roman checkerboard fashion,
with streets intersecting each other at right angles. In the
center was the forum, an open space surrounded by public
buildings and shops. There were temples for worship, ba-
silicas for public meetings, baths for public bathing, theaters
for plays, and amphitheaters for gladiatorial contests.
In Silchester, the most thoroughly excavated Roman The Roman baths at Bath; founded on the site of the only natural
town in Britain, the forum was surrounded by an impres- hot springs in Britain (Aquae Sulis) in the first century c.e. 
sive colonnade. On one side stood a basilica, over 200 feet (Hulton Archive)
 Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e. 19

for the army, and managed the public post. He also had isolated farms, but recent archaeological evidence shows
­judicial duties, for he was the court of appeal in lawsuits that some lived in villages, which were often associated
and exercised original jurisdiction in all cases that involved with a villa. The Celtic field system with its small, rectan-
either Roman citizens, capital punishment, or condemna- gular fields survived through the Roman occupation. The
tion to the mines. In later centuries he had a legate to assist Romans, in fact, contributed little to the improvement of
him in his legal duties. farming, though it is possible that they added a coulter (for
There was one field, however, in which the governor was cutting the turf in front of the plowshare) and a moldboard
not supreme: finance. A provincial procurator, named by (for turning over the sod) to the Celtic iron plow. What
the emperor and responsible to him, collected taxes and is certain is the fact that they introduced into Britain the
paid out revenues. He was assisted by a corps of hated tax grapevine, the cherry tree, and peas, parsnips, and turnips.
collectors. The chief sources of revenue were a tax on land, The principal contribution of the Romans was to make
a poll tax, customs duties, and (after the late third century) Celtic farming more efficient by providing peace, roads,
a levy of grain to feed the army. The agents of the procura- markets, and towns. British farmers raised grain, bred cat-
tor would assess the amount of the land tax and the poll tle, and grazed sheep. The grain was vital to feed the army
tax a town and its hinterland should pay. The council and of occupation, the miners, those engaged in the making of
the magistrates would then enforce its collection. It is little pottery, and the farmers themselves. But since the govern-
wonder that by the third century service as a councilor and ment took over half the crop, little money was to be made
magistrate had become more of a burden than an honor. from selling grain. Cattle raising was more profitable, but
not as profitable as raising sheep. It is no coincidence that
during the third century British woolens became famous
The Countryside throughout the empire and that during the next century
The chief instrument for the Romanization of the coun- the Roman villa spread across the countryside. Indeed, the
tryside was the villa. A villa was the center of an agricul- villas are concentrated in the Cotswolds, the center of the
tural estate, distinguished from the Celtic farmstead by its sheep-grazing industry in Britain. It was the wealth taken
attempt to imitate the comforts and the way of life of the from the backs of British sheep that built the Roman villa.
town. Most of the 620 villas that dotted the southeast were Tacitus believed that gold, silver, and other metals,
owned by wealthy Britons, not by Romans. When the villa not grain and wool, would be the reward for conquering
first appeared in the second century, it was unpretentious— Britain. The yield of gold, however, proved disappointing,
a single range of four or five rooms, with a corridor running even though the Romans mined gold for a century in the
in front of them, built of stone, timber, and tile. The corridor Dolaucothi mines in Carmarthenshire. Nor did tin prove
was important, for it gave the occupants a privacy denied to be the most valuable metal. Before the Romans came,
to families huddled together in Celtic round huts. But the Cornwall had exported great quantities of tin, but once the
great age of villa building occurred in the fourth century. Romans had gained possession of the Spanish tin mines,
The wealthy Briton then built as many as 30 or 40 rooms which they did under Augustus, they undersold the B ­ ritish
around one or more courtyards. The hypocaust, a system in the Mediterranean market. The British industry went
of central heating with an underground furnace and tile into decline until about 250 c.e., when the Spanish mines
flues, now became the style. ­Windows were glazed, floors were closed and the Cornish mines once again prospered.
were paved with mosaics, and bath suites were provided. In It was not tin, however, but lead that proved of greatest
these villas, of which there were probably 75 in Britain, the value to the Romans. Lead ore was doubly valuable: first
­Romanized Briton enjoyed a standard of comfort that was for the lead itself, which was used in the construction of
not achieved again until the eighteenth century. baths, water pipes, and coffins, and second for the silver
Around the elaborate house was the economic basis for that the lead ore of the Mendips, Flintshire, and Derbyshire
this luxury—the barns, the cattlesheds, and the quarters for contained. Within six years of the Claudian invasion the
farm workers. Some estates had as much as 2000 acres. Part of Romans were producing lead and silver from the Mendips.
the estate might be farmed by slaves; other parts were let out At first, the imperial government itself undertook the min-
to tenants. Originally these tenants leased land for five years ing of the ore and the production of lead and silver. But in
or less, but by the fourth century their legal position grew the second century it leased its rights to private individuals
worse. They became bound to the soil like medieval serfs. and companies. Pewter is an alloy of lead and tin, and there
Not all farms were Romanized. Side by side with the soon grew up in Britain a flourishing pewter industry that
Roman villa was the Celtic farm. Historians once thought furnished the middle classes with the cups from which
that the Celts who lived in the countryside lived only on they drank their Rhenish wine and local beer. Bronze
20 A History of England

continued to be widely used, and Britain possessed both to the Wash. In the fourth century the Emperor, r­ ealizing
the tin and copper from which to manufacture it. During that military vigilance was the price of empire, ­created a
the first two centuries of Roman rule Britain probably had new official, the Count of the Saxon Shore, and gave him
an unfavorable balance of trade, for it imported large quan- ­command of the troops that garrisoned these forts and
tities of Roman pottery and Rhenish and Moselle wines. ­stations. Such defenses proved sufficient against raids, but
But during the third and fourth centuries the British began they were not sufficient to withstand a concerted action by
to manufacture pottery and drink local beer, at four denari the barbarians. Such an ­action came in 367, when the Scots
a pint, rather than Rhenish and Moselle wines. And Britain from the west, the Picts from the north, and the ­Saxons from
exported not only lead and woolens, but leather, hunting the east assaulted and overran Hadrian’s Wall and killed the
dogs, Kentish oysters, and Irish slaves. Count of the Saxon Shore. Only resolute action by the Count
Theodosius, a skillful and experienced soldier, allowed the
restoration of Roman garrisons at the Wall.
The Collapse of Roman Rule But these garrisons did not remain for long. In 383
As it was the power and vigor of the Roman Empire that led ­Magnus Maximum, a general whom the troops in Britain
to the conquest of Britain in the first century, so it was the declared emperor, took part of his army to Gaul in quest of
feebleness and exhaustion of the empire that led Rome to the imperial throne. And in 398 Stilicho, regent of the ­empire
abandon Britain in the fifth. There were many causes of that in the west, withdrew troops from Britain in order to wage
exhaustion. The Roman economy in the West d ­ epended war against the Visigoth, Alaric. On neither occasion was
too heavily on slave labor and tribute from conquered the Wall abandoned nor Britain entirely depleted of troops.
peoples. When imperial expansion stopped in the second There were clearly enough troops remaining in ­Britain in
century, the supply of slaves and tribute fell. At the same 407 to embolden them to elevate one of their officers to
time, a growing army of bureaucrats and soldiers consumed the imperial throne as Constantine III and to follow him to
the wealth that was produced; by the fourth ­century there Gaul. Constantine III probably left behind a core of officers
were some 40,000 bureaucrats and 500,000 soldiers on and men whom the Britons expelled in 409. There are two
the payroll and a dwindling number of Romans on the tax good reasons why the British landowning class e­ xpelled the
rolls. This situation was made more serious by the fact that remnants of the Roman army: they wished to rid themselves
the population was declining because of war, famine, and of the financial burden of the ­imperial e­ stablishment, and
plague. The economic crises led the heavily taxed produc- they had successfully organized their own defenses. Though
tive classes—the middle classes in the cities and the tenant no one could have been aware of it at the time, the year
farmers in the countryside—to desert their employments. 409 marks the end of Roman rule in Britain.
To keep the economy going, the emperors enacted laws In the fifth and sixth centuries the Britons offered a stout
freezing people in their vocations. During these same cen- resistance to the Anglo-Saxon invaders, but ultimately were
turies, the educated classes turned from Greek humanism overrun. The failure of the Britons to defend themselves and
and Roman practicality to search for personal salvation the obliteration of Latin civilization in Britain raises two
through otherworldly religions. The Romans, furthermore, fundamental questions: How thoroughly were the Britons
failed to solve the problem of the imperial succession. Romanized and what did survive of R ­ oman civilization?
In the third century, the army intervened in politics The Roman occupation of Britain offers many par-
more and more. Commanders even used legions, needed allels to the British occupation of India. In the one
on the frontiers to hold back the barbarians, in private wars a R ­ omano-British culture emerged, in the other an
to gain possession of the imperial throne. In 197 c.e., the ­Anglo-Indian. In both, the rich and the educated adopted
governor of Britain, Clodius Albinus, seeking the imperial the language, law, and dress of the imperial power, though
throne, crossed into Gaul with part of the Roman army in the peasants remained untouched. Outwardly the Briton
Britain. The resulting dislocation led to vandalism and loot- was a Roman and the Indian an Englishman, but inwardly
ing throughout the north. Septimius Severus, who defeated the Briton remained Celtic and the Indian Hindu. And
Albinus and became emperor, immediately strengthened when the occupation ended, the inward person won out.
the Wall and gave Britain a long spell of tranquility that was It was in the towns that the Britons were most
broken only late in the third century, when Saxon pirates ­thoroughly Romanized. Latin was the language of law, gov-
in search of booty fell upon the eastern coast of Britain. To ernment, business, and culture; even artisans knew enough
defend the land against these ­pirates, as also to strengthen Latin to scrawl words on their pottery. It was the towns-
Rome’s control of the Channel and so of ­Britain, the ­Romans people who wore the toga, drank wine, visited the baths,
built forts and signal stations along the coast, from the Solent and gave dinner parties. The depth of Romanization is also
 Roman Britain: 55 b.c.e.–450 c.e. 21

reflected in the art of Roman Britain, for classical sculpture Celtic missionaries carried to Wales and Scotland. Here,
and mosaics drove out the abstract art of the Celts (though in the ­remote mountains and islands of the west, Celtic
the Celtic feeling for pattern influenced both the sculpture ­Christianity survived—to play an important role a century
and the mosaics). Britons worshipped the Roman gods, later in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.
­either in temples dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva,
or in those dedicated to deified emperors. In the towns, as Further Reading
in the villas, there was a culture truly touched by Rome. David Breeze and Brian Dobson. Hadrian’s Wall. 2nd ed.
But most Britons—some two-thirds of them—lived nei- ­Penguin Books, 1978. The most ­r ecent history of the
ther in towns nor villas. Latin civilization hardly touched Wall; seeks to show how it came to be, what it was, how it
them at all; they spoke no Latin and they worshipped Celtic ­developed, and why it was abandoned.
gods in a hundred local shrines. For them, the Roman Sheppard Frere. Britannia: A History of Roman Britain.
­occupation meant compulsory grain deliveries and taxation. ­London, 1974. A closely argued, scholarly, superbly writ-
Nor did the towns prove permanent, as in Gaul and Spain. ten historical narrative, broken at the third century with
Once the Romans left, the towns began to decay—buildings ­discursive chapters on the army, administration, towns,
were left unfinished and amphitheaters became local mar- countryside, and trade.
kets. Only where they served an economic purpose did they Ivan Margary. Roman Roads in Britain. 3rd ed. London, 1973.
survive into the fifth century. It was a Celtic Britain that the A detailed, topographical study of the 7400 miles of Roman
roads; good on the construction of roads; beautiful aerial
Anglo-Saxon invaders confronted in 449 c.e.
photographs.
Their fierce onslaught in the next century and a half
David Mattingly. An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman
swept away nearly everything Roman. All that remained as
Empire. London, 2006. Highly original and detailed ac-
a permanent legacy were the Roman roads (whose course count that considers Roman Britain from the point of view
still determines the direction of many modern highways), of the conquered.
town sites (such as London, Canterbury, and York), and John Morris. Londinium: London in the Roman Empire.
British Christianity. Of these legacies, C ­ hristianity was London, 1982. A vivid account of government, learning,
the most significant. In the early years of the ­empire the ­religion, work, leisure, and food in Roman London; reveals
­Romans, tolerant of most religions, persecuted ­Christianity the human beings behind the archaeological and historical
because of the exclusive claims it made to people’s fragments.
­a llegiances. Several British martyrs suffered for their Ian Richmond. Roman Britain. 2nd ed. ­Harmondsworth,
faith, most notably Alban, a Roman soldier put to death at ­England, 1963. A first chapter on military history provides a
Verulamium about 249. But the persecution ended when chronological framework for chapters on towns, the coun-
­Constantine embraced Christianity at the opening of the tryside, economics, and religion; clear, concise, scholarly.
fourth century. In 314, British bishops from London, York, A. L. F. Rivet. Town and Country in Roman Britain. 2nd ed.
and Lincoln attended the Council of Arles. London, 1964. A delightful account of the British side of
Britain also produced a Christian heretic, the learned ­Roman Britain; contains an acute analysis of the social back-
Pelagius, who taught that man was born free of sin, pos- ground of the villa system.
sessed free will, and had the power to choose ­between good Peter Salway. Roman Britain. Oxford, 1981. ­Authoritative, up-
and evil. This presented a direct challenge to St. ­Augustine’s to-date, judicious, lengthy, and dull; contains an ­annotative
belief that man, because of his sinful n­ ature, is completely bibliography; best used as a work of reference.
dependent on God’s grace for ­s alvation. St. ­Augustine’s Tacitus. The Agricola and the Germania. Penguin Books, 1971. A
teachings became the orthodox teachings of the Church, detailed account of Agricola’s military campaigns by his son-
but Pelagius’s ideas became popular in his native land. in-law, Tacitus; and an account by Tacitus of the customs of
the German people.
In order to root them out, the Church in Gaul sent
St. ­G ermanus of Auxerre to Britain in 429. His m ­ ission Graham Webster. The Roman Invasion of ­Britain. London,
1981. An entertaining and scholarly a­ ccount of Caesar’s and
was a success; the British Church returned to orthodoxy. It
Claudius’s invasions; contains an ingenious attempt to in-
was, therefore, the orthodox faith of Rome that St. Patrick, fer the location of 130 Roman forts from the disposition of
a ­Romanized Briton who had studied under St. ­Germanus troops.
at Auxerre, carried into Ireland in 462, and that other
 Chapter 3

Anglo-Saxon England:
450–1066

T
Chapter Outline
he history of english civilization—as distinct from the
history of humankind in Britain—begins with the Anglo-Saxons,
■ The Conquest of Britain for they, insofar as it can be done, wiped the historical slate clean. Be-
tween 450 and 650 c.e. they sailed up the rivers of England, settled on
■ The Conversion to Christianity the land, cleared the forests, built villages, and made England theirs.
The straight Roman roads and the walls of the Roman towns re-
■ The Creation of the English Monarchy mained, as did a Celtic population, largely reduced to slavery. But little
else remained—except far to the west in Wales, Ireland, and western
­Scotland, where Celtic kingdoms kept alive the language, the learn-
■ Alfred the Great and his Successors
ing, the literature, and the Christianity of the Celts. In time this Celtic
civilization exercised an influence on England, but English civilization
■ Anglo-Saxon Government
itself had its roots in the laws, customs, language, and institutions of
the Anglo-Saxons. To the years between 450 and 1066 may be traced
■ The Structure of Society the boundaries of shires, the diocesan organization of the Church, the
location of boroughs, the names of villages, the existence of open fields
■ Open Fields and Royal Boroughs and manors, the division of England into parishes, the institution of
monarchy, and the beginnings of the English language, not to speak of
■ Monasticism and Learning
the name Englaland itself, the land of the Angles.

■ The Survival of the English Monarchy The Conquest of Britain

The Anglo-Saxons came first as pirates, then as mercenaries, finally as
colonists. As early as 287 c.e. Saxon pirates plundered the coasts of
Britain; by the year 429, they had penetrated far inland. But the per-
manent conquest of Britain was carried out not by marauding pirates,
but by mercenaries brought into the land to protect it. Both Gildas, a
Welsh monk, and Bede, a Northumbrian scholar, tell the classical story
of this fateful event. Vortigern, the proud ruler of southeastern ­Britain,
called in the Saxons, led by two brothers, Hengest and Horsa, to help
defend Britain against the Picts and the Scots. Hengest and Horsa,
who may have once served in the Roman army, came in 449 or there-
abouts, served Vortigern for six years, quarreled with him over pay,
rebelled, established a kingdom in Kent, and (in Gildas’s words), “fixed
their terrible claws in the eastern part of the island.” Historians have
long doubted the truth of this story, since Gildas, who wrote shortly
before the year 547, was a preacher rather than a historian, and since
Bede, who added names and dates to Gildas’s account, lived more
22
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 23

than 200 years after the event. But recent archaeological distribution of these brooches shows that the Angles settled
discoveries have confirmed the gist of the story—namely, in the north of England, the Saxons in the south. Grave finds
that the B ­ ritish, as early as 410, did invite German merce- in Kent, the Isle of Wight, and Hampshire show that Jutes
naries into the land. The excavation of Germanic cemeter- settled in those areas. But three qualifications must be made
ies near York, Lincoln, Norwich, and Ancaster reveal that to the traditional story as told by Bede: first, these tribes had
during the first half of the fifth century Germanic merce- already come into contact with each other near the mouth of
naries lived in these areas. The evidence also suggests that the Rhine before they came to England; second, there were
British authorities brought them there. It is quite possible other tribes who came, particularly the F ­ risians; and third,
that these mercenaries, like their brethren in Kent, rose the Anglo-Saxons were far more c­ onscious of their common
in revolt and seized power. The silence of the chroniclers Germanic origins than of these tribal distinctions.
and poets about any great battle for York or Lincoln lends A desire for land drove these people to Britain. The
support to this conjecture, since no battle is needed when crowded cemeteries and the many habitation sites in
­mercenaries swiftly seize a town. fourth-century Angeln and Saxony indicate a growing pop-
Had the Anglo-Saxons limited themselves to the sei- ulation. Along the coast of Frisia the sea had eroded the
zure of power, their conquest of Britain would have been coastline, thus reducing the land available for settlement.
a mere military occupation, like that of the Romans in And to the west the Franks barred any further a­ dvance.
43 c.e. or the Normans in 1066. But the Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons thus took to their boats, crossed the
went further; they colonized the land. Aware of how few North Sea, and invaded Britain.
they were and anxious to strengthen themselves, the mer- They were a pagan and illiterate people, but they were
cenaries invited their fellow Germans to join them. They not unskilled in the arts of war and government. Theirs was
came in boats of shallow draft, narrow beam, and great a warrior society, aristocratic and heroic. Tacitus in the sec-
length; a typical boat was 75 feet long, 10 feet wide, and ond century described this society, as did the author of the
drew 2 feet of water when unladen. Having neither keel epic poem Beowulf, many years later. The unknown poet
nor mast, they had to be rowed, usually by some 36 oars- who wrote Beowulf was probably a Christian who lived in
men. In these graceful, swift ships the colonists went the eighth century, but the society he described and the
up the Thames, up the many rivers that emptied into values he celebrated were those of the fifth century. The two
the Walsh, through the Humber estuary to the Trent, strongest bonds in that society were those of kinship and
and up the Trent to the M ­ idlands. They came in small lordship. Loyalty to one’s kin was vital to survival, as safety
bands, led by a chief, though on ­occasion powerful kings lay in knowing that relatives would avenge one’s death. But
formed great confederations. One of the greatest of these more important was the bond between lord and man. Every
was Aelle, founder of the kingdom of Sussex. Though chief and every king was surrounded by a company of war-
the chroniclers have recorded the great battles—at Old riors, called by Tacitus a comitatus. These warriors, whom
­S arum, at Dyrham, at Catterick—the true story of the the Anglo-Saxons later called thegns, owed loyal service to
conquest lies in the slow, remorseless advance of small their lord; in return, he rewarded them with treasure, arms,
bands of warriors, followed by their wives and children, golden rings, great estates. When ­B eowulf returned from
along the valleys and up the streams of England. They killing the monster, his king, Hygelac, ­rewarded him with
felled the trees, built their rude huts, and plowed the soil. land, a hall, and high office. A kingdom’s very existence de-
This conquest was slow, extending over two centuries, pended on the ability of its king to win battles and thereby
but because it was slow, widespread, and deeply rooted, it to find the treasure and land with which to reward his fol-
meant that the Anglo-Saxons would lay the foundations lowers. To betray a lord in such a society earned a warrior
of modern England. perpetual infamy; it was even a reproach to leave a battle-
The Anglo-Saxons who settled in England were a field alive where one’s lord lay dead.
­G ermanic people who had lived along the shore of the The Anglo-Saxon warrior did not know the promises of
North Sea, from the Danish peninsula to the mouth of the Christ and could not fall back on the hope of eternal life.
Rhine. The historian Bede divided them into three tribes: For him, life was a swift flight from darkness into dark-
the A ­ ngles, who came from Angeln on the neck of the ness. Human destiny lay outside his control—capricious,
­Danish peninsula; the Saxons, who came from the lower unknowable, and doom-laden. In such a world the great-
Elbe; and the Jutes, who came from Jutland, also on the est virtues were the heroic ones: courage, endurance, honor,
Danish peninsula. Archaeological evidence supports this generosity, prowess in battle, boasting at the table, drink-
­distinction among the three peoples. The Angles made a cru- ing at the feast, and splendor in dress. In great halls, decked
ciform brooch, the Saxons a saucer-shaped brooch, and the with golden tapestries, the tables adorned with golden
24 A History of England

PICTS
Anglo-Saxon England
Celts

Danelaw
Lindisfarne
Island

0 30 60 Miles

BERNICIA 0 30 60 Kilometers
GALLOWAY

North
NORTHUMBRIA Whitby Sea
DEIRA
York

Hum
be r Estua
Irish ry

Sea
LINDSEY
GWYNEDD ash
Nottingham eW
Th
MERCIA
Stamford

EAST ANGLIA
Li

e
n

POWYS l f r of the t
A

ed a re a
n d Gu ty b
DYFED th
etw m

en
ru
e

ESSEX

Ellendun
HWICCE
WESSEX Canterbury
Isle of Athelney Edington
Winchester
SUSSEX
Mount Badon So l Pevensey
ent
CORNWALL

English Channel

goblets, Beowulf and his companions feasted, drank, and victory at Mount Badon, believed to be near Wimborne
boasted of their great deeds. As long as fate permitted it, life in ­D orsetshire. Among the British captains at Mount
progressed from battle to feast and from feast to battle. But ­Badon there may have been a brave warrior named ­Arthur
more important than the transitory joys of life was winning about whom little is known, but around whom, in me-
lasting fame for great deeds and for loyalty to one’s lord. dieval times, arose the legend of King Arthur, Camelot,
“Each of us,” says Beowulf, “must experience an end to life ­E xcalibur, and the Knights of the Round Table. The
in this world; let him who may, achieve glory before he dies; ­British victory halted the advance of the Saxons for the
that will be the best for the lifeless warrior hereafter.”1 next 50 years, but after 550 both the Saxons in the south
Inspired by these ideals and driven by the needs of a and the Angles in the Midlands and the north resumed
military aristocracy for land, the Anglo-Saxons finally their drive westward. By the year 650, 11 English king-
prevailed over the native British. Yet the British put up a doms had come into existence: Bernicia and Deira in the
stout resistance, as the slow advance of the Saxons testi- north; Lindsey, Mercia, and Hwicce in the Midlands; East
fies. For some years after 449 the Saxons drove westward, ­Anglia, Essex, and Kent along the eastern coast; and Sus-
but then, about the year 500, the British won a great sex, S­ urrey, and Wessex in the south.
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 25

But what was the fate of the native British? Historians named a close friend, Augustine. Though a man of ­narrow
once believed they were largely exterminated, and cited views and arrogant bearing, Augustine proved himself
the story of Aelle, who killed all he found inside the fort at to be able to carry out the greater man’s conception. He
Pevensey, “so that not even a single Briton was left alive.” and nearly 40 fellow missionaries reached C ­ anterbury,
Other massacres may well have occurred in Sussex, for the capital of the Kentish kingdom, in 597. Within a year
there are hardly any Celtic place names there. The fate Ethelbert received baptism, and shortly afterward, so did
of the British language also supports the claim that the his nephew, the King of Essex. The conversion of Kent and
­Britons were exterminated, for only 14 British words found Essex set a pattern for the other kingdoms: first convert the
their way into English. But there is also evidence that casts king; the conversion of his loyal thegns would follow, after
doubt on the case for extermination. The laws of Kent and which missionaries could be sent to preach to the popu-
Wessex show that the native inhabitants survived as social lace. By these tactics, Raedwald of East Anglia and Edwin
inferiors, and archaeologists have recognized a British in- of Northumbria were converted to Christianity. But the
fluence on objects found in Saxon cemeteries. River names death of a monarch might bring a relapse to heathenism,
offer the best clues, for new settlers will, if they displace as it did briefly in Kent, more permanently in Essex and
a native population, change the names of lesser rivers. A East Anglia, and disastrously in Northumbria. Despite
careful study of such rivers in England shows that east of a these setbacks, the missionaries sent out from Canterbury
line drawn from the Yorkshire Wolds to the Salisbury Plain persevered in God’s work, with the result that by 663 the
British river names are rare, but to the west they are more southeast was permanently won to the Church. The lasting
numerous. It was therefore probably in the west that the conversion of Northumbria, however, was a task left to the
native population survived in the greatest numbers. Few Celtic missionaries from Iona.
historians today argue that the Britons were completely In 597, the year Augustine landed in Kent, St. Columba
massacred or driven out, but most would agree that many died on the island of Iona. St. Columba was an Irishman
Britons, whether from massacre or starvation or disease, of royal birth, impetuous temper, and fervent faith who
died, and that those who remained were reduced to a con- ­c arried the Christianity of St. Patrick to Iona, a small,
dition of servitude. It is no accident that the Anglo-Saxon windswept island off the west coast of Scotland. It was at
word for “a Briton” came to denote a slave. Iona, among the monks in their beehive huts, that Oswald
of Northumbria sought refuge from his enemies, and it
was to Iona that he looked for help when he became King
The Conversion to of N ­ orthumbria in 633. Penda, the fierce, heathen King
of Mercia, had driven the missionaries of Rome from
Christianity ­Northumbria. Oswald, anxious to restore Christianity to
Shortly after 585 c.e., a young Roman of aristocratic origins his kingdom, naturally looked for help to the monks who
named Gregory saw several boys of fair complexion and had sheltered him at Iona.
fair hair exposed for sale in the Roman slave market. He They heeded his call and sent a monk named Aidan.
inquired whether they were Christians or pagans, and was Aidan, instead of founding a bishopric at York, established
told they were pagans. “Alas,” he said, “how sad that such a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of
handsome folk are still in the grasp of the Author of dark- Northumbria. By doing so he advertised one of the deep-
ness, and that faces of such beauty conceal minds ignorant est differences between Celtic and Roman Christianity.
of God’s grace!”2 He then asked what was their race, and was The government of the Roman Church was centered in
told that they were Angles. “That is appropriate,” he said, the bishop and his diocese; the government of the Celtic
“for they have angelic faces, and it is right that they should Church, in the abbot and his monastery. There were other
become fellow-heirs with the angels in heaven.” Gregory differences. The Roman monk shaved the top of his head in
thereupon asked the Pope to send him to Britain to convert the form of a circle, in imitation of Christ’s crown of thorns;
the English, but the Pope, pressed by the citizens of Rome, the Celtic monk followed the Druid custom of shaving
refused to allow this able administrator to leave Rome. a broad strip from ear to ear. They also dated E ­ aster dif-
Gregory eventually became Pope himself and promptly ferently. Both churches agreed that Easter fell on the first
initiated his long-cherished project. The time was ripe, Sunday after a full moon after the vernal equinox, but the
for Gregory had recently heard that the English wished Celtic Church put the vernal equinox on March 25, the
to become Christians and he knew that Ethelbert, the pa- rest of Christendom on March 21. Furthermore, the Celts
gan King of Kent, had married a Christian princess from ­stubbornly followed an 84-year cycle of such S­ undays, a cy-
Gaul. To carry the Christian gospel to the English, Gregory cle the Roman Church gave up in 457 for a more accurate
26 A History of England

one of 532 years. Beneath these outward differences lay a organization for the English Church. At his death there
deeper, more spiritual difference. The Roman Church were 14 bishoprics extending over the various kingdoms of
­emphasized order and discipline, and possessed wealth and England. Within the diocese the preponderance of work
power; the Celtic Church relied on evangelical fervor and fell on the bishop. He baptized converts, catechized and
praised the ascetic life. Aidan offered the perfect e­ xample confirmed candidates for membership in the Church,
of such a life, trudging the roads of N
­ orthumbria on foot, made annual visits through the diocese, and supervised
preaching the gospel, admonishing the rich, and helping the churches that fell within it. And the bishop was to
the poor. He and his band of monks, with the constant sup- perform these tasks according to Roman ideas of practi-
port of Oswald, rescued Northumbria from ­heathenism. cal efficiency. Theodore told Chad, the saintly bishop of
And his successors, on the death of Penda, also won the Mercia, that he must abandon the Celtic custom of visiting
kingdom of Mercia to the cause of Christ. his diocese on foot, and when Chad objected, Theodore
In Northumbria the Roman and Celtic Churches now forced him to mount a horse. Theodore also summoned
met face to face, for Oswy, who succeeded Oswald as king, frequent synods, or meetings attended by all the bishops
had married a Kentish princess who followed ­R oman of England, and thereby gave England a synodical organi-
­usage. It was a practical and urgent problem, for it was zation. The synod that met at Hertford in 672 was the first
most awkward for the King to be celebrating Easter while occasion on which representatives of the English people
the Queen was observing Lent. King Oswy therefore sum- sat together for debate and decision.
moned a council at Whitby in 664 to debate the Easter con- The steadfastness of Augustine, the zeal of Aidan, the
troversy. Colman, a monk from Iona, stated the case for the prudence of Oswy, and the skill of Theodore all contrib-
Celtic Easter; he argued that they dare not change a date uted to the conversion of the English, but there were more
which both St. John the Evangelist and the saintly Columba fundamental reasons why Christianity triumphed so com-
had observed. Wilfrid, a native Northumbrian who had pletely. Most important among them was the inadequacy of
studied in Rome, then presented the case for the R ­ oman German heathenism, a religion compounded of animism
dating of Easter; it was a usage observed by the apostles and magic. The Anglo-Saxons worshipped trees, wells,
Peter and Paul and by all the world except the obstinate rivers, and mountains; they felt themselves surrounded
inhabitants of two remote islands. He then asked Colman by ogres, elves, demons, and goblins. Priests were held to
whether a Celtic saint, meaning Columba, was to be pre- possess magical powers—they could bind the hands of the
ferred before the blessed Peter, who held the keys to the enemy by chanting spells or free a prisoner from his fet-
kingdom of heaven. Oswy at once interrupted. Was it true, ters by incantation. The Anglo-Saxons had their gods, Tiw,
he asked Colman, that Christ gave the keys to the kingdom Woden, Thunor, and Frig (from those names came Tuesday,
of heaven to St. Peter? Colman answered that it was. Oswy Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), but they had no ethical
thereupon declared for Rome, “lest, when I come to the system, no answer to the problems of life and death, no cos-
gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to mology that explained the mystery of human existence.
open them.” Other reasons probably weighed more heav- Christianity, on the other hand, did offer answers to
ily with Oswy, reasons such as the grandeur of Rome, the these questions. It provided a cosmology of heaven and
strength of Canterbury, and the need for harmony in the hell, offered the promise of eternal life, and preached that it
realm. This much is certain: The judgment at Whitby en- could be won through belief and obedience. It also offered
sured that England would not be divided between two a social discipline useful to a settled, agrarian society: The
different communions and would be united with an undi- Church opposed violence, condemned sexual license, de-
vided Christendom. fended marriage, defined rights of inheritance, and urged
The acceptance of Roman usages led to the organi- submission to one’s lot in this world. The kings of England
zation of the English Church as a single body. This task welcomed a church whose scriptures described and whose
was performed by Theodore of Tarsus, a remarkable government illustrated kingship in action. Monotheism
man who proved that age need be no obstacle to great fit better with monarchy than did the many gods and the
­achievement. Named Archbishop of Canterbury by the many local shrines of paganism.
Pope in 669, Theodore, then 67, began the work of orga- To the inadequacy of heathenism and the relevance
nizing the ­English Church. He had completed it by the of Christianity must be added the prestige of Rome. The
time of his death at 88. Theodore was a monk, scholar, and rude English looked with awe on the language, art, learn-
philosopher from Asia Minor, a man seemingly ill-fitted ing, splendor, and sophistication of Roman Christianity. To
to the task given him; fortunately, he was also a discipli- choose to become a Christian meant to choose to be part
narian and an autocrat. In 20 years he created a diocesan of the civilization of Rome.
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 27

The Creation of the In the ninth century Viking warriors from Denmark and
Norway suddenly attacked the Christian lands of Europe.
English Monarchy They sailed up the rivers of Russia, into the Irish Sea, across
Next to the adoption of Christianity, the most signifi- the Atlantic Ocean, along the coasts of Brittany and France,
cant event in Anglo-Saxon history was the creation of the and into the distant Mediterranean. They were driven by
­English monarchy. This was achieved in two steps: first a hunger for land, but even more by a way of life based on
by the absorption of the lesser kingdoms into three great plunder. The upper classes of Denmark and Norway had
ones, N ­ orthumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; and then by the learned to live on the tribute and loot of war and had been
triumph of Wessex over the other two. North of the river taught from youth to love adventure and battle. The Danes
Humber the kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia merged to first raided England in 793, when they sacked the monas-
form ­Northumbria; south of the Humber, Mercia absorbed tery at Lindisfarne. Other raids followed. They would come
the lesser kingdoms that existed there; and in the southwest on the first east wind of the spring, come in their graceful,
Wessex expanded at the expense of the Britons. During the high-powered boats, boats that possessed keel and sail as
seventh century it seemed that Northumbria, under the lead- well as oars, boats with a steering board on the right side
ership of three remarkable kings, Edwin, Oswald, and Oswy, (hence starboard). Protected by shirts of mail, helmets, and
would unify all England. These kings were the first rulers to kite-shaped shields, and wielding great iron battle axes,
give real meaning to the title of Bretwalda, “ruler of Britain,” they plundered the churches and monasteries of the land.
a title other kings had claimed in earlier years and that meant In 851 they wintered for the first time in England and in
little more than greatest among kings. For a brief moment 866 a great army of Danes occupied East Anglia. Within
Oswy extended N ­ orthumbrian authority from the Firth of five years this army had overrun Northumbria and Mercia
Forth to the borders of Wessex. But in the end ­Northumbria and launched an attack on Wessex.
failed to unify England. Its kings were brave and able, but they They came to plunder (which explains why there
faced the insurmountable problem of defending two widely are now more Anglo-Saxon coins in the museums of
separate frontiers, one in the south against the M­ ercians and ­Scandinavia than in the museums of England), but when
one in the north against the Picts and the Scots. the treasures of England were exhausted they had to find
In the eighth century supremacy passed to Mercia. Of new ways to exploit the country. They therefore turned
the kings who ruled Mercia, Offa was undoubtedly the from loot to land, and began to settle and farm the country-
greatest. Between 757 and 796 he extended Mercian power side east of the Pennines. They did not displace the English
through all England south of the Humber, built a great who were there, but joined them in those thinly populated
earthen dike to divide Mercia from Wales, established regions. They substantially added to the racial composi-
an archbishopric at Lichfield, minted a silver penny, pro- tion of the present English population, which is principally
moted trade with the Continent, and corresponded with compounded of Celt, Saxon, and Dane. They also brought
­Charlemagne. His assumption of the title Rex Anglorum, with them their own law, their own customs, and their own
King of the English, was no idle boast. Yet the kings of language. The region where they settled became known as
Mercia were not destined to unite England. Two forces in the Danelaw. They significantly influenced the English lan-
the ninth century destroyed the work of Offa: the rise of guage, which grew out of a dialect of the East Midlands,
the House of Wessex and the Viking onslaught on England. where English and Danes had mingled together. As Otto
Elizabeth II, the present Queen of England, is a lineal Jespersen, the famous linguist, has observed, an English
descendant of Egbert, King of Wessex, who reigned over person cannot thrive or be ill or die without Scandinavian
that kingdom from 802 to 839. There were earlier kings words, which are to language what bread and eggs are to
of Wessex, such as Cerdic and Cynric in the sixth cen- daily fare.
tury, but their history is shrouded in legend. It was E ­ gbert In 871 Alfred, grandson of Egbert, became sole King of
who wrested from Mercia supremacy over the lesser king- Wessex. He came to the throne at a perilous hour, for the
doms in the south, who defeated the Mercians at the bat- Danes were raiding far and wide through his kingdom. In
tle of ­Ellendun in 825, and who won for himself the title that first year Alfred fought no less than nine battles against
of ­Bretwalda. The basis of the power of Wessex lay in its the Danes, though a decisive victory eluded him. He was
­secure location in the south and its ability to expand into finally forced to bribe the Danes to leave. They did, but
the thinly populated west. It was there that its kings found soon returned. In 878, in the dead of winter, they suddenly
the lands with which to reward loyal thegns. Yet Wessex marched into Wessex, seized Chippenham, and launched
might have lost the dominance it won at Ellendun had it fierce raids into Wiltshire and Somersetshire. The ferocity
not been for the coming of the Vikings. of these raids forced many to flee from Wessex and others
28 A History of England

The Battle of Edington saved Wessex from destruc-

tion, but it did not end the Danish threat. In 885 the Danes
in East Anglia broke the peace, which provoked Alfred to
seize ­London the next year. He now made a new treaty with
­Guthrum that divided all England between the Danes and
the English. The new boundary ran along the Thames from
its mouth to London, skirted north of London to Bedford,
then ran diagonally across England to Chester. To the north-
east of this line Guthrum ruled; to the southwest, Alfred.
But even this treaty brought no lasting peace, for a new
Danish army, crossing from Boulogne, invaded England in
892 and remained there—chiefly in East Anglia—until 896.
Thus Alfred, though he had saved Wessex from d ­ estruction
in 878, had to devote the rest of his reign to the building of
a system of defense that would prevent further ­destruction.
He began by building a navy that could intercept the
­Vikings at sea. Little is known of Alfred’s navy ­except that
he himself designed ships that were larger, swifter, and
steadier than those of his enemy and that on two o ­ ccasions
his ships won a victory over the Vikings. But his small navy
could not intercept all invaders, so Alfred also ­strengthened
his defenses on land. Wessex had nearly met disaster in 878
because of the slowness with which the fyrd was mobilized.
Alfred therefore divided it into two halves, so that half of
his peasant levies could be in the field of garrisoning forts
while the other half were at home farming. A similar divi-
sion among his thegns, the more important military force,
A reconstruction of a Viking ship preserved in the blue clay
of the Oslo fjord. In such ships the Vikings descended upon
made longer campaigns possible. Finally, Alfred began
­England. It is over 75 feet long and has provision for 16 pairs of to build a network of fortresses, or burhs, throughout his
oars, with a side-rudder for steering.  (Adam Woolfit/Robert Harding realm. These burhs were large enclosures, permanently gar-
Picture Library Ltd.) risoned and surrounded by an earthenwork and stockade.
They were a place of refuge where the people and their
to submit to the invaders. Alfred, however, refused to flee livestock might find safety. No village in Wessex was more
or submit. With a small band of loyal men he retreated to than 20 miles from such a fortress.
the Isle of Athelney, a remote spot in Somersetshire sur-
rounded by marshes and dense forests of alder.
It was here, legend reports, that Alfred, seeking rest at Alfred the Great
the hearth of a peasant and brooding over other matters,
allowed the cakes the peasant’s wife had placed on the
and his Successors
hearth to burn. This tale, told in a saint’s life two centuries It is not without reason that Alfred is the only English king
later, is probably pure romance, but it is certainly true that to have been given the title of the Great. He is not called
during these seven weeks at Athelney Alfred’s thoughts great because of the vastness of his kingdom or the extent
were on public policy, not cakes. During that time he of his conquests, both of which were modest, but because of
­carefully prepared a plan of campaign for the spring. He the greatness of his character. He was a man of courage and
summoned the fyrd, or militia, of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, energy, versatile in his interests, infinitely curious, deeply
and ­Hampshire to meet him in May at Egbert’s Stone on religious, a lover of books, conscious of the vexations of
the border of Wiltshire and Somersetshire. From there he power but driven by a profound sense of duty. “As long as
marched against the Danes at Edington and inflicted upon I have lived,” he said, “I have striven to live worthily.” His
them a crushing defeat. Three weeks later, Guthrum, King concern for justice led him to issue a lengthy code of laws,
of the Danes, accepted Christian baptism and agreed to in which he collected together the most just laws of his
lead his army out of Wessex. predecessors and added provisions protecting the weaker
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 29

members of society from oppression. His love for the turned finally to two philosophical works, Boethius’s The
Church led him to devote half his income to ­religious uses, Consolation of ­Philosophy, which taught that the pursuit of
to bring the bishops to court to help him govern, and to wisdom is the wise man’s consolation, and St. Augustine’s
seek to revive the monastic life which a ­century of Danish ­Soliloquies, which taught that contemplation could save a
attacks had destroyed. ruler from the sin of pride. For Alfred, life had little mean-
Of all his endeavors, the most remarkable was his e­ ffort ing if ­divorced from knowledge and reflection.
to promote learning. On coming to the throne A ­ lfred dis- Alfred’s program for the revival of learning ­encompassed
covered that hardly a priest south of the Thames could more than translations; he also encouraged the establish-
translate a Latin letter into English, even though there were ment of schools. His own household became a school for
many men who could read English. He therefore re- the education of the sons of nobles and commoners. It
solved that the treasures of ancient literature should be was his hope that all free-born Englishmen would learn to
translated into English. He himself struggled to learn to read English and all those destined for the Church would
read and write Latin. He also collected scholars from all learn to read Latin. Alfred may also have encouraged the
over ­Europe to help in his translations. Alfred presided ­writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in order that his
over their work and at times took a hand in it. He began thegns might read the history of their own land. In his
with Pope Gregory’s Pastoral Care, the basic handbook code of laws, Alfred borrowed freely from the laws of Kent
on the duties of a bishop. He then had Werferth trans- and Mercia, thereby exhibiting a consciousness that there
late ­Gregory’s Dialogues, whose tales about St. Benedict was an English law. The translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical
he may have hoped would inspire a revival of monasti- History of the English Nation further promoted an ­English
cism. Alfred and his scholars next translated two histori- consciousness among his subjects. Alfred never lived to see
cal works, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation England united under the House of Wessex, but his laws,
and Orosius’s History Against the Pagans, a history of the his translations, and his encouragement of the ­Anglo-Saxon
world from the creation to 407 c.e. To the translation of Chronicles helped establish the intellectual foundations of
Orosius, A ­ lfred added much geographical information that unity.
about Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, information The House of Wessex could not have unified all ­England
that reflected his wide interests and keen curiosity. He had not the successors of Alfred proved skillful warriors

The ruins of a Norman abbey stand near the site where King Oswy presided over the Synod of
Whitby.  (© shenk1)
30 A History of England

and redoubtable kings. Because Anglo-Saxon kingship eldest son. The king’s revenue came to include a food rent
was intensely personal, the success of any reign de- from all lands, fines from courts of justice, tolls, treasure,
pended on the abilities of the King himself. At his death and the Danegeld. The most crushing of these impositions
in 899 A ­ lfred left his kingdom to his eldest son, Edward, was the Danegeld, a land tax the king originally collected
a man of ­energy, purpose, patience, and strategic sense. in order to buy off the Danes but that later kings collected
He a­ dopted his father’s burh system and consolidated to support a standing army. The powers of the king went
his ­advance into D ­ anish territories by building fortresses beyond leading his tribe in war; he could now codify old
there. In the pursuit of this strategy he was aided by his sis- law and declare new, grant land by charters, mint coins, re-
ter, E­ thelflaed, who had married Ethelred, Lord of Mercia. ceive and send embassies, and require his subjects to serve
The ­AngloSaxons never held women in contempt as the in the militia, repair fortifications, and build bridges.
­Normans did, so when Ethelred died in 911, Ethelflaed, as When declaring law, granting land, or resolving on
the Lady of the ­Mercians, continued to govern. She person- war, the king nearly always consulted with the Witan, a
ally led military expeditions and built a series of strategi- council of wise men. Its membership was undefined, but
cally placed burhs. By 918 Edward had captured Stamford on important occasions it could include the ealdormen,
and Nottingham and was master of England south of the the bishops, the leading abbots, the king’s chaplains, and
river Humber. In that same year his sister died, whereupon household ­officials. The Witan was an aristocratic body,
Mercia and ­Wessex were united under Edward. and the king heeded its advice only because he respected
It was Athelstan, son of Edward, who brought the its wisdom and sought its support. On the death of a king
north of England under the Crown of Wessex. If the key the Witan elected his successor, but this election was only
­ dward’s strategy was the building of burhs, the key to
to E a f­ ormality—unless the dying king failed to name a succes-
Athelstan’s was the exploitation of the hostility the Danes sor and the succession was in doubt.
felt for the Norsemen who had invaded Yorkshire from It was the king’s household, not the Witan, that made
Ireland in 919. In 927 Athelstan captured York from its the English monarchy strong. The king had numerous
Norse king and established his supremacy in the north. ­household officials—butlers, seneschals, marshals, cham-
But the gains he won were nearly lost at his death in 939. berlains, and chaplains—but of these only the last two
His successor and half-brother, Edmund, had to surrender proved important. From the chamberlains, who kept the
much of the north and Midlands to Olaf, the Norse king king’s robes, jewels, and money, later grew a financial
of D­ ublin. E ­ dmund, however, waited patiently, knowing ­department that received revenues and made disburse-
that the Danish population loathed its Norse masters. In ments. From the chaplains who served the king there arose
944 he marched north, expelled the Norse king, and rees- in time a secretariat that drew up, in stately Latin, charters
tablished English rule. He established it so securely that his for granting land, and issued, in terse English, writs for
son ­Edgar, who ruled England from 959 to 975, could be making known the king’s commands.
called Edgar the Peaceable. The emergence of shires and their subdivisions, called
hundreds, completed the transformation of a tribal
­monarchy into a territorial monarchy. In Wessex and East
Anglo-Saxon Government ­Anglia the various shires either grew out of earlier king-
In the creation of the English monarchy, the achievement doms, as in Kent, or out of tribal divisions, as in Norfolk, or
of geographical unity was only half the story; the evolution out of the area around a town, as in Dorsetshire. During the
of the institutions of kingship was the other half. The earli- tenth century the kings of Wessex extended this system of
est kings were hardly more than warrior chiefs, enjoying shires into the Midlands. Each shire had a court, or moot,
the loyalty of their personal followers and living off their which met twice a year to execute the orders of the king,
own estates. Gradually, a tribal, personal kingship became to declare and enact laws, or dooms, and to give ­judgment
a territorial, institutional kingship. The Christian ceremo- in criminal, civil, and ecclesiastical cases. The ealdorman
nies of anointing and coronation set the king apart from presided over the shire moot. He was the chief officer of the
other men as God’s chosen representative. Public f­ ealty shire and the leader of its levies in war. He was invariably
sworn by all men supplemented the personal loyalty of a powerful nobleman, but named by the king and answer-
man for lord. A king who could govern his small king- able to him.
dom in person gave way to a king who acted through royal When in the eleventh century the ealdorman came to
­officials—ealdormen in the shires and port-reeves in the govern several shires, the duty of presiding over the shire
boroughs. The succession, which had gone to the ablest court fell to another royal official, the shire-reeve, or sher-
among the royal family, gradually became hereditary in the iff. The sheriff became the vital link between the king and
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 31

the local courts, for his bailiff presided over the hundred the plaintiff recited the charge and swore he did not act
court. The origin of the hundred as a division of the shire out of malice or hatred. Next the defendant swore an oath
is obscure. Eventually, however, the hundred court became of denial, and in Anglo-Saxon law a denial was held to be
the ordinary criminal court of the land, meeting every four stronger than an accusation. To support his oath the de-
weeks, in the open air, to punish cattle thieves or witness the fendant would seek the aid of oath helpers, or compurga-
sale of land. King, shire, and hundred formed a remarkable tors, the number of which depended on the seriousness of
system of local government, a partnership between king the charge. The accused was given 30 days in which to as-
and community, with the king commanding the suitors to semble his compurgators, whose oaths carried more weight
the two courts to do justice and preserve order. In theory, if they owned more land. These oath helpers did not supply
all freemen could attend the shire and hundred courts; in facts concerning the case; they merely swore that the de-
fact, those who declared the law and ordered the form of fendant’s oath was “pure and not false.” If on the appointed
proof in these courts were the thegns, bishops, and priests. day the defendant and his compurgators appeared at court
The law that thegn, bishop, and priest enforced was the and all swore their oaths, the defendant was cleared. This
ancient unwritten customs of the people. The Romans re- naive procedure, so open to abuse, worked largely because
garded law as the legislative act of a sovereign authority, a defendant known by his fellow villagers to be guilty could
but the Germans held that it was the unchangeable cus- hardly find the needed compurgators.
toms of the people. The king and the Witan might codify A man who failed to produce the needed oath help-
the law, or even enact new law, but these codes were by no ers, who had a record of many accusations, or who was
means comprehensive. The great mass of customary law caught in the act of theft had to submit to a different form
continued to be handed down orally and to be declared of proof: the ordeal. Because people regarded the ordeal
by doomsmen in the local courts. That law was also primi- as a judgment of God, the Church now stepped in. After
tive, for it reflected a society where government was weak a fast of three days and a mass in which the defendant was
and the police nonexistent. Since the government could charged to confess his guilt before receiving the sacra-
not protect a person, that task fell to the victim’s relatives. ment, the ­accused was subject to one of three ordeals. In
It was a murdered person’s kin, near relatives, who sought the ordeal of cold water the priest adjured God to accept
vengeance for the death. A fear of the retribution that the only the innocent in the water, after which the accused was
kin would exact provided the principal force for the main- lowered into it. If the accused floated, he was guilty; if he
tenance of order in early Germanic society. sank (though only briefly) he was innocent. In the ordeal
Gradually, however, the blood feud was transformed of iron the ­accused carried a hot iron nine feet, and in the
into a system of financial compensations. A murderer ordeal of hot water he plunged his hand into boiling water
could escape from vengeance by paying the kindred of the to take out a stone. In both, the accused was cleared of the
murdered person a sum of money, a wergeld or “life price.” charge if after three days his hand healed without festering.
This sum varied with the social rank of the murdered per- To us trial by ordeal is absurd, but to the Anglo-Saxons,
son; the wergeld of an ordinary man or woman was 200 who believed in demons, spirits, spells, and the providence
shillings, of a nobleman or woman, 1200 shillings. Com- of God, it was justice.
pensation was also paid for injury done to a person. The Two developments during these centuries pointed to-
sums of money varied not only with his or her rank but ward a less private conception of the law. The first of these
also with the parts of the body injured—for striking off was the extension of the King’s peace. To commit a mur-
a person’s nose one paid 60 shillings; for knocking out a der or assault in the king’s residence was not only a private
tooth, 8 shillings; for striking off a shooting finger, 15; and crime, demanding compensation to the injured party or
for seizing a young woman by the breast, 5. As archaic as his kin, but a breach of the king’s peace, requiring the pay-
this system of justice seems, it was an advance over the ex- ment of a fine to the king. Gradually the king’s peace was
action of vengeance, and Alfred strove with all his might to extended to highways, bridges, churches, and towns; and
replace the blood feud with the wergeld. to special times of the year, such as Christmas and Easter.
A kindred could not lawfully seek vengeance or com- The king’s peace came eventually to include all England for
pensation unless the accused person had been found 365 days a year, and the English came to view crime less
guilty. The procedure by which a hundred or shire court as a private injury than a public wrong. The second devel-
found a person guilty or innocent was formal and elabo- opment was the emergence of the presentment jury in the
rate. It began with the plaintiff summoning the defendant Danelaw, at a time when traditional methods of maintain-
to answer the charge brought against him. If the defendant ing law and order were breaking down. In 997 Ethelred
did not appear, he lost the suit by default; if he appeared, enacted a law requiring the 12 leading thegns in each
32 A History of England

wapentake (as the hundred was called in the Danelaw) to and hundred courts. As a landlord, the thegn became
swear that they would accuse no innocent person or con- ­responsible for the maintenance of order in his locality.
ceal any guilty one; they were also to arrest all people of During Alfred’s reign, every thegn served one month
bad repute. Upon these jurymen, and not upon the injured out of three at the royal court, where he found a pattern
party, fell the duty to present to the court the most notori- for his own household. He too had his household officials
ous offenders in the neighborhood. and his chaplains. He lived (as the excavations at Y
­ eavering
The most important fact about English law was its pop- in Northumberland show) in a great hall, built of timber,
ular character. Law was the custom of the people, declared rectangular in shape, and surrounded by a stockade. The
in the courts and handed down from generation to genera- hall was furnished with movable trestle tables and had
tion. The king, though his initiative brought into existence fixed benches along the sides (which were covered with
shire and hundred courts, rarely did justice himself; his cushions at night for the retainers to sleep on). In the hall
duty was to see that the popular courts performed it. Yet, men passed the mead horn from hand to hand, feasted,
upon closer scrutiny, it becomes apparent that the king’s drank, boasted, and quarreled. The playing of the harp
reeves, the bishops, the priests, and the thegns declared the and the singing of songs relieved the tedium of a winter’s
law and superintended justice in these courts. That these night. During the day the thegn, when not at war or at
courts were more aristocratic than democratic merely re- court, passed his hours hunting the stag, chasing the fox, or
flected the structure of Anglo-Saxon society. hawking, while his wife oversaw the spinning and weaving
and the preparation of meals. The epic poetry of the day,
such as The Song of Maldon and The Battle of Brunanburgh,
The Structure of Society celebrated the heroic virtues of the Anglo-Saxon thegn, but
From earliest times, Anglo-Saxon society was aristocratic by the eleventh century he had become as much a landlord
and lordship was an essential bond holding men together. as a warrior.
There were all degrees and ranks of men: the king and The wealth with which the thegn built his hall and pur-
those who shared his royal blood, the ealdorman who chased his golden goblets and great sword came from the
governed over the shire, the thegn who served in war and labor of the peasants on his estates. Whether the ances-
owned land and a hall, the geneat who paid rent for his tors of these peasants were free people when they came
land and performed riding service for his lord, the gebur to England is a question historians continue to debate, for
who held some 30 acres for which he performed labor ser- the evidence to answer it conclusively does not exist. There
vices, the cottager who performed miscellaneous s­ ervices is only some evidence pointing to dependence on a lord,
for his 5 acres of land, and the slave who was looked upon and some pointing to freedom. The many villages named
as property, not a person. The law took notice of the after persons suggest lordship, for the villages were pre-
­different ranks of people by assigning to each rank a differ- sumably named after the lords who established them. The
ent wergeld, a different value to their oaths, and a different ­one-to-one correspondence of manor and village in the
mund, or fine, for violating the peace of their households. south and southwest also suggests lordship, for the manor
In Wessex the wergeld of a thegn was 1200 shillings; of a and its lord must have existed ever since the village was
ceorl (which ­included gebur and cottager), 200 shillings; settled. Indeed, the seventh-century laws of Wessex appear
of a ­Welshman, 120 shillings; of a slave, 60 shillings. In to describe a manor, complete with lord and tenant lands.
this h­ ierarchy the law also found a place for the clergy: Yet there is evidence pointing the other way. The ex-
the bishop ranked with the ealdorman, the priest with the istence of peasants—called sokemen—who were free to
thegn. Even traders found a place, for a merchant who sell their land suggests an earlier time when there were
crossed the sea three times gained the rank of a thegn. no lords. Similarly, the existence of two or three or more
The thegn played a crucial role in Anglo-Saxon s­ ociety. manors in a village in East Anglia and the Danelaw sug-
He was a powerful warrior, surrounded by retainers, who gests that there were villages before there were manors. The
served the king in battles and at court. In the earlier centu- importance of the kindred in law, rather than the lord, and
ries lordship was a personal relationship and nobility was the tenacity with which the custom of the manor was ob-
a matter of birth, but after Alfred’s reign lordship became served also suggest that there had been a time when lord-
associated with the possession of land and nobility could ship was less powerful. The theory that best accounts for all
be won by service to the king. Bookland, or land granted these facts is a twofold one: Farmers dependent on a lord
by a charter and freed from food rents, became the ulti- settled in some parts of England, while farmers who owed
mate reward for service to the king. Law codes, ­meanwhile, allegiance only to a king settled in other parts. Freedom
placed ever greater obligations on the thegn in the shire was especially characteristic of the Danelaw, where the
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 33

Scandinavian farmer, though subject to personal lordship, the case with technological advances, the heavy-wheeled
enjoyed freedom of tenure on the land. plow developed slowly. The Romans introduced the coul-
What is certain is that lordship deepened during these ter, which became an integral part of the plow. They may
centuries. By gaining the right to collect the king’s food rent, have also introduced the moldboard, since the deep cut a
a lord could increase people’s dependence on him. Law codes coulter causes makes it necessary for a moldboard to clear
increasingly frowned upon lordless people, preferring to rely the furrow. With this superior plow the British were able
on lordship rather than kinship. The violence of the age, par- in the last years of R ­ oman rule to cultivate the heavier soils
ticularly during the Viking invasions, persuaded people to in the valleys. The Anglo-Saxons, who probably adopted
commend themselves and their land to the p ­ rotection of a this Romano-British plow, made no improvement on it, at
lord. As a result, by the eleventh century the obligations that least not until the tenth or eleventh centuries when they,
fell upon the typical peasant, the gebur, were indeed heavy. or more likely the Danes, added wheels to the plow, thus
He could not leave the estate at will. He must labor two days allowing the plowman to regulate the depth of the furrow.
a week on the lord’s land, three days at harvest time. He must The wheeled plow was especially useful in breaking up vir-
pay his lord 10 pence at Michaelmas and give him 23 bushels gin clay soil and a­ llowed the penetration of the lowland
of barley and two hens at Martinmas. At Easter he owed him forests. To pull this plow through heavy clay soil required
one young sheep or two pennies. eight oxen, yoked two by two.
The gebur was personally free, possessed rights in the The heavy plow and the eight-oxen team transformed
land, and could not be bought and sold. This was not true of agriculture. Because it took valuable time to turn such
the slave, who was at the bottom of the social pyramid. His a plow, the Anglo-Saxons plowed long furrows, often
obligations were unlimited, though custom decreed that his 220 yards long. Since this could not be done in the small,
master should give him every year 12 pounds of grain, two square fields of the Celts, vast open fields had to be adopted.
sheep, one good cow, and the right to cut wood. For minor ­B ecause no peasant owned eight oxen, plowing became a
offenses he could be flogged, for serious ones mutilated or cooperative effort, with each peasant being awarded strips
put to death. The sources of slaves were many: conquered in the open field. These strips, totaled together, ranged in
Britons, captives taken in war, men who were driven by the extent from 16 to 30 acres. They were scattered through-
threat of starvation to sell their own children into slavery— out the field and were probably allotted in proportion to
though the child’s consent was needed if he or she were over the number of oxen a peasant brought to the plow team.
the age of seven. The number of slaves in the early centu- ­Inequality was therefore written into the open field system.
ries was large, but their numbers shrank, both because the Rather than living on homesteads at the edge of the fields,
Church encouraged men to free their slaves and because the the peasants lived in villages at the center, where they found
increasing use of money made it easier for a lord to pay for protection, shelter, and immediate access to the a­ rable
the labor he needed. The freed slaves thus swelled the num- land. At first two fields surrounded the village. One lay fal-
ber of geburs in Anglo-Saxon England. low in order to recover its fertility; the other was divided
into two halves, one of which was sown with winter wheat
or rye, the other with spring barley or oats.
Open Fields and Royal This blend of corporate enterprise and private owner-
ship extended to the use of the meadow, the commons,
Boroughs and the woods. The meadow, whose hay fed the oxen,
The Celts used a light plow, no more than a stout beam was ­apportioned, strip for strip, according to the peasant’s
to which an iron point, or plowshare, was attached, and holding on the arable land. On the commons the peasant
which two oxen pulled through the soil. This scratch plow grazed his cows, which were chiefly used to breed oxen
was especially effective on light soils, such as the chalk of for the plow team; his sheep, which were valuable for meat
southern England. Only with difficulty could it turn over and wool; and his goats, which furnished milk and cheese.
the heavy clay of the Thames valley and the Midlands, and The woods played a major role in the rural economy, for
yet it was here that the Anglo-Saxons eventually settled. in the woods the peasant found fuel to warm the house-
Unlike the Celts and the Romans, who emphasized live- hold, timber to build a cottage, honey to sweeten food and
stock in their husbandry, the Anglo-Saxons emphasized brew mead, and acorns and beechmast to feed the pigs.
grain and for this they needed the rich soil of the val- Swine were more important than sheep in early English
leys. To turn over this soil they needed a heavy plow, with husbandry, since they provided the chief source of meat.
a coulter, or knife blade, to cut the turf, a plowshare to Though the AngloSaxons enlivened their festive occa-
loosen the soil, and a moldboard to turn it over. As is often sions with mead and prized their bacon, they could not do
34 A History of England

without bread and beer. The early English drank beer on addition, they did duty at the lord’s sheepfold ­during the
a gargantuan scale, which explains why far more barley, winter. Only the custom of the manor prevented the lord
needed by both brewer and baker, was sown than wheat. from imposing total tyranny on the peasant.
Only by relentless toil could the peasant wrest a living Anglo-Saxon agriculture was not a purely subsistence
from the soil, for yields were low. The most fertile land agriculture in which the manor produced only enough for
produced only about 9 bushels of grain an acre, com- its own needs. The invention of the iron ax and the heavy
pared with some 60 bushels in modern England. In the plow allowed the early English to exploit fertile lands no
autumn the peasant plowed the fallow and sowed it with previous peoples had used. It was this wealth that sup-
wheat, scattering the seed broadcast, and thereby wasting ported not only the monarchy and the Church, but the
much of it. During winter he threshed grain, cut timber, merchants who from the tenth century onward crowded
repaired stalls for the oxen, and built pigsties. In the spring into the boroughs, or towns, of England. In the sixth
he plowed again and sowed barley, beans, and vegetables. century there were no such boroughs, only a few people
In May, June, and July he harrowed the soil, spread dung, huddled behind the walls of Canterbury and London; by
sheared sheep, repaired fences, and made fish weirs. The 1086 there were 71 royal boroughs, with their markets,
longest hours of labor came at harvest, when the peasant, mints, guilds for keeping the peace, borough courts, and
with the help of his whole family, reaped the grain with a borough tenure. It was all very royal, for the King estab-
short sickle and gathered it in. While the men and boys lished the mints, granted the right to hold a market, and
worked in the fields, the women and girls made cloth and named the reeve who presided at the borough court. He
clothing, baked bread, brewed ale, butchered the pigs, and also granted the land, which could be held for a rent and
tended the garden. It was a life of unremitting toil, broken which could be freely bought and sold. The boroughs were
only by Church holidays, which the peasants—to the anger small. L ­ ondon may have had 12,000 inhabitants, York,
of the priest—more often used for drinking and making 8000, Norwich and Lincoln 5000 each, and Cambridge
merry than for religious observance. 1300. The origin of these boroughs varied: some grew up
The material conditions of peasant life were primitive around a royal estate, others around a cathedral or great
and precarious. Excavations of a few Anglo-Saxon villages monastery, yet others around the burhs Alfred and his
show that the peasant and his family lived in a rude timber successors established. One factor, however, was present
hut of only one room, about 10 feet by 18, with an open in every instance: an increase in trade and in the number
hearth, the smoke from which found its way out through of merchants engaged in trade.
a hole in the thatched roof. Of privacy and comfort there The collapse of the Pax Romana brought with it the
was nothing. The villagers had few material goods—­ ­collapse of the currency system, with the result that in
excavations have turned up only some iron knives, iron Britain in the fifth century the circulation of coins ceased.
combs, bone pins, cattle bells, and loom weights. Not pos- Without a currency, trade became difficult, a difficulty
sessing the potter’s wheel until the seventh century, the compounded by the unwillingness of traders to face the
early English made coarse and unshapely pottery. A diet of insecurity of the times. But in the seventh century some
porridge, bread, and beer kept the villagers alive. When the ­o rder returned, trade revived, and coins reappeared.
crops failed, they suffered famine and death. Penda, from whose name probably comes the word penny,
The manor became the principal institution for orga- minted a silver coin that King Offa greatly improved in
nizing economic life in the countryside. Manors varied quality. The E ­ nglish began to export wool, cloth, cheese,
greatly from place to place, but in essence they were alike: and slaves to the C ­ ontinent, in return for glassware, fine
a landed estate, belonging to a lord, with dependent culti- pottery, ­silver vessels, and wine. Though Charlemagne
vators settled on it. On the classic manor of the Midlands complained to Offa of the poor quality of English cloaks,
and the South the dependent cultivators enjoyed consid- their fame spread to the eastern Mediterranean. The
erable rights in the land—strips in the arable, the produce ­Viking invasion momentarily interrupted this trade with
of which was theirs, and the use of meadow, commons, the Continent, but it opened up a new trade with the
and forests. But for these rights they owed the lord heavy ­Baltic. While London and Southampton based their pros-
­obligations. In addition to the usual week-work on the perity on foreign trade, most boroughs drew their wealth
lord’s land (or demesne) and rents in money and kind, they from internal trade. There was probably never a moment
had to plow one acre of the lord’s land each week during the when peddlers traveling through the land did not sell iron
autumn plowing, three acres more as boon work, two acres and salt. Gradually a trade in other commodities arose:
more in return for pasture rights, and three more acres— lead from Derbyshire, cheese from the Vale of the White
for which they furnished the seed—as part of their rent. In Horse, eels from the Fenland, ornamented helmets and
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 35

elaborately fashioned swords from local ironsmiths, and missionaries, led by a West Saxon named Wynfrith, who
fine cloth from Wessex. It was the merchants engaged in took the name Boniface, successfully converted the hea-
these trades who sought the protection of the king’s bor- then of Thuringia, Hesse, and Bavaria. Though the heathen
oughs and lived on the agricultural surplus created by the Frisians massacred Boniface and 50 of his followers in 754,
open fields of England. he had accomplished enough by that time to justify the
claim that no English person before or since has exercised
a greater influence on German history.
Monasticism and Learning In the twin tasks of converting the heathen and sustain-
Soon after his arrival at Canterbury, Augustine estab- ing the faithful, the Church was eager to enlist the ­services
lished the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul. Within a of learning and art. Christianity was a religion of the
century monastic houses were established at Malmesbury, book and could only be expounded by those who could
Ely, Wearmouth, Ripon, and throughout England. People read and interpret the Scriptures. There had been schools
of all ranks entered these monasteries—kings, royal prin- in England since the time of Augustine, but learning of
cesses, Northumbrian nobles, great churchmen, ordi- more than an elementary kind began with the arrival of
nary peasants. Their zeal for the religious life reflected a ­Theodore of Tarsus in 669. His school at ­Canterbury taught
profound change in people’s view of the world, a change Latin and Greek, Roman law, the method of ­regulating
from the pagan ideal of heroic endeavor within the world the religious calendar, Church music, and the metrical
to the Christian ideal of withdrawal from it. The world rules for composing religious poetry. From ­C anterbury,
was seen as the province of the Devil, whose temptations Aldhelm, a scholar of great ability and a poet of great
were to be avoided by withdrawal into a life of contempla- ­ingenuity, carried the new learning to M ­ almesbury, but it
tion. No one in the seventh century exhibited this life of never took root there. It was in Northumbria, where the
contemplation to greater perfection than St. Cuthbert, in tradition of Celtic learning was strong, that it took root
whom were joined the finest in Celtic and Roman monas- in the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth, founded by
ticism. As a youth, Cuthbert had turned in disgust from Benedict Biscop, a friend of Theodore’s and an avid col-
the life of a warrior to the Christian ideal. He entered a lector of books. The libraries he established made possible
monastery at Melrose, rose to be its abbot, and then went the work of Bede, the greatest figure in the Northumbrian
as abbot to Lindisfarne. Here, in 676, he resolved to attain renaissance.
the perfect life of a recluse. On the small island of Farne, Bede entered Wearmouth at the age of seven and spent
seven miles away, he built a rude hut, around which he his entire life there and at Jarrow in devotion and study.
erected a wall of stone and turf that blocked out all but “It has ever been my delight,” he wrote, “to learn or teach
the heavens from his view. There he existed on barley and or write.” Before his death in 735 at the age of 63, he had
onions, chanted his psalms and hymns, and won his vic- written 36 scientific, historical, and theological works. Me-
tory over the flesh. dieval Europe remembers him for his theological writings,
Peculiar to England were the double monasteries in which were based on the Church Fathers and the allegori-
which a community of monks and a community of nuns cal method of interpreting the Scriptures. The greatest of
lived side by side, under the authority of a woman, the ab- his scientific treatises was De Temporum Ratione (On the
bess. The greatest of these was the double monastery at Nature of Time), in which he popularized the modern
Whitby, governed by St. Hilda, whose reputation for wis- practice of reckoning years from the birth of Christ. He
dom led many to come to Whitby to seek her advice. Un- is best remembered in modern times for his Ecclesiastical
der her governance Whitby became a center of learning History of the English Nation, a work written in a Latin of
and a training ground for bishops for the new Church. For great simplicity and power. Bede was a born artist, with
widows and for women who did not wish to marry, monas- an incomparable gift for storytelling, a fine eye for the pic-
ticism brought a range of opportunities hitherto unknown. turesque, and a remarkable ability to weave together in-
Withdrawal into contemplation, however, was not formation from various sources. He was also an accurate
the only ideal cherished by the Church. The Church also and impartial historian who sought to distinguish between
saw itself as a pilgrim society carrying God’s truth to the fact and rumor, even though his deep faith led him to re-
people. Cuthbert himself, at the entreaty of the King, the late and to believe in scores of miraculous happenings. A
bishops, and the nobility of Northumbria, left the island of love of learning did not die with Bede, for one of his pupils
Farne to serve once again in the world. In the eighth cen- founded a school at York that educated Alcuin, who in turn
tury the missionary impulse that had led to the conversion traveled to the court of Charlemagne, where he helped that
of the English now returned across the Channel. English monarch found a palace school.
36 A History of England

suggest a Classical influence. One fact is certain: Nowhere

in Europe at this time were artists creating sculptures of
such dignity and power.
It was the political stability provided by the kings of
Northumbria that made this flowering of art and learn-
ing possible. When the Vikings destroyed that stability,
learning and art perished, and with them the monastic
life. Alfred the Great, who once wrote that a king needed
to be served by those who fought, those who labored, and
those who prayed, sought and failed to revive monastic
life. But where he failed, his successors succeeded. Dur-
ing the tenth century, m ­ onasteries sprang up through-
out England, monasteries based on the Benedictine rule,
which arose at Cluny in France and which established a
set way of life for monks and nuns. Edgar supported the
movement with such enthusiasm that he earned the title
Father of the Monks. Between 940 and 1066, some 60
houses for monks and nuns were restored or established
in England. Kings and thegns carved out of their land en-
dowments for religious foundations, with the result that
the Church acquired nearly a third of the occupied land
of England. The English Church itself became thoroughly
monastic, with the regular clergy, or monks, often replac-
ing the secular clergy. A high proportion of bishops were
monks.
Portrait of St. Luke, from the Lindisfarne Gospels. This black-and- The revival of monastic life meant the revival of learn-
white reproduction fails, of course, to capture the vivid colors of ing. But the glory of this new learning did not lie in the
the original.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
ornate Latin of an Aldhelm or the direct, limpid Latin of
a Bede; it lay in the emergence of a literature written in
Art as well as learning graced the Northumbrian re- English, a vernacular literature. The origins of this litera-
naissance of the seventh and eighth centuries. The Church ture can be traced to the seventh century, when Caedman,
spared nothing in its effort to make the w ­ orship of the a herdsman whose talents St. Hilda discovered and en-
Christian God impressive and magnificent: gold chalices, couraged, first applied the rhythms and alliteration of Old
purple altar cloths, silk robes. The same impulse led to the English heroic verse to the service of the Christian religion.
illumination of manuscripts, particularly of the Gospels. His successors wrote poems on the workings of Divine
In the Lindisfarne Gospels, the finest ­example of the art Providence, poems of moral exhortation, poems drama-
of illumination, one can see both an Italian influence in tizing the Last Judgment. They also wrote poems celebrat-
the representation of the figures of the Evangelists and a ing the pagan virtues of loyalty to one’s lord and bravery at
native influence in the sumptuous decorations on each sea, poems into which were woven Christian themes like
page. The use of bright, contrasting colors heightened the promise of eternal life. During the tenth and eleventh
the magnificence of the decoration. Equally ­remarkable centuries a vernacular literature in prose was added to this
were the sculptures carved on the Christian crosses poetic tradition. The greatest of these writers was Elfric,
of ­N orthumbria, particularly those at Bewcastle in abbot of Eynsham, who translated parts of the Old Testa-
­Cumberland and Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire. Such crosses ment into English and who wrote sermons, pastoral letters,
marked an open place for Christian worship in an age and lives of the saints. He wrote a deliberately rhythmical
when there were few churches. The subjects carved on the prose, often alliterative, whose effect was more like that of
crosses—Christ as judge, St. John the Baptist, the healing verse than prose; yet it was also as precise and clear as any
of the blind man—were chosen to instruct the faithful in Latin composition. Elfric was a gifted teacher, and through
the truths of Christianity. The fertility of design found in teaching and writing he established a new standard of ex-
these crosses suggests a remarkable outburst of native tal- cellence for English prose. Gone were the stilted transla-
ent, though certain of its motifs, such as the vine scroll, tions of the age of Alfred.
 Anglo-Saxon England: 450–1066 37

difficulties were of his own making. He distrusted his no-

bles, dealt unfaithfully with men, lacked clear principles of
action, vacillated in war, and was a bad judge of character. It
is not without reason that he earned the nickname U ­ nraed,
which was mistranslated in the sixteenth century as “un-
ready,” but which means “of no counsel.”
The true measure of Ethelred’s weakness became appar-
ent when he was confronted by renewed Viking attacks.
These began as hit-and-run raids in 980, but became formi-
dable when Olav Tryggvason, a Norwegian of royal descent,
led a fleet of 93 ships to Folkestone, harried the coasts of
Kent and East Anglia, and extorted tribute from its peoples.
He returned in 994 with Swein of Denmark and a fleet of
94 ships. They unsuccessfully besieged London, and then
turned to plundering the countryside of southern England.
It was sometime between 991 and 994 that the English re-
solved to buy off the Danes. In return for 20,000 pounds
of silver, Olav Tryggvason sailed away, promising never to
return. The policy of paying Danegeld in order to gain a
breathing spell in which to organize one’s defenses is not a
foolish one; ­Alfred himself pursued it in 878. But the policy
is an invitation to disaster if the defenses are not reorganized,
and Ethelred failed to reorganize them. Instead he paid
One of the two Sandbach crosses in Cheshire,
which date from the ninth century; each cross more Danegeld, which, according to the chroniclers, rose in
portrays scenes from the bible. amount from 24,000 pounds of silver in 1002, to 30,000 in
1007, to 48,000 in 1012. Nor did these payments protect the
The Church also turned to music to give splendor and country from the ravages of the Vikings, who in 1012 looted
solemnity to religious services. From the time of Theodore the cathedral at Canterbury and murdered the archbishop.
the Church had used the Gregorian chant, a style of un- Swein of Denmark now decided upon the conquest of
measured, vocal music, for reciting the psalms. Originally all England. In the summer of 1013 he sailed for England;
there was only one reciting note, with the voice rising up at by autumn the Danelaw had accepted him as king, and be-
the beginning of a phrase and dropping down at the end. fore the end of the year all of England had recognized him.
Eventually the choirmasters of England developed a sys- But Swein died suddenly in February 1014, and the ­English
tem of polyphony, in which the trebles of the boy choristers magnates asked Ethelred to return as their king, provided
mingled with the deeper voices of the monks, creating a “he would govern them better than he did before.” He
music of great beauty. did return, but soon escaped the tribulations of kingship
by death. He died in London in April 1016, whereupon
the citizens of that city and the great noblemen who were
The Survival of the English there offered the crown to his son, Edmund Ironside. A
deputation of influential ealdormen, bishops, abbots, and
Monarchy thegns immediately set out for Southampton, where they
The Anglo-Saxon monarchy was a personal monarchy that offered the Crown to Swein’s son, Cnut. A fierce struggle
needed the driving force of an able king to make it work. But between Edmund and Cnut ended seven months later with
it was more than that; it was also a system of administration ­Edmund’s death, probably by an assassin. The whole of
composed of courts, councils, and officers. Between 978 England, weary of disorder, now rallied behind Cnut. True,
and 1016 this system of administration was put to a severe he was a Dane, but what the English wanted was a strong
test when the reign of an incompetent king coincided with king, not necessarily an English king.
renewed Danish attacks. Ethelred, who came to the throne The speed with which Cnut established his government
in 978, inherited many problems from his predecessors— offers convincing testimony that the royal administrative
an unstable frontier, the rivalries of powerful ­ealdormen, a system had not collapsed during Ethelred’s misrule. And
Danish population of unsure allegiance—but many of his the peace and security that the English enjoyed for the
38 A History of England

next 19 years showed what an able monarch could do with Further Reading
that ­machinery. Cnut was the first ruler of a truly united Bede. A History of the English Church and People. Penguin
­England, for he had the allegiance of both the Danes and the Books, 1956. Bede’s masterpiece is both a work of art and the
English. He won Cumberland in the north from the ­ancient fundamental authority for the history of early ­Anglo-Saxon
­k ingdom of Strathclyde, which now disappeared from England.
the map. Cnut made it his deliberate policy to reconcile Peter Hunter Blair. Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England.
the Danes and the English. He married Ethelred’s widow, 2nd ed. Cambridge, England, 1977. A scholarly examination
Emma of Normandy, issued codes of law based on those of the coming of the Germanic peoples, the creation of the
of his English predecessors, and named Englishmen to the kingdom of England, the development of the English lan-
great earldoms throughout the kingdom. He also promised guage, and the growth of Christianity.
to govern with the advice of the bishops, who remained James Campbell, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald. The Anglo-
unchanged. In 1018 he summoned the leading Danes and Saxons. Oxford, 1982. Important study, with many original
­Englishmen together at Oxford, where they promised to ideas; uses archaeological evidence to support a narrative
live peaceably together under the laws of Edgar. based on literary evidence; splendid illustrations.
Cnut, who had won his kingdom by the sword, was un- Eleanor Shipley Duckett. Alfred the Great. Chicago, 1957. A
willing to throw away the sword. He established a stand- charming, brief life of Alfred, which distinguishes between
legend and history, and successfully places Alfred in his
ing military force, the housecarls, and collected an annual
times.
tax, the heregeld, to pay for them. He likewise maintained a
Christine Fell, Cecily Clark, and Elizabeth Williams.
navy, which cost nearly 4000 pounds a year. This expense
Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of 1066.
and the heregeld placed a heavy burden of taxation on the
­Bloomington, IN, 1984. An authoritative account, based on
English, but in return they had internal peace and security a wide range of evidence, of women in daily life, sex and
from foreign invasion. That security was the greater be- marriage, family life, and women’s role at Court and in reli-
cause Cnut became King of Denmark in 1019 and King of gious houses.
Norway in 1028. He was the head of a great Scandinavian Malcolm Lambert. Christians and Pagans: The Conver-
empire and a monarch of importance in Europe, as was sion of Britain from Alban to Bede. New Haven, CT, 2010.
acknowledged when he traveled to Rome in 1027. While ­R eadable, comprehensive account of conversion to the
in Rome he attended the coronation of the new Emperor, eighth century. Makes excellent use of recent archaeologi-
whom he persuaded to reduce the tolls on English pilgrims cal finds.
and merchants traveling through his lands. He also per- H. R. Loyn. The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England, 500–
suaded the Pope to lessen the heavy charge imposed on 1087. Stanford, CA, 1984. A short, learned, masterful study
English archbishops for receiving the pallium, the insignia of Anglo-Saxon government by a distinguished scholar;
of office. Cnut died in 1035 at the age of 40, having restored emphasizes Alfred’s reign.
to England those traditions of good government that had ———     . The Vikings in Britain. London, 1977. The best basic
arisen during the tenth century. introduction to the subject; reflects the author’s breadth of
He left two sons, Harold, who reigned from 1035 to 1040, knowledge and critical judgment.
and Harthacnut, who ruled from 1040 until 1042 (when he Pauline Stafford. Queen Emma and Queen Edith. Oxford, 1997.
died of drunken convulsions). Neither carried out his fa- Not a conventional biography of the queens but an illumi-
ther’s wishes or governed with his wisdom. Both used the nating account of queenship, the family, the household, and
royal patronage in the eleventh century.
office to exploit their subjects. Only the sudden death of
Harthacnut saved England from an oppressive tyranny. F. M. Stenton. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford, 1971. A
large-scale, comprehensive history by a scholar who pos-
With his death, the Danish line of kings came to an end, for
sesses an unequaled mastery of the sources; as in other
the English summoned Edward, son of Ethelred and Emma,
volumes in the Oxford History of England series, the bibli-
who was half-Norman by birth and who had spent his e­ ntire ography is an outstanding feature.
youth in Normandy. His accession marks the first step to-
Dorothy Whitelock, ed. English Historical Documents. 2nd ed.
ward the creation of an Anglo-Norman state and society. Oxford, 1979. Contains the major portion of the ­written
sources on which the history of the period is ­b ased—
Notes
chronicles, charters, laws, saints’ lives, letters; all the
1. Dorothy Whitelocke, The Beginnings of English Society. ­documents are translated.
1977. Penguin, 27. Barbara Yorke. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon
2. Leo-Sherley Price, trans., Bede: Ecclesiastical History of ­England. London, 1990. A judicious assessment of the
the English People. 1990. New York: Penguin, 103–104. ­evidence for the history of all six Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
 Chapter 4

Norman England

W
Chapter Outline
illiam duke of normandy was a tall, robust man with
­reddish-brown hair, massive shoulders, and a harsh, guttural
■ The Conquest of England voice. In battle he was fierce and tenacious, at Court majestic and
domineering. Before he became known as William the Conqueror, he
■ Feudalism was known as William the Bastard, for his father, Duke Robert, had
never married his mother, Herleve, the daughter of a tanner. Duke
■ Domesday Book and the Manors Robert had, before he set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, persuaded
of England his magnates to recognize William as his heir. On his father’s death in
Asia Minor in 1035, William thus became Duke of Normandy. He was
then seven years old. With the help of the King of France he s­ urvived
■ The Norman Church
his minority, but thereafter his success in withstanding his many
­enemies was a triumph of character. He possessed an indomitable will,
■ The Machinery of Government
great tenacity of purpose, and the ability to make the right decision at
the right time. He was a brutal man, capable of inflicting savage atroci-
■ Tyranny and Anarchy ties upon his enemies—at the siege of Alencon he cut off the hands
and feet of 32 captives. But he was also a calculating man who could
combine mercy with ferocity. To great prowess in the field he joined
great prudence at the council table, and by means of both he tamed the
most turbulent baronage in Europe.
This was the man who in 1066 claimed the Crown of England, raised
a powerful army, transported it across the Channel, met King Harold
in battle, and defeated him decisively. William’s conquest of England
created an abrupt turn in the path of English history. It i­mposed on
England an alien aristocracy, introduced into the kingdom feudal
­institutions, and linked England—commercially, ecclesiastically, and
culturally—with Europe, not Scandinavia.

The Conquest of England

Edward the Confessor’s death without an heir in January 1066 gave
William the opportunity to claim the Crown of England. He was
through marriage a first cousin once removed of Edward, but such a
connection had never before formed the basis for a claim to the Crown.
No English blood, royal or common, flowed in his veins. ­William also
claimed that in 1051 Edward the Confessor had recognized him as his
successor and that Harold Godwinson in 1064 had sworn to promote
that succession. But Edward, on his deathbed, designated Harold as his
39
40 A History of England

successor, and Harold’s oath to William had been wrested It was not a weak, disintegrating kingdom that William
from him while in captivity. Not a single Englishman invaded, but a rich, peaceful one, well governed and well
raised his voice for William, and the Witan swiftly chose ­defended, with a thriving commerce, an increasing popula-
Harold king. Harold accepted the Crown, whereupon tion, and a growing amity between the English and the Danes.
­William at once branded him a perjuror and usurper. The Its Church was not famous for scholarship or piety, but nei-
motives that drove William on were not complicated: He ther was it sunk in corruption. Edward the ­Confessor was not
wanted the wealth and power that the Crown of England a great lawgiver or an enlightened patron of the Church, but
would bring him. He conquered England for the same rea- he governed England from 1042 to 1066 with shrewdness and
son his Viking ancestors had swept over much of Europe persistence. He was neither an imbecile (as a great historian
in the ninth century and his fellow Normans had recently once called him) nor a saint (though ­canonized in 1161), but
conquered Sicily: He sought the spoils of war. a mediocrity who admired Norman fashions and displayed a
It was a desperate gamble, for the odds were strongly remarkable ability to survive in office.
against a small duchy defeating a kingdom of more than Yet two weaknesses did appear in the structure of the
a million inhabitants. But luck favored the duke. His two ­English state during his reign. The first was the rise of the
greatest enemies, the King of France and the Count of ­earldoms. Cnut had grouped the shires of England into
­Anjou, died in 1060. As a result the young French king fell larger territories, over which he placed an administrative and
into the hands of regents sympathetic to William, and the military officer called an earl. He kept tight control over the
county of Anjou fell into civil war. The Pope, at odds with earls, but Edward did not, and so the earls came to act with
the Archbishop of Canterbury and dependent on Norman ­increasing independence. Three of the greatest earldoms,
help in southern Italy, gave his blessing to the venture. ­Wessex, ­Mercia, and Northumbria, became all but hereditary
The papal banner made an act of robbery appear a noble in the families of Godwin, Leofric, and Siward. In 1051 ­Edward
­crusade, and greatly helped recruiting. It was not all luck, sought to reduce the power of the house of G ­ odwin by re-
however, for William pressed on his preparations with jecting its candidate for the see of ­Canterbury and naming a
skill and energy. He summoned his magnates, a new and Norman clergyman instead. ­Edward’s action provoked a vio-
powerful aristocracy in the duchy, and held out to them lent quarrel with Earl Godwin, who fled into exile. The next
the prospect of winning lands in England. He recruited year the Earl returned, appealed to the anti-Norman senti-
knights from all over Europe and gathered a fleet of more ments of the English, raised an army, overawed the King, and
than 800 ships in the mouth of the river Dives. By early forced him to expel his ­Norman favorites. Real power now
August, they were ready to sail. resided in the House of Godwin. Earl Godwin died in 1053,

Contenders for the Crown of England in 1066

DENMARK
Swein
ENGLAND (K. of the Danes) NORMANDY
Edgar Richard 1
(959–975) (Duke of Normandy)

Elgifu m Ethelred II m Emma of Normandy m Cnut m Elgifu Gytha m Godwin

(979– (1016– (Earl of
1016) 1035) Wessex) Richard II

Edmund “Ironside” Harthacnut Harold

(d. 1016) (1040–1042): (1035–1040)
who promised
the crown to
Edward Atheling Magnus, King of Harold Robert I – Herleve
(d. 1057) Norway, whose Godwinson
Edward the
claim Harold (1066)
Confessor
(1042–1066) Hardrada
Edgar Atheling inherited William the
(d. about 1125) Conqueror
(1066–1087)
 Norman England 41

but his sons soon held three of the four greatest ­earldoms a vow of chastity, taken despite his marriage, but there is
in England. Harold held W ­ essex; Tostig, ­Northumbria; and no contemporary authority for this story. The one certain
Gyrth, East Anglia. Had the House of Godwin remained fact is that he had no heir, and that the only living male
united, it might have saved ­England in the crisis of 1066. But descendant of Alfred the Great was Edgar Atheling, a mere
it fell apart in 1065, when the ­Northumbrians rebelled against boy. The dying King and the Witan therefore chose to en-
Tostig’s misrule and Harold agreed to his brother’s dismissal trust the destinies of England to Harold Godwinson, a man
and exile. Tostig at once swore vengeance against his brother of courage, intelligence, affability, great physical strength,
and sought aid from Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, to and good looks. But his elevation to the throne was an
regain his earldom. invitation not only for Duke William but also for Harold
The second—and fatal—weakness was the lack of a suc- Hardrada to claim the Crown. Harold Hardrada based
cessor to the throne. It was not Edward’s incompetence his claim on a promise made by Harthacnut to Magnus
that brought down the old English monarchy, but his death of N
­ orway that Magnus should have the English Crown
without an heir. Legend has attributed his childlessness to should he outlive Harthacnut.

The Norman Invasion

William of Normandy
Harold Hardrada
Harold Godwinson

Stamford
Bridge
Sept. 25

York Fulford
Sept. 20
North
Sea

E NGL A ND

R. London
Th a m e s Dec. 25
Southwark Canterbury
Battle
Oct. 14 Dover
N EW Oct. 21
Bosham Pevensey
FOREST Hastings
Se
pt.
27
-28
ISLE OF WIGHT
St. Valery
English Channel Sept.
8

Seine R
.
Rouen
0 40 80 Miles
Bayeux Dives
Caen N O R M AN D Y
0 40 80 Kilometers
42 A History of England

both sides the soldiers wore chainmail and conical hel-

Battle Of Hastings mets, carried shields, and fought with spear and sword.
Miles
The English also wielded great battle axes, which could
TO LONDON
0 1/4
cut through chainmail. The Norman knights, unlike the
­English housecarls, fought on horseback, holding their
lances steady at the hip or brandishing them as spears.
William first sent his infantry and archers against the
Stream English, but the solid shield-wall of the closely packed
English troops withstood the assault. He then sent his
SPUR mounted knights forward, but they fared no better and
250 ft. retreated in confusion. Some of the English thereupon
RIDGE pursued the Norman infantry, only to be trapped and cut
m
ENGLISH 275 ft. Strea down by the Norman cavalry. U ­ nable through the long
m
S t re a afternoon to break the shield wall of the English, the
HILLOCK ­Normans twice feigned retreat, each time wheeling on
FRENCH
their pursuers and cutting them to pieces. In a final as-
BRETONS sault on the ridge William sent both archers and knights,
NORMANS
215 ft. the archers sending a shower of arrows high over the
TO HASTINGS shield-wall and the knights charging the now weakened
ranks of the English. This time they broke the English
am
t re

S ranks, slew Harold and his brothers, and captured the

ridge. The Battle of Hastings represented the victory of
new tactics over old, of a mobile cavalry, supported by ar-
Fortune smiled on William of Normandy, for the north chers, over a massed infantry wielding ax and spear.
wind that pinned his ships to the shores of ­Normandy His victory won, William waited for the submission
in September blew Harold Hardrada’s ships south from of the English, but it did not come. He thus began a slow
­O rkney to the Humber, where he joined forces with march to Dover, on to Canterbury, westward south of
Tostig. The full brunt of the first English blow thus fell on the Thames, devastating the land as he went. Not strong
­Harold Hardrada, not Duke William. Harold ­Godwinson enough to take London, he burned ­S outhwark. He then
marched swiftly north, caught the Norwegians by sur- marched through Hampshire, crossed the Thames, and
prise, and defeated them at Stamford Bridge. Harold circled east. Twenty years later his path could still be
Hardrada fell in battle, as did Tostig. Of the 300 ships traced by the devastation he caused. The English, unable
that brought the ­Norwegians, only 24 were needed to to o ­ rganize a resistance, now submitted. On C­ hristmas
carry back the survivors. The victory at Stamford Bridge Day, in the abbey Edward had built at W ­ estminster, the
on September 25 gave proof of the military might of the ­A rchbishop of York crowned William king. ­William
­E nglish, but it also m ­ omentarily weakened that might. promised to govern as Edward’s successor and to
Three days after ­Stamford Bridge, William landed in ­maintain his laws. He dismissed only a few Englishmen
­England. Harold raced back to London, leaving behind from office and seized only the lands of those who fell at
many of his archers and much of his infantry. He then Hastings. Yet his work was not done. Discontent smol-
hastily raised an army from his own housecarls and the dered, to burst forth in the southwest in 1068 and in
local levies, and marched against ­William at Hastings. His the north in 1069. The rebellion in the north posed the
impetuosity proved his undoing, for delay would have more serious threat, for the King of D­ enmark supported
­allowed him to bring a larger and better disciplined army it. With characteristic vigor and brutality, W ­ illiam
against William. marched north, captured York, bribed the Danes to
At 9 a.m. on October 14, William launched his first leave, and laid waste the land. His troops massacred
­a ssault on the English, who commanded a ridge that the rebels, slaughtered livestock, burned stores of food,
fell off steeply to the east and west but only gently to and destroyed farm implements. Not a single inhabited
the south, from which direction the Normans attacked. place remained between York and Durham. He turned
­William had some 5000 troops, Harold perhaps 7000, 1000 square miles into a wilderness, but the kingdom of
though many were untrained, ill-equipped recruits. On England was now his.
 Norman England 43

Harold crosses the Channel in the territory of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, where he is captured.
As cene from the Bayeux tapestry, commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-
brother. The tapestry is an elaborate pictorial narrative, from the Norman point of view, of the
events leading up to the Conquest and of the Conquest itself. This pictorial narrative is not
really a tapestry but rather an embroidery in varicolored wool on a background of bleached
linen. It is 230 feet long, 20 inches wide, and contains 626 human beings, 190 horses, 41
boats, 37 buildings, and a comet. This superb work of art was probably designed by an artist
of the school of Canterbury and almost certainly embroidered in England by English crafts-
women.  (Museé de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

Feudalism protection, justice, and maintenance. Out of the union of the

fief and vassalage the institution of feudalism was born.
The mounted knight that won William a kingdom at William the Conqueror brought feudalism to England
­Hastings first appeared in the eighth century in ­Carolingian and thereby transformed English society. Institutions tend-
France. The invention of the saddle, the bit, and the stirrup ing toward feudalism did exist in Anglo-Saxon ­England, but
made possible the armed warrior on horseback—above all the housecarl was not a knight, the hold oath was not an
the stirrup, which the West borrowed from the East and act of homage, and land loaned for miscellaneous s­ ervices
which allowed the horseman to withstand the shock of was not a fief. The social revolution wrought by the Norman
charging with a lance against an opponent. To maintain a Conquest was the more complete because the rebellions of
mounted knight was expensive. He needed several horses, 1068 and 1069 led to the displacement of the old English rul-
attendants, a sword, a lance, a kite-shaped shield, high ing class. Some 4000–5000 thegns lost their land and were
leather boots with spurs, an iron helmet, and armor, which replaced by Normans. From the beginning, William acted
consisted of a one-piece garment of leather stretching from on the feudal principle that there can be no land without a
knee to neck and sewn all over with metal rings. His train- lord and that all the land of England was held of him. He
ing was costly, for he was a professional soldier, trained thereupon granted land to some 170 barons, his great ten-
from childhood to maturity in the difficult art of fighting ants-in-chief. He laid down with great exactness the services
on horseback. Maturity was set at 21 (and remained so un- he demanded in return: a specific number of knights, usually
til very recently), because a man was then strong enough to grouped in units of five, for a clearly defined number of days,
bear arms. eventually set at 40. Some tenures were semi-military, owing
How to pay for such troops in a rural society where lit- castle guard or escort duty or the provisioning of troops.
tle money circulated and few taxes were collected posed a Feudal tenures were originally not hereditary, but sim-
nearly insoluble problem. Charles Martel and his successors ply conditional on the performance of services owed.
as kings of France solved it by paying their knights in land. The land reverted to the lord on the death of the vassal.
From late Roman times, kings had granted lands as a reward The vassal’s heir could regain the estate only by paying a
for past services, “benefices” they were called. They now sum of money called a relief. If the vassal’s family became
made the grant conditional upon future service; the benefice ­extinct, the land escheated, or returned permanently, to
became the fief (or, in Latin, “feudum,” hence “feudalism”). the lord. Because a child could not perform the military
It was a contract, but not an impersonal, commercial con- services required, the lord took possession of the lands
tract, for the recipient of the land became the vassal of the during the child’s minority and the child became his ward.
donor, or lord. The relationship of a vassal to his lord was If the estate fell to a daughter or widow, the lord had the
an honorable and sacred one, entered into when the vassal right to make certain that she married a man who could
placed his joined hands between the hands of the lord as an and would loyally perform the services demanded. Relief,
act of homage and then swore an oath of fealty that gave re- escheat, wardship, and marriage were the feudal incidents.
ligious sanction to the act of homage. The lord then invested In addition, the vassal owed his lord a sum of money, or
the vassal with his fief. The vassal owed his lord respect, aid, when in need. U ­ ltimately the occasions when the lord
obedience, and service; in return, the lord owed his vassal could ­automatically demand an aid were reduced to three:
44 A History of England

the knighting of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest castle was composed of a large enclosure, the bailey, which
daughter, and the ransoming of his person. was ditched, banked, and palisaded; within this there was
The King’s tenants-in-chief had, in turn, to find the a great mound of earth, the motte, on which stood a tim-
knights the King demanded of them. These numbered be- bered tower, or keep. The motte-and-bailey castle served as
tween 4000 and 7000, for William did not believe he could the home of a great baron, his administrative center, and
hold down the English with fewer. A baron might provide the stronghold where in time of rebellion he and his house-
the knights demanded of him from his own household hold could find safety.
knights, but more often he granted lands to knights, who A baron also held his barony together by a court, to
became his vassals. They in turn might carry the process of which his vassals owed attendance. It was a feudal court in
subinfeudation further by granting lands to others. A great which the lord, by virtue of his lordship, exercised jursi-
baron might possess lands scattered over twenty counties; diction over his vassals in civil pleas, especially those con-
at the center of his barony was his residence, usually a cas- cerning land. To this feudal jurisdiction William’s barons
tle, of which at least 84 were built by 1100. The castle was as soon added a franchisal jurisdiction. Either by usurpation
important a weapon for riveting Norman rule on England or by a grant from the King, they gained control over the
as the mounted knight, and as much a part of the feudal hundred courts, which meant particularly jurisdiction
scene. William built castles wherever he went and permit- over disputes about land, stealing of cattle, and hanging of
ted his barons to do likewise. Some of these castles, such thieves caught red-handed. Much public justice thus fell
as the Tower of London, were formidable structures of into private hands.
stone, but most were simpler structures of wood. A typical The Norman Conquest and the introduction of feu-
dalism worsened the lot of women in England, ­especially
those born into the upper classes. In Anglo-Saxon
­England men and women lived on terms of rough equal-
ity with each other. Great ladies took an active part in
public affairs. Cyneruth, the tyrannical Queen of Mercia,
had her portrait on a silver penny, and Aelfgifu, who bore

A young knight doing homage; from a drawing added to a twelfth- Rochester Castle, Kent, built by Archbishop Gervase of
century psalter.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) Canterbury, c. 1139.  (John Bethell/The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
 Norman England 45

Cnut two sons, ruled Norway as a regent. At a less royal manors, and the manors of England formed the economic
level, women governed monasteries—not only those ex- base on which feudalism rested. Their wealth equipped the
clusively for women, but double monasteries for both men knight and sent him into battle. Payments from the king’s
and women. The rights of women were also respected: No own manors and the obligations owed the king by his ten-
woman was forced to marry a man she disliked. Widows ants-in-chief made up the larger part of the king’s revenues.
enjoyed the custody of their children and were not forced Knowing this, in 1086 William sought to ascertain the
to remarry. If a wife, with her children, left her husband, wealth of his own manors and those of his tenants-in-chief,
she could take half their goods. A wife could also sell with a view to their further exploitation. He sent commis-
whatever land she brought to a marriage. Nor was there sioners into each county to hold sworn inquests at which
any rule of primogeniture, by which the whole estate must the sheriff, the barons, and the priest, reeve, and six villeins
descend to the eldest son. An examination of 39 wills from each village testified. The commissioners asked them
which have survived from Anglo-Saxon England show who held the land—what its value was and what stock was
that no preference was given to sons over daughters; par- on it. “So very thoroughly did he have the inquiry carried
ents provided equally for both. out,” wrote the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, “that there was
Feudal law changed all this. Because an estate must now not a single ‘hide,’ not one virgate of land, not even—it is
support knight service, it must descend intact to the eldest shameful to record but it did not seem shameful for him
son. Feudal society was organized for war, a masculine to do—not even one ox, nor one cow, nor one pig which
society in which women had little part. Women had no escaped notice in his survey.”1
public duties in Norman England; they were neither sum- The results of this vast survey were recorded in two vol-
moned to the King’s council nor allowed to serve as jurors umes, which were placed in the treasury and which gained
or judges. As a minor, a woman was in the guardianship of the name of Domesday Book because its judgments were as
her father, who could arrange her marriage, often at the age final as those handed down on doomsday. Domesday Book
of seven or eight. As a wife, she was in the guardianship of provided the king with the annual value of every manor
her husband. Any land she possessed became his for the in England and so allowed him to determine what feudal
duration of the marriage, and she could neither plead in incidents to charge his tenants-in-chief, what rents to col-
court nor make a will without his consent. Furthermore, lect from his royal manors and boroughs, and what geld
the new canon law introduced into England at this time to demand from the country. The Book was a testament to
sanctioned the wife’s subjection to her husband—it specifi- the administrative skill of the English government and a
cally allowed wife beating, for example. Not until she was a record of the introduction of feudalism into England.
widow did she escape guardianship, but even then she was A careful reading of Domesday Book shows that the
denied the custody of her eldest son unless she could beg Norman Conquest was a catastrophe for the English. It
or buy the right of wardship over him. She was given for swept away the thegns of England, only two of whom sur-
the rest of her life a third of the estate (the widow’s dower), vived as tenants-in-chief. Nearly half the total income from
but her lord might force her to remarry—or extort money rents on land, £30,000 out of £73,000, went to the creation
from her for the right not to remarry. It is true that an un- of some 170 baronies, which were given to Normans. Nearly
married woman or widow could (where there was no male a fourth of the income from land went to the royal family
heir) inherit land, do homage for it, defend it in court, sell and another quarter to some 50 prelates within the Church.
it, or give it away, but she lost these rights the moment she Thus less than 250 persons controlled most of the land of
married or remarried. To defend her great estate, maintain England. These princes, prelates, and barons, with their
her independence, and escape remarriage, the widowed vassals, dependents, and retainers, numbered some 10,000
countess of Aumale paid the King 5000 marks. people. They were a foreign elite imposed on a nation of 1
to 2 million English. Nor was it only the thegns who suf-
fered; many freemen who had owned their own land and
Domesday Book and the could go with it to whatever lord they wished sank to the
level of sokeman or villein. A sokeman was a free peasant
Manors of England who owned his own land and therefore could sell it, but
Feudalism was a political institution by which the king paid who could not take his holding to another lord, for it was
for military and other services by the grant of land to his tied to the soke, or manor. The sokeman (found chiefly in
vassals. But it was not simply land that he granted; he also the Danelaw) owed the lord of the manor only rent and
granted the tenants on it and the obligations they owed to suit to court. Domesday Book reveals that in many in-
the lord of the manor. A fief was commonly a bundle of stances the number of sokemen in the Danelaw fell sharply
46 A History of England

between 1066 and 1086. The conquest tended to level all Domesday Book likewise reveals that many of the
men to the condition of the villein, a peasant who was tied ­boroughs of England suffered from the conquest. The pop-
to the manor on which he was born, who owed week-work ulation of most towns declined, houses lay waste (478 of
and boonwork, who paid a tallage (a tax imposed at the them in Oxford), and trade decayed, especially trade with
will of his lord), and who must take his grain to be ground Scandinavia and France, with whose monarchs William
at the lord’s mill, and his bread to be baked in the lord’s had quarreled. William did not trust the English inhabit-
oven. The villein was also required to pay his lord a fine on ants of his towns, so in every town he built a great castle to
the marriage of his daughter (merchet), to give him his best overawe them. At the same time he exploited his boroughs
beast on his death (heriot), and to answer in the lord’s court more thoroughly than ever, increasing by 20 to 25 percent
for any failure to perform the services he owed. the “farm of the borough,” that is, the total sum of rents,
The new landlords sought, wherever possible, to i­ ncrease tolls, and profits of justice due from them.
labor services and rents. In Hampshire there were at least Yet the Normans were not hostile to towns. In the
44 manors whose lords demanded more than the values set ­following century both kings and barons founded new
upon them. The manor of East Meon, for ­example, judged towns, each with its market, castle, and church. From the
by the villagers to be worth £60, paid £100. William him- market they hoped to gain profit; from the castle, ­increased
self, whose greed for gold was notorious, set the example. authority over the countryside. To make life more
Domesday Book shows that he obtained far more revenue ­attractive for the burgess, or town dweller, they granted
from his lands than had his predecessors. The burden on ­extensive liberties to both old and new boroughs. Such lib-
the peasantry was heavier because England still suffered erties commonly included the right to pay a fixed rent on,
from the devastation caused by the march of William’s or sell, one’s house and land; freedom from heriot or relief;
army and the ruthless suppression of the northern rebel- freedom of marriage; freedom from excessive tolls; and
lion. Of 1333 places listed in Domesday Book as “waste,” the right to trial in a borough court. Many new boroughs,
1076 came from the devastated counties of the north. There ­because of insufficient trade, fell back to the status of a vil-
were many manors throughout England that had markedly lage, but others became true towns—that is, towns with a
fewer plow teams than plowlands, indicating a fall in popu- permanent market and a mercantile population.
lation. ­Depopulation, the destruction of farm implements, The first 30 years of Norman rule in England dealt a
and the slaughter of livestock caused a sharp fall in the cruel blow to the inhabitants of both manor and town. But
value of manors, a decline from which many had not recov- Norman discipline and order, the long peace from Henry I’s
ered by 1086. The value of the lands of Cambridgeshire was reign, and a climate that became milder than had been
13 percent less in 1086 than in 1066; in Nottinghamshire, it known for centuries allowed the English to emerge from
was 19 percent less; in Derbyshire, 35 percent less; and in this ordeal stronger and more prosperous than ever.
­Yorkshire, 74 percent less. In about two-thirds of England,
values failed to recover their levels of 1066.
These figures are abstract and bloodless. What lies
The Norman Church
­behind them is the rude villein, in his knee-length gown, The Norman Conquest had nearly as profound an in-
drawn in at the waist, driving his oxen down the long fur- fluence on the English Church as on English society. It
row, toiling from sunrise to sunset, his wife tending the brought Normans with their reforming ideas into the
stock and making the cheese, his house a hovel into which higher offices of the Church; it created the problem of the
livestock freely enter, possessing nothing beyond his farm place of the Church in a feudal society; and it reinvigorated
stock and a few pots and pans, subsisting on wheat or bar- monasticism.
ley loaves in prosperous times, facing starvation in years of Having conquered England, William soon secured the
famine. On his and his wife’s labor the wealth of England dismissal of Archbishop Stigand, a symbol of corruption,
largely depended. and replaced him with Lanfranc, prior of Le Bec. ­Lanfranc
One class of persons improved their status—if not their was a North Italian trained in canon law, a renowned
condition—with the coming of the Normans. Slaves made scholar, and a blunt, practical man. By 1087 all the bishops
up nearly 10 percent of the population of Anglo-Saxon in the English church but one were Normans. Lanfranc,
England; in the next century they virtually disappeared. who sympathized with the movement for reform begun by
The Normans found it more profitable to exploit a peasant Pope Gregory VII about 1059, saw that two principal re-
than a slave. Indeed, by 1200 the Latin word for slave, ser- forms were needed in the English Church: Ecclesiastical
vus, had come to be used interchangeably with villani, or affairs must be freed from the control of all laypersons but
villein. The peasants of England had become serfs. the king, and bishops must be given stricter control over
 Norman England 47

the clergy. To achieve this first purpose, William, through a local saint, to whose shrine he or she would make a pil-
a Church council, decreed that bishops and archdeacons grimage. The whole edifice of medieval piety, from parish
should no longer preside over “ecclesiastical cases” in priest to hermit monk, existed to serve men and women
hundred or shire courts. This came to mean that all cases who feared damnation and sought eternal life.
concerning clergymen and all cases in which laypersons William the Conqueror favored reform within the
committed moral offenses should come before a court pre- Church, but he did not intend to surrender control over the
sided over by the bishop or his subordinate. England now Church. Indeed, he fastened his grip more firmly on it by
had two systems of courts, one secular, one spiritual. imposing feudal obligations on the lands held by the bish-
In order to give the bishops stricter control over the ops and the greater abbots. They now held their lands as
clergy, Lanfranc strengthened the cathedral chapter. He vassals of the king, and for them they owed knight service,
brought sees that were once located in the countryside into prayers, and counsel. The Bishop of Lincoln, for example,
towns and provided that these newly organized c­ hapters held manors throughout the Midlands and three castles,
be composed of canons, not monks—that is, of secular for which he owed 60 knights. But at the very moment
clergy, not regular. Church councils passed ­legislation that when William sought to feudalize the Church, the Papacy,
­empowered bishops to hold councils, or synods, twice a guided by Gregory VII, sought to assert its independence.
year and to appoint an archdeacon to help ­supervise the Rome claimed the right to hear appeals in all ecclesiastical
diocese and preside over the new ecclesiastical courts. cases, large and small, and it insisted that the bishop was a
­Lanfranc also sought to reform abuses within the Church, spiritual leader, whose first loyalty was to Rome. Gregory
particularly to end simony and clerical marriages. A Church even demanded that William, because the Papal Curia had
Council passed legislation forbidding simony, the purchase awarded him the Crown in 1066, hold England as a papal
of ecclesiastical offices, but the practice reappeared in the fief. William refused. He also forbade appeals to Rome and
reign of Henry I. The marriage of priests also proved a dif- prohibited the publication of papal decrees in England
ficult problem, for the Anglo-Saxon Church had allowed without his consent. William meant to be master over the
such marriages. Lanfranc, on this issue, showed himself to Church.
be a man of moderation. He agreed that priests who were Yet the question remained unanswered: Was the bishop
now married need not put away their wives, but he did in- a royal official or a spiritual leader? In an age that deeply
sist that no unmarried priest take a wife and no married revered symbols, this question was seen as a dispute over
man be ordained. The deeper problem in the countryside, whether the king or the archbishop should invest the
however, was the lack of parish churches. Much of ­England bishop with the ring and staff, the symbol of his spiritual
was served either by collegiate churches, called ministers, authority. Whenever William named a new bishop or ab-
or by rude field churches. The Normans completed the bot, he first received homage and fealty from him, and then
­parish system of England, which the ­Anglo-Saxons had invested him with ring and staff. To Gregory VII and to the
­b egun. Norman barons and knights, perhaps to expiate saintly Anselm, who succeeded Lanfranc in 1093, this was
the sin of conquest, built churches everywhere, and, like intolerable. Anselm even went so far as to refuse to conse-
the thegns of Saxon times, they regarded these churches as crate bishops William Rufus had invested.
their property and claimed the right, known as advowson, During the reign of the violent and grasping William
to name the priests who served in them. Rufus (1087–1100), there was no possibility of settling the
The parish priest performed the mass and met the im- dispute, for he plundered the wealth of the Church, kept
memorial needs of a Christian life—baptism, marriage, bishoprics vacant so he could enjoy their revenues, and
and burial. The religious feelings of early medieval English drove Anselm into exile. Henry I (1100–1135) was a differ-
people were unsophisticated. God and Christ were close ent kind of man—more reasonable, more compromising.
at hand, as were the saints and martyrs. The invisibility Anxious to be on good terms with the Church, he soon
of the next world caused little concern, since so much of reached an agreement with Anselm, who had grown tired
this world was unseen to the men and women in the par- of exile. At the monastery of Le Bec in Normandy they
ishes. They had never seen London or Rome or Jerusalem; agreed to a compromise: A bishop should first do hom-
heaven, purgatory, and hell were as real to them. Nor did age to the King for his lands; then he should receive the
they doubt the inevitability of an afterlife and a day of ring and staff from the archbishop. Henry also agreed that
judgment, which helps explain why the greatest of warriors cathedral chapters should elect bishops, but insisted that
might suddenly renounce all and depart for Jerusalem. The the election take place under his eye in the royal chapel.
parish priest was there to help sinful humans win their way Though nominally free, elections were guided by the royal
to heaven, but a sinner might also seek the intercession of will. Bishops remained loyal officials first, giving counsel,
48 A History of England

going on embassies, and administering the chancery. Yet disgrace; only voluntary or “divine poverty” was a virtue.
despite these gains, Henry also lost. In giving up lay in- What the aristocracy sought in monastic life was silence
vestiture he gave up the old idea that anointed kings were and solitude, a life of ordered calm, liberation from the
sacred deputies of God. He thereby acknowledged the sec- vexations of life in a troubled world; they also saw in mo-
ular nature of kingship. nastic life the highest expression of the Christian life.
It was not in the lives of the bishops, men facing nu- Many who could not enter a monastery nevertheless sup-
merous practical problems, that the Church produced its ported them with gifts; in the Danelaw even poor peasants
deepest spirituality, but in the lives of countless monks and gave an acre of land. Many of these gifts went to ­Cluniac
nuns. In 1086 there were 805 houses and 5000 monks and houses, where the monks in their simple black gowns
nuns. The twelfth century was the golden age of monasti- spent the day in prayer and chanting. But many persons
cism in England. The Norman kings did not so much cause found the continuous chanting and liturgical ­ceremonies,
this growth as witness it. William founded Battle Abbey which the Cluniac ritual demanded, ­unappealing. They
on the site of the Battle of Hastings, but he did little else. joined the new Cistercian order, which alternated ­chanting
His chief concern was to secure control over the religious and ­liturgical ceremony with manual labor and private
houses. At the conquest there were 12 English abbots out of prayer. The Cistercians deliberately placed their monas-
20; by 1089 there were none. The Normans who replaced teries in remote places, far removed from the temptations
them brought great energy to the administration of their of the world. The greatest of their houses, Rievaulx, lay in
houses, but they were caught up in feudal obligations and the wild dales that border the Yorkshire moors. They did
were more interested in breeding scholars and administra- not lease their lands to tenants, but farmed them with lay
tors than saints. brothers who, though often illiterate, were full members
The greatest wave of religious enthusiasm came from of the house. ­Monastic life was thus opened to the humble
1135 to 1154 and was a spontaneous outburst of piety by men and illiterate, who could never have hoped to become choir
and women from every walk of life—though mostly from monks. The Cistercians, clad in their white or gray gowns,
the aristocracy. The monastic virtues of poverty, chastity, pursuing a life of simplicity and austerity, tending their
and obedience were attractive chiefly to the well-born. sheep on the moors, raising buildings of a severe Gothic
Peasants already lived in poverty, could not afford chastity beauty, soon outnumbered Cluniac monks in England.
(for need of the labor of their children), and already owed But such isolated communities did not meet the needs
obedience to a lord. In medieval eyes real poverty was a of the Church in England. To provide better service for the

The ruins of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, founded in the twelfth century by the
­Cistercians.  (British Information Services)
 Norman England 49

ordinary parish church, the Austin canons were formed. for them at the treasury, but William took from the earls
Members of this order lived communally as monks, but (whose greatness now came to an end) and gave to the
served in parish churches. And to meet the demands of sheriffs the duty of summoning and leading the fyrd.
women for a conventual life, Gilbert of Sempringham, an The fyrd was national in organization, not feudal, a gen-
English priest, created an order for women who would live eral levy of all free men to help defend the kingdom. The
communally and simply, like the Cistercians. By 1189 it had sheriff also presided over the shire court, read the King’s
14 houses, with 960 nuns. Zeal for the monastic life en- writ to the court, and pronounced the judgment reached
compassed both town and country and reformed the lives by the suitors to the court. No officer was more important
of both men and women. to William than the sheriff. Therefore he named Norman
barons to the office—strong-willed, ruthless men whose
power tended to become extortionate unless curbed by an
The Machinery equally ruthless king.
The Norman kings took great pains to preserve the shire
of Government court as the principal point of contact between the King
Though the Normans introduced feudalism into England, and his subjects. To it the great landowners of the county
they retained and developed the principal institutions of (a term introduced by the Normans) paid suit. These suit-
the Anglo-Saxon monarchy—the chancery, the chamber, ors were the living repositories of the ­immemorial law
the geld, the sheriff, the fyrd, and shire and hundred courts. of the land. They heard criminal cases, disputes between
These institutions gave them the authority they sought and tenants of different landlords, and actions for wrongs and
prized. debts. The Normans continued to use the hundred court
Under Edward the Confessor, clergymen who ­belonged to enforce criminal justice, even though many of these
to the King’s Chapel drew up the charters and issued the courts fell into private hands. By 1272, in fact, over half the
writs the King needed. The Normans continued and de- 628 hundreds in England were in private hands. ­Despite
veloped these practices. The writs, formerly written in this fact, the hundred court remained important as a
­English, they wrote in Latin and used far more freely. At ­fiscal unit for assessing the geld and as an ­instrument for
the head of the writing office there appeared in 1078 a ­preserving the peace and judging petty crimes. The obli-
Chancellor, so named because he and his clerks sat in the gations shire and hundred courts imposed on the people
King’s lodgings behind a screen, or cancella. In this way fell on the v­ illage, not the manor. It was from the v­ illage
the chancery grew out of the chapel and became a distinct that the priest, the reeve, and four good men came to the
branch of government. hundred and shire court, there to give the King the infor-
The collection and storage of the King’s revenues mation he sought.
­belonged to the Chamber, which under the Anglo-Saxon The Normans were shrewd enough to adopt many An-
kings had become more than a domestic treasury in the glo-Saxon institutions, but they also added institutions of
King’s bedchamber. Edward the Confessor had established their own. The most important of these new institutions
a permanent treasury at Winchester, whose officials were was the Curia Regis, or King’s Court. The Curia Regis dif-
skilled at striking dies and testing the purity of coinage. fered from the Witan since it was a feudal court, to which
The Normans thus inherited the best currency in Western the King’s tenants-in-chief owed attendance and where
Europe and an elaborate system for assessing, collecting, they might receive trial by their peers. It was an amor-
and storing the King’s revenues. These consisted of rents phous institution, hardly more than the King, or one au-
from his lands, feudal incidents and aids, the profits of jus- thorized to act for him, doing business in an open place. It
tice, and the geld. William’s own lands produced the great- took many forms. On solemn occasions, such as the great
est revenue. By 1086 he possessed nearly a quarter of the festivals of Easter, Whitsun, and Christmas, William would
landed wealth of England—an estimated £17,650 out of a summon his vassals to attend him. These were great cer-
total of £73,000 in annual value. But he did not neglect the emonial occasions, when he would wear his crown amid
geld, which had become practically an annual tax on the much pageantry and feasting, and when he and his vas-
landed wealth of England. William levied it nearly every sals would do justice and discuss important affairs of state.
year of his reign. Such an assembly was called a Magnum Concilium, or
The official responsible for collecting the geld and the Great Council. But the real work of government was done
rents from royal manors was the sheriff, who now began by a small council, those who happened on any occasion
four centuries of ascendancy in local governments. His to be attending the King. It was most often composed of
chief duty was to collect the King’s revenues and account household officials, administrators of minor baronial rank,
50 A History of England

and a few bishops and great barons. It guided public policy, was a financial board and court, sitting in London, com-
managed finances, superintended local government, and posed of officials called barons of the exchequer, though
tried all but the greatest cases. In its nonfeudal, or national, they were usually not barons in the ordinary sense. Before
capacity it tried important criminal and civil cases and this board the sheriff twice yearly accounted for his re-
heard appeals from hundred and county courts. ceipts and disbursements. The sheriff would appear before
Nothing did more to swell the volume of business be- the barons of the exchequer, seated at a table covered by
fore the Curia Regis than the growth in the number of a checkered cloth. The checkered cloth—with its columns
pleas of the Crown. Pleas of the Crown were crimes of of squares representing sums of money—was in effect an
so serious a nature that they were reserved for royal, not abacus, and the accounts of the sheriffs were calculated by
local and popular, justice. By Henry I’s reign they num- moving counters on these columns. In this way the sheriff,
bered 37, and included murder, robbery, rape, arson, and who probably could neither read nor write, could be sure
breaches of the King’s peace. As the King’s peace came to he was not being cheated. Having paid the sum he owed,
be extended to more places, persons, and times, almost the sheriff received a receipt, a wooden stick or tally with
any crime could be seen as a breach of the King’s peace, notches cut along the edges to represent sums of money
and so a plea of the Crown. At the same time, the feudal (the wider the notch, the greater the sum). The tally was
concept of felony, which originally meant treachery to one’s then split down the middle through the notches. The sher-
lord, was extended to all serious crimes. The King had ev- iff kept one half, the exchequer the other. The exchequer
ery reason to increase the number of felonies, for the lands was also a court, with procedures of its own, before who
of a tenant-in-chief found guilty of a felony escheated to the sheriff must justify his conduct. The exchequer could,
him. Soon, however, the volume of cases that came before and did, impose heavy fines on sheriffs guilty of extortion,
the Curia Regis proved unmanageable. William I sought but more often it adjudicated disputes about what revenues
to solve the problem by having sheriffs hear pleas of the were or were not owed the King. The sheriff coming to
Crown in the county courts, and William Rufus by nam- London to answer before the exchequer and the itinerant
ing resident royal justices in the counties, but the inge- justice traveling down to the shires to do justice provided
nious Roger of ­Salisbury, chief minister to Henry I, found two essential links between local and central government.
the permanent solution. He sent royal justices on a tour, or In this close linkage lay the strength of the English govern-
eyre, of the counties, where they heard pleas of the Crown. ment in the twelfth century.
These itinerant justices, the ancestors of the modern assize
courts, became an essential link between local and central
­government. The justice they enforced was swift and severe.
Tyranny and Anarchy
Roger Basset in 1124 in Leicestershire hanged more thieves Because his eldest son, Robert, was incapable of ruling both
than ever before, 44 in all, and had six more blinded and Normandy and England, William I left Normandy to ­Robert
castrated. Capital punishment and flogging came with the and England to William Rufus, his second son. William
Normans; the Anglo-Saxons preferred fines. Rufus was a jovial ruffian, a splendid knight, and a brutal
Roger Le Poer, Bishop of Salisbury, who had first sent tyrant, who was called Rufus because of his beefy red face.
itinerant justices into the counties, had begun life as an He was extravagantly generous to his own knights but ruth-
obscure priest in Caen, Normandy. Henry I, struck with lessly plundered the Church, whose teachings he scoffed at
the rapidity with which he said mass (so the story runs), whenever secure from the danger of death. His one purpose
brought him to England, where Roger soon exhibited a was to wrest Normandy from his brother; in order to pay for
remarkable talent for business. Shortly after 1107 Henry the armies to do this, he taxed his subjects ­unmercifully. His
made him justiciar, in which capacity he governed England chosen instrument for this task was a household chaplain,
during Henry’s many absences from the kingdom. Roger of the unscrupulous Ranulf F ­ lambard. Flambard transformed
Salisbury was an ambitious man. He amassed great riches, the royal administration into a ­m achine for ­e xtorting
built a splendid castle at Devizes, and promoted his rela- money from the King’s subjects. He exploited ­feudal aids
tives to high office—his son as Chancellor, a nephew as and incidents to the fullest, p ­ articularly f­ orfeiture, escheat,
Treasurer, another nephew as Bishop of Lincoln. His great- and marriage. He also collected arbitrary aids, such as that
est work, however, was the creation of the exchequer. in 1096 when William Rufus demanded 10,000 marks to
The first two Norman kings adopted and developed the pay for a campaign in Normandy. The Church suffered the
financial machinery of the Anglo-Saxon treasury. But dur- most. Not only did William Rufus collect arbitrary aids
ing the reign of Henry I the treasury yielded some of its from his Church fiefs, but he left abbeys and bishoprics va-
power to a new institution, the exchequer. The exchequer cant for long periods of time so that he could enjoy their
 Norman England 51

Contenders for the Duchy of Normandy and the

Kingdom of England in the Twelfth Century
William I
(D. Normandy
K. of England)
1066–1087

Robert II William II Henry I m Edith Adela m Stephen I

(Duke of Normandy (K. of England (King of (niece of (Count of Blois)
from 1087, d. 1134) 1087–1100) England Edgar Atheling)
1100–
1135)

William "Clito" Matilda m Geoffrey of Theobald Stephen Henry

(d. 1128) Anjou (Count of (Count of (Bishop of
Blois and Mortain and Winchester)
Champagne Boulgne)
1152–1159)

Henry of Anjou Eustace

(King of England
1154–1189)

revenues. William Rufus was an unloved king when he died advice of the Curia Regis, but he need not take it. The only
while hunting in New Forest on August 2, 1100, brought check on him, if a check at all, was a moral one: his promise
down by an arrow shot by Walter Tirel. in the coronation oath to rule justly, to protect the Church,
Historians will never know for certain whether Walter to suppress malefactors, and to rule under the law. Henry
Tirel shot the arrow accidentally or deliberately, though a made such promises more fully than had any previous king.
careful investigation of the evidence and of the nature of He would end the heavy exactions on the Church, collect
the medieval hunt suggests that Rufus’s death was much only the customary feudal dues, mint only good money,
more likely a hunting accident than a murder. What is cer- and restore the good laws of Edward the Confessor. He had
tain is that Henry seized the treasury at Winchester the copies of the charter sent into every shire. But it was only
very day William Rufus died. The next day he had a small propaganda; he did not keep his promises. He collected
group of barons “elect” him king and on August 5 he was more feudal incidents and aids than custom allowed, he re-
crowned at Westminster. Though every bit as greedy and sorted to financial oppression, and he created new “forests”
autocratic as William Rufus, Henry was less impulsive, from which he collected a multitude of fines. But though
more calculating, cleverer, and better educated. He was the coronation oath proved largely meaningless in Henry’s
also far more ­pious. His piety, however, had little influence reign, the English came in later centuries to see the oath as
on his ­personal life—he fathered 20 illegitimate children. an early assertion that the law was above the king.
Prudence was the hallmark of his character, and p ­ rudence No grievance weighed more heavily on the English in
led him to placate the barons by imprisoning Ranulf these years than the forest law. The Anglo-Saxons had no
­Flambard, to appease the English by marrying Edith, a forest law. The Normans, for whom hunting was a pas-
descendant of Alfred the Great, and to issue a Coronation sion and venison a means of subsistence, introduced it
Charter in which he promised to end the unjust exactions into England in order to protect the red deer, the roe deer,
imposed by William Rufus. and the wild boar. By royal proclamation the king could
The reign of William Rufus had revealed the potential for put any stretch of land—usually wooded lands where
tyranny that lay in the vast powers, feudal and monarchical, deer throve—under its law. Most of Essex was a royal for-
that William the Conqueror had gathered to himself. There est, and one could walk through royal forests nearly all
was no institutional check on the king. He might seek the the way from Windsor to the Channel. By the year 1200,
52 A History of England

royal forests covered about one-fourth of England. In such law permitted the succession of bastards. Henry forced
forests all game was reserved to the king. The forest law, his barons to recognize Matilda as his successor, but they
enforced by foresters, wardens, and verderers, was harsh. ­disliked the idea. It was unprecedented for a woman to
There was a 10-shilling fine for hunting deer, and a villein rule; and Matilda’s later marriage to Geoffrey of Anjou
could lose his right hand for resisting a verderer. The law made her still less acceptable, for the counts of Anjou were
meant a severe economic loss to the English peasant, who traditional enemies of the Norman Dukes. Thus, when
sought in the forest the game to supplement a meager diet. Henry died in 1135 (allegedly from eating too many lam-
Two purposes dominated Henry I’s reign: the conquest preys) and Stephen of Blois swiftly seized the throne, the
of Normandy and the establishment of a peaceful succes- barons and the Church accepted him as king. He was the
sion to the Crown. In the first of these he succeeded; but son of William the Conqueror’s daughter, Adela, and one
in the second he failed. By 1106 he had wrested ­Normandy of the largest landowners in England.
from Robert, who had seized it again on William ­Rufus’s Unfor tunately for Eng l and, Stephen, t houg h
death. But his one legitimate son and heir, William, ­good-natured and chivalrous, was naive, weak, temporiz-
drowned in 1120 when his ship, its passengers and crew ing, and incompetent. He lacked both the gift of leadership
drunk, foundered on the rocks outside Barfleur. This left and the ruthlessness needed by a twelfth-century king. As
only his daughter Matilda, for neither custom nor Church a result, 35 years of peace gave way to two decades of tur-
bulence. It was Matilda’s bid for the throne in 1138, aided by
Geoffrey of Anjou and the King of the Scots, that precipi-
tated civil war. By 1141 her bid had failed, but civil war had
spawned feudal anarchy. The great barons played each side
off against the other, built unlicensed castles, usurped royal
authority, made treaties among themselves, and minted
their own coins. The most infamous of these barons was
Geoffrey of Mandeville, who converted the fenland abbey
of Ramsey into a fortified center from which to pillage the
countryside. By exacting bribes and favors from each side
in turn, Geoffrey won large estates, an earldom, the heredi-
tary keepership of the Tower, and the hereditary office of
sheriff in Essex, London, and Hertfordshire. Other lords
played the same game. The Earl of York turned Bridlington
Priory into a castle and the Earl of Richmond plundered
the church at Ripon. The chroniclers no doubt exaggerated
the extent of the anarchy, but England clearly suffered from
lack of governance. Just as the reign of William Rufus had
revealed the potential for tyranny that lay in feudalism if
the king were too ruthless, so Stephen’s reign revealed the
potential for anarchy if the king were too weak.
The accession to the throne in 1154 of Matilda’s and
­Geoffrey’s son, Henry of Anjou, ended the anarchy that had
disgraced Stephen’s reign. The Church played a critical role
in Henry’s accession. In 1139 Stephen had committed the
monumental blunder of attacking Roger of Salisbury and
his family. Not only did this paralyze the operation of the
exchequer, but it turned the Church away from the King.
A few years later Archbishop Theobald, now head of the
Church, refused to crown Stephen’s son Eustace as his suc-
A battle scene typical of the cavalry engagements fought cessor; the Archbishop then fled to Anjou. By 1153 Henry of
in ­Stephen’s reign. The scene appears on an illuminated Anjou, now a mature warrior of 19, governed nearly half of
­manuscript, probably painted at Bury St. Edmunds in about 1135.
It purports to be a picture of the Saxons defeating the Britons,
France as Count of Anjou, Duke of Aquitaine, and Duke of
but reflects more accurately the warfare of the twelfth century. Normandy. Using Normandy as a springboard, he invaded
(The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, N.Y.) England in 1153, where a tired Stephen, despondent at his
 Norman England 53

son’s death, agreed to a treaty drawn up by the Church. By David Douglas and George Greenaway, eds. English Histori-
the Treaty of Westminster, Stephen would reign as king un- cal Documents 1042–1189. Oxford, 1983. Contains chroni-
til his death, when Henry would succeed him. Death soon cles, returns from the Inquest of Sheriffs, entries from the
came, on December 19, 1154, and Henry of Anjou became Pipe Rolls, letters from popes and archbishops; reproduces
king as Henry II. England waited to see whether he would the Bayeux Tapestry with commentaries on each scene.
rule as a tyrant, or as another Stephen, or as a wise and law- Robin Fleming. Kings and Lords in Conquest England.
ful king. ­Cambridge, England, 1992. Penetrating examination of the
changes in lordship and landholding from the time of Cnut
to Domesday Book.
Note
V. H. Galbraith. The Making of Domesday Book. Oxford, 1963.
1. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. J. Ingram. 1912. New Describes how and why Domesday Book came into exis-
York: E.P. Dutton. tence; rejects geographically arranged returns for feudally ar-
ranged returns; contains insights about the period in general.
Further Reading David Knowles. The Monastic Order in England. 2nd ed.
Frank Barlow. William Rufus. Berkeley, CA, 1983. Not just a Cambridge, England, 1963. Traces the development of
life, but a splendid study of the times; seeks to understand ­monasticism from 940 to 1216; its deep learning, power of
rather than judge Rufus. portraiture, and narrative skill make it a classic.
R. Allen Brown. The Normans and the Norman Conquest. Reginald Lennard. Rural England 1086–1135. Oxford, 1959. Exam-
2nd ed. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, 1985. Written with ines the economic and social structure of Norman England; a
­learning and passion; argues that Norman institutions work of meticulous scholarship and penetrating insights.
transformed England dramatically. Eileen Power. Medieval Women. Cambridge, England, 1975.
Marjorie Chibnall. Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166. New A collection of charming and witty essays about medieval
York, 1986. The single best introduction to A ­ nglo-Norman women, written by a distinguished medievalist.
England, written with clarity and firmness of judgment; W. L. Warren. The Governance of Norman and Angevin
contains a useful bibliography. ­England 1086–1972. Stanford, CA, 1987. Describes how gov-
David Douglas. William the Conqueror. Berkeley, CA, 1964. A ernment worked; written in a clear, concise, informed style;
history of the times as well as a biography; learned, authori- especially good on how the importation of the fief modified
tative, readable; views the Conquest as a revolutionary event. Anglo-Saxon lordship.
 Chapter 5

The Angevins

T
Chapter Outline he twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a creative
period in the history of England, an age of growth and new ideas,
■ The New Agriculture a fertile age, a true springtime. The population tripled. Technologi-
cal advances transformed agriculture. The wool trade emerged as the
■ Wool, Trade, and Towns great cornucopia of English wealth. Towns grew in size and won self-
government. A renaissance in learning led to the rise of universities.
■ The Twelfth-Century Renaissance
And the kings of England and their judges created a Common law that
was more uniform, rational, just, and equitable. These events captured
the attention of historians, for out of these happenings came modern
■ The English Common Law
England. But to those who lived during this time, other events loomed
larger: the murder of an archbishop, the ransoming of a king, the loss
■ Henry II and the Church of an empire. The historian, fortunately, need not neglect the one for
the other, for it is the task of history both to show how the present
■ The Angevin Empire grew out of the past and to examine the past for its own sake.

■ Wales, Ireland, and Scotland The New Agriculture

Estimates of the population of medieval England are notoriously unre-
■ Richard I and King John
liable. Historians have varied from 1.1 to 2.5 million in their estimates
of the population in 1300, with most accepting the higher figure. But
■ Magna Carta upon one fact all historians agree: Whatever the actual numbers, the
population tripled between 1086 and 1300. They likewise agree that
the cause of this growth was the availability of land, which led to mar-
riages at an earlier age, which in turn led to the birth of more children.
But the population could not have tripled in two centuries had there
not been enough food. The growth in population depended on growth
in the productivity of agriculture.
Technological advances explain part of the growth in the produc-
tivity of agriculture during these years. At the heart of these advances
was the replacement of the two-field with the three-field system. Under
the two-field system, half the land was planted with grain—wheat, rye,
barley, or oats—while the other half was left fallow. The next year the
two fields reversed their roles. During the eleventh century, however,
there arose in the Frankish lands between the Seine and the Rhine a
new system of cultivation, the three-field rotation. It reached England
in the late twelfth century. Under this system arable land was divided
into three fields. One was sown with a winter crop, such as wheat or rye;
54
 The Angevins 55

the second with a spring crop, such as oats, barley, beans, The nailed horseshoe, first developed in Siberia, appeared
or lentils; the third was left fallow. The usual rotation was in England during the reign of Edward the Confessor, and
from fallow to winter crop to spring crop. The new system the rigid, padded horsecollar, of central Asian origin, ap-
increased the amount of land under cultivation by one- peared a century later. By the early twelfth century horses
third. On a 600-acre manor, for example, 400 rather than were drawing the harrow and pulling four-wheeled wagons
300 acres would yield a crop. It also decreased the amount that now replaced the two-wheeled cart. Not until late in the
of plowing, since keeping down weeds meant plowing the century, however, were horses used for plowing, and then
fallow twice a year rather than once, and there was now less more often by peasants with smaller holdings than by the
fallow. Furthermore, the new rotation spread the plowing, lord on his demesne. Peasants who held less than ten acres
sowing, and harvesting more evenly throughout the year, especially favored horses, both because their lighter plows
reduced the chances of the entire crop failing, and added were more suitable to the horse and because the horse could
vegetable proteins (beans and peas) to the peasant’s diet. be used for both plowing and hauling. The use of the horse
Given the pressure of a growing population on the land, in plowing did not increase yields; rather it cut costs. It was
there was an urgent need to shift from the two-field system the commercialization of agriculture that caused the grad-
to the three. By the middle of the fourteenth century the ual replacement of oxen by horses, though horses did not
three-field system prevailed throughout most of England. predominate on demesne farms until the fifteenth century.
In technological inventions the twelfth century was The immediate gains in productivity made by the new
­unusually creative. The introduction of the overshot vertical technology were probably modest; far more was gained by
waterwheel made the milling of grain by waterpower more reclaiming wastelands. This was rarely done by settling new
efficient. But even more efficient than water mills were villages, for most of the villages of England had been estab-
windmills, since farmers could place them in the midst of lished by the time of Domesday Book. It was done instead
the harvested grain, thus avoiding a journey to a stream- by the lord expanding his acres at the expense of woodland
side mill. The first windmill in England was built in 1137; and waste, and by the tenant adding a few acres to his hold-
before the end of the century there were at least 56 wind- ings. This process, called assarting, went on steadily during
mills, mostly in eastern England where waterpower was these years, and brought increasingly marginal land into cul-
wanting. To waterpower and windpower the English then tivation. Land was reclaimed on a grander scale by drain-
added horsepower. The invention of the horseshoe and the ing the marshes. In the Fens, some 200 square miles were
horsecollar made possible the use of the horse in farming won from the sea. Such was the land hunger of the age that
and hauling, since the hooves of the horse, unlike those of even the royal forests were colonized. Henry II had drasti-
an ox, are easily broken, and since the yoke-harness, well cally increased the royal forests of England, but his succes-
suited to an ox, tends to choke a horse when it pulls hard. sors relaxed the rigors of the forest laws and sought to exact

A wagon and three horses, as depicted in the Luttrell Psalter.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman
Art Library Ltd.)
56 A History of England

a profit from the colonizers. Reclaimed marsh and forest between 6 and 9 bushels an acre. Today this region yields
lands were often rich. This cannot be said of the thin heath- 40 to 50 bushels an acre. The modest increases that did
land of Norfolk and Suffolk, where grain was grown in the occur in the thirteenth century arose less from capital
thirteenth century for the first and the last time in English ­investment and technological improvements than from
history. Much of the reclaimed land was too barren to invite the more intensive exploitation of land and labor. The
earlier settlement and too profitless to be farmed later. ­revival of demesne farming meant the revival, and often
The increase in population also led to concentration on the increase, of labor services. The tenants on a manor
grain at the expense of sheep farming and cattle grazing. usually farmed the poorer land with inferior grains. In
In the thirteenth century, England started on the path fol- many areas sheep farming was the landlord’s occupa-
lowed today by many densely populated, underdeveloped tion; the poor kept only cows and pigs. The cottagers who
nations: It deserted mixed farming for the growing of one worked for hire suffered most as real wages fell. Dur-
or two staple crops. In the Midlands and the south, the tra- ing the thirteenth century the wages of winnowers and
ditional regions of mixed farming, some villagers owned threshers on the Bishop of Winchester’s estate rose by only
no animals. Pasture was converted into arable in order to 10 percent. Given the inflation of these years, this meant a
gain a few more bushels of wheat, rye, or barley. decline of one-third in real wages. For a great landlord a
The pressure of population on the limited resources of bad harvest meant the difference between profit and loss;
England led inevitably to a rise in prices. Wheat, which had for the poor it meant the difference between subsistence
sold for 1 shilling 9 pence per quarter in 1190, rose to 3 shil- and starvation. The manorial accounts of the thirteenth
lings 6 pence in 1203. During the same period, the price of century show that the death rate (measured by the pay-
an ox rose from 4 to 7 shillings, and that of a sheep from ment of heriots to the lord of the manor) rose sharply in
5 to 10 pence. During the 20 years after 1210, the price of years of bad harvest. With the population pressing dan-
wheat fluctuated around 3 shillings, then climbed to 6 shil- gerously close to the margin of subsistence, the poor could
lings. Those who benefited most from these rising prices stay alive only if there was a good harvest.
were the great lay and ecclesiastical landlords who pro-
duced for a cash market. Thirteenth-century records show
that the great earl and the great abbey grew at the expense
Wool, Trade, and Towns
of the petty knight and the smaller monastery. They grew Those who grew richest from farming were probably those
because they had the land, the capital, the enterprise, and who raised sheep, for the twelfth and thirteenth ­centuries
the enlightenment to exploit the buoyant market for wheat saw an unprecedented boom in the export of wool to
and wool. During the twelfth century many of these land- ­Flanders and Florence. Flanders in particular was a great
lords had rented out demesne lands to middlemen at a buyer of English wool. Its burgeoning population, unable
fixed rent; now they returned to direct management. to support itself by agriculture, had turned to industry, and,
It was for men such as these that Walter of Henley wrote above all, to the cloth industry. Because its own wool was
his treatise on estate management, Husbandry, in which too coarse, it imported the finer wool of England. Soon a
he admonished the landlord to keep exact accounts and vast flow of wool crossed the Channel. To ransom Richard I
­instructed him when to plow and how to harrow. A race in 1194, the English government exported 50,000 sacks of
of improving landlords arose who turned to more frequent wool, an amount equal to the fleece of 6 million sheep. In
plowing, to better weeding, and to marling, composting, 1273 the English exported 33,000 sacks and in 1304 (the
and folding. Marling was the addition of a crumbly, earthy peak year), 46,000 sacks. It was an immensely profitable
deposit, rich in carbonate of lime, to the soil; composting trade, since wool that could be grown in England at £4 a
was the spreading of decayed organic matter on the soil; sack sold in Flanders at £12. No wonder a wool merchant
and folding was the grazing of sheep on the arable after engraved on his window:
harvest in order to enrich it with their dung. These land-
I praise God and ever shall
lords also experimented with different ratios of seed to soil
It is the sheep that hath paid for all.
and with different crops. Gradually wheat replaced rye as a
winter crop, and beans and peas (which return nitrogen to Two breeds of sheep produced the best wool: the smaller
the soil) replaced oats as a spring crop. sheep of the Welsh border, whose wool was short, fine, and
But this “high farming,” as it came to be called, did not well suited to the manufacture of textiles of a heavy texture,
lead to extravagant increases in productivity. Yields, by and the larger sheep of the Cotswolds and Lincolnshire,
modern standards, remained low. The yield of all grains whose wool was long, fine, and well suited to the produc-
on the Bishop of Winchester’s estates, for example, ranged tion of worsteds and serges. Though peasants in pastoral
 The Angevins 57

country kept flocks of sheep, the greatest flocks were found fact, by the close of the thirteenth century, the sale of grain
on the demesne lands of the great lay and e­ cclesiastical commonly accounted for 20 to 30 percent of the profits of a
landlords. There were 29,000 sheep on the estates of the manor. Even the poorest villager needed money to buy salt
Bishop of Winchester and 13,400 on those of the Earl of and ironware.
Lincoln. The Cistercians maintained immense flocks in The trade of England moved along its highways and
the dales of Yorkshire and the deep valleys of Wales. These rivers. Packhorses, carts, and wagons carried goods along
great landlords dominated not only the production of wool, arterial roads, which, so the law decreed, should be wide
but also its distribution. For the sale of their own wool they enough for two wagons to pass, or for two oxherds to make
entered into contracts with Flemish and Italian merchants, their goads touch across them, or for 16 knights to ride
often selling their wool two or three years in advance, with abreast. Bulkier commodities, such as grain, coal, timber,
the interest for this extension of credit ­being disguised in and stones, were carried on rivers. Often both road and
the price. The Cistercians regularly e­ ntered into such con- river were used: The lead for the roof of Waltham Abbey
tracts, though forbidden to do so by the Chapter General. came, all 263 cartloads, from Derbyshire to Boston, from
These great landlords also sold the wool they collected where it was carried by sea to the Thames, then up the
from the smaller farmers in their districts. They acted as Thames and the Lea to Waltham. The products that barges
middlemen for the leading foreign merchants in London, and wagons carried through England were sold in weekly
the greatest of whom were found in the Hanse of London, markets, at annual fairs, and in the permanent markets
an association of 15 Flemish towns. The Hanse of London of the towns. The ordinary villager bought the ordinary
dominated the wool trade in the twelfth c­ entury. In the ­requirements of life at local markets, held one day a week,
next century that dominance passed to I­ talian merchants usually on Sunday. During the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
who, acting as papal tax collectors, came into contact with turies successive kings granted or confirmed 2500 mar-
monasteries short on cash and long on wool. ­English mer- ket charters. The great annual fairs, such as those held at
chants were also active in the wool trade, both as wool- St. Ives in Huntingdonshire or St. Bartholomew in
mongers buying from small farmers, and as exporters ­Smithfield, served a much wider area and usually lasted for
selling abroad. In 1273 English traders carried overseas a a week, though sometimes they ran for a month. M ­ erchants
third of the wool that England exported. came from all over England and from foreign lands to set
Wool dominated English trade but was not the only up stalls and booths, each trade usually being allotted a
commodity exported. The English also exported grain place. At such fairs one could buy tin from Cornwall, iron
to feed the cloth workers of Flanders, tin to support from the Forest of Dean, wool from the Cotswolds, and
the F­ lemish metal industry, lead to roof the abbey at silk, cloth, and spices from abroad. In the fourteenth cen-
La R ­ ochelle, and coal to warm the homes and shops of tury these great fairs declined in importance as merchants
­Bruges. In return, they imported cloth from Flanders, ceased to attend them and as the towns grew in number
iron from Spain, spices from the Mediterranean, and great and size.
­quantities of wine, for which they had developed an un- The bulk of medieval trade eventually fell to merchants
quenchable thirst, from France. Before Henry II ascended the who traded throughout the year in a particular town. These
throne, England imported her wine from the Seine Valley, towns were, in fact, the result of an expansion in com-
but the Angevin connection led to the dominance of the wine merce, industry, and population in the twelfth and thir-
of Gascony. Each year, Gascony sent 20,000 tons to England. teenth centuries. Between 1066 and 1334, old towns grew
Far greater in volume than foreign trade was England’s in size and new ones were created—160 of them, of which
internal trade. Yarmouth sent its herring and Scarborough only 23 failed to survive. Immigration from the countryside
its cod throughout England. The Forest of Dean sent iron- swelled the population in the towns. In Stratford-on-Avon
ware to the villages of England; Northumbria produced in 1252 a third of the burgesses bore the names of the vil-
coal to be used in forging, burning lime, evaporating brine, lages from which they came. Unlike in Anglo-Saxon times,
and brewing ale. The Romans had mined coal, but not the when most burgesses engaged in agricultural pursuits, they
Anglo-Saxons; then in the late twelfth century the English now devoted themselves largely to trade and manufac-
rediscovered the value of coal. To feed these miners, fisher- turing. Boroughs had long possessed their own court, or
men, woolgrowers, and merchants, the farmers of England portmoot, over which a royal official, the portreeve, pre-
sent grain and dairy products to the towns and to other sided; and the sheriff of the county had traditionally col-
regions. Though the great majority of men and women lected the rents, fines, and dues that were owed the Crown
were engaged in farming and consumed most of what they (called the farm). But townsmen who were, in Professor
produced, they did not live in a subsistence economy. In Postan’s words, “non-feudal islands in the feudal seas,”
58 A History of England

sought to free themselves from dependence on the shire. pepperers, and—most important of all—weavers. The
They wished to elect their own sheriff and to collect and weavers became so powerful that Londoners tried, though
render to the exchequer their own “farm.” Henry I granted unsuccessfully, to bribe Henry II to dissolve their guild. As
both rights to London, but Henry II, who distrusted the other towns grew in size, the all-encompassing merchant
­independence of towns, withdrew them. Richard I and guild was replaced by numerous craft guilds. But the pur-
King John, however, desperately needed money and so pose served by the guild remained the same: to secure a
granted to ­numerous boroughs, in return for money, the monopoly of trade for its members.
right to elect their own sheriff and the right to render their
own “farm” to the exchequer.
It was only a step from the right to collect one’s own taxes The Twelfth-Century
to self-government. During the anarchy of ­Stephen’s reign,
the Londoners formed a commune—that is, a sworn asso-
Renaissance
ciation of citizens that would rule the city—but it survived In the age of Bede learning found a home in the ­monasteries;
less than a year. Fifty years later, in 1191, the ­L ondoners the renaissance of learning that occurred in the twelfth
again formed a short-lived commune. It was again sup- century found its home in the cathedral cities. The town,
pressed, but this time one element survived, the office of the fruit of an expanding commerce, became the scene of
mayor. From 1193 until today London has had a mayor, a renewed intellectual life, and the cathedral became the
and from 1216 onward has elected him annually ­(except center of learning. At the cathedral were libraries, archives,
when London fell into the King’s hands under ­E dward and schools; and in the household of the bishop were men
I). To assist the mayor in governing London, the citizens learned in theology and canon law. Every great cathedral—
also elected a council of 24 aldermen. By 1215 London was Canterbury, St. Paul’s, York, Winchester, Lincoln—had its
a self-governing municipality, but not a democratic one. school, run by masters named by the chapter. The cathedral
Candidates for office came from a clique of merchants, and schools, however, were unable to meet the growing demand
not all citizens had the right to vote. Medieval town gov- for education. Other schools arose, but because education
ernment was intensely oligarchic. Other towns imitated was a monopoly of the Church, the bishop or his deputy
the pattern set by London, though none achieved the same had the right to license them. In Stephen’s reign, for exam-
degree of self-government. By 1216 the office of mayor had ple, the chapter of St. Paul’s threatened to excommunicate
appeared in a dozen towns. all those who presumed to teach in London without a li-
Outside London the merchant guild fostered the growth cense. Two famous schools, Holy Trinity and St. Martin’s,
of self-government. The merchant guild was an association were exempt, but other learned men who set up their own
of all the tradesmen and craftsmen in a town, not merely schools needed a license from the master of St. Paul’s.
of the merchants. It included weavers, tailors, masons, car- At these schools students studied the trivium, the first
penters, and goldsmiths, and women as well as men. The three of the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.
purpose of the guild was to enforce a monopoly of trade Of these subjects, Latin grammar was the most important,
in favor of its members. Outsiders who wished to buy and for Latin was the medium of speech and writing in the
sell in the town were subject to tolls and regulations from learned world. People prayed in Latin, preached in Latin,
which guildsmen were free. In Leicester, for example, only and sang in Latin. By the end of Henry II’s reign they also
guildsmen could buy and sell wool wholesale, and the needed to know Latin to negotiate a legal or commercial
guild determined that wool wrappers should be paid only a transaction. In the better schools the study of grammar in-
penny a day and food, and flock pullers a penny and a half, cluded the study of classical literature. In the early Middle
without food. The primary aim of the guilds was to fur- Ages that literature fell into eclipse, but the twelfth century
ther the mercantile interests of its members, but they also rediscovered it. Men and women once again read Virgil and
served a convivial and ceremonial purpose, with drink- Ovid and Cicero, even though this pagan literature, with its
ing and feasting, and a benevolent purpose, with care for frank acceptance of the joys and pleasures of the world, put
the sick and burial of the dead. And in towns such as Bury their souls in peril. The rhetoric of ancient Rome had little
St. Edmunds and Reading they even became the town’s meaning, for oratory did not play a central role in medieval
governing body. life. The Middle Ages therefore transformed rhetoric into a
By 1216 there were merchant guilds in 40 towns. ­London study of the rules for letter writing, and manuals appeared
had none because its various crafts and trades were large explaining the most perfect epistolary style. The last of the
enough to form their own guilds. There were guilds of trivium, logic (or dialectic, as it was often called), played
grocers, vintners, fishmongers, mercers, tailors, butchers, a smaller role in the twelfth-century Renaissance, though
 The Angevins 59

gradually, to the great sadness of John of Salisbury, it drove Arabic numerals, with the indispensable zero, by the West.
out the study of literature. Despite the convenience of this new system of enumera-
John of Salisbury was the most learned man of the age, tion, the English were slow to adopt it; Arabic numerals do
a perfect model of the literary man. Born in Salisbury some- not appear frequently in English records until the middle
time between 1115 and 1120, he devoted his life to schol- of the sixteenth century.
arship. As was the custom of the day, he spent his youth In 1125 the English depended for their philosophy and
moving from school to school. He studied dialectic under science on Bede’s Chronology, Isidore’s Encyclopedia, and
the great Peter Abelard at Paris and literature in the school two works of Aristotle translated by Boethius. By 1225 they
of Bernard of Chartres. At Chartres he learned to write possessed, in Latin, the geometry of Euclid, the astron-
the purest Latin of the Middle Ages. In 1150 he returned to omy of Ptolemy, the mathematics of the Arabs, the medi-
England, where he entered the household of Archbishop cine of Galen and Hippocrates, and the complete work of
Theobald, served as his secretary, made frequent embas- ­Aristotle. But it was the content of these works, not the
sies to the Roman Curia, and became a friend of Thomas method that they absorbed. Medicine became the study
Becket. The breadth of his reading in the Latin classics was of the writings of Galen and Hippocrates and physics the
unequaled in Europe. He deeply admired Cicero, both for logical interpretation of Aristotle’s treatise. Yet there was in
his wisdom and for his pure and flexible style. Yet he also Adelard of Bath a glimmer of the scientific temper of the
admired the Church Fathers, whom he quoted side by side Greeks and the Arabs. He carefully described an earth-
with the classics. In his letters, essays, and history there quake in Syria and observed that light travels faster than
­appeared a Christian humanism that recognized no antago- sound. He regarded the worship of authority as an impedi-
nism between Christian truth and ancient wisdom and that ment to learning and believed that God was an explanation
preferred wide reading to narrow logic chopping. to be used only when all others failed.
The other four of the seven liberal arts, the quadriv- The twelfth century not only rediscovered the Latin
ium, were those that could be treated mathematically—­ ­classics and Greek science, but also Roman law. In the sixth
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. At the century the emperor Justinian had codified Roman law,
opening of the twelfth century students of the quadrivium and the code survived in a work known as the Corpus Juris
had little to study—only the scrappy, thin, and often fan- ­Civilis. It nearly disappeared during the early Middle Ages,
tastic material in Isidore of Seville’s Encyclopedia, a book surviving in only two manuscripts, but in the eleventh cen-
filled with legends about one-legged men in Ethiopia and tury I­ talian jurists at Bologna revived the study of the ­Corpus.
swans that sang sweetly because they had long, curving From Bologna knowledge of Roman law, which firmly but-
necks. The early Middle Ages had lost the knowledge of tressed the authority of kings, spread throughout E ­ urope.
Greek (even of the alphabet) and with it, of Greek science. It even reached England, carried there by a ­Lombard jurist
It was the great contribution of the twelfth century to re- named Vacarius, whom Archbishop Th ­ eobald employed as
cover that science, though it did so by a circuitous route. his legal adviser. Upon Theobald’s death, Vacarius went on
The Arabs in their conquest of the Near East had absorbed to Oxford, where he lectured on the civil law, as Roman law
the philosophy and science of the Greeks and carried it came to be called. But no student could make a career in civil
with them across North Africa to Sicily and Spain. The law, since the English courts used the Common law. What
­Christian r­ econquest of Spain led to the translation into influence Roman law had on England came largely through
Latin of Greek and Arabic works on science. canon law, the law of the Church. The twelfth century
Two Englishmen, Adelard of Bath and Robert of ­witnessed the growth, systematization, and study of canon
­Chester, played an important role in this work. ­Adelard law. Because that law touched on matters of marriage, wills,
was an incorrigible wanderer who studied at Tours, taught contracts, heresy, perjury, and sexual offenses, it touched on
at Laon, and traveled to Greece, Asia Minor, ­Sicily, and the lives of all English people.
Spain. In Spain he translated Ptolemy’s Almagest and When Vacarius left Canterbury he went to Oxford,
­Euclid’s ­Elements, thus giving Europe an astronomy that where masters and scholars had begun to assemble, possi-
was to last until Copernicus, and a geometry that was bly because it was conveniently located where roads ­going
not to be i­mproved upon until modern times. Robert of east and west intersected with those going north and south.
Chester, who became Archdeacon of Pamplona in Spain In 1167 Henry II, in the middle of his quarrel with Thomas
in 1143, translated the Algebra of Al-Kwarizmi, thereby Becket, ordered all English scholars at Paris home. They
­introducing both the name and the science into the West. came to Oxford, where by 1184 there were several faculties,
He (or ­Adelard) may also have translated Al-Kwarizmi’s a bookbinder, a note taker, and two parchment m ­ akers.
book on arithmetic, which contributed to the adoption of To protect themselves from townspeople seeking to fleece
60 A History of England

them, the masters and scholars formed a guild. The guild, said). His court was constantly on the move, and many
however, provided little protection. In 1209 a town and days he sat in the saddle from dawn to dusk, if not attend-
gown riot forced some 2000 scholars to flee to Reading, ing to business then engaging in hawking and hunting, of
Cambridge, and Paris. Those who fled to Cambridge re- which he was inordinately fond. He was stockily built, with
mained there; the others returned after five years, for in reddish hair, a freckled face, and bright blue eyes that be-
1214 King John compelled the townspeople to recognize came bloodshot when he fell into a rage, as he occasion-
that the bishop of Lincoln, or his representative, the chan- ally did, for he had an ungovernable temper. He also had
cellor of the university, had jurisdiction over all scholars. a fierce determination to govern his lands well and to see
The scene was now set for the growth of the universities in that justice was done. Within six months of his coronation
the thirteenth century. he had brought peace to war-torn England, expelled King
Stephen’s Flemish mercenaries, leveled unlicensed castles,
and resumed control of all royal castles. There remained,
The English Common Law however, the violence and brutality of the ordinary crimi-
The twelfth century was a legal century, witnessing the nal with which to contend.
­revival of Roman law, the development of canon law, and The volume of crime in Angevin England was enor-
the creation of the English Common law. People now mous. In one year the justices at London dealt with 114
began to reason and to write about the law. Those who cases of homicide, 89 of robbery, 65 of woundings, and 49
served the king at court were intelligent clerics, not illit- of rape. Yet the machinery for detecting, arresting, trying,
erate ­barons. They were skilled in Latin and acquainted and punishing the criminals was wholly inadequate. There
with R
­ oman and canon law. But the most important law- was no police force, only a system by which a group of per-
yer among them was Henry II himself, the true founder of sons was made responsible for producing in court any of
the English Common law. Henry was the first king since its members charged with a crime. This system, known as
the Norman Conquest to be fully literate. He had received the frankpledge, required that all unfree men over the age
a princely education, spoke Latin as easily as French, de- of 12 join together in a group. Should one member be sus-
lighted in intellectual discussion, and had a passionate pected of a crime, the others must produce him in court. If
interest in history and literature. But he was essentially a he fled, they must raise the hue and cry, follow, and capture
man of action, a restless man who displayed an immense him. Henry II sought to strengthen this system by having
capacity for work. He hated idleness and reputedly never the sheriff take “a view of the frankpledge” twice a year in
sat down except when eating or riding; he stood while at the hundred court—that is, make certain that no unfree
mass and in council (that he might not grow fat, some villager was living outside the frankpledge.

Henry II, from the effigy at Fontevrault Abbey, France.  (© R. Sheridan/Ancient Art & Architecture Collection)
 The Angevins 61

The method of prosecuting criminals was equally un- and would not relinquish them. What was needed was a
certain. The traditional method of accusation was for the swift procedure for restoring the land to its original pos-
injured party, his or her relative, or his lord to bring the sessor. Henry II and his advisers therefore devised a series
charge before the shire or hundred court and offer to prove of writs that any free man might purchase from chan-
it in battle (though the court might grant the accused trial cery, which commanded the sheriff to empanel a jury that
by ordeal). Such appeals, as they were called, often broke would, before the King’s justices, decide the question of
down over some technicality, and the accuser, if he or she possession. One writ provided that the sheriff ask a jury of
failed to prove his or her accusation, was fined. Further- 12 men whether the plaintiff had recently been wrongfully
more, there might be no specific accuser, but only the dispossessed of his land. If the jury answered yes, the land
suspicion of the countryside. In 1166 Henry II therefore was restored. A second writ posed this question: Did the
sought a more certain method of accusation. This was the plaintiff ’s father die in lawful possession of the land and
presentment jury, which may have had its origin in Anglo- was the plaintiff his heir? If the jury answered yes, the heir
Saxon times but more likely arose out of Norman practices. received the land. A third writ concerned the naming of
At Clarendon, Henry II and his council issued an assize (so rectors and vicars to parish churches. The jury was asked
called because it was the result of a session or assisa of the who presented the last priest, on the grounds that this per-
council), which directed that a jury of 12 men from each son, or his heirs, should present again. By a fourth writ a
township should declare upon oath, before the sheriff or jury decided whether land was held by free alms or by a
itinerant justices, the names of those suspected of robbery, feudal tenure. In every case the jury acted not as dooms-
theft, or murder. The presentment jury was the forerunner men declaring the law or as compurgators supporting an
of the modern grand jury. But it only indicted the criminal. oath, but as members of the community declaring the facts.
The determination of guilt still rested on the archaic meth- They were a jury of recognition, an institution the N
­ ormans
ods of battle, compurgation, and ordeal. brought with them and used in compiling Domesday
Trial by battle, a crude and savage procedure, was lim- Book. These writs, and the jury action they initiated, were
ited to appeals of felony (where there was an accuser who instantly popular and widely used.
could prove his oath by the test of battle); compurgation The writs, however, only determined who had recently
continued chiefly in the Church courts; thus ordeal by possessed the property, not who rightfully owned it. Ques-
water or fire remained the most common form of trial in tions of ownership were traditionally decided in feudal
local and royal courts. Henry II and his justices had no courts by judicial combat. Although the plaintiff must do
­illusions about the irrationality of ordeal. They did not be- battle, he himself did not fight; the contest was between
lieve that the failure of a trussed man to float when low- hired champions. It was a crude and inequitable means
ered into water blessed by the priest (the normal ordeal for of settling disputes. In 1179, therefore, Henry II offered a
men) proved his innocence, nor that the clean healing of remedy. If Ralph claimed the ownership of land held by
the wounds caused by carrying a red-hot iron (the normal Thomas, he could secure a “writ of right” from the chan-
ordeal for women) gave proof of innocence. By the Assize cery ordering the appropriate lord to do justice between
of Clarendon, Henry and his council declared that a per- Ralph and Thomas. But Thomas, the defendant, now had
son of bad reputation, even though he or she survived the the right to secure a “writ of peace,” which forced Ralph, if
ordeal, should be banished from the realm. The true trial he wished to proceed with his claim, to secure another writ
jury, or petty jury, first appeared about 1200, when justices ordering the sheriff to appoint four knights who thereupon
gave the accused the option, on the payment of a small fee, empaneled a jury of 12 other knights, who then decided
of having his or her case decided by a jury. A decree of the which of the two owned the land. The procedure was slow,
Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 dealt the final blow to trial but it was also rational and equitable, and soon became
by ordeal, for it forbade priests to participate in such trials. popular. During the reign of Henry II’s successor, Richard I,
Since the ordeal required the participation of a priest—to 135 disputes over land were settled by this procedure in
bless the instruments of the ordeal—this prohibition made one year.
trial by ordeal impossible. During the thirteenth and four- The writs of Henry II’s reign were originally designed,
teenth centuries, trial by jury became the accepted method not to replace feudal courts with royal courts, but to pro-
of deciding criminal cases. vide a sanction against abuses in the feudal courts, with the
The use of the jury in civil cases was as great a triumph royal courts offering a kind of judicial review. But in fact
for rationality and due process of law as was its use in crim- the system of writs soon brought about the replacement of
inal cases. During Stephen’s reign and occasionally during feudal courts with royal courts. The writ and the jury, by
Henry’s, powerful men seized the lands of their neighbors making royal justice available to all free persons, swelled
62 A History of England

the volume of business before the royal courts. In essence to try and punish clergy accused of crimes. Furthermore,
there was only one royal court, the Curia Regis, but it took these practices now enjoyed the blessing of canon law and
various forms. The gravest cases, such as the trial of Arch- the support of an aggressive, reforming papal monarchy.
bishop Becket, took place before the King and his barons Gregory VII and his successors had created a powerful and
in the Great Council, but a small council, or court of ­coram confident papacy that was determined to protect the inde-
rege, heard most pleas. This court followed the King around pendence of the Church.
England. To provide a more permanent place of justice To assist him in recovering these rights Henry II, in 1162,
and to help meet the mounting demand for royal justice, named his Chancellor, Thomas Becket, to be Archbishop of
Henry in 1178 ordered five judges to sit permanently as a Canterbury. It was the greatest blunder of his reign. Becket,
court at Westminster. This court was the forerunner of the the son of a Rouen merchant who had settled in London,
court of Common Pleas, just as the court of coram rege, was a townsman, the first of England’s great men to be so.
which followed the King, was the forerunner of the King’s He attended one of the city’s grammar schools, then en-
Bench. Also sitting in Westminster, in the great hall built tered the household of Archbishop Theobald, with its band
by W­ illiam Rufus, was the exchequer, which dealt with of brilliant scholars. But Becket was no scholar; he was a
financial litigation. But even these central courts could man of action, an energetic administrator, and an agreeable
not begin to meet the insatiable demand for royal justice. companion. He was also vain, extravagant in his dress, and
Henry therefore sent royal justices to the counties, with the driven by a thirst for power and success. Recognizing his
authority to hear a great variety of civil and criminal pleas. great abilities, Henry named Becket Chancellor in 1154. To
Henry had sent out such itinerant justices sporadically, but Archbishop Theobald’s pained surprise, Becket, as Chan-
the practice died out during Stephen’s reign. Henry II now cellor, served the interests of the state, not the Church. He
restored the practice and made it normal and regular. became the King’s boon companion, organized his Court
In these courts there gradually emerged one law, com- for him, went hawking with him, and supported him in all
mon to all England, based on the judgments of successive his quarrels with the Church. Believing such a man would
judges. The law these judges enforced was assumed to be be useful at the head of the Church, Henry named him
the custom of the people; the judges merely declared what Archbishop after Theobald’s death.
the law was. But their judgments carried weight with the As Chancellor, Becket had played the role of the King’s
judges who followed them. From at least 1194 onward, true servant. As Archbishop, he played the role of protector
clerks in the King’s court recorded these judgments on plea of the Church. He opposed the King in everything, even in
rolls. The new Common law even found its first expositor. secular matters. But the quarrel that ended in his murder
Some unknown author, traditionally believed to be Henry’s concerned the trial of a clergyman who had committed a
able justiciar, Ranulf Glanvill, wrote a treatise entitled De crime. The problem of the criminal clergyman was a seri-
Legibus et Consuetudines Regni Angliae (Of the Laws and ous one, for in the twelfth century a large number of men in
Customs of the English Kingdom). This treatise contained minor orders were counted as clergymen. Because Church
the first reasoned account of the new legal procedures. The courts could not shed blood and because there were few
English Common law had come of age. prisons, a guilty clergyman usually escaped serious pun-
ishment. At most he suffered degradation, and usually only
had to do some act of penance. Such immunity led disrep-
Henry II and the Church utable men into the Church. In 1163, William of Newburgh
Henry dealt more successfully with the law than he did estimated that clergymen had committed over a hundred
with the Church. His relationship with the Church, always murders since 1154. At a council at Westminster in October
turbulent, ended in the tragic murder of Thomas Becket, 1163, Henry stated that he had the right to punish clergy-
Archbishop of Canterbury. But it would be a grave mistake men found guilty in a Church court. Becket at first refused
to see this dispute solely as a personal quarrel between two to consent to this proposition. He refused, that is, until
proud and passionate men, since behind the personal quar- the Pope, not wishing to anger Henry II while quarreling
rel lay a fundamental political dispute. Henry desired to re- with the Holy Roman Empire, urged Becket to submit. The
cover for the state the powers over the Church it had lost Archbishop thereupon agreed to Henry’s proposal.
during Stephen’s reign. During those years of anarchy ap- Henry then made the mistake of putting into writing the
peals to Rome in ecclesiastical cases became common, the customs of Henry I’s reign, customs Becket and the bishops
election of bishops and abbots was taken from royal con- could only accept if unwritten. At a Council of Clarendon
trol, and ecclesiastical courts extended their jurisdiction he drew up a series of proposals, called the Constitutions of
over contracts and debts and claimed the exclusive right Clarendon, which forbade appeals to Rome without royal
 The Angevins 63

consent, reserved for royal courts pleas of debts, ­denied

the Pope the right to excommunicate the King’s vassals
and officers without the King’s consent, and provided
that clergymen found guilty by a Church court be turned
over to a royal court for punishment. Becket immediately
cried out that this last proposal meant a “double punish-
ment.” Nevertheless, he quite unaccountably accepted the
­C onstitutions, that is, until the Pope condemned them.
Becket then repented his action, reversed his stand, and
opposed the Constitutions.
An enraged and vindictive Henry summoned Becket
to a council at Northampton to stand trial, both for delay-
ing justice in a dispute over land held of Canterbury and
for failing to account for moneys that passed through his
hands as Chancellor. Becket accepted the judgment of the
court in the first case, but denied that he needed to account
for the moneys since he had been summoned only to an-
swer for the land. Becket then forbade the bishops on the
council to sit in judgment on him, whereupon Henry called
on the justiciar to pronounce sentence anyway. That night
Becket fled to France, where he remained in exile for six
years. The real dispute that divided King and Archbishop
was not over land or moneys but over the C ­ onstitutions of The murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury
Clarendon. Right, on that vexed matter, lay on both sides. Cathedral, as portrayed in an English psalter; the
By promulgating the Constitutions Henry upheld royal drawing shows the changes that had taken place in
armor since 1066: the flat-topped helmet, the hau-
custom; by opposing them, Becket upheld the laws of the berk extended to protect hands and forearms, and
Church. mail covering for the legs.  (British Library, London.
Thomas Becket remained in exile from 1164 to 1170, dur- The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
ing which time a new quarrel embittered relations between
him and Henry. To ensure the peaceful succession of his
eldest son, Henry had Prince Henry crowned king during
his lifetime. With the Archbishop of Canterbury in exile, No event in the twelfth century so profoundly shocked
Henry had the Archbishop of York and six bishops per- the Christian world. It was not only murder, it was also
form the coronation. This infuriated Becket, for the right a violation of the sanctuary that cathedrals offered to
to crown a king rested with Canterbury. He immediately ­criminals. Within two years the Pope canonized Thomas
secured the Pope’s authority to excommunicate those who Becket. A cult immediately grew up around St. Thomas:
had participated in the coronation. Henry, probably to Miracles occurred at his tomb, scenes of his martyrdom
prevent the Archbishop and the Pope from placing Eng- were depicted in stained glass, and Canterbury became
land under an interdict—that is, suspending all religious one of the great shrines of Europe. On Henry II the Pope
services—met with Becket. Nothing was said about the laid many penances: He was to send 200 knights to de-
disputes that divided them, but Becket was permitted to re- fend Jerusalem, build three monasteries, and make res-
turn to Canterbury. He did so in December 1170. He then titution to those who had suffered for supporting the
exacerbated the quarrel by excommunicating the bishops Archbishop. More important, the widespread horror at
who had crowned Prince Henry. Three of these bishops the murder weakened Henry in his negotiations with the
were with the King in Normandy. Their report on Becket’s Pope over the Constitutions of Clarendon. He now re-
conduct threw the King into a towering rage. “Will no one,” treated on several crucial issues. He agreed not to block
he allegedly said, “rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four appeals to the papal court. He agreed to allow clergymen
knights of the King’s household, without waiting for the to leave the realm without his permission. He agreed that
King’s anger to cool, hurried to England. They found the papal bulls (commands) could enter the realm without
Archbishop in the north transept of the cathedral, near the his consent. Above all, he agreed that criminal clergymen
choir. There they hacked him to death with their swords. should be both tried and sentenced in Church courts,
64 A History of England

though they must first prove before a royal court that The Angevin Empire
they were clergymen. But Henry did not retreat in every-
thing. He kept the right to consent to a bishop’s excom- Henry ruled not merely a kingdom but an empire that ex-
munication of his tenants-in-chief and, most important tended from the borders of Scotland to the foothills of the
of all, he kept control over the election of bishops and Pyrenees. At heart he was a French prince, who was born and
abbots. Those elections were to be “free” as long as the buried in France and who spent 21 of his 34 years as King of
King’s nominees were elected. As the writ to the chapter England there. From his father he had inherited Anjou, Maine,
at Winchester reads: and Touraine; from his mother, Normandy and E ­ ngland. On
marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine he gained ­Aquitaine, Poitou,
Henry, king of the English & c. to his faithful monks of and Auvergne as well. In the first ten years of his reign, by
the church of Winchester, greeting.1 marriage, diplomacy, fraud, and force, he added the Vexin and
I order you to hold a free election, but, neverthe- Brittany to his empire. As King of E­ ngland and ruler of half
less, I forbid you to elect anyone except Richard my of France, Henry was undoubtedly the greatest monarch in
clerk, the Archdeacon of Poitiers. Europe. But these disparate lands were not held together by

York

Lincoln
Shrewsbury
St. Ives
Northampton Rh
in e
Gloucester

R.
London
R . Th a mes Canterbury
Clarendon Winchester
Southampton HOLY ROMAN
EMPIRE

VE XI N

Seine R.

NORM A N D Y Paris
MA I N E
BR I T TA N Y

DOMINIONS OF THE
R.

A N J OU Loire
KING OF FRANCE
TOU R A I N E

POI TOU

The Angevin Empire

AQ

(shaded)
UI

AU VE RG N E
TA

Rh on e
N
E

R.

0 100 200 Miles GU I E N N E

0 100 200 Kilometers

GA S CON Y

PYRE N E E S

SPAIN
 The Angevins 65

a central administration. F­ urthermore, Henry held his conti- might have built an empire that would have lasted, i­ nstead
nental lands as the vassal of the King of France. It was a per- of one doomed to extinction. The British Isles might then
sonal empire, whose existence depended on Henry’s energy have achieved a unity that has always eluded them.
and skill. Only his own rapidity of movement kept the empire The very geography of Wales, with its high, rugged
together, for which reason he kept a swift galley in constant mountains, made conquest difficult. In the closing years
readiness at ­Southampton. Such was his demonic energy and of William the Conqueror’s reign, the Normans briefly
ambition that he even planned to supplant the Holy Roman conquered North Wales, only to be decisively expelled
Emperor in Italy. in 1094. In the south the story was different. Here a few
But Henry’s grand designs were checked by the rebel- great ­Norman lords, the marcher lords, who had settled
lion of his sons. Henry II gave Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, along the borders, or marches, of Wales, slowly occupied
and John titles and lands, but little income and no authority. the fertile lowlands, building castles and founding towns as
Chafing under this tutelage, urged on by their mother (the they advanced. In the far west, in Pembrokeshire, a group
beautiful, passionate, and willful Eleanor, who was angered of ­Flemings displaced the Welsh. By the end of the reign
at Henry’s infidelity to her), and supported by Louis VII, of Henry I, South Wales was practically an A ­ nglo-Norman
King of France, Henry’s sons rose in revolt in the summer province. Then, on the accession of Stephen, the Welsh
of 1173. It was the most serious crisis of Henry’s reign. But rose in revolt and freed all Wales but Pembrokeshire from
though the rebellion was widespread, the rebels failed to ­English rule. In the following years the Welsh produced
coordinate their movements. It began in Normandy in July, two great leaders, Owain of Gwynedd in the north and
was extended to Brittany in August, and then to E ­ ngland, Rhys ap Gruffyd in the south. To Henry II, the indepen-
where the Earl of Leicester led an invading force of F
­ lemings. dence of these two princes was an affront to the dignity of
Finally, in the spring of 1174 the King of Scotland invaded his crown. He therefore led an expedition against Owain of
England. But through a swiftness of movement that aston- Gwynedd in 1157, which led to Owain’s rendering homage to
ished the King of France, Henry suppressed each rebellion Henry for his lands. Rhys ap Gruffyd likewise swore f­ ealty
in turn. He was greatly aided in this by the support of the to Henry, but often broke his oath. In 1165, for ­example, he
Church, his royal officials, the towns, and men of property and Owain revived the struggle for Welsh independence.
in the countryside. It was the Sheriff of Yorkshire who de- To suppress this revolt, Henry assembled a great army at
feated and captured the King of Scotland. Toward his sons Shrewsbury, made up of English knights, contingents from
Henry showed mercy and to the rebels he granted amnesty, Normandy and Anjou, and Flemish mercenaries. The
but he surrendered no real power and he demolished the army marched against Owain, but torrential rain, Welsh
castles of the rebels. From 1175 to 1182 the Angevin Empire guerrilla tactics, and a shortage of supplies forced Henry’s
was at the summit of its greatness. Yet the work of holding it army to retire to Shrewsbury. This disaster ended Henry’s
together was unending. In 1180 Louis VII of France died, to efforts to subjugate Wales. In the north, Owain extended
be succeeded by a far more ruthless and skillful king, Philip his boundaries to the estuary of the Dee, and in the south,
Augustus. Philip now allied with Richard who, because of Rhys completed the conquest of Cardigan.
the death of the young Henry, had become the eldest son. The losses in South Wales go far to explain the con-
Richard deeply resented his father’s plotting to give the suc- quest of Ireland in 1170 and 1171, since it was a handful of
cession to John, his younger brother. On November 18, 1188, frustrated marcher lords who undertook that conquest.
Philip in person asked Henry to recognize Richard as his Ireland’s lack of unity provided their opportunity. In 1014
lawful heir. Henry refused. Richard then kneeled to Philip the last King of Ireland died, and a period of bewilder-
and did homage to him for all the French lands. This act led ing anarchy followed. It was during this time that ­Dermot
to open war in which Henry, deserted even by John, suffered MacMurrough, King of Leinster, a lover of poetry and fine
defeat. Only his death on July 6, 1189, and the succession of tales, abducted the beautiful wife of the King of Brefni. The
Richard to all his lands saved the Angevin Empire. King of Brefni replied by supporting a revolt of the L
­ einster
chiefs that drove Dermot into exile. Dermot sought out
Henry II in distant Aquitaine and won from him the
Wales, Ireland, ­authority to raise men within his realms. He found such
men among the discouraged marcher lords of South Wales,
and Scotland chief of whom was Richard of Clare, Earl of Pembroke,
Had Henry devoted to the subjugation of Wales, the settle- nicknamed Strongbow. Strongbow not only a­ ccepted
ment of Ireland, and the conquest of Scotland the energy he ­D ermot’s offer, but married Dermot’s daughter, thus
spent on holding together his continental possessions, he making himself heir to the kingdom of Leinster. In 1170
66 A History of England

The first King of Scotland appeared in 1018, for in that

Medieval Ireland year Malcolm II took the Lothian (the region lying ­between
0 25 50 Miles
the Forth and the Tweed) from the Northumbrians. More
ILL remote than Wales and more united than Ireland, ­Scotland

EA
0 25 50 Kilometers NA
preserved its independence against both Norman and

RL D
CO TIR
­Angevin kings. In 1174 it nearly lost that independence

OM
R
EOGHAIN

TI
because of the rashness of William the Lion, who led an

OF ULST
ULSTER
FERMANAGH ill-fated invasion of England, only to be defeated and cap-
ORIEL
tured. To recover his liberty, William performed homage

ER
BREFNI
KINGDOM DE LACY to Henry II and surrendered to him the strongest castles
OF
CONNACHT Irish in Scotland. But the overlordship and the castles Henry
CONNAUGHT EARLDOM OF Sea won were given back by his son, Richard I, in 1189, in re-
MEATH
turn for 10,000 marks he needed to pay for his crusade.
LEINSTER COUNTY
OF Scotland retained its independence, but it did not retain
Atlantic DUBLIN
KINGDOM
the three English counties of Durham, Northumberland,
Ocean OF and Westmorland, which the powerful King David I had
LIMERICK ORMOND
seized during S­ tephen’s reign. David I died in 1153, and the
MUNSTER next year Henry II demanded of David’s 16-year-old suc-
DECIES
cessor the cession of these counties. Young and inexperi-
KINGDOM OF CORK
enced ­Malcolm IV agreed. The boundaries of England and
Scotland have remained ever since the Cheviot Hills and
Celtic Sea
the river Tweed.
But no border could prevent Saxon and Norman influ-
ences from transforming the Celtic kingdom of S­ cotland
into an English-speaking feudal state. In 1066 many
Strongbow landed in Ireland with 200 knights and 1000 English men and women fled to Scotland, among them
light-armed troops, overran Leinster, captured D­ ublin, and Margaret, sister of Edgar the Atheling, who eventually
on Dermot’s death succeeded him as king. married Malcolm Canmore, King of the Scots. Queen
His success alarmed Henry II, who did not relish his Margaret was a remarkable woman, devoutly religious,
subjects’ carving out independent kingdoms for them- austere in her private life, and deeply conscious that she
selves. He therefore came to Ireland in person, with 500 belonged to the Wessex dynasty. While her husband
knights and 4000 archers. Strongbow, preferring to be a played at war, she brought English culture to the court
secure baron rather than an uncertain king, submitted to and the country. She promoted commerce with foreign
Henry and received his lands back as a fief. The plunder- lands, decorated the palace with silk hangings, and intro-
ing of Ireland now began. Henry’s deputy, Hugh de Laov, duced a new refinement to the court. Her deepest influ-
seized 500,000 acres in Meath; the Fitzgeralds evicted ence was on the Scottish Church, whose practices closely
the MacCarthys from Munster; John de Courcy carved resembled those of Ireland. She convened councils of the
out a princely domain in Ulster. Before the twelfth cen- Church, discussed the scriptures with Lanfranc, debated
tury had ended, the Anglo-Normans governed two- doctrine with the clergy, and brought the Scottish Church
thirds of ­Ireland. The explanation for their success lies into conformity with those of Western Europe. Her ca-
in their superior weapons and discipline. The Irish sol- reer proves that in Scotland, at least, exceptional women
diers had neither armor nor helmets, and so could not were not prevented from engaging in politics and debat-
withstand the quick-firing archers and mail-clad horse- ing theology. But then Scotland was not yet feudal. It was
men of the Normans. The invaders also had superior for- not until David I’s reign (1124–1135) that Norman influ-
tifications, for they built stone castles as they advanced, ences entered Scotland, and then they came like a flood.
castles the Irish found impregnable. The feudal system Norman families became prominent; the Celtic system of
was then imposed on the conquered lands, and though land tenure gave way to the feudal; the sheriff appeared;
the native peasants remained to till the fields, they were an exalted notion of kingship arose; and advances were
viewed as an inferior and savage race. The two commu- made toward a centralized administration. Though the
nities, speaking different languages, remained divided Normans never conquered Scotland, Anglo-Norman in-
from each other. stitutions did.
 The Angevins 67

Richard i and King John To avoid capture by Philip, he decided to travel through
the Adriatic and Central Europe, but this proved his
Of all the kings of England, Richard I, also called Richard undoing. In Vienna the Duke of Austria, with whom
the Lion Hearted, was the least English. Raised in A­ quitaine, ­R ichard had quarreled on the Crusades, captured him.
he spent only six months of a ten-year reign in England, a The duke turned him over to his lord, Emperor Henry VI,
land he chose to pillage rather than govern. A superb sol- with whom both Henry II and Richard had quarreled.
dier and a spirited chivalrous knight, his one passion was to Henry VI, in need of money, demanded an ­i mmense
embark on the Third Crusade and recapture Jerusalem. To ­r ansom—150,000 marks—for Richard’s release. It is a
secure money and allies for this venture he was prepared to testimony to the wealth and ­efficient administration of
go to any lengths. He sold public offices, released the King ­E ngland that the government could raise the money.
of Scotland from vassalage, and ceded Auvergne to Philip When Richard had first left for the East he had provided
Augustus. “If I could find a suitable buyer,” he is reported a clumsy system of two justiciars to rule in his absence.
to have said, “I would sell London itself.” He set out in the It broke down, and he had to send ­Walter of Coutances
summer of 1190, wintered in Sicily, spent May capturing to save the situation. It was Walter who, with the help
Cyprus from a Greek tyrant, and arrived before the walls of other loyal servants and Richard’s mother, Eleanor,
of Acre in June. Acre was a virtual seaport whose capture raised the vast sum demanded by Henry VI. They did so
had defied the efforts of the demoralized crusaders already by ­collecting a scutage of 20 shillings on ­e very knight’s
there. Richard, with his siege engines and skillful general- fee, a carucage of 2 shillings on every hundred acres of
ship, captured it within a month. He then marched through land, and a 25 percent tax on the movable wealth of every
the hot, dry countryside toward Jerusalem. He got within ­Englishman. Scutage was a payment of money in lieu of
12 miles of its walls, only to find his supplies exhausted and the performance of knight service in person, and became
the crusaders torn by dissension. He thus decided to nego- common as subinfeudation created knight fees of one-
tiate with the powerful Arab leader, Saladin. In September half, or even one-sixth, of a knight’s service. The ­carucage
1192 Richard concluded a three-year truce with Saladin that was a tax on land that replaced the old Danegeld. The frac-
gave the Christians access to the holy places of Jerusalem. It tional tax on personal property was an Angevin inven-
was not the brilliant success he had dreamed of, but news tion, first used in 1166 to raise money for the defense of
that his brother John was plotting with Philip Augustus the Holy Land. The fact that the government could govern
against him persuaded him to hurry home.

Queen Eleanor and Richard I, from the effigies at Fontevrault Abbey, France. 
(Giraudon/Art Resource, N.Y.)
68 A History of England

efficiently in Richard’s long absence and now raise the Magna Carta
money needed to ransom him is a tribute to Henry II’s re-
markable administrative reforms. In England the early years of John’s reign were years of
Richard paid his second visit to England in 1194 to s­ ecure order and peace. The man most responsible for this was
the money needed to save his empire from the French king. Hubert Walter, Chancellor and Archbishop of ­Canterbury.
The single-minded purpose of Philip A ­ ugustus was the de- His death in 1205 was therefore a severe loss to E ­ ngland.
struction of the Angevin Empire. But he found his match in It also made necessary the election of a new Archbishop,
Richard, who spent the last five years of his reign resolutely an election that plunged England into seven years of
defending it. For this purpose Richard found the feudal in- strife. John wanted the monks of Canterbury to elect
stitutions of England inadequate, for he needed an army in the Bishop of Norwich, but instead they elected their
the field for longer than the 40 days a feudal levy custom- ­subprior. ­Hearing of this, John commanded them to elect
arily served. He therefore raised an army of paid knights the Bishop, which they did. The monks then took the dis-
(at a shilling a day), of men-at-arms (at four pence a day if pute to Rome, where Innocent III, a Pope dedicated to the
mounted and two pence if not), and of foreign mercenar- supremacy of spiritual authority, set aside the election of
ies who lived for fighting and plunder. It was enormously both candidates and persuaded the monks to elect Stephen
expensive, but it allowed Richard to defeat Philip Augustus ­Langton, an English cardinal. John refused to accept such
at every turn, until an arrow fired during a skirmish ended an election and denied Langton entry into England. The
Richard’s life on April 6, 1199. Pope replied by placing England under an interdict and
By the laws of primogeniture, all Richard’s lands by excommunicating John. John retaliated by seizing the
should have gone to Arthur of Brittany, son of John’s older property of those who refused to perform the prohibited
brother, Geoffrey. The barons of England and Normandy, religious services. For five years the churches were silent,
however, preferred John to a boy of 12, as did John’s their doors closed, while John plundered their wealth.
mother, Eleanor, who won Aquitaine for him. The barons Then suddenly, in 1213, John surrendered. He accepted
of the Loire preferred Arthur, as did Philip ­Augustus, who Langton as A ­ rchbishop, restored to the Church its prop-
received Arthur’s homage for all the A ­ ngevin lands in erty, and agreed to govern England as a papal fief. He sur-
France. John now acted swiftly. He had himself invested rendered because the Pope threatened to pronounce his
as Duke of Normandy in Rouen in April and crowned deposition if he did not yield and because Philip planned
King of England in London in May. He then threatened to invade England. Conscious of his growing weakness at
to carry on a war that had already exhausted all parties. home, he knew that he needed the moral authority of the
Philip retreated and granted John, in return for the pay- Church in order to withstand Philip.
ment of an enormous relief of 20,000 marks, all Richard’s From the day he lost Normandy, John had to provide for
French possessions. John now, as so often, proved his own the defense of England, since the Channel ports now lay in
worst enemy. In August he married Isabel of Angouleme, hostile hands. He quickly built a fleet of 51 royal galleys and
laid claim in her name to La Marche, quarreled with the organized the local defenses. The danger soon passed, for
barons there, and refused to appear at Philip’s court when Philip turned his attention to the south of France. But this
the barons appealed to him. Philip’s court then ruled that fact did not end the enormously costly military prepara-
John had forfeited all his French lands. This led to war, tions, for John’s consuming desire was to recover his French
which John opened with a bold stroke. From Le Mans lands. To this end he led an expedition to Gascony in 1206
he marched 80 miles south in two days, surprised those and allied with the Emperor in 1209. By 1213 the dukes of
who were besieging Eleanor in the castle of Mirabeau, Brabant and Limburg and the counts of Flanders, Holland,
and captured Arthur and 200 barons. He then forfeited and Boulogne had joined the coalition. The English trea-
the decided advantage he had won by allowing 22 of the sury poured out vast sums for these princes. The plan of
prisoners to die of starvation and (according to one story) attack was carefully thought out: John was to march against
by murdering with his own hands, when drunk and in the French king from the southwest and the Emperor, with
a rage, the young Arthur, whose body he threw into the the coalition princes, from the northeast. Unfortunately
Seine. Arthur’s murder cost John all support in the Loire for John, his Poitevin barons would not fight against the
Valley and Brittany and his idleness the next year cost French king and so he had to retreat to La Rochelle. His
him Normandy. Philip conquered N ­ ormandy in 1204, retreat allowed Philip to throw all his forces against the
captured the last castle in Anjou in 1205, and secured Emperor at Bouvines, where on July 27, 1214, he routed the
Brittany in 1206. John, who had fled to England in 1204, armies of the coalition. The Battle of Bouvines ended all
now held only a part of Aquitaine. John’s hopes of recovering his French lands.
 The Angevins 69

The catastrophe of Bouvines made Magna Carta inevi- the three customary ones) be levied only with the consent
table, for an arbitrary king cannot afford the humiliation of the Great Council—a clause that contained the germ
of such a defeat. Yet Bouvines only heightened the strug- of the principle “no taxation without representation.” But
gle that led to Magna Carta. That struggle had begun with the Magna Carta was more than a feudal document. In the
John’s vast and unending financial exactions. He levied a first place, it contained clauses that guaranteed the rights of
scutage on the slightest pretext, raising the usual rate of the Church, the liberties of the towns, and the freedom of
1 mark per knight fee to 21⁄2 marks in 1204 and 3 marks movement of merchants. In the second place, it accepted
in 1213. He also placed a one-fifteenth tax on all merchan- and confirmed the legal reforms of Henry II’s reign. The
dise passing through English ports and twice taxed the King should not sell, deny, or defer justice to any person;
movable wealth of Englishmen. He exploited feudal dues the court of Common Pleas should remain in a fixed place;
by charging exorbitant reliefs and selling wardships to the the possessory writs should be heard more often; no free
highest bidder. Henry II and Richard had also exacted person should be arrested, imprisoned, or dispossessed
great sums from their subjects, yet had not met resistance. “except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law
The difference in John’s case lay in his arbitrary rule, his of the land.” This last clause did not mean trial by jury, as
suspicious nature, and his wanton cruelty. In many ways the seventeenth-century lawyers thought, but it did mean
John was an attractive king. He had an acute intelligence, a trial before a court of law. These clauses in Magna Carta
sense of humor, great administrative capacity, and a fond- meant little to the villein, for Henry II’s reforms applied
ness for reading. He liked to do justice in person, though only to freemen, but as villeinage slowly came to an end,
too often he gave the force of law to whatever pleased him. more and more people came to enjoy the protection these
“The law is in my mouth,” he once said. He was deeply sus- clauses offered.
picious of his subjects and so frequently demanded oaths For contemporaries, the significance of Magna Carta
of loyalty from them and hostages to secure those oaths. lay in the fact that it contained a full and detailed state-
He took a morbid delight in watching judicial combats ment of the customs of the time. For future generations
and was capable of great cruelty, as when he allowed the its significance lay in the fact that it enunciated the prin-
wife and son of William of Braose, a favorite who had in- ciple that the king is, and shall be, beneath the law. The
curred his displeasure, to starve to death in the dungeon Angevin kings had created a despotism that threatened
of Windsor Castle. to sweep aside the restraints of feudal custom. Ranulf
The events leading to Magna Carta began with a Glanvill even opened his treatise on the laws of England
­meeting of the barons at St. Paul’s Church on August 25, by quoting the maxim in Roman law that what the prince
1213, at which Stephen Langton read aloud Henry I’s cor- decrees has the force of law. John’s capricious and arbi-
onation charter. A year later the barons, mostly from the trary conduct, however, persuaded the English to place
north, refused to pay the scutage demanded by John, and their king beneath the law. They even added to Magna
early in 1215 they gathered under arms at Stamford. From Carta a crude mechanism to ensure that he could no lon-
­Stamford they marched on London, where in May the citi- ger override it. A committee of 24 barons was empow-
zens opened the gates to them. Originally it was a revolt ered, with the help of the whole land, “to distrain and
only of the great barons pursuing their selfish ends, but distress” the king in every possible way should he violate
they were soon joined by the Church, the lesser feudal ar- the charter.
istocracy, and the towns. Between the middle of May and This clause never came into operation, but in ­September,
middle of June, Stephen Langton played the crucial role in when the Pope condemned Magna Carta and when John
transforming the purely feudal demands of the barons into recovered his nerve and began to raise mercenaries, the
the demands of the whole realm. John, who now saw that barons took up arms again, even appealing for help to
he was defeated, agreed to meet the barons at the meadow Louis, son of the French king, to whom they offered the
of Runnymede by the Thames, halfway between Staines, English crown. Civil war raged until John fell ill of dysen-
where the barons were camped, and Windsor, where John tery, made worse by a surfeit of peaches and cider, and died
resided. There, on June 15, 1215, John set the seal to the on October 18, 1216. The accession of his son Henry, a boy
Great Charter, or Magna Carta. of nine, brought the civil war to an end.
Magna Carta was fundamentally a feudal document,
a defense of the interests of a feudal class. It contained
clauses limiting reliefs, forbidding the wasting of lands
Note
during wardship, removing widows from any compulsion 1. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. J. Ingram. 1912. New
to remarry, and providing that scutage and aids (other than York: E.P. Dutton.
70 A History of England

Further Reading mature judgments, and a sympathy for all human ­interests
make it a classic.
Frank Barlow. Thomas Becket. Berkeley, CA, 1986. A masterly
life of a contentious figure; scholarly, impartial, factual; uses James Clark Holt. Magna Carta. 2nd ed. Cambridge, ­England,
gossipy detail to deromanticize the twelfth-century Church. 1992. A major work of historical revision; Holt shows sym-
pathy for King John, criticizes the barons, and underlines
J. L. Bolton. The Medieval English Economy 1150–1500. ­London,
the ambiguities of the Charter; contains a good analysis of
1980. Comprehensive and clearly written; Bolton gives all
Angevin government.
points of view on debatable questions, then his own judg-
ments, which are well-balanced and fair. Amy Kelly. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings.
­C ambridge, MA, 1950. A beautifully written life of
M. T. Clanchy. England and Its Rulers 1066–1307. 3rd ed.
Henry II’s queen, in which places are vividly portrayed and
­Oxford, 2006. Both a clear narrative of political events and
events dramatically recounted.
a new interpretation of the period; stresses the interac-
tion of foreign lordship (Norman, Angevin, and Poitevin) Stephen Runciman. A History of the Crusades. Vol. 3, The
and a growing national identity; incorporates recent Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge,
scholarship. ­England, 1954. A distinguished work of scholarship, written
with wit, irony, and narrative skill; redresses the Western
H. E. Hallam. Rural England 1066–1348. Brighton, Sussex,
bias of most accounts.
England, 1981. Criticizes the orthodox view that by 1300
there was great hunger in England and that famine caused W. L. Warren. King John. New York, 1961. A reassessment of
a decrease in population; emphasizes late marriages and the reign of King John, in which the flaws of his character
technological advances in farming. are played down; written for the general reader.
Charles Homer Haskins. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Cen- ——— Henry II. London, 1973. A political narrative of the
tury. Cambridge, MA, 1927; reprinted by Meridian Books, reign, punctuated by extended analyses of the government
1960. A masterful survey of the intellectual achievements of England and of Henry’s relation with the Church; flu-
of the twelfth century; breadth of scope, deft use of detail, ently written but insular in outlook.
 chapter 6

The Thirteenth Century:

1216–1307

I
Chapter Outline
f the twelfth century was the springtime of medieval civili-
zation, the thirteenth century was the high summer. During that
■ Barons and Knights century the institutions of medieval life—lord and vassal, manor
and guild, castle and cathedral, town and university, tournament
■ Manor and Village and t­ roubadour—reached maturity. A moment of equilibrium was
reached when institutions and ideals fashioned in earlier years met
■ Town and Guild the needs of society. The medieval papacy reached its widest power,
governing the Church from Sicily to Scotland, from Spain to Norway.
The c­ rusading impulse led men to the Holy Land, while the code of
■ Bishops, Priests, and Friars
­chivalry, ­softened by the courtly ideal, governed the lives of knights.
A few scholastic ­philosophers held that faith could not contradict rea-
■ The Cathedral
son, though the great majority of men and women accepted unques-
tioningly the truths of their Christian faith. It was a stable society,
■ The University largely rural, with warfare endemic in the border regions, but peace
and ­order maintained elsewhere by a strong monarchy. England’s
■ Henry III and the Provisions of Oxford medieval monarchy, though it faltered during the reign of Henry III,
reached the summit of its greatness under Edward I. Within these
■ Edward I and Statute Law
same years there also emerged one of the most characteristic of medi-
eval institutions, ­Parliament, an ­institution that was to survive the age
that created it. The story of the thirteenth century, therefore, is one of
■ Wales, Gascony, and Scotland
stability and equilibrium, of splendor and achievement.

■ The Origins of Parliament

Barons and Knights
Medieval society was intensely hierarchical, with the various ranks
of men and women arranged in a social pyramid. At the apex stood
the king, with a revenue of £35,000 a year, followed by a dozen earls
whose incomes ranged from £1000 to £2000 a year. Below them were
20 to 30 barons who were wealthy enough to rank among the “mag-
nates of the realm.” Most barons had incomes varying from £500 to
£1000 a year. Farther down the social scale came the knights and
squires, whose manors brought them anywhere from £20 a year to
over £100. Though all knights were formally of the same social class,
the great baron towered over the ordinary knight. Most landlords, in
fact, never became knights; they remained country gentlemen, con-
tent to spend their time managing their estates and hunting. It is dif-
ficult to give a modern equivalent for these sums of money, but the
71
72 A History of England

immense wealth of the barons can be gauged by compar- when her husband, Simon de Montfort, was in Gascony
ing their incomes with those of the working classes. A or fighting in the civil war, she managed the entire estate.
skilled mason might earn £5 in a year, an unskilled laborer Women such as the Countess were neither the submissive
£21⁄2, and a laundress £1. In the thirteenth century wealth sheep depicted by the moralists nor the cardboard beauties
was concentrated in the baronial class, and, within that drawn by the romancers. They were women of spirit and
class, in the hands of a few. enterprise.
The need for money with which to pay royal taxes, hire The typical knight or squire, with some 24 tenants and
retainers, dispense hospitality, and live in splendor drove 250 acres of demesne land, possessed no such household,
the nobility to manage their estates carefully. To assist and was content to live in an unfortified house, with a hall,
him, a great magnate would have a large household, per- a kitchen, and a private room for himself and his lady. The
haps of 60 servants, with a council to advise him, audi- great barons lived in castles that bore little resemblance to
tors to oversee his accounts, a marshal to superintend the the small wooden keeps of the eleventh century. The quest
stable, a chaplain to say mass, a baker to bake bread, and a for greater security against siege and for more comfort
brewer to brew beer. The household itself was a small hier- led to the building of ever larger castles. The castle, once a
archy, with the lord at the top and a phalanx of grooms at single building, now became a series of separate buildings
the bottom. The key official was the steward, who decided surrounded by a protecting, or “curtain,” wall. The curtain
what crops should be grown, how many halfpenny loaves wall had a walk on top and projecting towers from which
could be made from a quarter of grain, and whether the archers could fire on anyone who attempted to scale the
reeve was cheating in the delivery of milk and cheese. The walls. Within the wall was a stone keep and miscellaneous
steward saw to the collection of rents, accounted for all ex- wooden buildings—a chapel, a kitchen, stables. The stone
penses, and presided at the manorial court. It was a foolish keep usually consisted of a basement, where stores were
lord who left the steward to his own devices, for they could kept, a great hall above it, and above the hall the bedcham-
be unscrupulous. A wise lord took a personal interest in ber of the lord and lady. The hall, with a dais or raised plat-
his estates and tenants, learned the extent and fertility of form at one end and a fireplace in one wall, was the hub of
his lands, surveyed the rents and services owed him, and all social activity. It was meagerly furnished, with only two
strove to know his servants personally. His lady likewise chairs on the dais for the lord and lady, trestle tables and
took an active part in the administration of the house- benches, and hangings of painted cloth on the walls. Glass
hold, as the career of the Countess of Leicester illustrates. windows began to replace shuttered windows, but even
She regularly supervised the immediate household, and then the hall was usually dark, cold, and cheerless.

Bodiam Castle near Hawkhurst on the border of Sussex and Kent. The castle is surrounded by
a wide moat, fed by the Rover Rather.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 73

The castle afforded the background for a life shaped evenings the nobility played chess or gambled with dice.
by chivalry, a system of ethical ideas appropriate to the Playing cards had not yet appeared in Europe, and books
knight—that is, to a man whose profession was fighting. were used for devotion, not amusement. The place of the
Among the virtues it extolled were prowess in battle, cour- book was taken by the minstrel, who recited, sang, danced,
age, loyalty, fidelity to one’s word, and generosity. By the and juggled. Feasting afforded an occasion for hospitality,
thirteenth century generosity had become the chief v­ irtue. with silver plates, cups, and spoons proudly displayed at the
One troubadour declared it to be a disgrace for a man to high table. There might be elegant dishes, such as larks and
live within his means; he ought to mortgage his estate in woodcocks, but the usual fare was an abundance of beef,
order to entertain and to give presents. These virtues were mutton, pork, and poultry, washed down with wine from
not only exhibited on the battlefield, they were also cel- Bordeaux. So great was the thirst of the upper classes for
ebrated in long narrative poems, the chansons de geste. wine that it amounted to one-third of all English imports.
In these songs of great deeds the poet chronicled endless
battles and recounted vivid stories of the hero cutting his
foes to pieces. But during the twelfth and thirteenth centu-
Manor and Village
ries two influences, the Church and the lady, modified this The barons and knights of England drew their wealth from
rough masculine code of ethics. land, either from many manors scattered across many
The Church developed the concept of the perfect knight, counties, or from one carefully managed manor. The manor
a devout Christian who served his lawful prince, put down as an institution reached its greatest extent in the thirteenth
crime, and aided the weak and helpless. It argued that the century, although the classic manor, with its open fields
knights of the realm, like the clergy, formed an order ap- and meadows, its villeins and cottagers, its week-work and
pointed by God to fight in His service. At the same time boonwork, did not prevail everywhere. In much of East
the courtly ideal appeared in southern France, where lyric Anglia and Kent enclosed fields were normal, and the peas-
poets, called troubadours, glorified the great lady, placed ant was often a freeman with little connection to a manor.
her on a pedestal, and made her adoration and service, In Cornwall, the Lake District, the Welsh Marches, and the
even from a distance, the greatest good in a knight’s life. hilly country of the Pennines, the isolated farm and hamlet
Carried to Paris and London by Eleanor of Aquitaine and predominated. In fact, throughout much of the Midlands
her courtiers, this new ideal became the fashion. Together and the South, where the classic manor did prevail, there
the courtly and religious ideals transformed the Welsh was not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between
tales of King Arthur into romances that celebrated prowess manor and village. In Warwickshire in 1279 about half the
in battle, devotion to God, and worship of woman. villages had a single lord of the manor; in the other villages
In the thirteenth century there were in England between there were two or more manors, each with its lord.
500 and 1000 knights, among them most of the great mag- It was the village that dominated the peasant’s life, with
nates of the realm. When life grew tedious, they turned for its small houses clustered around the great stone church, its
amusement to the tournament. In the early Middle Ages narrow streets radiating from the village green, its mill, its
these tournaments were like pitched battles: The knights alehouse, and perhaps a manor house, though often the
would divide into two camps, and then charge each other lord lived elsewhere. Beyond the one-storied, thatched
in a murderous melee. By the middle of the thirteenth cen- houses, each set in a small garden, stretched the great open
tury, urged on by Henry III and Prince Edward, a new kind fields. The meadows where peasants mowed hay in June lay
of tournament appeared. The knights now jousted against next to the river. On the commons, a piece of rough pas-
each other individually, with blunt weapons, before spec- ture land, those peasants fortunate enough to own a cow
tators, and according to accepted rules. Tournaments now could put it out to graze. It was in such villages, contain-
became both great social occasions and a training ground ing on the average about 300 persons, that the majority of
for young knights. people lived out their lives.
Hunting was another favorite amusement. If a baron did The villagers had a voice in the management of the
not own a private forest, he at least had a park, or area of open fields surrounding them, but where there was but
land enclosed by a paling, where he might hunt deer with- one lord of the manor or a dominant lord, the villagers
out royal license. The medieval upper classes also had a acted through the manorial court. The manor, not the vil-
passion for hawking, or hunting with the falcon. This sport, lage, was the working unit of agrarian life. A manor was
like hunting the deer, was reserved for king and ­nobles both a piece of land and a unit of jurisdiction over those
alone. The yeoman had to be content with a goshawk and who lived on the land. A tenant was also the lord’s man;
the clergyman with a sparrowhawk. In the long winter he performed an act of homage in the manorial court on
74 A History of England

receiving his strips in the open fields. There were many wished. Lawyers defended the tallage on the grounds that
kinds of tenants. The elite among them were the freemen, in theory the serf and all his chattels belonged to the lord.
who owed only a money rent and answered in a royal Yet the serf was not a slave; he possessed rights protected
court for any petty crime they committed. The freemen by the custom of the manor. Chief among these was the right
on a manor might come to 15 percent; all the others were to the produce grown on his strips in the open fields. These
serfs, which meant that they could not leave the manor or strips passed on his death to his widow, and on her death to
marry without the lord’s permission and must answer for their eldest son (or, in some parts of England, to the young-
the tenure of their holdings and for any petty crimes in the est). The holding of strips in the open fields brought with it
manor court. the right to strips in the meadow and “the right of common,”
Even among the serfs there was a hierarchy. At the top which was of great value because it allowed the peasant to
were the holders of a full virgate of land (which varied graze livestock on the commons proper, on wasteland, and
in size from 16 to 30 acres according to the quality of the on the arable and meadow after the crops were harvested.
soil); below them were those who held half a virgate. At The serf ’s rights were secured in the manor court, held
the ­bottom were the cottagers, who held only a small plot on a green or under an oak or in the lord’s hall, presided
of land, about five acres; for a livelihood they ­depended over by the lord or his steward, and attended by all the serfs,
chiefly upon wages paid for their labor by the lord or by who declared the custom of the manor and handed down
a virgater. The greater a serf ’s holdings, the greater his judgments. The manor court had various duties: It con-
obligations. The holder of a virgate of land, for example, trolled the open fields, determined how many cattle each
owed not only a money rent but also week-work and tenant might place on the pasture, witnessed the transfer of
boonwork. On the manor of Borley in Essex, week-work land, and punished trespasses and theft. On the manor of
meant ­laboring on the lord’s demesne for 3 days each week Tooting Bec, for example, the court punished one ­Richard
between ­S eptember 29 and August 1; boonwork meant Bradwater, a considerable scoundrel, for letting his pigs
24 days harvesting for the lord between August 1 and trespass on the lord’s meadow, for driving another man’s
­September 29. Week-work and boonwork did not end the cattle from the common pasture, for mowing and taking
burdens resting on the serf. He must also grind his grain hay from the lord’s meadows, and for assaulting the bailiff.
in the lord’s mill and bake his bread in the lord’s oven, for The bailiff was the lord’s man, responsible to him for the
which he paid a fee. On his death his heir must pay a ­heriot, administration of the manor, but the pivotal officer in the
which might be only his best beast, but might also include running of a manor was the reeve, who was usually chosen
his cart, pigs, copper vessels, and uncut woolen cloth. He from amongst the wealthier peasants. It was the reeve who
paid a fee at the marriage of his daughter or at his son’s saw that workers got up on time, supervised the plowing,
leaving to become a priest. Most grievous of all, his lord kept watch on the threshing, and brought before the manor
might tallage him at will, that is, exact whatever sum he court those who failed in their duties.

Sowing the seed by hand; Luttrell Psalter.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 75

The immemorial rhythm of the seasons dictated the life autumn the peasant repaired farm implements and gath-
of the peasant. In January he would spread manure or marl ered wood or peat for winter fuel. During these months
on the fields; in February he would plow in the straw; in the peasant woman toiled as ceaselessly as her husband,
April he would plow in preparation for sowing the spring growing vegetables, making cheese, brewing ale, spinning
crops. The seed was scattered by hand from a basket slung yarn, and helping at harvest. Women performed every task
around the sower’s neck, and the field was then harrowed known on a manor but that of plowing.
so that the birds could not eat the seed. The harrow was a Women’s labor in agriculture was indispensable in a time
wooden frame with teeth projecting from it, which a horse when almost everyone lived on the margin of subsistence.
drew over the sown field. In May the peasant worked in Peasant wives held land in jointure and succeeded to land
his garden; in June he mowed the hay in the meadow, for upon a husband’s death, but unmarried village girls and
which purpose he used a long scythe. In July he plowed women might go into domestic service. While wages for
the fallow a second time. August saw the climax of all his seasonal labor such as harvesting were higher, contracts for
activities, for then the crops were harvested. To mow the service were for a year—and thus more attractive in a pre-
barley, oats, and rye the peasant used a scythe, but to cut carious world. Ale made from barley was the most com-
the wheat he used a sickle. The wheat was cut high up mon drink, since water was considered unsafe. Thus some
on the stock, leaving the straw standing. Men worked in women augmented the family income by becoming brew-
teams of five: four cutting and one binding. In the autumn sters (female brewers). Brewing was a popular by-employ-
the fallow was plowed for the last time, in preparation for ment, although it was time-consuming and labor-intensive.
planting winter wheat. During wet weather the grain was Since ale quickly soured, the necessity of producing a steady
threshed, using a flail (two pieces of wood tied together supply kept brewsters busy. Small-scale home-brewing be-
by a leather thong), which the worker swung against the came unprofitable in the fourteenth century once hops
grain, dislodging the kernels. The kernels were separated were introduced and beer could be brewed. (Unlike ale,
from the chaff by tossing the grain into the air when there beer might be stored.) Women wage-laborers in the coun-
was a strong breeze, the breeze blowing away the chaff and tryside took up the same employment as men: haymaking,
leaving the heavier kernels to fall to the ground. In late mowing, and breaking stone for the repair of roads were all
“women’s work.” Female thatchers and reapers received the
same wages as men, but evidence exists that women’s labor
was usually cheaper. Walter of Henley counseled managers
of estates to keep a woman for stock-taking “since it is al-
ways advisable to have a woman there for much less money
than a man would take.” The Statute of Cambridge declared
that shepherds and carters should receive ten shillings a
year, while dairy maids received no more than six. Whatever
a woman’s contribution to the family and village economy
might be, her status remained that of an alien when it came
to the government of the community. Women did not attend
the manor court as tenants after they married; women did
Harvesting grain, as depicted in the Luttrell Psalter.  (British not join tithings nor did they act as reeves and jurors.
­Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) And what standard of life did the peasant gain from this
unremitting toil? If he were fortunate enough to own a vir-
gate of land, probably a rude plenty. He might hope to reap
68 bushels of wheat, 95 bushels of barley, and 70 bushels of
oats. He would probably sell his wheat to gain the money
with which to pay his rent. He would use the barley both
to brew ale and make bread; he would either feed oats to
his horse or eat the oats as porridge. But the virgate holders
were a minority; there were thousands who had but half
a virgate or less. For them life was a continuous struggle
to survive. The diet of the average peasant was monoto-
Stacking sheaves at harvest time, as depicted in the Luttrell nous. He rarely ate meat, except on special occasions, when
­Psalter.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) chicken or salted beef or smoked bacon would be set on
76 A History of England

the table. The usual diet was a hunk of bread and a mug of performed; on May Day they celebrated with dance, song,
thin ale in the morning, a lump of cheese and bread at mid- games, and more ale. The great occasions of life—birth,
day, and thick soup made of peas and beans in the evening, marriage, and death—were celebrated with much heavy
accompanied by bread, cheese, and ale. He lived in a house drinking, along with dances and games. It was not the
made by placing curved uprights, crucks they were called, Merry England imagined by nineteenth-century roman-
opposite to each other, with a ridgepole running the length tics, but neither was it an England of unrelieved gloom.
of them. Once this framework was up, the walls were built,
usually out of wattle-and-daub. A thatched roof kept out
the rain and an iron plate on the earthen floor served as a
Town and Guild
fireplace. Because there was no chimney and only one or A serf could escape bondage by fleeing to a town and
two small windows, the house was smoky, dark, damp, and ­living there for a year and a day. Many became merchants,
cold; bags of straw thrown on the floor served as beds. joined the merchant guild, and prospered. In the thirteenth
From this drab existence the peasant found some relief ­century, however, a peasant who fled to a town was more
in Holy Days. The Church decreed that these should be likely to become a member of a craft guild. The rise of the
many, but the lord of the manor saw that they were few. craft guilds was the most important change in town life to
Aside from Sundays, when light work was often demanded occur in the thirteenth century. The number and variety of
of them, peasants enjoyed the 12 days of Christmas and crafts were great: cobblers, saddlers, weavers, tailors, gold-
a few days at Easter and Whitsunday (the seventh Sun- smiths, drapers, tanners, bakers. Each craftsman was lim-
day after Easter). At Christmas they feasted at the manor ited to the pursuit of his own craft or “mystery.” So great
house, drank strong ale, and laughed at the pranks of the was the passion for specialization that in Canterbury the
mummer’s play; at Easter they watched the miracle play bakers of white bread were forbidden to bake black bread.
­Medieval shops were small, often not more than six feet
wide, and were less a store than a workshop. Craftsmen kept
no stock, but made goods to order. The primary purpose
of a craft guild was to protect the economic interest of its
members. No craftsman could work in a town unless he was
a member of the guild, which laid down detailed regula-
tions ­concerning the quality of goods, the method of manu-
facture, and the price that could be charged. It limited entry
into the craft booth by requiring a long apprenticeship and
by limiting the number of apprentices a master might have.
In the thirteenth century, apprentices might hope to be-
come masters, but by the late Middle Ages the great major-
ity could only hope to become journeymen, working for
wages the guild set. Custom, not competition, governed
economic life in the towns, just as it did on the manor.
The largest guilds were those associated with the manu-
facture of cloth, an industry centered in towns of the east-
ern Midlands, especially Leicester. There were four main
processes in the manufacture of cloth from raw wool:
­carding, spinning, weaving, and fulling. The last process,
fulling, entailed beating the cloth while it lay in a trough
filled with water and fuller’s earth, the purpose being to
thicken and felt the cloth. This was traditionally done by
workers treading upon the cloth with their feet, but late in
the twelfth century the fulling mill, which used waterpower,
appeared. Water was taken from a swift-flowing stream
and channeled to a waterwheel, whose axle extended into
the mill building. Here projections on the revolving axle al-
A pause during the harvest.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman ternately raised and let fall heavy wooden hammers, which
Art Library Ltd.) beat the cloth that lay in a trough of water and fuller’s earth.
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 77

Because of the need for waterpower and because rural la- shops offered for sale meat, fish, and fowl, roasted, baked,
bor was cheaper than urban, the clothmaking industry mi- or stewed. Young men enjoyed tilting, wrestling, bowls,
grated to the valleys of the West Country and the Pennines. cockfighting, and bull-baiting. On May Day, Londoners
The eastern towns kept their importance as market centers, walked out into the meadows and forests, for no medieval
but the migration of their only large-scale industry reduced town ever lost its rural character. The taverns, as the author
their prosperity. Despite the exodus of the cloth industry, of Piers Ploughman lamented, were always crowded with
the towns of England continued to grow. By 1336 there were tinkers, hackneymen, parish clerks, fiddlers, ropemakers,
about 240 towns in England, large and small. London was watchmen, and Tyburn hangmen, laughing and chatter-
by far the largest, with perhaps. 30,000 inhabitants and with ing, toasting and singing, until one of them, having drunk
suburbs that extended to the King’s palace at Westminster, a gallon and a gill, rose, staggered, and fell flat on the floor.
two miles to the west. York had about 10,000 inhabitants; “The only plagues of London,” wrote ­William Fitz Stephen,
Bristol, 8000; Coventry, 6000; and Norwich, 5000. “are the immoderate drinking of fools and the frequency
As towns grew in population and wealth they sought to of fires.”
secure themselves behind walls, but building walls was ex- The towns of later medieval England were magnets
tremely expensive. Therefore, as small a space as possible drawing younger women from the countryside. Since the
was enclosed, and it was used to the fullest. Streets were right to trade in a town was a privilege available only to
narrow and houses were normally only 16 feet wide—with freepersons of the borough, many came illegally, often shel-
the upper floor of the house often built out over the street. tering with family members already resident. Three sisters
Because houses were built of wood and roofed with thatch, from the hamlet of Illey were charged with illegal trading
fires were frequent. In 1189, therefore, the magistrates of in the borough of Halesowen. They were charged with sell-
London decreed that houses be built partly of stone and ing flour and ale in “false measure” and with forestalling.
roofed with tile. Towns had no drains other than the street Those who moved to a town more often came as ­servants.
itself, which sloped toward the middle. People dumped re- Domestic service was regarded not as a permanent oc-
fuse of every kind into the streets. But despite the stench, cupation but a transitional one between adolescence and
the medieval city, especially London, offered a lively, noisy, marriage. Service in an urban household might help a girl
colorful, gregarious life. Tradespeople called out their wares acquire a life partner as well as the skills and money nec-
and crowds searched for bargains at stalls and open shops. essary for forming a household. Formal apprenticeship of
On the river bank, near the wine wharves, public cook women in a trade or “mistery” was often not available; in

The Shambles, York. Though nothing in the Shambles is older than the sixteenth century, the
narrow street and protruding upper stories give a clear idea of the appearance of a medieval
town, crowded within its walls.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)
78 A History of England

Exeter apprenticeship enabled one to earn the freedom price. Above all, it condemned usury—that is, the taking of
of the city and was thus denied to women. In ­London the any interest on a loan. This prohibition led the Jews to es-
rules were less strict and women were permitted to enter tablish colonies in nearly every major English town and to
into apprenticeship contracts; the silk workers guild was grow wealthy loaning money to kings, noblemen, and prel-
made up entirely of women. Wives and daughters of guild ates at an average rate of interest of 43 percent. The Jews
members often carried on the trade they learned under a flourished under Henry II; suffered periodic confiscation
male head of household. Even guilds that barred women of their wealth under Richard, John, and Henry; and were
allowed for the contribution of wives. In Lincoln and expelled by Edward I in 1290 because they were no longer
­London a wife who pursued a trade different from that of needed. Their place was taken by Italian bankers, who had
her husband remained a femme sole: she could sue and be devised means to circumvent the ban on taking interest.
sued, borrow money, and keep her capital separate from
her husband’s. This custom had more to do with protecting
a husband’s assets than with female emancipation. But the
Bishops, Priests, and Friars
records contain many instances where women acted inde- The towns of medieval England contained an astonishing
pendently in the conduct of business. Alice da ­Horsford number of parish churches. London had 136; Norwich, 50;
successfully claimed her share in a ship owned by her late the small borough of Lewes, 8. Their great number reflected
husband, while the widowed Rose Burford recovered a the deep piety of the age, just as the great stone church in
debt owed by the crown by obtaining partial remission of each village, towering over the cottages, symbolized the
the custom paid on a shipment of wool. central place of religion in the lives of English men and
Unlucky servant women might find themselves sold women. It was within these simple, rectangular, high-roofed
into prostitution by unethical employers; some might have churches that villagers and townspeople worshipped, usu-
found such work preferable to returning home penniless. ally standing or squatting on the rushes that covered the
Brothels were licensed and regulated to ensure owners did floor. In these churches the priest droned out the mass,
not overcharge women for food and ale or require them to barely intelligible even to those who knew Latin. The peas-
do other work like spinning. In the fifteenth century the ant understood little, but when the bell rang and the priest
largest London brothel was located in Southwark on land held up the blessed bread and wine the peasant probably felt
owned by the bishop of Winchester. Officials of the bishop the mystery and dimly apprehended that Christ’s body was
were supposed to make sure no women were kept in pros- made anew. Paintings on the church wall portrayed for him
titution against their will, and to ensure that none were the ecstasy of the saved as they were caught up in the arms
beaten. Their plight highlights the vulnerability of single of angels and the horror of the damned as the devil seized
women in a town. Poverty was more common among this them with fleshhooks and pitched them into everlasting
group that any other, and such women were often the ob- fire. The fact of death and judgment haunted medieval life,
ject of charitable bequests. The dyer William Crosby left and the Church was present everywhere—at local shrines,
20 shillings to be divided among the “poor women” he em- at wayside crosses, in bands of pilgrims, in the pealing of
ployed to card and comb wool. Female textile workers and bells, in distant church spires.
pieceworkers who sewed caps and curried leather were an The Church was also omnipresent in economic life. To
identifiable underclass in the towns. Women who pros- the rector of the parish the peasant owed the great tithe in
pered almost always did so as wives or daughters of men grain, usually the tenth sheaf at harvest, and lesser tithes
established in a trade. in cattle, wool, and hay. Because these tithes were often
The townsman lived by different ideals from those of used for purposes other than his support, the parish priest
the nobleman. Not being trained as a soldier, he had little had to depend for his livelihood on the glebe. The glebe
taste for war. Communal pride, not reverence for a lord, was a portion of land, scattered through the open fields,
inspired him. And he could not afford the chivalric ideal which the priest himself farmed. He kept his beasts on the
of boundless generosity, for his money was his capital. This commons, appeared before the manor court, entered into
led the nobleman to condemn the townsman as grasp- petty quarrels, and ran the risk of becoming a farmer first
ing and stingy. The Church, too, condemned merchants and a priest second. But the involvement of the Church
who yielded to avarice. It taught the doctrine of the “just in economic life did not end with the priest and his glebe.
price”—namely, that a tradesman should charge only the Bishoprics and monasteries were among the greatest land-
price that would allow him to live as his father and grand- lords in the realm, owning many hundreds of manors. At
father had. It also condemned the practice of buying goods, Lincoln Cathedral, for example, one canon was rector of
holding them for some time, and selling them at a higher Langford in Oxfordshire and enjoyed its greater and lesser
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 79

tithes, while a second canon was lord of the manor at Dominic Guzman, a Spaniard, who believed that learning
­Langford and collected the rents and services owed him as and preaching should be used to combat heresy and to win
lord. Despite homilies in praise of poverty, the Church was people to the Gospel. Three years later a smaller band of
as insistent upon its rights as any lay lord. three Englishmen and six Italians landed at ­Dover. They
The wealth the Church took through tithes and rents was brought the faith and teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, a
unevenly distributed. Ecclesiastical society was every bit as young Italian who preached nothing less than one’s duty to
hierarchical as lay society. At the apex stood the princely live Christ’s life anew, here and now. Where St. D ­ ominic
bishops, governing their diocese, ordaining priests, hold- labored for the rational conversion of men’s minds,
ing synods, and conducting visitations. The wealthiest St. Francis sought to preach the Gospel by living it.
among them—the two archbishops and the bishops of ­Ultimately it was what the two orders had in common that
Winchester, Ely, and Durham—had incomes equal to those mattered. Members of both orders were bound by oaths
of the wealthiest barons. Below the bishop came the rector, of poverty, obedience, and chastity. They were not, how-
who if he enjoyed all the tithes of his parish, was a rich and ever, monks; they moved freely in the world, especially in
influential man, equal in status to a knight. But the income the towns, preaching, doing good works, bringing to the
of many rectories had fallen into the hands of abbeys, ca- thirteenth century a religious ardor no longer found in the
thedral chapters, collegiate churches, and the king himself. monasteries. By refusing to own property, they avoided
Much of this was inevitable, for in the thirteenth century the trap into which the monasteries fell, the possession of
episcopal officials, royal administrators, and university great and corrupting wealth. They lived in crude, unheated
scholars were not paid wages but were granted rectories, buildings owned by their patrons, and depended upon
whose incomes they enjoyed though they did not live in charity for their livelihood. By 1272 there were 49 houses
the parish. Some clergymen, known as pluralists, amassed of ­D ominican friars and 47 of Franciscans in England.
two or three rectories. The Church did not try to abolish Though forbidden to preach in a parish church without the
absenteeism and pluralism, but rather to mitigate the harm priest’s permission, they could preach in their own chapels
by demanding the appointment of a vicar to perform the and in public. Through such preaching, they revitalized the
duties of the parish priest. An ordinary vicar enjoyed an religious life of England.
income of about £4 a year, far less than a rector’s but more
than the £21⁄2 a plowman might earn. The vicar ranked
economically with the largest holders of land in the open
The Cathedral
fields. Below him were a mass of chaplains and assistant The cathedral, with its spires and pinnacles reaching for the
priests, the lowest paid among the clergy. heavens, with its lofty nave and choir leading irresistibly to
The gravest problem in the medieval Church was the ig- the high altar, with its translucent stained glass windows
norance of the clergy. “The ignorance of the priest,” wrote casting a mystical glow over all, expressed most palpably
Archbishop Pecham in 1281, “casteth the people into the the power, splendor, and mystery of medieval C ­ hristianity.
ditch of error.” Educated priests were needed to make clear The Anglo-Saxons were quite incapable of building such
to the ordinary parishioner the meaning of the service and churches. Most of their churches were built of timber;
of the symbolism that was everywhere. But most parish those they built of stone were small, usually without aisles,
priests could barely stumble through the four sermons re- and crude in construction. Windows were few and tiny,
quired of them each year. The dean of Sarum found that and the masons preferred to bridge the windows with a
five out of seventeen clergymen whom he visited could single stone or with two stones tilted against each other.
not interpret the central portion of the service of the mass. The true arch was beyond their capability. The coming
Their ignorance is not surprising, for they were largely re- of the Normans changed all this, for they were not only
cruited from the peasant class and received no systematic brave soldiers and energetic administrators, but prodigious
training. A boy might start as a server to the village priest, builders. Within a century they had built 97 great abbey
rise through the four major orders of the clergy, and learn and cathedral churches, not to mention countless parish
the elements of Latin from a kindly priest. Being of peasant churches—an astonishing feat for a country with a popula-
stock, they understood their parishioners, which was their tion of about 2 million.
great strength, but the art of making a sermon was beyond The Normans built their churches in the Romanesque
them. This they left to the preaching friars. style, which developed in Lombardy in the ninth century,
In 1221 a band of 13 priests, dedicated to a life of pov- when craftsmen rediscovered the art of constructing vaults
erty, simplicity, and preaching, crossed the Channel. and arches of masonry. The ground plan of these churches
They were a party of Dominicans, an order founded by was based on the Roman basilica, or hall of justice. The
80 A History of England

early Christian basilica was an oblong building, with aisles The greatest problem facing the builders of Romanesque
flanking a wide and lofty nave, ending in a rounded exten- churches was how to cover a wide and lofty nave with a
sion or apse, which contained the altar and the bishop’s stone roof. Except at Durham, they never solved it. They
throne (or cathedra, hence “cathedral”). Eastern influences had to rely instead on timber roofs, which created the dan-
led to the addition of cross arms, or a transept, between ger of fire. The art of stone vaulting, lost with the collapse of
the nave and the apse. Liturgical demands, largely occa- the Roman Empire, was recovered only slowly. In southwest
sioned by the Cluniac movement, transformed the early France masons solved the problem of vaulting the nave by
Christian basilica into the medieval cathedral. The need placing a series of domes on arches; at Issoire and Poitiers
to perform services of great solemnity and visual splendor they used a barrel, or tunnel, vault. But tunnel vaulting
led to larger, more impressive churches with processional could not rise very high, since its great outward thrust de-
aisles. The veneration of saints led to the building of many manded short, stout walls. The Normans discovered a third
side altars and chapels. The needs of the monks and canons solution: the groin vault. If two tunnel vaults intersect each
to perform their religious offices daily led to the extension other at right angles, the point of intersection has two trans-
of the east (the altar end of the church) beyond the tran- verse arches, two longitudinal, and two diagonal. This is a
sept, to furnish a choir. Because the laity were not permit- groin vault and the area it covers is a bay. The builders of
ted in the choir, a second altar was placed in the nave. The Durham Cathedral strengthened the groin vault by placing
chief elements used in the construction of these churches ribs along the lines of intersection of the masonry, thereby
were giant columns, massive cylindrical piers, semicircular making the vault less likely to collapse. The ribs also had a
arches, thick masonry walls, small rounded windows, and dramatic esthetic effect, for they took off directly from the
towers raised over the west front and over the crossing of shafts that made up the piers in each bay, thereby giving an
the nave and transept. The effect created by these elements unbroken vertical line from floor to ceiling.
can be seen in Durham Cathedral, the finest of all north- If made with a semicircular arch, a rib vault can only
ern Romanesque churches. It is an effect of massiveness, cover a square. If used to cover an oblong area, the di-
strength, vigor, solidity, and plainness of statement. agonal arch must be so depressed as to create the danger

Church of St. Lawrence, Bradford-upon-Avon, one of the finest remains of Anglo-Saxon

­architecture. The walls are two-and-a-half feet thick and the exterior is enriched with fluted
columns and blank arcading.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 81

Durham Cathedral, overlooking the River Wear, was built in the Romanesque style favored by
the Normans.  (© Phil Emmerson)

of collapse—and collapses were frequent in the twelfth each other. The English never pursued this system with the
­c entury. At Boxgrove Priory, where round arches were logicality of the French, who built ever higher vaults over
used, the builders solved the problem by making the choir nave and choir, but clung instead to a strong horizontal
twice the width of the aisles and by using every other aisle
pier to support the vaulting over the choir. Thus, every bay
was a square. But the most effective solution was the use of
the pointed arch, which allows more of the desired verti-
cality than a round arch. An oblong area could be covered
simply by employing different degrees of pointing. Though
more vertical than before, there was still considerable out-
ward thrust. To counter it, the builders of Durham sup-
ported the aisles with heavy buttresses and then ran arched,
or flying, buttresses from the aisle roofs to the walls of the
nave above the aisles. By using buttresses builders could re-
duce the thickness of the walls and increase the number of
windows. With the combination of these three elements—
the rib vault, the pointed arch, and the flying buttress—the
Gothic style was born.
A French architect, William of Sens, first used the
pointed arch for construction in England at Canterbury
in 1175, but the most inspired example of early Gothic is
Lincoln Cathedral, built between 1190 and 1250. Lincoln
contains the high vaulting, the pointed arches, the slender
piers, the heavy buttresses, and the narrow lancet windows
characteristic of the austere and simple beauty of early
Gothic. The Gothic style transformed the inert masonry of
the Romanesque (one column at Durham contains enough
stone for a dozen thirteenth-century piers) into a system of
lines of force, precariously and elegantly balanced against The interior of Lincoln Cathedral.  (The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
82 A History of England

line in nave and choir, and to the square English east end, glass. Where stonework was retained, it was paneled to
where they placed splendid windows. ­resemble window tracery. Over the choir at Gloucester ma-
The English did, however, pursue the arts of window sons created an extremely complicated vaulting and over
tracery and rib vaulting to their logical end. Builders the cloister they built the first fan vault in England, a vault
steadily increased the size of windows and by means of with ribs that fanned out in a cone shape. The groin vault,
stone shafts divided them into arches, circles, and other which had no ribs, became the fan vault, which was nearly
geometrical shapes. Geometrical tracery dominated the all ribs. Yet the spirit of the Perpendicular was not flam-
first half of the thirteenth century; during the second half, boyant like the Decorated, but rectangular, plain, sensible,
builders turned to curvilinear shapes of great inventive- and very English.
ness. At the same time vaulting became more elaborate, The ordinary English cathedral grew like a landscape,
with masons adding to the usual transverse, longitudinal, having perhaps a Norman nave, an Early English choir, a
and diagonal ribs—secondary ribs that fanned out from, or Decorated east window, and a Perpendicular north tran-
ran between, the primary ribs. Their purpose was purely sept, but this does not mean that the cathedral was the
decorative. In fact, historians describe this phase of Gothic spontaneous product of devout craftsmen. Every part
architecture as the Decorated to distinguish it from the ear- was designed by an architect, then called the master of
lier phase. A third phase, called the Perpendicular, emerged the works. He rarely labored with his own hands, leaving
in the early fourteenth century at Gloucester Cathedral. In that to the master masons, the carpenters, the glaziers, and
many ways it was the culmination of earlier developments. the sculptors. The sculptors were very much the servant
Walls that were once mostly stone now became largely of the architect. In the Norman churches their work was

The nave of Exeter Cathedral, one of the finest decorated The choir and east window of Gloucester Cathedral. 
­Cathedrals in England.  (Bernard Cox, The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) (The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 83

A misericord (a small carving on the bottom of a hinged church seat) at Westminster Abbey.

abstract, but with the coming of the Gothic they carved, in Chancellor, who awarded all degrees, no longer represented
a naturalistic manner, foliage, plants, and human figures. the Bishop of Lincoln but the masters; proctors named by
The greatest triumph of English sculpture was the west the university and not the town authorities disciplined stu-
front of Wells Cathedral, where Simon of Wells and others dents. There were four faculties, those of arts, law, medi-
carved 176 full-length statues. These statues do not exhibit cine, and theology. The growth of Oxford in the thirteenth
the intensity of the sculptures at Chartres, in France, but century resulted from a succession of great teachers, most
they do present a veritable “Bible in stone.” The cathedrals of whom were Franciscans or Dominicans. Among them
of England were not the spontaneous creations of humble were Robert Grosseteste, who became the first rector of the
craftsmen, but they were, and are, monuments to the deep newly arrived Franciscans, and his pupil, Roger Bacon, also
faith and great wealth of Englishmen in the Middle Ages. a Franciscan, whose inquiring mind turned from grammar
and logic to astrology and alchemy, and found there much
wisdom and much nonsense. The friars in the thirteenth
The University century gave Oxford a European reputation; Cambridge,
The university, like the cathedral and Parliament, is a legacy however, remained a purely local university.
of the medieval world. The medieval university, however, The students at Oxford ranged in age from 14 to 21 and
differed in many ways from the modern university. It had came to Oxford with a vocational purpose. Four out of five
few, if any, buildings, no student societies, no athletic pro- would become priests, a few bishops, others doctors or
grams, and no board of trustees. It was merely a guild of lawyers or monks. In the beginning they rented lodgings
masters of the arts, who established a curriculum of study, from the townspeople, but in order to escape the extortions
provided instruction in it—usually in hired halls, for a fee of landlords they banded together and lived in halls of their
paid directly to the professor—and offered a degree upon its own. They lodged and dined in these halls, but went out
completion. By 1190 there was such a guild, or universitas, at to any teacher in town for instruction, since every teacher
Oxford. It was a poor and struggling one, with the masters was free to set up his own school. Out of these halls gradu-
subject to the supervision of the Chancellor of the Bishop ally emerged the colleges of Oxford, with their endow-
of Lincoln and the students subject to the harassment of ments, statutes, rules, and buildings. Wealthy benefactors
townspeople. By 1300 the scene was transformed. There founded three colleges in the thirteenth century and four
now existed a privileged, self-confident community of more in the fourteenth, each with its rooms, dining halls,
scholars, consisting of some 1500 students and masters. The library, and chapel.
84 A History of England

Students were of all types. There was the poor student, “I believe because it is absurd.” Anselm, a­ rchbishop of
who earned a pittance copying for others and who could ­Canterbury under Henry I, was one of the first to ­employ
not afford to buy books for himself; the wealthy student, reason in the service of faith, but with Anselm, reason re-
who in addition to his books possessed a candle, a comfort- mained subordinate to faith. With Peter Abelard, reason
able bed, and clothes more magnificent than the ­prescribed appeared to assert an equality. In his famous Sic et Non he
gown and hood; the idle student, who drifted from mas- brought together the conflicting opinions of the ­Fathers
ter to master and spent most of his time in the tavern; the on all the chief points of Christian doctrine. He did so to
perennial student, who put off taking his degree so that reconcile them, but the contradictions he exposed seemed
he might continue to enjoy the good cheer of Oxford; the to promote doubt. Abelard knew only the logical works
dull student, who studied six years and learned nothing; of Aristotle. During the thirteenth century Aristotle’s
and the serious student, who attended lectures assiduously ­Metaphysics and works on science were translated. The
and read until he fell asleep over his books. Most students Church reacted by condemning these works, which con-
had high spirits and empty pocketbooks. The most com- tained such heretical doctrines as the eternity of matter. In
mon theme in letters home was the need for money, some the 1270s, however, a Dominican scholar, Thomas Aquinas,
of which was certainly used for drinking wine in a tavern, wrote his Summa Theologiae, a work that reconciled reason
after which the students might abuse some woman, mock a and faith and synthesized Greek philosophy and Christian
townsman, or provoke a riot. In 1354 several students pro- theology. Aquinas carried Aristotle’s ideas to the furthest
nounced the wine served them sour and threw the pot at point tolerable to the Church—too far, in fact, for the Arch-
the tavern keeper, thereby precipitating a riot that lasted bishop of Canterbury, who in 1277 condemned Aquinas’s
one week and led to the death of 63 scholars. work at Oxford. A year later, however, Aquinas’s supporters
To secure a mastership of arts a student had to study, for at Oxford secured his reinstatement. A more formidable
some six years, the seven liberal arts. The earlier years were critic of Aquinas was John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, a
spent on the trivium, which meant primarily a course in professor first at Oxford and then at Paris. He denied that
Aristotelian logic. Having completed the study of the triv- reason could prove the existence of God or that the intel-
ium, a student received the degree of bachelor of arts and lect could comprehend the nature of God. Scholasticism,
went on to the quadrivium. The great majority of students as perfected by Aquinas in the thirteenth century, asserted
never completed the six years required for a mastership of the harmony of reason and faith. Duns Scotus, who lived
arts, even though that degree was necessary if they wished into the next century, reasserted their separation.
to go on to study civil and canon law, medicine, philosophy,
or theology. To gain a doctorate in theology took another
eight years, with the result that few sought the degree. The Henry III and the
method of study both in the arts and the advanced curricu-
lums was the same: the close reading of prescribed texts—
Provisions of Oxford
Aristotle’s logical works in the arts course, The Digest in While the master masons built their ribbed vaults and the
civil law, Gratian’s Decretum in canon law, Abelard’s Sic et friars preached their sermons and the scholars wrestled
Non in philosophy, and Lombard’s Sentences in theology. with Aristotle, Henry III reigned as king. He came to the
These authorities were read, lectured upon, commented throne at nine years of age in 1216 and reigned until his
upon, compared, and disputed about. Truth had already death in 1272. The dominating theme of his reign was the
been revealed by authority; logic was the special tool for conflict between his resolve to restore royal authority to
harmonizing any discordance among authorities. what it had been before Magna Carta and the resolve of the
Historians have given the name scholasticism to the barons to force him to take their advice. Because the reis-
philosophy taught in the medieval universities. The name sue of Magna Carta in 1217 had dropped the provision for
derives from the twelfth-century episcopal schools where a baronial council, there was no obligation for the king to
this philosophy first emerged. Two great influences shaped consult them. Yet during Henry’s long minority the barons
scholasticism: the tradition of Greek logic and the doc- had grown accustomed to giving him counsel. Therefore
trines of Christian theology. In essence, scholasticism was when Henry in 1227 declared himself of age, turned for ad-
an attempt to apply the formal logic of Aristotle, with its vice to courtiers, employed aliens from Poitou and Savoy,
syllogisms, definitions, and classifications, to the doctrines governed through the Household rather than the Exche-
of the Church. The force of argument should buttress the quer and Treasury, and devised a private seal to circumvent
authority of faith. This was a bold step away from the dic- the Lord Chancellor’s Great Seal, the barons grew restless.
tum of Tertullian, an early Father of the Church, who said: Had Henry governed with conspicuous success the barons
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 85

might have forgiven him, but he embarked on several wars divisions. Montfort had come to England 20 years before, a
in France, which the barons did not want and which ended Frenchman ignorant of the English tongue though heir to
in disaster. Henry was a king of extravagant ambitions. the Leicester earldom. Marriage to the King’s sister made
­Appreciating art, he lavished treasure on the building of his fortune, but failure in the administration of Gascony
palaces and castles; extremely devout, he rebuilt Westmin- turned the King against him. Montfort was a clear-think-
ster in the Gothic style. But he never learned to govern, be- ing, methodical, just, even idealistic statesman, but he was
ing suspicious, opinionated, obtuse, and fickle. He was deaf also an arrogant and assertive person, who once said that
to reason and blind to public opinion. His ineptness was the King should be confined at Windsor as an imbecile.
particularly awkward at a time when the barons had come His leadership of the reform movement certainly alienated
to see themselves not merely as tenants-in-chief of a great Henry and prompted him in 1261 to persuade the Pope
lord, but as spokesmen for the “community of the realm” to to release him from his oath to abide by the Provisions of
a sovereign king. ­Oxford. Henry then dismissed the Justiciar and Chancellor
Two events precipitated the crisis that led to the named by the barons and sent Montfort into exile. The
­Provisions of Oxford in 1258. One was Henry’s grandiose barons did not oppose this, for a powerful group of them
scheme, urged upon him by the Pope, to win Sicily for his had come out against Montfort and the reform program.
younger son, Edmund; the other was a run of bad h ­ arvests. Henry, however, wasted his advantage by going to France
The year 1255 saw a good crop, but three bad harvests instead of restoring order, ending discontent, and consoli-
­followed. Despite the people’s distress, the King p ­ ursued dating his authority.
his absurd Sicilian venture, raising vast sums from the This gave the younger barons an opportunity to invite
clergy and a general aid from the kingdom. It was to no Montfort to return to England, which he did in April 1263.
avail. No troops were raised and only a fraction of the huge Civil war was imminent, but neither side was prepared to
sum promised the Pope was collected. His Sicilian policy wage it. They therefore agreed to arbitration by Louis IX
bankrupt, bereft of allies, the Church alienated, Henry in of France, who, swayed by Henry’s surrender of all claims
1258 yielded to the demands of a confederation of barons in France north of the Loire and in Poitou, pronounced
and knights. At a Great Council at Oxford these barons unconditionally in favor of Henry. Montfort rejected the
and knights, in the name of the commune of England, judgment, assembled an army, and met the King in battle at
forced upon Henry the Provisions of Oxford, a reform Lewes, in Sussex. The King’s son, the exuberant Prince
program consisting of four chief provisions. There should ­Edward, routed the undisciplined throng of Londoners on
be, first of all, a permanent council of 15, largely baronial, Montfort’s left, but then pursued them so far that he could
whose advice the King must follow in all affairs of state and not return before Montfort had won the battle.
who should name the Justiciar, Chancellor, and Treasurer. Montfort and his allies now created a Council of Nine to
­S econd, the traditional officers should be restored and govern England, but it was not Montfort’s intent to create
all revenues paid into the Exchequer, not into the King’s an oligarchy. He wished rather to govern through the Great
Chamber or its subdepartment, the Wardrobe. Third, a Council, meetings of which he summoned in 1264 and 1265.
panel of four knights should be chosen for each shire court To these parliaments he summoned not only the barons and
to hear complaints against sheriffs and other royal officials. bishops, but knights of the shire and, in 1265, burgesses from
Fourth, the Great Council, whose meeting was now called the towns. He sought and found his support in the middle
a “parliament,” should meet three times a year. The authors classes and in the clergy, among knights, burgesses, bishops,
of the Provisions of Oxford were a few powerful magnates, and scholars. But meanwhile he lost the support of the barons,
but to gain the support of other classes they offered them who believed it disloyal to govern against the King’s will and
benefits, such as an inquiry into sheriffs. But for the coun- who feared an investigation into abuses on their own e­ states.
try gentlemen an inquiry into the misdeeds of royal offi- The outcome was predictable: At Evesham on August 4,
cials was not enough; in 1259 they forced the magnates to 1265, a royal army overwhelmed Montfort’s small band, slew
agree to the reform of abuses on baronial estates as well. Montfort, and dismembered his body.
The barons who forced the Provisions of Oxford on The Battle of Evesham swept away the Provisions of
the King anticipated some 12 years of reform, but the pe- ­Oxford and restored Henry III to full authority. Guided
riod hardly lasted two. It came to an end because the now by his more prudent son, he exercised that author-
King turned against the program and because the barons ity more wisely during the last seven years of his reign.
were too divided to resist him. The leadership of Simon But ­Montfort’s death and the abolition of the Provisions of
de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, in the reform move- ­Oxford did not mean that the reformers had acted wholly
ment contributed both to the King’s rancor and the barons’ in vain. The idea that affairs of state should be discussed in
86 A History of England

great councils and that there should be a continuous coop- earl’s side, Edward acted on Bracton’s theory. He launched a
eration between king and barons had taken root in ­England, searching inquiry into all private jurisdictions, ordering his
not least of all in the mind of Prince Edward himself. justices to ask every man by what warrant (quo warranto) he
held his franchise. In 1278 he gave legislative authority to the
principle of quo warranto in the Statute of Gloucester, which
Edward I and Statute Law asserted that no franchise was to be exercised until its holder
Edward I was 35 years old when he came to the throne— had justified it before the King’s justices. Edward, however,
tall, lithe, handsome, with a broad forehead and thick black did not intend to destroy franchises, only to limit them.
hair. Though he spoke with a stammer, he possessed a ready Faced with baronial opposition to the Statute of Gloucester,
eloquence. He was a brave and skillful warrior, a consci- he accepted a compromise in the Statute of Quo Warranto
entious and wise king, and an intense and willful person. in 1290. By this statute a franchise holder, if he could prove
Above all, he had a keen interest in the law and a love of or- possession since time immemorial, which meant in prac-
der and system. These two qualities led him to systematize tice before the accession of Richard I, was entitled to a royal
the legal traditions of the past, much as A ­ quinas had sys- charter confirming his franchise. Franchises continued, but
tematized the philosophical and theological traditions of they were brought within an ordered system of royal justice.
the past. The Common law had grown by precedents estab- Edward I also used statute law to bring order to the law
lished by the decisions of judges in innumerable disputes. of feudalism. Most land in England was held by feudal ten-
The King in his Council, of course, was the highest court, ure, but the cost of armor had become so great and the av-
one where remedies could be found for new abuses either erage knight’s fee so subdivided that it became impractical
by the invention of new writs or by the handing down of to exact knight service. Even scutage became difficult to
new judgments. Edward now chose a different path for collect. Edward acknowledged these changes by replacing
­establishing such remedies. He chose to modify, alter, and the personal obligations of feudalism with territorial ob-
augment the Common law by means of statutes. A stat- ligations. In the Statute of Winchester in 1285, he and his
ute was a solemn declaration of the law by the King in his Council declared that all who held land worth £15 a year,
Council, and its significance lies in the fact that it could whether the tenure was feudal or not, must maintain the
create new law. No doubt Alfred the Great and Henry II horse and equipment of a knight (though a later effort to
did, in fact, create new law, but in theory they were only make all landlords worth more than £20 liable for service
declaring existing law. It was now recognized by judges, on horseback met stout resistance). Edward also cut boldly
by litigants, and by jurists that the King in Council could through the complexities of subinfeudation by declaring
­create a new law, which would then become part of the in 1290 in the Statute of Quia Emptores that henceforth no
­existing Common law. Indeed, the growth of the C ­ ommon man could create a new feudal tenure. If B held land A, he
law at the hands of the judges became less ­flexible because could grant it to C only if he dropped out of the chain and
enacted law controlled judge-made law. allowed C to hold directly of A. This brought the process of
Edward used the new instrument of statute law for three subinfeudation to a halt, and as land escheated to the pri-
basic purposes: to check the growth of private franchises, mary lord all tenures were brought nearer the King.
to define feudal relations, and to promote good local In enacting these two statutes Edward was not pursuing
government. a consciously antifeudal policy; he was only seeking order.
There were in medieval England many kinds of courts: Quia Emptores was enacted at the instance of the baronage,
royal, ecclesiastical, manorial, borough, and franchisal. In as was the Statute of Mortmain in 1279. This statute forbade
the thirteenth century the Crown grew especially suspicious a layman to sell or grant land to the Church, for once land
of the franchisal courts, which were held by private persons fell onto its hands there was an end to wardship, marriage,
and exercised a variety of rights. Such a court might claim and escheat. In theory the proscription was complete; in
the view of frankpledge or the right to hang a thief caught practice a layman could secure a royal license to sell or
red-handed or the right to summon the community to see grant land to a religious corporation. Knight service may
if there were any criminals to be presented for trial. Such have become an anachronism, but feudal incidents were
courts did not fit the theory put forward by Bracton in his still prized by King and barons alike.
Laws and Customs of England that all jurisdiction in the Resolved to bring good government to his subjects,
realm emanates from the king, that the king is the fountain ­Edward in 1274 ordered an inquiry into local government.
of justice. The Earl of Warenne challenged Bracton’s theory He thereby opened a Pandora’s box of complaints against
by producing the old, rusty sword with which his ancestors extortionate sheriffs, corrupt bailiffs, negligent coroners,
had won their judicial rights, but though history was on the and inept escheators. To remedy these abuses, Edward
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 87

and his Council enacted the Statutes of Westminster I Edward did not launch a premeditated war of a­ ggression
(1275), Gloucester (1278), and Westminster II (1285), great against Wales. War came when the proud and ambi-
­omnibus statutes that declared illegal a host of abuses. But tious Prince Llywelyn, grandson of Llywelyn the Great,
­Edward soon discovered what reformers in every age have refused to do homage to Edward for his principality and
discovered, that the evil often lies in corrupt individuals, pay the 3000 marks required annually by the Treaty of
not in the system. In 1289 he therefore appointed a special ­Montgomery of 1267. Edward, on his part, was determined
judicial commission to try corrupt justices, exchequer of- to assert his overlordship of Wales. War broke out in July
ficials, and sheriffs. Before the commission had finished 1277. ­E dward fought a brilliantly successful campaign;
its work, ten justices were found guilty and dismissed. But then the war came abruptly to an end in November. The
Edward was not content merely to enact new law and pun- Treaty of Conway followed, in which Edward, not being
ish corrupt officials; he also appointed new local officials, bent on conquest, allowed Llywelyn to rule a diminished
called keepers of the peace. They were drawn from the lo- Principality of Gwynedd in North Wales. The treaty proved
cal gentry, and it was their duty to keep order, apprehend to be only a truce. Bitter quarrels soon arose between the
criminals, and present them to royal justices. Edward went marcher lords and Llywelyn over the disposition of prop-
further. In the Statute of Winchester he made the burden erty and the question of whether Welsh princes should
of catching criminals and bringing them to justice fall appeal their disputes to Llywelyn or to Edward. It was
squarely on the whole community. If a hundred failed to ­Llywelyn’s brother, David, who precipitated war in 1282 by
bring a murderer or a robber to justice within 40 days, it seizing Hawarden Castle and riding through Wales calling
must pay a penalty. Edward meant that his kingdom should for revolt. All free Wales rose with him.
be well governed and all his subjects have justice. Edward’s campaign in 1283 was as brilliantly successful
Knowledge of law now proved invaluable, especially to as that of 1277. There were four good reasons for his suc-
the landholders of England and the urban elite. The con- cess. To begin with, he mixed cavalry and archers in a new
veyancing of land from seller to buyer required the witness and effective way. He used the archers to break the en-
of a royal justice; now any gentleman would find it help- emy’s cavalry and his own cavalry to pursue the enemy’s
ful to understand the rudiments of law in a time when he broken forces. Second, he adopted a well-designed strategy
might have to defend or prosecute a cause without the as- of allowing the marcher lords to clear the south while he
sistance of counsel. However, legal professionals also ap- marched along the north coast of Wales and laid siege to
peared in the thirteenth century. The court of common Llywelyn’s stronghold in Snowdonia. Third, he had com-
pleas had its own rules and procedures, which only the mand of the sea, which kept his troops supplied and which
pleaders (known as serjeants) who frequented it would allowed him to cut off the island of Anglesey, with its grain,
fully grasp. Another group of legal specialists were the at- from Snowdonia. Fourth, he had behind him the resources
torneys; these men handled the paperwork of clients and of an England more united, more populous, and wealthier
were well established by the end of the thirteenth century. than ever before. For the core of his army, the cavalry, he
By the close of Edward I’s reign serjeants were appearing relied on the feudal host, but in fact there were in England
in the shire courts, while lawyers combining the work of only a few hundred knights, even though there were thou-
serjeants and attorneys were operating in the urban courts. sands of knight fees. Edward therefore increasingly em-
These provincial legal experts spread knowledge of the law ployed a salaried army. The army with which he conquered
and its power among their clients. Precise reference to stat- Wales was composed of levies of free men, who were paid
utes began to appear in petitions to Parliament, and clients wages and who were divided into battalions of 1000, com-
employed the law against their lords. In 1271 the unfree panies of 100, and lesser groups of 20, each under a desig-
tenants of Titchfield manor in Hampshire successfully ap- nated officer.
pealed to Domesday Book to modify the demands of the The defeat of the Welsh in 1283, the death of Llywelyn that
monastic house that held lordship over them. year, and the trial and execution of David in 1284 opened
the way for a permanent settlement in Wales. The King
through his justices now ruled North Wales, ­Cardiganshire,
Wales, Gascony, and and Carmarthenshire directly. Edward ­introduced English
criminal law into the new shires and hundreds that were
Scotland created in this area, though Welsh tenants continued to
Edward I made two great contributions toward the creation hold their land by Welsh law. The rest of Wales remained in
of the modern English state. One was the development of the hands of the marcher lords. Each lordship consisted of
statute law; the other was the conquest of Wales. a large territory occupied by Welsh tenants but centered on
88 A History of England

concentric curtain wall—a thick, high wall surrounding a

Edwardian Conquest large central space. Built into the walls were massive tow-
of Wales
ers with loopholes from which archers could cover all ap-
ANGLESEY
proaches to the castle. Entry into the castle across the moat
Beaumaris surrounding it was defended by a complicated system of
Rhuddlan Flint drawbridges and gates. By means of these splendid castles
Caernarvon
LORDSHIP
Edward fastened his grip upon Wales.
GWYNEDD ee

Harlech
R.
D OF CHIRK
The year 1293 marked a turning point in Edward’s reign.
E TH
ER
I ON Until then he pursued goals within his power to achieve;
M Shrewsbury
thereafter his unbridled ambitions taxed English resources
beyond endurance. Gascony was a case in point. Edward

R. S
Aberystwyth LORDSHIP

ev
OF WIGMORE held Gascony as a vassal of the King of France, Philip IV,

ern
N
GA
D
I
with whom he maintained good relations until 1293. In that
R
CA

E N
LORDSHIP
OF BRECON
year a dispute arose between English and Gascon ships on
RTH
LORDSHIP
OF PEMBROKE CA
R MA the one hand and Norman ships on the other, a dispute
Philip sought to settle in his court at Paris. As overlord of
LORDSHIP
OF GLAMORGAN Gascony, he summoned Edward to appear in Paris; but
0 20 40 Miles ­Edward, though quick to assert his rights as overlord in
Wales, refused to appear. Philip thereupon seized Gascony.
0 20 40 Kilometers
Edward replied by planning a great expedition to recover it.
  He taxed the clergy and laity directly and formed alliances
with Flanders, Brabant, and Nassau. But the country resisted
an English manor or borough. Nothing, however, did taxation and the nobility refused to serve in Gascony. In 1297
more to guarantee English ascendancy than the line of Edward took an army to Gascony but accomplished little.
great stone castles Edward built—at Flint, at Rhuddlan, at After five years of negotiations he recovered Gascony, but
­Aberystwith, at Harlech, at Caernavon, and at Beaumaris. only on condition that he recognize Philip as his overlord.
And with these imposing fortifications, the art of castle The war in Scotland, also the result of Edward’s ambi-
building in the west reached perfection. Their designers tions, explains in large part his failure in Gascony. In 1290
abandoned the motte-and-bailey principle for that of the Margaret, the heir to the Scottish crown, died, leaving a

Caernarfon Castle in northwest Wales.

 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 89

Harlech Castle from the south. Originally the sea washed the foot of the rocky hill on which it
stands.  (Photodisc, Inc.)

Perth
North
St. Andrews
Stirling Bridge Sea
Bannockburn
Falkirk
Glasgow Linlithgow Edinburgh
Berwick-on-Tweed

Roxburgh Flodden

Dumfries Solway
Moss
Newcastle
Burgh-on-Sands
Carlisle
Durham

Irish ISLE OF
MAN
Sea The Scots War
0 20 40 Miles
of Independence
0 20 40 Kilometers

disputed succession. This gave Edward an opportunity to nemesis of power revealed itself; Edward’s pride drove
assert his overlordship over Scotland by acting as arbitra- him ever onward. He treated Balliol not as a king but as
tor in the dispute, an arbitration that the Scottish n
­ obility a puppet, hearing in London appeals from Scottish sub-
welcomed. After hearing some dozen claimants, Ed- jects and o
­ rdering Balliol to raise money in Scotland for
ward in 1292 awarded the Crown to John Balliol. But the the ­Gascon venture. The Scots answered by allying with
90 A History of England

France in 1295, an act that goaded Edward into laying siege Yet it was the fiscal duties of Parliament that trans-
to ­B erwick-on-Tweed, capturing it, and indiscriminately formed it from an aristocratic assembly into a repre-
butchering its inhabitants. He then marched into Scotland, sentative institution. Two developments heightened the
secured Balliol’s abdication, and declared himself king. importance of those fiscal duties: the changing nature of
Edward’s triumph proved as empty as it was swift. Led the royal revenues and the growing scale and cost of war.
not by a nobleman but by a mere gentleman, W ­ illiam In the twelfth century the kings of England drew over
­Wallace, the Scottish people defied English power. In half their revenues from land (rents and tallage), over a
1297 Wallace defeated an English army at Stirling Bridge. third from lordship and jurisdiction (feudal aids and in-
­Edward avenged this defeat the next year at Falkirk, but did cidents, judicial fines, and ecclesiastical vacancies), and
not capture Wallace. Only by sending armies to Scotland only 13 percent from taxation (principally the Danegeld).
in 1300, 1301, 1303, and 1305 was he able to capture Wallace This predominance of revenues from land, lordship, and
and secure the homage of the bulk of the Scottish nobility. jurisdiction enhanced the independence of the King, since
But this work was suddenly undone when in 1306 Robert these revenues did not require the assembling of influen-
Bruce, a powerful Scottish nobleman, claimed the Crown tial men to approve their collection. By the late thirteenth
of Scotland and put himself at the head of a movement ­century the picture had changed. Whereas Henry I had
for Scottish independence. Edward set out once again for collected 85 percent of his revenues from land, lordship,
Scotland, but died, aged 68, at Burgh-on Sands. and jurisdiction, Edward I collected only 40 percent. Most
Scotland was Edward’s greatest blunder. When he came of Edward’s revenues came from taxation, taxes that were
to the throne, he found two kingdoms that had not been national, not feudal, that fell upon all free persons, not just
involved in a serious quarrel with each other for a century. tenants-in-chief. The most important of these was the lay
Before his death he had created antagonisms that were to subsidy, a tax assessed upon income and movable property
last for two-and-a-half centuries. of all free men. In the year 1207 John collected the first such
subsidy, a thirteenth of the income and movable property
of all free Englishmen. Henry III levied such subsidies on
The Origins of Parliament seven occasions.
The war in Scotland and the expedition to Gascony were At the same time the scale and expense of war increased.
immensely expensive, thus compelling Edward to sum- Henry I’s total income came to £22,000 a year, an amount
mon parliaments to obtain the money he needed. The word quite insufficient to pay for the mounting costs of wars and
parliament (derived from the French parler, “to talk”) first foreign ventures. A single expedition to France might cost
came into common use in the middle of the thirteenth cen- £50,000. Unable to pay for such ventures from their pre-
tury, when it described an occasion, not an institution. That rogative revenues, Henry III and Edward I had to resort to
occasion was a parleying or meeting between the King and the taxation of their subjects.
his notables in the Great Council. The composition of the To justify such taxation the kings of England pleaded
Great Council was much the same as the Curia Regis of the necessity: In a time of emergency the king had a duty to
Norman kings: the King himself, the bishops and abbots, defend the realm and his subjects, an obligation to sup-
and the earls and greater barons, to whom were now added port him in that defense. In the late twelfth century, law-
a bureaucratic element, the members of the King’s inner yers—both canon and civilian—popularized this doctrine
council who were neither barons nor tenants-in-chief. It of necessity, which became a common assumption among
was this body that the barons in the Provisions of Oxford the political classes. But two questions arose. Who was to
had demanded should meet three times a year. The func- judge when an emergency existed? And did necessity over-
tions of a parliament were political, judicial, legislative, and ride the rights of property? To the first question the canon
fiscal. Parliaments met to give the King counsel—Edward and civilian lawyers answered that, since the tax touched
even wrote the Pope that he could do nothing affecting upon all, the ruler must submit the plea of necessity to
the rights of the realm without such counsel. Parliament the counsel and consent of a representative assembly. And
was judicially important because it was the highest court Henry III did seek the counsel and consent of the Great
in the land, before which all important and difficult cases Council to the subsidies he collected. To the second ques-
were heard. Even the ordinary freeman, if he found no ap- tion the lawyers answered that necessity did override the
propriate writ to bring his case before the Common law rights of property if the king’s subjects assented to the plea
courts, could bring it before Parliament by petition. Under of necessity.
Edward, Parliament became important legislatively, for he During the reign of Henry III, lay subsidies were ex-
sought its assent in the enactment of his great statutes. ceptional, and therefore acceptable, but during Edward I’s
 The Thirteenth Century: 1216–1307 91

reign they became regular, and therefore burdensome. To were the King’s natural counselors, with a right to give the
find the means to recover Gascony, Edward collected lay King counsel on all affairs of state, including the necessity of
subsidies in 1294, in 1295, and again in 1296. He also taxed taxation in an emergency. But by 1295 matters had changed;
the income of the clergy, a tax that John had first collected, knights of the shire and burgesses from the towns, meet-
which usually consisted of a tenth of the annual incomes ing in Parliament, had been brought into the Great Council,
of cathedrals, abbeys, and rectories, and which required which was needed for the grant of a subsidy or the cus-
the consent of the clergy. In 1294 Edward likewise im- toms. Four developments brought about this change. In the
posed a customs duty on wool for three years, a tax beyond first place, both Henry III and Edward I imposed military
and above the 6 shillings 8 pence on every sack of wool ­obligations upon all free landholders, not just their tenants-
­exported that Parliament had voted Edward in 1275. These in-chief, thereby instilling in the knights of the realm an
three taxes—the lay subsidy, the tax on the clergy, and the awareness of their responsibility for the defense of the realm.
customs—had this in common: They required the consent Second, the new national taxes infringed upon the property
of those taxed, a consent given only if the King could prove rights of all free ­Englishmen, an infringement that could
that the realm was in peril. only be justified by securing from their representatives con-
The clergy were the first to resist Edward’s demands, first sent to the taxes. Third, the consent of the representatives
in 1296 and again in 1297. On both occasions they pleaded of the shires and towns proved administratively useful in
the papal bull, Clericis Laicos, in which Pope Boniface VIII the collection of the taxes. And finally, the baronial opposi-
condemned royal taxation of clerical wealth. Edward tion, in order to justify its o
­ pposition to the Crown, sought
­replied with a long exposition of the doctrine of necessity, the support of the knights and burgesses. The result of these
and wrested a subsidy from the clergy by threatening them developments was the meeting of the “Model” ­Parliament
with outlawry if they did not grant it. in 1295, which included magnates, bishops, councillors,
The mounting political crisis came to a head in 1297 knights of the shire, burgesses from the towns, and proc-
when Edward, to gain support for a campaign in Flanders, tors elected to represent the lesser clergy. But it must not be
extended the obligation of personal military service to all thought that the knights and burgesses played a central role
men with an annual income from land of £20 or more, in such a parliament. The magnates still resolved whether
­ordered all wool in merchants’ hands to be seized and sold the King’s plea of necessity was valid. Having done so, they
for his profit, and sought to collect a tax from the laity
without their consent. The magnates now joined with the
clergy to resist Edward. In a remonstrance the magnates
brought together the kingdom’s grievances—the extension
of military service, the seizure of wool, the imposing of lay
and clerical taxes—and declared that the war in Flanders
was an attack on a foreign realm, not a defense of England,
and so did not justify these acts.
In August 1297 Edward sailed to Flanders, leaving be-
hind him Regents to govern the realm. From these ­Regents
the opposition, growing in strength daily, wrested a
­Confirmation of Magna Carta and the Forest Charter. In
this Confirmation of the Charters, Edward bound him-
self never again to take subsidies, increase the customs, or
seize property “except by the common assent of the realm.”
­During the last ten years of his reign, Edward, growing ever
more grasping as he sank into bankruptcy, repeatedly vio-
lated the Confirmation of the Charters. But the principle of
consent survived him, to be of incalculable importance in
the history of the English-speaking peoples on both sides
of the Atlantic.
The Confirmation of the Charters said nothing about
how the common assent of the realm was to be secured.
During most of the thirteenth century the Great Council Edward I meets his Parliament in 1295.  (Private Collection. The
voiced that assent. The magnates who sat on that council Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
92 A History of England

laid the case of necessity before the knights and burgesses, Sir Maurice Powicke. The Thirteenth Century 1216–1307.
whose assent was largely formal. Yet the knights and bur- ­Oxford, 1953. A monumental work, combining an inti-
gesses could i­nsist that the sum granted not impoverish mate knowledge of those who made history with the grand
the subject and they might seek the redress of their griev- themes of political life; the vast amount of detail makes it
ances. From these few and formal duties the later House of demanding reading.
­Commons was to grow. Michael Prestwich. Edward I. London, 1988. A masterly, ana-
lytical, dispassionate, and long history of the life and reign
Further Reading of Edward I; more sympathetic to Edward than earlier
appraisals.
R. Allen Brown. English Medieval Castles. Rev. ed. Boydell
Harry Rothwell, ed. English Historical Documents 1189–1327.
Press, 2004. Long the standard work and still the best; dis-
London, 1975. Contains chronicles, public records, ecclesi-
cusses the domestic use as well as the military; excellent
astical records; emphasizes political and legal history at the
illustrations.
expense of social, economic, and intellectual history.
Maurice Keen. Chivalry. New Haven, CT, 1984. A closely and
Trevor Rowley. The High Middle Ages 1200–1550. New York,
clearly argued account of the origins, nature, and importance
1986. An introduction to the high Middle Ages that empha-
of chivalry; denies both the predominance of the religious ele-
sizes the interaction of the English with their environment;
ment in chivalry and the alleged decline of chivalry after the
chapters on politics, the economy, castles, villages, towns,
Crusades.
forests and parks, and the Church.
J.R. Maddicott. Origins of the English Parliament, 924–1327.
Doris Mary Stenton. English Society in the Early Middle Ages.
Oxford, 2010. Maddicott sees continuity between Anglo-
3rd ed. Penguin Books, 1962. A charmingly written and
Saxon ideas about consultative assemblies and later par-
scholarly account of E ­ nglish society, with chapters on bar-
liaments, while acknowledging the decisive impact of the
ons and knights, villagers, towns, the Church, and the arts of
feudal obligation of tenants-in-chief to provide counsel; an
peace.
indispensable work of legal and constitutional history.
H. Z. Titow. English Rural Society. London, 1969. Half the
M. M. Postan. The Medieval Economy and Society: An
book contains carefully chosen documents, the other half
­Economic History of Britain in the Middle Ages. London,
clearly written introductory essays; favors the Postan thesis.
1972. A demographic interpretation of history, arguing that
the growth and decline of population shaped prices, wages,
and social relations; stimulating and persuasive.
 chapter 7

War and Crisis: 1307–1399

T
CHAPTER OUTLINE
he fourteenth century brought an end to the expansion
that characterized the thirteenth century and witnessed an ero-
■ Edward II And The Barons sion of the confidence and assured values that had reigned then. As
early as the second decade of the century, population began to decline
■ Edward III and the Hundred Years’ War and rents started to fall. There followed a prolonged and exhausting
war with France, in the midst of which the plague descended upon
■ The Evolution of Parliament ­England, reducing its population by nearly a third between 1350 and
1400. Other forces were also at work to undermine the old order. The
longbow, first used at Falkirk in 1298, helped to undermine the mili-
■ The Transformation of the Manor
tary basis of feudalism. Economic depression and the unprofitability
of demesne farming eroded manorial institutions in the countryside.
■ The Impact of the Black Death
A distinctive English language promoted a national consciousness
that undermined the cosmopolitanism of the early Middle Ages. And
■ The Peasants’ Revolt finally, a new, wealthy, educated laity, composed of gentlemen, mer-
chants, and lawyers, showed an increasing interest in the m ­ aterial
■ John Wyclif and Lollardy world and expressed a virulent anticlericalism. Out of the crises and
dislocations of the fourteenth century arose new values and new
■ The Emergence of an English Nationality
institutions—­nationalism, capitalism, individualism, anticlericalism—
that were to find fruition in the sixteenth century.
Amidst this change there was also continuity. The monarchy re-
■ Richard II and the Defeat of Absolutism
mained, for the barons in the reigns of Edward II and Richard II
sought not to destroy monarchy, but to capture its machinery. There
also remained the medieval ideals of the rule of law and of government
by the consent of the communities of the realm, ideals that survived
all attacks on them. Out of the decay of the old order emerged a new
order, though one that incorporated something of the old.

Edward II and the Barons

During the fourteenth century the power of the aristocracy increased
as that of the Crown diminished. This process began during the reign of
Edward II, who came to the throne in 1307 and was deposed and mur-
dered in 1327. The civil strife and political dissensions of Edward II’s
reign cannot be attributed solely to his political ineptness, for his ­father
left him problems the ablest of kings might not have solved. The Crown
was deeply in debt because of costly wars fought in the past; it was
also committed to an aggressive foreign policy in Scotland that could
93
94 A History of England

be reversed only with dishonor and continued only with in confusion on the men-at-arms, who fled from the field
bankruptcy. Furthermore, the barons, whom E ­ dward I had in terror. The humiliating defeat at Bannockburn guaran-
angered with his autocratic rule, were ready to seize any teed the independence of Scotland and compelled Edward
opportunity to recover the authority and privileges they to accept new limitations on his power at the hands of the
believed to be rightfully theirs. Whether an able king could lords ordainers, as the members of the committee of 21
have solved these problems is doubtful; what is certain is were now called.
that Edward II was totally unfit to do so. He had no head Between 1314 and 1322 the barons demonstrated that
for business and allowed his feelings to shape his ­political they were hardly more fit to rule England than the King
conduct. He may have been a homosexual; he ­certainly and Gaveston. The Scots continued their raids into
fell under the influence of ingratiating young men. He ­England, taxes and the cost of bread (as a result of crop fail-
was indifferent to knightly pursuits, preferring such unar- ures in 1315 and 1316) remained high, and there was no real
istocratic activities as swimming, rowing, playacting, and attempt to implement the ordinances. The explanation for
thatching barns. He further offended the barons by frater- the failure of the barons is threefold. In the first place, they
nizing with singers, actors, carters, and oarsmen. were divided—by personal quarrels, by regional loyalties,
The barons had come to mistrust Edward even before he and between extremists and moderates. Even their motives
came to the throne, with the result that they demanded from were mixed, being an amalgam of concern for good gov-
him an unprecedented coronation oath. They made him ernment and the pursuit of selfish interests. In the second
swear to observe the laws the community of the realm should place, they sought to govern from outside the court and
determine in the future. But this safeguard could not prevent Household, where real power lay and where the daily de-
the new King from displaying his affection for, and placing cisions of government were made. Finally, they could not
his trust in, a young Gascon knight of caustic wit and tactless win over Edward, who remained hostile to their endeavors
vanity named Piers Gaveston. Though Gaveston flaunted his and who soon found a new favorite, Hugh Despenser, to
greatness by walking immediately before E ­ dward, resplen- help him throw off their yoke. The favors he showered on
dent in purple and pearls, at the coronation, it was not his Despenser briefly united the barons against the new favor-
vanity against which the barons protested but his monopoly ite, and in 1321 a Parliament they dominated ordered his
of the King’s counsel. They regarded themselves as the King’s banishment. But the next year he returned to help Edward
rightful counselors and resented his reliance on court favor- who, showing an unaccustomed vigor, raised an army and
ites. By March 1310 their resentment had grown so great that marched against the barons. At Boroughbridge, by combin-
they forced upon Edward a committee of 21 (seven bishops, ing archers with dismounted men-at-arms and pike-men,
eight earls, and six barons), who were to draw up ordinances he defeated the barons. He promptly called a Parliament at
designed to remove the causes of past misgovernment and York, which annulled the ordinances and restored the au-
prevent their recurrence. In 1311 the committee presented a thority of the King.
draft of 41 ordinances to Parliament and King, who accepted Edward soon squandered the authority he had regained.
them—the King only reluctantly. The government of the realm fell into the hands of Hugh
The chief thrust of the ordinances was to prevent “bad Despenser and a Household clique. The government did lit-
and deceitful counsel.” The ordinances therefore pro- tle to remove old grievances. Relations with France and Scot-
vided for the removal of evil counselors, the banishment land deteriorated. Meanwhile Hugh Despenser, by trickery
of Gaveston, and the appointment of counselors and royal and force, built up an empire in South Wales. His territorial
officials with “the counsel and assent of the baronage and ambitions soon united the marcher lords and the northern
that in Parliament.” Far from solving England’s problems, magnates, whose divisions in 1322 had given ­Edward his vic-
the ordinances led only to further strife, for Edward did not tory. Edward had no idea how narrow the basis of his power
intend to abide by them. He tried to name a treasurer with- was. Otherwise he would not have sent Queen Isabella to
out the assent of the barons and he summoned Gaveston France to negotiate a treaty with her brother, the French
back from exile. The more extreme among the barons king. The Queen had no love for E ­ dward, who during the
seized Gaveston, held a mock trial, and executed him in last years of his reign had grown to hate her—it was even
1312. Two years later Edward, in order to bring relief to the said he carried a knife in his stocking with which to kill
English forces in Stirling Castle, marched north against her. She now allied, in bed as well as in politics, with Roger
the Scots. Victory would bring him the popular support ­Mortimer, a marcher lord who had escaped to Paris from the
he needed to resist the barons; defeat would destroy his Tower. With the young Prince Edward (whom Edward had
prestige. Unhappily for Edward, he failed at the Battle of foolishly allowed to join his mother in Paris) at their side,
Bannockburn to protect his archers, who were driven back they invaded England in 1326. The magnates of the realm,
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 95

The alabaster effigy of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)

almost to a man, joined them, as did the King’s own broth- himself with courtiers and artisans, his son sought the com-
ers. The invaders soon ­dispersed the royal forces, seized and radeship of warriors, magnates, and chivalrous knights.
hanged Despenser, and captured the King. Where Edward II eschewed the advice of his barons, his son
They then summoned a Parliament in the King’s name, sought it and won popularity by conforming to their tastes
which charged Edward with being incompetent, accepting and ideals. Edward III was not a great king, nor a man of no-
evil counsel, rejecting good counsel, injuring the Church, table foresight or intellectual ability, but he was a brave knight
losing Scotland, and breaking his coronation oath. A del- whose ambitions coincided with the temper of the time.
egation from the Parliament demanded that he abdicate For the first three years of his reign, Edward was ­under
in favor of his son, or else his subjects would renounce the tutelage of Isabella and Mortimer, who governed
their homage and fealty to him and his heirs. Edward, as- ­England. But in 1330, disgusted at the way in which his
tonished at this widespread disloyalty, agreed to abdicate. mother and Mortimer had treated his father and resentful
Nine months later Mortimer’s henchmen cruelly murdered of Mortimer’s hold on the government, he allied with some
him in Berkeley Castle. The deposition of Edward II was an of the younger nobility and seized power. He placed his
unprecedented and illegal act, for as Bracton had written, mother in comfortable retirement and had Mortimer tried
God alone could punish a king. Yet it was an act of pro- and hanged. For the first time in 23 years, England enjoyed
found constitutional significance, for by it the community the personal rule of an able monarch. He was a monarch
of the realm served notice on future kings that they were to eager to win victories on the field of battle and to prove
govern by the law, of which Parliament was the guardian. himself a great warrior. His first efforts were in ­Scotland,
where in 1332 and 1333 he won glorious victories, but he
soon discovered that the French were openly supporting
Edward III and the the Scots. He thereupon decided (in the words of the histo-
rian George Macaulay Trevelyan) that “to pick the famous
Hundred Years’ War lily was an enterprise of more profit, ease, and honour than
Edward III was very unlike his father. Where Edward II de- to pluck the recalcitrant thistle.”
lighted in unknightly pursuits, his son loved war, jousting, French support for Scotland was the occasion for the
tournaments, and the chase. Where Edward II surrounded outbreak of war with France in 1337, but it was not the
96 A History of England

fundamental cause. Neither was the appeal of the Flemish From 1342 onward Edward pursued a different strategy,
towns for aid from Edward III against the King of France. one which the resources of England could afford. He con-
Least of all was Edward III’s claim to the French succes- ducted raids for plunder and pillage deep into France. It
sion a cause, for Edward had recognized Philip VI as the was on such a raid in 1346 that Edward, with a small army
rightful successor in 1329 and did not voice his claim until of 7000 archers, 1000 lancers, and 1700 mounted war-
the war was two years old. The fundamental cause of the riors, met the French King, who led a much larger army,
Hundred Years’ War was the determination of Philip VI to at Crécy in northern France. In the battle that followed
subordinate Edward’s ducal authority in Aquitaine to his the skilled English longbowmen broke the charge of the
own royal authority and Edward’s equally firm resolve to mounted French knights, who were then slaughtered by
retain his independence there. This was the central issue, the dismounted English men-at-war. It was a victory for
but there may well have been deeper motives at work in the tactics Edward I had used at Falkirk and Edward II
Edward and his barons: a delight in the excitement of war, at Boroughbridge, tactics that rested on the devastat-
a love of the comradeship of the camp, a hope for glory and ing power of the longbow. The longbow was made of yew
renown. wood, stood about five feet high, and shot an arrow a yard
Edward opened the war on a grandiose scale. By lavish- long. In skilled hands, it could shoot six arrows a minute
ing money on them, he built up a great alliance of princes with a force sufficient, at 200 yards, to pierce an inch of
in the Rhineland and the Low Countries; and he won the wood or the armor of a knight. The longbow not only won
support of the cloth towns of Flanders by threatening to Edward a glorious victory but helped to end 500 years of
forbid the export of English wool to Flanders unless they supremacy for the mounted knight.
turned against France. But these alliances proved more Ten years after Crécy, Edward’s son, the Black Prince,
costly than useful and the revolt of the Flemish towns won an even more resounding victory at Poitiers. Using
against their pro-French count proved of little use. Fur- the same tactics as his father had used at Crécy, he routed
thermore, the Exchequer soon ran out of money. Edward the French army and captured the King of France. Political
had nothing to show for the immense sums spent between disunity, social unrest, the plague, and marauding bands
1337 and 1341 other than a shattering defeat of the French of English soldiers (called free companies) soon plunged
fleet at Sluys in 1340—and he made little use of this victory. France into a desolation that forced her to sue for peace. By

Genealogy of the French Kings, Showing Edward III's Claim

to the French Crown
Philip III,
the Bold
1270–1285

Philip IV, Charles, Count of Valois

the Fair
1285–1314

Philip VI, of Valois

1328–1350

Louis X Philip V Charles IV Isabella m Edward II of England

1314–1316 1316–1322 1322–1328

Edward III
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 97

were no substitute for a military occupation. Once France

found an able king in Charles V, an able general in ­Bertrand
du Guesclin, and an appropriate strategy in guerrilla war-
fare, the days of English triumphs were numbered. The
English found it increasingly difficult to raise money for
campaigns that brought little success and less profit, while
France was swept by a great wave of determination to expel
the English.
The war in France exercised an important influence
on life in England. Though unprofitable overall because it
employed men in unproductive labor, diverted shipping
from its normal use, and threw the wool trade into con-
fusion, it did redistribute income. The common soldier
drew his wages, the nobility profited by plunder and ran-
som (the Black Prince gained £20,000 from the ransom of
the French noblemen captured at Poitiers), and contractors
grew wealthy furnishing the armies with food and cloth-
The Battle of Crécy as represented by an illustration in Jean
Froissart’s The Chronicles of England, France, and Spain. ­ ing. Also, by provoking a hatred of foreigners, the war
(Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) promoted the growth of a national consciousness. But the
most profound effect of all was to make a bankrupt Crown
dependent on Parliament.
the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 Edward renounced his claim
to the French throne, but in return received full sovereignty
over a much-enlarged Aquitaine, which now included The Evolution of
Gascony, Poitou, and Limousin. In northern France he re-
ceived Calais, Ponthieu, and Guines. The French further
Parliament
agreed to ransom their King for the vast sum of £500,000, At the beginning of his reign, Edward III faced a difficult
equivalent to the English King’s revenues for five years. dilemma. Either he could choose to defend Gascony and
The explanation for the remarkable success of the English go to war against France, in which case he would soon
in these years does not lie solely in the superiority of their tac- exhaust the resources of the Crown and be forced to rely
tics. Other factors favored the English, such as the disputed on taxes voted by Parliament, or he could pursue a policy
succession in Brittany, the disloyalty of Charles of Navarre of peace, in which case he would injure his prestige and
to the Valois kings, the simplicity of King John of France, provoke the opposition of the barons. He chose war, but
and the remarkable support Englishmen of every class, but the extraordinary demands for money occasioned by war
particularly the nobility, gave Edward III’s continental cam- forced him to meet Parliament often, with the result that it
paigns. This support was the more effective because Edward grew in power and stature.
did not seek to raise his armies by a feudal levy. He employed By 1307 Parliament existed as a recognizable body of
instead the indenture system. By this system the King entered lords and officials, meeting with the King to discuss great
into private contracts with different captains, usually noble- affairs of state, to which knights and burgesses were of-
men, who undertook to raise a certain number of soldiers ten, but not always, invited. When they came they came as
for long-term service. The feudal levy was hard to assemble suitors more than participants. From this body during the
and was undisciplined when it met; the new system encour- fourteenth century emerged a Parliament with a hereditary
aged discipline and subordination to the commander. To an House of Lords and a representative House of Commons,
increasing extent the war was fought by professional soldiers, each possessing its powers and privileges. The House of
for whom fighting was a livelihood. Lords grew out of the feudal obligation of tenants-in-chief
The remarkable gains confirmed by the Treaty of to perform suit to court. During the thirteenth century a
­Brétigny proved to be ephemeral. By the time of Edward distinction arose between the greater barons, who received
III’s death in 1377, England had lost all its p ­ ossessions an individual writ summoning them to Parliament, and
in France except for the coastal areas around Calais, the lesser barons, who were not summoned, even though
­Cherbourg, Bordeaux, and Bayonne. The truth is E ­ ngland Magna Carta prescribed that they should be. Edward I
did not have the resources to conquer France, and raids called to Parliament only the greater magnates whom he
98 A History of England

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wished to call, but in Edward III’s reign these magnates, the lay peers. In 1305 some 75 abbots attended, though by
now calling themselves peers, demanded that they always the end of the Middle Ages only about 20 came. Judges and
be summoned, a demand to which Edward acceded. By the other royal officials, who dominated the parliaments of
end of the fourteenth century the right to a writ summon- the thirteenth century, declined in number and power; as
ing one to the House of Lords became hereditary, descend- many as 30 sat in Edward I’s Parliament, only about ten in
ing, as feudal property did, by primogeniture. The king Edward III’s, and they sat only as advisers.
could, and Edward III did, create new peers, either under The House of Lords exercised various powers: It heard
the older titles of Baron and Earl, or under the newer titles important judicial cases, corrected errors made by lower
of Duke and Marquess (to which Viscount was added in courts, gave the King advice, consented to taxes, and en-
the fifteenth century). There were in Parliament in the four- acted statutes. The critical moment in the development
teenth century some 40 to 50 lay peers, which meant that of these powers came in the reign of Edward II. Under
the spiritual peers, made up of two archbishops, eighteen ­E dward I it was uncertain whether the magnates were
bishops, and numerous abbots, occasionally outnumbered present in Parliament as petitioners or decision makers.
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 99

Under Edward II the magnates resolved this ambiguity when Edward agreed to a statute declaring that henceforth
in their own favor; they became the decision makers and no charge should be levied on wool without the consent
thereby augmented the power of the aristocracy. Since the of Parliament. Parliament had established its control over
magnates alone, with the King, were the decision makers, taxation, both direct and indirect.
it followed that the lesser landowners, who did not share Had the Commons been content merely to vote or re-
such power, could not sit in the House of Lords. Instead, as fuse to vote taxes to the King, they would have played a
knights of the shire, they joined the burgesses in the House modest role in the public life of England. But they went
of Commons. on to secure legislative power. By the end of the thirteenth
In 1307 the Commons were not a necessary part of century it was recognized that a statute required the con-
­Parliament. Often they were not summoned, and when sent of the great magnates in Parliament. It was not until
summoned merely appeared before the King’s council- Edward III’s reign that the Commons, by their regular at-
lors in Parliament to answer questions. By 1399 they were tendance at Parliaments and by their control over taxation,
­invariably summoned, met separately in their own House, also secured the right to consent. It came to be held that
deliberated, presented common petitions, and voted taxes. no statute was valid to which they had not consented. They
Their regular attendance began in the later years of Edward also gained the right to initiate legislation by transform-
II’s reign, when King and magnates vied for the support ing their petitions into bills. Any subject of the King had
of the Commons. But it was Edward III’s desire for their the right to petition the King in Parliament for redress of
cooperation in the collection of taxes that ensured they wrong. The Commons therefore began to frame their own
would become a permanent part of Parliament. petitions. In 1337 they framed 41 such petitions, 16 of which
At first the burgesses met alone, for the knights of the the King answered by incorporating the remedy sought
shire met with the barons and the lower clergy sat as a into two statutes. Because the King occasionally agreed
separate body. It appeared that the English Parliament, like during Parliament to the remedy sought in a petition but
similar bodies on the Continent, would be composed of then later enacted a statute that bore only a faint resem-
the three estates (clergy, nobility, and commoners) meet- blance to that remedy, the Commons began to insist on
ing separately. But it was not to be, since the clergy ceased the accurate conversion of their petitions into statutes dur-
attending Parliament (preferring to vote taxes in Convoca- ing the meeting of Parliament. The petition thus became
tion), and the knights discovered they had more in com- the parliamentary bill. The Commons also began to insist
mon with the burgesses than with the barons. By 1339 the on the redress of grievances before they voted the King
knights of the shire, who were elected in the shire court money. They first acted on this principle in 1340, when they
by the leading men of the county, met together with the agreed to vote a tax only if the King accepted six petitions
burgesses, who were elected by the oligarchy of merchants they had presented. The King incorporated the petitions
who dominated borough government. It was a develop- into 14 statutes, and the Commons voted the money. By the
ment unique in Europe, a development that helps explain fifteenth century it became a regular procedure, one that
why Parliament survived in England when similar institu- gave the House of Commons a powerful lever for winning
tions disappeared elsewhere. its demands.
The first power gained by the Commons was control Harmony between King and barons characterized
over taxation. In 1297 the magnates, in the Confirmation ­Edward’s reign—except for two political crises in 1341 and
of the Charters, had enunciated the principle that the king 1376. Both concerned the endeavors of the great magnates
could not levy any aids, taxes, or prizes without the con- to use Parliament to control the King’s council, which by
sent of the realm, though they did not specify how that the fourteenth century had become an important adminis-
consent should be expressed. By the reign of Edward III trative body, at the center of the government.
it was established that both Lords and Commons must Edward’s fury at the failure of his ministers in London to
consent to direct taxes, the chief of which was the “tenth- send him the enormous sums of money he needed to wage
and-fifteenth,” a levy on movable property. The customs, war in France provoked the first crisis. He dismissed his
however, was an indirect tax, and Edward III continued, on Chancellor and Treasurer and summoned John Stratford,
his own authority, to levy it at a higher rate than Parlia- the Archbishop of Canterbury, to answer charges brought
ment had granted in 1275. The Lords, who were eager for against him. Edward’s deeper purpose was to exercise an
the money with which to wage war in France, went along unchallenged control over his council and ministers. He
with Edward, but the Commons, who felt the brunt of the met the resistance of the Archbishop, who demanded first
tax, protested. A fierce struggle ensued between Edward that he be tried by his peers in Parliament and second that
and the Commons, a struggle that did not end until 1362, the magnates should share in the appointment of the King’s
100 A History of England

ministers. The barons supported him in the first demand, wealth from a servile peasantry who owed labor services.
and the King yielded to it, thereby taking the first step to- By the middle of the fifteenth century this system was for
ward establishing the principle that no lord should be tried all practical purposes dead. Labor services had been com-
except by his peers in Parliament. Edward yielded to the muted into money rents. Land that had been held by ser-
second demand by consenting to a statute that provided vice tenure was now held by copyhold—that is, the rent
for the appointment of his ministers “in Parliament.” Six owed was entered upon the manor roll, a copy of which
months later, determined not to be deprived of the right became the title deed. The lord of the manor now leased
to appoint and dismiss his own ministers, Edward issued his demesne rather than cultivating it directly. A class of
an ordinance repealing the statute. But he was careful in wealthy peasants, the franklin class, arose, who amassed
the future to appoint counselors and ministers who had the copyholds and leased demesne lands. The less enterpris-
confidence of the barons. ing peasants became a rural proletariat, working for wages.
Scandal and corruption at court, mismanagement of In the fifteenth century, the royal courts protected a static,
the war, and military losses in France brought on the cri- servile, rural society based on personal obligations. How-
sis in 1376. Responsibility for this state of affairs did not ever, this gave way to a mobile, free society based on mon-
lie with Edward, who had sunk into senility, but with his etary obligations.
son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who had seized The forces that brought about this transformation are
control of the administration in 1371. John of Gaunt soon difficult to disentangle, for the historical evidence is slight
surrounded himself with Alice Perrers, the King’s unscru- and occasionally contradictory. It was once thought that
pulous mistress, Lord Latimer, an old soldier and royal the emergence of markets and the growth in the supply of
favorite, and Richard Lyons, a wealthy London merchant, money caused these changes, yet in the north of England,
all of whom feathered their nests at the Crown’s expense. farther removed from markets and supplies of money, la-
Led by the Black Prince and the Earl of March, a group of bor services were commuted early, while in the Midlands
barons, using the House of Commons as their instrument, and the southeast, nearer to markets and money, labor ser-
drove these parasites from office in 1376. Peter de la Mare, vices were exacted throughout the thirteenth century. A
the Speaker of the House of Commons (and steward of the plentiful supply of money was certainly a necessary con-
Earl of March’s estates) strode to the House of Lords, where dition for these changes, but it was not the driving force.
in the name of the House of Commons he accused Lord That force was the economic depression of the fourteenth
Latimer and Richard Lyons of a long list of crimes. The century, which led to a decline in manorial profits. The de-
Lords found them guilty and sent them to prison, thereby pression was caused in part by Scottish raids into England,
acknowledging that the House of Commons had the right the competition of grain from eastern Germany in conti-
to impeach, and the House of Lords to judge, ministers nental markets, and the waste of resources in war. But the
of state. Parliament also banished Alice Perrers from the root cause was the decline in population. The turning point
realm and reshuffled the council, adding nine new baronial came in the years of flood and famine from 1315 to 1317. Un-
members to it. But the victory of the reforming barons was til then the population of England had grown; thereafter
short-lived. John of Gaunt won control of the Parliament it began to decline. The onset of a cold spell throughout
elected in 1377, and secured the release of Latimer and Europe in about 1300 greatly contributed to this decline.
­Lyons, the return of Alice Perrers, and the imprisonment The slow decline of the first half of the century became
of Peter de la Mare. That same year Edward III died, with catastrophic in the second half with the arrival of the Black
Alice Perrers at his bedside, where she stole the very rings Death in 1349.
off his fingers. Once again in an attempt to control the ad- The Black Death was the dreaded bubonic plague,
ministration from outside the Court and Household had which originated in Central Asia, reached Italy in 1347,
failed, but not before it had left a precedent for the power and was carried to England in August 1348 by refugees
of impeachment. fleeing from Calais to Melcombe Regis in Dorset. In 1349
the plague scoured England. It was spread by the bite of
a flea carried by the black rat, and throve in dirty and
The Transformation unsanitary conditions. For that reason it devastated the
towns and the poor most of all. It returned in 1361, 1368,
of the Manor and 1375, and was not completely wiped out until the sev-
The same century that saw the rise of Parliament saw the enteenth century, when the brown rat, which does not
transformation of the manor. Early medieval society was carry the plague flea, drove out the black rat, which does.
essentially a community of manorial lords, drawing their By 1400 the population of England had probably fallen by
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 101

a third, from 4 million to 2.5 million; by 1450 it may have obligations. This process of emancipation was not reversed
fallen by a half, to 2 million. later, with the result that England entered the modern era
The effect of the plague was to accelerate the forces some 200 years ahead of the Continent in the enfranchise-
that were already making demesne farming unprofit- ment of its peasantry.
able. Wages rose, despite the fact that the landlord class
in 1351 passed the Statute of Laborers, which established
a maximum wage. Its enforcement proved difficult, with The Impact of the
the result that wages were twice as high in 1400 as they
had been in 1300. After 1375 agricultural prices fell, since
Black Death
there were fewer people seeking to purchase food. The In September 1348, when the pestilence reached the British
shortage of labor deepened from 1390 onward, making Isles, Thomas Walsingham, a monk of St. Alban’s Abbey,
it difficult to find peasants to take up holdings. The first described its effects in this way:
reaction of some landlords was to turn the clock back,
Towns once packed with people were emptied of
to attempt to exact even more labor services. But these
their inhabitants, and the plague spread so thickly
attempts met dogged resistance, and soon the great ma-
that the living were hardly able to bury the dead. It
jority of landlords gave up the direct management of the
was calculated by several people that barely a tenth of
demesne and leased it to farmers. Between 1391 and 1411,
mankind remained alive. A murrain of animals fol-
for example, demesne farming on the estates of Christ
lowed on the heels of this pestilence. Rents dwindled
Church, C ­ anterbury, came to an end, the monks prefer-
and land was left untilled for want of tenants (who
ring to lease their lands.
were nowhere to be found). And so much wretched-
Once a landlord resolved to lease his demesne, he had
ness followed on these ills that afterwards the world
no need for the labor services of his tenants, which were
could never return to its former state.1
then commuted into money rents. The process of com-
mutation began as early as the twelfth century, but was The Black Death (as Englishmen called the plague in the
greatly accelerated in the fourteenth. The holding of land seventeenth century) did more than carry off thousands
by a money rent made the sale of land easier and there and provide opportunities for those working a land that
soon emerged a prosperous class of farmers, holding by had known soil exhaustion, overly abundant labor, and de-
copyhold and leasehold, and a larger class of peasants who clining productivity. (At Halesowen, 82 percent of vacated
held small holdings or none. At Frisby in Lincolnshire in holdings were resumed within a year; the children of the
1381 there were 16 families, all tenants, the richest of whom dead took up 42 percent of these.) As we have seen, the
was only about twice as wealthy as the poorest. By the end bubonic plague contributed to the decline of the manorial
of the fifteenth century there were ten families, of whom economy: A shrinking population hastened the end of de-
three had no land at all and two were wealthier than all the mesne farming and accelerated the commutation of labor
rest. Freedom brought inequality. services into money rents. Yet, the Black Death left other
The unprofitability of demesne farming was not the evidence of its awful presence on the landscape and folk-
only force promoting the slow crumbling of manorial scape of late medieval England.
society. The peasants themselves struggled against it. The decades after the Black Death witnessed changes
Some lived legally outside the manor by paying an an- in domestic and religious architecture, which are at least
nual fine, or chevage, to the lord. Many others just fled partly attributable to the plague. The bishop of Winchester,
the ­village, with the result that their holdings had to be William of Edington, built a great church at his birthplace
let for smaller rents, often without any labor services. in Wiltshire. The structure was not as great as he wished,
Those who fled soon found employment or a copyhold. however, for it lacked the rich decoration, multiple aisles,
In 1377 the ­Commons complained at length about villeins and soaring height of pre-plague churches constructed by
who conspired together to withdraw their services. Since patrons of comparable wealth. The diminished supply of
commutation was not enfranchisement, the peasants had masons, carpenters, plumbers, and glaziers led him to set-
to struggle for their personal freedom. Servile dues and tle for a battlemented church of military severity. A simi-
services no longer seemed right to the wealthier peasants, lar fate attached to the church at Patrington, the splendid
while the lord’s control over the village weakened with his “Queen of Holderness,” which lacked a spire for its formi-
leasing the demesne. In the end economic forces asserted dable steeple until 50 years after the plague’s arrival. Reli-
themselves; landlords discovered that the most effective gious establishments in particular found it difficult to keep
way to retain tenants was to release them from all servile up appearances with the reduced income that followed the
102 A History of England

plague. Many houses—especially nunneries founded dur- visit made by a priest to one’s deathbed became part of
ing the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with inadequate the way of death. But piety also might avert such a terrible
endowments—suffered from extreme poverty. Even ­Butley end. Pope Clement VI had assured the frightened popu-
Priory in Suffolk, handsomely endowed by the King of lation of Avignon that a confessed and contrite Christian
England and the Holy Roman Emperor, could maintain might avoid sudden death—if he took part in five masses
a comfortable lifestyle for its inmates only by keeping the against the plague.
number of canons to the statutory number of 12—about Perhaps the greatest long-term impact of the plague,
half its pre-plague strength. Receipts for such houses did however, was the full employment it helped to produce.
not increase until agricultural profits rose in the early six- The relative comfort and security enjoyed by the peas-
teenth century. antry of post-plague England owes much to the depopu-
The terror described by Thomas Walsingham was amply lation that occurred during the fourteenth century and
revealed in the interiors of these churches with their naked the slow growth of the fifteenth. But the immediate social
cadaver effigies, shroud brasses that show the corpse con- and economic effects of the pestilence were anything but
sumed by worms, and the omnipresent Dance of Death. An comforting to the lords who wished to retain villeinage in
ancient legend, Three Living and Three Dead, appears on the England.
wall of the church at Seething in Norfolk. The Dead warn
the Living: “As you are now, so once were we. As we now
are, so shall ye be.” While such images had been known be-
fore the plague, they were now more abundant and more
The Peasants’ Revolt
realistic in their depiction of the horror of death. All con- Social and economic changes are often slow, piecemeal, un-
veyed the same message to onlookers: Disce mori (“learn planned, and unforeseen—such was the decline of villein-
to die”). The confessor to the nuns of the Bridgettine house age. At other times, often in the midst of the disintegration
at Syon told them to “consider in their hearts that they are of old forms of society, men and women seek consciously
of earth and that unto earth they will return.”2 They should to refashion society according to firmly held ideals—such
contemplate always the “shortness and unstableness of this was the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. At Mile End, outside
life, the hastiness of death, the fearfulness of doom, and ­L ondon, on a Friday in June, the peasants and artisans
the bitterness of pain” before their end. A coffin was kept of Essex demanded of their King the complete abolition of
so that the nuns might toss in a handful of earth and say serfdom and the commutation of servile dues to a rent of
a De profundis (Psalm 130) each day. The priest’s counsel four pence an acre. The next day at Smithfield the peasants
and the example of the coffin focused on the unnerving and artisans of Kent demanded that there be no lordship in
­prospect of an unsecured death, that is, dying before one England but the lordship of the king, that the goods of the
was shrived by a priest and received absolution. Church be divided among the parishioners, and that there
Such meditations on suffering, grief, and the finality of be no villein in England, “but all to be free and of one con-
death became common even among the laity of England. dition.” For a brief moment a belief in freedom and equal-
Prayers were often addressed to the Virgin Mary, who was ity confronted the traditional view that society ought to be
regarded as a fellow mourner (Mater Dolorosa), and asked a hierarchy of graded ranks.
for her help during the pestilence. For parents who had The peasants’ revolt was not planned; rather, it was a
seen their children die and feared that others might per- spontaneous, almost accidental uprising, fueled by numer-
ish at the return of the pestilence, the “mother of consola- ous grievances and sparked by the passage of a poll tax.
tion,” who had seen her own son scourged and crucified, In 1380 Parliament, growing weary of paying for the war
was the obvious object for their own petition. Since me- in France with the usual tenth-and-fifteenth, taxes which
dieval Christians understood the Mass as a sacrifice that fell on the propertied classes, passed a poll, or head, tax,
might earn one favor in this life or the next, guilds often which fell on everyone equally, the lowliest villein paying
hired priests to celebrate it daily for the good of their souls the same as the wealthiest duke. This patently unjust tax,
and for those of their loved ones. The “glorious feast of which Parliament had first employed in 1377, provoked a
the most precious sacrament of the flesh and blood of our rebellion only because there existed among the rural work-
Lord Jesus Christ,” better known as Corpus Christi, was ers a mass of resentments and dissatisfactions. They hated
rarely celebrated in England until the plague appeared. Af- the landed classes for attempting to keep down wages
ter 1348, the viewing of the consecrated host displayed in a through the Statute of Laborers. They hated their landlords
monstrance and carried in procession became a common for enforcing manorial obligations. They were angry at
experience for pious Englishmen, while the Eucharistic the wealth and worldliness of the higher clergy. They had
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 103

King and his noble advisers had no intention of fulfilling

the concessions they had granted. When a deputation of
villeins came to Richard to ask him to confirm the charter
he had granted, he replied: “Villeins ye are still and villeins
ye shall remain.”
The revolt was by no means confined to London. In
Hertfordshire the tenants of the Abbey of St. Albans be-
sieged the abbot, insisting on their rights to hunt in the
woods, fish in the river, grind their corn at home, and sell
land among themselves. At Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk
the tenants broke into the abbey and for a time extorted
their liberties from the abbot. In Norfolk a rebel army plun-
dered Norwich, marched to Yarmouth, and systematically
destroyed manorial records. At Winchester in Hampshire
and at Beverley and Scarborough in Yorkshire, the un-
Richard II rides out to meet the people; Wat Tyler, champion
of the peasants, is struck down by the Lord Mayor. These privileged rose against the privileged. As late as ­September
miniatures illustrate a manuscript of the Chronicles of Jean there was a rising in Wiltshire, though throughout most of
Froissart.  (British Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) England these rebellions had been suppressed by the end
of June and the concessions granted to buy off the rebels
withdrawn. The peasants gained nothing by their revolt.
visions of better conditions, inspired by wandering hedge- In fact, the fear created by the crisis probably hindered
priests, such as John Ball, who asked: the process of emancipation. The peasants failed because
they had no political power, no allies among the gentry or
When Adam delved and Eve span, nobility or wealthy merchants. They had only their revolu-
Who was then the gentleman? tionary ideals of freedom and equality.
One possible factor, the deepening misery of the peas-
ants, did not cause the revolt, for their economic condi-
tion was steadily improving. Wages were rising faster
than prices; even the landless laborer, because of the
John Wyclif and Lollardy
shortage of labor, was well paid. Many villeins owned The last quarter of the fourteenth century witnessed a re-
a fair amount of property. The peasants’ revolt, like the ligious crisis as deep as the social crisis, a crisis associ-
French Revolution, was inspired by rising expectations ated with the ideas of John Wyclif. It is almost impossible
and by anger at the slowness with which the old order was to demonstrate a causal connection between the two.
reforming itself. ­Wyclif ’s ideas had no apparent influence on the peasants
The rebellion began in Essex and Kent in late May. The in 1381, though the social stresses of the time may have
two bands of rebels soon converged on London, which led some to embrace Wyclif ’s ideas. What is certain is
they entered on June 13. For two days the city was given that both the social and the religious revolts were directed
over to the insurgents, who plundered and burned, opened against the traditional ideas of order, degree, authority,
­prisons, destroyed legal records, slew the leading ­collector and lordship.
of the poll tax, and besieged the King and his ministers John Wyclif came from a modest landed family in
in the Tower. Having no standing army, the 14-year-old ­Yorkshire and pursued a distinguished career as a scholar
­Richard II and his advisers resolved to negotiate. On the at Oxford. He became a third master at Balliol College,
14th the young King met the rebels at Mile End and granted took his bachelorship of divinity in 1368, and proceeded to
them a charter that abolished villeinage and c­ ommuted his doctorate in 1372. He held in succession various coun-
­labor services to a rent of four pence an acre. The next day try livings, where he was rarely resident, to which he added
he met the rebels once again at Smithfield, when the in- a canonry at the collegiate church of ­Westbury-on-Trym,
trepid Mayor of London, William Walworth, pulled Wat whose duties he failed to perform. Oxford was his home
Tyler, the leader of the peasants, from his horse and slew and study his passion. Like William of Ockham, he be-
him. The courageous young King then ordered the rebels lieved that religious belief had to be taken on faith and
to disperse, which they promptly did, since respect for the that God’s will is inscrutable and His power infinite. From
monarchy ran deep. The crisis at London was over. But the Archbishop Bradwardwine he learned to emphasize God’s
104 A History of England

grace and help rather than man’s free will. From Richard touched on all the later Protestant doctrines but the cen-
Fitzralph he borrowed the theory of dominion—namely, tral one—justification by faith alone.
that the lawful exercise of lordship, or dominion over Wyclif ’s ideas were made momentarily dangerous by
men, depends on grace; that is, on the righteousness of the their confluence with a rising tide of anticlericalism. An-
person who exercises it. And like Marsilius of Padua he ticlericalism is not irreligion, but rather hostility to the
­appealed to Scriptures and secular authority rather than to power and wealth of the clergy. The roots of fourteenth-
canon law and papal authority. century English anticlericalism were various. To begin
From 1378 onward, frustrated in his hope for greater with, there was repugnance at corruption in the Church, at
preferment and appalled at the scandal of the two Popes pluralities, nonresidence, greed, pride, and the flaunting of
(for the Great Schism began in 1378), he followed the great wealth. It is unlikely that these abuses were substan-
logic of his ideas ever deeper into heresy. Both the Pope tially greater than in earlier centuries, but there was now
and the English bishops condemned his views, but his an absence of any redeeming religious fervor, such as the
theory of dominion won him the support of the anti- Cistercians brought to the twelfth century and the Fran-
clerical party, led by John of Gaunt, who protected him. ciscans to the thirteenth. The clergy grew more worldly,
John of Gaunt later deserted him when he began to pub- monks took more meals, regularly violated the rule against
lish works that described the Church as a community of eating meat, kept domestic servants, and received cash al-
true believers and questioned the doctrine of transubstan- lowances; nunneries became boarding houses for the noble
tiation (which asserts that the priest in the sacrament of and wealthy. Then there was the rise of an educated, pros-
the mass transforms bread and wine into the flesh and perous, confident, articulate laity—landowners, merchants,
blood of Christ). Wyclif found safety in retirement to his lawyers—who resented the financial exactions and moral
­rectory at ­Lutterworth, where he died and was buried in demands made upon them by the Church. Their jealousy
1384, though in 1428 the Bishop of Lincoln had his bones of the wealth of the Church was probably greater because
cast into the river Swift. their income from land was declining. Finally, there was
Wyclif ’s ideas were not systematic, nor did he recognize an English hatred of a foreign Pope. During much of the
the revolutionary implications of many of them. Yet he fourteenth century the popes resided at Avignon and were
did enunciate a number of dangerously ­heretical ­notions. seen as tools of the French. Furthermore, the papacy in the
First, he urged the theory of dominion; r­ ighteousness, not fourteenth century interfered more often than ever in the
legal forms, gives the clergy their dominion and prop- English Church, through provisions, annates, and appeals.
erty, and it was for the secular authorities to decide if a The Pope now insisted on his right to name, or “provide”
clergyman had fallen from righteousness. Like ­Martin candidates for English bishoprics, canonries, and rectories;
­Luther, Wyclif never attacked secular lordship and had no and the number of such benefices reserved for the Pope in-
sympathy with the peasants who did. Second, he urged creased greatly. At the same time it became customary for
that the Church was a community of believers, not an bishops to pay the first year’s revenue of the see, or annates,
­ecclesiastical hierarchy, a position that led him to deny the to the Pope. Appeals of ecclesiastical cases to the papal
authority of the Pope and the rest of the hierarchy. Third, court were not new, but they were more obnoxious when
in place of tradition, reason, and authority, he substituted made to Avignon.
a reliance on Scripture and individual conscience. Fourth, Anticlericalism found expression in many ways, in the
he concluded that God had predestined some, “the elect,” poetry of Chaucer and Langland, in the Crown’s seizure of
to salvation and others, “the foreknown,” to the pains of the wealth of the Bishop of Winchester, in Parliament’s at-
hell (though he rejected double predestination, the belief tempt to impose a tax of £50,000 on the Church, and in
that God directly wills the damnation of those not saved). Parliament’s declaration that King John had had no right
Fifth, he questioned the very heart of the medieval Church to make England a tributary of the Pope. But the most
by denying transubstantiation. He regarded the doctrine permanent expression of the spirit is found in the Statute
as crude and untrue, though (again like L ­ uther) he clung of Provisors of 1351 and the Statute of Praemunire of 1353.
to a belief in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament The Statute of Provisors allowed the King to expel from a
of the mass. Christ was present in the same sense that the benefice any person whom the Pope had wrongly named
king was present in England. Last, his belief in predestina- to it and to place his own candidate in it. The ­Statute of
tion led him to reject the Church’s mediatory and sacra- ­P raemunire declared that no Englishman should in a
mental role. How could a priest forgive sins if God alone ­matter over which the King’s court had jurisdiction sue an-
could do so? In his learned, scholastic way, John Wyclif other Englishman in any court outside England. The main
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 105

intent was to prevent suits in papal courts over the right to The Emergence of an
name to benefices. It was not the King who sought these
statutes but the landowners in Parliament, who believed
English Nationality
that papal provisions threatened their own rights. These The decision of the Lollards to translate the Bible from
same lesser patrons secured new statutes of provisors in Latin into English reflected a profound change in English
1365 and 1390, and more stringent statutes of praemunire life. Before the fourteenth century English society was cos-
in 1365 and 1393, but the total effect was less to weaken the mopolitan and English culture Latin or French. Church-
Pope than to strengthen the King. Both Edward III and men moved freely through Christendom; the knights of
Richard II used the statutes as bargaining counters in their many countries fought in the East; Latin was the language
negotiations with the papacy. The Pope continued to pro- of learning and French of the Court and the law. The ar-
vide men to benefices, often those the King nominated, istocracy spoke French and all others English, so dividing
and the volume of appeals to Rome remained the same, the country. Then in the fourteenth century those forces
though none to the injury of the Crown. But it all occurred already at work creating an English nationality quickened.
with the King’s permission. As Pope Martin remarked, “It Before the end of the century an English language, an
is not the Pope but the King of England who governs the English literature, an English art, and an English habit of
Church in his dominions.” thought had stamped itself on these island peoples.
Anticlericalism led some men and women, a few even In 1350 French was still the language preferred by the
at Court, to adopt Wyclif ’s views. These men and women upper classes, but during the next 50 years English ousted
came to be called Lollards (probably from lollaer, a mum- its rival. The hatred for things French engendered by the
bler, in this instance, of prayers), but Lollardy reflected a Hundred Years’ War no doubt hastened this process. In
religious tradition wider than anticlericalism and older 1362 Parliament sought to make English the language of
than Wyclif. It drew on an ancient tradition of puritani- the law; in 1363 the Chancellor for the first time opened
cal criticism of the pomp and pride of great Churchmen ­Parliament in English; and the earliest known will in
and on a desire, largely felt by the artisan and merchant, ­English dates from 1387. In the previous 250 years there had
for a religion that was less legalistic and mechanical. ­Wyclif been many English dialects. It was, ironically, one of the
contributed to this tradition in two ways, by gathering a most poverty-stricken of these, the East Midland dialect
group of scholars around him at Oxford who kept his ideas that finally prevailed. Its victory arose largely from the fact
alive for a generation, and by sponsoring the translation of that it was spoken in the region where London and the uni-
the Bible into English. During Richard II’s reign there was versities lay, but some credit for its victory must be given to
a political Lollardy at Court and an academic Lollardy at the genius of Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it in his works.
the university, but both proved frail plants. The moment Chaucer, who was the son of a London wine merchant,
John of Gaunt abandoned his anticlerical policies, the bish- pursued various careers. He was a page in a noble house-
ops were free to launch their counterattack. They began by hold, a soldier in the French wars, a member of embas-
purging Oxford of Lollardy, but Lollardy still found some sies to Italy and France, a commissioner of the customs,
sympathy among the lower clergy, the gentry, traders, and and a clerk of the works. His career made him a man of
artisans. In 1395 some knights of the shire presented a bill the world, with a remarkable insight into human charac-
of Lollard demands in Parliament. Richard II suppressed ter. He was also a scholar who had steeped himself in the
the petition, but kept in his Household men known to fa- literature of France and Italy and used that knowledge to
vor Lollardy. It was only with the accession of the House of raise English poetry to the first rank. His first masterpiece
Lancaster that the full force of the government was turned was Troilus and Cresyde, a narrative poem in which he gave
against the Lollards and that men of substance abandoned flesh and blood to the thin characters of Boccaccio’s tale
them. In 1401 Parliament passed a Statute for the Burning and in which he portrayed with humor and pity the glory
of Heretics, which empowered the Church to condemn and tragedy of youth. His greatest masterpiece was The
and the state to burn heretics. Despite this statute, Lollardy Canterbury Tales, left uncompleted at his death, in which
survived among the humble and the poor, among bakers, he portrayed a cross-section of English society. He painted
millers, weavers, laborers, in the west of England, in the the rich merchant, the hunting monk, the lecherous sum-
Chilterns, in the Stour valley, and in Yorkshire. It survived moner, the worldly friar, the prosperous franklin, the poor
underground throughout the fifteenth century, helping to scholar, and the Wife of Bath, one of the great comic char-
prepare the soil for the reception of Lutheran ideas in the acters in English literature. In his understanding of char-
sixteenth. acter, his breadth of sympathy, his tolerance and humor,
106 A History of England

his sense of drama, and his vivid imagery, Chaucer began Roman Empire, the Church had condemned the theater,
a tradition that later found expression in Shakespeare and yet the liturgy of the Church contained within it a dramatic
Dickens. element. In the tenth century that element was extended
William Langland, a poor London clergyman in minor into the rudiments of a play; on Easter one group of priests
orders, began a different but equally powerful tradition in would represent the women approaching the tomb and an-
English thought and letters. In his poem The Vision of Piers other group the angels guarding it, and a dialogue would
Plowman he expressed a religious earnestness, a moral fer- follow. By the thirteenth century these liturgical plays had
vor, an outrage at wrongdoing, and a suspicion of wealth grown so large that an entire church was devoted to their
and learning that formed what was later to be called the performance. The Church now became alarmed that the
­Puritan conscience. He also expressed a hatred for idle- dramatic element was growing stronger than the religious.
ness and a belief in the virtue of hard work that was later In the fourteenth century it therefore removed the drama
to be called the Protestant work ethic. The Vision of Piers from the Church and placed it in the nearby precincts.
­Plowman is an account of the disillusionment experienced Drama now became secularized; actors spoke English, not
in this world by Piers, the plowman, an honest seeker after Latin. They were no longer priests but members of guilds
truth. The poem paints the corruptions of wealth, attacks formed to produce such plays. Instead of brief liturgi-
the money-grubbing friar, exposes the uselessness of pil- cal speeches, playwrights wrote a longer dramatic script.
grimages, and satirizes learning in the guise of a fastidious They also introduced into the biblical stories that lay at the
scholar who cannot stand the plain fare of ordinary doc- center of their plays characters and comic incidents not
trine. Truth, the good life, God, and salvation were not to be found in the Bible. On feast days, especially that of Corpus
found, the honest Piers discovers, in great wealth or subtle Christi, the guilds would perform a series of biblical plays
doctrine, but in honest labor and the service of Christ. at various places around town. Each play was mounted on
It was in The Vision of Piers Plowman that Robin Hood a platform fitted with wheels, and so drawn from place to
received his first mention in a literary text, but this appear- place. With these religious plays began a dramatic tradition
ance reflects an older oral tradition. Those familiar with that not even the Puritans’ attack on the theater in the sev-
Robin Hood through movies and television will be sur- enteenth century could stifle.
prised, and perhaps dismayed, by the tales from the mid- It was also during the late fourteenth century that the
dle ages. Robin does not rob from the rich and give to the Englishness of English art (to borrow a phrase from the em-
poor, there is little evidence of an English peasantry resist- inent historian of art, Nikolaus Pevsner) found expression
ing oppressive Norman rule and there is no Maid Marion in the Perpendicular style. In architecture the peculiarly
(she was added in the sixteenth century). Rather, Robin English qualities were those of angularity, compromise,
opposes corrupt royal justices, greedy clerics, and the and illogicality. The English saw space as angular, not
wicked sheriff of Nottingham. In the absence of a true king, plastic; they added wall to wall and rectangle to rectangle
Robin functions as the king of the Greenwood. He and his rather than molding space as the French did. The square-
“good fellows” live by their own laws and employ violence ended chancel, the square towers of parish churches, the
to right wrongs and see justice done. Yet, Robin is not a hammerbeam roof, and the porches added to cathedrals
revolutionary like Wat Tyler or John Ball: he does not pro- all proclaim this quality. The quality of compromise lies at
pose to r­ eorder society but redresses grievances that arise the heart of the Perpendicular style, for though it is called
within it. The allusions to livery and retaining indicate that perpendicular its essence is a compromise between the
the best known of the Robin Hood tales, The Gest of Robin vertical and the horizontal line. Window tracery and pan-
Hood, reached its final form around 1400. By then anticler- eling made up of tier upon tier of arches and blank arches,
icalism and resentment of the abuses of corrupt o ­ fficials forming a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, distinguish
were widespread and so the tales, which were ­originally the Perpendicular, as do low-pitched roofs and flat-topped
intended for a non-noble (but not peasant) audience, towers. Not for the English the tremendous vertical thrust
crossed social boundaries. By the mid-fifteenth century, of Chartres or the lofty spires of German churches; they
the earliest surviving ballads had lost any subversive ­intent preferred balance and matter-of-factness. But they were of-
and were becoming part of a common culture. Indeed, ten illogical, as the interlaced arches, lopsided vaults, and
J. C. olt has argued that minstrels within aristocratic house- extended west facades give evidence. No French architect
holds were probably responsible for popularizing the tales would have made a west facade wider than the width of the
of Robin Hood. church, but many English architects did.
The late fourteenth century proved to be a seminal age In sculpture and manuscript illumination also the
not only for poetry but for the drama. During the late ­Perpendicular style won out. In their alabaster altars and
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 107

panels, late medieval artists carved long, lean, thin-faced method. They did so by joining the process of induction to
figures not unlike those found in the illuminations of the that of deduction.
Psalter of St. Albans, with its gaunt, stiff, motionless fig- Robert Grosseteste, Chancellor of Oxford and later
ures. The English had not always exhibited such restraint, Bishop of Lincoln, was the first scholar to advance such a
for the tracery and sculpture of the Decorated style showed theory of scientific investigation and explanation. He held
a flowing, even flamboyant, line. But whether the line was that the study of nature was a double procedure. The in-
flamboyant or elongated, it was always a line. Both styles quirer begins with the observation of particular events,
were linear, anticorporeal, unfleshly, a denial of the body. relying on his senses, however imperfect. From such obser-
This does not mean that English artists were not keen ob- vations the inquirer, by a process Grosseteste recognized to
servers, for the margins of the illuminated manuscripts of be intuitive, discovers the nature and causes of the event.
late medieval England are covered with birds and beasts This knowledge he then tests by further observations. Not
and with little scenes of everyday life—a man beating down only did Grosseteste see the importance of observation and
acorns for his pigs, hounds chasing a hare, a windmill, a testing, he also grasped the importance of mathematics.
wrestler. English art leaned to the informative rather than Mathematics could be used to describe what happened and
the imaginative, to fact rather than fancy, to the reasonable to correlate the variations in the effects observed. It was a
rather than the dogmatic. tool for describing events in the world of experience.
It was not only in art but also in science that the E
­ nglish The most important of Grosseteste’s students was Roger
worshipped fact and looked to experience. The twelfth- Bacon, who became a member of Grosseteste’s circle in
century renaissance had led to the recovery of Greek sci- 1249. Bacon’s chief contribution was to apply the double
ence, but that science was based on the premise that, as method of induction and deduction to the study of light,
in geometry, truths can be logically deduced from self- especially the rainbow. He first collected all like instances
evident principles. The Greeks relegated the careful obser- of such a phenomenon, sought the common nature of
vation of the natural world to a secondary role. It was the them, and then deduced that the colors were created by the
remarkable achievement of a group of Oxford philosophers refraction of sunlight through individual drops of water.
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to transform the He too found mathematics indispensable. “All categories,”
Greek geometrical method into the modern experimental he wrote, “depend on a knowledge of quantity, concerning

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; a magnificent example of the piety of the age and of late
Perpendicular architecture.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)
108 A History of England

causes, essences, and substances of Aristotle, and asserted

the principle of economy—namely, that in seeking to ex-
plain nature, one should not unnecessarily multiply con-
cepts. He likewise declared that such concepts as “redness”
or “squareness” or “goodness” were purely mental con-
structs, which the mind forms from its experience of par-
ticular red objects, square objects, or good conduct. Only
through experience of individual things can one gain a
certain knowledge of the real. By the fourteenth century it
had become clear that the English habit of thought was not
deductive, as in France, nor metaphysical, as in Germany,
but empirical. The English desired to dwell among things.

Richard II and the Defeat

of Absolutism
The fourteenth century ended, as it had begun, with a
­profound political crisis. In 1399, as in 1327, the English de-
posed and murdered their King. In 1327 it was Edward II;
in 1399, Richard II. Richard came to the throne in 1377, a
handsome boy of ten, the only son of the Black Prince.
During the first five years of his reign, the government of
the realm rested with a baronial council that sent costly
and fruitless military expeditions to France and lost com-
mand of the sea to a Franco-Castilian fleet. During the
years from 1382 to 1386 Richard matured, slowly built up a
royal party, and began to entrust real power to his personal
friends. He made Michael de la Pole, the son of a wealthy
merchant, Chancellor in 1383 and named Robert de Vere,
The left panel of the Wilton Diptych, showing Richard II a vainglorious and tactless courtier, hereditary Chamber-
Presented to the Virgin and Child by his Patron Saint John the lain. On both he showered estates and titles. Richard soon
Baptist and Saints Edward and Edmund. The Wilton Diptych, showed himself to be an intelligent and sensitive man. He
painted in the late fourteenth century, is one of the earliest was a connoisseur of art, music, and literature, and had a
masterpieces of English painting.  (The National Gallery, London.
flair for fashion in dress. He is said to have introduced the
The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
use of the handkerchief into England. But though a man of
culture, he was no king. He was tactless, impulsive, alter-
which mathematics treats, and therefore the whole power nately lethargic and energetic, and totally lacking in politi-
of logic depends on mathematics.” cal realism. He was no judge of men or circumstances. As
In the early fourteenth century the ideas of Grosseteste a consequence, he failed to defend England against France,
and Bacon were taken up by a group of scholars at ­Merton wasted resources on John of Gaunt’s Spanish ambitions,
College, Oxford, one of whom, William of Heytesbury, and angered the barons by allowing the government to fall
formulated for the first time a correct law of uniform ac- into the hands of favorites.
celeration. He declared that a body accelerating uniformly The barons were not, however, prepared to relinquish
will cover in a given time exactly the distance it would have the power they had won under Edward III and increased
covered in the same time had it been moving constantly at during Richard’s minority. In the Parliament of 1386, the
the speed it reached at the middle moment in time. While Lords and Commons demanded that Richard dismiss his
William of Heytesbury studied motion, another Oxford Chancellor and Treasurer. Richard replied that he would
scholar, William of Ockham, turned his attention to the not remove the least boy in his kitchen on account of them,
methodology of science. He launched a radical attack on but was forced to back down when Parliament refused to
the excesses of scholastic philosophy. He rejected the final vote the money he needed unless he would dismiss the
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 109

two officials. Parliament went on to impeach Michael de By 1397 Richard felt strong enough to strike. In July
la Pole for corruptly using his office for profit and for ne- he arrested Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel and sum-
glecting the defenses against France. They likewise estab- moned a Parliament, which met under the gaze of sol-
lished a commission of reform that would hold power for diers wearing the white hart. Parliament, upon appeals
one year and told Richard that Parliament might depose a brought by lords of the King’s party, executed Arundel,
king who governed against the law and without the advice banished Warwick, and condemned Gloucester, who died
of the peers. Richard was too proud to submit for long to in his prison at Calais, probably murdered. The next year
this indignity. In 1387 he restored Pole, marched into the Parliament met at Shrewsbury, where Richard persuaded
Midlands, raised forces, and pressured his judges into it to vote that the royal person was inviolable and that it
declaring that the commission of reform was illegal and was treason to act against the royal prerogative. Parliament
­Parliament had no right to impeach his servants without also voted him a subsidy on wool for life, rather than for
his consent. The judges also declared that those respon- the usual one or two years, and delegated its authority to
sible for the commission and the impeachment deserved a commission of 18, thereby rendering itself temporarily
execution. The barons, led by the Duke of Gloucester, powerless. Richard now possessed the absolute power of
the Earl of ­Warwick, and the Earl of Arundel, promptly which he had dreamed.
raised an army, overawed the King, personally accused or During the last two years of his reign, the King’s con-
“­appealed” the King’s leading advisers, and demanded that duct approached political madness. He pursued a fantastic
a Parliament meet to pass judgment on them. In the ensu- design to gain the Imperial throne by bribing the Electors
ing Parliament, called the Merciless Parliament, the barons of Cologne and the Palatinate. He extorted large loans from
completed the work they began in 1386. In response to the the rich. He sought to exercise strict control over local gov-
“appeals” brought by the “appellant lords,” Parliament dis- ernment by appointing subservient yes-men as sheriffs.
missed, exiled, imprisoned, or executed the King’s servants He made use of courts of law that did not administer the
and judges. Richard’s circle of friends was shattered, and ­Common law. He extorted from suspected persons sealed,
the Lords Appellants emerged supreme. blank charters which, if the givers offended him, he could
The Duke of Gloucester and his allies remained in power later fill in as he wished. All this made him unpopular with
for a year, slowly losing favor through their incompetence, the politically powerful classes. But his g­ reatest blunder was
when suddenly, in May 1389, Richard declared himself of to confiscate the lands of John of Gaunt, Duke of L ­ ancaster,
full age and free to govern personally. He did so for the on his death in 1399, thereby denying Henry Bolingbroke,
next nine years, in a conciliatory and restrained manner. Gaunt’s eldest son, his rightful inheritance. By this act
He did not recall those exiled by the Merciless Parliament. Richard not only angered the greatest magnate in England,
He allowed the Appellant Lords to remain on the council. but alienated all the barons; for whose lands were safe if the
He restored English power in Ireland. He pursued a popu- King might seize them at will? Richard compounded his
lar anti-papal policy. But the appearance of tranquility was blunder by journeying to Ireland at this moment, l­eaving
misleading, for he fashioned a core of loyal Household offi- the kingdom in the hands of his incompetent uncle, the
cers and built up a party among the moderate barons. Even Duke of York. Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster,
more alarming was the development of his political ideas. whom Richard had exiled the year before, now seized the
The long tutelage he had suffered during his youth had occasion to lead an expedition to E ­ ngland to recover his
awakened in him a desire to be independent and to govern inheritance. He landed in the north, where the two most
by means of the royal prerogative. powerful families, the Percys and the ­Nevilles, joined his
The humiliations suffered in 1386 and 1388 height- cause. As he marched south, even the Duke of York came
ened that resolve. Slowly he came to see that the absolute over to his side. Richard rushed back from ­Ireland, but
power of the King was the best answer to the problems when he landed at Conway he found only a small band of
of government in the fourteenth century. He declared supporters. He might have fled to Ireland or Gascony, but
that the laws were in the King’s breast and that he alone was duped into surrendering by ­Bolingbroke’s promise that
could make law. In 1391 he obtained a declaration from he would remain king if Bolingbroke received his rightful
the Lords and Commons that the King’s prerogative was inheritance.
unaffected by previous legislation. In 1392 he revoked the At some moment during his invasion of England,
liberties of London because the city refused him a loan. Henry of Lancaster resolved to seize not only his lands
He also, through the system of retainers used by the bar- but the throne. He now put his plan into operation by
ons, raised a private royal army that wore his emblem of ­taking R ­ ichard to London, imprisoning him in the Tower,
a white hart. summoning a Parliament in his name, and wresting an
110

The Descendants of Edward III

EDWARD III

YORKISTS LANCASTRIANS LANCASTRIANS YORKISTS

Edward Lionel Blanche of Lancaster (1)m. John of Gaunt m. (3)Katherine Edmund Thomas
Prince of Duke of Duke of Swynford Duke of Duke of
Wales Clarence Lancaster York Gloucester
(1330–76) (1338–68) (1340–99) (1342–1402) (d. 1397)

RICHARD II Philippa m. Edmund HENRY IV John Beaufort Richard Anne

(1367–1400) Mortimer (1366–1413) Earl of Earl of m. Edmund
Earl of Somerset Cambridge Earl of
March (d. 1410) (d. 1415) Strafford
(1374–98)

Roger Mortimer HENRY V John Beaufort Humphrey

Earl of March (1387–1422) Duke of first Duke of
(1374–98) Somerset Buckingham
(c. 1404–44)
Anne m. Richard
Earl of Margaret Beaufort The Buckingham
Cambridge (1443–1509) line
(d. 1415)

Richard Isabel HENRY VI

Duke of York, m. Henry (1421–71)
(1411–60) Earl of
Essex

EDWARD IV Elizabeth George RICHARD III Edward HENRY VII

(1442–83) m. John Duke of (1452–85) Prince of (1457–1509)
Duke of Clarence Wales
Elizabeth EDWARD V Suffolk m. Isabel, (1453–71)
(d.1483) d. of Richard
Earl of
John, Earl Warwick The
of Lincoln Edward, Earl of Essex
(d. 1487) Warwick (d. 1499) line

Edward III had 12 children. Two sons died in infancy; three daughters died unmarried; a daughter Isabella married into the Coucy family;
another daughter, Mary, married into the Monfort family.
 War and Crisis: 1307–1399 111

abdication from him. The day after Richard abdicated, G. L. Harris. King, Parliament, and Public Finance on Medieval
­Parliament, meeting in the presence of Bolingbroke’s armed England to 1369. Oxford, 1975. An important recent mono-
retainers, heard Richard’s deed of abdication read, along graph that traces the failure of feudal revenues to meet the
with 33 charges against him. Henry, Duke of Lancaster, then costs of war, the rise of public taxation, and the capture of
stood up to claim the Crown by right of descent, conquest, the control of taxation by Parliament.
and Richard’s misrule. His claim by descent was weak; the Rodney Hilton. Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant
right of conquest was a two-edged sword; and the ­argument ­Movements and the English Rising of 1381. London, 1973.
Though Hilton devotes half the book to other medieval so-
of unfitness could be turned against any future king. Yet
cial movements, he argues that the 1381 revolt differed from
Henry prevailed because he had the realm behind him. No
them and could only have occurred in market-oriented
doubt it was the military forces at his command that al- southeastern England.
lowed him to depose Richard, but he chose to remove the
George Holmes. The Later Middle Ages 1272–1485. New York,
King by means of Parliament. Previous P­ arliaments had re- 1966. A useful introduction for those reading about the pe-
moved evil counselors and so established a precedent that riod for the first time; especially good on the institutions of
Henry now chose to follow. As Henry IV he ruled England government.
by a title Parliament had confirmed. Hereditary monarchy T. H. Lloyd. The English Wool Trade in the Middle Ages.
now bore a blemish on its escutcheon. ­C ambridge, England, 1977. A detailed, thoughtful, im-
A few months after Henry came to the throne, Richard’s portant study of the wool trade from the twelfth century
supporters rose in revolt. Henry quickly crushed the revolt through the fourteenth.
and resolved that it was too dangerous to allow Richard to May McKisack. The Fourteenth Century 1307–1399. Oxford,
live. Lancastrian propaganda declared that Richard starved 1959. A comprehensive, scholarly, gracefully written his-
himself to death at Pontefract Castle, but it is more likely tory; encompasses social, economic, and intellectual de-
that heavy chains, systematic torture, insufficient food, velopments as well as political; contains a comprehensive
scanty clothing, and cold killed him. Richard suffered the bibliography.
same fate as Edward II and for a like reason. Both sought Colin Platt. King Death: The Black Death and Its Aftermath in
to place their personal government above the laws of the Late-Medieval England. Toronto, 1997. Thematic, richly tex-
realm and the counsels of the great magnates. tured account of the impact of bubonic plague on the land
and English people.
Notes Nigel Saul. Richard II. New Haven, 1997. Abandons the view
of the king as a neurotic asesthete in favor of Richard as
1. Horrox, Rosemary. The Black Death. 1994. Manchester
a forceful king, albeit one with poor judgment. Good on
University Press, 66. the political and diplomatic challenges faced by the last
2. Platt, Colin. King Death. 1996. University of Toronto Angevin.
Press, 182. R. W. Southern. Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an E ­ nglish
Mind in Medieval Europe. New York, 1986. An original,
Further Reading penetrating, learned study of Grosseteste; argues that
Christopher Allmand. The Hundred Years War: England and ­Grosseteste’s English education explains his preoccupation
France at War c. 1300–1450. Cambridge, England, 1988. Cov- with science.
ers not only strategy and tactics, but the politics and diplo- Anthony Tuck. Richard II and the English Nobility. London,
macy of the war, the organization of armies, the levying of 1973. A political history of the reign based on the most re-
troops, and the consequences of the war; lucidly written. cent scholarship; depicts Richard as neither insane nor an
Robin Frame. The Political Development of the British Isles, exalted monarchist, but as insensitive to the consequences
1100–1400. Oxford, 1990. Superb comparative study of the of his actions.
growth of English lordship in the Celtic lands and reasons
for its retreat in Scotland. He concludes that the expansion
of each realm was a “composite uneven affair.”
 chapter 8

Lancaster and York:

1399–1485

T
Chapter Outline
he fifteenth century opened with the seizure of the Crown by
the House of Lancaster, continued with its capture by the House
■ Henry IV and the Foundations
of York, and ended with its seizure by the House of Tudor. During the
of Lancastrian Rule first half of the century the English renewed the Hundred Years’ War
with France, won a glorious victory at Agincourt, and then lost the
■ Henry V and the War in France fruits of that victory in a long, costly, inglorious series of small defeats.
By 1453 England had surrendered all its possessions in France but
■ Henry VI and the Decline ­Calais and its mercenary soldiers came home to contribute to the out-
of the Monarchy break of the Wars of the Roses in 1455. Civil war now replaced foreign
war, as rival factions of powerful noblemen struggled to gain control
■ The Wars of the Roses
of the government. Never were the great magnates of the realm more
powerful, never was the king more feeble, never was the government
in so great a disarray. Yet in 12 short years after 1471, Edward IV, of
■ Edward IV and the Restoration
the House of York, went far toward reversing this trend. He made the
of Royal Power
monarchy stronger than it had been since the reign of Edward I and
began to restore order in the countryside. The fifteenth century pres-
■ Depression and Economic Change ents the anomaly of a Crown, checked first by Parliament, then by an
aristocratic council, then by civil war, suddenly reasserting itself and
■ Late Medieval Culture recovering its independence. The century also presents the anomaly of
profound economic changes amid economic depression, and growing
■ Richard III and the Fall of literacy amid cultural decadence. It was the century in which England,
the House of York from being a nation that exported a primary product, raw wool, be-
came a nation that exported a manufactured product, woolen cloth.
The wealth that the great clothiers made from this industry went into
the building of parish churches, the founding of chantries, the estab-
lishment of grammar schools, and the purchase of books.

Henry IV and the Foundations

of Lancastrian Rule
Well might Shakespeare have Henry IV declare, “Uneasy lies the head
that wears a Crown,” for his short reign was a troubled one. The dif-
ficulties that marked his reign did not arise from any defect in ­Henry’s
character, for he was an able king, a tenacious soldier, a statesman
­capable of both patience and decision. The fault lay in the circum-
stances surrounding his coming to the throne. His uncertain title

112
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 113

encouraged plots against him. Inadequate revenues made the House of Commons, which refused in 1404 to vote him
him dependent on Parliament. The magnates who placed additional taxes unless it could appoint the treasurers to
him on the throne expected him to govern according to administer it. It also demanded that Henry remove four
their wishes. His criticisms of Richard for governing by members of his Household and name in Parliament a con-
a clique, extorting money, not waging war, and spending tinual council with whose advice he would govern. Henry
extravagantly bound him to an opposite course of action. reluctantly agreed.
Henry faced the usual problems of a late medieval king, In 1406 the demands of the House of Commons were
but a king weakened by an uncertain title. equally crippling to the prerogative. In return for a shil-
Henry’s troubles began in the autumn of 1400 when ling increase in the customs, Henry agreed to nominate
Owen Glendower, a Welsh gentleman descended from the his councillors in Parliament, to govern with their advice,
ancient Welsh nobility, led a revolt against English rule. and to allow the Commons to name auditors to audit the
The rebellion spread rapidly through Wales because Welsh money voted for the war. Henry was unable to control
tenants resented their exploitation by English landlords. his own a­ dministration without the consent of a council
Henry’s troubles grew more serious when Sir ­E dmund whose nomination had been imposed upon him. In 1407
Mortimer, uncle of Richard II’s legitimate heir, the Earl of the Commons wrested from Henry an acknowledgment
March, joined the rebellion. The crisis grew ever graver of its sole right to initiate money bills. But these gains did
when the Percys, the mightiest family in the north of not mean that the English monarch suddenly became sub-
­England, also joined. The Percys had helped Henry gain the ordinated to Parliament. Henry struggled against these
throne, but they were now angry that he had not paid them limitations on his power and threw them off when the
the money he owed them as wardens of the Scots Marches, ­opportunity arose. The Commons retained the right to
that he had not allowed them to ransom ­Scottish prisoners initiate money bills, but it did not again seek to impose
taken in battle, and that he sought support from all shades a council on the King. What it really sought was to con-
of opinion. In 1403 Glendower, Mortimer, and the Percys trol taxation, not the government; it wanted less taxes, not
joined together in a bizarre scheme to overthrow Henry more power.
and partition England among themselves. Henry met After 1408 different factors shaped English politics.
this threat with unusual swiftness. He marched north to The military danger posed by France, Glendower, and the
Shrewsbury, intercepted the Percys before they could join ­Percys diminished. The King grew ill and dispirited. His
with Glendower, and defeated them. He had surmounted son, the ambitious Prince Henry, grew more restless in
the deepest crisis of his reign, though he had to suppress his desire to take his father’s place. He allied himself with
a second uprising in the north in 1405 and only slowly re- the powerful Beaufort family, half brothers of the King.
gained the many castles lost in Wales. By 1408, however, he Through the Beauforts he sought to win control of the
was firmly seated on the throne. Council, which fell once more under aristocratic domina-
In these early years Henry was buffeted by blows from tion. The authority of Parliament now receded as politics
other quarters. Parliament, and the House of Commons became a struggle of rival aristocratic factions for ­control
in particular, criticized him for his failure to defend the of the Council. The ambitions of Prince Henry were the
coasts against French raids, for his extravagant Household chief ground for these quarrels, but there were also genu-
expenditures, and for his gifts of land to courtiers. Against ine differences of opinion over the wisest policy toward
such criticism, often unjustified, Henry was virtually pow- France. In 1411 the Prince favored seizing the opportu-
erless, for though in theory he enjoyed all the prerogatives nity offered by divisions in France to resume the war; but
of a King of England, in practice his authority was much his father steadfastly pursued a policy of peace. It was
diminished. During his reign the House of Commons even rumored that the Prince might engineer the King’s
reached the zenith of its power in medieval times. The abdication, but in 1412 Henry roused himself and with
causes of this development were various. By the end of the the help of ­Archbishop Arundel ousted the Prince and
fourteenth century Parliament had evolved into its modern Thomas Beaufort, who was Chancellor, from the Council.
form, one in which the Commons were as essential a part Twice that year the Prince came to London with a reti-
as King and Lords. Henry suffered all the weaknesses of a nue of men, presumably to use force, but nothing came
usurper. His income of £90,000 a year was smaller than of the threat. Henry died peacefully in March 1413, still
Richard II’s, which was £116,000. And though he enjoyed King, but having done little to solve the deeper problems
the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, he had to meet that beset the monarchy. His supreme achievement was
the heavy expenses of garrisoning Calais and s­ uppressing to have survived and to have handed on the Crown to his
rebellion. His financial needs placed him at the mercy of brilliant son.
114 A History of England

Henry V and the War in French Crown and lands appears flimsy and fabricated, but
Henry never doubted the rightness of his cause.
France With 2000 men-at-arms and 6000 archers, Henry sailed
Henry V came to the throne at the age of 25, young, en- from Southampton in August 1415. It was a carefully planned
ergetic, courageous, a soldier king who in the next ten expedition, reflecting Henry’s mastery of detail and organiza-
years governed England with firmness, justice, and honor. tion. He first besieged Harfleur, which fell after five weeks, the
He was a devout monarch, who heard mass often and first town ever captured by the English by means of cannons.
vowed to go on a crusade. He was, as Shakespeare wrote, Though the long siege had depleted his forces, most of them
“the mirror of all Christian Kings.” This was how most falling to dysentery, he determined to march north to Calais,
of his contemporaries and the Elizabethans saw him, but thereby revealing the weakness of the French. The French,
modern historians have discovered another side to his convinced that Henry had overreached himself, blocked his
­character. He was, in their judgment, cruel, domineering, advance at Agincourt, which lay less than 30 miles from Crécy,
selfishly ambitious, and sanctimonious. Whichever por- the scene of Edward III’s great triumph. There, on St. Crispin’s
trait comes closer to the truth, two facts are certain: First, Day, the 25th of October, a tired, wet, hungry ­English army
Henry, by his personal attention to good government and confronted a French army five times its size.
by his w ­ illingness to govern by consensus with his mag- The French made some disastrous mistakes. They chose
nates, restored ­domestic tranquility to England; and sec- to fight in a narrow defile between the forests of Agincourt
ond, he by choice dedicated his entire reign to one great and Tramecourt, thus making their superior numbers use-
cause, the conquest of France. less. Stung by a rain of arrows from the English archers,
Political disorder in France presented an open invita- they foolishly launched their cavalry against English
tion to resume the war. The King, Charles VI, was old and ­archers who were well protected by stakes driven into the
mad, with the result that political power had fallen into ground. They then sent heavily armored soldiers on foot
the hands of great princes of the realm, like the Duke of through deep mud against the English foot soldiers, who
­Burgundy and the Duke of Orléans. Since 1407, when the repulsed them, whereupon lightly armored English archers
Duke of ­Burgundy had connived at the murder of the Duke infiltrated the broken ranks and destroyed the French
of ­Orléans, the feud between these families had divided all with hatchets and axes. Furthermore, the French kept
France into Burgundians and Armagnacs (as the Orléanists their crossbowmen at the rear, where they were useless.
were called). In September 1413 the Duke of Burgundy fled The English, on the other hand, extended their longbow-
Paris to his domains in the Low Countries, leaving Paris in men forward on both flanks. The rout of the French army
the hands of the Armagnacs. Henry thus had a splendid was complete. Indeed, toward the end of the day, fearing
opportunity to recover England’s lost lands in France, and a counterattack, Henry ordered the slaughter of thou-
perhaps win the Crown itself. He needed little prompting, sands of French prisoners. Before the day was over, 5000
for ever since 1411, when he sent a small force to France French had been killed, including three dukes, five counts,
on his own initiative, he had wanted to do this. On be- and ninety barons, with another 1000 taken prisoner. The
coming king he promptly entered into secret negotiations English lost fewer than 300 men. Henry had won a victory
with the Duke of Burgundy to secure his neutrality and more dazzling than Crécy or Poitiers, and all the bells of
opened negotiations with the Armagnacs to cloak E ­ ngland’s England rang in celebration.
preparations for war. In August 1414 an English delega- Henry had won the battle but not the war, a fact he was
tion to Paris proposed that Henry should marry Charles too good a soldier not to recognize. When he returned to
VI’s daughter, ­Catherine, and receive in full sovereignty France in 1417, he pursued a strategy of besieging, one by
­Normandy, ­Touraine, Maine, Anjou, Brittany, Flanders, and one, the chief fortified towns of Normandy. In 18 months of
all A­ quitaine. The French refused this outrageous demand. long, careful sieges he captured Caen, Falaise, C ­ herbourg,
Henry made a similar demand in June 1415, with the added and Rouen, but his success was only made possible by
threat that if the French refused he would recover those ter- the Duke of Burgundy’s advance on Paris, which the Duke
ritories with the sword, and also seize the French Crown. The captured in 1418. It was at this point in the war that the
French again refused, whereupon Henry joined his troops two French factions, alarmed at Henry’s successes, sought
at ­Southampton. The motives that drove Henry to war were a reconciliation. It was short-lived, for an adherent of the
many: to win glory and fame, to increase the power of the Dauphin (the French king’s son) murdered the Duke of
English Crown, to still discontent at home with great victo- ­Burgundy in 1419, plunging France once more into strife.
ries abroad, and to enforce a claim in whose righteousness The new Duke of Burgundy, thirsting for revenge, allied with
he believed. To the historian today, the English claim to the Henry and forced on the mad King of France in 1420 the
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 115

ne R.
Rhi

Calais

Agincourt

Crecy

Cherbourg Harfleur
Rouen
Caen Se Meaux
in
e R
Falaise . Troyes
Paris

M AIN E

Orleans

eR
L oi r

R ho n e
France During the Later

R.
Part of the
Hundred Years’ War
English
G AS CO N Y

0 50 100 Miles

0 50 100 Kilometers

Treaty of Troyes. By the Treaty of Troyes Henry was to marry concerned with his own rights than with the nation’s true
the King’s daughter, Catherine, and to succeed to the throne interests. His early death helped to conceal this fact and to
of France on the King’s death. Henry spent the remainder cause succeeding generations to remember him simply as
of his short life in the wearisome task of besieging French the triumphant warrior king.
towns. It was the dysentery he contracted during the long
siege of Meaux that brought his life to an end in August 1422.
Henry V’s death proved fortunate for his reputation, for Henry VI and the Decline
he had embarked upon a hopeless enterprise. The Crown’s
debts were piling up, since current revenues were not
of the Monarchy
enough to pay for a single one of his campaigns. To the cost During the long reign of Henry VI (1422–1461) the power
of the campaigns was now added the cost of administer- and dignity of the English monarchy declined to its low-
ing occupied territories. Parliament also grew restive at the est ebb. A long minority contributed to this fact, for Henry,
heavy financial demands made upon it. Henry’s objectives the son of Henry V and Catherine, was only nine months
had always been more dynastic than national; he was more old when he came to the throne. Nor did his coming to
116 A History of England

maturity in 1437 check the decline, for Henry grew up to The influence of the Crown, however, did not destroy the
be a pious, gentle, well-meaning recluse, with no capacity independence of the Commons; frequent opposition to the
for politics. During these 40 years of royal impotence, the Crown demonstrated this. More powerful than royal influ-
government fell into the hands of a Council dominated by ence was the influence exercised by great lords, both over
the great magnates of the realm. The Lords in Parliament elections and over the conduct of members when elected.
named the first Council, but the Council perpetuated itself In Yorkshire the Percys and Nevilles dominated elections;
thereafter by electing new members without consulting in Norfolk, the powerful Duke of Norfolk. But the i­ nfluence
Parliament. Never before in English history had the aris- of the great magnates was not an overriding one. In 1450
tocracy enjoyed such an ascendancy in government. And the Duke of Norfolk was unable to secure the election of
on the whole they exercised that power well, particularly Sir Roger Chamberlain from Norfolk. Most members were
during the first 20 years of Henry’s reign. rich, independent-minded squires, and if they often sup-
The King’s wise and respected uncle, the Duke of ported the lords of the Council, they did so more from an
­B edford, carried on the war in France; Parliaments identity of interest than from political subservience.
­regularly voted the needed subsidies; the courts of law It was, in fact, the refusal of Parliament to pour money
administered justice; the more turbulent barons went into the bottomless pit of the French war that finally
to France in search of plunder and ransoms. The most brought an end to that imperial venture. In theory the army
disruptive influence in these years was the fierce rivalry in France should have been paid out of the revenues raised
between the Duke of Gloucester, an adventurous soldier, there. On his deathbed Henry V urged Bedford to win the
a patron of literature, the King’s uncle, and an ambi- support of the French by good government, but Bedford’s
tious and maladroit politician, and Cardinal Beaufort, wise laws for the occupied territories proved unavailing.
Bishop of Winchester, a man of enormous wealth and His administration, which extended over all France north
much cunning, the King’s great-uncle, and an enigmatic of the Loire, met with passive resistance everywhere. The
figure in politics. ­G loucester and Beaufort continually failure of the English to control their own soldiers, who
intrigued against each other, but their quarrels never acted more like an occupying army than a local force, fur-
flamed into open conflict. When they threatened to, the ther exacerbated the situation. In time the annual deficit
Duke of Bedford hurried over from France to extinguish of £30,000 a year became unendurable. In 1428, when
the flames. ­England besieged Orléans, the government could send
The aristocratic Council found that it had as much only 2700 men as reinforcements. All that France needed
need of Parliament as had the kings in the fourteenth for victory was to shake off the apathy that the devastation
century. Parliament tenaciously defended its right to vote caused by English arms had created. It was a saintly peas-
­extraordinary taxes, and in 1450 it revived the power of im- ant girl from Domremy, Joan of Arc, who accomplished
peachment. In two particular ways the Commons during this task. Guided by mystic voices that bid her free France,
these years extended its powers. It established the practice she used her remarkable powers of persuasion to convince
of introducing petitions worded in the exact form of the Charles VII that he could recover his kingdom and that she
proposed statute, and it won the right to consent to all leg- was the instrument to accomplish it. With an army that
islation. Judges now ruled that no bill could become a stat- Charles placed in her hands, she relieved Orléans. From
ute without the consent of the House of Commons as well that moment the French drove the English ever northward,
as of the King and Lords. The continued importance of the though Joan herself, captured by the Burgundians and sold
Commons and the growing power of the landed gentry led to the English, was burned as a heretic and witch.
in 1430 to a statute that limited the right to vote in county The French now took care not to expose their armies
elections to those who held a freehold worth 40 shillings to the successful English combination of archers and
a year. This statute, designed to maintain the House as a ­men-at-arms, and they made better use of their artillery.
preserve for wealthy landlords and merchants, effectively The point of no return came in 1435 at the peace confer-
disenfranchised the copyholder and leaseholder, men of ence of Arras, when the English refused to give up Paris or
“small substance and no worth.” The importance of the Henry’s claim to the French throne. Their obstinacy drove
Commons also led nonresidents to seek election from the the Duke of Burgundy to desert them and join the King of
boroughs. Where the boroughs once returned only their France. With the Duke as an ally, the English could barely
most prominent citizens, they now returned lawyers, gen- hold their own; without the Duke, their defeat was certain.
tlemen, Household officials, and civil servants. By 1472 at In 1436 the French drove the English from Paris, in 1450
least half the borough representatives were not citizens of from Normandy, in 1453 from Gascony. Nothing was left of
the borough they represented. the English dominions in France but Calais.
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 117

Defeat abroad, as it does in all ages, embittered politics The Wars of the Roses
at home. The Duke of Bedford died in 1435, thus remov-
ing a restraining hand. Cardinal Beaufort, a realist at heart, From 1455 to 1485 a factious nobility and a weak king
finally saw that the cause was hopeless and listened to the plunged England into a civil war that historians have called
peace party in the Council. The militant Duke of ­Gloucester the Wars of the Roses. Few events in history have been
favored continuing the struggle—a popular view since it more wrongly named. The error began with Shakespeare,
was easy to persuade men that the losses arose from bun- who in a memorable scene in Henry VI had the Duke of
gling and treachery, not superior French resources. Soon York pluck a white rose, the emblem of his House, and the
the Beaufort faction found an ally in William de la Pole, Earl of Somerset a red rose, the emblem of the House of
Earl (later Duke) of Suffolk, a court favorite on whom Lancaster, to signify their opposition to each other. Draw-
Henry VI poured offices, lands, titles, and commercial priv- ing upon this scene, Sir Walter Scott named these wars the
ileges. ­Politics now moved out of an aristocratic ­Council Wars of the Roses, but the scene was pure invention. In fact
that ­co-opted its own members into a Court where the the red rose was not the emblem of the House of Lancaster,
King’s favorites ruled. In 1444 Suffolk won a two-year truce but of the House of Tudor. The misconception goes deeper,
in the French war by agreeing to the marriage of Henry VI for the cause of the wars did not lie in a disputed succes-
to the King of France’s niece, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret, sion to the Crown but in the feebleness of Henry VI and
a spirited, willful, passionate young girl, quickly persuaded the factiousness of the nobility. Richard, Duke of York, did
her gentle husband to surrender Maine to the French. With not at first seek the Crown but only power at Court. Nor is
the Crown debts at £400,000 and the Crown revenues a it correct to date the wars from 1455 to 1485, for in effect the
mere £30,000 a year, it was inevitable that England should wars came to a close in 1471.
reduce its garrisons in Normandy and that Normandy The Wars of the Roses were first of all a struggle for
should easily fall to France, as it did in 1449 and 1450. power among contending factions of noblemen, a struggle
Parliament and the populace did not see the fall of in which the lower and middle classes took little part. But
­Normandy as inevitable; they saw it as a disaster whose they were more than this. They were also a period in which
authors should be punished. The soldiers at Portsmouth private warfare, intimidation, injustice, and violence pre-
lynched the Bishop of Chichester. The House of Commons vailed in the counties. The roots of this mounting disorder
impeached the Duke of Suffolk, who sought safety in flight, can be traced far back into the fifteenth century, even into
only to be captured by the mutinous crews of a royal ship the fourteenth.
and beheaded. Six months after the Duke’s murder, the It was the decay of feudalism in the thirteenth and four-
men of Kent rose in rebellion under the leadership of Jack teenth centuries that made room for a new system of rela-
Cade. Cade’s rebellion was a general movement of disaf- tionship between lord and man. Feudal relations were based
fection, provoked by financial corruption, administrative on the vassal holding land of the lord; the new system, which
incompetence, decline of trade, and loss of the war. The historians have called “bastard feudalism,” was based on the
rebels came largely from the trading centers in Kent, where lord’s man, or retainer, receiving a wage or pension. Because
the export of cloth had declined between 1448 and 1450 a retainer often wore the livery, or household uniform, of the
from 2078 pieces of cloth to 237. Among the rebels were lord he served, he came to be known as a liveried retainer.
workers in cloth, shipmen, tradesmen, three members of Such retainers often signed an indenture promising to serve
Parliament, 74 gentlemen, and some peasants. Though the a lord for life or for a number of years. The system of liv-
rebels demanded the repeal of the Statute of Laborers and eried retainers appeared as early as Edward I’s reign, but in
the protection of the royal courts for the land of the poor the fifteenth century it became a scourge on the country-
peasants, their chief demands were more political than so- side. The growing concentration of property in the hands
cial. They wanted the removal of evil councillors, an end of a few great families, the return of undisciplined troops
to corruption, an improvement in the method of collecting from France, and the feebleness of the King promoted its
taxes, and the return of royal lands granted to favorites. The growth. Private wars between armies of liveried retainers
rebels terrorized London for three days but could not gain became the ultimate weapon for settling disputes. In 1445 a
the Tower. The King met with the rebels, raised an army, quarrel between Sir William Bonville and the Earl of Devon
attacked them, and routed them. Because no one above flared into the Battle of Exeter; the Nevilles and the Percys
the rank of knight joined the revolt and because the rest of fought a pitched battle at Stamford Bridge in 1453; the Duke
England remained quiet, the revolt did not become a civil of ­Norfolk in 1469 besieged Caistor Castle with an army of
war. But civil war was soon to come, and the greatest mag- 3000 men; and Lord Molyns in 1450 attacked John Paston’s
nates of the realm enlisted themselves in it. manor house (as Paston recounts it) with
118 A History of England

a thousand persons … arrayed in manner of war, with In 1455 this struggle for power erupted onto the bat-
cuirasses, coats of mail, steel helmets, glaives, bows, tlefield. At St. Albans in May, a Yorkist army defeated
arrows, large shields, guns … ladders, and picks with the ­L ancastrians in a battle that traditionally marks the
which they mined down the walls, and long trees with ­beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Somerset fell in the bat-
which they broke up gates and doors, and so came tle, and York seized the opportunity to win for himself the
into the said mansion, the wife of your beseecher at protectorship of England. He did not hold it for long, for the
that time being therein, and twelve persons with her; Queen, now the leader of the Lancastrian forces, soon recov-
the which persons they drove out of the said mansion ered power at Court. The years 1456 to 1459 were relatively
and mined down the walls of the chamber wherein quiet, but only because both sides were preparing for a new
the wife of your beseecher was, and bare her out at the resort to arms. The crisis came in 1460, when the Duke of
gates and cut asunder the posts of the house, and let York’s ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Captain of
them fall, and broke up all the chambers and coffers in Calais, launched an attack across the Channel. The fortunes
the said mansion.1 of war now fluctuated wildly. At ­Northampton in July the
Yorkists triumphed over the Lancastrians. At W ­ akefield in
Over-mighty subjects used force not only to seize castles December the Lancastrians defeated the Y ­ orkists in a battle
and manor houses, but also to intimidate courts of law. A in which Richard, Duke of York, met his death. In ­February
great lord might appear at court with 40 or 50 retainers in or- 1461 the Lancastrians won another victory at the ­Second
der to “maintain” his cause or that of a dependent. Any man Battle of St. Albans, but their ­triumph was ­short-lived. On
bold enough to bring a lawsuit against a great lord or one of March 29 the new Duke of York, ­Edward, decisively ­defeated
his allies might find that no counsel would serve him, that the L ­ ancastrians in a savage, seven-hour battle in a blinding
no witness would appear for him, and that the great lord had snowstorm at T ­ owton Moor. The L ­ ancastrian cause never
named the justices of the peace who were to try him. A pow- recovered from this defeat.
erful lord might bribe the jurors or intimidate the justices or, Beneath this kaleidoscope of changing military ­fortunes,
as Lord Fanhope did as a last resort at Bedford Town Hall, one can glimpse a deeper reason for the ­Yorkist vic-
simply break up the meeting of the court with armed men. tory. They profited from the reaction against L ­ ancastrian
Two qualifications must be made to this picture of anar- ­misrule. The failure to maintain a royal fleet had alien-
chy and injustice. Livery and maintenance largely afflicted the ated the merchants, whom Warwick enlisted in the Yorkist
countryside, not the towns; and the extent of the disorder may cause. The lack of good government, the abuse of purvey-
appear greater than in earlier centuries simply because it was ance (the right to buy provisions at less than market price),
better reported. There are no Paston letters for the thirteenth ­repeated demands for money, and mounting corruption
and fourteenth centuries. Yet these are only qualifications. increased the government’s unpopularity. The vindictive-
The fact of social disorder is writ large over the history of the ness of the Lancastrians in the Parliament of 1459, when
middle decades of the fifteenth century, as a petition before they voted numerous Acts of Attainder against Yorkist
­Parliament in 1459 makes clear. The petition complains of rob- lords and knights, frightened the upper classes. As a re-
beries, ravishments, extortions, oppressions, riots, and wrong- sult, when Warwick landed, the men of Kent welcomed
ful imprisonments that were universal throughout the land. him, and when Edward marched into London, the crowds
While the Lord Moleyns and the Lord Fanhopes of the cheered him. Indeed, the executions carried out by the
age were besieging manor houses and invading court- Lancastrians after the battles of Wakefield and St. Albans
rooms, the greatest lords, led by the House of York and the and the plundering of the countryside by the Queen’s
House of Lancaster, were fighting for political power. This army finally overcame the reluctance of the Yorkist party
struggle had its roots in two circumstances: the feebleness to ­remove Henry VI from the throne. In the autumn of
of the King, who could not prevent defeat abroad or disor- 1460 the Yorkists could only persuade Parliament to name
der at home, and the irresponsibility of the aristocracy, who Richard, Duke of York, protector of the realm and heir to
sought to exploit his weakness for their own gain. Richard, the King. In March 1461 a Yorkist Council and an assembly
Duke of York, the greatest landowner in the kingdom and of London citizens at Clerkenwell acclaimed Edward King
a descendant of Edward III, placed himself at the head of England by hereditary right. The Yorkist claim to the
of the opponents of the Court. Edmund Beaufort, Duke throne was a strong one, but they would not have enforced
of ­Somerset, a descendent of Edward III through John of that claim had Henry VI proved to be an able king.2
Gaunt, led the Lancastrian forces at Court. Between 1450 To a large extent, Edward IV owed his throne to his
and 1455, as the King fell into madness and then recovered, cousin, the Earl of Warwick, and he very nearly lost it by
Yorkists and Lancastrians alternately controlled the Court. alienating this powerful and able politician, who stood for
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 119

no principle more exalted than his own power. In a ­moment ­ aster Sunday in a thick mist defeated and slew ­Warwick. A
E
of infatuation Edward married the beautiful ­E lizabeth few weeks later it was announced that Henry VI had died in
Woodville, a young lady from an obscure family. He then the Tower “of pure displeasure and melancholy,” though he
poured favors on her father, and on her five brothers and was probably murdered. Edward was now the undoubted
seven sisters. The rapid rise of the Woodvilles, along with King of England, beholden to no kingmaker.
Edward’s determination to ally with the Duke of B ­ urgundy,
infuriated Warwick, who favored an alliance with France
and the preservation of his own power. His fury finally Edward IV and the
drove him to raise the Neville forces in the north, to seek
the assistance of Louis XI of France, and even to ally with
Restoration of Royal Power
his detested enemy, Margaret of Anjou. In the autumn Edward IV was a most unlikely person to restore the Crown
of 1470 Warwick landed in England with an army and to its former ascendancy. He was tall, handsome, affable, and
­compelled Edward, who had insufficient forces, to flee to indolent, a dissolute young soldier who loved wine, women,
the ­Netherlands. Warwick the kingmaker now restored and magnificent clothing. Yet he began the revival of royal
Henry VI to the throne, even though he had become a per- power that the Tudors carried to completion in the sixteenth
manent imbecile. Warwick was unable, however, to hold century. Tradition has established the year 1485 as the begin-
the power he had seized. Edward raised a large force in the ning of modern English history, but 1471 makes more sense,
­Netherlands, sailed up the Humber in 1471, and at Barnet on for the Tudors built on the foundations Edward IV laid down.

England in the
Fifteenth Century

Newcastle

North
Towton Sea
York
Leeds
Halifax Moor Hull
W ES T Wakefield
R ID IN G
Tr e n t

Irish Lincoln
Sea Boston
R.

Nottingham
Shrewsbury Lynn Norwich
Leicester
Yarmouth
Ouse

Birmingham Bosworth Field

Coventry Northampton
R.
S ever n

Cambridge
Tewkesbury Bedford
R.

Gloucester St. Albans

Oxford
Barnet
Bristol R . Th a m e s
London

Salisbury
Southampton
Exeter

Plymouth
0 30 60 Miles
English Channel
0 30 60 Kilometers
120 A History of England

Edward succeeded where others had failed for at least three a king who would “live of his own.” Peace abroad and low
reasons. In the first place, he had none of Henry VI’s feeble- taxes at home caused the merchants of London to prosper.
ness, nor did he suffer—as Henry IV had—from an ­uncertain So great was the satisfaction of the mercantile community
title. The House of York, the descendants of Edward III’s sec- that they even acquiesced in the forced loans, or benevo-
ond son, always had a stronger claim to the throne than the lences, which Edward levied on those who had grown rich
House of Lancaster, the descendants of Edward III’s third in trade and industry but escaped the traditional taxes.
son. Furthermore, no serious pretenders to the Crown were The institutions through which Edward exerted his royal
alive—the Yorkists had seen to that by murdering Henry VI in power were the Council, the Chamber, the office of ­Secretary,
the Tower and by slaying his young son, Edward, at the Battle and the Court. In his Council Edward made greater use of
of Tewkesbury (fought two weeks after the Battle of Barnet). knights, justices, sergeants, and attorneys, and less use of
But what mattered more was Edward’s vigor and intelligence. magnates. The Council became a body of trusted men, de-
He was an active king, who for several years went himself on pendent on the King, advising him, and carrying out his
judicial progresses through the countryside, suppressing dis- will. It recovered some of the judicial powers it had lost at
orders and seeing that justice was done. mid century. Ever since the fourteenth century it had sat in
Edward also succeeded because he made the Crown fi- the Star Chamber as a court; the difference now was that a
nancially independent. The Lancastrians, by granting royal strong king backed its efforts to suppress, by fines and im-
lands to favorites and waging wars that interrupted the prisonment, the violence of the times. Conciliar government
trade on which the customs depended, drove the royal rev- was even extended to the Marches of Wales, where the Prince
enues down to a point where the Crown was dependent on of Wales’s Council enjoyed wide powers, and to the north,
­Parliament. Edward reversed this trend. He added to the where Richard, Duke of Gloucester, on becoming king, cre-
lands of the Crown the lands of the Duchy of ­L ancaster, ated the King’s Council in the north. More important than
which Henry VI had allowed to fall into the hands of the Council in the daily administration of the realm, however,
­Cardinal Beaufort. Then he made certain that all the lands was the Household, particularly the C ­ hamber. Edward used
which fell into his hands by escheat or forfeiture remained the Chamber to administer his royal lands, thereby escaping
there. He also persuaded Parliament to vote him the c­ ustoms the cumbersome procedures of the medieval ­Exchequer. He
for life, which freed him from the necessity of summoning also made extensive use of the Secretary, who was always a
Parliament every year or two in order to renew it. As great member of the Council, and who dealt with correspondence
as these revenues were, they were not enough to allow the on every matter and issued warrants under the signet seal.
Crown to wage war. The pursuit of peace became the key Yet Edward clearly understood that government was more
to financial independence. Edward dared not relinquish than Star Chamber decrees and warrants under the signet.
­English claims to the French throne and French territories He sought by the magnificence of his person and Court to
too swiftly, for they were still popular. He therefore sum- exalt the monarch above his subjects.
moned P ­ arliament in 1474 and allowed it to vote him a large How far Edward sought to exalt the monarch is hard to
subsidy for an invasion of France. In 1475 he launched the say, but an acute observer of the political scene, Sir John
invasion, but then quickly allowed Louis XI to buy him off. Fortescue, voiced his opinion on the rightful powers of the
By the Treaty of Picquigny, Louis promised to pay Edward monarch. Fortescue was a chief justice of the King’s Bench
an immediate sum of 75,000 gold crowns and an annual and a Lancastrian who was captured at Tewkesbury. ­Edward
pension of 50,000 gold crowns for the rest of his life. Louis pardoned him and named him to the Council. Fortescue
also permitted ­English merchants to renew their trade with then wrote the first political treatise in the English lan-
Gascony and other parts of France. Peace brought trade, and guage, The Governance of England. In it he argued that no
trade an increase in the customs. From 1475 onward Edward kingdom could prosper where the king was poor and his
was free from any dependence on parliamentary grants. subjects nearly as wealthy. He therefore urged that the King
The third reason for Edward’s success lay in the clamor build up the royal demesne by resuming alienated lands and
of the middle classes for order and in their aversion to that his subjects be prevented from accumulating large es-
taxation. The Wars of the Roses had caused enough vio- tates by marriage alliance or other means. He also urged that
lence and injustice, and enough damage to trade, to make the King rely on a Council that was not dominated by the
the middle classes, both in the countryside and in the greatest lords in the land. These arguments, however, did
towns, yearn for a strong king. Nor were they alarmed that not mean that Fortescue believed that the King of England
­Edward IV met only six Parliaments in 22 years. The public should be absolute. He drew a favorable contrast between
had lost confidence in Parliaments that were only tools of England, a limited monarchy, and France, an absolute mon-
factions. And their hatred of taxation made them welcome archy. He declared that the King of England rules by laws
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 121

that he cannot change at his pleasure and that are made with This led to the rise of the great clothier, the entrepreneur
the “assent of the whole kingdom.” Fortescue’s purpose was who purchased wool from the farmer, took it to the cottages
to rescue the King from his subservience to the great lords, for the women and children to card and spin, carried the
not to make him an absolute monarch, ruling above the law. yarn to the weaver to weave into cloth, then took the cloth
to the fuller, the dyer, and the shearman in turn. His last
act was to place the cloth on packhorses to be carried off to
Depression and Economic market. Such an enterprise required great sums of capital,
Change a clothier willing to take risks, freedom from guild regula-
tions, and laborers who would work for wages. The system
The political turbulence of the mid-fifteenth century caused came to be called the “putting-out system” and its emer-
a decline in trade that added to the woes of a people already gence marks the advent of capitalism in English industry.
suffering from an agricultural depression. During the fif- England, as George Holmes has observed, was the Japan
teenth century the price of wheat and barley continued to of the later Middle Ages, exporting cheap, serviceable cloth
drop, trade with the Netherlands was disrupted, and trade all over the Western world, just as the Japanese export their
with Gascony was temporarily halted by the French. Yet de- Toyotas and Sonys. England sold cloth to the Hansards,
pression did not prevent a fundamental change in English who carried it to Novgorod; to the Italians, who carried
commerce. From being chiefly an exporter of a raw mate- it to Byzantium; and to the merchants of the Netherlands,
rial, wool, England became chiefly an exporter of a man- who carried it to central Europe. The English came to
ufactured commodity, woolen cloth. In 1350 it exported
30,000 sacks of wool a year; in 1485 it exported only 10,000
sacks. Meanwhile the export of woolen cloth rose from 4774
cloths (a cloth was 24 yards long and 2 yards wide) in 1354
to 30,000 cloths in 1400 and 50,000 in 1485. The fifteenth
century demonstrated that fundamental economic change
is consonant with prolonged economic depression.
The forces working for this transformation were various.
The most important may well have been the high export du-
ties levied on wool. From 1363 a group of merchants called
the Company of the Staple had maintained a permanent gar-
rison, or staple, at Calais. Edward granted them a monopoly
of the export of wool so he might more easily tax wool. This
tax was £2 a sack, or one-fourth of the price of the wool.
English cloth, on the other hand, paid only a trivial duty.
This gave the English clothier an immense advantage over
his Flemish competitor, who had to pay at least one-fourth
more for his wool. There was also the fact that England
­produced cloth at home, close to the Cotswolds and dales of
Yorkshire, where the best wool in Europe was produced. The
declining profitability of agriculture also promoted the man-
ufacture of cloth, for many peasants, finding no work in the
fields, turned to the ­spinning wheel and loom. Finally, the
guild system did not restrict the English industry as ­severely
as it did the Flemish. Originally the English cloth indus-
try existed in the towns, in Coventry, York, Norwich, and
­Salisbury, but the difficulty of bringing together the weaver
who wove cloth, the fuller who fulled it, the dyer who dyed
it, and the shearman who finished it, each with his own
guild, proved very great. As the market for cloth expanded,
as the need for waterpower for fulling emerged, and as the
restrictions of the guilds grew more irksome, the manufac- Drawing of a woman at a loom in the fourteenth century.  (British
ture of cloth moved to the countryside. Library, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
122 A History of England

resent the fact that foreigners dominated the trade in cloth, made. Not all merchants, however, grew wealthy. Many towns
a commercial nationalism that found expression in 1437 in in England declined in population and wealth during the fif-
The Libel [meaning “little book”] of English Policy. The au- teenth century. Others prospered, like Bristol, with its trade
thor argued that foreigners could not do without ­English to Ireland and Spain, and with the cloth industry of the West
wool and cloth and therefore must submit to the English or Country behind it; and Southampton, where the Italian gal-
starve. He urged that England exploit its command of the leys came with their silks, satins, furred gowns, spices, sugar,
Channel to stifle the trade of the Italians and the ­Hansards. and gems, and returned with wool, cloth, hides, and metal.
But the governments of the 1440s and 1450s did not have But the most prosperous town of all was London, whose mer-
the naval power to challenge the Italians and ­Hansards. chants controlled the rural cloth industry and dominated the
An attempt by Robert Sturmy to send ships loaded with Merchant Adventurers. In 1334 London had 2 percent of the
wool, tin, and cloth to Pisa met with fierce reprisals by taxable lay wealth of England; by 1515 it had 9 percent. But
the Genoese. An attack on a Hansard fleet in 1449 led to not all Londoners prospered. The master weaver became a
the seizure of all English goods in the territories of the hired hand and the craft guilds lost much of their power to
Hanseatic League and the closing of the Danish Sound to the oligarchic merchant companies such as the mercers (those
English shipping. The 1450s were the bleakest decade in who dealt in textiles), grocers, and drapers. It was the success-
English trade. The government quarreled with the Duke of ful merchant who prospered and who used his burgeoning
­Burgundy, who controlled England’s most important mar- wealth to erect parish churches and build oak-beamed houses.
ket, the Netherlands. Gascony, to whom the English had
sent wheat and cloth in return for wine, was lost. Even the
export of cloth declined in this decade. It is no wonder that
Late Medieval Culture
the merchants supported Edward in his bid for the Crown. Civil war and economic depression prevented the aristoc-
And they were well repaid. As king he restored to the racy from building on a grand scale, while most of the great
­Hansards their former privileges and gained Louis XI’s per- cathedrals and abbeys of England had been built in earlier
mission for a resumption of trade with Gascony. The export centuries. The wealth of England, therefore, now found em-
of English cloth began its sensational rise, which continued ployment, and the piety of Englishmen found expression in
under the Tudors. And though Edward restored the privi- the building of parish churches, especially in East Anglia,
leges of the Hansards, the total trade in the hands of foreigners the West Riding, and the Cotswolds. Here the clothier and
was less than two-thirds of that in the hands of the Merchant woolman devoted their wealth to the building of resplendent
­Adventurers, the English company to whom Henry IV granted parish churches. Responding to the increasing nationalism
a charter in 1407 and who dominated the export of cloth. of the time, patrons and architects built these churches in
The depression and the economic changes of the fif- the uniquely English Perpendicular style, with large porches,
teenth century affected the different classes in different timber roofs, richly carved choir stalls and rood screens
ways. The laborers and peasants who worked for hire held (screens separating the nave from the chancel), and square
their own, since wages remained high and prices station- towers crowned with pinnacles at the four corners. The piety
ary. Peasants with small holdings in the West Riding, the of the age also found expression in the endowment of chant-
West Country, and East Anglia could supplement their ries. A chantry was a chapel where a priest said masses for
incomes by spinning and weaving. The more enterprising the repose of the souls of the dead. A wealthy man might
peasant could rise by leasing the lord’s demesne. In these endow a chantry college, where a staff of priests said masses
years the copyholder who worked his own land and kept in perpetuity for his soul and those of his family. A less
sheep, hens, pigs, cattle, and bees prospered more than the wealthy man would found a chantry chapel in a cathedral
large landowner who grew a cereal crop. These years wit- or parish church, a chapel built with all the profuse decora-
nessed the rise of the yeoman class. The name yeoman was tion of the Perpendicular style. Originally a brass effigy of
once reserved for the freeholder peasant, but now it came the donor covered the floor above his tomb, but the growing
to be applied to all prosperous peasants, whether they held ostentation of the time led to more elaborate chantry tombs.
by freehold, copyhold, or leasehold. The tomb now became a chest, rising above the floor, sur-
It was the large landowners who suffered the severest eco- mounted by a recumbent effigy, usually in alabaster, of the
nomic decline during these years. A few of the greatest fami- deceased. The finest of these effigies, such as that of Richard
lies survived by accumulating more land through marriages, Beauchamp in Warwick Chapel, were works of art that ex-
but many baronial families went down. A few avoided bank- hibited the powerful realism of fifteenth-century sculpture.
ruptcy by marrying the daughters of rich merchants or by In comparison to earlier centuries, the fifteenth cen-
participating in trade, for it was in commerce that wealth was tury was intellectually sterile. There were fewer students at
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 123

the universities and no great issues. Reginald Pecock, the for a dance, in which the dancers sang the refrain, but the
outstanding scholar of the century, illustrated this sterility. connection with dancing had disappeared by the fifteenth
He was a Welshman and fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, century. Carols kept the refrain and a lyrical quality but they
who rose to be Bishop of Chichester and who wrote over 50 now expressed a religious sentiment. They were written for
works. He was a scholastic philosopher who had immea- Christian festivals, especially Christmas, and were usually
surable confidence in the power of formal logic and the joyous in mood, though occasionally melancholic. To the
validity of the syllogism. His chief concern was to refute miracle play, which reached its height about 1425, was now
and convert the Lollards. He attacked the Lollards for their added the morality play, in which the dispute lay between
dependence on Scripture alone and sought to restore the abstract virtues and vices. The masterpiece among morality
harmony of reason and faith that St. Thomas Aquinas had plays was ­Everyman, in which Death summons Everyman
asserted and Duns Scotus and Ockham repudiated. But to God. One by one, Everyman’s worldly companions for-
the day was rapidly passing when exercises in formal logic sake him, until only Good Deeds is left to accompany him
could either persuade people or reveal new truths. to his last ordeal. The ballad, the carol, and the play were
The intellectual sterility of the age was paralleled by a de- part of an oral tradition, but the gradual growth of literacy
cline in the quality of courtly verse. This came about partly led for the first time to the practice of letter writing. The
because the patrons of letters were too busy waging war, letters of the Paston family of Norfolk contain some of the
partly because allegories and chivalry were as threadbare as finest English prose of the age—plain, direct, vivid.
scholasticism, and partly because the final “e” in the English Margaret Paston, one of the Norfolk Pastons, assumed
language, pronounced in Chaucer’s time, had become mute. that anyone fit to be put in charge of the household’s bread
This last development made Chaucer’s lines seem variable and beer could write, and Sir Thomas More a generation
and so led his disciples to produce careless, clumsy verses. later estimated that half the population could read (he
But though courtly letters declined, popular literature flour- must have been thinking of London). One of the principal
ished—in the ballad, the carol, the morality play, and let- causes of this widespread literacy was the foundation of
ter writing. The fifteenth century was the great age of the grammar schools during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
narrative ballad, which was usually meant to be sung. Those turies. In 1382 William of Wykeham founded a grammar
about Robin Hood reflected many features of the time—the school at Winchester, a certain proportion of whose stu-
popular hatred of sheriffs, respect for the yeoman class, and dents should be “the sons of noble and powerful persons,”
faith that the king will do justice. The carol began as a song a provision that was the germ of the great English public

The parish church of Lavenham, Suffolk, one of the great fifteenth-century wool churches of
East Anglia.  (© Crown copyright. NMR)
124 A History of England

(in American terms, private) schools. In 1440 Henry VI out, not by work, but by a feverish pursuit of pleasure. He
established an equally splendid grammar school at Eton. was succeeded by his son Edward, a mere boy of 12. The
Noblemen, men and women of lesser ranks, town cor- young prince was controlled by the Queen Mother, be-
porations, and guilds all established schools, elementary hind whom stood the grasping, ambitious, numerous, and
as well as grammar. By the end of the century there were unpopular Woodville family. To forestall their triumph,
from 500 to 600 schools scattered throughout England— Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the King’s brother, marched
with the result that perhaps as many as 15 percent of the swiftly south, seized the Prince, won control of London,
English could read. and had the Council declare him protector of the realm.
During these same years there arose on the north bank of Gloucester succeeded because he had the sup-
the Thames, between the city of London and Westminster, port of many councillors and noblemen and because
four great Inns of Court, where the Common law judges most ­E nglishmen feared the civil disorders that would
and lawyers received their legal education. These institutions arise ­u nder a minority. In the next months, however,
came into being when associations of lawyers purchased the ­R ichard overreached himself. He had Lord Hastings,
inns, or town-houses, of great noblemen and religious soci- the last of ­Edward IV’s trusted councillors, executed. He
eties. In these inns the students slept, dined, disputed, and had Dr. Shaw declare at Paul’s Cross and the Duke of
studied the mysteries of the Common law. The lawyers and ­Buckingham announce at the Guildhall that Edward IV’s
apprentices who composed the Inns of Court had an ex- marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and ­Richard
clusive right to plead in the royal courts. The Inns of Court therefore the rightful heir. The next day Parliament
made the fifteenth century a golden age of pleading.
The grammar schools and the Inns of Court produced
an ever-increasing number of educated laymen, a process
that was greatly accelerated by the introduction of the
printing press into England. William Caxton, a successful
merchant with literary tastes, learned the art of printing in
Flanders. He set up the first press in 1476 in the precincts of
Westminster Abbey. The first books he published reflected
the medieval taste in literature—lives of saints, books of
devotion, romances, the works of Chaucer. Indeed, by
publishing Malory’s Morte d’Arthur he helped perpetuate
the taste for medieval romance. Malory fused together in
a coherent and simple manner the various Arthurian ro-
mances. He was indifferent to the supernatural elements,
such as the quest for the Holy Grail, but he idealized the
chivalric elements. He made Arthur not only a chivalrous
knight but a national hero. His romance was the first great
work of poetic prose in England.
The tastes of the English in the fifteenth century were
conservative, their intellectual disputes sterile, and their
courtly verse clumsy. Yet beneath this outward decadence,
social and educational forces were creating an educated lay
public, both in the upper and middle classes, that in the
next century would welcome the new learning and art of
the Italian Renaissance.

Richard III and the Fall of

the House of York
But for the chance death of Edward IV and the rapacity
of Richard III, the House of York would have been on the
throne when English scholars brought the new learning
from Italy. But Edward died suddenly at the age of 40, worn Portrait of Richard III.
 Lancaster and York: 1399–1485 125

meekly agreed that Edward’s marriage was invalid and Notes

Richard rightfully king. On July 6 Richard was crowned as 1. For the strength of the Yorkist claim, see the
Richard III. A month later the two young princes, Edward genealogical chart on page 188.
V and his brother Richard, Duke of York, were probably
2. H.S. Bennet, The Pastons and Their England. 1922.
smothered to death in the Tower, most likely on Richard’s
Cambridge University Press, 63.
orders. Richard’s seizure of the throne was the most ruth-
less of many violent acts committed during the fifteenth
century, but it was the work of an ambitious, nervous poli- Further Reading
tician, not a moral ogre. Shakespeare’s picture of Richard Richard Barber, ed. The Pastons: The Letters of a Family on the
as physically and mentally deformed, a “crouchback” with Wars of the Roses. Penguin Books, 1984. The letters of a fam-
ily who rose to eminence in Suffolk; they offer a rich and
his right shoulder higher than his left, is false, a piece of
intimate glimpse of these turbulent years.
Tudor propaganda to justify the accession of the House of
A. R. Bridbury. Economic Growth: England in the Later M ­ iddle
Tudor. Richard III was a courageous soldier, an able ad-
Ages. London, 1962. Challenges the orthodox view that
ministrator, and a man of culture. Yet the many attempts
sees economic decline in these years; argues that the Black
to whitewash Richard of the guilt of murdering the two Death stimulated enterprise.
princes carry little conviction. No one will ever know for
R. R. Davies. The Revolt of Owain Glyn DŴR. Oxford, 1996.
certain who ordered their murder, but the evidence points Authoritative account of the Welsh rebel and the campaign
more clearly at Richard than at anyone else. to crush him.
The murder of the two princes—rumor of which soon F. R. H. Du Boulay. An Age of Ambition: English Society in
spread abroad—broke the Yorkist party. The Duke of the Late Middle Ages. London, 1970. A social history that
Buckingham, once Richard’s ally, now raised a rebellion both scholar and general reader may read with pleasure and
against him in the west of England, a rebellion Richard profit; contains fascinating chapters on “Class,” “Marriage
swiftly suppressed. Buckingham paid the ultimate pen- and Sex,” and “Attitudes Toward Authority.”
alty for failure in medieval England: He lost his head. Anthony Goodman. The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity
The object of Buckingham’s rebellion was to bring Henry and English Society, 1452–97. London, 1981. Incorporates the
­Tudor, Earl of Richmond, to the throne. This man now be- most recent scholarship on the Wars; draws on available
came Richard’s most formidable foe. Through his mother, sources, including manuscripts in local record offices; sur-
­Margaret Beaufort, Henry had inherited the Beaufort veys the disruption to daily life caused by the Wars.
claim to the throne—an uncertain claim, for it came G. L. Harriss, ed. Henry V: The Practice of Kingship. New York,
through John of Gaunt’s illegitimate children. Henry had 1985. A new interpretation of Henry V’s reign that em-
fought at Tewkesbury in 1471 for the Lancastrians, from phasizes his personal care in the government of England
which battle he had fled to Britanny to await his chance. and his ruling by consensus; contains chapters by Edward
­Powell on law and order and by Jeremy Catto on religion.
The growing unpopularity of Richard’s rule now made his
chances seem less hopeless. The executions of Earl ­Rivers, A. J. Pollard. Late Medieval England, 1399–1509. London,
2000. Guides the reader through a complex era while using
Hastings, Buckingham, and others had greatly narrowed
a wide array of sources. Shrewd in its judgments and lively
Richard’s basis of power. His resort to forced loans further
in its prose.
increased the hostility toward him. When Henry Tudor
Charles Ross. Edward IV. London, 1974. A vivid, profound, yet
sailed from France with 2000 men in August 1485, he met
critical study of Edward IV, which has become the standard
little resistance. Richard’s men at Milford Haven, where history of the reign.
Henry landed, far from opposing Henry, put themselves
———. Richard III. New Haven, CT, 1999. Thematic rather
under his command. Henry then marched through Wales than narrative in approach; places on Richard III blame for
and the Midlands to Leicester, where on August 22 he the two princes’ death, yet abolishes with no possibility of
met Richard in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry was return Shakespeare’s picture of Richard as an ogre.
­outnumbered, but the Earl of Northumberland, who com- John A. Thomson. The Transformation of England. London,
manded Richard’s right wing, refused to fight, and Thomas 1983. A clear, accurate, comprehensive survey, which em-
Lord Stanley, who was formally allied with ­Richard, de- phasizes those developments that transformed rather than
serted with all his men to Henry. The defection of ­Stanley perpetuated medieval society.
spelled certain defeat for Richard, who died fighting for
his crown. The crown itself rolled underneath a haw-
thorne bush. Lord Stanley picked it up and placed it on the
victor’s head.
 Chapter 9

The Reign of Henry VII:

1485–1509

T
CHAPTER OUTLINE
he kingdom henry vii won at bosworth field was a thinly
populated, though rich and fertile, land. The Venetian ambassa-
■ Engrossment and Enclosure
dor found it a pleasant land of rolling hills and beautiful valleys, of
wide meadows and agreeable woods, with plenty of water everywhere.
■ Industry: Urban and Rural He found the climate healthy, for the cold in winter was less severe
than in Italy and the heat in summer less oppressive. The heat was
■ Commerce: Foreign and Domestic less in summer because of the rain, which, he observed, “falls almost
every day during the months of June, July, and August.” He thought
■ The Consolidation of Power
the riches of England—its fertile soil, its wool, its tin and lead, its fish
and wild fowl—greater than that of any country in Europe. He thought
more land should be put under the plow, but observed that this neg-
■ The Revival of Royal Power
ligence was made up for by the enormous number of animals—deer,
pigs, cattle, and, above all, sheep. What most struck him as he traveled
■ The New Learning from Dover to Oxford was the emptiness of the English countryside.
“The population of this island,” he wrote, “does not appear to bear any
■ Medieval and Modern proportion to the fertility and riches.”
When Henry VII ascended the throne, some 2.2 million people oc-
cupied a land that had supported between 4 and 5 million at the end
of the thirteenth century. The Black Death and related diseases had
decreased the population of England to a mere 2.1 million during the
years from 1400 to 1430. It remained at that level until about 1470,
when first slowly, then more swiftly, it began to rise. By 1600 it had
reached 4 million, nearly what it had been three centuries before. Thus,
the dramatic events of Tudor England were played out against a back-
drop of a growing population, which stimulated economic growth, ac-
celerated the commercialization of agriculture, encouraged trade, and
promoted the growth of London.
These 2.2 million people were not divided into a few self-conscious
classes, but into many ranks and degrees of men and women. The most
profound distinction lay between those who owned land and those
who did not. Among the landowners of England in 1500 there were
some 50 noblemen, 500 knights, 800 esquires, and 5000 gentlemen
(not to speak of the King, who owned about 5 percent of the land, and
the Church, which owned over 20 percent). The nobility were set off
from the other landowners of England by their titles, their seats in the
House of Lords, their great households, and their wealth. The wealthi-
est peer in the realm, the Duke of Buckingham, enjoyed an income of
126
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 127

£6000 a year; the average income of a peer was probably Beneath the gentry were the yeomen, the peculiar glory
£1000 a year. They led their lives in public, amid a mass of of England, the descendants of the franklins of Chaucer’s
underemployed servants, in huge drafty halls, dispensing time. It is as difficult to define yeoman as it is to define gen-
hospitality on a magnificent scale. Husbands and wives oc- try. Different records often called the same man “yeoman”
casionally lived apart, keeping separate households in dif- and “husbandman.” Generally speaking, a yeoman owned
ferent parts of the country. They sent their children to wet or leased a farm of 100 or 200 acres and rented additional
nurses at birth, then to servants to be reared, and finally to pasture, whereas the husbandman farmed about 10 to
another lord’s household to learn “courtesy.” The want of 30 acres. A yeoman’s livestock might be ten times as nu-
affection in family life helps to explain the ease with which merous as the husbandman’s and his income greater than
children became pawns in marriage alliances. In the late many a gentleman’s. He filled his house, not with gentility,
fifteenth century, this style of life began to give way to a do- but with bacon, eggs, butter, and cheese. The husbandman
mestic style. Increasingly the lord’s family retired to private rarely owned any land; his economic well-being depended
chambers to dine, and in the 1490s peers began to build on the fixity of his tenure and his landlord’s willingness not
houses for comfort rather than defense. These houses were to raise the rent. In an average year a husbandman with
one of the earliest signs of the country-house civilization 30 acres might produce a crop worth 3 pounds, 13 shillings,
that was to dominate England for the next 400 years. and 4 pence, pay 12s 6d rent and 10s tithes, and be left with
After the nobility came the gentry, who consisted of all £2 12s 10d.
the landowners of England below the peerage and above At the bottom of the pyramid were the cottager and the
the yeomanry. Contemporaries often, but not invariably, laborer, those who worked for wages, probably two out of
distinguished three ranks within the gentry: the knight, every three Englishmen. They were not an industrial prole-
the esquire, and the gentleman. The knights were the tariat, for the cottage and an acre or two of land they rented
­fewest and the wealthiest. There were some 500 knights were an important part of their livelihood. A laborer with
in ­E ngland in 1500, with an average income of about only an acre of land might, by thrift and hard work, rise
£200 a year. ­B elow them were the esquires, a name origi- in the world. Yet life for most of them was harsh and pre-
nally ­applied to the younger sons of knights, but now ap- carious. They lived in cottages with but a single room, often
plied to any ­considerable landowner who did not aspire only 10 feet by 8. When the harvest was good and bread
to ­knighthood. In 1500 there were some 800 squires in cheap they survived; when it was not, weakened by hunger,
England, men whose incomes averaged £80 a year. The they might be swept away by disease (the expectation of life
title gentleman originally described the younger sons and at birth was about 35 years, compared with 77 today). De-
brothers of esquires, but came to be applied to a large spite the harshness of life, suicide (which the church con-
group of minor landowners, some 3000 to 5000 in num- demned) was rare; expectations were low; and there were
ber. They were distinguished from the esquires chiefly by compensations such as a sense of belonging to a place, a
the fact that an esquire owned one or more manors, while leisurely pace of work, a close-knit family, a cycle of holy
a gentleman merely owned land within a manor. Most gen- days, and the oblivion offered by a cheap and plentiful sup-
tlemen had an income of £10 to £20 a year. ply of ale.
The gentry class as a whole represented an amalgama- Nine out of ten people lived in the countryside, but
tion of the knightly class of the thirteenth and fourteenth much of the wealth of England was to be found in the
centuries with two new groups: merchants and lawyers towns. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there
who had purchased land, and yeoman farmers who had was a remarkable advance in urban wealth. In 1334 ur-
accumulated enough land to seek gentility. Formally, one ban wealth was 7 percent of the wealth of the country; by
became a gentleman when the College of Heralds rec- 1524 it was 15 percent. Equally remarkable was the grow-
ognized one’s right to bear a coat of arms, a right recog- ing ascendancy of London. In the early fourteenth century
nized with increasing frequency in the fifteenth century. it was three times wealthier than the richest provincial
But in reality gentility was defined by a way of life based city, Bristol; by 1520 it was ten times wealthier than the
on the ownership of land and unsullied by manual labor. richest provincial city, which was now Norwich. It had
It was also distinguished by cultivated manners, a proper 60,000 inhabitants, whereas York, Bristol, and Norwich
education, and a comfortable house. A wealthy merchant had but 10,000 each and a dozen other towns but 5000.
or yeoman would purchase the land; his properly edu- The ­Venetians were filled with admiration for the riches of
cated son would acquire the status. “Gentility,” said Lord London. They wrote home about the 52 goldsmith shops
Burghley, Queen Elizabeth’s great minister, was “nothing in Cheapside, filled with treasures that the shops of Rome,
but ancient riches.” Milan, Florence, and Venice together could not rival. The
128 A History of England

Venetians said nothing about the squalid streets where the fifteenth century individual tenants had, by exchanging
poor lived, but there were many such streets. London ex- strips and by purchasing them, consolidated their hold-
hibited the same wide gulf between rich and poor that the ings in this manner. It made for a more efficient agricul-
countryside did. The bottom three-quarters of the popula- ture, as was demonstrated by the fact that enclosed land
tion owned only 4 percent of the total wealth of the city, sold for 50 percent more than unenclosed land. Against
while the top 5 percent owned 80 percent. In Coventry such ­e nclosure neither the moralist nor the statesman
11 persons owned 44 percent of the wealth, while half the inveighed, but it was very different when the lord of the
population owned nothing other than the rags they wore manor consolidated large stretches of the open field,
and a few pieces of board as furniture. And during the late evicted his tenants, and converted the land to pasture,
fifteenth century, town governments grew ever more oli- on which he put great flocks of sheep. Even worse was
garchical. The new charter for Bristol, for example, put an the landlord who enclosed all or part of the village com-
end to what little popular control had existed. Inequality of mon, thus depriving his tenants of the right to pasture
wealth and increased social distinctions were the hallmarks their animals on it. Moralists and statesmen condemned
of the society Henry VII governed from 1485 to 1509. such enclosures. In 1489 Parliament passed an act forbid-
ding the conversion of arable land into pasture and the
pulling down of houses. The government feared that en-
Engrossment and closures would swell the number of vagrants, reduce the
amount of grain needed for feeding England, and deplete
Enclosure the supply of men for the fighting forces. The enforcement
It is a curious but indisputable fact that the growth of indi- of the act was left to the initiative of landlords, with the
vidual liberty was a chief cause for the growth of inequal- obvious result that it was not enforced. Within a few years
ity. In the twelfth century serfdom had stamped a rough the owner of Stretton Baskerville turned out 80 people, let
equality on the villeins of England, most of whom had their houses tumble down, and converted the arable fields
rights in some 30 acres of land. The gradual disappear- into pasture. Between 1485 and 1500 nearly 16,000 acres
ance of serfdom, the commutation of labor services into were enclosed in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire,
money rents, the appearance of a market in land, and the ­Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire, of which
renting of the manorial demesne made possible the erosion over 13,000 acres became pastureland.
of this equality. The enterprising peasant steadily accu- The driving force behind the conversion to pasture was
mulated land. Others were driven to the wall and became economic gain. The demand for wool and mutton, and
landless laborers. The engrossing of farms—the adding of hence the price of each, rose higher and higher, making
farm to farm—proceeded from generation to generation, it increasingly profitable to raise sheep. Wages remained
either by the natural process of inheritance and marriage high, making it advantageous to turn from arable farm-
or by the purchase of land. By 1500 villeinage was practi- ing to pasture. A single shepherd, with his boy and dog,
cally extinct. The important distinction now became one of could tend a whole flock, replacing a hundred laborers on
wealth, not legal status; the line ran between the well-to-do the arable. The profits from sheep farming were immense;
peasant who owned or leased land and the landless laborer the temptation to turn to sheep farming irresistible. Those
who worked for wages. The village of Wigston Magna in who yielded were not, as was once thought, the merchant
­Leicestershire offers an example of such a rural society. Two who had recently bought land and sought a quick profit.
great absentee families owned 60 percent of the land, the Those responsible for turning arable into pasture were the
Church owned 3 percent and the peasant 37 percent, but old, well-established families. In Leicestershire the ancient
out of some 80 peasants only 20 owned any land. Under squirearchy carried out 67 percent of the enclosures, the
the Tudors the pace of engrossing increased. A few individ- monasteries 17 percent, the nobility 12 percent, and the
uals bought more and more land, making it more difficult Crown 2 percent. But though the “new men” did not en-
for a growing population to find land. Indeed, engrossing close the land and evict the tenants, a new spirit did. Land-
was probably a greater social problem than enclosing, for it lords came to regard their lands more as a source of wealth
went on throughout England, while enclosure was limited and less as a means to support a numerous tenantry useful
largely to the East Midlands. as a military force.
Enclosing was the process by which the lord of a manor A landlord who wished to turn to sheep farming would
or a tenant bought up all the strips adjoining his, put a begin by evicting the leaseholders from his demesne and
hedge around them, and farmed this compact, closed enclosing it for pasture for sheep. This presented few
field separately from the open fields. Throughout the problems, for most leases were short. But sheep farming
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 129

Enclosures in
England
1485–1607
NORTH RIDING 1/2%–2%

2%–4%
4%–7%

EAST RIDING
7%–10%
WEST RIDING 10%–13%

LINCOLN

AM
CHESHIRE DERBY

GH
IN
TT
WAL E S

NO

STAFFORD
LEICESTER
RUTLAND NORFOLK
SHROPSHIRE

O N HUNTING-
WARWICK PT
AM DON
H
RT
O CAMBRIDGE
N
HEREFORD
RD
O
DF
BE
BU

GLOUCESTER OXFORD
CK

ESSEX
IN
GH
AM

MIDDLESEX

BERKSHIRE

SOMERSET HAMPSHIRE

0 20 40 Miles

0 20 40 Kilometers

demanded more land than the demesne, so the lord set out customary tenant without a copy of the manor roll and one
to acquire land from his tenants. These were of three kinds: with a copy was far less important than the conditions en-
the freeholder, who paid a token rent and enjoyed complete rolled there. Some customary tenants held their land only
security of tenure; the customary tenant, who held land by for their lifetime. An enclosing landlord need only await
a great variety of tenures; and the tenant-at-will, who held the tenant’s death to seize his land. Others held by inheri-
his land on his lord’s terms at his lord’s pleasure. The cus- tance, but with an uncertain entry fine (the sum paid by an
tomary tenants were the most numerous, about three out heir to succeed to his lands). A landlord could evict such a
of five. Some held their land by the “custom of the manor,” tenant by demanding an impossibly high entry fine. Others
which was recorded on the manorial court roll. Others held by inheritance and a fixed entry fine. They were nearly
possessed a copy of the entry on the manorial court roll as secure as the freeholder, but they made up only a minor-
and were called copyholders. But the distinction between a ity of customary tenants. Thus, by calling in leases, evicting
130 A History of England

tenants-at-will, awaiting the death of a copyholder, and im- Country (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire),
posing high entry fines, a determined lord could create a in East Anglia (particularly Suffolk), and in the West
great sheep run, to his profit and his tenants’ misery. ­Riding of Yorkshire. These were areas of pastoral farming,
In 1516 Sir Thomas More in his Utopia cried out that where ­agriculture placed fewer demands on the villager
the sheep, once so meek, now devour the very people than did the cultivation of the arable. The cloth industry
themselves. His lamentation was exaggerated, for much in ­Hertfordshire, for instance, disappeared in the sixteenth
of ­England was untouched by enclosures. In the highland century when that county turned to the growing of grain.
zone of the west and north, the arable, always small, had Though the great bulk of cloth produced went into the
long been enclosed. In the wood-pasture regions within home market, exports also rose spectacularly, making the
the lowland zone, arable fields had also been long en- cloth industry of Wiltshire and Suffolk dependent on for-
closed. Kent had never known open fields, and pasture for eign markets. A new phenomenon appeared in the English
cattle and pigs in Essex and Suffolk was already enclosed. economy: periods of unemployment caused by fluctuations
Along the east coast of England was a marshland that in a distant market.
harbored an agricultural world of its own. The only coun- During the 1490s there were several changes in the loca-
ties seriously affected by enclosure were in the Midlands, tion of the industry. The areas around Halifax and Leeds
extending from Leicestershire and Warwickshire south replaced York as the center of the industry in Yorkshire,
through Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire to ­Berkshire. while in the West Country it came to be centered on E ­ xeter.
Leicestershire affords a typical example of the extent of But there were no changes in basic organization. The great
enclosures. It lay in the heart of open-field England, with capitalist clothier continued to dominate, putting out the
possibly 95 percent of its land under cultivation. Of the wool to be spun and the yarn to be woven in lonely cot-
enclosures that occurred in Leicestershire, 48 percent tages from Cornwall to Cumberland. Nor were the cloth-
took place before 1485, 43 percent between 1485 and 1530, iers averse to colluding on the price for the weaving of
and 9 percent thereafter. The climax was reached about cloth—a price that drove the weaver to work long hours to
1510. During the entire period only about one-tenth of earn a livelihood.
the open-field arable was converted to pasture, a fact that There were many other industries in England besides
appears to make Sir Thomas More’s lament seem exces- cloth making. It is even possible that the building indus-
sive. Yet it was not excessive, since enclosures, partial and try (if one includes the quarrying of stone within it) em-
complete, touched one village out of three. Of 370 villages ployed as many as the cloth industry. Between 1480 and
in ­Leicestershire, 140 suffered from a complete or partial 1540 there was a great resurgence in church building. In the
conversion to grass. Forty of these villages were completely 1500s the nobility and gentry also began to build country
enclosed and became deserted, part of the lost villages of houses, while thousands of small gentry and prosperous
England. The fact that economic distress of this magnitude yeomen rebuilt their homes. Next to the building trades
did not lead to revolt can probably be explained by succes- came the exploitation of the mineral wealth of England.
sive waves of the plague, which reduced some of the vil- By 1500 miners had already opened most of the coalfields,
lages to small, decaying communities. There were few to be but the working life of a medieval pit was short because of
evicted, and they could find vacant tenures or employment the inability of miners to control flooding. Then in 1486,
elsewhere. Where there were many to be evicted the dis- at Finchdale in Durham, water-powered pumps were first
tress was great, though the wealth of the nation increased. used to pump out the mines. Between 1490 and 1510 tin
production in Cornwall and Devon, which had been stag-
nant, doubled. This increase came about largely because
shaft mining replaced opencast mining, a change that
Industry: Urban and Rural meant the triumph of the capitalist entrepreneur. Where a
There was a second reason why enclosing and engrossing peasant once needed only a pick and shovel to mine tin,
did not lead to social revolt during the reign of Henry VII: costly equipment now became necessary, equipment that
The English economy was a dual economy in which the only a rich merchant or enterprising landlord could fur-
peasant worked in both agriculture and industry. In the nish. The lead industry in the Mendips also prospered in
uplands of Wiltshire and Suffolk they wove cloth, in Corn- the 1490s, for the demand for lead as roofing material for
wall and Devon they mined tin, in the north they mined churches and houses proved insatiable.
coal, in the West Midlands they manufactured nails. Of The metal trades likewise flourished. Birmingham, re-
these rural industries, the woolen cloth industry was ported John Leland in Henry VIII’s reign, resounded to
by far the most important. It was centered in the West the noise of smiths making knives, bits for horses, cutting
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 131

tools, and nails. But the richest people in Birmingham were have exceeded 50 shillings. Of this he might pay 5 shillings
the butchers and tanners. The leather industry in ­England a year to rent two rooms, a small open-roofed hall and an
was probably more important than the metal crafts, for inner chamber. A pair of shoes would cost a shilling—three
leather was used for shoes, clothes, belts, buckets, and days’ wages. In all, a workingman might spend 4 shillings
bellows. The industry was centered in the Midlands and on clothing for himself and his family. Fuel and light cost
­L ondon, where cattle were raised and butchered for the little, for fuel could be picked up in wooded country and
food market. Many early Tudor enclosures, in fact, were rushlights could be made at home for nothing. It is clear
undertaken for cattle grazing, not sheep runs. Finally, there that the workingman spent about 90 percent of his income
was the shipbuilding industry, which Henry VII fostered on food and drink. Bread was the staple, eaten with cheese.
with carefully placed subsidies. The first subsidy went to Meat rarely appeared on his table, though fish, especially
Bristol, the home of William Canynges’s bustling, expand- the herring, often did. Because consumer goods were al-
ing shipyard. Canynges, who owned 3000 tons of shipping, most nonexistent, the laborer had little to spend his money
kept. 100 carpenters and workmen busy. But though Bristol on but beer and ale, which explains why he spent so many
was preeminent, every harbor and inlet in England echoed hours in the alehouse. When the harvest was good, prices
to the hammers of the shipwright. low, and the work-week long, the laborer prospered as he
Industry was not wholly rural. One-third of the popu- never did again until the eighteenth century. But when the
lation of Coventry and Norwich was engaged in the cloth harvest was bad, prices high, and employment slack, he
trade, and every town had its butchers, tanners, tailors, suffered far more than the rural poor, having no acre of
cobblers, chandlers, brewers, and hatters. A large town land to fall back on.
would contain up to 100 different trades, a medium-sized
town, about 60. The small craftsmen, however, never be-
came as wealthy and powerful as the merchants. Of the 12 Commerce: Foreign and
great amalgamated companies in London, only the cloth-
workers were not traders. The craft guilds in London and
Domestic
elsewhere grew less and less influential—and more and Though England’s overseas trade was less than one-tenth
more monopolistic. of its coastal and internal trade, it exercised a dispropor-
Hours of work in industry (and in agriculture too) were tionate influence over the economy. Between 1470 and
long. A statute in 1495 provided that between March and 1510 the export of cloth overseas tripled, from 30,000
September the worker should be at work before 5 a.m. and cloths a year to 90,000, thus enriching the clothier and
should leave between 7 and 8 p.m., with one-half hour for merchant, giving employment to the weaver, and driving
breakfast and an hour and a half for dinner and a nap, a to- up the price of wool. The soaring price of wool in turn led
tal of 14 to 15 hours, with 2 hours of break. From September landlords to convert their arable into pasture. The greatest
to March every craftsman and laborer should work from fortunes in this trade were made by the merchants who
daybreak until nightfall. There were variations. The master exported the unfinished, undyed wool cloth to Antwerp.
cappers at Coventry had a 12-hour day all year around, and They were found chiefly in London and were organized in
the building trades in London worked from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. the Company of the Merchant Adventurers. By the early
between March and September, and from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. sixteenth century, cloth and raw wool accounted for 90
between September and March, though they had only an percent of all English exports, the remainder being made
hour and a half off for meals. up of coal, tin, lead, grain, and fish. In return, England
These hours seem intolerable, but there were mitigat- imported wine from Gascony and oil, soap, alum, and
ing circumstances. The pace of work was slow, not being dyestuffs from Spain (the necessary raw materials for the
geared to the machine. There were some 35 holy days be- cloth industry).
sides Sundays. And there was widespread underemploy- English ships carried only half the cloth exported; the
ment. It is likely that the average work-week was only three Hansards and the Italians carried the other half. English
days a week, which made the 12- to 13-hour day bearable. merchants had no success in breaking the Hansard mo-
But it also made the problem of poverty more acute. A nopoly of trade in the Baltic, but they did penetrate the
master craftsman earned about 6 pence a day, his assis- Mediterranean, establishing a profitable trade with Pisa.
tant 5 pence, and a laborer 4 pence. In Coventry, a jour- Henry VII himself invested £8000 in wool to be exported
neyman capper received 2 pence a day, but was probably to Pisa. The shipping lobby in Parliament was by no means
furnished meat and drink. Assuming that a laborer worked content to leave so much foreign trade in alien hands; it
only three days a week, his income for a year could not secured the passage through Parliament of two navigation
132 A History of England

acts. The first, in 1485, forbade the import of Gascon wine spectacular expansion in foreign trade can be attributed to
in foreign ships, the second, in 1489, forbade the import of Henry, for he had no clear commercial policy and even on
Toulouse woad—a plant producing a blue dye—in foreign occasion sacrificed trade to political considerations. Pow-
ships. The second act also required English exporters to erful economic forces, not Henry VII, created this prosper-
use English ships whenever possible. Economic national- ity. Yet Henry had the good sense to allow those economic
ism thus made its first inroad into the cosmopolitanism of forces free play. Above all he avoided war, which during the
medieval commerce. middle of the century had gravely interrupted trade and
Though great fortunes were made in overseas trade, which under his son would interrupt it again. He not only
coastal and internal trade were probably worth ten times avoided war but made treaties that promoted trade—trea-
as much. English sailors were busy carrying coal from ties with Denmark in 1490, with the Netherlands in 1496,
­Newcastle southward, grain from Yarmouth northward, with France in 1497, and with Spain in 1499. These treaties
stone and slate along the coast of Devon, wood from Essex were not the product of a modern king pursuing enlight-
to London, all in small ships of ten tons or more. Through ened economic policies; they were the product of a medi-
the rivers of England this trade extended far inland. There eval king anxious to increase his customs, to maintain the
were four great river systems: the Thames, the Great Ouse, loyalty of London, and to defend his realm by fostering
the Severn, and the Trent, each with its tributaries. Ships shipping and thereby the navy.
from Lynn would carry wine, fish, salt, and coal up the Henry VII proved farsighted in one respect. He licensed
Great Ouse, then along the Cam to Cambridge. Down John Cabot, a Genoese by birth and Venetian by citizen-
the Severn came barges with coal from Shropshire. Along ship, to search for unknown lands beyond “the eastern,
the Trent went ships carrying grain to the lead-mining western, and northern seas.” Since the reign of Henry V
districts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Much in- the seamen of Bristol had carried provisions to Iceland and
land trade, however, went by road. Surviving records from brought back dried cod. Between 1480 and 1490 they sailed
­Southampton in the middle of the fifteenth century show even farther out into the Atlantic, in search of the legend-
that 6689 carts left that town during four years, and 223 ary Isle of Brasil, with its valuable dyewood. They may have
pack horses. Pack horses carried the cloth of the Cotswolds even reached Newfoundland in 1490. These voyages, and
to London and the wool of Cumberland and Westmorland Cabot’s later ones, were made possible by fundamental im-
over the Pennine moors to Newcastle. A carrier could aver- provements in the design of ships. Ever since the twelfth
age 20 miles a day, with each horse carrying four pieces of century, Europeans had sailed in single-masted ships, low
cloth. One of the busiest roads in England was that which and broad, with a single, square-rigged sail. During the
carried grain from Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire to fifteenth century they developed the two- or three-masted
London. Major towns such as Coventry, Leicester, and ship, with a high, pointed bow to resist heavy waves, and
Bedford could only be reached by road. a three-cornered lateen sail on the mizzenmast. The new
Roads were also used to carry goods to the great fairs of ships, twice the tonnage of the old, could sail closer to the
England. In the early sixteenth century there were 352 prin- wind and withstand heavier seas. By the close of the cen-
cipal fairs, of which the greatest was the Stourbridge Fair tury, ship captains also had the mariner’s compass, with its
in eastern England. It lasted for five weeks, from ­August pivoted needle and compass card.
24 to September 29, and at it one could purchase linen With such ships and with such a compass, John Cabot
yarn, flax, silk, bread, ale, wine, fish, salt, hay, grain, pitch, set sail into the North Atlantic in search of a northwest
tar, coal, and numerous other commodities. The weekly passage to the wealth of the Far East. The men of ­Bristol
market, however, played a more significant role in the life dreamed of their city becoming the great entrepôt for the
of the average person. There were 760 market towns in distribution of the spices of the East to the markets of
­England, each with the right to hold a market once a week. ­Europe. On his first trip, in 1496, storms drove Cabot back.
On average, a person would have to walk some seven miles The next year he reached Newfoundland and probably a
each way to market, carrying eggs, butter, and chickens. He portion of the North American seaboard. On his third trip,
or she would then have time to sell these provisions, buy in 1498, he took five ships, one of which Henry VII himself
some woolen cloth, ask for the news, gossip with friends, equipped, but he never returned. His son Sebastian then
and return home. A market was the lifeblood of a town, the took up the quest for the northwest passage, sailing in 1508
loss of which meant ruin. as far as Hudson’s Bay. On his return in 1509 he found the
The many licenses granted for annual fairs and weekly old King dead, which ended this age of English explora-
markets during Henry VII’s reign give proof of a marked tion, for the new King preferred wars in Europe to voyages
increase in internal trade. But neither this increase nor the of discovery in the Atlantic.
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 133

The Consolidation of Church for 10,000 masses to be said within a month for the
salvation of his soul.
Power Henry’s first task was to consolidate his power. He
Henry VII served England well in two important ways: He ­continued many Yorkists in office, married Edward IV’s
brought peace, which allowed commerce to thrive, and he eldest daughter Elizabeth, had Parliament recognize the
repaired the fabric of the English monarchy, which under succession to be in him and his heirs, and made a prog-
Henry VI had fallen apart. Yet it was by no means certain ress through the North, suppressing a minor revolt along
in 1485 that he would survive to do either, for his situation the way. But all this he did as king, not in order to be-
was precarious. His claim to the Crown was weaker than come king. Immediately after the Battle of Bosworth, he
the Earl of Warwick’s or the Earl of Lincoln’s, both ­Yorkists proclaimed himself “Henry by the grace of God, King of
and both alive.1 The Yorkists were strong in the North ­England.” He delayed his marriage to Elizabeth in order to
and in Ireland. Margaret of Burgundy, Edward IV’s sister, prove that he governed by his own right, not hers. And he
longed for Henry’s overthrow. If Henry could seize the asked Parliament, which he summoned as King, to confirm
throne by force, so could others. But though Henry’s situ- the succession, not his title. Henry’s most effective claim
ation was precarious, his tenacity and sagacity were great. to the throne came from his possessing it. The Battle of
Henry was a hardheaded and unemotional king whom Bosworth settled the question of who was rightful King
exile had taught patience and craft. Though suspicious of of England, and contemporaries saw the hand of God in
men, he was slow to anger and willing to forgive. His por- Henry’s victory.
trait by Sitium is a picture of craft: thin lips, a high-bridged, One year after Bosworth, Henry was in full command of
pointed nose, hooded eyelids, high cheekbones. This pic- his kingdom. Not only was his authority accepted through-
ture of prudence and calculation led earlier historians to out the country, but the birth of a son, Arthur, joined in
describe Henry as the first modern king, but nothing could one person the rival houses of Lancaster and York. Henry,
be further from the truth. His tastes, values, beliefs, and however, knew his throne was not secure. The Yorkists,
recreations were medieval. He heard two or three masses supported by the indefatigable Margaret of Burgundy, kept
a day, founded two convents, delighted in ceremony and plotting his overthrow. Because Henry kept Edward, Earl of
pomp, loved to hawk and hunt, lived in the company of Warwick, the only direct male representative of the House
earls and barons, and bequeathed enough money to the of York, in the Tower, the Yorkists had to put forward pre-
tenders. The first of these was Lambert Simnel, a gentle
­ten-year-old boy, son of an obscure tradesman, whom the
Yorkists passed off as the Earl of Warwick. They found sup-
port for him in Dublin, where he was proclaimed E ­ dward VI.
Margaret of Burgundy sent 2000 highly trained ­German
troops to help. Led by the Earl of L ­ incoln, the Y­ orkist
army landed in Lancashire and marched on ­London. But
the E ­ nglish, tired of civil war, refused to join the invaders,
whom Henry VII trounced at East Stoke on June 16, 1487.
Many leading Yorkists, including the Earl of Lincoln, met
death in battle. The young Lambert Simnel fell captive to
Henry, who made him a scullion in his kitchen.
The Battle of Stoke did not end the plotting of the
­Yorkists. They found a new pretender in Perkin W ­ arbeck,
the son of a Tournai merchant, who claimed to be R ­ ichard,
the younger of the two princes thought to have been
­murdered in the Tower. No one believed in this impos-
ture except those who wished to make use of Warbeck,
but these included the Holy Roman Emperor, the King of
France, Margaret of Burgundy, and the King of Scotland.
Perkin Warbeck attempted to invade England on three oc-
The bust of Henry VII by Pietro Torrigiano. Painted terracotta.
casions—a landing in Kent in 1495, a raid from Scotland in
Sixteenth century.  (Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Art Resource, 1496, and a landing in Cornwall in 1497. On the last occa-
N.Y.) sion he was captured, taken to London, imprisoned, and
134 A History of England

finally, at the rumor of yet another plot, executed. The same to keep its side of the bargain, but Henry gained from the
rumor led Henry to execute the Earl of Warwick, whose treaty what he wanted, the marriage of his son Arthur to
only crime was to be the son of Edward IV’s brother. Even Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was
with the deaths of Warbeck and Warwick the Crown was not until 1501 that Arthur and Catherine were finally wed,
not entirely secure, since the Earl of Lincoln’s brother still amidst jousting, dancing, and playacting. Five months
wandered about the Continent. Henry nevertheless faced later Arthur died. Unwilling to lose the Spanish alliance,
no more armed challenges after 1497. Henry immediately proposed that his second son, Prince
It was Henry’s good fortune that when he came to the Henry, marry Catherine. After many vicissitudes and the
throne there was no ruler in France, the Low Countries, or arrival of a papal dispensation, the marriage took place
Scotland strong enough to wage war against him. Louis XI of in 1509. Some years before Henry had wed his daughter
France had died in 1481, leaving the Crown to Charles VIII, Margaret to James IV of Scotland, a marriage made pos-
a boy of 13. The ruler of the Low Countries was also a mi- sible by the Treaty of Étaples. As long as England was at
nor. A faction of nobles murdered James III of Scotland war with France, there was little prospect of peace with
in 1488, leaving a royal minority. Before long, however, Scotland, France’s ancient ally. The marriages of Henry’s
Henry had to face the central issue of England’s relations children into the royal houses of Europe brought him what
with France. The medieval tradition of hostility to France every new dynasty craves, recognition and acceptance. The
remained strong and deep, a tradition Henry kept alive Crown now sat more easily on his head.
by joining the title of King of France to that of King of
­England. But the last half of the fifteenth century had seen
the European scene transformed. France, united by Louis
XI, had become three times stronger in men and revenues
The Revival of Royal Power
than England. Claims that may have made sense in the Henry VII did not create a new monarchy, nor did he make
reign of Henry V had become unrealistic. any permanent innovations in the existing one. Indeed,
France now threatened to annex Brittany, a territory there was no need for him to do so, for the feebleness of the
that would give it mastery over the whole southern shore monarchy in the fifteenth century did not arise from a lack
of the Channel. Faced with this situation, Henry entered of institutions or powers. It arose from the lack of a strong
into a network of anti-French alliances that Spain, re- king at the center and from the financial dependence of the
cently formed from the union of Aragon and Castile, had king on Parliament. During his reign Henry corrected both
fashioned. When these alliances turned out to be ropes of faults.
sand, Henry acted alone, sending 6000 troops to help the To begin with, he made certain that he governed his
Breton nobles preserve their independence. Then in 1491 Council and that his Council did not govern him. This
Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany, who had inherited does not mean that he refused to appoint great magnates
the duchy at her father’s death in 1488. Henry replied by of the realm to his Council. In fact, his Council did not
preparing for a full-scale war against France. Parliament differ from those of his predecessors: about one-fourth
readily voted him £100,000. Men, ships, guns, and tents were peers, one-fourth bishops and abbots, and one-half
were assembled. In October 1492 Henry led an army out of knights, lawyers, clergymen, and Household officials.
Calais to besiege Boulogne. But within a month he made There were probably more laymen and fewer clergymen
peace with France. By the Treaty of Étaples the two kings than before—reflecting a more secular society—and there
agreed to remain at peace with each other, not to support were fewer nobles on the inner council that attended the
the other’s enemies, and to allow their subjects to trade King daily. What really mattered was the fact that Henry, as
on equal terms. In addition, Charles VIII agreed to pay did the other Tudors, appointed, promoted, and rewarded
Henry £5000 a year for the next 15 years. Like Edward IV men for their ability and loyalty, irrespective of their social
before him, Henry had preferred a profitable peace to a origins.
ruinous war. The functions of the Council also remained the same:
The crisis in Brittany and the Treaty of Étaples made it to advise the King in matters of policy, to help him in the
possible for Henry to marry his daughter and sons into the administration of the realm, and to give judgment in cases
royal houses of Scotland and Spain. The crisis in Brittany brought before it. But under Henry the judicial work of the
led Spain to look to England for support in resisting the Council did assume a different character from before. The
growing power of France. In March 1489 Spain signed the development of the Court of Chancery from the fourteenth
treaty of Medina del Campo with England, whereby both century onward had relieved the Council from hearing
kingdoms agreed to go to war against France. Spain failed petitions in civil cases. An Englishman who failed to get
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 135

justice in the Common law courts could not appeal to “to live of his own.” During the second half of his reign he
Chancery for equity. But the judicial work of the Council taxed his subjects only once, in 1504.
hardly diminished, for it extended its work through a num- The most difficult task Henry faced was to tame his
ber of committees. One committee, the Council Learned, mighty subjects. Historians once believed that he did this
fined individuals for breaches of the law. Another com- through the Court of Star Chamber—that is, through the
mittee, established by a statute in 1487, helped enforce the whole Council acting judicially, enforcing swift justice
laws against livery and maintenance. A third committee, on great men guilty of riot, retaining private armies, and
established in 1495, proceeded against corrupt jurors. And maintaining, through intimidation, cases before the royal
a tribunal established in the Household, the future Court courts. Now it is true that the Council met—and had since
of Requests, provided swift justice for the poor (though Edward III’s reign—in a chamber in Westminster Palace
few who used it were poor). Henry did not create these (whose azure ceiling was decorated with stars of gold leaf)
committees and courts in order to deprive the Common and there enforced swift justice, with no jury, no counsel
law courts of their jurisdiction; he created them in order for the defendant, and no right against self-incrimination.
to make the machinery of the Common law work more But during Henry’s reign the government rarely initiated
effectively. a prosecution. Of 194 cases that came before the Council,
Henry VII knew as well as did Edward IV that no most resulted from a petition by one subject against an-
king could be powerful who was financially dependent other and concerned such matters as the possession of land
upon Parliament. He therefore took measures to in- and the rights of municipal bodies. The few cases the gov-
crease the revenues of the Crown, measures that met with ernment initiated concerned rioting and the corruption of
­astonishing success. By inheritance he gained the lands of juries, and they were usually sent on to the Common law
­Lancaster, York, and Tudor; by forfeiture on acts of attain- courts for trial. The Council never once fined a peer for
der he amassed yet more land. Through an efficient ad- maintenance or retaining.
ministration of these lands he increased his revenues from The chief instrument on which Henry relied to restore
£10,000 to £40,000 a year. Because of the growing volume order was the justice of the peace. There was nothing rev-
of overseas trade, a result of the pursuit of peace, his rev- olutionary in this, for the justices of the peace had been
enues from the customs rose from £32,000 to £42,000. His charged since the fourteenth century with keeping order.
revenues from the sale of wardships rose from £343 in 1491 What was new was the vigor and care with which Henry,
to £6163 in 1507. By imposing heavy fines on those who vi- his Council, and his justices on circuit supervised their
olated the law and by selling pardons, he greatly increased work. The justices of the peace were unpaid local gentle-
the profits of justice. Receipts from the sale of pardons men, and to that extent independent, but they could also
averaged £3000 a year between 1505 and 1508. During be dismissed, and no gentleman wished to suffer that blow
the last years of Henry’s reign, the zeal of the C ­ ouncil to his prestige. Justices of the peace were most unlikely
Learned in collecting debts and levying fines aroused to carry out measures of which they deeply disapproved,
much fury against its chief members, Edmund Dudley such as anti-enclosure laws, but the gentry of England in
and Sir Richard Empson, but receipts from money owed the late fifteenth century did desire to see the restoration
under bonds rose from £3000 a year in 1493 to £35,000 of law and order. Parliament passed acts in 1495 that em-
in 1505. In all, Henry’s revenues increased from £52,000 a powered justices of the peace to remove suspected men
year to £142,000. These revenues did not pass through the from juries and to try without a jury men accused of tak-
archaic, slow, rule-ridden Exchequer, but through the effi- ing part in riots or unlawfully giving liveries. In 1504 came
cient Chamber, whose accounts Henry patiently checked, Henry’s celebrated statute against liveries, which repeated
page by page. the condemnation of retaining found in Edward’s statute
Henry’s increased revenues were important to him not of 1468, but improved the procedure for enforcing the law.
only because they gave him independence, but because Justices of the peace were now to report all violations to the
they allowed him to give his subjects relief from taxes. Dur- King’s Bench or Council for prosecution there. In the ensu-
ing the first half of his reign Henry raised about £22,000 a ing years of Henry’s reign the justices of the peace sent nu-
year from direct taxation. These taxes were heavy enough merous indictments for retaining to the King’s Bench, who
in 1497 to provoke a large number of Cornishmen to rebel, prosecuted the offenders.
kill a tax collector in Taunton, march on London, and But not once during the first 20 years of Henry’s reign
camp on Blackheath. Henry, who would never negotiate was a peer charged with retaining. This was no accident.
with rebels under arms, attacked and slew 2000 of them. Henry knew that the system of retaining liveried servants
But he learned from this event that his subjects wished him was deeply embedded in English society. He sought, in
136 A History of England

fact, to make use of the system to promote his own power. studied medicine while in Italy, returned to translate Galen
A lord who was loyal to him and who had many retainers and founded the Royal Society of Physicians. The example
was a force for order in his country. Furthermore, it was to of Linacre and Grocyn led the young John Colet, son of a
the King’s advantage that armed retainers should be avail- wealthy London merchant, to study in Italy. He returned to
able for military purposes. In 1492 he raised an army for Oxford in 1496, where he delivered a series of lectures on the
the war against France by granting commissions to lords Epistles of St. Paul. He had read the letters in the ­original
who in turn enlisted men. But toward the end of his reign Greek and he gave a direct, human explanation of them,
Henry took more energetic action. For retaining 471 men, rather than the allegorical and anagogical interpretations be-
Lord Abergavenny was indicted before justices of the peace loved by the scholastics. The conservatives cried out against
in Kent and tried before the King’s Bench, which in 1507 such novel methods, fearing they might promote heresy and
found him guilty and fined him. Henry’s favorite device for worldliness. Their fears appeared justified when Erasmus
taming great subjects was the exacting of bonds from those of Rotterdam, eventually to become the greatest scholar of
guilty of some offense, bonds which were then pledges of his age, came to Oxford in 1497 to study Greek and went on
their future good behavior. These bonds ranged from £2000 to translate the New Testament from Greek into Latin. His
to £5000, sums a lord would forfeit if Henry decided he had translation corrected the Vulgate (the authorized version) in
not remained loyal. Henry rarely enforced such bonds, but a manner that tended to undermine the scriptural authority
the threat of doing so ensured fidelity. The prosecution of of the papacy and the priesthood.
Abergavenny and the exacting of bonds, however, did not Though the opposition of the conservatives to the new
bring an end to retaining and disorder in England. The learning was dogged, both at Oxford and Cambridge, hu-
deep-seated willingness of Englishmen to resort to violence manism ultimately prevailed. Among the forces causing
could not be eradicated overnight. Not until the end of the that triumph, two were paramount: the growing secularism
sixteenth century did more peaceful habits prevail. As late of education and the printing press. During the fourteenth
as 1578 the retainers of Lord Rich, some 25 strong, attacked and fifteenth centuries the foundation of Winchester and
Edward Windham in London in broad daylight. Though Eton and the establishment of grammar schools by civic
Henry VII did not bring order to England, he did begin the corporations and guilds broke the Church’s monopoly
long struggle by which the Tudors made England one of the over education. The prosperous years of the late fifteenth
most orderly kingdoms in Europe. century witnessed a striking increase in the number of
schools established by towns and wealthy merchants. But
there were no changes in the methods of teaching un-
til ­Magdalen College School, founded in 1480, became
The New Learning a ­c enter for teaching grammar by more enlightened
While the Tudor kings strove to bring order to England, ­methods. M ­ agdalen was soon eclipsed by St. Paul’s School,
the scholars were busy propagating the new learning of the London, which John C ­ olet founded in 1508. To prevent ec-
Italian Renaissance. Scholasticism was essentially the ap- clesiastical interference, he persuaded the dean and chapter
plication of reason, understood as formal logic, to received of St. Paul’s to surrender supervision of the school to the
authorities, such as the Bible, St. Augustine, Aristotle, and Mercers’ Company of London. With Erasmus’s help, Colet
Galen, with the purpose of reconciling them and glorifying planned a new kind of school, open to all who had talent
God. The new learning, or humanism, as it came to be called, and free of charge. New grammars in English and Latin
was quite different. It was the application of reason, under- were written; new subjects, such as Greek, geography, and
stood as a knowledge of language, to human experience with natural history, were introduced; the classics were studied
the purpose of promoting virtuous conduct. The human- in the original; and the barbarous Latin of the scholastic
ists turned from logic to language, from theology to rheto- was banished. Though Colet opposed clerical interference,
ric, from Aristotle to Plato, from medieval compendiums to he designed an education whose chief purpose was to pro-
the original Latin and Greek. The first ­Englishman to show mote a Christian way of life. It was not long before Eton
a serious interest in humanism was Thomas C ­ haundler, and ­Winchester began to emulate St. Paul’s.
­warden of New College, Oxford. In 1475 he invited an ­Italian William Caxton had established his press at ­Westminster
scholar to lecture on Greek at ­Oxford. ­Attending the lec- in 1476. Soon there were other presses, at Oxford, at
tures was William Grocyn, who went to Italy between 1485 St. ­Albans, at London. By 1500 at least 360 titles had been
and 1491 to improve his knowledge of Greek. With him printed in England, and 30,000 throughout Europe. Few of
was another Oxford student, Thomas Linacre. Grocyn re- the books published in England furthered the study of the
turned to Oxford to lecture on Greek; Linacre, who had also classics, but many of those from abroad did. In the long
 The Reign of Henry VII: 1485–1509 137

run, printing promoted the growth of a wide-reading pub- the service of his prince. Of these the finest example in
lic and made possible the large private library. By 1520 it ­E ngland was Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia and
was possible to buy books by Erasmus for 6 pence, a day’s Lord ­C hancellor of England. Sir Thomas was born in
wage for a craftsman. The revolutionary ideas of the hu- Milk Street, Cheapside, London, the son of a prosperous
manists would never have circulated so rapidly had it not lawyer. He attended St. Anthony’s, one of the best gram-
been for the printing presses. mar schools in the city, and then went on to Oxford, where
What John Colet accomplished for the grammar school, he studied Greek under Linacre. On returning to ­London
Bishop Fox achieved for the universities. In 1517 he founded he studied law at the Inns of Court, became a friend of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the first college dedicated ­Erasmus, gained renown as a man of wit and learning,
to humanistic studies. Corpus Christi emphasized the married, and established a household in Chelsea, where
value of a correct understanding of the original text, in he gave his three daughters an education in Latin, Greek,
sharp contrast to the scholastic method of formal dispu- arithmetic, and music that was unrivaled in that age. He
tations upon the Sentences of Peter Lombard or the works also wrote Utopia, an account of an imaginary common-
of Duns Scotus. The ideals of Bishop Fox received official wealth located somewhere between Brazil and Ceylon. In
sanction in 1535, when the government issued royal injunc- Book One of Utopia More attacks the rich and powerful in
tions that suppressed the study of canon law, encouraged all their guises, whether as usurer, engrosser, encloser, or
the study of Greek, classical Latin, Hebrew, mathematics, depopulator, whether as idle courtier, venal monk, osten-
and medicine, abolished the use of medieval compendi- tatious lord, or warlike prince. The root of all these evils
ums, and urged that the “frivolous questions and obscure he finds in greed, sloth, and the insatiable pride of men.
glosses” of the scholastics be put aside. Scholasticism per- To overcome greed and sloth and to discipline pride men
sisted in the universities for many decades to come, but must, as the U­ topians did, abolish private property, eat in
the officials responsible for enforcing the royal injunctions common dining halls, wear a common uniform, receive a
could report on their second visit to New College that they common education, and accept a common obligation of
found the quadrangle filled with the pages of Duns Scotus, daily toil. More was not a modern socialist, for he found
the wind blowing them into every corner. the root of evil in human nature, not economic institu-
Medieval education was essentially vocational. The tions, but he did believe that only where property was held
universities trained priests; the Inns of Court, lawyers; in common could pride and greed be held in check.
the town schools, scriveners (professional copyists or
writers). There now emerged, however, a new educa-
tional ideal, the production of the accomplished gentle-
Medieval and Modern
man trained to serve the state. The rough values of the Seventy years ago historians divided medieval from mod-
chivalric code slowly yielded to the values of restraint ern English history with the accession of Henry VII in 1485.
and good taste. A concern for the development of self- Today no historian would do so, for it has become clear
reliance and self-expression gradually replaced the cor- that Henry VII did not create a new monarchy. He merely
porate and ascetic ideals of medieval Christianity. At the restored the old English monarchy, and in doing this
same time, the nobility and gentry became less willing to he only followed in the steps of Edward IV. Edward first
leave government to clergymen born of humble stock. At strengthened the Council, relied upon the Star ­Chamber,
a banquet early in Henry VIII’s reign an old gentleman amassed land, restored financial solvency, and made use of
swore he would rather his son be hanged than study let- the justices of the peace. Furthermore, it is pure legend that
ters. “Gentlemen’s sons,” he declared, “ought to be able to Henry VII spurned the nobility and allied with the mid-
blow their horn skillfully, to hunt well, and to carry and dle classes, that he suppressed livery and maintenance by
train a hawk elegantly; but the study of letters is to be left means of a newly created Star Chamber, that he pursued
to the sons of peasants.” Richard Pace, Henry VIII’s sec- a new diplomacy based on deceit and cunning, or that he
retary of state, promptly replied: “If your son were called had completely restored order by his death in 1509.
upon to answer a foreign ambassador, he would but blow Yet a powerful argument can be made for the fact that
his horn, if he were educated according to your wishes, between 1470 and 1510 deep economic, social, and intel-
and the learned sons of peasants would be called upon to lectual changes augured a new age. In 1470 the population
reply. And they would be placed far ahead of your hunt- began to recover, thus ending the shortage of people and
ing and hawking son.”2 abundance of land that had characterized the previous
Closely allied to the ideal of the accomplished gentle- century and a half. Prices began to rise, and with them
man was that of the scholar who devoted his talents to rents. The landed gentry slowly recovered the incomes
138 A History of England

Notes
1. For the claims of Henry VII, the Earl of Warwick, and the
Earl of Lincoln see the genealogical chart on page 188.
2. The Babees’ Book: Medieval Manners for the Young.
1913, xxiii.

Further Reading
Maurice Beresford. The Lost Villages of England. London,
1954. Argues that enclosures, not the Black Death, led to the
abandonment of villages and that most villages were aban-
doned in the mid-fifteenth century, not from 1488 to 1517.
S. T. Bindoff. Tudor England. Penguin Books, 1950. A beauti-
fully written, thought-provoking essay on the problems fac-
ing the Tudor monarchs and the solutions they found.
Stanley Bertram Chrimes. Henry VII. Berkeley, CA, 1972. Not
an intimate biography, but a perceptive study of the impact
of Henry VII upon the government of England; deals the fi-
nal blow to the belief that Henry was a “New Monarch.”
Sean Cunningham. Henry VII. London, 2007. Updates the
work of Chrimes and artfully synthesizes the last two de-
cades of research on the unloved first Tudor; sees the king
as insecure on his throne until at least 1499.
C. S. L. Davies. Peace, Print & Protestantism, 1450–1558.
­L ondon, 1976. A thorough, precise, dependable survey,
written in a vigorous, lively style; the approach is more
­traditional than the title suggests.
John Guy. Tudor England. Oxford, 1988. A thorough, authori-
tative narrative of political and religious developments from
A map of Utopia, from the 1518 Basle edition of Sir Thomas 1485 to 1603; comprehends the radical rethinking in the last
More’s masterpiece.  (New York Public Library, Rare Book Division) decade on the progress of the Reformation and the Tudor
Revolution in government; excellent bibliography.
they had once enjoyed, while the workers, especially af- Richard Marius. Thomas More: A Biography. Oxford, 1984.
ter 1520, began to suffer an erosion in their incomes. The A lengthy, magisterial, polemical, and persuasive study of
process of the engrossment and enclosure of land, begun More; destroys the legend of an ever gentle, saintly More;
beginners, however, should start with Alistair Fox’s Thomas
about 1470, reached its height about 1510. It was also in
More. New Haven, CT, 1983.
1470 that the great expansion in foreign trade began, giv-
Sir Thomas More. Utopia. Translated and edited by Robert M.
ing a powerful push to the wool industry. The wealthy
Adams. New York, 1975. A penetrating analysis of European
merchants used their riches to purchase land, thus swell-
society and an imaginative description of a community
ing the ranks of the gentry and obscuring the line between freed from temptation by the abolition of private property.
mercantile and landed wealth. About 1490 gentlemen be-
R. B. Wernham. Before the Armada: The Emergence of the
gan to build gracious homes with wainscotting and glass English Nation. New York, 1966. A study of English foreign
windows, thus creating the setting for a country-house policy from 1483 to 1588; an interpretative history distin-
culture that was to dominate England for the next 400 guished by compelling, close-knit arguments.
years. The printing press that Caxton brought to England C. H. Williams, ed. English Historical Documents 1485–1558.
in 1476 made it possible for the country gentleman to col- New York, 1967. Contains original sources on government,
lect a private library, and the new learning that Grocyn religion, the structure of society, and daily life in town and
and Linacre and Colet brought from Italy ensured that country.
Cicero and Seneca, not Duns Scotus and Peter Lombard, Joyce Youings. Sixteenth-Century England. Penguin Books,
would dominate that library. Henry VII did not create a 1984. An economic and social history of Tudor England,
new monarchy, but forces over which he had no control gracefully written, wide-ranging, thorough; a useful com-
were creating a new England. plement to John Guy’s political and religious history.
 chapter 10

War and Reformation:

1509–1547

P
CHAPTER OUTLINE
ervasive economic, social, and intellectual forces do not alone
shape history. Often chance or the whims of an individual mon-
■ War and Diplomacy arch or the counsels of a powerful minister intervene to alter the
course of history. The history of England in the early sixteenth cen-
■ The Divorce tury offers a splendid illustration of this truth. Without doubt a rising
population, a prosperous wool trade, an emerging gentry, the print-
■ Parliament and the Break with Rome ing press, and the new learning combined to produce a new ­society—
more secular, more peaceful, more individualistic. But that society
was also shaped by the whims of Henry VIII and the counsels of
■ Resistance and Rebellion
Thomas Cromwell. Had Henry not sought a divorce from C ­ atherine,
even at the cost of breaking from Rome, England might not have
■ The Dissolution of the Monasteries
­b ecome a Protestant nation; and had Cromwell not counseled him
to use Parliament as an instrument for breaking from Rome, that
■ The Tudor Revolution in Government ­institution might have counted for less in the sixteenth century. Even
more, Henry’s vainglorious pursuit of war, by impoverishing the
■ Scotland and France Crown, made the monarch’s future dependence on Parliament more
certain. Rarely have the whims, passions, prejudices, and pride of a
■ The Growth of Protestantism
monarch so dominated the history of a reign and had consequences
more significant for the future.
Henry was no ordinary monarch. Nature had endowed him with
remarkable physical and mental gifts. He had a swift, nimble mind,
learned mathematics easily, knew Latin and French, understood
­Italian, discoursed with Sir Thomas More about astronomy, and corre-
sponded with Erasmus about divinity. He was the first English king to
receive a Renaissance education, studying Homer and Virgil, reading
much in Cicero, and drawing wisdom from the histories of Thucydides
and Tacitus. As befitted a Renaissance prince, he was astonishingly
versatile in his accomplishments. He was an excellent horseman. He
could draw the bow with greater strength than any man in England
and was rarely unhorsed in his favorite sport, tilting. He delighted in
hawking, wrestling, and dancing. His greatest passion may well have
been for music. He performed with skill on the lute, organ, and harp-
sichord, and had a strong, sure voice. He composed music, writing two
five-part masses, many instrumental pieces and part songs, and an an-
them, “O Lord, the Maker of All Things,” which is still sung in English
cathedrals. He brought Italian musicians to Court, who introduced sa-
cred music in the Renaissance style.
139
140 A History of England

almost all his people he brought deliverance from the op-

pressive financial exactions of Henry VII. On the second
day of his reign, Henry threw Edmund Dudley and Sir
Richard Empson, the chief tax collectors of his father’s
reign, into the Tower; 16 months later he had them ex-
ecuted on a purely fictitious charge of treason. Henry then
devoted himself to pleasure, leaving the routine business of
government to his almoner, Thomas Wolsey. His days were
filled with hawking and hunting, tilting and jousting, wres-
tling and tennis; his nights with revels and pageants, sing-
ing and dancing, gambling and feasting. “The King,” it was
said in 1515, “is a youngling, who cares for nothing but girls
and hunting and wastes his father’s patrimony.”

War and Diplomacy

Henry had not been on the throne more than two years be-
fore he faced a critical decision. Should he continue his fa-
ther’s policy of peace and no continental entanglements or
should he pursue a policy of war and conquests in France?
His advisers counseled peace, as did More and ­Erasmus.
Henry, however, chose war—not that he needed any
prompting, for he was young, athletic, vain, eager to help
the Pope, and to prove himself in battle. In 1511 he joined
the Holy League, composed of the Pope, Spain, ­Venice,
and the Swiss, a league formed to drive France from
Italy. The next year, at the King of Spain’s urging, Henry
sent 18,000 men to northwest Spain, with the intention
Hans Holbein, the younger (1497–1543), Dutch, “Portrait of of marching into Aquitaine. But Ferdinand, the King of
Henry VIII,” magnificently attired and imperious in counte- Spain and father of Henry’s queen, Catherine, never sent
nance, oil on canvas.  (The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) the men and supplies he had promised; instead he took the
opportunity to capture the kingdom of Navarre to the east.
Accompanying these varied talents was a character The ­English army suffered through the hot, wet ­Spanish
marked by exuberance, flamboyance, prodigality, a love summer at Fuentarrabia, where the soldiers drank wine
of life, and captivating charm. But the charm could rap- as though it were beer until they came down with dysen-
idly turn to anger, for Henry was a high-strung, unstable tery. Against Henry’s orders, the army finally boarded their
person. He was utterly sure of himself, totally devoted to ships and came home. Ferdinand meanwhile compounded
his own interests, selfish and egotistical, with a streak of his treachery by making a separate truce with France.
cruelty markedly different from his father’s clemency. He The next year Henry decided to act without Ferdinand.
began his reign by executing two of his father’s ministers The Emperor Maximilian sent him 2000 men and the
and continued it by executing his own. He executed two Pope secretly bestowed on him the title of King of France.
wives, several earls, a duke, and a countess, and he ordered ­Parliament voted the necessary money; Wolsey organized
the ­execution of three cardinals. As Sir Walter Raleigh the supplies and prepared the ships. In June Henry landed
wrote two generations later: “For King Henry the Eighth, if at Calais with 25,000 men. From there he marched slowly
all the Patterns and Pictures of a merciless Prince were lost south, captured the small town of Therouanne, and won
in the world, they might all again be painted to the life, out a skirmish against a French cavalry force. Henry next be-
of the story of this King.”1 sieged Tournai, which fell in September. He returned home
No one in 1509, when Henry came to the throne, saw or with his French standards, his glory, and two French towns
foresaw this cruelty. All they saw was a young king, 17 years in his possession. For this trivial accomplishment he had
of age, extraordinarily handsome, tall, square-shouldered, spent £922,000, a vast sum for a king whose ordinary rev-
with auburn hair, a fair complexion, and a round face. To enue was only £150,000 a year.
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 141

Field of the
Cloth of
ENGLAND Gold

Europe in the Calais Therouanne

Reign of Henry VIII Boulogne Tournal HOLY
PICARDY
E
N DY GN
ROMAN
RMA PA
NO Paris AM
EMPIRE
0 150 300 Miles CH

DY
UN
0 150 300 Kilometers FRANCE

RG
BU
Montreuil

Milan
Pavia
GUIENNE Marignano
Fuentarrabia
E
RR
VA

ITALY
NA

ARAGON
AL
UG
RT

CASTILE
PO

Me diter Se a
ra n e a n

The organizer of victory was Thomas Wolsey, who the aged Louis XII of France cemented the peace. Wolsey’s
now began his meteoric rise to power. Wolsey, the son skillful negotiations had rescued something from a mili-
of an Ipswich butcher, had gone to Oxford, become a fel- tary venture designed to bring Henry glory, not to protect
low of Magdalen College, and entered the service of the the nation’s interests.
­Archbishop of Canterbury as a chaplain. In 1507 he left From 1514 to 1529, while Henry hunted and played the
the Archbishop to enter royal service, where by dint of lute, Thomas Wolsey attended to the business of govern-
an enormous appetite for work, a swift judgment, a sharp ment, especially to the conduct of foreign policy. His
eye for detail, and daily attendance on the King, he be- motives were complex. In part he was the late medieval
came Henry’s chief minister. In 1514 the organizer of vic- churchman, seeking to serve the papacy and hoping for a
tory became the architect of a successful peace. Henry still cardinal’s hat, even for election to the Holy See itself. In
wanted war, but the forces working for peace proved too part he was the King’s true servant, seeking to give expres-
strong for him. The new Pope made peace with the King of sion to Henry’s love of glory and action. In part he was the
France and urged his allies to do likewise. Lack of money humanist, who knew the cost of war and sought to bring
with which to fight new battles and a desire to be revenged peace to Europe. At all times he was the proud, meddling
on Ferdinand prompted Henry to make a separate peace diplomat who could not endure not being at the center of
before his father-in-law could. In August 1514 England and affairs.
France signed a treaty that left Tournai and Therouanne in His first masterpiece was the treaty with France in 1514,
English hands and provided for the payment of the arrears but that peace collapsed in 1515 with the death of Louis XII
due on the pension granted to the kings of England by the and the accession of Francis I. The adulation Europe gave to
Treaty of Etaples. The marriage of Henry’s sister Mary to the handsome young French king stung Henry to jealousy,
142 A History of England

which Francis’s reconquest of Milan and his glorious vic- English cloth. Beneath these practical motives lay Henry’s
tory at Marignano only heightened. Francis then sent John dream of winning the crown of France, of marrying his
Stuart, Duke of Albany, to Scotland, where he took power daughter Mary to Charles V (as the treaty provided), and
from Henry’s sister, the regent Margaret. Henry once of seeing his descendants inherit “the whole monarchy of
again clamored for war against France, but Parliament in Christendom.”
1515 voted too little money. Wolsey therefore proposed to From 1522 to 1525 England waged desultory war against
wage the war by hiring Swiss mercenaries and granting France, expended huge sums of money, brought misery
subsidies to the Emperor. The Swiss and the Emperor took to thousands of innocent French peasants, and accom-
the money but failed to act. Wolsey next sought to orga- plished nothing. In 1522 an army pillaged and burned
nize a league of the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of villages in northern France. In 1523 a larger army drove
Spain against France, only to see it collapse when Charles, within 50 miles of Paris, only to have to retreat for want
the new King of Spain, signed the Treaty of Noyon with of money and support from its allies. The lack of money
­Francis in 1516. led Henry and Wolsey in 1524 to open secret negotiations
Wolsey then turned to a policy of rapprochement, which with France, but then came news of Charles’s crushing
met with success. In 1518 England and France signed a defeat of Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in February 1525.
treaty in London whereby England returned Tournai to Henry now descended like a jackal on his prey. He urged
France in return for 600,000 crowns. Wolsey then trans- that he and Charles march straight on Paris, where he
formed this treaty into a collective security pact that re- should be crowned King of France and his daughter wed
quired all signatories to come to the aid of the victim of to Charles. But Charles, penniless and anxious for peace,
aggression. This early idea of a concert of Europe probably refused. Nor was Henry able to field an army. His attempt
meant little to the other powers, but England during the to collect a ­benevolence, euphemistically called an amica-
next two years sincerely sought to make it work. Herein lies ble grant, failed miserably. The English refused to pay and
the meaning of the resplendent meeting of Henry VIII and even threatened insurrection. Henry could not even find
Francis I in the summer of 1520 on the Field of the Cloth the money to pay the dowry to support Mary’s marriage to
of Gold in northern France. For two weeks Henry and Charles, with the result that Charles declared himself free
Francis and their noblemen jousted and wrestled and ban- from the engagement and married Isabella of Portugal. An
queted, the only anxious moment coming when Francis enraged Henry now made peace with France, allied with
threw Henry at wrestling. For Wolsey it was more than a the League of C ­ ognac (formed to oppose Charles), and in
piece of Renaissance display; he hoped that the friendships 1528 declared war on Charles, though he had not the means
formed there would lessen the hatred of the English for the to wage it and had (in order to protect English trade) to
French and the French for the English. agree to a local truce for the Netherlands.
The imposing diplomatic edifice built by Wolsey be- In all these twistings and turnings Henry and Wolsey
tween 1518 and 1520 collapsed in 1521. It could not survive paid little attention to the principle of the balance of power,
the fierce rivalry between Francis I, King of France, and since they more often supported the stronger power. Nor
Charles V, ruler of Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and was much attention paid to England’s true interests, for
­Naples, and recently elected Holy Roman Emperor. The im- both Henry and Wolsey had forgotten the cardinal prin-
pending struggle between these two superpowers governed ciple of Henry VII’s foreign policy—that England should
all diplomacy from 1520 onward. England had no immedi- not concern itself with affairs on the Continent unless its
ate interest in the outcome, for the quarrel concerned dis- interests were immediately threatened. Personal pique,
tant Italy. Yet Henry’s martial ardor and Wolsey’s desire to grandiose dreams, and a love of meddling guided English
be at the center of affairs drew England into the conflict. In foreign policy for 20 years. It was a policy that failed at ev-
the autumn of 1521 Henry signed a treaty with Charles V ery turn because England had not the men or wealth to
that provided that each should invade France with an army stand against the two colossi of Europe.
of 40,000 men. This Anglo-Imperial treaty demonstrated
clearly that though Wolsey might execute foreign policy,
Henry decided what it should be, and Henry was deter-
mined on war, not peace. A number of motives led him to
The Divorce
ally with the Emperor rather than France: Charles V repre- It was not merely anger at Charles V that led Henry to
sented the traditional Anglo-Burgundian, anti-French alli- ally with the League of Cognac and declare war. He also
ance; he had promised to help Wolsey win election as Pope; wanted to rescue Pope Clement VII from the Emper-
and he controlled the Netherlands, the major market for or’s grasp so that the Pope would be free to grant him a
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 143

divorce from his wife, Catherine. Since the Emperor was several improbable schemes, such as a dispensation for
­Catherine’s nephew, he insisted that the Pope not annul his Henry to take a second wife and a proposal that Wolsey,
aunt’s marriage. as vicar for the captive Pope, grant the divorce. But none
Henry first made public his desire for a divorce in 1527, of these solutions gave Henry the guarantee he sought for
but he had begun to think about it several years earlier, the legitimacy of his children by a second marriage. He and
driven by his concern for the succession and his love for Wolsey therefore sought a papal commission for a court
Anne Boleyn. Catherine had given Henry only a daugh- in England that could pronounce a final judgment in the
ter, Mary, and there was no hope after 1525 that she would case. Clement VII readily granted to Wolsey and Cardinal
again bear a child. This put the succession in jeopardy and Campeggio, a famous Italian canon lawyer, a commission
threatened civil war, for only once had a Queen sought to to hear the case and pronounce judgment, but he would
rule England—Matilda in the twelfth century—and her not agree that their judgment should be final. Intense pres-
reign had led to anarchy and war. So desperate was the sure from England and the triumph of French arms in 1528
situation that Henry thought of putting his bastard son, led Clement to give Campeggio a second commission that
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, on the throne. But this forbade any appeals in the case. But Campeggio was to
also posed dangers, so Henry thought it better to seek a le- show this commission only to Henry and Wolsey and then
gitimate son by a new marriage. Henry’s anxieties over the destroy it, which he did.
succession became inextricably mixed with his passion for After many delays, the trial opened in May 1529 at
Anne Boleyn. Sometime between 1525 and 1527 Henry fell Blackfriars in London. Catherine appeared in person, de-
violently in love with this younger daughter of Sir Thomas nied that her marriage to Arthur had been consummated,
Boleyn, one of his ministers. Anne, who had been brought protested against the court, and appealed to Rome. The
up at the French court, was not particularly beautiful, but trial came to an abrupt end in July when Campeggio ad-
something about her—her beautiful eyes perhaps, or her journed its meetings. Before it could meet again, Clement,
long black hair which she wore loose—captivated Henry.
Tradition says that Anne resisted becoming Henry’s mis-
tress, but in fact Henry did not seek a mistress. He sought a
wife who would bear him a son.
To considerations of prudence and passion were soon al-
lied those of conscience. Henry became convinced that his
marriage had never been lawful and that he and C ­ atherine
had lived in sin for 20 years. Catherine had previously
been married to Henry’s brother, Arthur, and the Book of
­Leviticus declares: “If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it
is an impurity: he hath uncovered his brother’s n ­ akedness;
they shall be childless.” True, they had a daughter, Mary,
and Deuteronomy, also a part of Scripture, enjoins a man to
marry his brother’s widow. But in Henry’s mind ­Catherine’s
numerous stillbirths and miscarriages were a sign of the
curse of Leviticus. When Henry proclaimed to the world
that his conscience was troubled, he was not being hypo-
critical. He had read, thought, and talked himself into a
belief in the justness of his cause. A sense of righteousness
is one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of the
egotist, and Henry’s egotism was unbounded.
Henry first sought to secure a divorce in a court secretly
convened by Wolsey in May 1527. Wolsey’s intention was
to pronounce the marriage invalid, a sentence the Pope
would then confirm. But in late May the Emperor’s troops
sacked Rome and took the Pope—the timid, vacillating
­Clement VII—prisoner. There was no hope that C ­ lement
would confirm the sentence, for Charles V was adamantly
opposed to the divorce. Henry and Wolsey turned to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII.  (The Library of Congress)
144 A History of England

reacting to the defeat of French arms in Italy in June, called revoke his case to England. He spent the next two years
a halt to the court’s proceedings and recalled the case to cajoling, persuading, threatening, and compelling Council,
Rome. It was a humiliating turn of events for Henry, who ­Parliament, and Convocation to acknowledge his a­ uthority
promptly made Wolsey the scapegoat. He accused him of over the Church. In 1531 he demanded that C ­ onvocation
praemunire, then later of treason. Only by dying on his way recognize him as “protector and only Supreme Head of the
to his trial and certain condemnation did Wolsey escape English Church,” which they did after adding the s­ aving
the executioner’s ax. clause, “as far as the law of Christ allowed.” In 1532 he
In 1530 Henry’s quest for a divorce entered a second ­bullied Convocation into surrendering its legislative inde-
stage. He now sought to browbeat the Pope into grant- pendence by granting the King a royal veto on the making
ing it. Henry was convinced of the rightness of his cause, of canons. That same year he persuaded Parliament to sus-
for Leviticus was divine law and a Pope, though he might pend the payment of annates to Rome. By 1532 it is prob-
dispense with canon law, could not dispense with divine able that Henry would have asserted his supremacy over
law. To prove this he sent English agents abroad to solicit the Church even if Clement had ruled in his favor. He was
the opinions of the universities, to ransack libraries, and now possessed by the imperial idea of a sovereign king rul-
to gain the support of bishops, canonists, friars, scholars, ing over church and state.
and rabbis. Unfortunately for Henry, the tide of scholarly The most immediate obstacle to the achievement of that
opinion flowed against him. Church Fathers, earlier popes, ideal and to the winning of a divorce in an English court
eminent canonists, and humanists all interpreted Leviticus was Archbishop Warham, a strong defender of the Church.
to forbid marrying a brother’s widow, except in the case In August 1532 the Archbishop died, and Henry named in
Deuteronomy described (a brother dying without chil- his place the pliant, obscure Thomas Cranmer. In Decem-
dren), which was Henry’s case (for Arthur died childless). ber Anne Boleyn became pregnant, which made swift ac-
The prohibition against such a marriage was only canoni- tion mandatory, for the expected son must be legitimate. In
cal, and the Pope might dispense with canon law. Henry’s January 1533 Cranmer secretly married Henry and Anne.
efforts to browbeat the Pope probably received a more fa- In March Parliament passed the Act of Appeals, which cut
tal blow from the Emperor’s power than from any defect off all appeals to Rome and trumpeted the imperial idea in
in Henry’s case. Henry’s agents in Rome repeatedly warned its preamble. In May Cranmer heard the divorce case and
the Pope that a denial of the divorce would mean the de- pronounced Henry’s marriage to Catherine null and void.
struction of papal authority in England. In 1532 Henry even In June Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England.
threatened to cut off the flow of annates (payments made Henry had all he wanted—a new Queen, supremacy in the
to the Pope by bishops on their appointment to office) to church, sovereignty in the state—all, that is, but a son, for
Rome. But the Emperor was near at hand and Henry far Anne Boleyn in September gave birth to a girl, the future
away. The Pope preferred to placate the man who was in Queen Elizabeth.
a position to take over the Papal States and who might
embrace Lutheranism to win popularity with his German
subjects. Parliament and the Break
Clement VII hoped delay would anger neither Henry
nor the Emperor, but this tactic finally led Henry to launch
with Rome
a campaign to recover his case from Rome and submit it to No man, even though he be a king, even though he be
an English court. His wish to gain a favorable decision was Henry VIII, could carry through by himself so great a rev-
not the only impulse leading to this action: There slowly olution as removing an entire kingdom from obedience to
matured in Henry’s mind the belief that no Englishman Rome. To accomplish it, Henry needed either the support
should be summoned before a foreign court, that ecclesias- or the acquiescence of his subjects, particularly of the more
tical cases should not pass out of the province of their ori- powerful ones who sat in Parliament and Convocation. He
gin, that the Pope had usurped a jurisdiction that was not won that support and gained that acquiescence by exploit-
his, that the undivided allegiance of a subject was owed his ing the anticlericalism of the Commons and by taking ad-
king, and that God had entrusted the king with the govern- vantage of the weakness of the Church.
ment of the Church. When Henry first voiced these ideas The roots of this anticlericalism lay in the ordinary per-
in the summer and autumn of 1530, they met with opposi- son’s disgust at the power, wealth, pomp, privileges, and
tion from his counselors, his clergy, his notables, and his corruption of the clergy. By no means were most clergy-
ambassadors. He therefore strove to delay any judgment men corrupt or most Church courts unfair, but there
in Rome, fearing an adverse judgment before he could were enough abuses to arouse anger. By pleading “benefit
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 145

of clergy,” a criminal clergyman, even one in minor or- lowly curates less than £5. Great monasteries, cathedral
ders, could escape hanging and win his liberty after a few chapters, and laymen had appropriated many of the tithes
months in an episcopal prison. The privilege of sanctuary meant to support the parish clergy, leaving the parish du-
allowed criminals to find safety for 40 days in any church ties to poorly paid, often ignorant curates. A clergyman
or churchyard, and if they reached a great sanctuary, such would often collect three or four benefices, adding the
as Westminster Abbey, they could stay forever. Worse yet evil of pluralism to that of absenteeism. The epitome of all
was the power that the clergy exercised in ecclesiastical these evils, of ostentation, greed, pluralism, and absentee-
courts over matters of matrimony, morals, and the pro- ism, was Thomas Wolsey. He became Dean of Lincoln in
bate of wills. It was not Christian charity that guided the 1509, Archbishop of York in 1514, Abbot of St. Albans and
judges in these courts, but a narrow legalism and a jeal- Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1518. In 1524 he substituted
ous regard for their fees. In 1514, for example, a London the bishopric of Durham for Bath and Wells and in 1529,
merchant, Richard Hunne, refused to pay a mortuary fee Winchester for Durham. He now held the richest abbey
to his rector, who thereupon sued him in a church court. and the wealthiest bishopric in England. His income was
Hunne retaliated by suing the rector in a secular court. The £35,000 a year, about six times that of the wealthiest peer.
Bishop of London answered by charging Hunne with her- Some of this came from taking bribes when naming men
esy and throwing him into the Lollards’ Tower at St. Paul’s, to offices, the sin of simony. In disregard of his vow of celi-
where he was later found hanged. A coroner’s jury accused bacy he had several daughters and a son, heaping on his
three ecclesiastical officials of the murder, but the Church son offices worth £2700 a year, thus adding nepotism to
prevented their being brought to trial. The case created an his other sins.
uproar in London, led to an attack on benefit of clergy in Thomas Wolsey also accumulated great powers which
the 1515 Parliament, and revealed the depth of Londoners’ he exercised in a manner certain to exacerbate the antipa-
hostility toward the clergy. palism of the English. In 1515, the Pope named Wolsey a
The wealth and pomp of the higher clergy did nothing cardinal, and in 1518 he granted him the powers of a Papal
to endear them to Englishmen. The Church owned nearly Legate. Using these powers, Wolsey governed the Church
one-third of all the land of England and enjoyed an ad- more autocratically than ever before. He superseded the
ditional income from compulsory tithes. This wealth was powers of abbots, bishops, archbishops, and ­Convocation.
most inequitably distributed: The wealthiest bishops re- He moved cases from episcopal courts to his legatine
ceived as much as £3800 a year and the most prosperous court. He appointed foreigners—five of them by 1529—to
rectors about £75, while the average vicar received £9 and ­bishoprics. He left bishoprics vacant and drew the revenues

Hampton Court Palace, begun in 1515 for Cardinal Wolsey, in the Gothic tradition; Christopher
Wren later added a Classical section.  (John Bethell/The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
146 A History of England

himself. Because his legatine powers were papal, his abuse but traveled in Italy and the Netherlands, where he served
of those powers excited hatred against the Pope. His ar- as a soldier, a merchant, and a solicitor, gaining some
rogance revived the laity’s dislike of the Pope’s meddling knowledge of the law and much knowledge of the world.
in English affairs, while his autocratic government of the In 1516, he entered Cardinal Wolsey’s Household, where
Church led many clergymen to wonder if subjection to he managed the suppression of 29 religious houses, whose
Rome was worth it. lands were used to endow a school at Ipswich and a col-
Wolsey not only provoked anticlericalism and anti- lege at O ­ xford, both founded by the Cardinal. He won
papalism, but he left a gravely weakened Church behind election to the 1529 Parliament, where he led the attack on
him. Bishops reduced in numbers and authority and kept clerical abuses and won the notice of the King. Guided by
from all corporate action for 12 years could offer little op- ­Cromwell and using Parliament as his instrument, Henry
position to the King. Furthermore, the bishops were the now ended the legislative independence of the Church and
King’s men, as were most of the deans and archdeacons. In cut off its financial and judicial ties to Rome.
Edward I’s reign the Pope nominated two of three Arch- The attack began with a complaint against those clerical
bishops of Canterbury; in 1344, 25 of the 68 members of abuses that the House of Commons, guided by Cromwell,
the cathedral chapter of Lincoln had been named by the had drawn up in March 1532. The Commons presented the
Pope. Thereafter papal influence declined. In the late fif- complaint to Henry, who sent it to Convocation for a re-
teenth and early sixteenth centuries, the way to a bishop- ply. Their reply angered Henry, who swiftly presented them
ric was service to the king, who nominated all of them. with an ultimatum: They must agree that all future cleri-
By 1444, not one member of the Lincoln chapter had been cal legislation should receive the King’s assent and that all
nominated by the Pope. These bishops, deans, and arch- obnoxious legislation in the past should be annulled by a
deacons, moreover, were more often trained in canon law royal commission. Convocation refused, provoking Henry
than theology and more often engaged in administration to cry out that now we see that the clergy are “but half our
than pastoral care. Despite some evidence of a revival of subjects, nay, and scarce our subjects.” Henry threatened
episcopal leadership in the 1520s, the bishops remained an act of Parliament ending their legislative independence
the king’s men, unable long to resist the combined pres- unless they agreed. A browbeaten, half-empty C ­ onvocation
sure of Crown and laity. finally submitted to the King’s demands in a document
In 1529, Henry VIII chose to ally himself with the an- known as The Submission of the Clergy.
ticlerical forces in England. He disgraced Wolsey, the That same year Parliament attacked the financial ties
cleric, and replaced him as Chancellor with Sir Thomas with Rome. The government brought into the Commons
More, a layman. He summoned Parliament and allowed it a bill that would temporarily halt the payment of annates.
to attack clerical abuses. The House of Commons, which The bill passed the Commons only after the first recorded
was as freely elected as any Tudor Parliament, represented division of that House in history, and it passed the Lords
the middle orders in society, the gentry, the merchants, only after Henry went down to Parliament three times. The
and the lawyer, on whom the Tudors came to depend. The bill also declared that should the Pope refuse to consecrate
Commons at once passed statutes regulating ­mortuary a nominee, the nominee might be consecrated by English
dues, prohibiting excessive fees for probate of wills, and authority alone.
limiting pluralism. The House of Lords, where the bish- The ultimate logic of Cromwell’s legislation found ex-
ops and abbots had a majority, reluctantly agreed. Henry pression in the Act in Restraint of Appeals of 1533, 2 the
then went on to harass the Church in other ways. In most important single piece of legislation passed in the six-
­D ecember 1530 he charged the entire clergy of England teenth century. There had been a plan merely to pass an act
with the crime of praemunire, that is, with exercising a empowering an English court to rule on the divorce, but
foreign jurisdiction in England through their ecclesias- Cromwell made it a general statute that brought all ecclesi-
tical courts. In return for a fine of £118,000 Henry par- astical jurisdictions under the King’s control. The preamble
doned them, and early in 1531, he asked Parliament to to the act, which Cromwell wrote, declared emphatically
register the pardon as an act. that England was a sovereign state, free of all foreign ju-
Henry’s harassment of the Church had been an impul- risdictions, within which the King was supreme. The Act
sive, hit-and-miss affair. This changed in December 1531, of Supremacy of 1534, which declared the King to be the
when Henry brought Thomas Cromwell into the inner supreme head of the Church in England, and the Act in
circle of his councillors. Cromwell came from an urban Restraint of Annates of 1534, which annexed annates to the
world. He was born at Putney, west of London, the son of Crown permanently, only confirmed the revolution which
a blacksmith and fuller. He received no formal education the Act in Restraint of Appeals proclaimed.
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 147

Resistance and Rebellion but the most impressive fact about them is their fewness.
The vast majority of the English submitted to the new or-
Henry spent 1535 enforcing the new religions settlement. der in the Church.
The instrument he used was an oath contained in the Act They did, that is, until the autumn of 1536, when a
of Succession of 1534, an oath which was to be administered ­combination of political, economic, local, and religious
throughout the realm and which required Englishmen to grievances caused a major rebellion in Lincolnshire,
acknowledge the validity of Henry’s marriage to Anne and Yorkshire, and Cumberland, a rebellion soon called the
the invalidity of his marriage to Catherine. Most people, ­Pilgrimage of Grace. It began in Lincolnshire, where some
though not enthusiastic, acquiesced in the new settlement, peasants, craftsmen, parish priests, and gentlemen rose in
either out of delight at seeing the clergy humbled, or from revolt on October 1. Within two weeks the revolt spread to
a deep loyalty to the King, or from a real concern that there ­Yorkshire, where Robert Aske, a gentleman in the employ-
be an heir to the throne, or from fear of the King’s wrath or, ment of the powerful Percy family, asserted his leadership.
what must have been the case with most ordinary people, It was a popular rather than a noble movement, but behind
from an inability to see that any revolution had occurred. the commoners stood many of the nobility. The grievances
The old religion remained unchanged, the mass was per- of the rebels varied widely. The nobility resented Thomas
formed, and the sacraments were available. Cromwell’s ascendancy at Court and his attack on their
Yet some did resist. The first was Elizabeth Barton, the “liberties” and franchises. The gentry resented the S­ tatute
Nun of Kent. She was a poor servant girl, probably an of Uses, which forbade them to settle their estates in a
­epileptic, who became a visionary and prophetess, with trust, for the “use” of their heirs. The peasant, ­suffering
a large popular following in Kent. She told Henry to his from bad harvests, resented enclosures and high rents.
face that the divorce was wrong, and not long afterward Everyone hated the subsidy of 1534, which royal commis-
she prophesied that he would be deposed within a month if sioners were then collecting. But the chief grievances were
he married Anne Boleyn. The government at once ­arrested religious. One set of royal commissioners was at work dis-
her and several monks of Canterbury who had managed her solving the smaller monasteries and another set enforcing
­visions and prophecies. Because the judges ruled that her the Protestant-leaning religious instructions recently is-
offense did not amount to treason, Henry had ­Parliament sued by Cromwell. These changes, along with the denial of
in 1534 pass an Act of Attainder against her and her papal supremacy, deeply offended the conservative popu-
­associates, who were promptly executed. As always, Henry lace of the North. Rumor compounded their discontent.
was careful of the law and careless of justice. It was said Henry would rob the parish churches of their
Elizabeth Barton, the first martyr for the old religion, plate, reduce the number of parish churches, seize all the
was soon joined by two far more famous ones, John Fisher, gold in the country, and tax those who aped their betters
Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, author of by eating white bread.
­Utopia. Bishop Fisher, who had defended Catherine at her Because the King possessed no standing army, the rebels
trial with spirit, learning, logic, and audacity, was the only at first met with success. They seized Lincoln on October 5
bishop to refuse to take the oath of succession. For this and occupied York on October 13. By October 24 ­Robert
Henry sent him to the Tower, where he joined Sir Thomas Aske had 30,000 armed men at Doncaster. On ­December 2
More, who had resigned the chancellorship in 1532 and re- he gathered a great council at Pontefract to draw up
fused to swear the oath in 1535. More and Fisher were will- ­demands that reflected the Pilgrims’ grievances. They de-
ing to swear to the succession but not to the condemnation manded the dismissal of Cromwell, the repeal of the Statute
of the first marriage, for that implied a denial of papal su- of Uses, a halt to enclosures, fair rents, an end to heretical
premacy. To refuse an oath was not treason in English law. innovations, the restoration of suppressed monasteries, the
Henry therefore kept the two men in prison until Parlia- recognition of Princess Mary’s place in the succession, and
ment had passed an act making it treason to deny mali- an acknowledgment of the Pope’s primacy in the Church.
ciously the King’s title (which now included supremacy in But the rebellion ended in failure. No great peer joined
the Church). At his trial More defended himself brilliantly, the movement, nor did it ignite any Yorkist sentiment. In
but his judges, by ignoring the word “maliciously” and by Yorkshire an undercurrent of class hatred between gentle-
accepting perjured evidence, found him guilty. They also men and peasants emerged to divide the Pilgrims. Henry’s
found Bishop Fisher guilty, and the executioner’s ax fell on policy of deceit and delay effectively disarmed the Pilgrims
Fisher in June and More in July. It also fell that spring on while he raised an army from the loyal counties south of the
six Carthusian monks, a Brigettine, and a secular priest. Trent. The Duke of Norfolk, whom Henry placed in com-
These executions revealed the implacable resolve of Henry, mand of his forces, promised Robert Aske and his allies
148 A History of England

a pardon and a hearing of their demands. Robert Aske at visitors wrote their reports to justify a decision already
once tore from his breast the five wounds of Christ, the in- reached.
signia of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and ordered the Pilgrims Two invincible forces drove Henry to dissolve the
to disperse. Indeed, the chief explanation for the failure of monasteries. First, most monastic houses owed allegiance
the rebellion lies in the loyalty of the Pilgrims themselves, to parent institutions outside England. This was legally
who saw themselves as petitioners to the King, not as reb- unacceptable after the passage of the Acts of Appeal and
els. They failed to perceive that beneath Henry’s fair words ­Supremacy. Second, a bankrupt Henry coveted the wealth
lay a determination never to treat with “false traitors and of the monasteries. The English Church owned about
rebels,” who should be punished for the “detestable and un- 20 percent of the wealth of England, and the monasteries
natural” sin of rebellion. possessed fully half of that. It was a rich plum, ripe for the
A second wave of rebellions in January and Febru- picking. And Henry desperately needed money. The mas-
ary gave Henry the opportunity he sought to wreak ven- sive taxation of the 1520s had been wasted in war. During
geance. In the spring of 1537 Norfolk seized and executed the 1530s Henry was reluctant to ask Parliament to vote
rebels throughout the North, with an intent to instill in subsidies, for he sought other favors of it. Inflation now be-
the people a terror of the King’s power. In Cumberland gan to bite into the royal income, and the cost of defending
70 ­p easants were hung from trees in their gardens. The the realm against the Catholic powers mounted. The result
monks of ­Sawley were hung on a long timber extending was the decision to seize the wealth of the monasteries.
from the steeple of their church. Despite the promise of a The monks suffered little, being given a pension of £5
pardon and after a mockery of a trial, Robert Aske was ex- a year, a greater sum than many curates earned. The nuns
ecuted. In all, the government executed 178 Pilgrims, not a suffered more, for the male-dominated society of that age
great number for an age that regarded rebellion as an un- would give them only £2 a year. The friars, whose houses
speakable sin, but enough to deter others in the North from were also dissolved, received nothing. There was a consid-
further rebellion for a generation. Though the Pilgrims erable loss to the nation in the realm of art and learning.
did not attain their ends, their ill-fated rebellion may have Images, jewelry, metalwork, and reliquaries were melted
checked a trend toward Protestantism in 1535 and 1536. It down; libraries dispersed; and splendid buildings de-
probably also led to a drastic change in the power structure stroyed. The dissolution also led to an attack on popular
of the North. Henry and Cromwell now chose to rely on religious observances, with the dismantling of shrines and
the gentry and the Council of the North, not on the nobil- the destruction of miraculous images. And since monas-
ity and great magnates like the Earl of Northumberland. teries existed so that monks might pray for the souls of
their founders, it became harder for people to defend the
Catholic doctrine of intercessory prayer.
The Dissolution of the The chief recipient of this wealth was the King, whose
revenue increased by over £100,000 a year, a sum equal to
Monasteries the total royal income at the beginning of Cromwell’s min-
The dissolution of the smaller monasteries, those istry. Cromwell’s aim was to use this wealth to endow the
worth less than £200 a year, had helped precipitate the Crown in perpetuity. Had he accomplished this aim, he
­Pilgrimage of Grace; the failure of the Pilgrimage in turn would have gone far toward making the Crown absolute.
hastened the downfall of the larger monasteries. Those Henry had more generous aims. On the day Parliament
monastic houses that had joined the revolt were promptly passed the act for assigning the revenues of the larger mon-
declared forfeit, and in 1539 Parliament passed an act as- asteries to the Crown, Henry rushed through both Houses
signing the wealth of all monasteries to the Crown. The a bill, whose preamble he wrote. In it he promised to spend
dissolution of the smaller monasteries in 1536 and the the money for the support of the Church, the maintenance
larger ones in 1539 did not arise from the corruption and of almshouses, the promotion of learning, and the mainte-
decay of monastic life, though the visitors sent to the nance of highways. He fulfilled few of these purposes. He
monasteries by Cromwell in 1535 found enough of both. did establish six new bishoprics, endow five Regius profes-
There was scandal—drunkenness and lewdness—though sorships, establish a college at Cambridge, and create half a
not more than in earlier times. More serious was a loss of dozen smaller endowments, but this was all he had to show
a sense of vocation. The monks gave little charity, main- for the immense fortune that passed through his hands. In
tained few schools, and promoted little learning. They the end Henry neither permanently endowed the Crown,
were sunk in routine and riddled by worldliness. But all as Cromwell hoped, nor promoted learning and religion,
this had little to do with their dissolution. Cromwell’s as the humanists hoped. Instead he wasted this colossal
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 149

fortune on an enterprise Erasmus and More thought the became beggars, vagrants, and criminals. In the 1530s there
most foolish of all—war. appeared a group of preachers and pamphleteers, many of
In 1542 Henry plunged into war against Scotland and them close friends of Thomas Cromwell, who urged that it
France, a war that was to cost nearly £3 million. To help was the duty of the state to provide for the poor. They came
pay for it, he sold two-thirds of all monastic lands be- to be called “commonwealth men” and they envisaged
tween 1543 and 1547. Some of the land, 2.5 percent of it, the creation of a paternalistic state, one that would check
he gave to great courtiers like the Duke of Norfolk or to enclosures, establish schools, and care for the poor. They
great ministers like Cromwell. The officials of the Court of urged Cromwell and the King to use the monastic lands for
­Augmentations, the financial body set up to administer the these purposes, but Henry’s delight in war wrecked their
revenues of the monasteries, gained the most. Sir ­Richard proposal. The only positive result of the commonwealth
Rich, the ­C hancellor of the Court and the man whose movement in the 1530s was the passage of the Poor Law
perjured ­testimony destroyed Sir Thomas More, received of 1536. This law rested on a distinction between those ca-
59 manors, 31 rectories, and 28 vicarages. The Treasurer pable of work but unable or unwilling to work—the sturdy
of the Court, Sir Thomas Pope, gained 30 manors, and the beggar—and those too old or sick to do so—the impotent
­Auditor, ­William Cavendish, gained enough land to lay poor. The 1536 law made the parish responsible for employ-
the basis for the fortune of his family, the future Dukes ing the sturdy beggar and caring for the impotent poor.
of ­Devonshire. The entire operation vividly illustrated Sir One principle the law insisted upon: Begging was wrong
Thomas More’s observation that government is nothing and should be punished. The medieval church had extolled
but a “conspiracy of rich men procuring their own com- begging, as much for the merit gained by the donor as for
modities under the name and title of the commonwealth.” the relief given the recipient, but the Protestant ideas that
Most (95.8 percent) of the land was sold (1527 grants out were now flowing into England rejected “good works” and
of 1593), and at a good price: 20 times the annual value of regarded begging as an abomination to be punished by
the land. The nobility purchased some, as did merchants, whipping and branding.
lawyers, and civil servants. The gentry however, purchased
the bulk of it, probably two-thirds, and most of them pur-
chased the land to round out their existing estates. The The Tudor Revolution in
picture of “New Men” coming into the country, buying the
land, and rack-renting their tenants is largely a myth, not
Government
only because the “New Men” were not that numerous, but The decade of the 1530s, which saw the break from Rome
because the monks and the old gentry were as adept at rais- and the dissolution of the monasteries, also witnessed
ing rents as the new men. In an age of inflation only a fool changes in government so profound that Professor
or a saint would not raise rents. As time passed, some of G. R. ­Elton of Cambridge has called them revolutionary.
the monastic lands fell into the hands of wealthy yeomen, In 1953 he published a book entitled The Tudor R
­ evolution
who rose into the ranks of the gentry. These families, along in Government, in which he asserted that a twofold revolu-
with those merchants, lawyers, and civil servants who tion had occurred in the 1530s. On the one hand, E­ ngland
bought land, swelled the numbers of the gentry. In Essex became a sovereign state, owing obedience to no out-
in the hundred years after the dissolution, the number of side authority, with supreme power placed in the King in
gentry families rose from 144 to 336. The Church was the ­Parliament. On the other hand, England replaced a medi-
loser and the gentry the winner in the great plunder of the eval, personal, Household administration with a modern,
monastic estates. national, bureaucratic administration. The architect of
The dissolution of the monasteries also contributed to both revolutions was Thomas Cromwell.
the emergence of new attitudes and policies toward the It was Cromwell who wrote the preamble to the Act in
poor. In theory the monasteries played a central role in the Restraint of Appeals, where under the term empire he as-
relief of the poor—they distributed alms at the monastery serted the national sovereignty of England:
gate and supported hostels, leper houses, asylums, and hos-
This realm of England is an Empire, and so hath been
pitals. But in practice the monasteries in Henry VIII’s reign
accepted in the world, governed by one Supreme
gave less than 5 percent of their money income to charity.
Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of
Their dissolution, therefore, did not create the problem of
the imperial Crown.
poverty that confronted the Tudors. The problem was se-
rious, for there were 20,000 to 30,000 unemployed in a The body of the act gave practical effect to this claim by
population of less than 3 million, men and women who ending all papal jurisdictions in England. But the Tudor
150 A History of England

revolution went beyond the mere abolition of papal power complex circumstances—among them the need to suppress
in England; it also asserted the supremacy of statute law the P
­ ilgrimage of Grace—precipitated these changes.
over natural and divine law. Sir Thomas More declared that These facts only modify, they do not negate, the pic-
he could not obey an act of Parliament if it contradicted ture of a transformation of the English state. The reforms
the laws of Christendom, but this medieval view no lon- of the 1530s were the decisive step in an evolution that ex-
ger prevailed. The placing of sovereignty in the King act- tended from the middle of Edward III’s reign to the middle
ing through Parliament was of profound significance, for of Elizabeth’s, and created a sovereign state with a modern
it meant that England would remain a limited monarchy administration.
and that the King would govern through laws made with By creating a royal navy, Henry VIII strengthened the
the consent of his subjects and not through proclama- state in a more material way. Even here he built on a re-
tions issued on his own authority. “We at no time,” said vival of English sea power that Edward IV and Henry VII
Henry, “stand so highly in our estate royal as in the time of had begun. Henry VII left his son five warships, a number
Parliament.” Henry VIII increased to 45. Furthermore, heavy guns, ca-
Accompanying the revolution in government was pable of sinking ships, were now mounted on the warships,
a revolution in administration. Cromwell took the ad- which led the design of warships to diverge from that of
ministration of finances away from the Chamber, which merchant vessels. These new warships were built in royal
was dependent on the personal activity of the King, and dockyards at Deptford and Woolwich, which Henry es-
placed it in a series of courts, each with its own officials, tablished and supervised. He had a passion for ships and
seals, office, and responsibilities. He elevated the position knew the speed, tonnage, and armament of every vessel in
of ­Secretary (which he obtained in 1534) over all other of- the navy. But he did not rely solely on the navy for defense.
fices, gave it control of finances, foreign affairs, defense, He also constructed a chain of forts along the coasts and
and religion, and relegated the Chancellor and Lord Privy strengthened the garrisons at Hull and Berwick. The navy
Seal to a secondary place. By excluding lesser councillors, and the forts were an outward sign of an inward resolve to
judges, serjeants, and peers who did not hold high office, be independent and sovereign.
he ­t ransformed a large and amorphous King’s Council Rome was not the only obstacle to Henry’s sovereignty.
into an efficient Privy Council of some 20 members, with There were also those great “liberties” and franchises, most
a clerk, an agenda, and regular meetings. In these ways of them in the North, where the King’s writ did not run,
Cromwell transformed a personal Household administra- and a bishop or lord ruled. Cromwell attacked them with
tion into a modern bureaucratic one less dependent on the his customary vigor and ruthlessness. In 1536 he obtained
King personally. an act of Parliament that for all practical purposes abol-
That a transformation in government occurred during ished the franchises and “liberties.” Then in 1537 he devised
these years is certain, but earlier developments had pre- a new Council of the North, a permanent council domi-
pared the way for that transformation and not all of the nated by royal officials, heeding the dictates of London and
changes were permanent. King and Parliament, through governing the five northern counties. For the first time in
Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire, had already lim- history, all English people became subject to the King’s im-
ited papal power in England; judges ever since 1450 had mediate government.
recognized that Parliament could make new law, unmake Henry also extended his power into Wales. Ever since
old, and control judges in their interpretation of exist- Glendower’s rebellion, Wales had been a tangled web of
ing law; and only the determined resistance of Parliament marcher lordships and a separately organized principality.
­prevented Henry and Cromwell from dangerously strength- The marcher lordships, which were virtually petty king-
ening the power of proclamation. And during Elizabeth’s doms, afforded a refuge for criminals and were a source of
reign it was the old Exchequer, not the new financial courts endless trouble. Wolsey sought to solve the problem in 1525
­created by Cromwell, that became the center of financial by reviving the Council of Wales, but it proved ineffective.
administration—though the Exchequer adopted some of In 1536 Cromwell cut the Gordian knot by securing legis-
the procedures of the new courts. Furthermore, the Privy lation that abolished the marcher lordships and the sepa-
Chamber and the royal favorites who dominated it re- rate principality. Parliament annexed some of the marcher
mained politically important during the 1530s. Men of the lordships to English counties; the rest became part of
Privy C­ hamber helped to destroy first Wolsey, then Anne Wales, which Parliament now divided into 12 counties.
Boleyn, and finally Cromwell himself. Nor can it be proved Within these counties Welsh law was abolished, English
that ­C romwell was the architect of the administrative law extended, justices of the peace introduced, the use of
changes that occurred during the 1530s. It is more likely that English required in judicial proceedings, and 24 members
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 151

The Great Harry, the flagship of Henry VIII’s fleet.  (www.corbis.com/Alan Towse, Ecosce)

of Parliament allotted. The Welsh did not oppose this con- which was easily suppressed by a small English army, sup-
solidation with England, for they regarded these acts of ported by the Butlers. Cromwell then urged Henry to en-
union as an emancipation from those disabilities they had force an antipapal policy in Ireland. Lord Grey, the new
suffered since the reign of Edward I. deputy, persuaded the Irish Parliament to pass an Act of
Henry VIII was far less successful in Ireland, where Supremacy for the Irish Church, to dissolve the monas-
English power, at flood tide in the twelfth century, had teries, and even to recognize Henry as King rather than
slowly ebbed away since. By 1485 that power extended only Lord of Ireland. This last measure was necessary because
through the Pale, a coastal area extending 50 miles north many of the Irish had regarded the Pope as King of Ireland
of Dublin. Real power rested with Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl and the King of England as his viceroy, a distinction that
of Kildare, whom Henry VII continued as Lord Deputy the break from Rome made unacceptable. English rule in
until 1494, when he replaced him with an Englishman, Sir ­Ireland remained nominal, yet the fall of the Kildares in
­Edward Poynings. Henry instructed Poynings to conquer 1535 marked a turning point in Irish history. The English
Ulster and to give Ireland a new constitution. Poynings government now adopted a policy of direct rule. Ireland
failed utterly in the first task, but he did persuade an Irish was to be assimilated into the unitary realm of England.
Parliament to agree that henceforth it should meet only It was a policy fraught with difficulties since the Irish were
with the King’s consent and should discuss no measure not now divided from the English by religion as well as by lan-
first agreed to by the King in Council. Poynings Law, as it guage and culture.
came to be called, ended the legislative independence of
Ireland for 300 years.
Henry VIII soon found, however, that he did not have
the money to hold Ireland by force, so he brought Kildare
Scotland and France
back to rule Ireland. Rule Ireland he did, and his son af- As few as were Henry’s achievements in Ireland, they
ter him, until 1534, when complaints from the enemies of shone brightly in comparison to his failures in Scotland,
the Fitzgeralds, chiefly the Butlers, led Henry to imprison where a combination of arrogance and inaction defeated
the Earl of Kildare in the Tower, where he died of natu- several splendid opportunities to unite the two kingdoms.
ral causes. His death provoked his son to rise in rebellion, The first came early in the reign, in 1514, when James IV,
152 A History of England

faithful to his treaty with France, led a large army across it persisted in aiding the Scots, but his main ­motive was
the border. At Flodden, just inside Northumbria, the Earl to win a great victory there. The fact that Francis I and
of Surrey outmaneuvered James and dealt him a shattering Charles V, after a decade of friendship, went to war again in
defeat. James himself and most of the Scottish aristocracy July 1542 gave Henry the opportunity he sought to meddle
met death in battle. But Henry, besieging distant Tournai, once more in Europe. Early in 1543 he entered into an al-
lost the opportunity to seize Scotland. He could rest as- liance with the Emperor, which envisaged the winning of
sured, however, that Scotland was no longer a danger to Burgundy for the Emperor and Normandy and Guienne
England, for his sister Margaret was mother and regent to for Henry. That summer Henry declared war on France
the 17-month-old James V. and that autumn he and the Emperor planned a campaign
English influence in Scotland did not survive for long. for the next year, in which each would put 40,000 men
James V, who proved to be vehemently anti-English, mar- into the field. The Emperor was to march on Paris through
ried a French princess, Mary of Lorraine, in 1538. James also Champagne, and Henry, along the Somme.
refused Henry’s counsels to despoil the Church; instead he In July 1544 an English army of 48,000 men, accompa-
listened to the militant Cardinal Beaton. Thus, when Henry nied by a huge supply train and the aging, corpulent Henry
in 1541 dreamed once again of invading France, he sought carried on a litter, marched out of Calais. It was the larg-
first to fasten the back door. He sought to do this through est army ever sent to the Continent, equal to two-thirds
negotiations, but all efforts failed, largely because James re- of the population of London, and far too cumbersome
fused to come either to York or London. Henry exploded in to sweep through Picardy toward Paris. Henry therefore
anger and ordered Norfolk to raid Scotland, which he did used it to besiege Montreuil and ­B oulogne, a decision
in October 1542, leaving a trail of devastation behind him. that provoked Charles V, or gave him a p ­ retext, to sign a
James, however, was provoked rather than intimidated and separate and profitable peace with France. ­B oulogne fell
sent an army of 10,000 Scots across the border. At Solway in September, a costly toy for the ­soldier-king since it not
Moss an English army of only 3000 drove the Scots, riven only cost over a million pounds to win and secure but
by internal dissension, into a swamp. It was a rout more proved a stumbling block to the conclusion of peace. The
than a defeat, for the English, while losing only seven men, war dragged on for another year, during which French
captured seven Scottish lords and 500 gentlemen. News of troops landed on the Isle of Wight, only to be cut to pieces
the defeat, so men reported, caused the death of James V, by the local militia. These dismal campaigns came to an
who left behind a seven-day-old daughter, Mary Stuart. end in 1546, when England and France agreed to a treaty
The victory at Solway Moss gave Henry an incompa- of peace. By this treaty ­England was to keep ­B oulogne for
rable opportunity to unite England and Scotland. The eight years, at which time France was to buy it back for
new ­regent of Scotland, the Earl of Arran, was prepared 80,000 crowns. For this hollow triumph Henry had spent
to cooperate. There was an Anglophile party in Scotland; over £2 million.
­C ardinal Beaton was in prison. Thus negotiations were To raise this huge sum Henry resorted to various ex-
­b egun for the marriage of Prince Edward to the infant pedients. He raised £656,245 by taxation, £270,000 from
Mary. But Henry promptly overplayed his hand. He sought forced loans, £799,310 from the sale of monastic lands
custody of Mary, he placed English garrisons in Scotland, (thereby permanently impoverishing the Crown), and
and he asserted an English sovereignty over Scotland. £100,000 by borrowing on the Antwerp money market.
The result was a reaction in Scotland in favor of France. The final expedient was debasement of the coinage. The
­Between July and December 1543, Cardinal Beaton and his government invited individuals to bring their coin into the
allies regained control and renewed all treaties with France. mint, where it was melted down and recoined with more
At this point Henry ought to have launched a major inva- alloy. The mint returned to the person coin of a greater
sion of S­ cotland; instead, he sent the Earl of Hertford north face value, which would mean an immediate profit for him,
on a punitive expedition, with instructions to burn and pil- though eventually prices were bound to rise. The govern-
lage, and to put to the sword every man, woman, or child ment’s profits came from charging 40 to 80 times the usual
who resisted. But Hertford’s raid, which the Earl himself fee for the process. In this way, the Crown earned £363,000,
opposed, only stiffened resistance to Henry’s ambitions. while ruining the coinage, promoting inflation, destroying
The primary reason why Henry did not launch a mas- confidence in the government, and injuring the economy.
sive attack on Scotland was his infatuation with war on the Henry died in January 1547 still owing large sums to the
Continent. He appears not to have lost his desire for mili- bankers in Antwerp from whom he had borrowed to help
tary glory or his dreams of the reconquest of English lands pay for futile and pointless wars. He also died with ­Scotland
in France. It is true that in part he attacked France because unconquered and openly at war with England—in 1545 the
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 153

Scotland in the Sixteenth and

Seventeenth Centuries

TH E H IG H L AN D S
R. D ee
Aberdeen

Perth
R. Fo r
th
Stirling
R.

C ly
Glasgow
Edinburgh
de

Pinkie Dunbar
e

l
yd

o fC Berwick
h
Firt Philiphaugh
Flodden
C H E VIOT H IL L S
Solway Moss
R. Ty n
e
ir t h
Solway F Newcastle

0 20 40 Miles

0 20 40 Kilometers

French even slipped 3500 troops into Scotland. The last published a famous reply to Luther, a book that went
seven years of Henry’s reign were a monument to wrong through many editions and earned him the papal title of
choices, lost opportunities, arrogance, vainglory, and Defender of the Faith. But the break with Rome caused
prodigality. him to lean on servants whose Catholic faith was less or-
thodox than his, particularly Archbishop Cranmer and
Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell made himself indispens-
The Growth of Protestantism able to Henry by his skill in management; Cranmer won
When Henry died he left behind a Regency Council whose the King’s lasting affections by his modesty, subservience,
members were largely Protestant and whose ascendancy good manners, and sound scholarship. Both men were
practically guaranteed a Protestant England. Was this de- moderate reformers and persuaded Henry in the mid-
liberate? Or accident? Or some combination of the two? 1530s to move toward Lutheranism. They were aided in
Of Henry’s orthodoxy as a young king there is no this by the international situation, for in 1533 France, on
question. With the help of More and Fisher he wrote and whose alliance Henry had depended since 1527, began to
154 A History of England

turn toward Spain. Henry thereupon opened negotiations miscarried a boy. Henry’s eyes soon fell on another lady of
with the Lutheran princes of Germany. These ­negotiations the Court, Jane Seymour. Determined to be rid of Anne, he
failed, but not before they had influenced the first state- accused her of adultery, construed adultery to be treason,
ment of faith of the new Church of England, the Ten and had her executed. Anne was certainly flirtatious, but
­Articles of 1536. she was probably not adulterous. Jane Seymour gave Henry
These articles were a compromise between the old faith the son he had overturned the Church to gain, but she died
and the new. While they defined in an orthodox manner giving birth to Edward. In late 1537, Henry was once again
three of the seven traditional sacraments (baptism, pen- a widower. A search for a French princess having failed,
ance, and the mass), they omitted all mention of the other Cromwell urged Henry to marry Anne of Cleves, whose
four (confirmation, marriage, holy orders, and extreme father, though no Lutheran, was allied with the ­Lutherans.
unction). Some passages were drawn nearly verbatim from In January 1540 Anne of Cleves arrived in England, where
Lutheran sources, but the Ten Articles stopped short of the Henry, appalled at her plain face and dull wits, went
Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone. ­Salvation through the ceremony only for the good of the realm. But
was to be gained, as the Catholics taught, by faith and good he declared he had never consummated the marriage and
works. More important than the Ten Articles were the soon found a pretext for divorcing “the ­Flanders’ mare.”
­Injunctions which Cromwell as vice-regent of the Church These events occurred when the conservative faction at
issued in 1536 and 1538. These ordered that a Bible be placed court, led by Bishop Stephen Gardiner and the Duke of
in every parish church, that images be removed, that the Norfolk, was growing strong. In July they struck at their
clergy teach the Paternoster and the Ten ­Commandments, greatest enemy, Thomas Cromwell, whom the nobles hated
and that there be quarterly sermons based on the ­Scriptures. as an upstart, the clergy as a despot, and the conservatives
Cromwell, like Cranmer, sought a simple, pure faith based as a radical. Henry allowed himself to be persuaded that his
on Scripture, declared by the King, and accepted by all faithful minister had sought to lead the kingdom into her-
without disputes over abstruse doctrines. esy and agreed to an Act of Attainder which condemned
Henry soon drew back. In 1537, freed from any depen- him to death. Henry chose an attainder rather than a trial
dence on the Lutheran princes by the outbreak of war be- because a trial would have allowed Cromwell to defend
tween Charles V and Francis I, he issued The Institutions himself. Cromwell was beheaded in July 1540, and Henry
of a Christian Man, usually called the Bishops’ Book. The lost the best servant he ever had.
four lost sacraments reappeared, though the emphasis Though Henry in the Six Articles and the King’s Book
on scriptural authority remained. The strongest check to (issued in 1543) clung to orthodox Catholic doctrine, his
­Protestantism, however, came in 1539, a year of acute crisis. subjects began to embrace Lutheranism. Lutheran books
The signing of a treaty of peace by Charles V and Francis I first entered England in 1520. They met with a favorable
in 1538 precipitated the crisis, as did the Pope’s decision reception, for the soil had been prepared by three earlier
­finally to excommunicate and depose Henry VIII. Fearing movements: Lollardy, the New Devotion, and humanism.
an assault by Catholic Europe, Henry mustered the county In 1520 there were still Lollard communities in Bucking-
militia, strengthened defense works, readied the beacons, hamshire, Essex, London, Birmingham, and Coventry.
and visited his ships at Portsmouth. Fearing rebellion at Most of the heretics dragged before Church courts in the
home, he executed every Yorkist he could lay his hands on. 1530s were Lollards, not Lutherans. But the Lollards were
Henry Pole, Henry Courtenay, and Sir Edward Neville lost neither politically nor intellectually important and could
their heads for no greater crime than being descendants not by themselves have brought about significant changes
of Edward III. Henry also had Parliament pass the Act of in the Church. More important was that lay piety called the
the Six Articles to placate Catholic opinion. These articles New Devotion, which arose in the late fifteenth and early
upheld transubstantiation (the belief that the priest in the sixteenth centuries.
Mass changes the “substance” of the bread and wine into With the growth of towns there emerged a population
the body and blood of Christ), the need for confession, the that objected to the calculating, mechanical aspects of late
sanctity of vows of chastity, the justness of private masses, medieval Catholicism. They cultivated an inner spiritual
the sufficiency of communion in one kind, and the illegal- life and sought a religion that would reconcile God the
ity of clerical marriages. The act declared that any person righteous judge with the individual’s longing for salvation.
who denied transubstantiation should suffer death. This new lay piety became explosive when allied to the new
The crisis of 1539 led Thomas Cromwell to renew his critical scholarship of the humanists. Not a single one of
efforts to find Henry a new wife. Henry had tired of the first generation of humanists became a heretic, but by
Anne Boleyn, who after giving birth to a girl, Elizabeth, attacking abuses in the Church, by reducing Christianity
 War and Reformation: 1509–1547 155

to its basic simplicities, by translating the New Testament

anew, and by emphasizing the importance of the ­Scriptures
they paved the way for Protestantism. Protestantism was
a religion of the Book, and Erasmus dreamed of the day
when all women might read the Gospels, when “the coun-
tryman might sing them at his plow, the weaver chant them
at his loom, the traveler beguile with them the weariness of
the journey.”
Lutheran ideas found their first home with scholars
and merchants. The first Lutheran cell in England was at
­Cambridge, where scholars, among them Thomas ­Cranmer
and Hugh Latimer, met at the White Horse Tavern to
discuss the new ideas coming from Germany. Lutheran
ideas likewise throve in London, especially among mer-
chants who traded with the Continent. Two forces caused
these ideas to spread beyond these groups: the Bible and
the printing press. It was a dedicated, solitary Cambridge
scholar, William Tyndale, who produced the first success-
ful New Testament in English, but he could not have done
so without a patron in London and the security of service
as a chaplain to the Merchant Adventurers abroad. Though
the City Council of Brussels condemned, strangled, and William Tyndale, translator of the Bible into English, was
burned Tyndale in 1536, his New Testament prompted Miles burned at the stake for heresy in 1536.  (© Bettmann/Corbis)
Coverdale in 1535 to translate the Old and New Testaments
into English. Thomas Cromwell persuaded Henry in 1536
to place Coverdale’s Bible in every parish church. Within a the traditional invocation of the Virgin and the saints.
year, the bishop of Hereford admitted that many lay people Whether Protestantism would have made such gains had
knew the Scriptures better than the clergy. The Bible could Henry not broken from Rome is a question no historian
not only be read in the parish church, but could, because of can ever answer for certain, but it is sure that the denial
the printing press, be purchased, even by an artisan. When of papal supremacy, the dissolution of the monasteries, the
William Malden’s father sought to prevent him from joining destruction of Becket’s shrine, the placing of an ­English
with others to read the Bible, he rebelled: Bible in every parish church, and the naming of reform-
ers like Hugh Latimer to bishoprics could not help but pro-
Then, thought I, I will learn to read English, and then
mote Protestantism. Nor did the fall of Cromwell greatly
I will have the New Testament and read thereon my-
alter the situation. Within eight months Henry regret-
self, and then had I learned of an English prymer as
ted that he had sacrificed his ablest minister, and he did
far as Partis sapientia, and then on Sundays I plied
not rigorously enforce the Six Articles. The disgrace of
my English prymer. The May-tide following, I and
­Katherine Howard soon weakened the Catholic party at
my father’s prentice, Thomas Jeffrye, laid out money
Court. The Duke of Norfolk’s triumph over Cromwell had
together and bought the New Testament in English,
been cemented by Henry’s marriage in 1540 to Norfolk’s
and hid it in our bed straw and so exercised it at con-
niece, Katherine Howard. Katherine was young, pretty,
venient times.3
lively, a delight to the aging Henry. But her delight in
In that Bible hid in the straw, and in many others Henry was not so great and she generously granted her fa-
like it, one can find a truer explanation of the growth of vors to others—the evidence was unmistakable—and thus
­Protestantism than in acts of Parliament or articles of faith. paid for her folly with her head. Henry then took his sixth
Nor was it only Bibles that were printed. Between 1525 and wife, an older woman, a widow, Katherine Parr, who not
1547, English printers published 800 editions of religious only nursed him during his last days but openly expressed
works, many of them strongly Protestant. Erasmian, if not ­Protestant, opinions.
By 1547 there were numerous Protestants in the ­Council, There remains the question of Henry’s own religious be-
at Court, in the Church, and throughout the kingdom— liefs during these years. These can be reconstructed from
even in distant Yorkshire, where a third of all wills omitted the corrections he made both to the Bishops’ Book and the
156 A History of England

King’s Book. Throughout both he rejected any uncompro- 3. Alfred W. Pollard, ed., Records of the English Bible: The
mising statement of justification by faith alone, defended Documents Relating to the Translation and Publication
the efficacy of good works, clung to the doctrine of tran- of the Bible in English, 1525–1611. 1911, 269.
substantiation, and persisted in a belief in purgatory. But
joined to this instinctive conservatism was a mind remark- Further Reading
ably open to radical ideas. He rejected confession and belit- G. W. Bernard. The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the
tled the role of the priest. A belligerent anticlericalism runs ­Remaking of the English Church. New Haven, CT, 2005.
through all his comments. By the year 1546 this radical- ­B ernard rejects the notion that Henry was the tool of fac-
ism led him to propose to the French ambassador that he tion and argues that in the making of the divorce, the
and the French king abolish the mass in their realms. The breach with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries
remark may have been a jest, but a truly devout C ­ atholic the king’s role was “full and decisive.”
would not have made it. Furthermore, in the same year Muriel St. Clare Byrne, ed. The Lisle Letters. Abridged by
Henry empowered Cranmer to draw up a new service Bridget Boland. London, 1983. Contemporary letters that
book that would omit such ceremonies as crawling to the cast a flood of light on fashions, falconry, etiquette, patterns
Cross on Good Friday, and Henry attacked the whole idea of speech, and the relations of husband and wife, parents
of intercessory prayer by asking Parliament to pass an act and children, and masters and servants.
confiscating the wealth of the chantries. Given these facts, A. G. Dickens. The English Reformation. London, 1964. Long
it is not difficult to explain why he named two reformers, the standard work on the English Reformation; combines
precise scholarship with an admirable impartiality and
John Cheke and Richard Coxe, to be tutors to the young
a readable style. His confident belief that the late medi-
Prince Edward and why he left a Regency Council that was eval church was moribund has been rejected by recent
predominantly Protestant. scholarship.
But Henry’s open-mindedness only explains why he was Eamon Duffy. The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional ­Religion
willing to do these acts. His immediate motives were more in England, 1400–1580. New Haven, CT, 1992. Rejects
practical. He named Cheke and Coxe because they were A. G. Dickens’s contention that the late medieval church
able scholars; he sought the chantry lands for their wealth, was corrupt and unresponsive to popular spiritual needs;
and he destroyed the Catholic party at Court because their shows devotional practices of the time were appreciated
leaders had played with treason. Norfolk’s son, the poet- and that there was little desire to abandon them.
soldier Earl of Surrey, had by his arrogant behavior, his G. R. Elton. Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the
open contempt for the King’s ministers, and his foolhar- Common Weal. Cambridge, England, 1973. An authorita-
diness in quartering his own arms with those of Edward tive portrait of Cromwell and a vigorous argument that he
the Confessor infuriated Henry. Surrey dragged his father dominated events in the 1530s.
and the Catholic party down with him. In December 1546, G. W. Hoskins. The Age of Plunder: King Henry’s England
Henry struck Norfolk’s and Bishop Gardiner’s names from 1500–1547. London, 1976. An unusual book that combines
the Regency Council. In January he secured the condem- the erudition of an economic historian with the passions of
nation and execution of Surrey. Norfolk escaped this fate a populist and radical; excels in the discussion of agricul-
only because Henry himself died on the day appointed ture and rural life.
for the Duke’s execution. Henry died on January 27, 1547, E. W. Ives. Anne Boleyn. New York, 1986. A splendid study
from varicose ulcers that had plagued him for years. It was, of Anne and her age; portrays Anne as culturally sophisti-
cated, outspoken in her opinions, a friend of the humanists,
therefore, from motives of statecraft—from a desire to pre-
and a principal maker of the English Reformation.
vent faction in the new reign—that Henry left behind him
Jasper Ridley. Statesman and Saint: Cardinal Wolsey, Sir
a Regency Council dominated by Edward Seymour, uncle
Thomas More, and the Politics of Henry VIII. New York,
of the new King and a Protestant. But he would not have 1983. A fascinating work that challenges legend by depicting
appointed a council dominated by Seymour had he not Wolsey as a sincere, efficient administrator and More as a
been willing to entertain new ideas in religion. persecutor of heretics.
J. J. Scarisbrick. Henry VIII. London, 1968. A detached, level-
Notes headed, scholarly, detailed, and critical reassessment of
Henry; attributes to the King policies that Elton attributes
1. Charles Eliot, ed., Prefaces and Prologues to Famous to Cromwell.
Books. 1910. New York, 81. David Starkey. The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and
2. J. R. Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents, A.D. Politics. New York, 1986. Portrays Henry as indecisive and
1485–1603, second edition. 1951. Cambridge University inconsistent, thus opening the way to intrigue at Court;
Press, 41. stresses the role of the Privy Chamber in Henry’s reign.
 chapter 11

Protestant and Catholic:

1547–1558

E
Chapter Outline
dward died too soon and Mary came to the throne too late
to accomplish their purposes. Edward was nine years old when
■ Somerset and Reform he ascended the throne in 1547 and 15 when he died of pulmonary
­tuberculosis in 1553. Mary was already 37 when she ascended the
■ Ket’s Rebellion throne, probably too old to bear the child she desperately needed
for her design to make England Catholic again. But though neither
■ The Economic Crisis of 1551 ­monarch lived long enough to accomplish his or her purposes, their
reigns were pivotal in the history of England. It was during these
years that the balance fell decisively on the side of ­Protestantism
■ The Ascendancy of Northumberland
and ­capitalism. The flood of Protestant literature, the abolition of
­chantries, the Second Book of Common Prayer, the steadfastness of
■ The Accession of Queen Mary
the Marian martyrs, and the identification of Catholicism with Spain
all drove England irreparably into Protestantism. At the same time the
■ The Return to Rome suppression of Ket’s rebellion, the fall of Somerset, and the collapse
of the Commonwealth party meant the triumph of competition over
■ The Spanish Connection custom, of the market price over the just price, and of the pursuit of
private gain over the enforcement of social justice. These pivotal years
in the growth of Protestantism and capitalism were also a seed time for
two other movements: overseas expansion and hostility to Spain. The
collapse of the market for woolen cloth at Antwerp led the English to
sail south into the Atlantic and north into the White Sea in search of
markets and raw materials, thereby beginning the long era of overseas
expansion. The English also, during these years, turned away from
two centuries of enmity and hostility toward France. Catholic Spain
­became the hated enemy and remained so for a century.

Somerset and Reform

In his will Henry VIII left the government of England to a ­16-member
Regency Council. This arrangement survived scarcely three days;
­Edward Seymour, the King’s uncle and the leader of the Protestant
­faction in the Privy Council, promptly seized power as Lord ­Protector
and had the young King name him Duke of Somerset. The Council,
taught by the Tudors to prize the rule of one man, readily agreed.
The Duke of Somerset was somewhat of an enigma. He was liberal
in his ideas but greedy and ambitious; an able general but an incom-
petent politician; tolerant of other men’s opinions but arrogant in his
157
158 A History of England

own conduct; an idealist in politics but without the tact, religious guilds, including those that supported the famous
­patience, and judgment to put those ideals into effect. mystery plays. The confiscation of these lands brought the
The most immediate problem facing him was Scotland, government £610,000, about a fifth as much as the mon-
and his handling of it revealed both his idealism and his asteries had brought. But this second dissolution had a far
shortsightedness. He offered the Scots a union of both greater effect on the ordinary person’s life, for it lessened
­kingdoms, cemented by the marriage of Edward and Mary the role of the Church in society. Private citizens refounded
Stuart, with home rule and free trade for both nations. But the grammar schools; the municipalities took over the hos-
the Scots saw in this project only a design for conquest. pitals and almshouses; and the guilds, which had often pro-
They refused it and turned for help to France. Somerset moted the veneration of saints, disappeared altogether. The
would have been wise at this moment to have allowed the Chantry Act both hindered a revival of Catholic devotion
Scots to be Scots; instead, he invaded with 18,000 men, and hastened the secularization of English society.
­defeated the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie in September 1547, In 1548 the government resolved to reimpose uniformity
and then grappled with the now-familiar problem of how of worship on England. In September Archbishop ­Cranmer
to turn a victory into a conquest. Like Henry VIII before presented a new Book of Common Prayer to P ­ arliament. It
him, he failed to solve the problem; the English govern- was a masterpiece of compromise and a miracle of English
ment had neither the troops nor the money to occupy prose. Nearly everything in it was a ­direct translation of
Scotland. In 1548 a French fleet brought 6000 troops to some older piece of liturgy. Cranmer kept old rites, such
Scotland and carried Mary back to France, where she mar- as confession and extreme unction for the dying. Priests
ried the Dauphin. By the autumn of 1549 there were no still wore their traditional vestments, and there was still a
English garrisons left in Scotland. railed-off altar in the east end of the church. But in two ways
The Duke of Somerset was not a fervent Protestant, the Prayer Book moved toward ­Protestantism. ­C ommon
but—unwittingly perhaps—he promoted the growth of prayer became a fact, for the congregation participated
Protestantism. He did so in three ways: by allowing the free in worship as it had never done before. This dialogue be-
circulation of Protestant ideas, by confiscating the chant- tween priest and people gave expression to the Protestant
ries, and by allowing the introduction of the First Book of doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Second, the
Common Prayer. Prayer Book took a Protestant view of the sacrament of
Somerset, who disliked religious persecution, persuaded the mass, or Eucharist. To a Catholic, Christ is corporally
his first Parliament to repeal the treason and heresy laws present in the host and each mass r­ eenacts Christ’s sacrifice
of earlier reigns. Swept away were the Treason Act of 1534, on the Cross; according to the 1549 Prayer Book, Christ’s
which made spoken words treason, the Six Articles of 1539, death at Calvary was a full and sufficient sacrifice, which
the Act for Burning Heretics of 1414, and all restrictions on the communion service commemorates rather than reen-
printing the Scriptures. The result was a torrent of Prot- acts. Though Cranmer worded this matter so darkly that
estant writings—pamphlets, sermons, psalms, devotional even Catholic bishops could accept the Prayer Book, the
works, plays, ballads. Somerset had hoped that liberty conservative villagers of Cornwall and Devonshire found it
would bring calm, but it brought instead a flood of disputa- altogether too new and strange.
tion that extended from the bishop’s palace to the tavern. In 1549 Parliament passed an Act of Uniformity that
The tumult spilled over into image breaking, with the result required all clergymen to use the new Book of C ­ ommon
that the Council ordered the removal of all images and rel- Prayer. When in June the book was introduced into
ics from the churches. On a loftier plane, foreign scholars ­S ampford Courtenay in Devonshire, the incensed vil-
brought the ideas of the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli to lagers forced the priest to celebrate the mass in the old
England. Martin Bucer of Strasbourg became a professor of style. Neighboring parishes joined the rebellion, as did
theology at Cambridge; Peter Martyr, an Italian, occupied a the ­Cornish, who, speaking Celtic, found the English lan-
similar chair at Oxford. A Polish Protestant, John à Lasco, guage as incomprehensible as the Latin and less famil-
became pastor of a refugee church in London. iar. The rebels drew up a manifesto demanding the Latin
It was a need for money, not Protestant zeal, that led the mass, the r­ estoration of old ceremonies, the suppression of
government to dissolve the chantries, though the preamble the ­English Bible, and the return of the Six Articles. The
to the Chantry Act of 1547 did attack the idea of purgatory ­Protector handled the rebellion with the same human-
and the saying of masses for the dead. The Chantry Act of ity that marked all his actions, but the rebels refused to
1547 was wide in scope. It not only dissolved 2374 chantries, disperse at his promise of a generous pardon. Finally in
but also 90 colleges, many of which ran schools, 110 hospi- August the Council sent orders, whose harshness was con-
tals and almshouses, which cared for the poor, and all the cealed from Somerset, for the suppression of the rebels.
 Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 159

revolutionary. He was not young, alienated, unsuccessful,

and intellectual; rather, he was 57 years of age, a grandfather,
­unschooled, a member of an ancient family, a ­successful
­tanner, and the owner of two manors. His motives must
remain a mystery; one can only guess that he was a decent
man, with a keen sense of justice, who was carried forward by
the enthusiasm of his compatriots.
Apart from Ket, the rebels in Norfolk were composed
of the “poor commons,” that is, of customary tenants and
copyholders, for whom the enemy was the landowning gen-
try and noble classes. In July 1549 the rebels drew up a list of
29 demands, which they sent as a petition to the King. Their
chief demand was that their landlords not be allowed to
overstock the commons with their sheep and cattle or to en-
close the commons for their own use. The enclosure of ar-
able land was not a grievance, for East Anglia had long been
an enclosed country. But the enclosure of the commons for
pasture for the lord’s sheep was a grievance second only to
the lord’s overstocking the commons, thus lessening the
tenant’s right to graze his sheep and cattle there. The rebels
also demanded a reduction of rents and entry fines to the
levels of 1485. There were numerous complaints against the
clergy, and demands that clerical incomes be cut, that tithes
be paid in cash, not kind, and that in each parish there be a
resident clergyman able to preach. Most radical of all were
Gerlach Flicke, Dutch, “Portrait of Thomas Cranmer (1489–1536),” a series of demands that the people participate in local gov-
c. 1546. Oil on panel, 98.4 × 76.2 cm.  (National Portrait Gallery,
­London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
ernment, an activity hitherto reserved for the gentry.
Ket’s rebellion was the most serious challenge made dur-
ing the century to the Tudor establishment, and its deeper
With the help of reinforcements from London, the local causes lie in both the economic and the intellectual climate
landowners, many of them holders of monastic lands, an- of the age. It was, in the first place, a result of a growing pop-
nihilated the rebels. Those who were not slaughtered on the ulation, one that generated both inflation and unemploy-
battlefield were hung from gallows as a warning to others. ment. It was the unemployed in Norwich who helped the
rebels capture that city. But the chief problem was inflation.
The price of foodstuffs rose over 10 percent a year between
Ket’s Rebellion 1540 and 1550, allowing the tenant to sell on a rising market
While the villagers of Sampford Courtenay were forcing their while paying a fixed rent. The landlord could maintain his
priest to say mass in the old style, the copyholders of Norfolk real income only by breaking the customary rents and en-
were tearing down the fences on the land of John Flowerdew, try fines or by putting more sheep on the commons. During
a hated lawyer turned country gentleman. John Flowerdew the third and fourth decades of the sixteenth century, entry
sought to divert the rioters by paying them 40 pence to de- fines rose by 100 percent. No doubt there were instances of
molish the fences of his enemy, Robert Ket, a prosperous rack-renting—of rents raised two- and threefold—but most
tanner who owned land worth about £50 a year. When Ket landlords barely kept pace with inflation. This fact, however,
heard of the complaints against his enclosures, he agreed to was of little consolation to the tenant who saw his rents rise
tear them down. Even more, he vowed to join with the rebels in violation of the custom of the manor. As one of them said
and help them to revenge the harm done by the enclosure of to his landlord: “My bargain was but to pay for my taking £6
common pasture. He became not only their companion but 13s 4d yearly. . . . You can require no more.”
their captain. Under Ket’s leadership the rebels, swollen in In truth during these years many peasants, especially
numbers to 16,000, marched on Norfolk, captured the city, those with large holdings, prospered, rebuilt their houses,
and established a camp on Mousehold Heath overlooking it. inserted windows, replaced a few sparse wooden forms
Robert Ket was far removed from the stereotype of a modern with comfortable furniture, and began to sleep between
160 A History of England

linen sheets rather than on straw. Yet a rebellion did break cloth was sent to Antwerp, where it was finished and
out, in part because of the intellectual climate. The Duke of dyed, and reshipped to the German market. This trade to
Somerset openly expressed sympathy for the poor. And a ­Antwerp increased markedly with the debasement of the
Commonwealth party arose, which denounced enclosures, English coinage in 1543. A Flemish merchant who had to
condemned rack-renting, opposed excessive entry fines, and pay 27 Flemish shillings for an English pound in the 1530s
preached against human greed. Hugh Latimer, who lashed could purchase one for 21 shillings in 1547, and for 15 shil-
out at covetous landlords before the King at Westminster and lings in 1551. Since prices did not keep pace with falling
before large crowds at St. Paul’s Cross, was the most eloquent exchange rates, English cloth became a bargain. Then in
of these men, but John Hales, who headed a commission in 1551 the bubble burst; English exports abroad fell to 85,000
1548 to investigate breaches of the laws against enclosures, cloths. The Earl of Warwick’s decision to reduce the value
was the most active. Latimer’s sermons and Hales’s commis- of English coinage precipitated the collapse. English coins
sion were politically unwise, for the oppressed will revolt with a face value of a shilling were now to circulate at
sooner from hope than from despair. As one councillor put 6 pence. Just as the debasement of the coinage had stimu-
it, “Are victuals and other things so dear? . . . they have lived lated exports, so its revaluation harmed them.
quietly above sixty years, pastures being enclosed. . . . What But the causes for the decline in cloth exports were
is the matter then? By my faith, Sir, liberty, liberty.”1 wider and deeper than the revaluation of the coinage.
A political vacuum in Norfolk allowed the rebels a mo- Overproduction had led to a glut on the Antwerp market.
mentary triumph. There was no local nobleman who could Economic depression in Europe, religious persecution in
organize the forces of the gentry. The rebels eventually met the Netherlands, and the outbreak of plague, which killed
defeat because they saw themselves as petitioners to the King many English merchants at Antwerp, all contributed to
and Lord Protector, not as revolutionaries. They neither the decline. A decline in consumption at home made the
sought to establish a commune in Norwich nor to widen economic crisis even deeper, because about one-third of all
the revolt. It was only a matter of time, therefore, before English cloth was sold in England. A series of bad harvests
John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, leading the King’s forces, at this time depressed sales, for whenever the harvest was
slaughtered the rebels at Dussindale. Ket’s severed head was bad the price of bread rose, causing householders to spend
placed on the battlements of Norwich as a ­reminder to its more on bread and less on cloth. The crisis that now over-
citizens of the fate of a rebel in Tudor England. whelmed English clothiers and merchants was severe—and
Ket’s rebellion had two immediate consequences: It led it cried out for a solution.
to the fall of Somerset and it spelled the eventual doom of Sir Thomas Gresham, the royal agent at Antwerp and
the Commonwealth party. By his sympathy for the poor a member of the Merchant Adventurers, offered one solu-
and his inability to maintain order, Somerset had forfeited tion: The export of all cloth should be channeled through
the support of the only class on which he could hope to de- London and the Merchant Adventurers should be allowed
pend—the landowners. The Earl of Warwick, having won to regulate the flow of cloth at Antwerp. The proposal
the King’s c­ onfidence and now leading an army, seized the was characteristic of the Merchant Adventurers, a com-
opportunity to engineer a coup d’état. Through the Council, pany that had dominated the trade in cloth since the late
he seized power, persuaded the King to make him Duke of fifteenth century and that belied its name by never acting
­Northumberland, and sent Somerset to the Tower. Somerset’s adventurously. It opened no new markets, made no voy-
fall led to the ­collapse of the Commonwealth party. Hales’s ages of discovery, and was slow to adopt double-entry
enclosure commission came to an end. The Court ceased bookkeeping and marine insurance. The gist of Gresham’s
to extend its patronage to preachers of the social gospel. proposal was incorporated in a bill in 1553, but Parliament,
­Parliament even passed a statute asserting the right of lords of for fear of an outcry from the other ports of England, did
manors, subject to certain safeguards, to appropriate wastes not pass it. Yet the Merchant Adventurers squeezed out
and commons. The gentle Somerset had failed in his en- the merchants from other ports and assigned quotas to the
deavor to halt the steady growth of capitalism in agriculture. remaining London merchants. They also persuaded the
government to restrict the privileges of the Hanseatic mer-
chants in London, a measure popular with the people.
The Economic Crisis of 1551 Since 1471 the Hansards, as the Hanseatic merchants
Wool and woolens accounted for four-fifths of all ­English were called, had paid only 1 shilling on each cloth exported,
exports. During the first half of the sixteenth century the whereas the English had to pay 1 shilling 2 pence; further-
number of cloths exported rose three times over, from more, the Hansards did not need to pay the shilling in the
50,000 in 1500 to 147,000 in 1550. The great bulk of this pound on general commodities, which English merchants
 Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 161

had to pay. Supported by these privileges, the Hansards However important these oceanic trades might be in the
monopolized the Baltic trade; they handled about a quar- future, their immediate impact was slight. The prosperity of
ter of all English exports. Northumberland now revoked England continued to rest on the excellence of the broad-
their privileges. But neither of these measures solved the cloth manufactured in Somersetshire and Gloucestershire,
problem facing the English cloth industry. The Merchant on the cheapness of the kerseys produced in Yorkshire, on
­Adventurers merely divided a smaller market, and the the coal shipped south from Newcastle, on the iron manu-
­English were not strong enough to drive the Hansards factured in the Weald, on the shipbuilding in the Thames,
(whose privileges Mary restored) from the Baltic. True, on the leather industry in the Midlands, and on a revival of
the export of cloth did recover from its lowest point, but it markets at home and abroad, a revival only peace and good
remained throughout Elizabeth’s reign at a level about 20 harvests could bring.
percent below that reached in the 1540s.
A bolder solution was to escape dependence on a single
market by finding new markets overseas. Because Spain was The Ascendancy of
hostile, because the Turks dominated the Mediterranean,
and because the Hansards monopolized the Baltic trade,
Northumberland
there were few places to turn other than southward, down John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and after 1551 Duke of
the coast of Africa. In 1551 a group of London merchants ­Northumberland, was the son of the Edmund Dudley
sent Thomas Wyndham, in The Lion, 150 tons, to the ­Atlantic whom Henry VIII had executed to appease the people. John
coast of Morocco, from which he brought back sugar, Dudley pursued a distinguished military career in the last
dates, almonds, and molasses. In 1553 Wyndham sailed far- years of Henry VIII’s reign, when he proved himself a man
ther south, to Guinea, where he found gold and pepper. In of energy, ruthlessness, and stout courage. He also had great
1554 a larger squadron, under the command of John Lok, political ability, which he coupled to a fierce ambition for
sailed to the Ivory Coast and Gold Coast and brought back power and a naked greed for wealth. In his ambition and
gold, tusks, grain, and slaves. Lok’s employers realized a greed he did not so much differ from the “new men” of his
1000 percent profit on their capital, and Lok became the first age as surpass them in vehemence and success. He was a
­Englishman to engage in the nefarious trade in black slaves. master of intrigue, who originally brought all factions on
But the English wanted more than gold and ivory and the Council together in opposition to Somerset. He won
slaves; they wanted to capture the trade with the Orient over the Catholic members by leading them to believe
that had made Portugal wealthy. Since English ships were he meant to prevent further religious changes. But once
too small to round the Cape of Good Hope and since all ­Somerset was in the Tower, he turned away from the path of
attempts to find a northwest passage had failed, the Eng- compromise and moderation. In February 1550 he secured
lish resolved to search out a northeast passage. In 1553 the dismissal of the Catholic members of the Council and
three ships under the command of Sir Hugh ­Willoughby turned toward extreme Protestantism. Far from drawing
and Richard Chancellor sailed north around the coast the English together, this decision divided them and cost
of ­Norway. Willoughby, who became separated from Northumberland the support of a large part of the proper-
­Chancellor, sailed eastward along the Russian coast, ran tied classes. He now had to look elsewhere for backing, and
into the island of Novaia Zemlia, failed to skirt north of it, he found it in three sources: in the young King, in his fellow
wintered in the river Arzina, and froze to death there with councillors and their retainers, and in the Protestant clergy.
his entire crew. Chancellor was luckier. He turned south The starting point in Northumberland’s advance to
into the White Sea, anchored at Archangel, and traveled power was the King himself. Edward VI was one of the most
overland to Moscow, where he won the respect and friend- gifted and one of the most obnoxious of the Tudors. He was
ship of the Tsar, Ivan the Terrible. The Muscovy Company, a lively, good-looking boy, with fair hair and gray eyes. He
which sponsored Willoughby and Chancellor, never found was intellectually precocious, knew Greek well, wrote es-
the northeast passage to China, but they did open a trade says in French, and understood diplomatic affairs. But he
with the Russians, who sent such valuable commodities as was also haughty, arrogant, and pious. He was a faithful at-
wax, tallow, furs, cordage, and timber to England in return tender of sermons, where he took copious notes. If he spent
for English cloth. And the search for a market for English too long at play, he would reprove himself. On one occasion
cloth had been one of the chief motives of the voyage. As only is he reported to have laughed. It was over the mind
Richard Hakluyt, the great Elizabethan publicist of voyages of this precocious, pious young King that N ­ orthumberland
of discovery wrote: “Our chief desire is to find out ample in 1551 gained complete ascendancy. He brought Edward
vent for our woolen cloth.” into Council meetings and urged him to dispense with the
162 A History of England

Russels gained the Bedford earldom, the Herberts that of

Pembroke. N ­ orthumberland also needed to reward his
­adherents on the Council, and this task proved costly. To his
credit, he reduced the cost of government by ending the war
in ­Scotland, surrendering Boulogne to France for 400,000
crowns, amalgamating Cromwell’s courts of ­Augmentation
and First Fruits with the ­Exchequer, and seeking to reduce
governmental expenditures. But inflation and the cost of
the navy defeated all attempts to ­reduce expenditures to
the old peacetime level. To keep the government solvent,
­Northumberland sold Crown lands, and to ensure the loy-
alty of his followers, he gave them away. Between 1547 and
1553 the government sold or gave away £833,000 worth
of Crown lands, an amount that would have brought in
£40,000 a year, or a fifth of what the Crown gained from
land in 1548. Of this amount, more than half was given
away. It was the price of loyalty.
Northumberland, who turned toward Protestantism
more from calculation than conviction, was prepared to
use anything to buttress his power. In the end, h­ owever, he
did more to strengthen Protestantism than P ­ rotestantism
did to strengthen him. Between 1550 and 1553 ­Protestantism
put down roots that Queen Mary found impossible to
uproot.
Edward VI, King of England and Ireland, of the House of The government began by ordering the suppression of
­Tudor.  (© Bettmann/Corbis) all service books other than the Book of Common Prayer
and the destruction of all remaining religious statues and
paintings, an order that led to the destruction of priceless
countersignatures of ministers on documents. He freed books and manuscripts and of other treasures of medieval
the King from the restrictions of a minority only to bind faith and art. The government next drew up new rules for
Edward closer to himself. But N ­ orthumberland never felt the ordination of the clergy that transformed the priest
secure as long as Somerset, the King’s uncle, lived. He there- endowed with divine grace into the minister appointed
fore had Somerset tried by his peers on t­ rumped-up charges to preach, teach, and conduct worship. These steps fore-
that he had attempted to overthrow the government. shadowed the conversion of the mass into the commu-
­S omerset was found guilty, and executed on January 22, nion, which was given full expression in the Second Book
1552. Although the people dipped their handkerchiefs in of Common Prayer of 1552. Archbishop Cranmer sent the
his blood, supposing it to have the virtue of a martyr’s, the first Prayer Book to Martin Bucer, the German theologian,
Council readily agreed to ­Northumberland’s rule. whose extensive criticisms influenced Cranmer and the
Northumberland relied heavily for support on his fel- other authors of the Second Book of Common Prayer. They
low councillors. In Somerset’s time only the Protector had were now governed by the principle that everything with-
been allowed to recruit his own retainers; now councillors out scriptural basis should be omitted. They abolished the
and other courtiers were given licenses to do so. To restore very name of mass and placed the communion table east
­domestic peace, the government even employed foreign and west in the church, not altar-wise. The Prayer Book
mercenaries. At the same time, lord lieutenants entrusted now included the Zwinglian wording, “Take and eat this
with the command of the local militia, who were previously in remembrance that Christ died for thee;” and it declared
only named in an emergency, were now named throughout that kneeling at communion did not imply any adoration of
the whole country. Through this office the Earl of B­ edford the sacrament. A Second Act of Uniformity in 1552 not only
dominated the West Country, the Earl of Pembroke, Wales, enforced the use of the book on the clergy, but required the
and the Marquis of Northampton, the Midlands. It was attendance of everyone in the parish at church on Sunday.
in ­Edward’s reign, as much as in Henry’s, that the foun- If they were absent, they were fined. The ­Second Book of
dations were laid for the “new” aristocratic houses—the Common Prayer, as the first, was published as a schedule
 Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 163

to an Act of Uniformity, with the result that the ceremo- into drawing up the will and the councillors into signing
nies of the English Church now rested on the authority of it. Four days after the King’s death, the Council proclaimed
­Parliament, not on the power of the King as Supreme Head Lady Jane Queen of England.
of the Church. But Northumberland’s plot failed because he was un-
The new Church had a liturgy, but it lacked a creed. able to imprison the Princess Mary. He summoned her to
In late 1552 Cranmer and his colleagues repaired this Edward’s deathbed on July 4, but fearing arrest, she fled to
­deficiency by drawing up the Forty-two Articles. The ar- Framlingham in Suffolk, where she had herself proclaimed
ticles were Lutheran in their emphasis on justification by Queen, and set about raising troops. Northumberland at
faith alone and Calvinist in their assertion of the ­doctrine first remained in London, probably because he did not
of predestination—that is, the doctrine that God has trust the other councillors. Finally, on July 14, he set out
­decreed whom of humankind He shall bring to e­ verlasting with a small army. But no battle ensued, for the Duke’s
salvation and whom He shall deliver to damnation. In small army melted away at the news of the thousands who
1553 the young King gave his assent to this uncompromis- rallied around Mary. Initially there was some hesitation
ingly ­Protestant formulation of faith. to declare for her, and had she been in prison few would
The new liturgy offered the government, desperately have dared to do so. But once the bandwagon started roll-
in need of money, another excuse to plunder the Church ing, there was an outpouring of support. The sailors at
of its vestments and plate. Many of the clergy joined in, Yarmouth forced their captains to declare for Mary. Sir
even stealing the lead off the roofs of their churches. Nicholas Throckmorton at Northampton, who sought to
­Northumberland himself continued the despoiling of prevent Mary’s proclamation as Queen, had to flee for his
­e piscopal lands Henry VIII had begun. He used the life. On July 19 the Council in London proclaimed Mary
­immense lands of the bishopric of Durham for his own Queen, after the Earl of Arundel had lectured it on the im-
support. The sordid behavior of Northumberland and his portance of hereditary succession, always a persuasive ar-
friends undoubtedly offended many people, just as the gument with landowners whose lands were inherited. In
newness of the liturgy caused resentment. But meanwhile the end even Northumberland at Cambridge threw his cap
the vested interest in the new order grew, and the new in the air for Queen Mary. Never was there such rejoicing
liturgy reinforced the Protestant beliefs that Cromwell’s for a Tudor as greeted Mary when she entered London. Yet
­English Bible had fostered. At Edward’s death the majority the populace cheered her because she was a Tudor, not be-
of people were not yet ardently Protestant, but neither were cause she was a Catholic. The English rallied to her because
they any longer ardently Catholic. they prized order, peace, and a lawful succession, not be-
cause they wished to return to Rome. Mary’s tragedy was
that she did not perceive this fact.
The Accession of Queen Mary Despite the terrible epithet, Bloody Mary, which pos-
In February 1553 the consumptive Edward fell seriously terity has fixed to her name, Queen Mary was a strangely
ill; by May his feet were swollen and he was coughing up attractive figure. She possessed strength and dignity, as
a black, fetid sputum. On July 6 he died, praying with revealed in her resistance to Northumberland’s efforts to
his final breath, “Lord God, deliver me out of this mis- make her give up the mass. She had courage and judgment,
erable wretched life.” The King’s illness presented a cri- which she displayed at Framlingham. She was gentle and
sis for N
­ orthumberland, for by an Act of Parliament and merciful, as she proved by executing only three persons for
Henry VIII’s will, the Crown should descend on Edward’s Northumberland’s conspiracy (the Duke and two fellow
death without heirs to Mary Tudor. The accession of Mary conspirators). She spoke Spanish, French, and Latin, could
would destroy Northumberland’s power, if not his life. read Greek and Italian, sang well, and played several in-
He therefore persuaded Edward to draw up a will leaving struments. Though she rose early and though her diet was
the Crown to the male heirs of Lady Jane Grey, who was spare, she was not priggish like her brother. She delighted
a granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary. Northum- in fine clothes and jewels, enjoyed dancing, loved music,
berland then married his son Guildford to Lady Jane. Ed- gambled at bowls and cards. But these amiable qualities
ward’s will was based upon the assumption that a woman were overshadowed by her stubborn devotion to high prin-
could transmit a claim to the Crown, but could not herself ciples. She was, as Christopher Morris has observed, the
succeed to it. When it became apparent that Edward would only adult Tudor with a genuine conscience and the only
die before Guildford and Lady Jane could have a son, the Tudor who did her country indisputable harm.
will was changed to read “Lady Jane and her male heirs.” Her single-minded purpose was to bring her subjects
Northumberland and Edward then browbeat the judges back to Rome. Since her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth,
164 A History of England

Kent to make up for the rest. He led 3000 armed gentle-

men toward London. Wyatt and his allies emphasized the
patriotic issue and concealed their Protestant sympathies.
Hatred of Spain was their rallying cry and a Courtenay
marriage their goal. On January 29 some 600 Londoners
joined the rebels, shouting “We are all Englishmen.” Had
Wyatt marched straight on London, it might have opened
its gates. But he did not reach Southwark until February
3, by which time London Bridge was closed. Meanwhile
Mary rushed to the Guildhall where, in a speech nearly as
eloquent as any of Elizabeth’s, she appealed to the loyalty of
her subjects.
Mary’s appeal and Wyatt’s delay tipped the scales against
the rebels. A royal army hastily raised from the royal guards
and, ironically, from the retinues of N ­ orthumberland’s
henchmen crushed Wyatt’s dwindling army in Fleet Street.
Mary now ordered some 100 persons executed, including
the lovely Lady Jane Grey, who was quite innocent of any
involvement. She imprisoned Princess Elizabeth, but her
councillors warned her not to execute Elizabeth without
clear evidence of her complicity, and that evidence was
lacking. In April 1554 a new Parliament confirmed the mar-
riage treaty and in July Philip arrived in London. By her
courage Mary had surmounted the second major ­crisis of
her reign, but the rebellion was not without effect. It helped
“Queen Mary I.” Mary Tudor, as painted by Antonio Moro.
to identify Protestantism with an anti-Spanish, English
Oil on panel, 114.3 × 83.8 cm.  (Museo del Prado, Madrid, Index/The
Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) ­patriotism in the minds of the English people.

17 years her junior, was waiting in the wings, Mary saw that The Return to Rome
she must marry and give birth to an heir. This led to the Mary took the first steps toward a reunion with Rome
gravest blunder of her reign, for she refused to marry the even before Wyatt’s rebellion. In October 1553 a freely
two English candidates. Instead she chose Philip of Spain, elected Parliament repealed all the religious legislation of
son and heir of Charles V, the most powerful monarch in ­Edward’s reign, but it would not revive papal power, restore
Europe, and a member of the same family as Catherine, the Church lands, or reenact the heresy laws Somerset
Queen Mary’s mother. The choice proved a disaster, since had repealed. It was a substantial achievement to have de-
the English—despite the safeguards written into the mar- stroyed the Edwardian reformation at one blow, but it was
riage treaty—feared they would become subject to Spain, not enough for Mary. Nor was it enough for Reginald Pole,
as the Scots were to France. Bishop Gardiner, a Catholic to whom Mary now turned for assistance. Pole, in whose
and now Lord Chancellor, opposed the marriage. So did veins royal blood ran, was an unswerving Catholic, whom
many councillors. The House of Commons petitioned Parliament in Henry VIII’s reign had attainted for treason.
against it, though Mary cut short the Speaker, declaring, He spent 20 years in exile, during which time he gained
“Parliaments were not accustomed to use such language to a reputation for wisdom and learning, narrowly missed
the kings of England.” She then dissolved Parliament. election as Pope, and fell hopelessly out of touch with con-
The dissolution of Parliament made it impossible for the ditions in England. In 1554 the Pope sent him to England
people to oppose the marriage except by rebellion. Mary as papal legate with power to end the schism. Parliament,
signed the marriage treaty in January 1554, and rebellion however, would not admit him until he produced a papal
promptly broke out. The conspirators in the west, in Wales, dispensation to holders of Church lands (more of whom
and in the Midlands failed to rise, but Sir Thomas Wyatt, a were Catholic than Protestant), solemnly promising them
Kentish landowner, a former sheriff, and son of the famous that they would not be disturbed in the possession of those
poet of the same name, made nearly enough headway in lands. Pole brought with him such a dispensation, which
 Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 165

Parliament inserted into the act repealing all the antipapal and Hugh Latimer, who were burned not at Smithfield
legislation of Henry VIII’s reign. Parliament not only con- in London, where most of the martyrs met death, but at
sented to this reunion with Rome, but also revived the her- Cornmarket in Oxford.
esy laws of earlier years. Responsibility for these burnings does not lie with Philip,
The various statutes passed by Parliament did not mean who advised against them—though more from policy than
a Catholic revival. Foreign residents reported that people conscience. He wanted to avoid the unpopularity such
only appeared to be Catholic out of fear. In London priests burnings would bring him in England; he had no scruples
were mocked in the streets and church services ridiculed. at burning 1300 heretics in Holland during the same period.
The government had to eject 2000 clergymen (about a Stephen Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor, soon tired of the
quarter of the total) from their livings—mostly for taking burnings, though Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, dis-
wives, which an act of Parliament in Somerset’s time made played an open relish for the task. Reginald Pole, a human-
legal. An underground Protestant congregation existed in ist scholar deficient in humanity, did nothing to mitigate
London, with several subsidiary congregations. Passing the burnings. The chief responsibility for the fires rests with
statutes was not enough; the government must also actively the Queen herself, who acted not out of ­cruelty, but out of
eradicate Protestantism and create a new and vital Catholic a passion for true religion. It was her high-mindedness that
faith. The first task it sought to accomplish by terror. On sent so many of her subjects to the flames.
February 4, 1555, the government burned at the stake John The policy of persecution failed totally. Far from turning
Rogers, the translator of the Bible. He was the first of 287 men and women away from heresy, it created sympathy for
martyrs to the Protestant faith to be burned at the stake. the heretics. At the burning of John Rogers, the imperial
The great majority of these were laborers, artisans, and ambassador reported:
shopkeepers, for many of the wealthier Protestants, over
Some of the onlookers wept, others prayed to God to
1000 of them, had fled to the Continent. Fifty of these 287
give them strength, perseverance and patience to bear
martyrs were women, mostly poor widows. A large pro-
the pain and not to recant, others gathered the ashes
portion were in their twenties or teens; most were from the
and bones and wrapped them in paper to preserve
southeast of England. Only 21 clergymen met death by fire,
them, yet others threatened the bishops.2
but among them were Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley,

The burning of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley at Oxford, from an illustration in Foxe’s
Book of Martyrs.  (By permission of the British Library)
166 A History of England

Demonstrations of sympathy became so frequent that was now free to depart. He left in September, not to ­return
a proclamation forbade them under penalty of death. The again until the spring of 1557, and then for only a short
London authorities sought to keep apprentices and servants time. Philip brought Mary no affection, gave her no child,
at home on execution days. Until the fires of S­ mithfield be- left her to govern the kingdom alone, and was shortly to
gan to burn, Protestantism had been associated with self- quarrel with, and be excommunicated by, the Pope. It
seeking politicians; now it was associated with courage was a sterile marriage, leading to an alliance that brought
and human fortitude, a courage and fortitude John Foxe ­England defeat and disgrace.
­depicted vividly in his Book of Martyrs. It became the most In January 1557 war broke out between Spain and
widely read English classic of the next hundred years. The France, and in March Philip crossed over to England to
Marian martyrs taught the English a contempt for fashion, draw that kingdom into the war. Mary, who was over-
an independence of outlook, a willingness to challenge the joyed at his arrival, believed it her duty to bring England
establishment, and a trust in God that were to create a deep into the war. She summoned her councillors individually
tradition of individualism and protest in English life. and threatened them, “some with death, some with the loss
Their success depended in part on the shortness of of their goods and estates, if they did not consent to the
Mary’s reign and on her failure to create a missionary will of her husband.” But they, seeing no purpose in the
movement. Persecution when allied to missionary zeal can war and knowing that England was not prepared, resisted
succeed, as the Counter-Reformation on the Continent her threats. They resisted, that is, until the King of France
was to prove. But Mary, reigning before the full tide of the supported the madcap attempt of Thomas Stafford to be-
Counter-Reformation had swept across Europe, created no come Protector of England. Stafford sailed to Scarborough
active program of evangelism. All she did was to restore in two ships, captured the castle, and proclaimed himself
monastic life at two monasteries and found two houses for ­Protector. This incident gave the English a reason for war,
nuns and two for friars. This backward-looking policy of- which the government declared in June.
fered no hope of success and ensured that Hugh Latimer’s The war began with a spectacular victory for Philip, but
words to Nicholas Ridley, as they were about to be burned, soon turned into defeat for the English. On New Year’s
should prove true: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and Day a formidable French army appeared before the gates
play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s of ­Calais, while a French fleet blockaded the port. Short of
grace in England, as, I trust, shall never be put out.”3 food and ammunition, the garrison surrendered within a
week. In the remaining ten months of Mary’s reign Philip
did nothing to recover it for England. The loss of Calais was
The Spanish Connection no tragedy for England, for it was expensive and useless to
The Queen’s marriage was the most sterile event of a sterile garrison. But the loss of a town held for 200 years was a
reign. Mary sought in Philip a man who could reciprocate humiliation that the people could not excuse and that led
her love, a husband who could give her a child, a consort on Mary to lament that at her death the word Calais would
whose strength she could lean, and a Catholic who would be found engraved on her heart. The war was unpopular.
help her lead England back to Rome. But Philip, though In the spring of 1558 Parliament voted Mary only a single
outwardly an attentive husband, was a cold and scheming subsidy and a fifteenth, forcing her to rely on a forced loan.
man who had married Mary solely to bring England into The loan met with strong opposition: Forty Worcestershire
the Habsburg conglomerate. He came to England in July gentlemen appeared before the Council on a single day for
1554 and Mary enjoyed a brief hour of happiness. It did refusing to pay it. Elsewhere troops and sailors deserted or
not last. The arrogance of Philip and of the Spaniards who mutinied. War and defeat had confirmed the worst fears of
­accompanied him soon angered the English. Philip refused the opponents of the Spanish marriage.
to allow the English to trade directly with the Spanish colo- Mary fell ill in the summer of 1558, worsened in ­October,
nies. There were brawls in the streets of London between and was compelled by her council in early November to
Spaniards and Englishmen. Philip confided to a friend that ­acknowledge Elizabeth as her successor. Prematurely aged,
he found Mary unattractive, lacking “all sensibility of the frustrated in all her hopes and ambitions, maddened by
flesh.” Her one hope was to have a child, and she soon per- the thought that Elizabeth would succeed her, she died on
suaded herself that she was pregnant. The expected birth ­November 17. Mary’s tragedy lay in the fact that her heart
kept Philip, who was eager to depart for Spain, which he was Spanish and Catholic, whereas the hearts of her ­subjects
had just inherited from his father, tied down in London. By were English and Protestant. She lacked the redeeming
August 1555, however, even Mary had to admit that some virtue of the other Tudors who, for all their faults, instinc-
dropsy or tumor near the womb had misled her. Philip tively understood and shared the aspirations, hopes, fears,
 Protestant and Catholic: 1547–1558 167

predilections, and prejudices of their subjects. Of all the Diarmaid Macculloch. Thomas Cranmer: A Life. New Haven,
Tudors probably none understood those ­aspirations better CT, 1996. Masterful study of the career and thought of a
or shared more closely those hopes, fears, predilections, and pivotal yet elusive figure of the Reformation in England.
prejudices than Elizabeth, now Queen of England. H. M. P. Prescott. Mary Tudor. 2nd ed. New York, 1952. A solid
if dated biography, characterized by sensitivity and under-
Notes standing, and written with a novelist’s skill.
1. John Strype, E ­ cclesiastical Memorials Relating Chiefly to Joan Simon. Education and Society in Tudor England.
­C ambridge, England, 1966. Challenges the view that the
Religion…, Vol. XV. 1822. London, 432.
Reformation was a disastrous setback to education; argues
2. Maureen Waller, Sovereign Ladies. 2006. New York, 102. that Edward’s reign saw the evolution of locally governed
3. Henry Walter, A History of E ­ ngland, in Which It Is schools inspired by humanistic ideals.
Intended to Consider Men and Events on Christian Chris Skidmore. Edward VI: The Lost King of England. New
Principles, by a Clergyman of the Church of E ­ ngland, York, 2007. An account of the politics of the reign that in-
Vol. III. 1832. London, 413. cludes interesting information on the young king’s personal
life; lively, sprightly written, and acute.
Further Reading Joan Thirsk, ed. The Agrarian History of England and Wales.
Barrett Beer. Rebellion and Riot: Popular Disorder in England Vol. 4, 1500–1640. Cambridge, England, 1967. An impres-
during the Reign of Edward VI. Kent, OH, 1982. A study of sive, authoritative, collaborative work; contains useful
the Western and Ket’s rebellions; analyzes the nature of re- chapters on farming techniques, enclosures, farm laborers,
bellion as well as describing these two. prices, profits, rents, and rural housing.
C. G. A. Clay. Economic Expansion and Social Change: ­England Robert Tittler and Jennifer Loach, eds. The Mid-Tudor ­Polity
1500–1700. Vol. 1, People, Land, and Towns; Vol. 2, Industry, 1540–1560. Totowa, NJ, 1980. A provocative collection of
Trade, and Government. New York, 1984. A synthesis of the revisionist essays, arguing that cooperation between the
many works written on the economic and social history of Crown and the governing classes was the norm during
Tudor and Stuart England during the past 30 years; authori- these years.
tative, readable, broad in scope. Retha M. Warnicke. Women of the English Renaissance and
W. K. Jordan. Edward VI. 2 vols. London, 1968, 1970. A Reformation. Westport, CT, 1983. An ambitious, analytical
­detailed history of the reign, not a biography; the narra- study; discusses the early acceptance of a classical train-
tive is splendid but the praise of Somerset, denigration ing for women, the shelving of that training about 1580
of N­ orthumberland, and attribution of responsibility to in favor of a more practical education, and the i­mpact of
­Edward is unconvincing. ­Protestantism on the lives of women.
D. M. Loades. The Reign of Mary Tudor. London, 1979. A
lengthy, detailed, thoughtful, though narrowly political,
study of Mary’s reign; describes how Mary progressively
lost the complete ascendancy she enjoyed at her accession.
 Chapter 12

Elizabethan England:
1558–1603

E
Chapter Outline
lizabeth came to the throne at a perilous hour. The king-
dom was at war, Calais lost, the Treasury empty, the coinage
■ Elizabeth and the Church
­debased, trade depressed, and the nation deeply divided by religion.
­Forty-four years later, at her death in 1603, the nation was Protestant,
■ Elizabeth and Scotland the Church established, the Crown respected, the coinage sound, the
navy victorious, domestic peace secured, trade expanded, new lands
■ The Catholic Threat discovered, and the poets and playwrights flourishing. It was a re-
markable achievement. Queen Elizabeth alone was not the author of
■ The Puritan Threat
the glories of the Elizabethan age; also at work was the genius of the
­English people, which by some mysterious alchemy blossomed then
as never before or since. Yet that genius could not have blossomed had
■ Economic Recovery
not ­Elizabeth preserved peace at home and warded off invasion from
abroad. She held the ring, so that other men and women could sail to
■ The Voyages of Discovery Virginia, circumnavigate the globe, compose madrigals, paint minia-
tures, write The Faerie Queene, build Hardwick Hall, and perform the
■ The War against Spain plays of Shakespeare.

■ Elizabeth and the Elizabeth and the Church

Government of England
Elizabeth was 25 years of age when she rode to her coronation—a tall,
athletic figure, with golden hair and flashing eyes, and much vanity. She
■ The Rise of the Gentry
was a born queen. Within a month, reported the Spanish a­ mbassador,
she was more feared than her sister and as absolutely obeyed as her
■ Yeomen and Husbandmen father. Her imperious will she no doubt received from her father and
from an upbringing that was, though precarious, very royal. The dan-
■ Beggars and Vagabonds gers that beset her during Edward’s and Mary’s rule taught her to bury
her emotions and to conceal her thoughts. The finest of ­Renaissance
■ The Ascendancy of London educations gave her a fluency in Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and
Italian; while an ancestry that blended the royal blood of York and
Lancaster with the aristocratic blood of the Howards, the gentry blood
■ The Elizabethan World Picture
of the Tudors, and the merchant blood of the Boleyns made her what
she boasted she was, “mere English.”
■ Postlude
Her first act of state showed her to be a good judge of men. Three
days after gaining the Crown she named William Cecil to be her
­Secretary of State. Cecil, trained as a lawyer, came to the fore under
Somerset. He went on missions abroad, became Secretary, sat in every
Parliament since 1547, and by his pliancy survived Somerset’s fall and
168
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 169

first making Elizabeth, not the Pope, the supreme governor

of the Church and the second requiring the use in every
parish of a Book of Common Prayer based upon the Prayer
Book of 1552, though modified to satisfy the Queen’s more
conservative views. The two great obstacles to this new set-
tlement were the Catholic bishops and some conservative
lay peers in the House of Lords. The lay peers, though not
the bishops, acquiesced in the renunciation of the Pope’s
supremacy, but the lay peers balked at any major altera-
tion in Catholic worship. The government, therefore, took
measures to secure the passage of the Act of Uniformity
through the Lords. It arranged during the Easter r­ ecess
a theological disputation, heavily weighted toward the
­Protestant side. It imprisoned some of the more outspo-
ken Catholic bishops and discouraged others from attend-
ing the House. It then introduced into the Lords its Act
of ­Uniformity, which passed by the slim margin of three
votes. The Queen, with the help of the House of Commons,
had obtained a Protestant religious settlement.
The Elizabethan Prayer Book of 1559 was a compro-
mise between the Queen and the reforming party in the
House of Commons, and a compromise in which E ­ lizabeth
surrendered most. But though she accepted the second
Prayer Book, she insisted on certain amendments to it.
To the wording of the second Book, “Take and eat this in
remembrance . . . ,” she added these words from the first
English School (sixteenth century), “Portrait of Elizabeth Book, “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was
­(1533–1603).” Oil on panel, 65.4 × 48.3 cm.  (National Portrait given for thee . . . ,” thereby restoring an assertion of the
­Gallery, ­London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
real presence in the sacrament. She also added a rubric that
­required clergymen to wear vestments. Four years later
Mary’s accession. He was a moderate Protestant, secular ­Convocation passed the Thirty-nine Articles, a declaration
in outlook, cautious in conduct, and eminently judicious. of faith based on the Forty-two Articles of Edward’s reign.
Elizabeth also had the good sense to name no religious Though ambiguously worded, the Thirty-nine ­Articles were
zealot to the Council. She kept 11 of Mary’s councillors and a statement of Calvinist doctrine. Thus it is not too great a
added 7 new ones. There was only one churchman, who simplification to say that the English Church emerged out
soon resigned. As befitted the Queen’s secularism, it was a of the Reformation Catholic in ritual, Calvinist in doctrine,
council of laymen. and royalist in government.
The first task facing the Queen and her Council was to
settle the religious question. Elizabeth herself was not com-
mitted to any creed; indeed, she kept her religious convic-
Elizabeth and Scotland
tions so private that historians have wondered if she had At her death Mary Tudor left Elizabeth a nation divided by
any. What is certain is that she was guided in the settlement religion and a realm at war with France. Elizabeth solved
of religion by a desire to restore unity among her subjects. the religious problem by compromising with the reform-
She knew that she could not choose Roman Catholicism, ers. She ended the war by renouncing, in the Treaty of
because too many of her subjects hated Rome. She might Câteau-Cambrésis of April 1559, all but the slightest hope
have preferred Henrician Catholicism, but this was impos- of regaining Calais. But the same treaty that freed England
sible since there were no longer any clergymen who would from war left the French free to take measures against the
support the mass without Rome. The only alternative was Calvinist rebels in Scotland. For a decade, Mary Guise,
to turn to Protestantism. mother of Mary Queen of Scots, had ruled Scotland, aided
To this end the government introduced into Parliament by French troops and French officials. In 1559 she became
in 1559 an Act of Supremacy and an Act of Uniformity, the alarmed that discontent against Catholicism might merge
170

The Descendants of Henry VII

Henry VII m. Elizabeth of York

(1485–1509)

Arthur Henry VIII James IV of m. Margaret m. Archibald Mary m. Louis XII, King
d. 1503 (1509–47) Scotland Douglas, of France
Earl of Angus

m. Charles Brandon,
Duke of Suffolk

Mary Henry Elizabeth Edward VI James V Margaret m. Matthew Frances m. Henry Grey,
(1553–58) Fitzroy (1558–1603) (1547–53) Stuart, Duke of
by illegitimate by by Earl of Suffolk
Catherine d. 1536 Anne Boleyn Jane Lennox
of Aragon Seymour

Francis II, m. Mary Queen of Scots m. Henry Stuart, Lady Jane Grey Catherine
King of Lord Darnley
France m. Guildford
Dudley, son
of the Duke
of Northum-
James VI of Scotland berland
and I of England
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 171

with discontent against French rule. She therefore for- intellect ruled. The fate of Mary illustrates the hazards of
bade all unauthorized preaching. But this action sparked allowing the emotions to rule.
the very rebellion she hoped to prevent, for in May John To strengthen her claim to the English Crown, she mar-
Knox arrived in Scotland and set it aflame with his preach- ried Lord Darnley, a descendant of Henry VII, but turned
ing. The Protestant nobility, jealous of the French, eager from him when she found him to be vain, greedy, crude,
to seize Church lands, and organized as the Lords of the and vicious. Darnley’s jealous temperament drove him to
­Congregation, now rose in open rebellion. murder Mary’s secretary, David Riccio, whom he believed
They appealed to Elizabeth for assistance, which placed to be her lover. Less than a year later, in 1567, the wild and
her in a dilemma. To send assistance would be to violate the dissolute Earl of Bothwell, with the alleged complicity of
Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis and to risk war with France at a Mary, avenged Riccio’s murder by strangling Darnley and
time when England had no allies. It would also mean sup- blowing up his body in a nearby cottage. Historians will
porting rebels against their rightful ruler, an action Elizabeth never be able to prove Mary’s complicity in this crime, for
found repugnant. Yet not to send assistance would mean the the originals of the famous Casket Letters that incriminate
probable defeat of the Lords of the Congregation and the her have disappeared. Guilty or not, Mary’s subsequent
creation of a continual Franco-Scottish-papal threat from conduct was damning enough. Under the pretense of an
the north. Elizabeth chose to intervene, though in her char- abduction, she fled with Bothwell to his castle, where she
acteristically hesitant, dilatory manner. In August 1559 she later married him. This was more than the dour ­Calvinistic
sent money; in the autumn, powder and cannon. When the Scots could endure. They deposed her, and when she took
French threatened to send more troops to Scotland, Elizabeth arms against her deposition, they drove her from the
sent a fleet north to intercept them, a fleet which in January realm. In 1568 she fled to England.
1560 destroyed the French fleet off the coast of Scotland. Because Elizabeth deeply revered the divinity that
Elizabeth still held out against sending an army, but the hedgeth a queen, she sought to secure Mary’s return
weakness of the Lords of the Congregation compelled her to ­S cotland as Queen. She opened negotiations with
to send 8000 men across the border in March—all the time the ­r ulers of Scotland; she demanded proof of Mary’s
protesting to the French ambassador that she had sent nei- ­complicity in ­Darnley’s murder; she urged Mary’s return.
ther fleet nor army. This last show of force, combined with But all her ­efforts failed, for the Protestant regents of the
the death of Mary Guise in June, finally persuaded the infant James VI, son of Mary and Darnley, would not take
French to leave. The Treaty of Edinburgh, signed by the back a papist and murderous queen. Since it was danger-
­English, French, and Scots in July 1560, provided for the ous to allow Mary to go abroad, where she might serve as
withdrawal of all E­ nglish and French troops from Scotland the spearhead for an invasion of England by the Catholic
and the placing of the government of Scotland in a Council powers, Elizabeth had no alternative but to keep her under
of Nobles. The Treaty of Edinburgh was a far greater triumph house arrest for the next 19 years.
for ­England than the victories of Flodden or Pinkie, for it
secured ­England’s back door, ushered in a century of peace,
and paved the way to an eventual union of the two kingdoms.
The Catholic Threat
Mary Queen of Scots, who returned to Scotland in 1561 Mary’s presence in England heightened the Catholic threat
at the death of her husband, Francis II of France, refused to the new Anglican Church and to Elizabeth’s continuance
to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh because Elizabeth would on the throne. A number of forces combined after 1569 to
not amend it to recognize Mary, who was the great-grand- produce three years filled with plots and rebellions. There
daughter of Henry VII, as Elizabeth’s successor. Thus began was Mary’s plotting and intriguing; the sullen discontent of
a long duel between the two queens. Mary, who in the eyes the nobility of the north, feudal-minded, provincial, Cath-
of good Catholics was already rightfully Queen of England olic; and the fury of the more conservative councillors in
(because Elizabeth was illegitimate), refused to recognize London at the ascendancy of Cecil. In addition, there was
Elizabeth as Queen until Elizabeth recognized her as suc- the growing impatience of Pope Pius V at the continuance
cessor. Elizabeth, for her part, refused to invite her own of a heretic on the English throne, and the growing hostil-
assassination by recognizing a Catholic as her successor. ity of Spain, freed by the decline of French power from any
The two queens were a study in contrast. Mary was clever, need for England’s friendship.
impulsive, high-spirited, and well educated in music, danc- In 1569 these forces led to the Revolt of the Earls in
ing, and horsemanship; Elizabeth was wise, prudent, cau- the north. The revolt proved a fiasco since the various
tious, and learned in languages, theology, and politics. In parties in it utterly misunderstood one another. There
Mary emotions proved stronger than intellect; in Elizabeth probably would have been no rebellion at all had there
172 A History of England

not been a Court conspiracy in the south. In London rise before he sent troops. Before Ridolfi could make any
a set of d ­ isgruntled noblemen devised a plan to marry progress, the government uncovered the plot and arrested
Mary to the Duke of Norfolk, overthrow Cecil, subjugate the plotters. Norfolk, whom the Queen had pardoned for
­Elizabeth, proclaim Mary heir to the throne, and restore the Northern Rebellion, was now beheaded. For its part,
­Catholicism. The Duke of Norfolk, though a Protestant, Parliament passed a statute making it high treason to
agreed to the plan. The conspirators opened negotiations ­declare that Elizabeth was not entitled to the throne or to
with the ­Spanish ambassador and correspondence with the describe her as heretic or schismatic.
­Catholic Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland. In The most serious Catholic threat to the Church of
­September Norfolk fled to his estates, with the intention, England and Elizabeth came not from the fumblings of
it was thought, of raising the north. But his courage left northern earls or the hare-brained schemes of Florentine
him. Summoned back to London by Elizabeth, he submit- bankers, but from the dedication of English missionar-
ted, entered the Tower, and wrote his brother-in-law, the ies trained in Catholic seminaries at Douai and Rome. In
Earl of Westmorland, to call off the uprising. The Earls of 1574 the first three of these heroic missionaries arrived; by
­Northumberland and Westmorland had taken Norfolk’s 1578 there were 50 of them; by 1580 over a 100, many of
initial flight from London as a signal to turn from vague them ­Jesuits. With their coming the Counter-Reformation
plotting to deliberate planning. They set October 6 for the finally reached England. Among the missionaries were
rising, but abandoned it when they heard of his surrender. men like Edmund Campion, a gentle, eloquent scholar,
What finally drove them to open rebellion was the Queen’s who came only to preach the gospel and who disclaimed
summons to appear at Court. Fearing for their lives, they all political purposes. But there were others, like Robert
rose in rebellion. Behind this decision lay the grievances of ­Parsons, a man of action and intrigue, who could not resist
the great magnates of the north, who regarded themselves dabbling in politics. Since both the pure idealist and the
as the Queen’s natural counselors, resented the extension subtle politician posed a threat to the English Church, the
of central authority into Percy and Neville country, and government took drastic action. In 1581 Parliament passed
remained Catholics at heart. Collecting their loyal ten- a bill that punished recusancy—that is, absence from the
ants, the two Earls marched to Durham Cathedral, tore parish church on a Sunday—with a fine of £20 a month,
down all signs of Protestantism, celebrated the mass, and rather than the 12 pence a week provided in the Act of
then marched southward with 3800 foot and 1600 horse. Uniformity of 1559. In 1585 Parliament passed a bill mak-
They demanded that Catholicism be restored, Cecil be ing it treason for a Catholic priest to be in England. During
tried, Norfolk freed, and Mary recognized as heir to the Elizabeth’s reign some 250 persons died for their Catholic
throne. But as they marched south they discovered that the faith. The Queen, who professed she did not wish to make
­Catholic nobility of Yorkshire and Lancashire were deaf to windows into individuals’ souls, held she was punishing
their appeals. Their resolution cracked. They turned north- crimes against the state, not heresy. In most cases this was
ward, disbanded their troops, and fled to Scotland long be- true only because Parliament had defined adherence to the
fore the royal army, marching north, could meet them in Catholic faith as a crime against the state. Queen Elizabeth
battle. The rebellion failed because its aims were uncertain was no apostle of religious toleration; she believed in con-
and its geographical base narrow. In the next months 450 formity to the Church as by law established. By 1603 the
rebels were hanged, proof that Tudor centralization was strict measures she and Parliament adopted to enforce con-
stronger than northern feudalism. formity had helped to reduce the number of Catholics in
One reason for the weakness of the rebels was the Pope’s England to 250 priests and 35,000 laity.
delay in excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth, an ac- The fining of recusants and the execution of priests
tion that would have justified their taking up arms against did not alone make England a Protestant nation; joined
her. It was not until February 1570 that Pope Pius V finally to the persecution of Catholics was the preaching of
excommunicated Elizabeth, deposed her, and absolved ­Protestantism. During Elizabeth’s reign, Protestant divines,
her subjects from allegiance to her. It came too late for mostly Calvinists, captured the universities. In the ensuing
the northern rebels, but it gave moral sanction to the plot- years Oxford and Cambridge sent out a flood of clergymen
ting of Roberto Ridolfi, a Florentine merchant-banker in to the rectories and vicarages of England, where, supported
London. Ridolfi in 1571 concocted a scheme for replacing by like-minded lay patrons, they preached, taught, wrote,
Elizabeth with Mary on the throne and for restoring the and published Protestant doctrines. At Elizabeth’s acces-
Catholic Church. Mary gave her approval, the Pope hailed sion most English men and women were Catholic in their
it with enthusiasm, Norfolk let himself be talked into it, and beliefs; by her death 44 years later they were overwhelm-
Philip II agreed to it—though he insisted the rebels should ingly Protestant.
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 173

The Puritan Threat for help, organizing in 1586 and 1587 a parliamentary
campaign that foreshadowed the parliamentary action by
Elizabeth’s task was doubly difficult because she had to which the Puritans in the seventeenth century wrested
wrestle with the Puritan threat from within the Church power from the monarchy. But Elizabeth stood firm and
while resisting the Catholic threat from without. The word defeated their every effort.
Puritan first came into use in the 1570s, but the movement Those Puritans who could not wait for the Church to
itself, a movement to purge the Church of the impure be reformed founded a separate church, a congregation
­Roman practices that disgraced it, emerged in the 1560s. To of true believers gathered together to worship God, ow-
the Puritan the litmus test for the godliness of any practice ing allegiance to no authority but God. One of the first of
was its presence in Scriptures. If it were not found there, these was Robert Browne, a preacher of great ability who
it should be abolished. In 1563 the Puritans just failed to in 1581 founded a separate congregation at Norwich. But
carry in Convocation articles that would have replaced the government soon drove the Brownists to H ­ olland.
the bright vestments worn by the English clergy with the By the end of Elizabeth’s reign the separatists were few
black gown of Geneva. But this Vestiarian Controversy in number and unimportant, while the Presbyterians
was only the prelude to a deeper conflict. In 1570 Thomas were in disarray. But Elizabeth did not solve the P­ uritan
Cartwright, professor of divinity at Cambridge, delivered problem, she merely buried it. Puritanism continued
a series of lectures critical of the English Church. The lec- to spread among the gentry and among the citizens of
tures led to Cartwright’s dismissal and to fierce pamphlet ­L ondon, to smolder there until it burst into flame again
warfare. Cartwright and other radical Puritans attacked the under James I.
authority of the bishops and demanded the introduction of
a presbyterian church government, one in which author-
ity lay with ministers and elders meeting in presbyters.
Economic Recovery
Elizabeth, who hated the Puritans and who saw that an at- Next to settling religion and securing Scotland, the gravest
tack on the bishops’ authority was an attack on hers, acted problem facing Elizabeth and her ministers was the recov-
quickly to suppress them. She defeated their measures in ery of the economy. It was doubly grave because the Tudors
Parliament and sent their leaders into exile. believed that economic distress not only caused personal
Militancy having failed, the Puritans embarked on a suffering but imperiled public order, since distress drove
new strategy. They sought to convert the membership of husbandmen and clothworkers to riot and rebellion. The
the Church through periodic meetings of ministers, to first measure the government undertook was the reform
which the laity were invited. These prophesyings, as they of the coinage, a reform begun during Mary’s reign. The
were called, spread throughout the southeast. In these government called in debased and mutilated coins and is-
meetings the ministers urged the exclusive authority of sued new ones whose face value corresponded to the value
the Scriptures, the sanctity of conscience in their inter- of the silver in them. The operation was brilliantly suc-
pretation, and the doctrine of predestination. The exalta- cessful; it ended the monetary chaos and created a stable
tion that came from believing they were among the elect currency. In 1563 the government had Parliament legislate
gave the Presbyterians the strength to persevere in their on a whole array of problems. It passed statutes regulating
endeavors to purify the Church. Out of the prophesying the making of cloth, encouraging farming, discouraging
movement of the 1570s grew the classical movement of the enclosure, prohibiting the importation of luxuries, aid-
1580s, an attempt to introduce a presbyterian organization ing shipping, and creating a “political Lent”—Wednesdays
into the Church. Clergymen met together in local con- and Fridays when people would eat fish, thereby promot-
ferences, or classes, where the Book of Common Prayer ing the fishing industry. But the greatest piece of legisla-
was amended and candidates for the ministry, elected by tion passed that year was the Statute of Apprentices, which
the congregation, were put forward for consecration. The made the guild regulations of earlier years national. It
­Puritans also held district conferences, and even national erected property qualifications that barred the sons of the
ones. Elizabeth recognized the dangers inherent in these poor from entry into most trades, enforced a seven-year
movements. In 1577 she ordered Archbishop Grindal to apprenticeship in all trades, even husbandry, and estab-
suppress prophesying, and, when he refused, suspended lished compulsory apprenticeship on the land for unat-
him. On the death of Grindal in 1583, she named the tached youths. It also empowered the justice of the peace
anti-Puritan John Whitgift as Archbishop. He resolutely to regulate wages, though only the maximum rate, not the
enforced conformity on the clergy and rooted out the clas- minimum. It became a crime to pay more, not less, than
sical movement. The Puritans then turned to Parliament the justices laid down. The Statute of Apprentices was a
174 A History of England

backward-looking law, an attempt to perpetuate medieval and the Dutch loom, which made possible swifter produc-
regulations by making them national. It was not strictly tion of narrow goods like ribbons. But what really saved
enforced; the justices neglected the apprenticeship provi- the cloth industry was the New Draperies, a type of cloth
sions and seldom set wages. introduced by Flemish immigrants fleeing from Spanish
It is doubtful that these measures, except for recoinage, persecution. The New Draperies were a lighter woolen
contributed much to the steady economic growth during cloth, made from longer fibers, and attractive to custom-
Elizabeth’s reign. The causes of this growth were different ers in the Mediterranean. At the same time the weavers of
and various, the main one being a growth in population Lancashire began to weave a cloth out of linen and cotton,
that fueled a rapid inflation. Prices rose 60 percent during called fustian, which also found a wide sale.
Elizabeth’s reign, thus driving landed gentlemen to seek The most spectacular development occurred not in
new means by which to exploit their lands. It also caused cloth but in coal. The gradual disappearance of forests led
prices to rise faster than wages, thereby swelling profits, Londoners to turn to coal to heat their homes. This led to
encouraging enterprise, and allowing the accumulation of a boom in the mines around Newcastle, from which coal
capital. The increase in population—it rose from about 3 to was carried to London. The growing use of coal in pan-
4 million—helped the clothing industry. The growing os- ning salt, refining sugar, manufacturing glass, and boiling
tentation of the upper classes supported the luxury trades. soap helped the boom. These industries themselves re-
England’s freedom from civil war and from tolls and regu- quired great capital investments. The salt works at Wear,
lations permitted trade and industry to thrive. War abroad for example, required an investment of £4000. Most of
after 1585 stimulated the metal industry, which produced this capital came from rich merchants, but some of it came
pikes and corselets, cannon and muskets. from the aristocracy. Twenty-two percent of the aristo-
Nine people in ten earned all or part of their livelihood cratic families of Elizabethan England owned iron works.
from agriculture, and it was improvements in farming that While no one discovered how to use coal to make iron—a
allowed England to feed a growing population. Nothing discovery of the eighteenth century—many turned to the
illustrates better the widespread desire to improve yields blast furnace, which produced cast iron by pouring the
than the sale of Thomas Tusser’s Five Hundred Points of molten metal into forms. It was a great improvement over
Good Husbandry. Between 1557 and 1580 it went through the older process in which a lump of malleable iron was
five editions. Increasingly farmers applied marl (sand, silt, hammered into shape. Elizabeth’s reign also saw the intro-
or clay containing calcium carbonate) to their land, inten- duction of rolling mills for the production of sheet metal
sified the manuring of land, and alternated pasture and and of drawing mills for the production of wire. By the
arable. Because grain prices rose more rapidly than wool end of the reign the English metal industry, heavily sup-
prices, there was less pressure to enclose land for pasture, ported by the government, was producing cannon much
but toward the end of the reign there arose a movement to sought after on the continent.
enclose land in order to improve tillage. John Norden, who Though industry expanded, commerce stagnated. Cloth
wrote about agriculture, estimated that enclosed land was still dominated English exports, and though the Antwerp
1.5 times more productive than unenclosed land. Hops, one market momentarily recovered in the 1560s, war, r­ eligion,
of the new crops introduced during the century, could only and politics soon destroyed it. The sack of Antwerp by
be grown on compact fields. Spanish troops in 1576 sealed its fate. The Merchant
Productivity during these years steadily increased. In ­Adventurers now looked elsewhere for an entrepôt—first
the thirteenth century a farmer could produce only 6 to to Hamburg, then to Emden, finally to Middleburgh in
12 bushels of wheat on an acre; the Elizabethan farmer could Zeeland. Though willing to move their entrepôt, they
produce from 16 to 20. In 1500, sheep averaged 28 pounds were not ready to admit other English merchants to the
and cattle 320 pounds; by 1610 the sheep and cattle raised trade. In 1564 the Merchant Adventurers secured from the
on royal estates in Wales averaged 46 and 600 pounds. ­government a monopoly of the export of cloth to Europe.
Without such improvements England could never have Toward the end of Elizabeth’s reign competitors appeared
surmounted the Malthusian crisis that a growing popula- to challenge the monopoly, but Cecil, though he sympa-
tion inevitably creates. thized with the cause of free trade, dared not weaken a
The manufacture of cloth continued to dominate the in- company upon which the government depended finan-
dustrial world. Its organization remained unchanged; the cially. Yet ­Cecil, now Lord Burghley, did see the ultimate
capitalist clothier continued to be the dominant figure. Sev- solution to England’s commercial crisis when he suggested
eral new inventions did increase productivity: a stocking that her exports should not be sent to one place, but to
frame on which stockings could be knitted more rapidly, “sundry places.”
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 175

The Voyages of Discovery of the southern Atlantic. Between 1591 and 1601 they sent
out three expeditions that suffered incredible losses. From
The first move to find “sundry places” was exploitation of the crews of the three ships sent out in 1592, only one sailor,
the new German, Baltic, and Russian trades, made pos- happily picked up by a Dutch ship, survived. But they per-
sible by the decline of the Hansards. By 1560 the Hansards severed, and in 1600 a group of ­London merchants formed
had lost control of the export of English cloth to northeast the East India Company, which was to become the greatest
­Germany, a trade taken over by English merchants who trading company in English history.
in 1579 formed the Eastland Company. The company’s The East India Company was a joint-stock company,
trade to the North Sea and Baltic was only an eighth of not a regulated company. In a regulated company each
the ­Merchant Adventurers’, but it was a useful market for merchant traded on his own private stock; in a joint-stock
­English cloth and a valuable supply of timber. The high company they pooled their stock and then divided up the
hopes that the Muscovy Company cherished of monopo- profits in proportion to their investments. The great cost
lizing trade with Russia and of capturing that of the East of trade to distant lands made the joint-stock company a
proved illusory. The Dutch found a shorter way to the necessity; its invention, in turn, made it possible for gentle-
markets of Russia through the Baltic and the Tsar refused men and peers to invest in trade. The Muscovy Company
the company’s request to exclude the Dutch. In 1562 the was the first joint-stock company in English history, but it
Muscovy Company sent Anthony Jenkinson on a d ­ aring fell on bad days and reverted to a regulated company. The
overland trip from Moscow to Persia, only to discover East India Company was the first successful joint-stock
that anarchy in Central Asia made an overland route from company, the distant parent of the modern corporation.
Moscow to China impossible. The Muscovy Company fi- One particular trade proved unsuccessful, and its fail-
nally gave up all thought of trade with Asia and watched its ure led the English to turn from trading to raiding. In
trade with Russia, where English cloth was too expensive, 1562 John Hawkins, son of a Plymouth merchant, sailed to
dwindle to ten ships a year. Guinea, purchased 400 slaves, and carried them to Haiti,
The bolder solution was to strike out into the Atlantic in where he sold them and some English manufactures. He
search of the northwest passage to China. In 1576 Martin returned home with sugar, hides, gold, and pearls. Backed
Frobisher, a rough, cantankerous man but an experienced now by the Queen, Hawkins made two more voyages, but
navigator, set out in two ships of 25 tons each in search on the second of them, in 1568, a Spanish fleet fell on him
of that elusive goal. He returned with news that he had at the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua. Hawkins in the
found a passage and with ore that the goldsmiths thought Minion and his friend Francis Drake in the Judith escaped
contained gold. This led to the first great s­ peculating ma- and made their way back to England, though only 15 of the
nia in English history. The Queen herself speculated in crew of the Minion survived. The battle of San Juan de Ulua
­Frobisher’s next two voyages. But the ore proved to be bar- turned the seamen of England into the enemies of Spain.
ren and the passage only led into Hudson’s Bay. A man of A war of reprisals began. Drake in 1573 captured the silver
far greater scientific interests than Frobisher’s, John Davys, of Peru as it crossed the Isthmus of Panama, silver worth
then took up the quest. On his third voyage in 1587 he £20,000. He then sailed through the Straits of M ­ agellan,
cleared up the confusion that existed among Greenland, raided the defenseless Pacific Coast for silver, crossed
Friesland, ­Labrador, and Baffin Island, and found four dif- the Pacific, purchasing spices in the Moluccas, and sailed
ferent passages westward. But, he reported, they were too into Plymouth Sound in 1580 with the richest cargo ever
choked with ice to be navigable. brought into an English port. Other privateers sought to
The Elizabethans then turned to the East. In 1580 the emulate his success, but few did. For all its romance, pri-
Muscovy Company sent Arthur Pett and Charles Jackman vateering proved unprofitable to most and diminished the
to seek once again a northeast passage, but ice stopped them supply of capital in England.
as it had stopped Willoughby in 1554. Other merchants The Elizabethans also lost substantial sums in efforts
turned to the eastern Mediterranean. In 1581 they formed to plant colonies abroad, but from these endeavors the
the Turkey Company, later called the Levant C ­ ompany. In ­English learned lessons that were later to pay rich divi-
1583 they sent Ralph Fitch overland to I­ ndia, Burma, Siam, dends. Three motives drove the English to plant colonies:
and distant Malaya. He returned with wondrous stories, a a desire to tap the fabulous wealth of foreign lands—the
shadowy agreement with Akbar of India, and a report that gold, silver, ivory, pearls, and spices; a desire to rid E
­ ngland
the obstacles to a land route were insuperable. The inde- of its ­b eggars, rogues, vagabonds, and cutpurses; and a
fatigable Elizabethans now turned to the passage around ­desire to establish new markets for manufactures, espe-
the Cape of Good Hope, defying the Portuguese monopoly cially cloth. Not merchants, but a small group of Devon
176

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 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 177

gentlemen—Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half-brother Sir of Alençon, the French King’s brother, the friendship of
Walter Raleigh, and their cousin Sir Richard Grenville— France. But the collapse of the United Netherlands in 1579,
undertook the first ventures. In 1578 Gilbert secured from the Spanish conquest of Portugal in 1580, and the submis-
the Queen a patent to settle in North America. In 1583 he sion of Henry III of France to the Guises and Spain left
sailed with three ships and two frigates to Newfoundland, England the sole remaining obstacle to Spanish suprem-
which he claimed for England, and then to the mainland acy in Europe. The crucial question facing ­Elizabeth was
with three ships carrying the prospective colonists. One this: Would Philip II use the Netherlands, once the Dutch
was wrecked on the rocks; a second sank on the way home; were conquered, as a platform for launching an i­nvasion
a third reached England. Gilbert, who believed that “we are of E ­ ngland? She decided he would and so in 1585 sent
as near to heaven by sea as by land,” went down with the 5000 foot and 1000 horse to aid the Dutch rebels. This
second ship. warlike act, in turn, persuaded Philip that he must defeat
Sir Walter Raleigh, a brilliant soldier, a consummate ­England if he were ever to subdue the Dutch.
courtier, an accomplished poet, and a master of English Philip’s decision to invade England was made easier by
prose, now took up the task. He sent out two small ships in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, for he had
1584, which landed on Roanoke Island. Raleigh at once chris- no desire to dethrone Elizabeth, only to place a French
tened the land Virginia in honor of the virgin Queen. In 1585 princess on the throne. Elizabeth pretended to be, or truly
he sent out seven ships under the command of Sir ­Richard was, angry at her ministers for carrying out the execution
Grenville, but the colonists were soldiers, not settlers, and of Mary, but there was no alternative. In the four years be-
spent their time looking for gold and pearls, not farming. fore her execution, there had been four serious plots, and
In 1586 they returned home with Drake’s fleet. The next year Mary herself was deeply implicated in the last of these, the
150 colonists, 17 of them women, went out to Virginia in a Babington plot. Elizabeth’s feigned anger at her ministers,
fleet commanded by John White. The plan was sounder, for if it was feigned, served the purpose of preventing France
land was to be distributed to the settlers, but the outcome from going to war to avenge Mary’s death.
was more tragic. The concentrated effort needed to repulse Hitherto Elizabeth, by her patient diplomacy and in-
the Spanish Armada in 1588 prevented John White from re- terminable marriage negotiations with Archduke Charles
turning to the colony until 1590. When he did, he found only of Austria and the Duke of Alençon, had kept the House
an abandoned stockade. The ­Elizabethans had not learned of Valois and the Habsburgs apart. But the passions of the
that with colonies, as with the planting of woods, it takes 20 Counter-Reformation now brought them together. ­England,
years before a profit can be realized. with the assistance of the Dutch rebels, stood alone. Only
insularity, a well-equipped navy, and trained bands de-
fended England. Fortunately for England, its navy pos-
The War against Spain sessed the best ships in Europe. The Queen had employed
It was not Drake’s raid on Panama or Raleigh’s colony John Hawkins to design new ships, which were longer and
in Virginia that led to war with Spain, but events in the narrower than the usual galleon, and so were capable of
­Netherlands. In 1567 Philip II resolved to assert his author- mounting more guns and sailing closer to the wind. They
ity in the Netherlands, even at the cost of their historic lib- were also smaller, faster, handier, and without the tower-
erties, and sent out the Duke of Alva with 50,000 troops. A ing castles at bow and stern. Sir William ­Wynter armed the
great Spanish army in the Netherlands was as alarming to ships in an equally revolutionary fashion. He replaced the
the English as a great French army in Scotland. Elizabeth iron man-killing demi-cannon, which threw a 30-pound
responded by seizing five Spanish ships carrying money shot a short distance, with the brass ship-killing culverin
from Genoese bankers to Alva, which a storm by chance and demi-culverin, which threw 18- and 9-pound shots up
blew into English ports. She decided to borrow the money to 1000 yards. By 1588 Elizabeth had 25 such galleons, well
herself. Alva then seized all English ships and goods in the manned by sailors whose wages she raised from 6s 8d a
Netherlands and declared an embargo on English trade. month to 10s. Behind the fleet stood the trained bands, spir-
Elizabeth retaliated in kind. Spain had now clearly replaced ited gentlemen and staunch yeomen who were better armed
France as the national enemy of England. and better trained than the medieval villager. Since 1573 the
Elizabeth did not wish war, and so patched up her government had armed and trained only the ablest villag-
quarrel with Spain. Between 1574 and 1585 she sought by ers. During the winter of 1587 and 1588 the English, in prep-
diplomacy to diminish the threat that Alva and his army aration for the Spanish assault, repaired town walls, placed
posed. She supported the liberties of the Netherlands and cannon around seacoast towns, built a system of beacons,
she secured, through a prolonged courtship of the Duke and readied themselves for battle.
178 A History of England

The Ark Royal, one of the new, longer, more maneuverable galleons in the English fleet.  (Private
Collection, The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

Philip’s strategy was to send an invincible fleet into the On July 28 the Armada sought refuge in Calais har-
Channel to transport the Duke of Parma’s 30,000 troops bor. This was the beginning of the end. The English sent
from the Netherlands to England. Philip began to collect in fireships, which disrupted the closely packed vessels
such a fleet in Cádiz harbor in 1587, but Sir Francis Drake, of the Armada. The Spanish ships fled north, ran out of
ever audacious, sailed into the harbor and “singed the King shot, and were defenseless against the English culver-
of Spain’s beard” by destroying some 30 large ships. Ever ins and demi-culverins firing at short range. Many of the
persistent, Philip assembled another Armada at Lisbon. In ships that escaped the English broadsides met disaster on
the summer of 1588 it sailed for the Channel—20 great gal- the northwest coast of Scotland when a gale swept down
leons, 4 galleys of Portugal, 4 galleasses of Naples, 4 great on them. Only half the ships that sailed from Lisbon ever
West India-men, 40 large merchantmen, 34 pinnaces, and crept back into a Spanish port. The Spanish lost half their
23 freighters, 130 ships in all, with 8000 sailors and 14,000 fleet but they did not, wrote a contemporary Englishman,
soldiers. They sailed slowly up the Channel, in a crescent “so much as sink or take one ship, bark, pinnace, or cock-
formation, the stronger ships on the outside. Against this boat of ours, or even burn so much as one sheepcote in
great Armada the English brought a fleet containing about this land.” The defeat of the Armada showed that England
the same number of men-of-war, but also many hast- could, with its fleet, singlehandedly defend itself against
ily armed ships from the creeks and harbors of the south the mightiest of monarchs. The boost to national confi-
coast, perhaps 200 ships in all. The English made contact dence was immense.
with the Armada on July 12, avoided a general melée, and
bombarded the Spanish ships from a 300-yard distance. But
Spanish discipline was excellent; the crescent did not break, Elizabeth and the
and the English culverins and demi-culverins did little
damage. The Armada sailed steadily up the Channel, only
Government of England
to reveal the fatal miscalculation of the entire campaign. In the reign of Charles I the people looked back on
The Duke of Parma’s troops, which had shrunk to 17,000, ­Elizabeth’s reign as a golden age of good government. For
had no way to reach the Armada, for the only deepwater once the human propensity to nostalgia was right, for un-
port on the Channel, Flushing, was in English hands. Had der Elizabeth the English monarchy did function harmoni-
Parma sought to transport his troops to the Armada in the ously and effectively. There were two keys to this success:
few barges he had, the Dutch and English flyboats would the wisdom with which Elizabeth used Crown, Court, and
have decimated them in the shallow waters off the coast. Council to administer the realm, and the skill with which
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 179

“The Armada,” 1739. John Pine (1690–1756), English. Engraving from a tapestry, 380 × 660 cm. 
(Guildhall Library, Corporation of London, UK. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

she used Parliament and the justices of the peace to bring supported or opposed a favorite as the balance of factions
her subjects into a partnership with herself. dictated. She also used the Court and her vast patronage
Reverence for the Crown reached its zenith under to secure the loyalty of the great families of ­England. There
­Elizabeth, who exulted in the divinity attributed to her and were in Elizabethan England some 2500 peers, gentlemen,
exploited it shamelessly. A cult of the Queen arose in popu- and the younger sons of peers and gentlemen who aspired
lar literature, portraying Elizabeth as a G
­ oddess-Queen. But to a place at Court or in the Household or in the govern-
she was an accessible Goddess-Queen, for rarely did a sum- ment. To assuage their appetite for place and profit, the
mer pass that Elizabeth did not travel on a progress through Crown had at its disposal about 1200 places, along with
her realm, displaying warmth and delight at the compli- pensions, leases, monopolies, and lesser offices. Elizabeth
ments showered on her. She used wisely the immense pow- distributed this patronage prudently, with the result that by
ers that the Crown brought her—powers to name ministers the end of her reign peers and gentlemen were turning from
and judges, to summon and dismiss Parliament, to conduct conspiracy and rebellion in the countryside to faction and
diplomacy, to govern the Church, and to enforce order. Her intrigue at Court as the final arbiter in politics.
deepest instinct was to use these powers to promote unity in The Privy Council played a central role in the government
the realm, not to pursue partisan or personal policies. Only of the realm. Elizabeth reduced it from the unwieldy size fa-
once did she appear to yield to personal impulse. In the first vored by Queen Mary to a maximum of 20 members. Most
years of her reign she fell deeply in love with Robert D ­ udley, of them were great ministers of state—the ­Treasurer, the
whom she had first met at Edward VI’s Court as a girl of ­Secretary, the Lord Keeper, the Chamberlain, the ­Admiral.
16. In 1562 the mysterious death of Dudley’s wife, Amy It was their duty to preserve law and order, to maintain the
­Robsart, who either leaped into, fell into, or was pushed into armed forces, to conduct foreign relations, to regulate ag-
a ­staircase well, presented an opportunity to consummate riculture, industry, and trade, and to advise the Queen.
that love in marriage. But Elizabeth drew back. She saw the ­Elizabeth named men of probity and energy to it, none more
folly of marrying a man hated by most of her courtiers and so than William Cecil, who served 10 years as Secretary and
suspected of murdering his wife. She turned from Dudley, 25 years as Treasurer. Cecil was a patient man, occasionally
saying, “I will have here but one mistress and no master.” unscrupulous, with an unquenchable thirst for work and lit-
There were factions in Elizabeth’s Court—a peace party tle taste for fame. His partnership with the Queen lasted until
led by Cecil, whom the Queen created Lord Burghley, and a his death in 1598, a partnership whose equal cannot be found.
war party led by Dudley, whom she made Earl of L ­ eicester— The Queen and Council could make their will felt
but the Queen kept these factions under firm control, using throughout the land only by means of the justices of the
the one to check the other. She never surrendered her judg- peace, those unpaid amateurs, some 40 in every county,
ment to a great Court favorite, as did James I, but rather on whom the government had laid a bewildering variety
180 A History of England

of duties, from enforcing law and order to regulating the

economy. Every three months the justices of a county met
together for two or three days to deal with civil and crimi-
nal affairs. These quarter sessions served as a kind of local
Parliament where the grievances of the community could
be voiced. The justices invariably showed great courtesy
to the Queen, but beneath this courtesy lay a fierce lo-
calism. If the justices disapproved of an order from the
Council, they thwarted it by delay and subterfuge. The
only sanction the Queen had was dismissal, though often
those dismissed had to be named again. In Norfolk, of 75
justices of the peace dismissed, 40 were later reappointed.
During the sixteenth century local government fell into
the hands of the gentry. And though the gentry displayed
a growing devotion to the Queen, the immediate focus
of their loyalties was the county, where they married,
intrigued, quarreled, and g­ overned. This partnership be-
tween the Queen and the gentry ­succeeded because they
had a common goal in preserving order, protecting prop-
erty, and defending the realm.
Parliaments were no part of the regular government
of the realm. In 44 years Elizabeth met Parliament only
13 times, usually for only two months. Her frugality kept
them infrequent, for she managed to live on her ordi-
nary revenue, which came to about £200,000 a year.
When later in the reign it fell short of her needs, she sold
Crown lands, in all about £800,000 worth. Occasionally
extraordinary expenses and the need for new laws did im-
pel her to summon Parliament, which during the whole
reign voted subsidies that averaged about £50,000 a year.
­Elizabeth had definite ideas about what Parliament should Queen Elizabeth I meets her Parliament in the year 1584. 
do: It should vote the taxes needed, pass the laws submit- (Private Collection, The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
ted to it, and when asked, give advice. Above all it should
not discuss “matters of state,” which included religion, the
succession, and her marriage. But members of the House to every townsman. To meet the clamor for seats in the
of Commons, alarmed at the lack of a successor to the House, Elizabeth created 62 new ones, raising the size of
throne and eager to reform religion, persisted in debating the ­Commons to 462. The center of gravity in Parliament
these matters. No member was more forward in doing so gradually moved from the House of Lords to the House of
than the passionate Peter Wentworth, who in 1576, again Commons, but the aristocracy recouped its losses by acting
in 1587, and a third time in 1593 brought forward religion as patrons to the parliamentary boroughs.
and the succession. “Sweet indeed is the name of liberty,” A gentleman or lawyer eager to win the prestige and
he declared, “and the thing itself a value beyond all inesti- ­advantages that a seat in Parliament offered had first to find
mable treasure.” But he ended his life in the Tower while a patron who could secure his return from a borough. The
Elizabeth, through gracious speeches, furious lectures, new membership of the House was far better educated than
and masterful management, preserved her conception of its predecessors—252 members of the House in 1593 had been
Parliament’s duty. either to a university or an Inn of Court. They were prosper-
Profound changes below the surface, however, were ous, confident, experienced, educated; and they slowly built
making that success hollow. The gentry were invading the up a corporate spirit and rules of procedure. Many matters
House of Commons. In the fifteenth century the House were now debated in committees. Bills were read and voted
contained one gentleman to every four townsmen; in on three times before being sent to the Lords. Most ominous
Elizabeth’s later Parliaments there were four gentlemen of all, the House occasionally held back the subsidy bill until
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 181

the Queen had assented to other bills. The constitutional con- from the Church and the Crown. In Norfolk the gentry’s
flicts of Stuart England did not spring suddenly into exis- share of the 1572 manors in the county rose during the six-
tence; their roots lay deep in the England of Elizabeth. teenth century from 977 to 1181. The nobility in the later
years held 159 manors; the Crown, 67; the Church, 91; and
colleges, hospitals, and other institutions, 30. Across all
The Rise of the Gentry ­England the gentry probably increased their share of the
The gentry’s invasion of the House of Commons was a land from one-quarter in the fifteenth century to nearly
­reflection of a fundamental social change: the rise of the one-half by 1640, almost wholly at the expense of the
gentry in numbers, wealth, education, and aspiration. Church and the Crown.
­Society was still intensely hierarchical, but individual so- Though the gentry advanced, the aristocracy did not de-
cial mobility increased dramatically. When Shakespeare cline. Conditions in Elizabethan England favored the entire
wrote landed class, though admittedly the nobility were slower to
take advantage of them. There were various ways to obtain
Take but degree away, untune the string,
a higher income from land: One could raise rents and en-
And hark what discord follows.
try fees; negotiate shorter, often annual, leases; enclose open
he not only praised degree, priority, and rank, but con- fields; throw farms together; or farm the demesne oneself.
fessed that they were often disregarded. In his day many Rising prices made it particularly worthwhile to enclose un-
of the gentry could trace their ancestors to enterprising cultivated land such as forests, marshes, and moors. Tim-
yeomen who, by purchasing parcels of land and making ber became highly profitable with the growing demand for
favorable leases, had raised their incomes from about wood for building. The enterprising industrial squire dug
£100 a year to £200 or £300. Their sons in turn dressed coal, mined lead, and manufactured iron. ­Recent studies
in velvet breeches and silken doublets, attended an Inn of show that landed revenues rose substantially between 1560
Court, offered hospitality, purchased coats of arms, and and 1590, in some cases more than doubled, and that be-
called themselves gentlemen. But even more of the new tween 1590 and 1620 they rose much more than prices. The
gentry came from trade, industry, law, and government. overall increase between 1530 and 1620 was usually three-
­Having made their fortunes in these professions, they fold, and often more.
bought manors and joined the gentry. Not only did the Neither did members of the aristocracy lose all their
numbers of the gentry swell, so did the wealth of the class power in local government. As a lord-lieutenant in
as a whole. Old and new families alike bought up manors his county (an office made permanent in 1585), a great

Cotehele House, built in the Tudor style; typical of the country houses of the gentry.  (Paul Felix)
182 A History of England

nobleman mustered, armed, drilled, and disciplined the a point of perfection. The Elizabethan country house, with
trained bands, and all local officials were to assist and its great square windows and its dramatic skylines, was a
to obey him in that task. In the reigns of Henry VII and direct adaptation of late Perpendicular Church architec-
Henry VIII the nobility mustered their private retinues as ture to domestic purposes. But as the age advanced and
powerful territorial magnates. Now they exercised the mili- the influence of Italy increased, the English added classi-
tary functions traditional to an aristocracy as servants of cal detail (usually learned from Flemish copybooks) to
the Queen, answerable to her. the Gothic structure. The result was not wholly pleasing,
The nobility and gentry lavished their new wealth on the since the ornament ceased to flow naturally from the de-
building of country houses that were more spacious, more sign and became something applied only for fashion’s sake.
comfortable, more impressive, and more elegant than those These houses, of which Burghley House offers a fine ex-
in which their fathers had lived. The English built more ample, proclaim the ostentation, the extravagance, the self-
country houses between 1575 and 1625 than in any com- consciousness, and even the vulgarity of a newly enriched
parable period. These houses, with their great windows, landed class.
their high, pitched gables, their wreathed chimneys, their A willingness to offer hospitality was a prime mark
private apartments, their plastered ceilings, and their oak of gentility. Sir William Holles, for example, during the
paneling, were usually built on an E- or H-shaped plan. A Christmas season allowed any man to stay three days in
central porch gave access to the house, with the hall itself his house without asking whence he came or where he was
on one side, balanced by apartments on the other, giving ­going. A fat ox was slaughtered each day. Hospitality could
a pleasing symmetry to the main front. The greater houses be lavish. At a banquet given for the Archbishop of York
would have a long gallery, flooded with light, where an in- and other guests, Sir William Fairfax served 16 dishes at the
creasingly wealthy and self-conscious gentry would hang first course and 14 at the second. To entertain the Queen
their family portraits. The lesser gentry would more often on one of her progresses could be ruinous—the Earl of
purchase miniature paintings, a delicate and refined art Leicester spent £6000 entertaining the royal household at
that Nicholas Hilliard, son of a citizen of Exeter, carried to Kenilworth. The households of the wealthier gentry and

Hardwicke Hall, “more glass than wall,” said contemporaries.  (© Crown copyright.NMR)
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 183

Burghley House, Northamptonshire, one of the two country houses built by William Cecil,
Lord Burghley.  (Mark Fiennes, The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

nobility were immense. The Earl of Derby had 118 ser- between 1581 and 1590 and then fell, finally leveling off at
vants who, with guests, consumed 56 oxen and 535 sheep a about 300 a year.
year; the household expenses came to £2895 annually. The The presence of the sons of gentlemen had two effects
­Elizabethans were extravagant in many other ways. They on the universities: It accelerated the triumph of a human-
bought costly furnishings, imported velvets and silks, and istic curriculum over the scholastic one, and it abetted the
wore splendid clothing. When gentlemen wore doublets triumph of the college over the university. The study of
sewn with pearls, they wore, so the saying went, “whole rhetoric increasingly replaced the study of logic, while the
estates on their backs.” Death did not end their conspicu- reading of printed books—Cicero, Virgil, Erasmus, Bodin—
ous consumption, for they were buried in splendid marble replaced attendance at lectures. The rise of the college, with
tombs in the parish churches of the land. its own tutors, helped destroy the university lecture. In the
A love of learning, or at least of the advantages that fifteenth century Oxford students lived in some 50 halls;
learning brought, characterized the Elizabethan gentle- by 1558 only eight of them remained. They were replaced
man as much as a love of ostentation. By Elizabeth’s reign by colleges, which offered the student not only a residence,
it became clear that men grew in power because they but a library, tutors, lectures, and a chapel. They even of-
were educated at a university or an Inn of Court. There fered instruction in modern history and modern languages.
was Sir Thomas Smith, for example, son of a farmer, who Here students read Aristotle’s Politics and Thomas Marshe’s
became a professor of civil law at Cambridge, served Mirror for Magistrates. The frivolous may have jangled their
Edward and Elizabeth as Secretary of State, and retired spurs in the quadrangles and diced, wenched, hunted, and
into the country with many manors. To check the flood tippled, but many others learned wisdom and virtue. The
of lesser men into government, Lord Burghley even universities helped to transform a military aristocracy into
thought of proposing a law requiring the nobility to send an aristocracy with political ability. But it was only for the
their sons to a university, but the nobility needed no such men. There was no place at the universities for women, and
law. Under Elizabeth the sons of noblemen and gentle- the splendid humanistic education that More’s daughters
men poured into the universities. Enrollment at Oxford and Lady Jane Grey and Elizabeth herself had received died
rose from 191 a year between 1571 and 1580 to 340 a year out during the Queen’s reign.
184 A History of England

Yeomen and Husbandmen England than the fact that independent producers out-
numbered wage earners by two to one.
Below the gentry came the yeomanry, “an estate of peo- There existed in Elizabethan England a greater har-
ple,” wrote Thomas Fuller, “almost peculiar to England, mony among classes and a freer intercourse among them
living in the temperate zone betwixt greatness and want.” than in any other age. The Elizabethans no doubt believed
The lawyers persisted in defining them as 40-shilling in rank and degree, but they mixed together without un-
freeholders who farmed their own land, but in fact many due self-consciousness or suspicion. The sons of gentle-
yeomen leased land from others. The status of a yeoman men sat in the same grammar school with the sons of
was economic and social, not legal. He was simply a pros- yeomen and artisans. The son of a yeoman might even, as
perous farmer who did not aspire to gentility. He usually did John Smyth of Nibley, enter Magdalen College as the
farmed over 100 acres, and through improved husbandry, companion of a young lord, Lord Berkeley. Even the lowly
conversion to grazing, attendance at markets, and the em- husbandman, whom William Harrison declared to “have
ployment of laborers earned a substantial income, perhaps neither voice nor authority in the Commonwealth,” had a
£100 to £200 a year. During the sixteenth and early sev- role in the village. He served as churchwarden, ale-conner,
enteenth centuries yeomen prospered as never before. By and constable. And he was active in the Court Leet, where
1640 they may have held from one-quarter to one-third of agricultural policy was determined and petty justice done.
the land of England, much more than the one-fifth they He frequented the public inn or alehouse, where he drank
held in the fifteenth century and the one-tenth they held the common ale while the squire caroused on French
in the nineteenth. They ate wheaten bread, bought feather wines. John Hawkins introduced tobacco into England,
beds, added internal staircases to their houses, sent their which was smoked in a pipe. At 3 shillings an ounce smok-
sons to grammar school, served in the trained bands, and ing was expensive, but it became customary for an inn or
won acclaim for their honesty, independence, pride, and alehouse to provide a common pipe. It was passed from
sturdiness. customer to customer, thus placing tobacco within the
Far more numerous were the husbandmen, who held reach of all.
some 30 acres as copyholders or one or two acres as cot-
tagers. Though they lived close to the margin of subsis-
tence, they survived the price rise of the sixteenth century
Beggars and Vagabonds
because they lived on the land. From the flax they grew The Elizabethan gentleman may have mixed easily with
they made their smocks, from the hides of their cattle the yeoman and husbandman, but he had a contempt for,
they made jackets and jugs, from the horns of cattle their and a fear of, the beggar and the vagabond. Vagrancy, the
mugs, from the coarse hemp they grew they made their problem of beggars wandering through the countryside,
shoes and candlewicks. For medicine they used the herbs was not peculiar to the sixteenth century, but during this
that grew in the fields or in their gardens. In good times century the ranks of the vagrants were swollen by a rap-
they ate bread made from barley and rye, and in bad times idly growing population, many of whom were unable to
bread made from beans, peas, and oats, with some acorns find employment. There were probably from 20,000 to
mixed in. Their houses were still the old-fashioned gabled, 40,000 vagrants or vagabonds in England, divided into
thatched cottages, with clay, loam, rubble, and wattle filling those searching for work and those determined to avoid
up the spaces between the timbers. “These English,” wrote work at all costs—the rogue element. The rogues num-
a ­Spaniard, “have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but bered some 300 to 400 in a county and moved in groups
they fare commonly so well as the King.” One reason they of two or three or in bands of 40 or 50. They ranged from
fared well was the “white meat” they added to their diet; the professional beggar, who could make as much as
that is, chicken, geese, hares, and rabbits. 14 shillings a day (at a time when the average daily wage
As the century progressed, the copyholders became of a laborer was 6 pence), to the thief and the murderer.
fewer and the leaseholders more numerous, and by the end They terrorized the county, stole sheep and cattle, fright-
of the century the leasehold had replaced the copyhold as ened the magistrate, and taxed the slender resources of
the characteristic tenure. Not all rural people worked in ag- the constable, whose duty it was to arrest them. Too often
riculture. In Gloucestershire, for example, only two-thirds when the constable raised the hue and cry for their arrest,
were employed in farming; others were at their forges or his fellow villagers ignored him, saying “I have other busi-
looms. Many of these rural laborers worked for wages, ei- ness at this time.” Of all vagrants it was the gypsies who
ther in the fields or as servants in great households, but few aroused the most distrust. They first entered ­England at
facts distinguish Elizabethan England more from modern the beginning of the sixteenth century. Their dark skins,
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 185

their dealings in the occult, and their claim to see into in 1576 even empowered parishes to provide hemp, flax,
the future created the deepest suspicion. Parliament even and iron on which the able-bodied unemployed could
passed a statute condemning those who remained in Eng- work.
land to death. They nevertheless remained and managed The 1572 and 1576 acts served Elizabethans adequately
to survive. until the great famine of the 1590s. Then fear of riots, al-
Poverty presented a far more serious problem to the lied to an uneasy conscience at the neglect of the poor,
Elizabethans than vagrancy. There were two causes for the prompted Parliament to pass the Poor Law of 1598, which
widespread poverty of these years. The first was a popula- it reenacted in 1601 with slight alterations, and which
tion that grew faster than opportunities for employment, governed the relief of the poor for 250 years. The act es-
driving landless younger sons and unemployed cloth- tablished overseers of the poor in each parish and em-
workers into the towns looking for work or alms. D ­ uring powered them to provide suitable dwelling places for the
Elizabeth’s reign probably one-quarter to one-third of the destitute, to set to work persons with no obvious means
population of most towns were the begging poor, enjoy- of maintenance, and to bind in apprenticeship poor chil-
ing only occasional employment. Another third were dren. They could also tax the parish for the necessary
wage earners, regularly employed, but liable to swell the funds to carry out these tasks. On the assumption that
ranks of the destitute when a slump hit. The second cause these tasks would be performed, the government decreed
of poverty was inflation. Between 1500 and 1640 the real that “no person shall go wandering abroad and beg in
wages of workers dropped by 50 percent. With wages fall- any place whatsoever, by license or without, upon pain of
ing it is not surprising that parents sent their children out punishment as a rogue.”
to work, often when only five or six, and usually in the The parishes of England, however, enforced the Poor
textile trades. The cruelest time for the poor came when a Law only in times of emergency. Of the great sums
succession of bad harvests drove up the price of bread, as spent on poor relief before 1660, taxation provided only
happened in the 1590s. In 1596 in Newcastle 32 poor folk 7 percent. The rest came from private philanthropy. The
died of starvation in the streets; elsewhere they were less ­Reformation did much to turn charity toward the relief
acquiescent and rioted. of the poor. Before the Reformation, 45 percent of Lon-
Fearing the vagrants and the poor, the early Tudor don charity was devoted to religious purposes; afterward
Parliaments struck out ferociously. In 1495 Parliament only 7 percent. Of the money given to relieve the poor,
­d eclared that beggars should be placed in stocks for the nobility and gentry gave 25 percent, the tradesmen
three days, whipped, and then returned to their place 10 percent, the yeomanry 6 percent, and the lower clergy
of origin. In 1531 Parliament first distinguished between but 1 percent. By far the greatest amount, 56 percent, was
the ­i mpotent poor and the able-bodied poor. The old, given by the merchants. Even more important than this
the lame, the feeble, and the blind were permitted to temporary relief were the charitable trusts established for
beg, but the able-bodied poor, even if seeking employ- the rehabilitation of the poor. Here the merchants gave
ment, were forbidden to beg. Tudor ferocity reached a 86 percent. Without the generosity of the merchants,
peak in 1547 when P ­ arliament decreed that any man or the government would never have solved the problem of
woman who remained unemployed for three days or poverty.
more should be deemed a vagrant, branded with a V,
and enslaved for two years. The cruelty of the statute
made it a dead letter from the beginning, and in 1550 The Ascendancy
Parliament repealed it. But just 22 years later Parlia-
ment ordained whipping and boring through the ear as
of London
punishment for the first offense of vagrancy, condem- The merchants, whose largess kept the poor from
nation as a felon for the second offense, and death for ­submerging, lived in towns spread across the country:
the third. This time the act was enforced. In ­Middlesex manufacturing towns such as Coventry with its capmak-
between 1572 and 1575, 44 vagabonds were branded, ers and Sheffield with its cutlers, as well as market towns
eight set to service, and five hanged. Yet the act marked such as Stratford and Bedford. Three towns, ­Norwich,
a watershed in the poor law history of England, for it Bristol, and York, each contained between 10,000
recognized that there were unemployed able-bodied and 20,000 inhabitants; Exeter had between 5000 and
persons who were not vagrants, and it recognized the 10,000; a host of other towns numbered about 5000.
need for compulsory contributions from parishioners Towering over all these towns in size, numbers, wealth,
to provide for the relief of the deserving poor. An act power, and importance was London. Approaching
186 A History of England

London in 1600 as depicted by C. J. Visscher.  (Guildhall Library, Corporation of London, UK. The
Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

300,000 inhabitants by the end of the reign, it was at Moorgate were the large gardens and sumptuous houses of
least ten times more populous than any other English the richer merchants. Northward were open spaces, where
town. It was the largest city in northern Europe. The the citizens went “a-maying,” the militia exercised, and
annual value of its customs was 20 times greater than John Stow, the chronicler of Elizabethan London, trudged
­Bristol’s, the second port of the realm. for milk as a boy. To the west of the city, along the Strand,
London began east of the Tower and ran westward ran the great houses of the peers—Essex House, Arundel
along the Thames to Westminster, the built-up area never House, Somerset House—each with its private stairs lead-
extending more than a mile or a mile and a half north ing to the Thames. Finally, beyond the hamlet of Charing
of the river. The city east of the Tower consisted of filthy, came the City of Westminster, where two royal palaces,
narrow passageways and alleys, inhabited by sailors, vict- Whitehall and Westminster, attracted all those concerned
uallers, tavernkeepers, and rogues. The Tower, with its with government.
walls, turrets, wharf, and cranes, was a world of its own. Though the government sought to prevent the growth
Between the Tower and London Bridge were wharves, of London, it probably doubled in size during Elizabeth’s
warehouses, gabled houses, churches, and a river crowded reign. Throughout the city great houses were pulled
with ships. London Bridge, with its 20 arches and its fine down and the sites devoted to small tenements paying
shops and houses lining the roadway, was the only bridge large rents. Lord Rich turned St. Bartholomew’s Priory
that crossed the Thames at London. To cross the river into profitable tenements. Outside the city walls, suburbs
elsewhere, or to travel up and down it, one had to hire a sprang up. At the beginning of the reign, when much
wherryman. Church property was thrown on the market, rents were
West of London Bridge rose medieval St. Paul’s, with its low. By its end, with many thousands flooding into the
three-portaled west front and its spire rising high above city, among them William Shakespeare and Christopher
London. Around St. Paul’s were crowded the bishop’s pal- Marlowe, rents were high. London was a magnet for all
ace, the dean’s house, a brewhouse, a bakehouse, and Peter’s who would make their fortunes. Sir John Spencer, for
College, which the Elizabethans turned into ­Stationers’ example, came from Suffolk to London, engaged in the
Hall, the center of the publishing trade. Walls and gates ­L evant trade, became Lord Mayor, and left a fortune to
still encircled the old city, and within Bishopsgate and his daughter.
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 187

Elizabethan London

Moorgate MILE END

Bishopsgate
SMITHFIELD CITY WALL
HOLBORN WHITECHAPEL
Newgate
Cheapside
Inns of Court
t Street
Flee
n d St. Paul's
Charing e Stra The Temple
The Tower
Cross Th
r Thames London Bridge
Rive
Whitehall The Globe
SOUTHWARK
Westminster
Abbey Miles
0 1/4 1/2 3/4

The influence of London was even greater than its size banquets. London, like other chartered towns, enjoyed
would suggest, for from it the judges on circuit went out self-government, but the Crown looked to the city magis-
every year and to it members of Parliament came every trates, as it did to magistrates in the countryside, for help
few years. It contained the Inns of Court, which now in regulating employment, controlling prices, maintaining
became finishing schools for gentlemen as well as pro- order, relieving the poor, collecting taxes, and mustering
fessional schools for lawyers. To Westminster country men for defense.
gentlemen carried their endless legal quarrels and to As the Elizabethan age progressed, the London mag-
Southwark, south of the Thames, they and others went istrates grew more Puritan in outlook. They came to re-
to see the latest plays. From Stationers’ Hall books and gard the performance of plays as “a great hindrance to
pamphlets went out to the four corners of the realm. the service of God” and as “a great corruption of youth
But London’s economic influence was deeply resented. with unchaste and wicked matters.” They asked the Lord
The London merchant controlled the trade of provin- ­Chancellor to prohibit the performance of plays, but he
cial towns, compelling the Norwich draper, for example, refused, commenting that Her Majesty sometimes took
to bring his cloth to Blackwell Hall if he wished to sell it delight in plays. Ten years later, the Court of Aldermen de-
abroad. Even more hateful was the London moneylender, clared that the youth of the city were greatly corrupted by
into whose clutches fell many a country squire and pro- the wanton things they saw on the stage, but the theater
vincial merchant. Because credit did not keep pace with throve in the 1590s as never before.
the growth of trade, moneylenders commonly charged 10
percent interest.
The formal structure of the London government re- The Elizabethan World
mained unchanged: There were 26 wards in which the
freemen (and one had to be a member of a guild to be a Picture
freeman) voted for the aldermen and common council- In 1576 James Burbage, head of the Earl of Leicester’s
lors. From two aldermen nominated by the city compa- company of actors, built the first theater in London, near
nies, the freemen elected a mayor. Real power resided Shoreditch, outside the city wall. Others followed—the
in an oligarchy of wealthy merchants, who exerted their Curtain, also in Shoreditch in 1577; the Rose, south of the
control through the 12 great city companies, or liveried Thames in 1588; the Swan in Southwark about 1595; and
companies. Each company was an association of various the Globe, also in Southwark, in 1598. The shape of these
trades, and the companies continued to enforce appren- theaters derived from the innyards which had served as
ticeship regulations, regulate markets, maintain standards their predecessors. They were round or octagonal, with
of quality, act as benefit societies, and give sumptuous the pit open to the sky, and tiers of covered galleries
188 A History of England

running around the pit, except the part occupied by the noblemen, and in the universities, an audience that could
stage. The stage was a large platform jutting out into the appreciate more sophisticated plays than could the public
yard, divided into an outer and inner stage, with the in- that crowded into town innyards and onto village greens.
ner stage often curtained off. Costumes were elaborate, What brought all these forces together was the appear-
boys took women’s parts, properties were few, and scen- ance of the ­University Wits, university graduates who not
ery nonexistent. These were public theaters, where the wishing to enter the Church, turned to playwriting for a
populace crowded into the pit and gentlemen sat in the living. The greatest of them was Christopher ­Marlowe,
galleries. There were also private theaters in the houses of whose first two plays,Tamburlaine and The ­Tragical
nobles and at Court. In 1583 Queen Elizabeth’s Master of ­History of Dr.  ­Faustus, fell like a thunderclap on the
the Revels formed a company of players to perform plays ­Elizabethan stage. Until Marlowe, English tragedy lacked
for the Queen and her Court. both a blank verse eloquent enough for its purposes and
In the sixteenth century a number of forces flowed themes that spoke to the concerns of the Elizabethans.
together to produce the Elizabethan poetic drama, the Marlowe introduced a highly charged blank verse, rich in
greatest glory of the age. The medieval morality play de- images of power and violence and colored by exotic names
veloped into the Tudor interlude, a play concerned with from the geographical discoveries of the age. His themes
education rather than salvation and containing both re- were new. Human intoxication with power is the argu-
alistic and comic elements. The influence of the classics ment of T ­ amburlaine, the thirst for ultimate k­ nowledge,
also led playwrights to create English comedies, draw- of Dr. Faustus. Both reflected the Renaissance concept of
ing themes and characters from the Roman dramatist, virtu, the human being as master of his destiny, challeng-
­Plautus. The classics likewise led them to write the first ing even the gods who control fortune’s wheel.
tragedies, for there were no tragedies among the mira- Christopher Marlowe’s death by violence in 1593 pre-
cle and morality plays. Seneca was the model here, with vented him from writing a great corpus of plays or per-
his somber treatment of murder, violence, and lust. At fecting his blank verse. These tasks William Shakespeare
the same time, there arose at Court, in the houses of accomplished. Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-
Avon in 1564, of yeoman stock, attended the local gram-
mar school, led a rather reckless life, and then wandered
to London, where he became an actor, playwright, and
member of the Lord Chamberlain’s men, who played
at the Globe. It is one of the strangest accidents of his-
tory that this superb craftsman, this professional man
of the theater, should also have been a universal genius,
with an uncanny knowledge of the human heart and a
­p oetic gift unrivaled in the history of English literature.
During the 1590s he brought to perfection the roman-
tic comedy, with its counterpoint of poetry and wit, its
lively heroines, its delicate treatment of love, its satire
on male vanity, and its gallery of comic characters—
Bottom the Weaver, Sir Andrew Aguecheek the fool,
and the strutting Malvolio. During the 1590s he also
matured his cycle of history plays, with their explora-
tion of the problem of order and authority, their study
of the relation between moral character and human con-
duct, and their glorification of England and the House
of Tudor. In the greatest of these plays, Henry IV, Parts I
and II, Shakespeare successfully combined the political
with the comic. The central theme was the education
of Prince Hal, the future Henry V, but Sir John Falstaff,
the richest comic creation in English literature, captures
The Swan Theatre, Southwark, showing the pit, the play. This colossus of the Boar’s Head tavern was a
the galleries, and the outer and inner stage. ­(Private vain, pompous, lying braggart, but no man ever showed
Collection, The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) a greater gusto for life.
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 189

In the 1590s Shakespeare also began to experiment without accompaniment. For depth of feeling and for
with tragedy. His first was Romeo and Juliet, brilliantly perfect blending of musical form with the meaning of the
dramatic but less profound because it was a tragedy of cir- verse William Byrd had no equal.
cumstances rather than of character. Then, between 1599 The Elizabethan age was also glorious for its
and 1606, he wrote his great tragedies—Julius ­C aesar, prose—­indeed, the English language today is what
Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth—filled with the E ­ lizabethans made it. New words poured into the
moral ambiguities, with guilt and retribution, with the language, furlough and drill from the Low Countries,
tragic paradoxes of human nature. They were tragedies ­e mbargo and breeze from Spain, and countless Latin
in which virtuous men were destroyed by flaws in their and Greek words to express abstract ideas. The richness
characters: Brutus by his political innocence, Hamlet by of English prose can be seen in Richard Hakluyt’s The
his irresolution, Othello by his credulity, King Lear by his ­Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries
vanity, Macbeth by his ambition. In these plays, as in all of the English Nation, but the masterpiece of expository
his works, Shakespeare reveals his infinite curiosity about prose was Richard Hooker’s Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical
human nature, his remarkable ability to create character, Polity. Hooker not only disputed the Puritans’ insistence
his skilled craftsmanship, his mastery of the English lan- on scriptural justification for every practice by plead-
guage, and, perhaps most important of all, his sympathy ing the cause of tradition and utility, he also presented
with human beings in all their shapes, kinds, degrees, a comprehensive view of the Church, the State, and the
heights, and depths. divine order of things. In a prose that was reasonable,
What Shakespeare achieved for drama Edmund majestically ordered, calm, and dignified, he argued that
Spenser accomplished for poetry. Out of diverse ele- natural law, which our reason apprehends and which
ments—classical examples, Renaissance Latin verse, the comes from God, provides a light as useful as scriptural
Italian and French vernacular, the traditions of Chaucer— law in governing our lives.
he created a new poetry, one without ragged rhymes, and In the plays of Shakespeare, the poetry of Spenser, and
one that observed a propriety of tone, diction, and verse the prose of Hooker one can discern an Elizabethan pic-
form. At the Merchant Taylor’s school in London he dis- ture of the world, a picture far different from the modern
covered the ideal of the perfect gentleman; at Cambridge scientific one. To begin with, there was a dualism between
he became both a Puritan and a humanist; in Ireland, the spiritual and material worlds, though it was not the du-
where he served for 20 years as a civil servant, he learned alism of Descartes, who separated mind and body. Rather
to distrust as well as admire the courtier. It was in Ireland it was a Platonic dualism, in which the spiritual continu-
that he wrote his greatest work, The Faerie Queene, an ally interpenetrated the material and in which there were
English Protestant humanist epic, in which medieval ro- a thousand correspondences between the two realms. As
mance, the classical epic, Platonic and neo-Platonic ideas, Spenser wrote:
Protestant idealism, and English folklore and patriotism
For of the soul the body form doth take:
were drawn together to present a poetic comment on the
For soul is form and doth the body make.
human condition.
In Elizabethan England poetry and music lived in close Within each realm the Elizabethans saw a hierarchy—in
association. The English thus gave the madrigal, a popu- the spiritual realm: God in the trinity, the nine orders of
lar musical form imported from Italy, a warm reception. angels, the minor spirits, and the soul of humans; in the
The madrigal was an unaccompanied polyphonic vocal material world: the high heavens, the ninefold division of
piece about love or bereavement or the beauty of nature. the heavens, the earth, and the human body.
Some 40 collections of madrigals were published during To the Elizabethans matter was made up of substance
the generation after 1590. Nearly as popular as the mad- and qualities, either of which could, by priest or magician,
rigal were solo songs accompanied by the lute. Never did be altered. It is a belief that justifies the alchemist’s dream
music thrive in England as under Elizabeth. The tailor of transmuting lead into gold, makes reasonable the doc-
sang in his shop, the shipboy chanted at his oar, and the trine of transubstantiation, forms the basis of the astrol-
guest was expected to join the singing after supper. Nor oger’s belief that all things draw their qualities from the
was it all vocal and secular music. William Byrd, whom stars, and helps explain why the witchcraft mania reached
Elizabeth made organist of the Chapel Royal despite his a height during the Renaissance. In such a world there
Catholic faith, wrote music for the virginal, the organ, were two great roads to knowledge, the magical and the
and the viol consort. He helped introduce from Italy the poetic. There was ordinary magic, as practiced by the as-
motet, a choral composition on a sacred text, usually trologer and alchemist, and black magic, as practiced by
190 A History of England

the witch or by a Doctor Faustus who had sold his soul to war was expensive, costing over £4 million. Parliament
the devil. More honored than the magician was the poet, voted £2 million in subsidies, taxes that represented only
who was prophet, seer, sage, and teacher all in one. The po- 3 ­percent of England’s national income, whereas Philip II
et’s metaphors were not adornments of language, designed ­appropriated 10 percent of Castile’s. The other £2 million
to entertain; they were a revelation of the truth about a the g­ overnment raised from ordinary revenue, from the
mysterious world. Human beings played a central part in sale of Crown lands, from higher customs duties, and from
that world, for they had both body and soul, and so could the concealed taxation of monopolies.
bridge the gap between the material and spiritual worlds. In order to encourage inventions and the introduction
Nor had modern psychology yet reduced people to ma- of manufacturing processes from abroad, the government
chines. They possessed free will, that free will which lies often granted a monopoly of their use to the inventor or
at the center of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Richard Hooker innovator. But the need to reward officers and courtiers
presented a perfect picture of man as the Elizabethans saw and a faith in the virtues of regulation led the govern-
him. He possessed gross appetites, for he had the taint of ment to grant monopolies to individuals engaged in long-
Adam on him, but he also possessed free will, which could established trades—or, if not an actual monopoly, then
curb those appetites. He likewise possessed reason, or the right to regulate those engaged in a trade. There was
mind, which could perceive the good and which could di- hardly an article in common use—coal, soap, starch, iron,
rect the will, thereby allowing man to embark on the path books, and wine—not affected by monopolies. Prices rose,
of virtue. Of necessity man was a member of society, or the search warrants came out, the courtiers grew fat, and
the body politic, which the Elizabethans saw as hierarchi- the public suffered. In 1601 Parliament exploded: Member
cal. In the eighteenth century Rousseau declared that the after member rose to denounce the monopolists. Since it
very laws of nature make men equal; with the same con- was the Queen’s right to grant monopolies, it seemed that
fidence Hooker in the sixteenth century declared that the the constitutional confrontation between Prerogative and
very laws of nature make them unequal. It is unnatural, Parliament, which the Queen had so long avoided, must
the Elizabethans thought, for the subject to rebel against come. But Elizabeth knew when to yield and how to be
his sovereign, for the apprentice to challenge his master, gracious. She told the Speaker that no monopoly which
for the son to oppose his father, and for the wife to disobey a court of law did not vindicate should continue and she
her husband. made a golden speech to 140 members of the Commons
who crowded into the Council chamber at Whitehall.
“Though God hath raised me high,” she told them, “yet
Postlude this I count the glory of my crown, that I have reigned
The last decade of Elizabeth’s reign was a sad postlude to with your loves.”
a glorious age. The costly war against Spain dragged on; There is little reason to believe that Elizabeth reigned
Parliament stormed against monopolies; the Irish revolted; with the loves of her Irish subjects. Though she was per-
and politics became a sordid scrimmage for place, with the sonally indifferent, the persecution of Catholics raged on
greatest loser, the Earl of Essex, rising in rebellion. during her reign, giving a religious character to Irish resis-
The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning, not the tance to English rule. In 1580 the Irish in Munster, led by
end, of the war. It was fought on many fronts and outlasted the Earl of Desmond and supported by Spanish and Italian
the Queen herself. The chief theater was the ­Netherlands, forces, rose in revolt. By devastating the countryside, burn-
where 6000 English troops helped Prince Maurice secure ing the harvest, slaughtering the cattle, and massacring an
Dutch independence. The war spread into France, where entire garrison that had surrendered, the English quickly
Elizabeth sent five expeditions to help Henry of Navarre suppressed the rebellion. Desmond was captured and ex-
assert his claim to the French throne against the House ecuted. Of his vast lands Raleigh received 40,000 acres and
of Guise. It spread to Ireland in 1595, when the Irish re- the poet Spenser an extensive demesne.
belled and Philip II sent an armada of 100 ships and 10,000 The most formidable challenge to English rule came
men to assist them. But the wind remained obdurately from Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who had spent some
­Protestant, for a gale dispersed the fleet as soon as it set years in London and understood the courts of both Eng-
out. The English also sought to make the sea a theater of land and Europe. He saw that the Irish could win their in-
offensive warfare by attempting to invade Portugal, block- dependence only if they united and ceased fighting each
ade Spain, conquer Panama, and destroy Cádiz. All but the other. From his stronghold in Ulster he rose in rebellion in
last expedition failed, for the English had not yet learned 1595. He armed his men with muskets, defeated the English
how to use sea power effectively over long distances. The at Contibert and the Yellow Ford, moved freely through
 Elizabethan England: 1558–1603 191

Ireland, and wore out the Earl of Essex, who bore down on friends perfected a plan to seize the Court, the Tower, and
him with 16,000 men. The truce Essex made—virtually ab- the city as a means of imposing their will on the Queen.
dicating English rule in Ireland—came abruptly to an end On ­Sunday morning, February 8, Essex with about 200
in 1600 when Lord Mountjoy, a far abler soldier than E ­ ssex, followers galloped into the city, crying, “For the Queen!
landed with an army of 20,000 well-equipped ­E nglish The Crown of England is sold to the Spaniard! A plot is
troops. In Ulster he adopted the policy that had proved laid for my life!” But the city did not rise, the Court was
successful in Munster: the killing of cattle and the burn- forewarned, the conspirators failed, and Essex was cap-
ing of harvests. Tyrone replied by seeking the help of Spain, tured. Within ten days a court of his peers had condemned
which sent 4000 men to the southern port of ­Kinsale. him for treason; within another week the executioner’s ax
Mountjoy promptly besieged the town, which compelled robbed him of life. His was the most egotistical and wasted
Tyrone to march south, often at 40 miles a day, to lay siege of Elizabethan careers.
to the besiegers. At the request of the Spanish commander, Essex’s death left power in the hands of Robert Cecil,
at the entreaty of his ally, Hugh O’Donnell, and against his who now opened negotiations with the Scottish Court for
better judgment, Tyrone attacked ­Mountjoy’s army and suf- the succession of James VI of Scotland, though the Queen
fered defeat. That day’s disaster ended all hopes for a free, could never bring herself to name him as her successor.
united Ireland. He submitted to the English and ended his Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603, resisting death as she
days in Rome. had resisted all major decisions. Unable to eat or sleep,
The Earl of Essex, who had made so disastrous a truce she refused either to go to bed or take any medication for
in 1599, returned home to face the wrath of the Queen. two weeks. She lay there, on her cushions, silent, miser-
­Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, had won the aging Queen’s able. Then life escaped her and Tudor England came to
favor in the 1590s with his youth, his charm, his handsome an end.
face and figure, and his brilliance of style. He also became
the hero of men of action by his forwardness in arms, par- Further Reading
ticularly at Cádiz in 1596. But Essex, a man of moods and Stephen Alford. The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil
impulses, sought more than favor at Court and esteem as a and the British Succession Crisis, 1558–1569. Oxford, 1998.
soldier. He sought to fill the political vacuum created by the Explodes the myth that faction divided the realm during
deaths of Leicester, Walsingham, and Burghley. He desired the first decade of the reign; argues that the Privy Council
greatness, a desire that brought him up against the ambi- was united by fear of Catholicism and the desire to see the
tions and abilities of Robert Cecil, the small, hunched-back Queen suitably married.
son of Lord Burghley. During the 1590s there arose a fierce Kenneth R. Andrews. Trade, Plunder, and Settlement:
rivalry between Essex and Cecil. For every vacancy Essex ­Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire,
had a candidate whom he promoted, for his greatness de- 1480–1630. Cambridge, England, 1984. A fascinating story,
beautifully told; covers the voyages of the Cabots, trade
pended on his ability to promote his clients. His military
with Muscovy and the Levant, transatlantic enterprises, the
reputation brought him important new offices—Master sea war of 1585–1603, and settlements overseas.
of Ordnance and Earl Marshal—but a military reputation
Boris Ford, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature.
can only be supported by military success. He therefore Vol. 2, The Age of Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1982. A gen-
went to Ireland in 1599 with greater resources and wider eral survey of the English literary renaissance, with partic-
powers than any Lord Deputy before him. But in six short ular studies of individual poets and dramatists; the major
months he squandered them and negotiated a truce with emphasis is on Shakespeare.
Tyrone that was tantamount to surrender. In September Christopher Haigh, ed. The Reign of Elizabeth I. London, 1985.
he suddenly returned to England, against the Queen’s ex- Nine recognized authorities reassess the Elizabethan age;
press orders, and burst in upon her at Nonsuch Palace. The G. R. Elton on Parliament and Patrick Collinson on religion
Queen handled the matter with her usual skill. She did not are particularly useful.
imprison the Earl, but committed him to the custody of Richard Hakluyt. Voyages and Discoveries. Edited and
a friend. Nine months later a special court tried and sen- abridged by Jack Beeching. Penguin Books, 1982. Selections
tenced him to the loss of his offices and detention during from Hakluyt’s contemporary and now classic account of
the Queen’s pleasure. the Elizabethan voyages of discovery.
The Queen also suspended Essex’s lease of the c­ ustoms Norman Jones. The Birth of the Elizabethan Age: England in
on sweet wines, an action that threatened his financial the 1560s. Oxford, 1993. Engagingly written, penetrating his-
ruin. She hoped this might goad him into reform, but it tory that illuminates both state and society during a decade
only goaded him into treason. Early in 1601 he and his worthy of being regarded as “transitional.”
192 A History of England

Wallace MacCaffrey. The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime Sir John Neale. Queen Elizabeth. London, 1934; reprinted New
and Queen Elizabeth and the Making of Policy. Princeton, York, 1957. As readable as a novel, yet filled with illuminat-
1968 and 1982. The first volume describes the restoration ing and accurate information.
of political stability, the second elucidates English foreign D. M. Palliser. The Age of Elizabeth: England under the Later
policy; narrowly political in scope but written with insight, Tudors 1547–1603. London, 1983. Contains chapters on pop-
clarity, and elegance. ulation, social structure, agriculture, trade, government,
Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker. The Spanish Armada. religion, and culture; most helpful on social structure;
London, 1988. The most recent, thoroughly researched, ­defends the responsible capitalism of the age.
closely reasoned history of the Armada; should be read Penry Williams. The Tudor Regime. Oxford, 1979. Explores
in addition to, not instead of, Garrett Mattingly’s classic the world MacCaffrey ignores, the world of administration,
work, The Armada (reprinted Cranbuynswick, New York, ­f inance, the militia, monopolies, enclosures, poor laws,
1979). ­penal laws, and crime.
 Chapter 13

Early Stuart England:

1603–1640

T
CHAPTER OUTLINE
he accident that james I was “the wisest fool in Christendom”
and Charles I a proud, aloof absolutist should not be allowed to
■ The accession of James I obscure the fact that powerful, latently dangerous forces were un-
dermining the Tudor monarchy. Even had a monarch with Queen
■ James and the Law ­Elizabeth’s prudence and sympathies come to the throne, there is no
reason to believe that he or she could have maintained the Tudor ideal
■ Government by Court Favorites of government—a financially independent Crown ruling in partner-
ship with the nobility and gentry. There were too many developments
sapping the foundations of the Tudor monarchy. To begin with, there
■ Charles I and the Arts
was inflation, which steadily cut into the revenues of the Crown, un-
til the King could no longer “live of his own.” Second, there was the
■ Charles I and Parliament
rise of the gentry in numbers, wealth, education, experience, and
power. Third, there was the growth of a Parliament that possessed
■ The Eleven Years of Prerogative rules, ­procedures, committees, a corporate spirit, and self-confidence.
Government Fourth, there were the Puritans, dissatisfied with the Church, certain
of their righteousness, guided by God, strong of will, slowly growing in
■ Economic Depression numbers. Finally, there were the lawyers, active in provincial towns as
well as London, growing wealthy, crowding into Parliament, jealously
■ The Expansion of England
guarding the Common law, eloquent, willful, and willing to challenge
any king who violated the law.
Yet history cannot be written in the subjunctive mood; the historian
must write about what did happen, not about what might have hap-
pened. What did happen between 1603 and 1640 was a clash between
two unwise and incompetent kings and their aggressive subjects.

The accession of James I

For a king who believed he reigned by divine right, James had a pre-
posterous appearance. He was short, with spindly legs and an ungainly
head, a figure made more ridiculous by the heavy quilted doublet
he wore to ward off the assassin’s dagger. His tongue was too large
for his mouth, which caused him to stutter and to drink awkwardly.
But though he cut a poor figure, he was intelligent. He had a reten-
tive memory, a quick though coarse wit, a love of scholarship, and a
shrewd realism about people and affairs. In Scotland, where he had
tamed the nobility and disciplined the Presbyterians, he had proved
himself a wily, pragmatic, successful ruler. As he rode south in 1603, he
193
194 A History of England

quarrel by telling the Commons that they derived their

privileges from him. This provoked them to draw up The
Form of Apology and Satisfaction, in which they declared
that they held their privileges by right, not by the grace
of the King, and that they, not Chancery, were to decide
election returns. The Commons never actually presented
the Apology to James, but they did, after much bargaining,
persuade him to agree that the House of C ­ ommons was a
proper judge of its own returns, thereby acknowledging a
principle important to the independence of any legislative
body.
The Commons went on to assert its independence
from the Crown in many other ways, and James’s inexpe-
rience aided them. James, unlike Elizabeth, did not have
able privy councillors in the House of Commons to man-
age it. There were only three privy councillors in his first
­Parliament, four in his second. He also named Speakers
who lacked experience and respect. Nor did he help his
ministers by his frequent absences from London during
sessions of P­ arliament. James’s dereliction of duty allowed
the House of Commons to seize the initiative. Its members
limited the Speaker’s room for maneuver by passing rules
governing when a bill might be read. They made increas-
ing use of committees, and in 1607 stumbled on the de-
vice of the committee of the whole. When the House met
as a committee of the whole, the Speaker left the chair, all
Portrait of James I, John the Younger Decritz (1600–1657), members could attend, and debate was much freer. Not
Flemish.  (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy. The Bridgeman that James was entirely negligent. In 1604, for example,
Art Library Ltd.)
he proposed a thoughtful and constructive project for the
union of England and Scotland, one that would allow these
had every reason to be pleased with himself. But his self- traditional enemies peacefully to occupy the same island.
satisfaction deceived him, for his reign in England was to But the English Parliament, fearing that Scottish courtiers
be as unsuccessful as his reign in Scotland was successful. would monopolize the King’s favor and that Scottish mer-
He did not understand England as he had Scotland. Fur- chants would undermine English commerce, scuttled the
thermore, certain defects in his character came to the fore project.
as he grew old. He exhausted the Treasury with generous In the Apology the Commons told James he could not
gifts to favorites. He had a passion for the chase, which alter religion except by consent of Parliament, but this did
led him to neglect the government while pursuing deer in not prevent him from seeking a compromise between the
Theobalds Park. He made long speeches to Parliament in bishops and the Puritans. On his arrival in London the
which he put forward theoretical claims to absolute power. ­Puritans presented him with the Millenary Petition (so
Above all, he surrendered his judgment to Court favorites called because a thousand clergy allegedly signed it), in
who possessed neither sense nor ability. which they asked that the sign of the cross not be used in
James clashed at once with the House of Commons. baptism nor the ring in marriage, that the Sabbath should
In 1604 he ordered the Court of Chancery to declare the be kept holy, and that there should be more preaching,
election of Sir Francis Goodwin from Buckinghamshire fewer pluralists, and less use of the oath ex officio (by which
null and void, alleging that he was ineligible as an outlaw. suspects must give evidence against themselves). James I,
James’s action was not unprecedented, for Chancery had who was an ardent Calvinist except in matters of church
decided disputed election returns in Elizabeth’s reign. It was government, promptly summoned a conference at Hamp-
the Commons who acted in a radical manner by declaring ton Court between the Puritans and the bishops. Except
Goodwin lawfully elected and by demanding the right to for a fierce outburst against Presbyterian church govern-
decide their own election returns. James exacerbated the ment, which led him to declare prophetically, “No Bishop,
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 195

no King,” James played a neutral role. The conference was from recusancy fines. And once James embarked on a
by no means a total victory for the bishops, but the final ­pro-Spanish foreign policy, he was less inclined than ever
outcome was, since James lost interest once the conference to enforce the penal laws against Catholics. The 35,000
ended. He allowed the bishops who dominated the com- Catholics of 1603 became the 50,000 Catholics of 1625.
missions named to enforce the conference’s decisions, to
make sure that some of them were not carried out. The
bishops revised the Book of Common Prayer in their own
interest and secured passage through Convocation of new
James and the Law
canons, one of which required the clergy to subscribe to By 1606 James was secure on the throne. He had governed
the royal supremacy, the Thirty-nine Articles, and the re- for three years lawfully and successfully. The ­Gunpowder
vised Prayer Book. Ninety clergymen refused to subscribe Plot had created a strong reaction in his favor, and
and lost their benefices, but most Puritans conformed, be- ­Parliament had cheerfully voted him three subsidies. The
ing resolved to reform the Church from within. They had deeper constitutional conflicts that marked the later years
allies in the House of Commons who in 1610 presented a of his reign had not yet appeared. But their root cause,
petition to James on behalf of the ejected ministers. During insolvency, had. The near-bankruptcy of the Crown was
James’s reign the Puritans were unhappy, but they were not James’s doing, not Elizabeth’s. Elizabeth had left a debt of
yet rebels. £365,000, only £65,000 more than the debt Mary had left
James also sought to play the peacemaker with his her. By 1606 James had increased the debt to £600,000.
Catholic subjects. A tolerant man himself, while he was James spent lavishly and gave prodigally. His wife, Anne of
in Scotland he had promised English Catholics a greater Denmark, loved extravagant clothes and new jewels. James
toleration. He did not fulfill these promises; instead, he is- and Anne had two sons and a daughter, each of whom
sued a proclamation ordering all priests to leave the coun- must have a household. The Court delighted in sumptuous
try and he continued to collect recusancy fines. At that banquets and spectacular masques. James gave gifts and
very moment Spain deserted the Catholics of England, pensions to his favorites, most of them Scots. At the recep-
signing a peace with England that gave no protection to tion of the Spanish embassy he gave away more plate than
English Catholics. Exceedingly frustrated by these events, Elizabeth had in her whole reign. It could not continue;
a half dozen Catholic gentlemen plotted to blow up the James must either retrench or increase his revenues.
King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons on Robert Cecil, the King’s chief minister, did not push
­November 5, 1605. The explosion would be a signal for re- retrenchment with any vigor since he profited from the
bellion throughout the land. They hired a Catholic soldier King’s prodigality. As the treasury fell deeper into debt, the
of fortune, Guy Fawkes, to place 36 barrels of gunpowder ­glories of Hatfield House rose in Hertfordshire. Since C
­ ecil,
in a room underneath the House of Lords. The powder whom James made Earl of Salisbury, dared not p ­ ursue re-
might well have gone off at the opening of Parliament had trenchment, he had to increase the King’s revenues. This
not one of the conspirators revealed the plot to the govern- he did by various expedients, one of which was to increase
ment. On the night of the 4th, palace guards sent to search custom duties. In 1608 he issued a new book of rates, by
Westminster Palace found Guy Fawkes and his barrels of which ­duties on 1400 articles were increased from 30 to
gunpowder. The other conspirators fled, raised a rebellion, 40 ­percent, yielding an additional £70,000 a year. He could
and were captured. Along with Guy Fawkes, they were do this because judges in the Bate’s case in 1605 had ruled
tried and executed for treason. that the Crown might, in the exercise of its ­prerogative to
The Gunpowder Plot created the annual celebration regulate trade, increase custom duties. Salisbury, however,
of Guy Fawkes Day, promoted antipopery for a century made no pretense that the Crown was regulating trade; the
and more, and provoked the passage of further penal Book of Rates was palpably designed to raise revenue. These
laws against Catholics. But its significance does not end impositions, as the additional duties were called, p
­ rovoked
there. It was, in fact, the last fling of a politically engaged a storm in Parliament in 1610 and 1614. If the King’s claims
­Catholicism. With its failure, Catholics turned away from were allowed, one member of Parliament cried out, “we are
treason and thereby made possible the existence of a re- but tenants at his will of that which we have.”
spectable Catholic community in England. This devel- The fury of the House of Commons led James to dis-
opment was abetted by a new oath of supremacy, which solve Parliament, both in 1610 and 1614. The fury also
included an express denial of the Pope’s authority to de- helped cause the failure of the Great Contract in 1610,
pose kings. Those Catholics who took the oath, and they the one constructive effort made to modernize the King’s
were many, became practically, if not legally, exempt finances. Salisbury proposed that the King surrender the
196 A History of England

right of wardship (the right to profit from the custody of artificial reason of his judges, who were learned in the law.
tenants who were minors) and the right of purveyance (the The other judges unanimously followed Coke, and James
right to purchase food at less than market prices) in return never again sought to act as a judge himself.
for a permanent annual grant of £200,000. The negotia- But he did seek to influence the judges. In 1615 an ob-
tions were nearing success when the quarrel over imposi- scure preacher by the name of Edmund Peacham was
tions and James’s sudden demand for an immediate supply accused of treason for hinting (in notes for a sermon he
of £500,000 doomed them to failure. The King was now never delivered) that James would be smitten with sudden
committed to raising his revenue by impositions, grants of death. James, who was so frightened that he thereafter slept
monopolies, forced loans, and other projects of doubtful every night barricaded behind feather beds, sought to con-
legality and certain unpopularity. sult separately with his judges about the case. Coke, now
The illegality of these financial expedients raised two fun- Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, at first refused to answer,
damental questions: Was the King bound by law? And who because the King might in this manner pressure the judges.
was to declare what those boundaries were? Though James Coke finally answered, but the next year, in a case concern-
defended the divine right of kings in his The True Law of ing the King’s right to grant licenses to hold pluralities, he
Free Monarchies, he never asserted that his powers were ab- resisted the King once more. James sought to delay the case
solute. In 1610 he acknowledged that he could not make law in order to consult with the judges. Coke, on his knees be-
or collect subsidies without the consent of ­Parliament. The fore the King, refused to admit that the King might delay a
constitutional struggles of early Stuart England were not case. James thereupon dismissed him from office, a severe
over sovereignty—that is, the location of supreme power— blow to the independence of the judiciary.
for most people regarded their government as a mixed gov- Coke replied by securing election to the House of
ernment of King, Lords, and ­Commons in which there was ­C ommons in 1621, where he took up a cause that car-
no supreme power. The struggle was rather over the extent ried within it the seeds of a far deeper conflict. If the
of the prerogative, a term more familiar to English ears than judges could not be trusted to declare the law rightly,
sovereignty. Prerogative was the sum of all the King’s lawful then ­Parliament must do so. In 1610 and 1614 the House
powers, and the question that now arose was who should of Commons had condemned impositions as illegal. In
declare its extent. 1621 it declared numerous patents of monopoly illegal. In
The most obvious answer was the judges, who in 1610, 1624 Parliament even passed an Act of Monopolies, which
for example, informed James that he could not use proc- forbade the King to grant a monopoly to a private indi-
lamations to make new law or introduce new penalties for vidual. This act was the first instance in English history of
violating old laws. James acquiesced in their judgment, ­Parliament legislating away a prerogative of the King.
but the burden placed on the judges only raised a further
question: Should the judges, as Sir Francis Bacon urged, act
as the King’s good servants, or should they, as Sir E ­ dward Government by Court
Coke urged, act independently of the King? Sir Francis
Bacon, son of a Lord Keeper, was a man of great wit and
Favorites
learning, an essayist of genius, a propagandist of the new To prodigality, a rather amiable vice, James added the
scientific method, and a scheming courtier who rose to be vice of partiality to Court favorites. While Salisbury lived,
Lord Chancellor by his services to James. Sir ­Edward Coke, which was until 1612, he held in check James’s passion for
son of a Norfolk lawyer, was an irascible, prejudiced, and Court favorites, but thereafter there was no restraint. James
marvelously learned lawyer, who as Attorney General had turned to Robert Carr, an athletic and handsome young
furiously prosecuted Essex and Raleigh, and whom James Scotsman, whom he made Viscount Rochester and then
named as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1606. A Earl of Somerset and on whom he lavished lands and of-
year later, in 1607, Archbishop Bancroft complained to fice. But Somerset soon fell from power, for it was discov-
James that the Common law courts, by issuing “writs ered that his new wife, the nymphomaniac Lady Essex, had
of prohibitions,” took cases away from the ecclesiastical ordered Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned to prevent him
courts. He suggested that the King, as the fountain of jus- from revealing information that would obstruct her di-
tice, could withdraw cases from both jurisdictions and try vorce from the Earl of Essex and her marriage to Somerset.
them himself. James liked the suggestion and referred it to Power and influence now fell to the Howard fam-
his judges. Coke replied that the King was not learned in ily, the Earls of Northampton and Suffolk, who carried
the laws of England, that cases concerning life and prop- corruption, which had increased during the last years
erty were not to be tried by his natural reason but by the of E­ lizabeth’s reign, to new heights. They pilfered the
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 197

treasury and sold offices and honors. But they were soon reign. The Lords found Bacon guilty of taking bribes, fined
eclipsed by George Villiers, son of an obscure Leicester- him, imprisoned him during the King’s pleasure, and de-
shire knight. Villiers had a tall and beautifully propor- clared him incapable of holding office.
tioned body, dark chestnut hair, an exquisitely curved The King’s troubles did not stop with the attack on
mouth, and dark blue eyes. In France he had perfected his the monopolists. The House of Commons also launched
skill in dancing, music, dueling, and horsemanship. James an attack on his foreign policy. In 1620 the Thirty Years’
first saw George Villiers in 1614 and immediately fell in War burst upon Europe, with Spain invading the lands of
love with him. Within a year he bestowed a knighthood Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, who in 1618 had been
upon him. In 1617 he created him Earl, in 1619 Marquis, elected King of Bohemia. He quickly lost the Bohemian
and in 1623 Duke of B­ uckingham. He doted on him, flirted Crown and not long after, the Palatinate. The English pub-
with him, kissed him, and embraced him in a manner lic rallied to Frederick’s cause not only because he was a
that made James’s homosexual proclivities obvious to his Protestant, but because he was the husband of James’s
contemporaries. The King’s kissing his favorites, wrote Sir daughter Elizabeth, beloved as “the Queen of Hearts.”
Anthony Weldon, “in so lascivious a mode in public . . . James, ever the pacifist, hoped to avoid going to war in his
promoted many to imagine some things done in the retir- son-in-law’s cause. By offering his son Prince Charles to the
ing house that exceed my expressions.” Spanish Infanta in marriage, he hoped to persuade Spain
James’s subjects were quite willing to overlook his sexual to restore Frederick’s lands. It was a quixotic plan, which
preferences, but they could not stomach the lavish distri- the House of Commons promptly spurned. The Commons
bution of wealth and honors to Villiers, his family, and his wanted war against Spain, and, when it met in the autumn
clients. Queen Elizabeth had used the power of patronage of 1621, petitioned for such a war. James, who had appeared
to weld Court and country together. She had won loyalty to want such a petition, suddenly reversed his position and
by rewarding service. James used the power of patronage told the Commons, as Elizabeth had before him, that it had
to reward flatterers and favorites. A widening gulf arose no right to discuss high matters of state. This provoked the
between Court and country, with the nobility offended at Commons to draw up the Protestation of 1621, in which it
their exclusion from office and the increasingly Puritan declared that religion and foreign policy were proper sub-
gentry and merchants outraged at scandals at Court. jects for debate in Parliament. James replied by dissolving
More dangerous yet was James’s reliance on the advice Parliament and by ripping the offending protestation from
of Buckingham rather than the advice of his Privy C ­ ouncil. the journals of the House of Commons with his own hand.
James allowed the Council to grow from 19 members James was able to dissolve Parliament because he had
in 1610 to 35 in 1620, a quite unwieldly number. He also found in the London merchant Lionel Cranfield a fi-
spurned its advice, declaring in 1618, when some council- nancier of genius. By retrenching expenses and by man-
lors opposed him, that he would do as he saw fit “without aging the revenues more efficiently, Cranfield restored
following the advice of fools.” That resolve led to a bitter solvency to the Crown. Yet within three years the court-
confrontation with Parliament in 1621. Parliament met iers, led by B ­ uckingham, impeached Cranfield (now Earl of
under the most inauspicious circumstances: The country ­Middlesex) and drove him from office. Middlesex’s fault in
suffered from economic depression, there was anger at ­Buckingham’s eyes was his opposition to a war with Spain,
the extravagance of the Court, and there was fury at the a war which the Duke now desired. It was an astonishing
bloodsucking monopolists. The Court had granted some reversal in the Duke’s foreign policy, for only the year before
700 monopolies to favorites. An English man or woman he and Prince Charles had embarked on a romantic expe-
could not wash with soap or starch clothes or purchase a dition to Madrid to woo the Infanta. ­Buckingham believed
beaver hat or salt food or drink wine or buy playing cards he could recover the Palatinate by negotiating a Spanish
or read the Bible without supporting a monopolist. Led by marriage, even though Philip IV of Spain would never have
Sir E
­ dward Coke, the House of Commons searched out the compelled his cousin, the Emperor, to restore the Palatinate
worst offenders and impeached them before the House of to Frederick, whom both Philip and the Emperor regarded
Lords. They likewise turned the medieval weapon of im- as a heretic. In fact the Emperor soon granted Frederick’s
peachment, which had lain dormant during Tudor years, lands to Maximilian of Bavaria, a Catholic. Buckingham
against Sir Francis Bacon, ostensibly because he took and Charles returned from Spain in October 1623, seething
bribes at the Court of Chancery, in fact because he had with rage and resolved on a war against Spain. Buckingham
licensed so many monopolies. Bacon found little support quickly formed an alliance with the leaders of the opposi-
in the House of Lords, since a group of “opposition lords” tion in Parliament and bullied James into asking the House
had emerged, a phenomenon unknown during Elizabeth’s of Commons whether he should break off relations with
198 A History of England

Spain. James thus conceded to Parliament the very right to ceiling of the Banqueting Hall represented the apotheosis
discuss foreign policy he had denied it in 1621. of monarchy. The new florid style differed markedly from
Because Middlesex opposed a war that would destroy the delicate realism of the miniaturists, who continued to
all his efforts at economy, Buckingham and Charles engi- paint the portraits of the nobility and gentry of ­England.
neered his impeachment, which led James, now old and ill In architecture there occurred an even more marked
but still shrewd, to tell them that they would live to have ­divorce between Court and country. As their architect,
a “bellyfull” of impeachments themselves. Parliament en- James and Charles employed Inigo Jones, a Londoner who
thusiastically embraced the war against Spain, but voted enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Arundel and who
only enough money to wage it at sea, an odd way to re- learned the pure classical style of Palladio while studying
cover lands in central Europe. Furthermore, they voted in Italy. Jones built the Queen’s House at Greenwich and
that the money be used only for the war, and they named the ­Banqueting Hall at Whitehall in an uncompromising
the treasurers who were to spend it. In 1624 the Duke and classical style—bold, perfectly proportioned, refined, and
the Prince taught Parliament to discuss foreign policy, to elegant. He made no concession to the hybrid style called
control expenditures, and to impeach ministers, a curious “King ­Jamie’s Gothic,” which can be seen at its best in the
end to ten years of government by Court favorites. Earl of S­ alisbury’s ­Hatfield House. It was this hybrid style,
however, this mixture of Gothic and Renaissance elements,
and not Inigo Jones’s work, that dominated English archi-
tecture for the next generation.
Charles I and the Arts
At the death of James I in March 1625, Prince Charles, a
young man of 25, came to the throne. Charles had a Scots
accent, a falsetto voice, and a stammer that caused him to
keep acquaintances at a distance. He was a small, nervous,
shy man, with perfect manners, a gentle disposition, great
dignity, and an exact sense of duty. He proved to be a duti-
ful husband, a good father, and a disastrous king. He lacked
the common touch that would have allowed him to com-
municate with his subjects, and he had none of his father’s
shrewd intelligence. Though he displayed a great devotion
to principles, those principles were narrow, just as his sense
of honor was self-regarding. He had all the obstinacy of a
weak man and a pronounced distaste for compromise. His
high concept of the nature of kingship separated him from
even his closest advisers. It was his tragedy to seek to en-
force those high prerogative notions his father had merely
talked about. He did so conscientiously rather than force-
fully, sadly rather than with exuberance. He was, wrote
William Laud, “a mild and gracious prince who knew not
how to be, or be made, great.” The sadness was written on
his face. When the sculptor Bernini saw Van Dyck’s por-
trait of Charles, painted in 1637, he remarked, “Never have I
beheld a countenance more unfortunate.”
Though Charles was unfit to be a king, he would have
made a splendid art gallery director. He showed superb
taste and intelligence in purchasing the paintings of the
great Italian masters, of Titian, Tintoretto, Mantegna, and
Raphael. He showed equal judgment in commissioning
works from the Flemish artists Anthony Van Dyck and
Peter Paul Rubens. Van Dyck propagated the cause of ab-
solutism with his flattering, idealistic portraits of Charles,
the Queen, and their Court, while Rubens’s sketches for the Charles I, by Daniel Mytens.
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 199

The Queen’s House, Greenwich, built by Inigo Jones for Henrietta Maria.  (John Bethell/The
­Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

Inigo Jones might have built more buildings had Charles traditional, between Gothic and Renaissance art. It was also
not employed him in devising masques for the delight of an age passionately interested in exploring distant worlds
the Court. A masque was a short, allegorical, dramatic and new ideas. All of this found expression in a metaphysi-
­entertainment, with elaborate scenery and costumes. Both cal poetry marked by paradoxes, sharp antitheses, bizarre
Charles and Henrietta Maria occasionally took part in words, and strange metaphors. The greatest of the meta-
them. In the 1630s many composers concentrated on writ- physical poets was John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s, who had
ing music for the masques at Court, while the madrigal- begun life as a Catholic and a lawyer. No metaphor was too
ists continued to write for a gentry who preferred simple extravagant for his passionate imagination. Thus he opens
singing to the ornate, ceremonial masque. The masque one of his finest poems:
had a harmful effect on the theater. To please the tastes of
Go and catch a falling star,
a Carr or a Villiers, Ben Jonson, the greatest of Jacobean
Get with child a mandrake root,
dramatists, devoted his efforts to the preparation of elabo-
Tell me where all past years are,
rate masques, and drama degenerated into spectacle. Even
Or who cleft the Devil’s foot,
before the emergence of the masque, the theater, which in
Teach me to hear Mermaids singing,
the time of Shakespeare had portrayed noble men in tragic
Or to keep off envy’s stinging.1
circumstances, had turned to the bawdy and the horrific, to
satire and melodrama. In The Alchemist, for example, Ben In the writing of prose the same tensions and richness of
Jonson satirizes Sir Epicure Mammon, a newly enriched imagination can be found in works such as Robert Burton’s
gentleman, and Tribulation Wholesome, a hypocritical Anatomy of Melancholy. Yet the most remarkable writer of
­Puritan. Playwrights ceased to grapple with moral ques- the age, Sir Francis Bacon, took a different path. He pub-
tions and devoted themselves to amusing sophisticated lished in 1597, 1612, and 1625, collections of essays modeled
courtiers with lewd comedies, which sneered at moral on those of Montaigne in France and characterized by a
virtues. They thereby delighted the courtiers but angered perfectly balanced, lucid, economical prose. Yet Bacon’s
the Puritans, who when they gained power in 1642 closed work probably had less influence on his age than Sir Walter
down the theaters. Raleigh’s History of the World, published in 1614. Raleigh
The noble themes and moral issues the theater ignored taught a generation of English men and women, espe-
found a home in poetry. The Jacobean age was one of ten- cially the Puritans, not to look backward to a golden age,
sion, between contending faiths, between the new and the not to regard kings as particularly favored by God, but to
200 A History of England

Hatfield House, built for Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, when he was James I’s chief minister.  
(John Bethell/The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

look forward and to use the power of the state to promote he was quite unable to manage the King’s first Parliament,
God’s cause and England’s. Three years before the publi- which met in 1625. Angered at the failure of Mansfeld’s ex-
cation of Raleigh’s History, the King James Version of the pedition and alarmed at the marriage treaty, the Commons
Bible appeared, the most influential book ever published in voted only two subsidies (worth about £140,000) for the
­England. It drew on the English language at a time when war. Even more, when Charles became King they voted the
it had reached a zenith of vigor and richness, and it taught customs duties for only one year—not, as was customary,
that language to three centuries of readers. At the same for life. They wanted to settle the matter of impositions
moment Shakespeare retired from playwriting. The two first. The Lords rejected the bill as injurious to the Crown,
events marked the end of the Elizabethan age in literature with the result that no bill passed. There was no time for
and of the national unity which that literature reflected. compromise, because Charles dissolved Parliament the
moment he heard that Coke and others intended to attack
Buckingham himself.
During the next year a favorite who enjoyed supreme
Charles I and Parliament power found that he could not evade supreme respon-
The key to the first three years of Charles’s reign was the sibility. Only a brilliant success in diplomacy and war
complete ascendancy of the Duke of Buckingham. As could vindicate Buckingham in Parliament’s eyes. Instead
powerful as the Duke was under James, he was even more he stumbled from one folly to the next. An expedition
powerful under Charles. And he again misused that power. sent to Cádiz to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet was a
He sent an army under Count Mansfeld to recover the ­disaster—the ships were decayed, the provisions inedible,
­Palatinate, but it landed in the dead of winter on the Island the sailors cowardly, and the soldiers drunk. B ­ uckingham
of Walcheren, with no money and few rations, and was then allowed a series of petty quarrels with France to
soon wiped out by disease and starvation. He negotiated lead to a declaration of war against that powerful king-
Charles’s marriage to a French princess, Henrietta Maria, dom, even though England was still at war with Spain.
but—in violation of Charles’s earlier promise—made the Little wonder that the House of Commons refused further
suspension of the penal laws against Catholics part of the taxes and voted an impeachment against Buckingham. It
treaty. He compounded this fault by sending ships to help ­accused him of monopolizing offices, of accepting exorbi-
France suppress the Protestants at La Rochelle. As a result tant gifts, of neglect of duty, of mismanagement. Since few
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 201

if any of these faults were crimes, Charles would have been The Petition of Right was a major triumph for the cause
wise to allow the impeachment to come to a trial before of liberty. In medieval England a “liberty” had a geograph-
the Lords. But fearing the revelations a trial might elicit, he ical connotation; it was an area governed by a great abbot
chose a different strategy. He claimed full responsibility for or an earl palatine, into which the sheriff might not enter.
all the Duke’s actions, thus challenging the legal principle It was the signal achievement of the English to turn the
that the King can do no wrong, a principle that placed re- medieval idea of a private liberty, of a particular franchise,
sponsibility for all decisions on the King’s ministers, not on into the modern ideal of a public liberty enjoyed by all. A
the King. To save the Duke from a trial before the Lords, liberty became a general right that the government must
Charles dissolved Parliament, even though it meant losing not invade. The law that defined this right circumscribed
four subsidies. Buckingham’s impeachment was the first the government. By 1603 the English began to speak of a
step on a path that led to the establishment of the responsi- “fundamental law” that was a check on arbitrary govern-
bility of ministers to Parliament. ment, though they were unclear what this fundamental
Denied the four subsidies he sought, Charles resolved law was. It was not the Common law, though Coke on
to collect a forced loan. He did so with unprecedented occasion referred to the Common law as “fundamental”
ruthlessness, dismissing Chief Justice Crew for refusing to and identified it with the laws of nature. Yet Coke ac-
declare the loan legal and imprisoning 76 persons who re- knowledged that Parliament by statute could change the
fused to pay it. Five of these, all of them knights, sued out a Common law. It would be closer to the truth to say that
writ of habeas corpus, demanding to know for what cause by fundamental law the English meant that part of the
they were imprisoned. The Court of King’s Bench replied ­Common law that was identical with the laws of God and
that the King had a right to imprison men without stating the laws of nature.
a reason, and returned the five knights to prison. The war In the seventeenth century morality and law were still
against France led to other grievous measures. Throughout fused together; the law recognized actions that were evil
southern England the troops intended for France were bil- because prohibited and actions that were evil in them-
leted on ordinary families and martial law introduced to selves. Antiquity as well as morality gave sanction to the
discipline the recently impressed, ill-paid, starving troops. law. Indeed, the Common lawyers pleaded precedent more
Thus, in the minds of the people martial law became as- often than morality, and appealed to the ancient laws of
sociated with the forced loan, and both with arbitrary England more often than to the laws of God and nature.
government. The historical sense of the Common lawyers was naive
The £267,000 raised by the forced loan was quite in- by nineteenth-century standards: They did not recognize
adequate to wage war against France, a war Buckingham change through time. They believed in an ancient constitu-
once again bungled. In 1628 financial exhaustion forced tion that went back before the Norman Conquest, to time
Charles to meet a new Parliament, 27 of whose members immemorial, when people were wiser and better. Coke,
had been among the 76 imprisoned for refusing the loan. for example, traced Parliament back to the time of King
The House of Commons did not waste its time impeaching ­Arthur. In truth, there was no clear idea of the fundamen-
­Buckingham but went straight to the matter of defining the tal law; it was a confusion of the Common law, moral law,
law. It drew up a Petition of Right which declared that no and the immemorial laws of England. There were only two
man hereafter shall be compelled to pay any tax, gift, loan, certain truths: Parliament, as the highest court in the land,
or benevolence not voted by Parliament; that no person had the authority to declare what the law was, and the King
shall be kept in prison without cause being shown; that sol- was beneath the law.
diers and sailors shall not be billeted on men without their Having condemned arbitrar y government, the
consent; and that civilians shall not be subjected to mar- ­C ommons went on to attack incompetent govern-
tial law. The House of Lords sought to add a clause saving ment. It drew up an inflammatory Remonstrance calling
that “sovereign power wherewith your Majesty is entrusted for B­ uckingham’s dismissal. Charles at once dismissed
for the protection, safety, and happiness of your people.” ­Parliament to save his favorite, but he could not prevent
Coke, speaking in the Commons, objected: “I know that John Felton, a Suffolk gentleman brooding over the state
prerogative is part of the law, but ‘sovereign power’ is no of the realm and over the Duke’s refusal to grant him a
parliamentary word.” The Lords gave way and accepted the captaincy, from driving a dagger into the Duke’s heart.
petition without a saving clause. Charles then tried to shuf- Charles, momentarily grief-stricken, resolved to carry on
fle off the petition by not giving his consent in a legal form, Buckingham’s policies, which meant meeting Parliament
but the Commons insisted upon and finally secured his full once again in 1629. The session came quickly to grief over
legal consent. two divisive issues: the continued collection of tunnage
202 A History of England

and poundage, and the promotion of Arminian clergymen marched into Germany to save Protestantism and as the
who preached high prerogative notions. Dutch resumed their struggle for independence, Charles
Charles did not believe that the Petition of Right prohib- stood by, a neutral. His policy was not popular with his
ited him from collecting tunnage and poundage (the cus- subjects. England “never throve so well,” said Coke, “as
tom’s duties on a tun* of wine and a pound of merchandise). when at war with Spain.” Royal policy was even less popu-
He therefore continued to collect them, and imprisoned lar when it became known that Charles, under the mask
merchants who refused to pay. He also refused to allow any of neutrality, was aiding the Spanish. Every year from 1630
condemnation of a clergyman by the House of Commons onward, Spain, which found it difficult to run the Franco-
to hinder his advancement. In 1628 he named Richard Dutch blockade in the Channel, sent its gold and silver to
Montagu Bishop of Chichester, even though the Commons Plymouth. Charles then reshipped it through Dover to the
in 1625 had condemned Montagu for publishing Arminian Spanish Netherlands, where the money was used to pay a
views. Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch theologian who held Catholic army to destroy Dutch Protestantism.
that man by his own free will could help determine the des- On the other side of the ledger was an increase in the
tination of his soul, a view deeply offensive to the Calvin- revenues of the Crown. Lord Treasurer Weston and At-
ists. Those who held this view were branded as Arminians. torney General Noy proved infinitely fertile in expedients.
Charles also gave a handsome benefice to Roger Manwar- They raised £150,000 in two years by fining landowners
ing, who had incurred an impeachment in 1628 for preach- worth £40 a year or more who had failed to apply for the
ing that it was an offense against the law of God to refuse to honor of knighthood. They revived obsolete medieval for-
pay the forced loan. When the Commons in 1629 came to est laws and fined those who had cut timber and cleared
the aid of the merchants who had refused to pay tunnage wastes on what had once been royal forests. A Commis-
and poundage, Charles decided to dissolve Parliament. To sion on Depopulation fined those who enclosed fields. A
delay the dissolution, members of the House forcefully held new Book of Rates increased the customs duties, which
the Speaker in the chair while the House voted three bold were collected even though never voted by Parliament. The
resolutions: Anyone paying tunnage and poundage, anyone government fined the City of London £70,000 for a tech-
advising its collection, and anyone introducing innova- nical infraction of its charter—colonizing Londonderry in
tions in religion was “a capital enemy to this kingdom and Ireland. And Lord Treasurer Weston found an excuse for
commonwealth.” This revolutionary scene enacted, they reviving the sale of monopolies. In order to satisfy the Mer-
­released the Speaker and went home. chant Adventurers, Parliament had exempted companies
from the 1624 act forbidding the grant of monopolies. The
Crown therefore now granted monopolies to companies
The Eleven Years of established for the production of alum, soap, coal, salt, and
Prerogative Government bricks. By the end of the 1630s the government collected
The turbulence of the House of Commons in 1629 per- nearly £100,000 a year from monopolies, and from court
suaded Charles to govern without Parliament. To do this he favorites, a like amount. The poor paid for this through
must take one of two paths: either make himself an absolute higher prices, which gives the lie to any talk of Stuart pater-
king and rule through a standing army and a professional nalism. Charles and his ministers never helped the lower
bureaucracy—as Richelieu was showing the King of France classes; even their attempts to restrain enclosure seem de-
how to do—or rule within the letter of the law, exploiting signed more to raise fines from the gentry than to help the
every ancient and ambiguous power of the Crown. Possess- tenants. The Earl of Worcester had no difficulty obtaining
ing no standing army or professional bureaucracy, Charles permission to enclose Wentwood Chase in return for a
chose the latter path. The success of his endeavor, therefore, loan to the King.
depended entirely upon his success in reducing the costs of All the financial expedients before 1635—with the pos-
government and increasing the revenues of the Crown. sible exception of impositions—were legal. In that year,
The economies Lord Treasurer Weston ordered did the government extended to the whole kingdom the tra-
much to reduce expenses, but not nearly so much as the ditional right to demand ships, or the money to purchase
abandonment of Buckingham’s war policies. In 1629 Eng- ships, from the seaports. Both Elizabeth and James had
land made peace with France, and in 1630, with Spain. collected ship money from the ports, and there might even
During the next decade, as Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden have existed a medieval precedent for collecting it from
inland towns, but there existed no precedent whatever for
collecting it year after year from inland towns, as Charles
*A tun, or barrel, equalled 252 gallons. did. The tax was equitably assessed, efficiently collected,
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 203

and properly spent on the navy, but the fundamental issue rights of many parishes in England. They then appointed
was political, not technical. If the King could on his own fervent Puritan ministers to these livings. Using the
authority establish an annual non-Parliamentary tax, then power of Star Chamber, Laud dissolved their organiza-
the central constitutional issue of the age would be decided tion and suppressed their activities. He also declared war
in favor of the Crown. A wealthy Buckinghamshire gentle- on Puritans who maintained “lecturers” in the churches of
man, John Hampden, therefore refused to pay the 20 shil- England. In many places a town corporation or a private
lings assessed on his lands at Stoke Mandeville. individual would appoint and pay lecturers to preach on
His case came before the 12 Common law judges in the a Sunday afternoon as a supplement to the preaching—if
Exchequer Chamber in 1637. The attorney general declared any—of the parish priest. Since the lecturers were usually
that in an emergency the prerogative could not be bound Puritans, Laud sought to suppress them. Laud’s vigorous
by law and that it was for the King to decide when an use of the Court of High Commission and the Court of
emergency existed. John Hampden’s attorney, the brilliant Star Chamber brought both into disrepute. It also aroused
Oliver St. John, replied that the prerogative is at all times the anticlericalism of the English, for these courts were
bound by the law, otherwise an Englishman’s life and prop- used to chastise noblemen for immorality, degrade knights
erty were not secure. The judges ruled in favor of the King for libeling bishops, and rebuke chief justices for being le-
by the narrowest margin, seven to five, with Chief Justice nient on Puritans. It did not make the laity any happier to
Finch calling the English monarch “absolute” and declaring see four bishops sitting on the Privy Council.
that all acts of Parliament were void, which restrained the Closely allied to anticlericalism was antipopery, and the
King’s power “to command his subjects, their persons and Queen’s party at Court exacerbated that sentiment. The
goods.” When the Venetian ambassador heard the verdict, Queen did not shape policy, but she did set the fashion at
he declared that this meant royal absolutism and the end of Court—and that fashion centered on Rome. Papal envoys
Parliament in England. moved freely at Court, priests celebrated mass daily, and
The widening gulf between the Court and the country several fashionable ladies converted to Catholicism. The
could also be seen in religion. Charles was the first monarch Gulf between Court and country grew wider and wider, a
raised from birth in the English Church, and its devotions gulf tangibly symbolized by Charles’s proclamation in 1632
had a singular appeal to him. His artistic tastes led him to ordering all gentlemen without a London house to remain
admire the beauty of its ceremonies, and his love of order in the country. One gentleman who came up to London
led him to despise the rantings of the Puritans. From the anyway was fined £1000.
moment he ascended the throne Charles identified himself Though politically unpopular, Charles’s policies were
with the Arminians—those clergymen who favored ritual financially a success. The Crown was able to collect over
and ceremony, who entertained ideas of free will, and who £400,000 a year, an income adequate to meet normal ex-
defended the prerogative. But it was not until 1633 that he penditures. By 1636 Charles had obtained nearly £200,000
could name the ablest of these clergymen, William Laud, as from ship money. By 1638 he was nearly out of debt, and
Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud, the son of a master tailor the Crown jewels were taken out of pawn.
in Reading, rose rapidly in the Church through his scholar-
ship and administrative skill. He was a small, blunt, honest,
ruthless man, who as Chancellor of Oxford University had
driven out the Puritans and established the “beauty of holi- Economic Depression
ness.” He now sought to do the same throughout the realm. The King’s subjects did not share in this prosperity, for the
Using all the authority at his command, he enforced the 1620s and 1630s were a period of chronic economic de-
wearing of vestments and the performance of rituals. The pression. Early in James’s reign it appeared that prosperity
altar should stand in the east end of the Church, protected would prevail, for the Anglo-Spanish treaty of 1604 and the
by an altar rail, not in the middle of the church, where pa- Truce of 1609 in the Netherlands brought a boom in trade.
rishioners could leave their hats on it. Priests should wear By 1614 the export of cloth was one-fourth greater than in
vestments, have candles on the altar, and bow at the name 1600, and cloth sent to northern Europe made up 90 per-
of Jesus. All this was anathema to the Puritans, though not cent of English exports. Then James I suddenly embraced
as horrid as the idolatrous practice of placing statues of the the plan of Sir William Cockayne to export only dyed and
Virgin Mary in some churches. finished cloth. In July 1614 James forbade the Merchant
Laud not only enforced ceremonies on the Church, he Adventurers to export unfinished cloth, and granted to the
suppressed preaching. A group of Puritans—merchants King’s Merchant Adventurers, a new company formed by
and gentlemen—had bought up the tithes and patronage Cockayne and other merchants, the sole right to export
204 A History of England

finished cloth. The project seemed reasonable, for the dye- Draperies were heavy cloths, made of short fibers, which
ing of cloth made up 47 percent of its cost, and fulling looked much like a modern blanket. They now gave way
5 percent. Why should the Dutch rather than the English to the New Draperies, a worsted product, much lighter, in
profit from these processes? Unfortunately for the English which the weave could be seen in the finished fabric. The
cloth industry, Cockayne and his friends did not have the New Draperies, which first appeared in Elizabeth’s reign,
capital or the technical skill to dye and dress cloth. Their now throve in East Anglia, where the wealth of Norwich
true purpose was merely to wrest the monopoly of ex- led James Harrington to call it “another Utopia.”
porting cloth away from the Merchant Adventurers, and An increasing polarization of society also occurred, with
James had listened to them only because they promised the rich growing richer and the poor poorer. Between 1600
him £300,000 a year from their profits. The Dutch imme- and 1640 the population increased by 25 percent, creating
diately retaliated by refusing to receive dressed and dyed an inflation from which people of land and trade prof-
cloths. Unable to sell abroad, the new company ceased to ited. But those dependent on wages grew poorer. The real
buy at home. There were 500 bankruptcies reported among earnings of a laborer born in 1580 were only half the real
clothiers, and soon the unemployed weavers in Wiltshire earnings of his great-grandfather. The average industrial
and Gloucestershire rioted. By 1617 the King’s Adventurers wage was hardly enough to maintain life, with the result
admitted their failure and were dissolved. James restored that children had to be sent to work. In the second decade
to the Merchant Adventurers their monopoly of the export of James’s reign the purchasing power of building crafts-
of cloth. But the damage had been done; in three years ex- men and agricultural workers reached the lowest point in
ports had fallen by one-third. the whole of recorded history (which extends from 1300 to
After a brief recovery in 1618, a still deeper crisis over- the present). The opulent country homes and the exquisite
whelmed the cloth industry in the 1620s. The immediate college quadrangles that the Jacobeans built rested on the
cause was an outburst of currency manipulation by lo- sweat of impoverished, exploited workers.
cal princes in Germany and eastern Europe. By debasing Pressed by the petitions of private traders and by the
their currencies, they made imports more expensive and alarm expressed in Parliament, the government in 1622
so priced English cloth out of the market. In the ­B altic named a commission of three commercial and financial
the export of English cloth fell by two-thirds between 1618 experts to inquire into the causes of the depression. One of
and 1622. By 1624 the monetary confusion came to an end, them, Edward Misselden, argued that the chief cause was
but then the disruptive effect of the Thirty Years’ War be- the “want of money” and that this want of money arose
gan to be felt. Even more harmful was the competition from the fact that English coin was undervalued in relation
of the Dutch. Expensive English cloth could not compete to foreign currencies. Being undervalued, foreign mer-
with the lighter, cheaper Dutch cloth. Between 1606 and chants purchased it, thereby creating a substantial drain
1640 the number of pieces of woolen cloth exported from of English coin to the Continent. A second member of the
­London fell from 120,000 to 45,000. Adding to the distress commission, Gerard Malynes, agreed that the flow of Eng-
was a series of bad harvests in the 1620s and 1630s that lish coin out of the country was the cause of its troubles,
drove people to spend their meager incomes on high- but believed that the drain was a result of speculation by
priced grain, not on cloth or other manufactures. foreign bankers. It remained for the third member of the
The depression did not hit everyone with equal force. commission, Thomas Mun, to see that it was not the un-
The coal industry continued its spectacular advance. By dervaluation of English coin or speculation by foreign
1640 England produced three times as much coal as all bankers that caused the drain on English coinage: It was an
Europe. The growth of the coal trade meant an increase in adverse balance of trade. He wrote:
coastal shipping, since sea transport, which was 20 times
For it is a certain rule that in those countries beyond
cheaper than wheeled transport, carried most of the coal.
the seas which send us more of their wares in value
During the first 20 years of James’s reign the merchant
than we carry unto them of commodities, there our
­m arine grew as rapidly as during the last 20 years of
monies are undervalued in exchange, and in other
­Elizabeth’s. Hardest hit, of course, was England’s largest
countries where the contrary is performed, there our
industry, the woolen cloth industry. “Where the clothiers
money is overvalued.2
do dwell or have dwelt,” reported a contemporary, “there
are found the greatest number of the poor.” Wages in the Lionel Cranfield, in his practical manner, had long come
cloth industry were low, but unemployment was a greater to the same conclusion. “Trade is as great as ever,” he told
scourge. The western counties, where the Old D ­ raperies the Commons in 1621, “but not so good. It increases in-
had their roots, were particularly hard hit. The Old wards and decreases outwards.” The facts supported his
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 205

contention. In 1621 imports into England were higher than provided stiff competition. But the English company per-
during the years of prosperity before 1614, but the export severed. The high returns on the early voyages made it
of cloth had fallen well below average. Thomas Mun’s bril- easier to attract capital, and the company itself built the
liant memorandum was a landmark in English economic ships it needed. It broadened its trade to include indigo
thought, for it laid the basis of mercantilist economic the- and calicoes as well as pepper, paying for these goods with
ory. But the government wanted practical proposals, not bullion it got by reexporting spices, indigo, and calicoes
theories. Thomas Mun’s advice to secure a favorable bal- to Europe. It also engaged in a port-to-port trade in Asia
ance of trade was hardly more useful than Malynes’s and and established trading posts, or factories, at Surat in 1612
Misselden’s advice to regulate the rate of exchange. The and ­Ormuz in 1622. In 1623 the Dutch massacred all the
government clearly did not have the mechanism to regu- ­English traders at Amboyna in the Spice Islands, but the
late the rate of exchange, but did it have the power to se- practical English nevertheless reached a modus vivendi
cure a favorable balance of trade? with the Dutch: The Dutch could have the Spice Islands,
the ­E nglish would concentrate on India. In all these
­endeavors the Crown gave the company little help. Indeed,
in 1604, in 1617, and again in 1635, James and Charles, in
The Expansion of England violation of the charter of the East India Company, li-
Among their recommendations, Malynes, Misselden, censed rival traders to India.
and Mun urged that the government protect and encour- For the training of seamen, Newfoundland, “the ­India to
age the colonial trade, the fishing industry, and the mer- the west of England,” was far more important than ­India.
chant marine. They urged, in short, diversification. In the In 1615 the Newfoundland fisheries employed 5000 men
course of the next 80 years this diversification turned an and 250 ships; by 1640 they employed 10,000 men and 450
adverse balance of trade into a favorable one, but prog- ships. A multilateral trade centering on Plymouth arose,
ress was slow and, under the early Stuarts, owed little to in which merchants imported salt from Spain, sent fishing
government. Yet a beginning was made, largely by private fleets out to Newfoundland, sold the salted fish in Spain
enterprise, in three directions—in the development of the and the Mediterranean, and bought wine, sugar, and salt
Mediterranean and East Indian trades, in the exploita- in return. Newfoundland conformed more closely to the
tion of the Newfoundland fisheries, and in the planting principles of mercantilism than did any other trade. Yet
of colonies. all attempts to colonize Newfoundland were a failure. The
The Jacobeans firmly established that trade with the weather was too wretched, the fishermen too hostile, and
Mediterranean which the Elizabethans had begun. Many the Crown too unreliable. In 1637 six small settlements for-
factors explained their success: the decline of Venice; the feited their charters when Charles I granted the whole is-
vulnerability of the Dutch flyboat in distant, pirate-infested land to the Duke of Hamilton and Sir David Kirke, neither
waters; the attractiveness of the New Draperies, which of whom had made any effort to colonize it.
drove out the expensive Italian textiles; and the market More successful was the colonizing of Ulster with
for herring, which became England’s chief export to Italy. ­S cottish and English settlers. In 1607 the earls of ­Tyrone
The Mediterranean was the first region in Europe where and Tyrconnel, fearing for their safety, fled abroad. Their
­English ships captured a significant share of the local trade. lands were seized by the government, which then found
Ships of the Levant Company were often away for a year excuses for confiscating the lands of other chiefs and their
or more, selling from port to port. The large amounts of tenants. By 1609 the Crown had seized all six counties
capital such voyages required were the reason for the com- of modern Ulster. The land was then divided into par-
pany’s high entrance fees, exclusiveness, and monopolistic cels of 1000, 1500, and 2000 acres and leased to English
practices. and ­S cottish undertakers, persons who would undertake
The entrance fee for admission to the East India to plant their lands with English and ­S cottish settlers.
­Company, £50, was also high, but the returns from the first This proved so difficult that the undertakers often ig-
voyages justified it. The first four ships, sent out in 1601, nored the stipulation that they bring in only E ­ nglish and
brought back a million pounds of pepper and spices, and ­Scottish tenants, with the result that many Irish remained
returned the investors 95 percent. But the infant com- as tenants on land they once owned. Yet many S­ cottish
pany was harassed by difficulties. It had too little capital ­Presbyterians did come, seeking freedom for their ­religion.
and unsuitable ships. The demand for European goods The city of London also planted ­English ­s ettlers in the
in India was slight and the market for pepper in Europe northern half of the County of Derry, henceforth known
was unstable. The Dutch, who sent out 65 ships in 1601, as ­L ondonderry. By 1630 there were 14,500 English and
206 A History of England

Scottish families in Ulster, cultivating the best land and became insolvent in 1623. In 1624 James confiscated its
living side by side with the Irish who were slowly pushed charter and Virginia became a Crown colony.
into the poorer hills and bogs. Thus was created the prob- In 1608 a congregation of Puritan separatists, desir-
lem of Ulster, which would have tragic consequences for ing to escape Archbishop Bancroft’s persecution, left
the next 400 years. Scrooby Manor, Nottinghamshire, for Leiden in Holland.
The resolution to plant settlers in Ulster was taken at By 1620, however, they feared that they were losing their
Whitehall; the resolution to plant colonists in V ­ irginia English identity and sought some place in the New World
was taken in a low-ceilinged, paneled room in Sir Thomas for the liberty they desired. From the Virginia Company
Smith’s house in Philpott Lane. Sir Thomas Smith was they secured a patent to settle on the northern side of the
Treasurer of a syndicate of London merchants who Delaware Bay and from a syndicate of London financiers
formed a joint-stock company to colonize Virginia. They they got the capital to sail to America. It was an alliance
obtained a charter from the King, raised capital from of profit and piety, as the complement of the Mayflower
tradesmen, merchants, bishops, and great lords, and sent reflected—the ship carried 35 pilgrims and 66 adventur-
out three vessels and 144 men in 1607. Their hope was for ers to Cape Cod, where it inadvertently made landfall in
a quick profit, comparable to that gained by the East India November 1620. Within five months, 50 of the 101 were
Company. Like the Elizabethans, they hoped to find gold dead. Yet none of the colonists chose to return to England,
and silver and new trade routes, but they were far more even though the system of communal ownership was not
conscious of the need to grow commodities in the New given up until 1623. Plymouth Colony thereafter survived
World, such as timber and hemp and silk, that would pre- on farming and fur trading. In 1637 there were fewer than
vent the loss of bullion now spent to purchase them from 600 colonists.
others. The great migration of Puritans to New England oc-
The first colonists, mostly adventurers, wasted their curred after 1629 and centered on Massachusetts Bay. In
time treasure hunting, with the result that half of them March 1629 the Privy Council granted a charter to the
died during the first winter. When their distress became ­Massachusetts Bay Company to settle the lands between
known in England, an unexpected wave of enthusiasm the Charles and Merrimac Rivers. The company was osten-
for the colony swept the country. For the first time the sibly secular in its aims, but a majority were Puritans like
idea of colonization, as opposed to treasure hunting and John Winthrop, who led the first emigrants. Winthrop was
the discovery of trade routes, seized the English people. a Suffolk squire, a man of legal training and cool tempera-
Offers of capital and personal service flowed in, allowing ment, who had lost his office as attorney for the court of
the company to send out 500 settlers in 1609. But disas- wards because of his Puritan convictions. “Evil times are
ter struck again, for they were sent out with insufficient coming,” he wrote in 1629, “when the church must fly to
food and found the earlier colonists starving. The winter the wilderness.” In the summer of 1629 he arrived in ­Salem,
of ­1609–1610 was the “starving time,” with the famished with 11 ships and 900 settlers. Though 200 died the first
colonists eating the bodies of the dead, even killing the liv- winter and as many returned home, many others came
ing for food. It was “a miserie, a ruin, a death, a hell,” said during the next decade—driven by hunger for land, bad
one of the 60 survivors. harvests, economic distress, and Archbishop Laud’s per-
There were three principal reasons for the disaster: The secution. All the stockholders of the company emigrated
company failed to send a year’s supply of food with each to Massachusetts Bay, where they surrendered the govern-
colonist; it clung to the common ownership of land; and ment of the colony to an oligarchy of the members of the
it found no commodity worth exporting to England. Af- separatist churches. That oligarchy immediately established
ter 1610 it remedied these faults. It sent out sufficient sup- a religious tyranny as harsh as, and more efficient than,
plies, gave 50 acres to every person who went to Virginia, Laud’s in England. It was to establish a purer church, not
and discovered tobacco. In 1612 John Rolfe (who married religious liberty, that the Puritans came to New England.
Pocahontas) experimented with the growing of tobacco To escape Puritan intolerance Roger Williams, a Salem
and sent his new product to London. It sold immediately, clergyman, founded a colony in Rhode Island. At the same
and within a decade tobacco became a valued money crop. time, the Puritan peer Lord Brooke established a colony
Its cultivation became the labor of Africans, who were at Connecticut. One colony was not Puritan. In 1632 Lord
brought into the colony from 1619 onward, first as inden- Baltimore, a Roman Catholic who had once served James
tured servants, then as slaves. By 1635 Virginia had 5000 as Secretary of State, gained from Charles I a charter to
inhabitants and a secure economic base, but the company settle the northern part of Virginia. There he established
that founded it, having invested £300,000 in the venture, a colony based on religious toleration and an English
 Early Stuart England: 1603–1640 207

manorial social structure. Between 1629 and 1642 some G. E. Mingay. The Gentry: The Rise and Fall of a Ruling Class.
60,000 Englishmen came to the New World, about half of New York, 1976. Traces the gentry from their beginnings in
them to the Puritan colonies. They were too few to have the late Middle Ages to their decline in the nineteenth cen-
any impact on the English economy, but they were enough tury; better on their role as landlords than on their role as a
to begin one of the most remarkable transformations in political elite.
modern history. In 1603 the English-speaking peoples of Graham Parry. The Golden Age Restor’d: The Culture of the
the world numbered about 4 million; today they number Stuart Court 1603–1642. Manchester, England, 1982. A study
of the relationship between politics and the arts and of the
nearly 400 million.
spread of classical esthetic values in courtly circles.
Notes David B. Quinn and A. N. Ryan. England’s Sea Empire
1550–1642. Winchester, MA, 1983. A short, well-written,
1. Franklyn Snyder and Robert Martin, eds., A Book of ­fast-paced history by two authors who have worked for
English Literature. 1916. New York, 88. ­decades in maritime history; they probe the relationship
2. Thomas Mun, England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade. between economic growth and imperial expansion.
1895. New York. Conrad Russell. Parliaments and English Politics 1621–1629.
Oxford, 1979. An important revisionist study that argues
Further Reading that consensus, not conflict, characterized the 1620s; for
the traditional story see Perez Zagorin, Court and Country
Patrick Collinson. The Religion of Protestants: The Church in
(New York, 1970).
English Society 1559–1625. Oxford, 1982. A richly illustrated,
erudite, and sympathetic study of the Elizabethan and Kevin Sharpe. The Personal Rule of Charles I. New Haven, CT,
­Jacobean Church by the leading authority on the subject; 1993. Much more than a life of the enigmatic monarch. Ex-
portrays a Church in which there was room for Puritans— tremely useful on finance, politics without parliaments, and
until Laud appeared on the scene. the ways in which the image of the King and royal authority
were presented.
Pauline Croft. King James. London, 2003. A judicious assess-
ment that recognizes James’s good intentions regarding his Howard Tomlinson, ed. Before the English Civil War: E ­ ssays
desire for a peaceful foreign policy and an Anglo-Scottish on Early Stuart Politics and Government. New York, 1983.
union, while never ignoring the folly of his colonization of ­Revisionist essays on religion, parliament, Charles I, for-
Ireland and his pursuit of a pro-Spanish policy that alien- eign policy, finance, and local government; preceded by
ated Protestant opinion at home and abroad. ­Tomlinson’s summary of the revisionist attack and the
counterrevisionist reply.
J. P. Kenyon. Stuart England. Penguin Books, 1978. A narrative
of political events written with verve and boldness of judg- Charles Wilson. England’s Apprenticeship 1603–1763. New
ment; marred by its unqualified revisionist view of early York, 1965. An authoritative, pleasantly written economic
Stuart parliaments and its neglect of social and economic history that surveys agrarian, industrial, commercial, and
history. financial developments.
 chapter 14

The English Revolution:

1640–1660

F
CHAPTER OUTLINE rom the english revolution sprang two ideals that profoundly
shaped English—and Western—society during the next three cen-
■ The Causes of the English Revolution turies: the ideal of individual liberty and the ideal of representative
government. In the minds of the English liberty meant limited gov-
■ The Failure of Reform ernment. The powers of the executive should be limited by Common
and statute law, and the powers of the legislature by natural law and
■ Roundheads and Cavaliers
the fundamental laws of England. Government should be thus circum-
scribed in order to protect the liberties—civil, religious, economic, and
intellectual—of individuals. By the end of the century John Locke gave
■ The Rise of Independency
a classic expression to this ideal in his Second Treatise on Government,
wherein he argued that the very laws of nature guarantee to men and
■ The Commonwealth women rights which no government might invade.
Closely allied to the ideal of limited government was that of rep-
■ The Triumph of Property resentative government—namely that the representatives of the na-
tion should have a decisive voice in the exercise of those powers that
■ Overseas Expansion the government might lawfully exercise. By no means did this mean
democratic government, for a nation might be represented in various
ways. In medieval times Parliament represented the communities of
■ The Search for Consent
the realm—the Church, the peers, the shires, and the boroughs. In the
seventeenth century, people came to view Parliament as representing
■ The Restoration those with “an interest in the nation”—that is, those who owned prop-
erty. Not until the nineteenth century did Parliament represent all men
and not until the twentieth century, all women. But whatever the form
of representation, the demand arose that Parliament have a decisive
voice in the shaping of public policy. The English revolution did not
permanently secure the supremacy of Parliament or end all dangers of
arbitrary government, but in succeeding centuries the English, build-
ing on the past, won both limited government and representative gov-
ernment, the two indispensable pillars of a free society.

The Causes of the English

Revolution
A revolution is a rapid, profound, violent change in society. If the
change is slow, historians call it an evolution; if superficial, a coup
d’état; if nonviolent, merely rapid change. Historians and sociologists
208
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 209

have been unable to agree on the exact set of circumstances numerous monopolies Charles had granted, a hidden tax
that cause a revolution, but they do agree that four ele- on everyone and a denial of freedom to those who wished
ments are usually present: the emergence of a new class or to enter a particular trade or manufacture.
classes, the existence of numerous grievances, an ideology Charles’s prerogative rule brought a religious as well as
that justifies resistance, and a collapse of power at the top. a political reaction. Charles and Laud sought to restore the
It was an alliance of the landed and the professional power of the bishops. They brought four of them into the
classes that precipitated the English revolution. It is un- Council and gave others a more active role as justices of
likely that in 1540 either group would have been bold the peace. The Laudian bishops in turn sought to revive rit-
enough or strong enough to have made a revolution, but ual and ornament by bringing the communion table back
since that time they had grown in numbers, wealth, expe- into the east end of churches (where it stood altarwise, on
rience, and power. Between 1540 and 1640 the number of a dais, railed off), by encouraging the use of stained-glass
peers rose from 60 to 160, of baronets and knights from windows, by requiring the clergy to wear the surplice, and
500 to 1400, of esquires from about 800 to 3000, and of by ordering the laity to kneel at the altar when ­receiving
gentlemen from about 5000 to 15,000. Thus the landed communion. These measures were accompanied by a
classes tripled in numbers during a century in which the counterrevolution in theology, in which an A ­ rminian em-
population merely doubled. They also grew wealthier. Be- phasis was placed on free will, good works, and the clergy-
tween 1536 and 1636 the Crown and the Church lost lands man’s role as intercessor between humans and God. All this
worth £6.5 million, most of it purchased by the gentry. Be- was anathema to the Puritans, but it also deeply offended
tween 1530 and 1630 the standard of living of the average the anticlericalism of most Englishmen, whether Puritan
gentleman in Warwickshire increased by nearly 400 per- or not. Above all, it created a fear that there existed a pop-
cent. Four-fifths of the members of the House of Commons ish plot, centered at Court, to bring England back to Rome,
in 1640 had incomes over £1000 a year. Not only were they a fear that the Queen’s power at Court and the King’s pur-
wealthier, but they were better educated, had profited from suit of a pro-Spanish foreign policy doubly compounded.
a century’s experience in Parliament, and had established Charles’s persecution of the Puritan clergy had the fault
their power in the counties through the quarter sessions. that it was not ruthless enough to suppress them, yet was
They were closely allied with the lawyers, whose numbers ruthless enough to enrage them. Archbishop Laud dragged
rose 40 percent between 1590 and 1630, and with the mer- William Prynne, John Bastwick, and John Burton, a law-
chants, whose numbers and wealth in London alone were yer, a doctor, and a clergyman, before the Star Chamber
formidable. for having libeled the bishops in their pamphlets, and the
The landed classes and their allies would not have re- court ordered them imprisoned and their ears cropped.
volted had not political, fiscal, economic, and religious At the cropping of their ears the crowds in Palace Yard
grievances driven them to do so. At the dissolution of cheered them on and some dipped their handkerchiefs in
­Parliament in 1629, Charles announced his intention of rul- their blood. Despite the persecution there were still, on the
ing henceforth without Parliament and showed he meant it eve of the revolution, 46 Puritan lecturers in London deliv-
by throwing the firebrands of the last Parliament, men such ering 60 sermons a week.
as Sir John Eliot, into the Tower. He kept Eliot there until No matter how burdensome their grievances, a people
his death in 1632. The cessation of Parliament and the more will not revolt unless emboldened, united, and justified
exact supervision of the justices of the peace in the coun- by a common ideology. In England two ideologies, that
ties would have passed unnoticed a century before, but the of the Common law, and that of Puritanism, served these
rising expectations of the landed classes now made them purposes. The idea that the Common law, from Magna
unendurable. Charles’s rule was all the more unendurable Carta to the Petition of Right, defended the liberties of in-
because of the fiscal exactions that accompanied it. Ship dividuals and the inviolability of property was deeply felt
money threatened every person’s property; fines for failing and pervasive. At the Inns of Court gentlemen absorbed
to be knighted irritated the gentry; the enforcement of the the principles of the Common law and as justices of the
forest laws angered the nobility; the tripling of the revenues peace they applied the rule of law. But appeals to the laws
from wardship injured those who held land by feudal ten- of England proved useless when Parliament in 1641 began
ure. These exactions were irritating, not oppressive, for to encroach on the King’s legal powers. Some publicists ap-
the English landed classes were probably the most lightly pealed to the ancient constitution that had existed before
taxed in Europe. What they feared was that future exac- the Normans introduced the tyranny of kings and nobles
tions would rob them of their property and make the King into England in 1066. But more important than the myth
financially independent. Obnoxious to all classes were the of the Norman yoke was the argument from natural law,
210 A History of England

particularly that the safety of the people was the supreme 1630s, when efforts at censorship were at their height, only
law of the land, salus populi, suprema lex, and that the one-third of the books published were censored.
people, through Parliament, must determine when their But prerogative government might have continued for
safety was threatened. In seven popular pamphlets written many years had Charles not committed the blunder of stum-
in 1642 Henry Parker propounded this doctrine in order to bling into war. In 1637, without consulting the S­ cottish Privy
justify Parliament’s resistance to the King. Council or the Scottish Parliament, he extended “the beauty
Even more than legalism, Puritanism gave the Parlia- of holiness” to Scotland in the form of a new liturgy resem-
mentarians the absolute confidence in the righteousness bling the English one. It led to riots in St. Giles C­ athedral
of their cause necessary to carry through the revolution. that spilled over into the streets of Edinburgh and spread
At the heart of Puritanism lies a belief in the superiority of to other towns. This violent explosion of popular opinion
biblical truth and individual conscience over the dictates was all the more dangerous because Charles’s economic
of authority. After a century of wrestling with the problem and financial policies had angered the nobility and the mer-
of the obedience owed to princes, the Puritans concluded chants. The Act of Revocation of 1625, an attempt to recover
that resistance to a wicked prince was both legitimate all Church lands lost since the R­ eformation, persuaded the
and necessary. In numerous sermons they preached that nobility that their lands and inheritances were no longer se-
whenever the prince violated God’s law, obedience to him cure. Unprecedentedly high taxes, among them a 5 percent
must give way to obedience to God and conscience. Little tax on all interest paid on loans, infuriated the merchants.
wonder that Charles complained, “If the pulpits teach not The nobles and merchants now allied themselves with the
obedience . . . the Crown will have little comfort of the Presbyterian ministers. They, and tens of thousands of other
militia.” Scotsmen, swore a national covenant to assert the right of
James Harrington, a contemporary, wisely observed that Parliament and the General Assembly of the Church to de-
“the dissolution of this Government caused the War, not termine ecclesiastical policy.
the War the dissolution of this Government.” Had power In 1638 the General Assembly took the further step of
not collapsed at the top, the Parliamentarians would never abolishing bishops in the Scottish Church. Charles was
have found themselves in a position to resist Charles. There willing to revoke the new liturgy, but not to tolerate the ab-
were two causes for the collapse of royal power, one long olition of bishops. In 1639 he raised an army and marched
term and structural, the other immediate and disastrous. north, only to see his troops, who had no heart for the
Because Henry VIII had squandered his wealth on for- campaign, melt away. The First Bishop’s War ended in the
eign wars, because Somerset and Northumberland had humiliating Treaty of Berwick. Charles now summoned
sought the support of Parliament, and because Elizabeth his ablest minister, Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Straf-
had preferred to govern by “love-tricks,” the Tudors failed ford, from Ireland. Strafford urged him to meet Parliament,
to create the institutions of an absolute monarchy. Charles which he did in April 1640. But the Commons refused to
inherited a Crown that was militarily, financially, and ad- vote money until grievances were redressed, so Charles
ministratively weak. In the 1530s there was some thought of sent it home. Charles and Strafford now confronted both
creating a standing army, but once Northumberland had, as a war in Scotland and a taxpayers’ revolt in England. The
an economy measure, paid off his Italian and German mer- collection of ship money fell off, the city refused to lend the
cenaries, there was no further attempt to create one. Nor King money, the Treasury rapidly emptied. The indomita-
could Charles look to the military power of the aristocracy ble Strafford persevered with the Second Bishop’s War, but
for help, since its military power had deteriorated with the with no success. The unwilling English troops met defeat
decline of clientage and retaining. The financial weakness in August at Newburn, and the Scots occupied Durham
of the Crown stemmed from the failure to develop alter- and Northumberland. In England, as later in France and
nate sources of revenue once the monastic lands had been Russia, military defeat and financial bankruptcy proved the
sold. Charles sought to remedy this fault by various fiscal prelude to revolution. Bereft of money, his kingdom occu-
devices, but they produced only enough revenue to allow pied, Charles agreed to summon a Parliament.
him to stagger on in time of peace. They did not produce
enough to pay for a royal bureaucracy, with the result that
Charles was administratively dependent on the gentry in
the counties and the merchants in the towns. His admin-
The Failure of Reform
istrative impotence was visible in his inability to assert his The Parliament that met in November 1640 was not the
authority over the forests, to extract the full amount of ship narrow clique the royalists later said it was. Inflation had
money, to suppress lecturers, or to censor the press. In the increased the number of 40-shilling freeholders in the
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 211

counties to over 180,000. Elizabeth’s creation of new bor- but the managers of the impeachment could not prove him
oughs and Parliament’s willingness to broaden the fran- guilty of treason. They lacked both the laws and the wit-
chise in older boroughs meant that there were 50,000 nesses to do so. The House of Commons therefore turned
urban voters. In short, the House of Commons in 1640 to an Act of Attainder and condemned him to death legis-
directly represented one out of every four adult males. latively. Fifty-nine members voted against the attainder, the
Furthermore, for almost the first time in English history first crack in the unanimity of the House. Charles signed it,
an election centered on great issues. At Great Marlow all an act he ever afterward regretted, but it was information
the contestants were gentlemen, but the two opposition that Charles had plotted to bring the army down from the
candidates stood for “liberty,” and with the help of shop- north to crush Parliament and release Strafford that led the
keepers and artisans defeated the Court candidates. The House of Lords to pass the attainder. On May 10 Strafford
old royal and aristocratic patronage system broke down. lost his head on the scaffold, as arbitrary an act as any that
The Earl of Salisbury could not secure the return of his Charles had committed.
nominee at St. Albans, and the number of courtiers, and During the next year four circumstances conspired to
officials in the Long Parliament, as it came to be called, ruin all efforts at reform and to plunge England into civil
was only 49. war: Charles’s refusal to be a limited monarch, the Irish re-
With high hopes and a firm resolve to make changes, the bellion, the demands of the Root and Branch party, and the
newly elected members arrived at Westminster in Novem- emergence of a royalist party.
ber. One of them, Edward Hyde, later a royalist, declared Charles displayed his reluctance to be a limited monarch
it to be “a dawning of a fair and lasting day of happiness to not only by plotting with the army, but by spurning the
this Kingdom.” The members came resolved to secure their advice of the leaders of Parliament. The leadership of the
property, to establish the supremacy of the Common law, House of Commons had fallen into the hands of John Pym
to rid the Church of popish innovations, to reduce the in- and Oliver St. John, of the House of Lords into the hands
fluence of the bishops, to put foreign policy on a Protestant of the Earl of Bedford and Viscounts Say and Sele. These
track, and to guarantee regular sessions of Parliament. By men were not strangers, for they had worked together in
the summer of 1641 Parliament, united in nearly all votes, the 1630s in the Providence Island Company. They now un-
had accomplished these purposes. It had condemned as il- dertook, in return for office, to manage Charles’s affairs for
legal ship money, impositions, distraint of knighthood, and him in Parliament. In February 1641 rumor made Bedford
the revival of ancient forest laws. It had removed from the Lord Treasurer and Pym Chancellor of the Exchequer. If
Crown the power of taxation without consent and of arrest any stratagem could have saved the cause of reform it was
without trial. It had abolished all the prerogative courts— this undertaking, but Charles preferred to listen to the ad-
Star Chamber, the Court of Requests, High Commission, vice of the Queen and of the gentlemen of the bedchamber.
the Council of the North, and the Council of Wales. It had He refused the offer and set out for Scotland in search of an
stopped the persecution of Puritans and reversed the poli- army. He spent the autumn of 1641 in Edinburgh, conced-
cies of the Laudian clergy. It had passed a Triennial Bill ing to the Scots control of their church and their executive,
that guaranteed the meeting of Parliament at least once but finding no army. It was then that the Irish rebellion
every three years. To prove that it meant business, it had broke out.
impeached Strafford, Laud, and the ship money judges for In the summer of 1641 Strafford’s successors in Ireland
high treason. disbanded the army of 9000 Irish papists that Strafford had
It was the impeachment of Strafford that revealed the hoped to use to subdue the Scottish rebellion. Having been
first break in the unanimity of Parliament and provided paid less than half what was owed to them, the troops went
the first sign that Charles’s consent to these measures was home, taking their weapons with them. With the weaken-
insincere. The House of Commons impeached Strafford ing of the forces of order, Catholic priests flocked into the
and the House of Lords imprisoned him out of anger at his country, stirring up discontent. In October the O’Neils of
brutality and fear of his ability. Strafford was a fierce man Ulster rose in revolt and a band of Catholics unsuccessfully
who had urged that John Hampden be whipped and had sought to seize Dublin Castle. The rebellion grew out of 30
threatened to hang four aldermen for refusing to lend the years of English landgrabbing, treachery, exploitation, and
King money. In May 1640 he told Charles that, “being re- religious persecution. It led to the massacre of some 10,000
duced to extreme necessity,” he was “loosed and absolved English Protestant settlers, a number magnified by ru-
from all rules of government,” and could do “all that power mor in London to 200,000. Though their differences were
might admit.” The House of Commons, the city, the Scots, profound, King and Parliament agreed that the rebellion
and the populace were determined to have Strafford’s head, must be suppressed. But who was to command the army
212 A History of England

with the partisans of Pym led to an attack on the Book of

Common Prayer. Few people wished to defend the bish-
ops, but many wished to preserve the liturgy. Among these
a party for the King first appeared. In the long night of de-
bate on the Grand Remonstrance they spoke against this
radical document, and when the vote was finally taken, late
at night on November 22, 145 members opposed it. It car-
ried by only 11 votes. The two sides that were to wage civil
war had emerged.
In December 1641 the House of Commons passed a
Militia Bill that transferred control of the militia from
the Crown to a Lord General appointed by Parliament,
thus widening the gap between royalists and parlia-
mentarians. In the same month the radical Puritans in
London gained control of the Common Council and
promptly established a Committee of Public Safety to
control the city militia. Charles meanwhile plotted a
military coup. He named the brutal Colonel Lunsford to
be lieutenant of the Tower and attempted on January 4,
1642, to arrest the five leading members of the House of
Commons. Charles came to the House in person to make
the arrest, accompanied by courtiers, their swords jan-
gling at their sides. But the five members had fled. The
leaders of the House were now forced to demand control
of the m ­ ilitia and n
­ omination of the King’s ministers,
“The execution of the Earl of Strafford on Tower Hill, 22, May both to ensure their own safety and to protect the gains
1641.”   (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) of the past year. Charles refused both and fled to York.
In March P ­ arliament turned its M­ ilitia Bill into an ordi-
to crush it? If the command lay with the King, he might nance and began raising forces. In June Charles issued
use the army to crush Parliament; if the command lay with commissions of array for the raising of forces in every
Parliament, it might use it to rob the King of his power. The county. By August civil war had broken out.
Irish rebellion turned a struggle to enforce the law on the Of the members of the Commons, 302 remained in
King into a struggle to wrest power from him. London, supporting Parliament; 236 fled and supported
This became evident in November 1641 when the House the King. All attempts to explain this division on the ba-
of Commons appealed to the nation in the Grand Remon- sis of class structure have failed. On both sides there were
strance. The Grand Remonstrance, 204 clauses long, was a merchants and lawyers, on both sides old landed families
catalog of all the grievances of the past decade, to which and new, on both sides the rich gentry and the mere gen-
were attached two demands: that the King name ministers try, on both sides rising and declining families. In truth,
in whom Parliament might confide and that a synod of the propertied classes were divided within themselves. The
the most grave and pious divines be called to reform the more timid and conservative grew frightened at the po-
Church. The second demand expressed the determination litical radicalism of Pym, at the religious radicalism of the
of the Puritans to abolish bishops and reform the liturgy. preachers, at the enclosure riots in the countryside, and at
As early as December 1640, 15,000 citizens of London had the mobs that surged around the Houses of Parliament in
presented a petition to Parliament for the abolition of epis- moments of crisis. The only decisive correlation that can
copacy “with all its roots and branches.” Parliament de- be established—aside from the fact that the royalists were
bated the merits of the petition in February, but then laid 11 years younger—concerns religion. In Yorkshire, for ex-
it aside. Not until summer did a small body of enthusiasts ample, over one-third of the royalist gentry were Catholic
introduce a Root and Branch Bill into the House, a bill the and over half of the Parliamentarians were Puritans. All the
moderate majority, led by Pym, amended to provide for peers who sided with the Commons, one-quarter of them,
the government of the Church by nine laymen named by favored religious reform. Whatever else it was, the English
­Parliament. The alliance of the Root and Branch enthusiasts revolution was a Puritan revolution.
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 213

The Parliament, on the other hand, was strong in the pros-

perous and industrial south and east, possessed the navy,
most of the ports, and the machinery of taxation, and
could rely on the vast wealth and efficient trained bands of
London. Parliament’s support came largely from ­Puritans
determined to reform the Church, from yeomen and
tradesmen anxious to better themselves, from artisans and
clothiers angry at economic regulations. In Sussex the in-
dustrial areas supported Parliament; the agricultural areas,
the King. The clothing towns of Yorkshire—Leeds, Halifax,
and Bradford—were wholly for Parliament. In Wiltshire
the gentry supported the King, the clothiers Parliament.
The sailors in the navy rose up against their royalist offi-
cers and turned over their ships to Parliament. When the
revolution spread from Parliament to the countryside, an
element of social division appeared. It was summed up in
the nicknames given to each side: The royalists became the
Cavaliers—swashbuckling officers—and the Parliamen-
tarians the Roundheads—common citizens with close-
cropped hair.
Given the fact that Parliament had the greater re-
sources and would grow stronger each month, Charles
should have marched immediately on London. Instead,
after a victory over the Roundheads at Edgehill in Octo-
ber 1642, he allowed the Parliamentarian army to place
itself between his army and London, and then delayed
three weeks before attacking the city. During that time
the Earl of Essex, commander of the Roundhead army,
raised 24,000 men, mostly from the London bands, who
withstood the royal army at Brentford. The next summer
The parliamentary leader John Pym. Engraving by M. V. de the Cavaliers planned a three-pronged attack on London,
Gucht.  (Mary Evans Picture Library) one army from the north, a second from the west, and a
third from Oxford. It was the most intelligent strategy of
the whole war, but Charles failed to execute it with dar-
ing and audacity. Instead he insisted on attempting to
Roundheads and Cavaliers capture Gloucester in his rear before attacking London,
On August 22, 1642, at Nottingham, in a howling gale and but he lacked the artillery and spent the summer besieg-
amid torrential rain, Charles raised his standard and called ing Gloucester in vain. By September of 1643 the war had
on all Englishmen to rally behind him. Four years later, in reached a stalemate, which John Pym sought to end by in-
April 1646, he rode out of Oxford to surrender himself to viting in a Scottish army.
the Scots, a defeated king. The chief reason why Charles That autumn he convinced Parliament to pay the high
suffered defeat in the first civil war, which lasted from 1642 price the Scots asked for their aid—£30,000 a month and
through 1645, was his lack of resources. His support came the establishment of Presbyterianism in England. The
largely from the economically backward north and west, price was worth paying, for the Scottish army that en-
from the larger landlords and their tenants, from Roman tered ­England in January 1644 tipped the balance in favor
Catholics and monopolists, from devoted adherents of of Parliament. On July 2, 1644, in the evening, amid thun-
the Anglican Church, and from impoverished gentlemen derstorms, on Marston Moor outside York, the combined
in search of military pay and the chance of plunder. Many forces of the Scots, the Yorkshire levies, and the Eastern
supported him only out of personal loyalty, as Sir Edmund Association, 28,000 in all, defeated 18,000 royalists un-
Verney, a monopolist, who remarked that he must serve der Prince Rupert, the King’s nephew. Early in the battle
the King since he “had eaten the King’s bread” for 30 years. Prince Rupert’s cavalry successfully drove back the Horse
214 A History of England

England During the

CivilWar W, 1643 r

Cavaliers
SCOTL AND Roundheads

North
Sea

Marston
Moor
Bradford Leeds
Irish Preston
Halifax R. Aire

Sea
Tr e n t
R.

Nottingham
R.
Se v e

Ouse
rn

Naseby
R.

Worcester
Edgehill

Gloucester
Oxford
Brentford
London
R . Th a m e s

Newbury

English Channel

0 30 60 Miles

0 30 60 Kilometers

of the Eastern Association, when suddenly a small band of Marston Moor might have led to a final victory that
mounted Scots fell on Rupert’s flank and drove his cavalry year had not the Earl of Essex allowed his army to be
from the field. This allowed the commander of the Horse trapped and cut off in Cornwall and had not the Earl
of the Eastern Association, an East Anglian squire named of Manchester allowed a royalist army half the size of
Oliver Cromwell, to reform his cavalry and break the ranks his to escape at Newbury. In truth, neither Essex nor
of the royalist infantry. The Roundheads slew 4000 royal- ­Manchester had much heart for the fight. Essex always
ists, captured 1500, and won all of the north for Parliament. took his coffin with him on a campaign, and Manchester
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 215

remarked that even if they defeated Charles 99 times, he more powerful than Cavalier brilliance, and the King no
was King still, but “if the King beat us once we shall be longer had an army to put into the field. Half of Charles’s
hanged.” By passing a self-denying ordinance that would army at Naseby was paraded through the streets of
deprive all peers and members of the House of Commons ­London in triumph.
of their commissions, Parliament got rid of Essex and
­Manchester. They then, in April 1645, named Sir Thomas
Fairfax as general of a New Model army—a professional
army, recruited nationally, not tied to any locality, regu-
The Rise of Independency
larly paid, and officered by men who, because they feared Parliament found it easier to defeat the King in battle
God, feared no man. than to secure the goals for which it fought: the establish-
The New Model army proved itself at the Battle of ment of a constitutional monarchy and the creation of a
Naseby in June 1645. At Naseby, which lies halfway be- ­Presbyterian Church. It failed in the first because Charles,
tween Leicester and Northampton, Fairfax and 14,000 though defeated and captured, preferred intrigue, delay,
men confronted Prince Rupert with 9000. Prince ­Rupert deceit, and unfaithfulness to submission. It failed in the
wished to avoid an engagement until reinforcements second because of the rise of Independency.
arrived, but Charles overruled him. Rupert’s cavalry The original purpose of the Puritans was to reform
quickly broke through the Parliamentarian cavalry on the Church of England. For this reason Parliament in
the left flank, but then dashed away to plunder the bag- June 1643 nominated an assembly of divines to meet
gage train. Meanwhile Cromwell’s cavalry, on the other at ­Westminster to discuss the Thirty-nine Articles. In
flank, broke the opposing Horse, regrouped, and swept ­S eptember 1643, pursuant to the Solemn League and
down on the flank of the royalist infantry, cutting them Covenant, a group of Scottish divines joined the assem-
down as they ran. In the end, Puritan discipline proved bly. The Westminster Assembly now set out to reform
the English Church “according to the Word of God, and
the example of the best Reformed Churches.” They drew
up a ­Directory of Worship, Puritan in character, which
­Parliament accepted and which replaced the Book of
Common Prayer. A majority of the assembly also favored
a presbyterian organization of the English Church, one
in which the presbytery, composed of ministers and el-
ders, would ordain ministers and maintain discipline.
In March 1646 Parliament decreed the establishment of
­Presbyterianism throughout the land.
But this nascent Presbyterian Church was stillborn.
There was little enthusiasm for it in the country; there
was a large party opposed to it in Parliament; and the
army stood firmly against it. The real genius of English
­Puritanism lay in voluntary efforts by each congregation,
within a church governed by a Parliament distrustful of
all clerical power. To voluntarism and anticlericalism was
now added a third force: belief in liberty of conscience. In
order to reform the Church, the Puritan preachers had de-
manded the liberty to preach God’s word—but what they
sought was reformation, not liberty. Yet they preached
with too much vehemence that all human beings were
equal in sin, all might hope for redemption, all should
look within themselves for the immanent Christ. It is not
surprising, therefore, that some listeners drew the logical
deduction that all people possessing reason might study
God’s word and discover the truth. This Christian human-
“Portrait of Prince Rupert.” Oil on canvas, 103.5 × 79 cm.  (Bolton ism found its noblest expression in the work of John Mil-
Museum and Art Gallery, Lancashire, UK. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) ton, who declared in 1644:
216 A History of England

And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose in September they opened negotiations with the King.
to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we Cromwell’s ­son-in-law, ­General Ireton, drafted a moder-
do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to mis- ate settlement, called “The Heads of the Proposal,” which
doubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: provided for the ­election of a Parliament every two years,
who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and gave P ­ arliament control of the army and nomination of
open encounter.1 the King’s ­ministers for ten years, and guaranteed tolera-
tion of all Protestant churches, even the Episcopal.
But many others—sons of squires, wealthy merchants, Charles would have been well advised to have accepted
tradesmen—likewise urged that every person must find it, but he refused, saying, “You cannot do without me.” He
the truth for him or herself. Even the Anglican clergyman then fled to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, where,
­Jeremy Taylor, in his Discourse of the Liberty of ­Prophesying, though under house arrest, he opened negotiations with
declared that because “we see through a glass darkly, we a group of Scottish noblemen. In December he signed an
should not despise or condemn persons not so knowing as Engagement with them, according to which Charles, in
ourselves.” The rapid growth of literacy, the great increase return for a Scottish army, promised to establish Presbyte-
in printing, the end of censorship, and the end of Star rianism for three years and to suppress the Independents.
Chamber all promoted a multiplication of religious opin- Charles, however, refused to swear the Covenant, which
ions and religious sects. caused the Scottish Church and army to refuse their sup-
The greatest danger to Presbyterianism came when port. The Scottish noblemen nevertheless began to raise an
these new ideas infiltrated the army. At the beginning of army to invade England.
the war, command of the county militias went to men of Unfortunately for the King, royalist rebellions broke
social rank, but gradually plain russet-coated gentlemen, out in Kent, Essex, and South Wales before the Scots were
rich merchants, even tinkers and draymen replaced them. ready to march. Fairfax promptly suppressed the rebellions
In the county committees, as well as in Parliament, there in Kent and Essex, and Cromwell marched swiftly into
appeared two parties: one cautious, defensive-minded, South Wales to destroy the rebels there. In these regions
and intolerant of dissent; the other aggressive, determined the gentry supported the rebellions, but not the common
to win the war, and tolerant of dissent. In time they came people. In July the Scottish army, 21,000 strong, mostly the
to be called the Presbyterian Party and the Independent servants of noblemen, crossed into England. Cromwell,
Party. Among the greatest of the Independents was Oliver now given sole command, marched north with barely 8000
Cromwell, who urged that the “state in choosing men to men, crossed the Pennines at the Aire Gap, and fell upon
serve it take no notice of their opinions.” He took none the Scottish army as it straggled southward, foraging for
and created an army that could defeat a king. The radi- supplies. His men cut them to pieces and the second civil
cal sect—Baptists, Seekers, Ranters, and Quakers—saw war came to an end.
the Church as the gathering of the faithful in individual The leaders of the army reluctantly came to the conclu-
congregations or meetings, separate from the state. The sion that there could be no treaty with Charles Stuart, that
Independents, on the other hand, favored a national man of blood. Cromwell, who often procrastinated, finally
church that would propagate the Gospel. But unlike the decided in late November that it was necessary to give
­Presbyterians, they would grant the radical sects freedom ­impartial justice to all offenders. At this point, ­Parliament
to worship outside it. reopened negotiations with Charles, who ­c onceded to
The moment of truth came in the spring of 1647 them a Presbyterian Church and parliamentary control of
when Parliament persisted in its design to impose the army for the next 20 years. It was too late. In ­December
­Presbyterianism on the country and ordered the army the army council sent Colonel Pride with a company of
to be disbanded with its wages unpaid. Both material musketeers to purge Parliament. He arrested or frightened
and spiritual interests drove the army to resist, to elect away 140 members, leaving a “rump” of barely 50. For the
agitators from each regiment, and to form a Council of next four years, the Rump cloaked government by the
the Army, composed of two officers and two agitators army.
from each regiment. In June they seized Charles (whom Though the King was the fountain of all justice, the
­Parliament had bought from the Scots) and presented Rump created a Court of High Justice to try him. Though
their demands to Parliament: liberty for tender con- treason could only be committed against the King, the
sciences and the sale of royalists’ lands to pay the wages Rump declared it treason to levy war against Parliament.
owed them. In August the army occupied London and Few men were willing to serve on the Court of High
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 217

Justice, but Cromwell and others bullied them into doing by which the Levellers meant all adult males who were
so. On January 20, 1649, Charles was brought before the not criminals or apprentices or servants. Colonel
court, where he refused to answer the charges against him ­R ainsborough put the case for the Levellers when he de-
and denied that the court had any jurisdiction over him. clared that: “The poorest he that lives hath as true a right
After a short mockery of a trial, the president of the court to give a vote as well as the richest and greatest.” General
pronounced Charles guilty of treason for having violated Ireton, speaking for the Grandees, dissented. He declared
the fundamental law of England and having waged war that the vote was rightly restricted to those who have “a
against Parliament. On January 30 he was led to a scaffold permanent fixed interest in this Kingdom”—namely, “the
erected before Whitehall Palace, where the executioner cut persons in whom all land lies, and those in corporations
off his head, not to the cheers but to the silence of the pop- in whom all trading lies.” The fear of the Grandees was
ulace. He acted with great calm and dignity, but his nobil- that the poor would use the vote to level all estates. As
ity on that memorable scene could not erase the fact that Colonel Rich observes, “You . . . have five to one in this
the army had openly and publicly, not by poison or a dag- Kingdom that have no permanent interest. . . . There may
ger, brought an English king to account for his misdeeds. be a law enacted, that there shall be an equality of goods
and estates.”
Colonel Rich wrongly characterized the Levellers, for
they believed in private property and its protection. It was
The Commonwealth only privileges such as monopolies and primogeniture that
Having defeated the Scots, purged Parliament, and ex- they opposed. The Levellers sharply distinguished them-
ecuted the King, the Independents now abolished the selves from the Diggers, who advocated the communal
House of Lords and established a commonwealth. Formal cultivation of land and who in 1649 seized a plot of land at
power rested in the Rump, real power in the army. But just St. George’s Hill near London and sowed it with parsnips,
as the victorious Puritans had broken up into Presbyteri- carrots, and beans. Their leader was Gerrard Winstanley,
ans and Independents, so the victorious Independents in a religious zealot who believed that “True freedom lies
the army now broke up into Grandees and Levellers. The where a man received his nourishment and preservation,
Levellers were a group of radicals who believed in repub- and that is in the use of the earth.” The Council of State
licanism, religious toleration, equality before the law, the immediately sent soldiers to expel Winstanley and his 20
abolition of tithes, the election of sheriffs, and the sover- or so followers.
eignty of the people. The most courageous among them As long as he needed their help, Cromwell was reluc-
was John Lilburne, a Durham gentleman who grew up tant to suppress the Levellers. As late as November 1648
as a London apprentice. For defying the Star Chamber he warned a friend against supporting the King and
he was flogged through the streets of London and put in ­Presbyterians out of an empty fear of the Levellers. But four
the pillory, from which he harangued the crowd against months later, after the execution of the King, he and his
bishops. He went on to serve as a captain at Edgehill, to fellow officers struck at the Levellers. “You have,” he said
become a colonel, to suffer imprisonment in 1645 for de- as Lilburne was hurried away to prison, “no other way to
fying the Presbyterians, and to write numerous Leveller deal with these men but to break them in pieces. . . . If you
manifestoes. do not break them they will break you.”2 He promptly sup-
The Levellers, who enjoyed great influence with the ag- pressed a Leveller mutiny at Burford and sought to silence
itators, had engineered the seizure of the King, the march ­L ilburne, who proved quite irrepressible. Two L ­ ondon
on London, and the holding of a remarkable series of juries acquitted him of libel, so the government had to
debates at Putney in October 1647. The debates centered keep him in prison by fiat. The Cromwells, Fairfaxes, and
on “The Agreement of the People,” a proposed constitu- ­Iretons, gentry all, were determined that tenants must not
tion drawn up by the Levellers which they put forward as be equal to their landlord.
a social contract for a new government. It proposed the In the ferment of new ideas the civil war brought, one
abolition of monarchy and of the House of Lords, the es- thinker came to conclusions markedly different from
tablishment of religious liberty by a fundamental law that those of the Levellers. He was Thomas Hobbes, son of
not even the legislature could alter, and the placing of all an ­Anglican clergyman, an Oxford graduate, tutor to the
power in a House of Commons that all freeborn English- second Earl of Devonshire, and an admirer of Euclid’s
men should elect every two years. The debate focused on geometrical thought. When the civil war broke out, he
the proposal to grant the vote to all freeborn Englishmen, thought it discreet to retire to Paris. Hobbes agreed with
218 A History of England

the Levellers in one matter, that government was formed The army suppressed the Levellers, but granted the re-
by a social contract among all men, not by divine institu- ligious liberty in which all Independents believed. Church
tion. But where the Levellers appealed to natural law, he courts ceased to function and compulsory attendance at
appealed to utility. Men create government to avoid the the parish church was abolished. The result was a riot of
miseries of the state of nature, for in the state of nature religious sects. There were the Baptists, who limited mem-
there was no ­industry, no arts, no letters; the life of man bership in their church to true believers who had received
was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Only by adult baptism; the Ranters, many of whom believed that
agreeing to form ­government and to grant absolute and ir- God’s grace made humans incapable of sin, a few of whom
revocable power to a ­sovereign—be it a person or a coun- made a religion of sexual promiscuity; the Seekers, who
cil—could man e­ scape the miseries of the state of nature. went from church to church seeking the truth; and the
Hobbes proclaimed these ideas in 1651 in a book entitled Quakers, who taught the doctrine of the inner light, that
Leviathan, which shocked the orthodox with its material- within each man and woman is something divine. What
ism and the liberals with its absolutism, but proved to be these sects had in common was a rejection of the Calvin-
one of the great classics of Western political thought. ist doctrine of predestination and a belief in the redemp-
Hobbes’s was a lonely voice. The real challenge to the tion of all who chose to accept God’s grace. Because of the
Levellers came from those who believed that God’s grace greater equality sectarian congregations granted them,
gave men power to rule. The English revolution produced women during these years gained in stature. Though the
two traditions of thought that have characterized revolu- army rejected democracy, it allowed religious liberty.
tionary politics ever since. One asserts that political power
resides in the people, the other that it resides in the pure
and the righteous. John Lilburne believed that all men were
equal before Christ, and so should enjoy an equal vote. But
The Triumph of Property
the army chaplains held that the power of God made men Not only in the religious sphere but also in the economic,
fit to rule, that grace gave men power. They held that grace individualism triumphed. No moment is more critical in a
was not universal, but was granted by God only to those people’s history than when a traditional society, governed
whom He elected to salvation. They believed that good and by custom, status, the just price, and a sense of commu-
religious men ought to rule over the wicked and irreligious. nity, gives way to a market society, in which the individual
In the hands of the chaplains, this doctrine contained a is free to sell land, goods, labor, and talents at the highest
large element of antiprofessionalism: they attacked lawyers, price the market will pay. The cake of custom is broken
clergymen, and professors for their pretensions, high fees, and the forces of supply and demand prevail. In England
tithes, and pride, which meant nothing if they had not re- this transformation came slowly, between 1300 and 1700,
ceived the grace of God. but the decisive steps were taken in the 1640s and 1650s.
In the hands of John Milton, belief in government by During those years the forces of capitalism were freed from
the elect took on a more intellectual guise. In De Doctrina the interference of the Crown. In 1646 Parliament abol-
Christina and The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton ished tenure by knight service and the Court of Wards,
argued that Adam by his disobedience brought servitude thus freeing land from its feudal obligations. It had already
upon man, but Christ had set him free again to distinguish abolished the Court of Star Chamber, thus making it im-
true from false, good from evil. By reason and discourse possible for the government to enforce the laws against
the laws of God could be discovered, being discovered they enclosure. It swept away all monopolies, thus ending the
could be taught, being taught they could be heeded, and be- interference of courtiers in manufacturing and commerce.
ing heeded they could lead to redemption (for Milton was The government ceased to regulate wages or enforce guild
an Arminian). Liberty of study and discourse was there- regulations. It adopted a modern system of finances based
fore vital to redemption, yet “liberty,” wrote Milton, “hath on excise and land taxes. Whoever else gained in the
a sharp and double edge fit only to be handled by just and ­English revolution, the landlord, the manufacturer, and the
virtuous men.” Thus, though he argued that kings and mag- trader certainly did.
istrates were below the law, he urged that not everyone is In economic thought as well as in economic policy a
capable of making law, but only “those Worthies which are fundamental change occurred. Medieval ideas of a just
the soul of the enterprise.” Milton did not say how those price, of the wickedness of usury, of community respon-
who were the soul of the enterprise should be discovered, sibility gave way to economic individualism. “A man’s
but both Ireton and Cromwell suggested that those worthy Labour also,” declared Thomas Hobbes, “is a commodity
of rule were those of whom God gave success in battle. exchangeable for benefit, as well as any other thing.” He
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 219

even suggested that a man might sell his person into slavery crowded Dutch ports with merchantmen that dared not
if he wished; and he wondered that anyone would consider run the English blockade. In 1654 the Dutch signed the
it “an injustice to sell dearer than we buy.” The Reverend Treaty of Westminster, in which they acquiesced in the
Joseph Lee maintained that where government regulation English Navigation Act. That same year the English signed
had failed, the free play of the market would succeed. The a treaty with Portugal which transferred the monopoly of
Levellers likewise extolled freedom from all restriction on trade with the Portuguese from the Dutch to the English.
trade and favored (as did later the Jacobins in France and Treaties in 1654 and 1656 gave English merchants entry
the Jacksonians in America) the widest possible distribu- to Swedish ports on terms of equality with the Dutch. Of
tion of property, so that every individual could support his equal importance was the capture of 1700 Dutch vessels
freedom. It was James Harrington, the author of Oceana, during the war, thereby making it possible for the English
a Utopian work published in 1656, who first perceived the merchant marine to carry the goods that the Navigation
fundamental political importance of property, especially of Act required it to carry. Power did mean profit in the sev-
property in land. He put forward a theory of a balance of enteenth century.
property—that is, that the government of a state must cor-
respond to the distribution of landed property. If less than
300 persons held the land, a monarchy was appropriate; if
less than 5000, an aristocracy; if over 5000, a republic. But
Overseas Expansion
Harrington was no Marxist, for he believed political action Revolutions tend to release in a people a fund of energy
could shape the economic basis of society. To support the and a sense of righteousness that finds expression in ex-
existing Commonwealth he favored an agrarian law that pansion. The new gospel must be carried to all countries.
would, by limiting primogeniture, ensure the widest pos- As Admiral Black told the King of Spain in 1651, “All king-
sible distribution of property. doms will annihilate tyranny and become republics.” From
The Rump Parliament never passed an agrarian law, but Cromwell, the spread of true religion was the goal that
it did pass the Navigation Act of 1651 to protect the prop- led him to urge peace with the Protestant Dutch. But he
erty of English merchants engaged in foreign trade. The act used his power to carry Protestantism and respect for the
prohibited the import into England of goods from Asia, ­C ommonwealth to Ireland, to Scotland, to the colonies,
Africa, and America unless brought in English ships, re- and to Jamaica and Dunkirk.
quired that imports from Europe be brought in English To suppress the Irish rebellion, Parliament in 1642
ships or those of the country in which the goods originated, passed the Adventurers’ Act, which promised the lands of
and forbade foreigners to participate in the coastal trade the Irish rebels to those who would pay for their conquest.
or bring in fish or salt. The act was aimed at the Dutch, This naturally infuriated the Irish, who put three sepa-
who with their efficient flyboat, their modern banking, and rate armies into the field—an Irish Catholic army led by
their powerful navy dominated trade from the Baltic to the Owen Roe O’Neil; an army of the “Old English” settlers,
Bay of Biscay. In 1648, for example, the Dutch had secured mostly Catholics, led by Thomas Preston; and an army of
the right of free passage in the Baltic for their ships, while English Protestant settlers, led by the Earl of Ormond. As
the English had to pay dues. In the seventeenth century so often in Irish history, division enfeebled the Irish and
power and profit were closely allied, and the English now allowed the English to conquer them. In 1646 O’Neil won
resolved to break the Dutch monopoly. The Dutch resisted, a stunning victory, but jealousies between him and Pres-
refusing to allow the English to search their ships in the ton prevented the Irish from crushing Parliament’s troops.
North Sea and to cease trading with the English colonies in The next year 8000 men of the New Model army wiped
North America. The result was the outbreak of war in 1652. out Preston’s army; in 1649 they defeated Ormond’s. It was
The English added 41 new ships to the navy, nearly dou- then that Oliver Cromwell came to Ireland. The rebels still
bling its size. An English government for the first time in had 40,000 men in arms against the English Parliament,
history consciously and deliberately used its sea power to mostly in garrisons throughout the land.
promote commerce—but at great cost. At the height of the Cromwell attacked the problem with his usual ve-
Dutch war the navy cost £1.5 million a year, money gained hemence and skill. He besieged, assaulted, and cap-
by selling Crown, episcopal, and royalist lands. Between tured Drogheda, then put to the sword every man in the
1649 and 1653 the sale of confiscated lands and fines on ­garrison. He did the same at Wexford a month later. As
royalists produced over £7 million. Led by Robert Blake, always, he gave the credit to God. “I am persuaded,” he
a general turned admiral, but an admiral of genius, the wrote, “that this is a righteous judgment of God upon
English defeated the Dutch in a series of naval battles and these barbarous wretches who have imbued their hands in
220 A History of England

16th and 17th

Century Ireland

0 25 50 Miles
Londonderry
0 25 50 Kilometers Carrickfergus
ULSTER Belfast
Enniskillen Yellow Ford

Battle of the Boyne

e Drogheda

yn
CONNAUGHT Bo

R.
Irish
Dublin
Atlantic Sea
LEINSTER
Ocean

MUNSTER Wexford

Kinsale
Celtic Sea

so much innocent blood.” He also hoped that the slaugh- Argyll (a Campbell) and the Scottish Estates to negotiate
ter of the garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford would en- the Solemn League and Covenant with England in 1643.
courage others to surrender. Most of them did, and by Charles had one loyal friend in Scotland, however, the
1650 ­Cromwell had captured all the ports and most of the Earl of Montrose, a military genius whose marches and
towns of ­Ireland. His son-in-law Ireton directed the ­savage countermarches, winter campaigns, and Highland troops
campaigns that completed the conquest of Ireland. To pay nearly won all of Scotland for the King. But the Scottish
the soldiers who fought and the adventurers who financed army marching home from Naseby trapped Montrose at
these campaigns, the English confiscated Irish lands, Philiphaugh and routed him. The Duke of Hamilton now
even of ­Anglicans like Ormond and Presbyterians like sought to rescue the King by the Engagement of 1647, but
Inchiquin. In all they confiscated 11 million acres and gave he had the power of the Church against him and met defeat
them to the adventurers and soldiers. Before this confisca- at the Battle of Preston.
tion two-thirds of the land was in the hands of ­Catholics; The Earl of Argyll and the Presbyterian clergy now
after it not more than one-third. Protestants also took a reigned supreme. They banned from public life and from
chief place in industry, commerce, and the liberal pro- office all who had supported Montrose or taken the en-
fessions. The Cromwellian settlement created a deep and gagement. But they could not swallow the execution of
lasting cleavage in Irish society between Protestant and Charles, even though they had practically led him to the
Catholic. Nor did the Independents bring the saving scaffold. The Scottish Parliament at once hailed Charles’s
grace of religious liberty. “If by liberty of conscience you eldest son as Charles II and persuaded him, when he ar-
mean a liberty to exercise the Mass,” said Cromwell to the rived in ­S cotland, to swear the covenant. Cromwell
­Governor of Ross, “where the Parliament of England have pleaded with the Scottish to give up their royal pup-
power, that will not be allowed of.” pet: “I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it pos-
Cromwell likewise conquered Scotland, but he showed sible you may be mistaken.” But they did not, so Cromwell
far more mercy to his fellow Protestants. Charles I lost marched north with an army, became trapped at Dunbar
his few friends in Scotland when his negotiations with between the sea and the hills, but won a resounding vic-
the Irish Catholic clan of Macdonalds drove the Earl of tory because the Scots left their unassailable position and
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 221

because they failed in the heavy rain to light the tapers Huntingdon Grammar School under the fearsomely de-
needed to fire their matchlock muskets. After the victory vout Dr. Beard and spent several years at Sidney Sussex
Cromwell marched to Edinburgh and then to Perth, delib- College, the most puritanical of Cambridge colleges. He
erately l­eaving the way open into England. The Scots fell experienced the dark night of the soul, when he became
into the trap. They marched south, only to discover that convinced that he was the chief of all sinners and certainly
the E ­ nglish, fearing Cromwell and disliking the Scots, did damned. Then came the sudden light of God’s grace and as-
not rise. At ­Worcester, on September 3, the anniversary of surance of salvation. The outbreak of war and his prowess
Dunbar, Cromwell defeated the Scots. God had conferred as a cavalry commander catapulted him into fame. He re-
His “crowning mercy” by ending all civil strife in Britain. cruited able men, trained them incessantly, and introduced
For nine years the English governed Scotland justly, them to the newest tactics in cavalry warfare (which was to
efficiently, and honestly. The Presbyterians continued charge uninterruptedly at the opponent and cut him down
to worship in their accustomed manner. The merchants with naked steel, not to pause to fire pistols into his ranks).
enjoyed all the trading privileges of Englishmen. And Cromwell was a modest, rough-hewn man, who wanted
­Scotsmen sent 30 members to the Protectorate ­Parliament to be painted warts and all, a cautious, even conservative
in ­London. Yet it was expensive government, for the cost of man, whom religion and the pursuit of God’s will made a
the army of occupation was enormous—£6000 a month. revolutionary. Each new victory—Marston Moor, Naseby,
The ­Presbyterian clergy never truly welcomed the union Preston, Drogheda, Dunbar, and Worcester—strengthened
with heretics in the south and heartily welcomed the his belief that God had prepared him and the army to lead
­Restoration when it came. England to the New Jerusalem.
The Commonwealth also used its power to regain Oliver Cromwell was a reluctant dictator who always
the allegiance of those colonies that had recognized sought a civilian scabbard in which to conceal the sword.
Charles II—Virginia, Maryland, Barbados, Bermuda, and From 1649 to 1653 the Rump Parliament cloaked the rule
Antigua. The government sent out a strong fleet under of the army, but Cromwell and the army eventually quar-
the command of Sir George Ayscue, who forced Barba- reled with the Rump. Cromwell, ever a practical man, saw
dos, Antigua, and Bermuda to submit in 1651, Virginia and that the Commonwealth could survive only if it were made
Maryland in 1652. The retention of existing colonies did popular and the royalists reconciled to it. He saw the need
not exhaust the ­ambitions of Cromwell, who embarked on to win popularity by reducing taxes, granting amnesty to
the ­Western ­Design. Though its immediate purpose was to the royalists, allowing—within limits—religious toleration,
punish Spain for its attacks on Providence and Association and instituting political and legal reforms. But the Rump
Islands, its deeper purpose was to break Spain’s monopoly raised taxes to pay for the Dutch war, passed an amnesty
of commerce in the Caribbean. In 1655 Cromwell sent ordinance that was riddled with exceptions, refused to ac-
­General Venables with a fleet and 2000 men (who were cept the Independents’ demand for religious liberty, strictly
to become colonists) to seize Hispaniola from Spain. They licensed books, and instituted draconian legal reforms,
failed and so took Jamaica instead, which provoked war such as the provision that adultery be punished with death.
with Spain. It was an imprudent war, since it necessitated It also obstructed the political reforms sought by Cromwell
immense expenditures to guard and convoy English vessels and the army, who believed that new elections were nec-
in the ­Channel. Yet England did win Dunkirk from Spain, essary. The Rump therefore reluctantly bowed to military
a bridle to the Dutch and a base from which to dominate pressure and brought in a bill for the dissolution of Parlia-
northern Europe. Cromwell’s greatness at home, observed ment and the holding of new elections. Then suddenly the
Edward Hyde, was but a shadow of his glory abroad. army changed its mind, fearing that new elections would
produce an even more conservative House of Commons.
In order to prevent the passage of the bill for a dissolution
and new elections, Cromwell hastened to the House with a
The Search for Consent file of musketeers. He denounced the members, declared
By 1653 Oliver Cromwell had arrived at the center of them unfit to be a Parliament for God’s people, called in
the English revolution. For 40 years he had lived in the musketeers, and cried out: “Depart I say, and let us
­Huntingdonshire, a modest Puritan gentleman, serving have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
as justice of the peace, promoting lectureships, and man- The expulsion of the Rump inaugurated a new search
aging an estate worth about £300 a year. He was born in for some form of consent to the rule of the army. General
1599 into a junior branch of the Cromwell family that de- Lambert favored a council of state, a written constitution,
scended from Thomas Cromwell’s sister. He attended the and then later a Parliament. General Harrison proposed a
222 A History of England

Hudson Bay

CAN ADA

AC
AD
IA
MAINE
N EW HA M P S HI R E
MAS S ACHU S E T TS
Plymouth Massachusetts Bay
N EW YORK Cape Cod
R HOD E I S L A N D
CON N E CT I CU T
PENNS Y LVAN I A
MARY L AN D
Atlantic
Delaware Bay Ocean
VIRGIN I A

NORTH C AROLI N A
BERMUDA
SOUTH CAROL INA

American Colonies in
the 17th Century

0 250 500 Miles

0 250 500 Kilometers

HI S PA N I OL A ANTIGUA

S T. KI T TS

J A M A I CA
BARBADOS

nominated council of 70 saints, in imitation of the ­Jewish the Court of Chancery, leaving thousands of suitors with-
Sanhedrin. Cromwell chose a variation of H ­ arrison’s pro- out legal resources. Extremists even spoke of replacing the
posal: a Parliament of 140 members, chosen by the army Common law with the law of Moses. They also voted to es-
from names put forward by Independent congregations tablish civil marriage and to abolish lay patronage; and they
throughout the land. The Parliament of Saints was the began an attack on tithes, to the dismay of the gentry who
apotheosis of the idea that the godly should rule. Though had stolen many of them. The irresponsibility of the radi-
they came to be called the Barebones Parliament after cal wing of the Parliament of Saints persuaded C ­ romwell
­Praise-God Barebones, a leather seller and prominent and the moderates that the godly could not govern. Where
member of the assembly, the social composition of this he once had to do with knaves, Cromwell declared, mean-
Parliament was not unlike earlier ones. It met in July and ing the Rump, he now had to do with fools. In December
set furiously about the work of reform. Though there was Cromwell and the moderates engineered the dissolution of
not a lawyer in the House, the members decided to abolish Parliament.
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 223

parish ministries and local Commissions of ­Ejectors re-

moved clergy guilty of drunkenness or blasphemy. In 1655
Cromwell even allowed Jews, whom Edward I had expelled
in 1290, to settle in England and worship freely. There was
probably never a time when the Gospel was preached in
England with more energy, eloquence, vigor, variety, and
freedom than during these years.
But this fact made little difference when the first
­Protectorate Parliament met in 1654. Its social composi-
tion resembled earlier Parliaments, as did its habits of
independence. It immediately attacked The Instrument
of ­Government as illegal, and 90 republican members re-
fused to swear a recognition of loyalty to the P ­ rotectorate.
­C romwell expelled them, but the remaining members
stood firm. They had three fundamental objections to the
new regime: It made the executive financially independent
of the legislature; it maintained a vast army; and it granted
toleration to ­h eretical sects. The members of the first
­Protectorate Parliament were not about to abandon finan-
cial control of the executive, acquiesce in a standing army,
or accept religious toleration. It was busy drawing up a new
constitution when Cromwell dissolved it in January 1655.
The dissolution inflamed public opinion throughout the
country and led to several uprisings. Almost no one liked
Oliver Cromwell, portrait by Robert Walker. The Instrument of Government. The republicans viewed it
as the establishment of monarchy. The royalists preferred
the House of Stuart. The Levellers found it too aristocratic.
The Fifth Monarchists believed it to be ungodly. The Fifth
Cromwell now turned to General Lambert’s proposals: Monarchists were those who believed that there had been
a written constitution with something monarchical in it. four universal monarchies in history and that Christ’s re-
On December 12, 1653, Cromwell accepted The Instrument turn, which was imminent, would inaugurate the fifth and
of Government, the only written constitution in English last. Nearly all the Puritan preachers believed in the mil-
history. It provided for a Lord Protector, who should be lennium; that is, that Christ would ultimately return to
­Cromwell, a Council of State, to which it named the gen- Earth and rule for 1000 years. But they drew no political
erals and their friends, and a Parliament, to be elected ev- conclusion from this fact. The Fifth Monarchists did. They
ery three years by those in the counties with estates worth believed that the reign of Christ upon Earth was shortly to
£200 a year and by the boroughs, which now included begin and that it was the duty of the elect to remove hin-
­Manchester and Leeds. Ireland and Scotland should each drances to Christ’s rule. The existing rulers were wicked
send 30 members to the Parliament. It declared that there and must be rejected. During the 1650s many Levellers,
would be an army of 30,000 and a revenue of not less than disheartened at their impotence, and many sectarians, dis-
£1.3 million, and it guaranteed toleration for all religions but illusioned by the disbanding of the Parliament of Saints,
popery, prelacy, and those sects which “under the profession drifted into the Fifth Monarchist camp. The modern his-
of Christ, hold forth and practice licentiousness.” Cromwell torian finds the Levellers a source of perennial interest be-
accepted The Instrument of Government because he saw a cause they were the harbingers of democracy, but the Fifth
need for “healing and settling,” for reconciliation and the Monarchists were more characteristic of the revolutionary
restoration of order. He would act as a constable to keep the fervor of this deeply religious age.
peace of the parish. In the next six years the Protectorate ac- Cromwell’s answer to the near anarchism of the Fifth
complished much: Administration was efficient and honest; Monarchists and the incipient rebellion of the royalists
the Court of Chancery was restored and its fees lowered; was to institute military governments. In June 1655, on the
judges obtained legal security of tenure. A Commission of advice of Generals Lambert and Desborough, he divided
Triers ensured that godly and learned men were named to the country into 11 parts and placed a major-general with
224 A History of England

500 picked cavalry over each. The purpose of the major- and too fearful of religious liberty. There was no disguis-
generals was to prevent rebellion and ensure that the local ing the fact that the Protectorate was in fact a military
magistrates did their duty. They commanded the militia, dictatorship.
purged town corporations, enforced religious toleration,
exhorted and bullied justices of the peace, and prohibited
race meetings and cockfights, places where royalists met to
plot rebellion. The more zealous among them went beyond
The Restoration
this original purpose and sought to enforce virtue on the Two forces eroded the foundations of the Protectorate even
people, strictly enforcing the Sabbath and punishing swear- before Cromwell’s death removed the one man who could
ing and drunkenness. To pay for this military tyranny the hold the army together: nostalgia for the old monarchy and
government imposed a 10 percent tax on the property of all financial bankruptcy.
royalists, an arbitrary tax that proved quite inadequate and The revolutionary pendulum swung to its farthest left-
frightened all property owners. ward point with the Barebones Parliament, and then began
The major-generals exerted all their influence to elect to swing back to the right, first to the restoration of govern-
dependable members to the Parliament that met in 1656, ment by a single person in The Instrument and then to an
and they failed. Even after the Council of State had pre- upper house in The Humble Petition and Advice. But pub-
vented 100 of the members from taking their seats, the lic opinion swung even faster, driven by a hatred of high
Parliament turned on the government. It refused to ap- taxes and meddling major-generals. The Cony case in 1654
prove the militia bill necessary to continue the regime of showed how little protection property enjoyed. Cony was
the major-generals. It passed a law bristling with penalties a merchant who refused to pay a customs duty arbitrarily
against Catholics. It fell upon James Naylor, a Quaker who levied on silk. The council sent him to prison and prevailed
rode into Bristol on a white donkey, saying he was a new in the case by dismissing one judge and jailing C ­ ony’s coun-
incarnation of Christ. The Parliament sentenced him to be sel. It was the Hampden case played over again. There was
flogged, branded, and bored through the tongue. The sav- also deep resentment at the major-generals who replaced
age and illegal persecution of Naylor led to a desire for a the gentry, the “natural rulers” of the counties. Slowly the
second chamber to check the House of Commons, and the logic of events led men of property to unite and caused the
discovery of a plot to assassinate Cromwell led to specu- revolutionaries to divide. Religion ceased to be the great-
lation about who would succeed him should he be killed. est cause, and the recovery of their old liberties became the
A group of moderates therefore persuaded Parliament to greatest good. As Edmund Chillenden, once a Leveller and
present to the Protector The Humble Petition and Advice. a Fifth Monarchist, put it, “Pish, let religion alone; give me
The Humble Petition provided for a hereditary kingship my small liberty.”
in the family of Cromwell, an upper house whose mem- In the summer of 1658, at a time when its military rep-
bers Cromwell should name and the House of Commons utation abroad was higher than ever, England was racing
approve, a permanent revenue that should not exceed £1.3 toward bankruptcy. The debt stood at £1.5 million and
million, and a prohibition against Cromwell’s excluding the sailors were owed more than £500,000 in back pay,
men from Parliament. The fierce opposition of the army to the soldiers, more than £300,000. The Humble Petition
the idea of kingship led Cromwell to reject the crown, but and ­Advice limited the government to £1.3 million a year,
the other provisions of The Humble Petition and Advice when in fact it needed £2.5 million. Since there were no
came into effect, including the right of the Lord Protector more Crown, episcopal, and royalist lands to be sold, the
to name his successor. money must be raised by the customs, excise, or assess-
When Parliament assembled in January 1658, Cromwell ment. The customs rose from £140,000 in 1643 to £502,000
permitted the 100 excluded members to return and named in 1659, but the New Book of Rates was so high it throttled
many of his friends in the Commons to the upper house. trade and reduced revenue. The excise, a tax on beer, meat,
The effect was to destroy any hope of winning a majority salt, soap, and starch introduced by John Pym in 1643, fell
in the Commons and to allow the opponents of the new largely on the poor. There was little hope of increasing
constitution to capture control. Cromwell thereupon dis- revenues from it, so the government sought to increase
solved Parliament within three weeks. “Let God be Judge the monthly assessment, a tax on rents, annuities, and of-
between you and me,” he cried out. He died on September fices, also introduced in 1643. It was modeled on the ship
3, 1658, before Parliament could meet again. For ten years money tax and marked the first time in English history
he and the army had searched in vain for consent. The that the gentry were made to pay a substantial proportion
English were too wedded to their parliamentary liberties of taxation. But all efforts to raise a million a year on the
 The English Revolution: 1640–1660 225

assessment failed. The Humble Petition and Advice even England became irremediably divided between Anglican
declared that no part of the revenue should be raised by and Dissent, Church and Chapel. Those who persisted in
a land tax. Having been taxed over £80 million during the attending Chapel brought to English public life an inde-
interregnum, an average of £4 million a year, the English pendence, a nonconformist conscience, that did much to
were ripe for a tax strike. make England the home of liberty and individuality. Politi-
The Protectorate swiftly disintegrated after Oliver cally, the revolution ensured the defeat of absolutism and
Cromwell’s death. His eldest son Richard succeeded him the permanence of Parliament.
and summoned a Parliament elected on the old franchise. The most significant fact about the Restoration was
In April 1659 that Parliament voted that the army council that the English restored their Parliament before they re-
might not meet without its approval, whereupon the army stored their king. And it was a Parliament that had learned
forced Richard to dissolve Parliament. The army then abol- to rule—to create new financial departments, to establish
ished the Protectorate, sent Richard into retirement, and committees of trade, to administer the Church, and to
called back the Rump to screen its rule. But times had conduct foreign policy. The Committee of Both Kingdoms
changed. The Rump itself insisted on controlling the army, during the civil war anticipated the modern cabinet. Habits
and so the army dissolved it in October. Angered by this of government gained over two decades were not easily cast
act, George Monck, commander of the army in Scotland, off. Nor was it only in Parliament that the gentry learned to
resolved to march into England. On January 2, 1660, he rule. From 1645 to 1655 they consolidated their hold on lo-
crossed the Tweed with 10,000 men, thereby destroying cal government; at the Restoration they were firmly in con-
the unity on which the rule of the army depended. ­General trol of their shires. Finally, there was the ferment of ideas
Lambert marched north to repulse him, but his troops, that raged during these 20 years, ideas that were not lost
unpaid for weeks and conscious of the odium they bore in because they were not immediately realized. The Indepen-
the nation, deserted. Lambert’s army melted away. Monck, dents’ cry for liberty of conscience, the Levellers’ demand
whose troops had been paid through February, marched for democracy, Milton’s plea for freedom of the press,
on to London. For motives that are undiscoverable, Monck ­Lilburne’s insistence that all governments be under the law,
decided to enter into an alliance with the City of London the merchants’ demand for freedom of enterprise, and the
and to summon back not just the Rump, but all the mem- army’s experiment in republicanism, all survived in the
bers of the Long Parliament. He admitted the excluded realm of ideas, not to speak of the religious ferment which
members, however, only after they had pledged to dissolve saw the emergence of ideas of free grace, free will, and the
the Long Parliament and order elections for a new one—a inner light. During the 20 years of the English revolution,
pledge they kept. Everywhere the electors of England re- 22,000 sermons and pamphlets were published in England.
turned royalists; even the Presbyterians, under the pressure The kingdom could never be the same again.
of 11 years of military rule, had become royalists. The new
Parliament met in April, restored the House of Lords, and Notes
invited back the House of Stuart. 1. Milton, John. The Areopagitica. 1644.
Charles II made his return easier by promising, in the 2. Overton, Richard. The hunting of the foxes. 1649.
Declaration of Breda, an amnesty, liberty of conscience,
the payment of wages owed soldiers and sailors, and the Further Reading
recognition of sales of land made since 1642, all subject
Robert Ashton. The English Civil War: Conservatism and
to confirmation by Parliament. On May 29 Charles en-
­Revolution 1603–1649. London, 1978. An original interpreta-
tered London, escorted by 20,000 troops. The church bells tion as well as a textbook; Ashton’s sensible judgments are a
pealed, flowers covered the streets, wine ran freely, and useful antidote to many an overstated thesis.
Londoners crowded windows and balconies to see their G. E. Aylmer. Rebellion or Revolution? England 1640–1660.
king come home. New York, 1986. The title is misleading: It is less a discussion
Though the House of Stuart returned, it returned to a of that issue than a concise account, based on an impressive
kingdom much altered from that over which it had ruled knowledge of primary sources and secondary literature,
in 1640. The English revolution left a lasting legacy to fu- of the complex political and religious developments of the
ture generations, a legacy that was religious, political, and period.
intellectual. In the religious realm it created English non- Anthony Fletcher. The Outbreak of the English Civil War.
conformity. Because Cromwell seized power and held it ­London, 1982. A scholarly, detailed narrative of events from
for 11 years, Puritanism was able to put down roots so deep 1640 to 1643, which emphasizes the leadership of John Pym
that no amount of persecution after 1660 could dislodge it. and his exploitation of papist and royalist plots.
226 A History of England

Christopher Hill. God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and Paul S. Seaver. Wallington’s World: A Puritan Artisan in
the English Revolution. London, 1970. A sympathetic, in- ­Seventeenth-Century London. Stanford, CA, 1985. Drawing
formed life of Cromwell by a historian who knows the age upon the 2600 manuscript pages of Nehemiah Wallington’s
of ­Cromwell more intimately than any modern historian. journals and letters, Seaver recreates Wallington’s family
———. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during life, social milieu, and mental world; vividly portrays the
the English Revolution. Penguin Books, 1975. An immensely popular Puritanism of the age.
learned and sympathetic guide to the Familists, Seekers, C. V. Wedgewood. The King’s Peace, 1637–1641 and The King’s
Diggers, Muggletonians, Quakers, Baptists, and Ranters War, 1641–1647. New York, 1955, 1959. A vivid and splendid
who called into question every traditional belief and an- narrative, punctuated by shrewd and sensitive portraits;
cient institution. Wedgewood examines the motives of men rather than the
John Morrill, ed. Reactions to the English Civil War. New York, underlying causes of the revolution.
1982. Eight essays by eight able scholars, exploring the im- Austin Woolrych. Britain in Revolution, 1625–1660. Oxford,
pact of civil war on the parish, the county, the town, the 2002. While focusing on events in England, this is a massive
people, the New Model army, the royal army, parliament, and masterly narrative of war and politics in the three king-
and the law; the authors emphasize the lack of revolution- doms; marked by its judicious assessment of key figures.
ary commitment throughout the 1640s.
 chapter 15

Restoration and Revolution:

1660–1689

A
CHAPTER OUTLINE
powerful argument can be made for the proposition that
1660—not 1066 or 1485 or 1688—is the most significant date in
■ The Scientific Revolution English history. The argument would not rest on the fact of Charles II’s
restoration, but on the fact that a number of other developments
■ Causes and Consequences reached fruition in 1660 and created the modern world. The ­English
ceased to speak of “the King in Parliament,” suggesting there was
■ Restoration Society some mystical harmony to be achieved, and spoke of “the King and
­Parliament,” thereby acknowledging that they might differ. The last
relic of feudalism ended in 1660, when Parliament confirmed the
■ Rural Society
­abolition of knight service and wardship, and voted the king an e­ xcise
on beer in their place. The modern, untrammeled freehold tenure
■ The Restoration Settlement
came into existence. Commercial and manufacturing enterprises
­likewise became untrammeled as guild regulations and m ­ onopolies
■ The Failure of the Restoration Settlement disappeared. An act of 1663 repealed medieval prohibitions on
­regrating and engrossing, thus allowing speculators to corner a market.
■ The Reign of James II The modern standing army came into existence when Charles d ­ ecided
to keep the Coldstream Guard on foot. The modern pattern of meals—
■ The Glorious Revolution
breakfast, lunch, and dinner—emerged, and tea and coffee began
to replace beer and ale at the table. Men’s dress became modern as
­doublet and cloak gave way to coat and waistcoat. The modern theater,
■ The Revolutionary Settlement
with its proscenium arch and women playing women’s parts, sprang
into being. In 1666 the Great Fire burned the old Gothic London to
the ground, allowing Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild its churches in a
classical style. Modern London is still in part Wren’s London.
The profoundest change of all came in the realm of thought.
The ­s cientific revolution, tangibly embodied in The Royal S­ ociety
of ­L ondon for Improving Natural Knowledge, founded in 1662,
swept away the hierarchies and correspondences, the essences and
­accidents, the crystalline spheres and occult qualities of the medieval
world ­picture and replaced it with a modern cosmology. If a ­modern
­Englishman were to sup with Ben Jonson in a tavern, their conver-
sation would be plagued by misunderstandings. But if he were to
converse with John Dryden in a coffeehouse, he would find that they
shared the same language and presuppositions. For modern man the
age of Newton, not the age of Bede or Chaucer or Shakespeare, marks
the backward edge of time.

227
228 A History of England

The Scientific Revolution philosopher Empedocles, who taught that matter consisted
of four elements—fire, air, water, and earth. Later writers
The picture of the natural world that the scientific revolu- argued that the planets and stars were made up of a fifth
tion shattered was a strange and complicated one. Its as- element (or quintessence), an ethereal substance that grew
tronomy derived from Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in more pure as one traveled away from the Earth.
Alexandria in the second century c.e. Ptolemy taught that The towering figure in physiology was Galen, a phy-
the earth was motionless at the center of the universe, that sician born in Asia Minor in the second century c.e. He
around it were ten concentric crystalline spheres carrying did not believe that blood circulated in the body; it merely
the planets and the stars, and that beyond the tenth sphere ebbed and flowed like the tides. The dark red blood of
lay the high heavens. Angels kept the spheres in motion, the veins carried nutriment to the muscles; the bright red
and all bodies moved in perfect circles at uniform speeds. blood in the arteries carried spirits to all parts of the body.
To make this picture fit the observed motion of the stars There were three spirits: the natural spirit that flowed from
and planets, Ptolemy invented a complicated system of epi- the liver, the vital spirit that flowed from the heart, and the
cycles, eccentrics, and equants. Medieval people took their animal spirit that flowed from the brain. Galen was quite
physics from Aristotle, who taught that heavy objects fall ignorant of the glandular system, so he put forward a sys-
to the Earth more swiftly than light ones, that a uniform tem of four humors, or bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow
force applied to an object will move it at a constant speed, bile, and black bile. Their imbalance caused disease. The
and that an object will immediately stop if the force act- physician’s duty was to restore the balance, which he did
ing on it ceases. In Aristotelian physics an arrow should by purging and bleeding. The commonest form of diagno-
drop to the ground the minute it leaves the bowstring. The sis was “water-casting,” or examination of the urine, since
chemistry of the age was based on the writings of the Greek the imbalance of the humors could be discovered from the
color of the urine.
These curious, complicated, mistaken, and nonsensical
ideas dominated human life for nearly 2000 years, until the
development and application of the experimental method
swept them away. The ancient Greeks were proficient in
mathematics and the medieval scholastics were adept at
formal logic, but neither had ever stumbled on the experi-
mental method, which lies at the heart of science. The ex-
perimental method consists of the careful observation and
precise measurement of the natural world, the induction
of general ideas from these observations, the deduction of
further propositions from these general ideas, and the test-
ing of these ideas and propositions by going once again to
nature.
Robert Grosseteste in the thirteenth century had rec-
ognized the importance of induction—that is, of deriv-
ing general ideas from the particulars observed—and
of verification—that is, of testing those ideas by further
investigation. But his thought had more influence in
­fourteenth-century Paris and fifteenth-century Padua than
in England. It remained for Sir Francis Bacon, courtier
and politician, philosopher and essayist, to advocate once
again the empirical, inductive road to truth. In his Novum
Organum, published in 1628, he declared that reason “left
to itself, ought always to be suspected,” and that logic “by
no means reaches the subtilty of nature.” “Our method,” he
wrote, “is continually to dwell among things.” 1 He urged
An armillary sphere, showing the Ptolemaic structure of the
that axioms be derived from particulars and tested by fur-
­universe, with the Earth at the center.  (Science Museum, London. The ther experiment. Bacon failed, however, to appreciate the
Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) importance of deductive reasoning and mathematics to the
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 229

scientist, an oversight which René Descartes, a contem- Even more important than his conclusions were his meth-
porary French philosopher, corrected. Descartes, whose ods. For 20 years he conducted painstaking experiments,
thought was wholly deductive, discovered a one-to-one dissecting fish, eels, frogs, pigs, and dogs. He was the first
correspondence between the realm of number (algebra and experimental physiologist.
arithmetic) and the realm of space (geometry). A copy of What William Harvey did for physiology, Robert Boyle
his work on geometry excited the mind of the young Isaac sought to do for chemistry. Boyle was the son of the im-
Newton at Cambridge University. mensely wealthy Earl of Cork, and his father’s wealth al-
Even before Bacon and Descartes had published lowed him to build a splendid laboratory in his London
their works, an Italian scholar, Galileo, a professor at the home and to devote his life to science. He experimented
­University of Padua from 1592 to 1610, had combined their with the air pump and established the relationship between
approaches in the study of mechanics. He was the first true the volume and pressure of a gas at a constant tempera-
experimentalist, the first modern scientist. In England that ture—a relationship known today as Boyle’s law. In 1661 he
distinction must go to William Harvey, son of a prosperous published The Sceptical Chemist, a work that swept away
Kentish yeoman, who studied at Cambridge and Padua, the ancient Greek belief in four elements and the scholastic
and in 1628 published a book demonstrating that blood cir- belief in essences and qualities. Boyle believed that the dif-
culated through the body. He showed that the heart, which ferences between substances could be explained in terms
acts as a pump, is the starting point of the blood, and not of the different arrangements of the ultimate particles of
the liver, as Galen thought. He showed that the valves in which all matter is composed. Because he rejected the idea
the veins permitted the blood to flow only toward the heart of chemical elements, Boyle failed to establish the founda-
and those in the arteries away from the heart, so that the tions of modern chemistry, but his revival of the atomic
flow was continuous and in one direction. His decisive ar- hypothesis made it easier for Antoine Lavoisier to do so a
gument was a quantitative one. He calculated that the vol- century later.
ume of blood pumped from the heart in an hour was in Isaac Newton, the solitary child of a small landowner
excess of the weight of a man, and concluded that it must in Lincolnshire, and a mathematical genius who quickly
therefore circulate. His book, On the Motion of the Heart became professor of mathematics at Cambridge, made the
and Blood, was initially rejected in England and abroad, supreme contribution to European science. He brought to-
but ultimately it made all of Galen’s physiology obsolete. gether in one great synthesis the new astronomical ideas

A diagram from Harvey’s On the Motion of the Heart and Blood showing the valves in the veins.
(By permission of the British Library)
230 A History of England

of Copernicus and Kepler and the new physical ideas of

Galileo. As early as 1543, Copernicus, a Polish mathemati-
cian, had argued that the planets orbit around the sun, not
the Earth, and that the apparent movement of the stars and
sun is the result of the daily rotation of the Earth. Kepler
demonstrated in 1619 that the planets move in ellipses, not
circles, and showed that the squares of the times taken by
any two planets in their revolutions around the sun were in
the same ratio as the cubes of their average distances from
the sun. Meanwhile, Galileo had discovered the concept of
inertia—that is, he had shown that a body in motion will
remain in motion unless an outside force works against it.
Galileo’s discovery demonstrated a need for some force to
keep the planets from moving off in a straight line through
space.
Isaac Newton is said to have grasped the clue while idly
watching an apple fall in the orchard of his Lincolnshire
home, where he had fled in 1665 to escape the plague. If an
apple on the highest hill or in the deepest mine is attracted
to the Earth, why not the moon also? He then formulated
his two laws of gravitation: The force between any two bod-
ies is directly proportional to the product of their masses
and inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them. He proved his laws mathematically using
an early form of calculus that he invented. The moon falls Sir Isaac Newton, portrait by John Vanderbank.  (Private
­collection. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
­toward the Earth and away from a straight line by about
.0044 feet per second. Since the moon is 60 times farther
from the center of the Earth than is the Earth’s surface, 602 ×
.0044 should give the speed of a falling body at the earth’s
Causes and Consequences
surface—which it does, 16 feet in the first second. Newton Historians have found it easier to chronicle than to account
had demonstrated an identity between the mathemati- for the rise of modern science. Why did the development
cally deduced and the empirically observed, the ultimate of this powerful method for apprehending the truth reach
achievement in science. fruition in Europe in the seventeenth century? Why not in
Newton did not publish his calculations immediately, ancient Greece or imperial China?
because he was not certain that the mass of the Earth could Marxist historians have offered one explanation: It was
be taken as concentrated at its center. But some years later the result of economic changes in the sixteenth and seven-
several members of the Royal Society fell to discussing why teenth centuries. Not until the bourgeoisie had broken the
planets should move in an ellipse. One of them, Edmund feudal order could science serve the cause of capitalist pro-
Halley, went down to Cambridge to seek an answer from duction. The weakness of the economic interpretation lies
Newton. Newton replied that he had already solved the in the fact that the great scientists of the time—­Copernicus,
problem, but then had to confess he had mislaid his notes. Galileo, Harvey, Newton—were motivated primarily by
He thereupon wrote out another solution. Prodded by curiosity, not by economic forces. Yet economic forces,
­Halley, he published it in 1687 in Principia Mathematica. In though not basic, were favorable. The voyages of discov-
this work he showed that a planet travels in an elliptical or- ery produced technical problems of navigation that led to
bit because the force of gravity exactly counteracts the force improved quadrants, maps, and chronometers. ­William
of inertia, and that the force of gravity is proportional to Harvey, a practicing physician, was concerned with the
the product of the mass of any two particles and inversely health of his patients. Wealthy merchants and financiers
proportional to the square of the distance between them. promoted scientific education. Sir Thomas Gresham, for
A few simple, universal laws of motion now replaced the example, established Gresham College in 1597, three of
crystalline spheres, angles, epicycles, eccentrics, equants, whose seven chairs were devoted to scientific subjects.
and prime movers of Ptolemaic astronomy. It was a principal center of scientific activity in the early
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 231

seventeenth century. Thomas Sprat, the first historian of cause illness in others, astrologers who sold talismans to
the Royal Society, praised the practical objects of the soci- guard against witches, village wizards who could cure dis-
ety, which were “to increase the powers of all mankind and eases, or wise women whose charms and spells warded off
to free them from the bondage of errors.” Bacon put the misfortune. Tudor and Stuart England was a land filled with
matter more succinctly: “Knowledge is power.” magic. There were magical herbs for weariness, charms to
Those historians influenced by the German sociologist keep weeds out of grain, wassails to bless apple trees, amu-
Max Weber have sought to connect the rise of science with lets to protect soldiers, divinatory systems to ascertain the
Protestantism. The explanation suffers from the undeni- price of corn, and magical formulas to keep away pests. Re-
able fact that many of the greatest European scientists were ligion was the great rival of magic, and the Reformation, by
Catholic and that Harvey, Boyle, and Newton were moder- taking a good deal of magic out of religion, left a vacuum
ate in their religious views, not Puritan. Yet English Puritan- the astrologers and village wizards filled. But magic could
ism was not hostile to science; the Puritan revolution stirred not survive a science that demanded that all truths be dem-
up people’s minds and made them inquisitive. At Oxford a onstrated and a mechanistic philosophy that saw the world
group of Baconians moved into the university behind the as composed of small, indestructible particles formed into
Parliamentary armies. Cromwell’s brother-in-law became larger bodies whose inertia and attraction could be mea-
warden of Wadham College; his physician became warden of sured exactly. The world of nature was a vast mechanical
Merton. Other scholars, such as Christopher Wren, R ­ obert system governed by a few simple laws.
Boyle, Robert Hooke, and John Locke, attracted to Oxford, It was not natural science alone that caused the decline
formed a group that became the nucleus of the Royal Society in magic; the social sciences helped. French mathemati-
in 1662. Restoration England was not puritanical, but neither cians formulated laws of probability and English scholars
did it suffer from the Counter-Reformation Catholicism that drew up mortality tables. In 1662 John Graunt attempted to
crushed science in Catholic Europe after 1660. construct tables that estimated life expectancy. In the sec-
The real explanation for the scientific revolution lies in ond half of the seventeenth century the word “coincidence,”
the history of ideas. By the sixteenth century, Europeans, in the sense of the simultaneous occurrence of causally
having appropriated the knowledge of antiquity, were led unrelated events, first appeared. To this nascent statistical
to study nature itself. Furthermore, medieval science had sense was joined a new spirit of self-help, a new confidence
reached an advanced stage of complexity. Scientists de- in human initiative, even a belief in progress. Agricultural
vised ever more epicycles to make the theories of the an- writers campaigned against “the pattern of ancient igno-
cients square with nature, until those theories collapsed rance” and politicians rejected the appeal to precedent.
under their own weight. At the same time, people began “There be daily many things found out and daily more may
to ask different questions of nature: not why an object fell be,” wrote Sir Robert Filmer in 1653, “which our forefathers
to Earth, but how it fell. In an increasingly secular society, never knew to be possible.”
concern shifted from metaphysics to physics. But perhaps The new science also transformed the nature of re-
the most fundamental explanation lies in the conjunction ligious belief, though that was not the intention of men
of two intellectual traditions—that of Greek deductive like Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. They were religious
thought, going back to Euclid, and that of English induc- men who repudiated the skeptical doctrines of Thomas
tive thought, going back to Grosseteste. The merging of Hobbes. Newton spent much of his later life studying the
these two traditions at fourteenth-century Paris, sixteenth- prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. Yet
century Padua, and seventeenth-century Cambridge cre- the picture he drew of a universe subject to immutable
ated the experimental method. natural laws had no room in it for miracles. It also weak-
The consequences of the scientific revolution were pro- ened belief in intercessory prayer and diminished faith
found, but slow in working themselves out. The new ex- in divine inspiration. A wise Providence, operating by
perimental method did not immediately increase either physical causes, now replaced the revelations, inspirations,
human wealth or health, as Bacon had hoped. Harvey’s miraculous cures, and divine interventions of past years.
momentous discovery had no immediate practical result. But only with an educated elite; belief in a miraculous re-
Not until the nineteenth century was there a close alli- ligion continued among the people at large, just as belief
ance between science and technology. Improved agricul- in magic continued in the villages of England well into the
tural methods in the late seventeenth century owed little nineteenth century. One of the chief consequences of the
to science. scientific revolution was the creation, between 1680 and
The new science likewise slowly eroded belief in magic. 1720, of a gulf between the enlightened few and the super-
There was no place in its cosmology for witches who could stitious many.
232 A History of England

The new science also weakened the appeal of poetry. In

literature the age of poetry gave way to the age of prose,
the age of Milton to the age of Dryden. John Dryden was a
poet and dramatist who thought judgment more important
than imagination, and rhyme more important than meta-
phor. To the Elizabethans the poet was a seer and prophet,
and metaphor a revelation of the truth. To Dryden and his
contemporaries, metaphors were an adornment to lan-
guage and poetry an entertainment. “King Oberon and his
invisible army of fairies,” wrote Thomas Sprat, are “false
chimeras.” Even the style of preaching altered, as clarity
and simplicity drove out richness and imagery.
To this development there was one notable exception.
John Milton, blind and disillusioned, his hopes of a re-
generate England crushed, retired to his house in Jewin
Street to write Paradise Lost, the greatest poetic epic of the
English language. To its composition he brought a mind
stored with all the biblical, classical, medieval, and mod-
ern learning of his time and a verse that was dignified,
flexible, charged with emotion, and capable both of simple
directness and sublime heights. Milton set out to “justify
the ways of God to men,” and did so by arguing that virtue
can only be achieved by struggle, and that the fall of Adam
and Eve was therefore inevitable, since passive virtue, with-
out the challenge of an imperfect world, cannot release the “Portrait of Charles II (1630–85),” by John Michael Wright. Oil
on canvas, 126.4 × 101 cm.  (National Portrait Gallery, London. The
greatness in man. For Milton a cloistered virtue was no Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
virtue at all, and the pursuit of virtue was the most heroic
enterprise of all.
patrons of playwrights. The result was a theater that ap-
pealed to the Court and the fashionable around town, and
Restoration Society plays that satirized all bourgeois virtues, especially mar-
Restoration society set little store on the pursuit of virtue riage. P­ laywrights ridiculed the country squire, the London
and much on wit and pleasure. The Court once again be- merchant, and the faithful husband. William Wycherly did
came the center of society and the king, the center of the so brutally in The Country Wife and George Etherege more
Court. Charles II was an easygoing, pleasure-loving, toler- cheerfully in She Would If She Could. John Dryden capti-
ant, careless, and sensual king, without any spark of reli- vated the R ­ estoration rakes with his Marriage à la Mode, but
gious enthusiasm. He had his first mistress when he was won even more popularity with a bombastic tragedy after
18 and a succession of them thereafter, who bore him 14 the French fashion called The Conquest of Granada. Aphra
bastard children. He was a man of fashion who told his Behn, the first successful woman playwright in the history of
Council in 1666 that he intended to alter his dress and soon England, wrote some 23 witty and libertine plays, 20 of which
appeared in a coat and waistcoat, from which the modern were staged—among them The Rover, a comedy in which she
coat and vest derive. He also popularized horse racing at exposed the gullibility of men and the cleverness of women.
Newmarket (where he introduced the Barbary stallions) Technically the Restoration theater saw notable ad-
and yachting for pleasure (which was hitherto a Dutch vances. Theaters were now completely roofed over, with
pastime). He and a group of Restoration wits also set the footlights, drop curtains, and painted scenery. The prosce-
moral tone at Court, a tone that was coarse, libertine, de- nium arch came into use, which gave the stage the “picture
bauched, and witty. Charles acquired a bawdiness of con- frame” appearance it retained well into the twentieth cen-
versation that became habitual with him, and his wit and tury. Women’s parts were now taken by women, not young
easy manners became a model for others. boys, and men of fashion often came to see the actress
The wit and bawdiness of the Court spilled over into the rather than the play, even though her talents were often
theater. Some of the Court wits wrote plays, others were little greater than her virtue.
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 233

To the Puritans the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great He resolved to break completely from the past, to turn away
Fire in 1666 must have seemed to be God’s chastisement of from the Gothic to the classical. It was, however, the classi-
the English for their wickedness. The plague struck in May cal style he had studied in Paris, a blend of the classical and
1665 and lasted until the end of the year, during which time baroque. The dome of St. Paul’s, one of the most perfect in
over 68,000 Londoners died. The wealthy fled London, the world, is classical in its reposeful outline, as is the col-
leaving the poor to die in their squalid, rat-infested slums. onnade around the drum that supports it. But the façade,
Little wonder it came to be called the “poor’s plague.” The with its coupled columns and two fantastic turrets, is ba-
plague had waned and the wealthy had returned when a roque, as is the interior, with its colossal niches set in the
second disaster befell London. In September 1666 a strong piers and outer walls, giving an undulating effect to choir
east wind drove an accidental fire in Pudding Lane through and aisles. St. Paul’s was built in the grand manner, of white
the city. The fire raged for five days and destroyed the whole Portland stone, its dome rising high above the city, but it
city between the Tower and the Temple: 13,000 houses and is never overpowering in scale or ostentatious in detail. It
89 churches went up in flames, though few deaths resulted. retains something of the good sense and good manners of
The fire and the rebuilding of London did little to cause the the English. The same is true of the 53 city churches Wren
disappearance of the plague in England, for it disappeared designed. The exteriors have a dignified simplicity—a plain
in towns where there was no fire. The chief cause of the rectangle, with an elaborate steeple rising in front of it. The
disappearance of the plague was probably the fact that the interiors show more ingenuity of design, more interlocking
modern brown rat extirpated the medieval black rat, and effects, creating a spatial polyphony appropriate to the age
the brown rat does not carry the plague flea to nearly the of Purcell. Yet Wren always kept in mind the need to plan
same extent as the black rat. his space as an auditorium. This meant that some of the
Though the fire did not end the plague, it gave Sir mystery of the Gothic was lost, but that the practical needs
­Christopher Wren an opportunity to rebuild the churches of worshippers were met.
of London. Wren had not been trained as an architect. His As Paris was the model for monumental architecture
father, Dean of Windsor Chapel, had sent him to Oxford, and white Portland stone its material, so Amsterdam was
where he studied mathematics and astronomy and where the model for domestic architecture and red brick its build-
he put before the authorities 53 inventions, theories, and ing material. In London a ground plan evolved that became
mechanical improvements. He went on to become a pro- standardized by the end of the seventeenth century. Houses
fessor of astronomy and a founder of the Royal Society. But were built in terraces or rows (unlike the detached hôtels in
he also dabbled in architecture, designing the Sheldonian which Parisian merchants lived). Each house would have
Theater in Oxford. Thus when the fire created the neces- an entrance on one side leading straight to the staircase.
sity to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral and countless parish On each floor (of which there were three or four), there
churches, a royal commission named Wren chief architect. would be one large front room and one large back room. In
t.
at e S
o psg

SMITHFIELD Cripplegate
HIGH HOLBORN
h
Bis

Aldersgate Moorgate WHITECHAPEL

Lincoln’s Bishopsgate
Tyburn Inn Newgate Guildhall
Gallows Che SPITALFIELDS
Temple Ludgate a Lothbury St.
Watlipside
Will’s Coffee House Bar St. Paul’s
ng St
. Aldgate
Covent nd Thames S Royal Leadenhall
Garden Stra Somerset t. Exchange
Charing House THE CITY Custom House
er
Cross Riv The
London Tower
a ll Bridge Th a
lM me
Pal SOUTHWARK s
Whitehall
Green St. James
Park Park
London after the Fire
Westminster
Abbey Westminster Extent of the
WESTMINSTER Hall Great Fire of 1666
LAMBETH
0 1/4 1/2 Mile

0 1/4 1/2 Kilometer

234 A History of England

the basement were the rooms for the servants—thus cre-

ating the upstairs–downstairs gulf in English society. This
ground plan proved so useful that it remained practically
unaltered until the end of the Victorian age. There was
little splendor but much comfort in these houses. The fur-
nishings added to the comfort. Pottery and glass replaced
pewter and wood at the table; and many families came to
use knives, forks, mirrors, and pocket handkerchiefs. The
high-backed chair came into vogue, as well as the small
settee just wide enough for two persons to sit intimately
together. Rich fabrics upholstered the chairs and settees,
and elegant walnut replaced sturdy oak. Silver coffeepots
and teapots served the new beverages and grandfather
clocks kept the time. The pocket watch appeared, but it
was more decorative than accurate. Yet it might tell a gen-
tleman when to leave his coffeehouse, where he met his
friends to discuss commerce or politics.
It was commerce that paid for all. A tax on coal enter-
ing the port of London, for instance, paid for the rebuild-
ing of St. Paul’s between 1675 and 1710. The years from
1660 to 1700 were among the most expansive in English
history. Exports rose from £4.1 million a year to £6.4 mil-
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.   lion, and imports from £4.4 million to £5.8 million, thus
(British Information Services) turning a trade deficit of £.3 million into a surplus of £.6

Interior of St. Paul’s, showing the arches, domes, niches, and corkscrew columns characteristic
of the baroque style.  (R. Strange/Photodisc, Inc.)
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 235

million. Re-exports, particularly tobacco and sugar, ac- A household was composed of the father, mother, children,
counted for one-fourth of exports. Cloth, which in 1660 and servants, but not of grandparents or uncles or aunts.
accounted for 75 percent of the value of exports, accounted Where there were many servants, the household might
for less than 50 percent in 1700. America, the West Indies, be quite large. In Goodnestone there were 23 persons in
India, and the East provided one-third of all imports. Be- the household of Edward Hales, Esquire. The household
tween 1600 and 1700 calico imports from the East grew of the average husbandman, however, was small—the two
from 240,000 to 861,000 pieces. By 1700 the Royal African parents, one or two children, and a single servant. Even the
Company was sending 100,000 slaves a year to America humblest families had a servant who helped work the land.
and the West Indies. The growth of commerce led inevi- To every farm there was a family, and therefore marriage
tably to the growth of shipping, which rose from 175,000 was the entry into full membership in village society. The
tons in 1660 to 340,000 tons in 1688. men and boys did the ploughing, carting, hedging, and
The Navigation Act of 1660, which repeated and the heavy work of the harvest; the women and girls pre-
strengthened the provisions of the 1651 Act, and the S­ taple pared meals, made the butter and cheese, baked the bread,
Act of 1663, which required colonists to purchase their brewed the beer, looked after the cattle, and took the fruit
European goods from England, did much to promote to market. At harvest everyone went out into the field, for
this growth, but only because they worked with, rather in a northern climate, where there was only one crop a
than against, other economic forces. Political stability, so- year, swift harvesting was critical. Even a gentleman might
cial mobility, the absence of internal regulation, freedom break the first rule of gentility, not to work with his hands,
of enterprise, developing industries, a productive agri- and join in.
culture, and a powerful navy helped. Twice during these Traditional agriculture required a pool of labor to help
years, in 1665–1667 and 1672–1674, England demonstrated with ploughing and harvesting. This was furnished by the
that armed aggression could promote commerce by go- laborer, who had no holdings in the land other than the
ing to war against the Dutch. “What we want,” said George garden around the cottage in which he and his family lived.
Monck, now Duke of Albemarle, “is more of the trade In Goodnestone there were a dozen such families. They
the Dutch now have.” By 1700 England had overtaken the could never have survived on the wages paid for agricul-
Dutch as the greatest commercial power in Europe, and tural labor, but they supplemented that income with indus-
people of all ranks were prospering. The price of sugar trial labor, mostly spinning yarn, though in some parts of
fell by half, farmers were exporting their surplus grain to England they worked as miners and nailers. Industry made
­Europe, and the East India Company investor was earning it possible to put enough people on the land to meet the
20 percent on his capital. seasonal needs of agriculture.
In the village of Goodnestone there were 3 households
of gentry, 12 of substantial yeomen and husbandmen, 14 of
husbandmen, 9 of craftsmen (two carpenters, two brick-
Rural Society makers, a weaver, a shoemaker, a tailor, and a grocer), 12
The historian would be ill advised to push the argument for of laborers, and 12 of paupers. The families of the crafts-
the modernity of Restoration England too far, since life in men and laborers were smaller than those of the yeomen,
the village went along as it had for centuries—and would and the families of the yeomen were smaller than those
continue to do so until shattered by the Industrial Revolu- of the gentry. (The gentry had an average of 3.5 children;
tion. Most people lived in villages, 74 percent by Gregory the yeomen and husbandmen, 2.9; the tradesmen, 2.3; the
King’s estimate. Another 16 percent lived in towns whose laborers, 2.1; and the paupers, 1.8.) The poor simply could
average size was about 1000 inhabitants. Only the remain- not expect to live long enough to have as many children
ing 10 percent, who lived in London, lived in a truly ur- as the rich. Most of the land in Goodnestone was farmed
ban environment. Villages ranged in size from 200 to 500 by a dozen substantial families of yeomen and husband-
inhabitants, with a middle-sized village containing about men. Of the villagers born in humbler households, 52
400. England was thus a land of villages set among green went on to serve in larger households (16 in gentry house-
meadows and ploughed fields, held together by a network holds, 34 in yeomen and husbandmen households, and
of small market towns, the whole network centered on the 2 in tradesman households). When they entered these
vast metropolis of London. households they entered a circle of affection, and though
The social structure of the village rested on the family, it could turn into a scene of hatred it was always human
or household. In the village of Goodnestone in Kent, for and intimate. In traditional society the scale of life was
instance, there were 62 households containing 277 persons. small, and the place of one’s work was usually the place
236 A History of England

of one’s residence. The patriarchal authority of the male to marry, which usually preceded the ceremony by three
head of the household was unquestioned, be he a gentle- weeks.
man or a laborer. This strict sexual morality was taught from the pulpit.
The average villager need not fear starvation, but neither Village society was an oral society, for most people were
could he or she look forward to a long life. In the late sev- illiterate. In the county of Surrey in 1642, no less than two-
enteenth century the life expectancy of a person at birth thirds of the males over 18 had to make a mark rather than
was only 32 years (in the United Kingdom in 2006 it was sign their name to a protestation of loyalty to Parliament.
76.96). If a man could reach 21, however, he might look But though they could not read, they attended church. The
forward to 30 more years of life. Early death was a com- villagers of Stuart England were literal Christian believers,
mon occurrence in Stuart England; between one-third and who looked on the Christian religion as the explanation
one-half of all burials registered in the seventeenth century of life. In Goodnestone all but 16 villagers took commu-
were of “sons and daughters.” Most of these were carried nion at Easter, and the 16 promised to make amends at
away by disease, not starvation. The evidence of parish reg- ­Whitsuntide. It was at church that they learned what was
isters suggests that in England, unlike in France, the spec- going on in England and distant Europe. The preaching
ter of starvation had been removed. In 1661 John Graunt parson was indispensable to the social life of the village.
showed that of 229,250 burials over a 20-year period in It was also the parson who preached those doctrines of
London, only 51 starved—and London had a mass of pau- subordination to superiors that prevented social unrest in
pers. The English villager had enough to eat, and there was a society dominated by status. In 10,000 parish churches,
considerable reason for his or her despising the French after Matins on Sunday the priest taught the youth of the
peasant for eating black bread and wearing wooden shoes. parish a catechism which enjoined upon them the Fifth
The English did not starve because population was kept ­C ommandment, to honor thy father and mother, and
within bounds. Indeed, between 1650 and 1700 the popu- ­extended the commandments to submission to all gover-
lation may have fallen from 5.3 to 4.9 million. Late mar- nors. Even the Shorter Catechism of 1644, a Puritan one,
riages and high infant mortality ensured that families were preached obedience to superiors. Lilburne might urge that
small. When a son married, he left his parents’ household all men were equal, but the clergy taught that they were
and started one of his own. If he were not in a position to not, and that obedience was owed to one’s superiors.
do this, if there were no plot of land, no cottage, no ap-
prenticeship available, then he did not marry. The average
age of brides was 24, of bridegrooms 28. Given the short
life expectancy of the time, it was unlikely that they would
The Restoration Settlement
have over five children. The average was four children, and Obedience was very much a part of the settlement be-
so the population could barely replace itself, since half the tween church and state hammered out by Charles and
babies born did not survive until the age of 20. It is an er- ­Parliament between 1660 and 1665. The settlement in the
ror to think that the Industrial Revolution brought an state was based on a balance of government, a balance in
increase in infant mortality. A baby born into a Glasgow which the privileges of Parliament offset the p ­ rerogatives
slum in 1879 had a better chance of surviving than a baby of the Crown. Executive power was given to Charles,
born into the rural, prosperous village of Clayworth in though not in the full measure that his father had enjoyed
­Nottinghamshire in 1679. it. The prerogative courts (Star Chamber, Requests, High
The population was also kept down by the personal ­C ommission, and the Councils of the North and Wales)
discipline of the villagers. The rate of bastardy in Stuart were not restored, and Parliament stood readier than ever
England was about 3.6 percent, compared with 4 percent to impeach ministers of state. In 1662 Parliament voted that
today. Fornication and adultery did occur and there were the command of the militia should reside in the King, but
whores, but most men and women were chaste until mar- since he was to exercise it through the lord lieutenants, it
riage. Nor did the Restoration, despite the lewdness of the became in fact the armed forces of the propertied classes.
Court, bring any change in morality. The Church univer- A rebellion of Fifth Monarchists in 1661, however, gave
sally condemned sexual intercourse outside marriage. On Charles II an excuse to retain a regiment of horse and a
the surface, the fact that in one parish 42 percent of the regiment of foot, which became the nucleus of a standing
babies were born in the eighth month of marriage, and in army. The army grew from 5000 men in 1660 to 8500 in
another 28 percent, might seem to contradict this strict 1685. But Charles’s executive and military powers were of
sexual morality, but this surprising fact can be explained little use if he were financially dependent on Parliament.
by the custom of couples cohabitating after the contract The crux of the Restoration settlement lay with finances.
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 237

It was Parliament’s intention to make the King finan- the gentry of England. Though some royalists had sold
cially independent. It therefore looked at the expenses of their land to pay huge fines, the bulk of royalist landlords
the Crown, found them to have been about £1.1 million a retained their land. There was no social revolution in the
year from 1637 to 1641, added £100,000 to cover increased countryside comparable to that in France in 1789. The
expenses, and voted Charles II an annual revenue of £1.2 ­Militia Act, which required the lord-lieutenants to recruit
million. Unfortunately for Charles, these revenues came to infantrymen from those worth £50 a year and cavalrymen
only £900,000. In 1662 Parliament sought to correct its mis- from those worth £500, placed the sword in the hands of
calculation by voting Charles a hearth tax, which brought the landowners, at least in relation to the lower classes. The
his permanent revenue to £1,082,000. For any expenditure dominance of the gentry in finances was equally clear. They
above this sum, Charles was dependent on ­Parliament, refused to continue John Pym’s monthly assessment, which
since benevolences, forced loans, and ship money remained meant that the Crown’s income was based on the excise and
illegal. By voting a duty on wine and an excise on beer, the hearth tax that fell unfairly upon the lower classes. The
­Parliament raised Charles’s revenue to £1.3 million in 1671, gentry were freer than ever to run their own shires, since
but the duty expired after eight years and the excise after the abolition of the prerogative courts had removed a chief
six. During Charles’s reign a precarious financial equilib- weapon by which kings had brought recalcitrant justices
rium supported an unsteady balance of government. of the peace to heel. The parish church likewise fell under
Parliament made no attempt to establish an equilib- the influence of the local squire, and Anglicanism became
rium or balance in the Church. Charles had promised in the religion of the landed classes. Dissent was relegated to
the Declaration of Breda to grant “liberty to tender con- merchants and shopkeepers, or to poor artisans like John
sciences,” but he and his chief minister, Edward Hyde, Bunyan, whose Pilgrim’s Progress, written in a Bedford jail,
now Earl of Clarendon, made the mistake of postponing reflects the tribulations of a Puritan seeking truth in the
the settlement of the Church from the Convention Parlia- reign of Charles II. The landed classes were triumphant
ment (which came to an end in late 1660) to the Cavalier and the financial independence of the Crown precarious.
Parliament (which was elected in the spring of 1661). The The lesson for Charles was clear: If he were to have a suc-
royalists won an overwhelming victory in those elections; cessful reign, he must govern in alliance with the gentle-
only about 60 Presbyterians won seats. Thus Clarendon’s men of England.
scheme to include the Presbyterians within the Church,
and Charles’s to tolerate them outside the Church, came
to nothing. The country squires, smarting from years of The Failure of the
subservience to Puritan preachers, brought back bishops,
Prayer Book, surplices, altars, and lay patronage. In 1661
Restoration Settlement
they passed the Corporation Act, which required all mu- As long as Charles depended on Clarendon’s advice,
nicipal officeholders to take the sacrament of the Lord’s the government of the realm was lawful, dignified, and
Supper according to the rites of the Church of England. ­A nglican. Admittedly, the royalists hated Clarendon,
In 1662 they passed an Act of Uniformity that restored the whom they blamed for their neglect at Court, and admit-
Book of Common Prayer, required all clergymen to assent tedly the mercantilist lobby hustled him into a war against
to everything contained in it, fined those who adminis- the Dutch, which he mismanaged. In 1667 the Dutch even
tered the sacrament without episcopal ordination, and re- sailed into the Medway, burst through the chain protect-
quired all schoolmasters to be licensed by the local bishop. ing the naval yard at Chatham, sank six English ships, and
The Conventicle Act of 1664 imposed heavy penalties on towed two others back to Holland. The disgrace at Medway
any person who attended a conventicle, that is, a religious led the House of Commons to impeach Clarendon in the
service other than that provided by the Church of England. autumn of 1667. Charles, who found Clarendon’s hectoring
The Five Mile Act of 1665 forbade Nonconformist clergy- sermons insufferable, urged on the impeachment, which
men to come within five miles of any corporate town. The proved to be a mistake, since the impeachment of Claren-
Nonconformists branded these acts the Clarendon Code, don was the next step after the impeachment of Bucking-
even though Clarendon did not approve of the later acts. ham on the path to vesting in the House of Commons the
With the passage of the Act of Uniformity, 2000 clergy- power to dismiss unpopular ministers.
men, one in five in the land, resigned their benefices. Thus Clarendon’s fall in 1667 opened the way for Charles’s
was born the Dissenting community in England. personal government. Gradually he gathered around him
The most remarkable feature of the Restoration settle- a group of ministers who would serve his purposes. At
ment was the economic, political, and social power it gave their head was Sir Thomas Clifford, a vigorous advocate
238 A History of England

of the recent Dutch war and a suspected Catholic. As sec- treaty with France that made no mention of his religious
retary, Charles employed the Earl of Arlington, who had conversion. Even with this grant, the government was too
been Clarendon’s chief enemy at Court and who was also deeply in debt to wage war, so Charles in January 1672 or-
suspected of being a Catholic. Then there was the Duke dered the stop of the Exchequer—that is, he ordered the
of Buckingham, a buffoon who played at being a states- Exchequer to suspend payment of government debts for
man and who had friends among the I­ ndependents. The one year. Two months later England found a flimsy pre-
ablest minister was Ashley Cooper, who had P ­ resbyterian text for declaring war on the Dutch, though Charles found
sympathies and was to become the Earl of Shaftesbury. numerous excuses for not declaring himself a Catholic. As
Finally, there was the Earl of Lauderdale, who likewise close to helping Catholicism as he dared sail was the issu-
had Presbyterian sympathies but who devoted himself ance of a Declaration of Indulgence that suspended all pe-
solely to Scottish affairs. Because the initials of these five nal laws against Nonconformists and Catholic recusants.
men spelled CABAL, pamphleteers then and historians An alliance with France and the toleration of Catholics
later have treated them as a cabinet council, but they were to go hand in hand.
were not. They were a motley group of servants who were Charles’s great gamble failed. The Dutch fleet mauled
willing to carry out Charles’s personal policies. It was the the English fleet so badly at Southwold Bay that it could
tragedy of the House of Stuart that its monarchs, unlike not carry out a landing on the Dutch coast. The Dutch
those of the House of Tudor, harbored personal predilec- breached their dikes to keep the French armies from over-
tions that ran counter to the prejudices of the English. whelming them. The war dragged on, to the dismay of
In the case of Charles II, three predilections set him at Charles and his courtiers. In February 1673 Charles was
odds with his subjects. He admired the Catholic Church forced to ask Parliament for yet more money. Parliament
and believed that Catholicism was the only decent reli- refused to vote it unless Charles revoked the Declaration
gion for a prince—though he had the good sense to put of Indulgence, which was seen as a challenge to the rule of
off embracing Catholicism until he was on his death- law and to the legislative supremacy of Parliament. Charles
bed. Second, his years in exile had taught him to admire yielded and revoked the Declaration. But this was not
things French and he had no fear of the growing power enough for Parliament, which went on to pass the Test Act,
of France. Finally, he had no objection to exercising ar- which required every officer of state—civil or military—
bitrary power to achieve these goals. Fear of popery, fear to receive the sacraments of the Church of England and
of France, and fear of arbitrary government were to make to denounce the doctrine of transubstantiation. To gain
his reign a tumultuous one. £1,240,000 to continue the war, Charles swallowed even
The Treaty of Dover in 1670 and the Declaration of In- this. But the war, always unpopular, went badly the next
dulgence in 1672 proved that these fears were not chimeras. year. When Parliament met again in autumn 1673 and win-
In late May of 1670 Charles, accompanied by Clifford and ter 1674, it blew the cabal apart by the threat of impeach-
Arlington, traveled to Dover, where he met his sister, wife ments; it also forced Charles to make a separate peace with
of Louis XIV’s brother. The French ambassador to England the Dutch in February 1674, a peace which returned both
was also present. During the next two weeks they negoti- countries to the status quo before the war. The war had cost
ated the secret Treaty of Dover, in which England prom- England over £6 million and gained it nothing. Charles’s
ised to join France in an attack on the Dutch and to send gamble failed and government by royal favorites came to
60 warships to carry out a landing on the coast of Holland. an inglorious end.
In return, France would pay Charles £250,000 a year, pay Charles now turned to Sir Thomas Osborne, a Y ­ orkshire
for the 6000 English troops fighting with the French army, gentleman of considerable financial ability and great po-
and once the Dutch were vanquished, cede to England the litical acumen. Charles created him Earl of Danby and
Dutch island of Walcheren and port of Cadzand. A second appointed him Lord Treasurer. Danby’s strategy was to
clause to the treaty provided that Charles should declare create a Court party in Parliament and to govern through
himself a Catholic, in return for which Louis would pay it. He formed an alliance with the bishops and adopted a
him £167,000 and loan him 6000 troops to suppress any staunchly Anglican domestic policy. He also made good
rebellion that might occur. use of the power of patronage. By 1678 over a hundred
To enter on so costly a war with so little help from members of the House of Commons held office at Court
France was a foolish gamble, but Charles must have been and another 40 had pensions from the excise. But sev-
carried away by the enthusiasm of the Catholic faction at eral forces conspired to defeat his strategy of a union be-
Court and by his own desire to crush the Dutch. He se- tween Crown and Church, buttressed by royal influence.
cured money from Parliament by drawing up a public In the first place, Anthony Ashley Cooper, now the Earl
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 239

of Shaftesbury, a man small in stature but great in spirit, better than Irish horse thieves, or Tories. The followers of
formed a Country party that set itself against the Court and Shaftesbury became the Whigs, so named by the Tories,
sought relief for Protestant Dissenters. Second, Charles— who regarded them as no better than Scottish, covenant-
quite against Danby’s advice—steadfastly pursued a foreign ing rebels, or Whiggamores. Though these political battles
policy that acquiesced in the growth of French power. In were fierce, the final outcome of the exclusion crisis did
1676 the French captured Condé and Bouchain, in 1677 not depend on them. Charles was able to defeat exclusion
they seized Cambray and St. Omer, and in 1678 they de- because he was able to prorogue, dissolve, and never meet
feated the Dutch at Cassel. Parliament began to clamor for Parliament again. And he was able to do this because in-
war against France, only to be told by Charles that war and creasing revenues from customs, excise, and hearth tax
peace were none of their business. In 1678 Charles yielded gave him a precarious financial independence. Between
to the clamor for war by signing a treaty with the Dutch. 1681 and 1685 Charles triumphed over his opponents, but
In anticipation, Parliament voted the money to raise an the balance of government established at the Restoration
army, but no declaration of war followed. Instead, 7000 lay in shambles.
soldiers camped on Hounslow Heath outside London, cre-
ating the specter of government by a standing army. At the
same time fear of papists at Court mounted, for Charles
welcomed Catholics there and his brother James, Duke of
The Reign of James II
York, openly proclaimed himself a Catholic. The recklessness of the Whigs in the 1680s, their open
Fear of popery, fear of France, and fear of arbitrary gov- challenge to hereditary monarchy, and their willingness
ernment mingled together in the autumn of 1678 to pro- to join in a plot to murder Charles at Rye House as he
duce the outburst of hysteria that greeted Titus Oates’s rode back from the spring races at Newmarket in 1683 (a
tale of a popish plot to kill the King and place his Catholic plot Charles discovered and prevented) provoked a royal-
brother on the throne. Titus Oates was a consummate liar ist reaction that carried James to the throne and finan-
and unconscionable rogue who had learned enough gossip cial independence. On his accession James promised the
at the Jesuit College of St. Omer to be able to tell a con- Council that he would protect the Church of England,
vincing story. His tale of a plot to murder the King, burn maintain the government of the realm as established by
London, and establish popery was a fantastic one, but fear law, and not interfere with property. A loyal Parliament
of a popish successor, supported by France, led men and then voted him the same permanent revenue they had
women to believe it. Danby might well have survived the voted Charles II (though increasing yields from the cus-
hysteria unleashed by Titus Oates had not Ralph Montagu, toms, the excise, and the hearth tax made it worth £1.5
the former English ambassador to France, produced a let- million a year), and an additional £400,000 a year for five
ter in which Danby, in Charles’s name, asked Louis XIV years. The only opposition to his succession came from
for a subsidy of 6 million livres annually for three years, the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s favorite bastard son.
since Charles, having promoted peace with France, could With a few other hot-headed Whigs he landed in June
not hope for supplies from Parliament. The Commons 1685 in Devonshire, marched into Somersetshire, raised
thereupon impeached Danby and the Lords sent him to the an army of sturdy craftsmen and independent farmers,
Tower, where he remained for the next five years. Charles’s and proclaimed himself king. It was a hopeless rebellion
acquiescence in the growth of French power had destroyed that James swiftly and bloodily suppressed with his regu-
Danby’s scheme of governing through a Court party in lar army. That autumn Chief Justice Jeffreys came into the
Parliament. southwest at the head of an assize court. The officers of
For the remainder of his reign, Charles acted as his own the court seized hundreds of people and gave them hur-
chief minister and conducted a remarkably skillful cam- ried trials. Jeffreys bullied witnesses, cowed prisoners into
paign to defeat all efforts to exclude his brother from the silence, and misdirected juries. Before the Bloody Assize
throne. In the spring of 1679, again in the autumn of 1680, had finished its work, it had executed 300 suspected reb-
and once again in the spring of 1681, the followers of Shaft- els and sentenced hundreds more to transportation to the
esbury introduced bills into Parliament to exclude James colonies.
from the Crown. These Parliaments, and the elections to In the autumn of 1685 James found himself in a power-
them, were marked by turbulent political warfare, out ful position: the treasury solvent, the army victorious, the
of which emerged two distinct political parties. The fol- Church loyal, Parliament obsequious, the Tories rejoicing,
lowers of Danby became the Tories, so branded by their and the Whigs broken. Within three years he had thrown
opponents because their opponents regarded them as no it all away and fled into exile. His fundamental error
240 A History of England

was to break the alliance with the Church of E ­ ngland of Indulgence in April 1687 that suspended both the
that was (as Danby had urged) the surest and only sup- ­Clarendon Code and the Test Act, and granted liberty of
port of the Crown. In some ways, James was better fitted worship to both Catholic and Protestant dissenters. The
than Charles to be king. He was less debauched, less care- declaration was a direct challenge to the reign of law in
less, more loyal to his friends, and a better administra- England, for there was a wide difference between the dis-
tor. But he did not possess a grain of political sense. He pensing power, in effect a pardon granted in advance, and
was narrow-minded, rigid in temperament, and lacking the suspending power, in effect the repeal of a law passed
in imagination. At Oxford in the 1640s he had learned ul- by Parliament. Even James regarded the exercise of the
traroyalist ideas that he never forgot. He was an obstinate, suspending power as only a temporary solution. For a
opinionated man who believed that his father had lost ev- permanent solution he desired Parliament to repeal the
erything from too great a display of leniency. Above all penal laws. But when he closeted himself with members
he was a zealous Catholic, whose chief purpose was the of Parliament, he found they would not agree to repeal the
propagation of the Catholic religion. He himself admitted Test Act. He therefore dissolved Parliament in July and
on one occasion that had he treated religion as a private set about securing the election of one that would. He now
matter he could have been one of the most powerful kings deserted his alliance with the Anglicans and sought one
ever to reign in England, but since God had called him with the Dissenters. He purged the commissions of peace
to the throne he must sacrifice everything to His service. in the counties and the corporations in the towns, replac-
He must secure religious and civil equality for English ing staunch Anglicans with Dissenters. All deputy lieu-
Catholics. tenants and justices of the peace were asked if they would
James initially sought to act through Parliament. In consent to the repeal of the penal laws and vote for those
November 1685 he demanded that it repeal the Test Act, who would repeal them. If they would not, they were dis-
but quickly had to dissolve Parliament to prevent it from missed. In his eagerness to win a sympathetic Parliament,
passing a resolution against the employment of ­Catholics. James canceled borough charters, sacked town corpora-
James now turned to the use of his prerogative, to the tions, deprived noblemen of their lord-lieutenancies, and
policy of dispensing with the Test Act in particular cases. dismissed justices of the peace. His reckless pursuit of a
He encouraged Sir Edward Hales, a colonel in the army Catholic England took him far along the road to arbitrary
and a Catholic, to arrange a collusive action. Hales’s government.
coachman, Godden, sued him for violating the Test Act. The strategy of wooing Dissenters failed. They dis-
James hastily dismissed the more uncooperative judges, trusted a gift brought to them by a man who had branded
with the result that 11 of the 12 who heard the case acquit- them as rebels and heretics for 20 years. James soon dis-
ted Hales and declared that it was “an inseparable pre- covered that he could not trust his own nominees to send
rogative in the kings of England to dispense with penal men to Parliament who would vote to repeal the Test Act.
laws in particular cases.” James now replaced Protestant He thus turned back to his prerogative. In May 1688 he
with Catholic officers in the army, named the Catholic reissued the Declaration of Indulgence, only this time he
­Strickland to command the fleet, and sent the ­C atholic ordered all clergymen to read it from their pulpits on two
Earl of Tyrconnel to rule Ireland. With Tyrconnel he sent successive Sundays. This order finally drove the Church
16 new ­Catholic judges and councilors. He secured the in- of England to desert its belief in nonresistance and pas-
stallation of Catholics or Catholic sympathizers as bish- sive obedience to all kings, however wicked. The Arch-
ops of Chester and Oxford. He also revived the Court of bishop of Canterbury and six other bishops presented
High ­C ommission under the name of the Ecclesiastical James with a petition asking him not to force the clergy
­C ommission. The commission immediately suspended to read the declaration, since it was based on a power to
the Bishop of London, an outspoken Protestant, and suspend law that seemed to them illegal. On reading the
launched an attack on the universities, those twin cita- petition, James declared: “This is a standard of rebellion,”
dels of Anglicanism. It dismissed the vice-chancellor of and threw the seven bishops into the Tower. The cause of
Cambridge for refusing to grant a degree to a ­Benedictine the Seven Bishops now became the cause of the whole na-
monk and it expelled 25 recalcitrant fellows of M
­ agdalen tion. James charged them with seditious libel and brought
College, Oxford, for refusing to elect a Catholic as presi- them before the King’s Bench on June 30. After a nine-
dent. James then named a Catholic as president and hour trial, the jury—which included the King’s brewer—
turned the college into a Catholic seminary. acquitted the bishops. The shouting of the crowd, the
The granting of particular dispensations was a ringing of bells, the discharging of guns, and the lighting
clumsy procedure. James therefore issued a Declaration of bonfires greeted their acquittal.
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 241

The Glorious Revolution them were William’s careful preparation, Louis XIV’s
folly, the Protestant wind, James’s vacillation, and the
That same night Arthur Herbert, disguised as a common ­English people’s unanimity.
seaman, set off from London with an important letter for William had no intention of relying on a spontaneous
William, Prince of Orange. It was an invitation to him, uprising of the English people; he regarded the expedition
signed by seven eminent Englishmen, to bring an army to solely as a military operation. He engaged the English and
England. The seven signatories were representative of the Scottish regiments in the service of the Netherlands and re-
political nation. Henry Compton, the suspended Bishop of cruited soldiers from Sweden, Brandenburg, ­Württemburg,
London, spoke for the Church. The Earl of Danby led the and Switzerland. To protect his rear he secured the support
Tory party and the Earl of Devonshire the Whig. Edward of the Netherlands and several German states, along with
Russell and Henry Sidney represented the more radical the neutrality of Spain, the Empire, and the Pope. It was
Whigs, while the Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Lumley were not so much William’s skillful diplomacy that won this sup-
recent converts from Rome. Two forces drove these men port as Louis XIV’s folly. Louis’s attempt to foist his candi-
to this treasonous act. One was mounting grievances— date on the archbishopric of Cologne caused the Empire,
the laws of the land suspended, independent judges dis- Spain, and the Pope to remain neutral, and his prohibition
missed, Parliament dissolved, a standing army encamped of Dutch exports to France drove the Dutch to support
on Hounslow Heath, the universities purged, Catholic William. Yet the Dutch, fearing invasion, wavered until
officers brought into the army, Jesuits brought into the the middle of September, when Louis’s decision to send his
Council, charters overthrown, and the gentry thrown out army to the upper Rhine freed the Netherlands from fear
of local government. The second force was the birth of a of a French army. They immediately contributed troops
son to James and Mary of Modena on June 10, 1688. Griev- and ships and agreed to pay for the Swedish and German
ances that can be borne when temporary become intoler- troops William had recruited.
able when made permanent. The birth of a son meant that On November 1, 1688, William’s army sailed for E ­ ngland,
James’s elder daughter Mary, wife of the Prince of Orange 11,000 foot and 4000 horse, in 200 transports escorted by
and a Protestant, would not become Queen of England on 49 warships. The plan was to slip by the English fleet and
James’s death. Instead, James Edward, who would surely be so avoid a battle that might arouse the patriotism of the
raised a Catholic, would succeed. English. The elements favored the plan. A strong east wind
William, Prince of Orange, the grandson of Charles I, blew William’s fleet down the Channel while preventing the
the husband of Mary, and the taciturn leader of the military English from clearing a badly chosen anchorage off E ­ ssex;
forces of the Dutch Republic, readily accepted the invitation when the English finally came clear, the wind dropped and
to bring an army to England. Several motives prompted it lay becalmed for two days, after which a southwesterly
him to do so. To begin with, he desired to protect his wife’s gale blew the invaders into Torquay and the English back
interests in the throne, which the birth of James Edward into Portsmouth. William landed safely at Torquay on
threatened—wrongfully threatened if the rumor were true ­November 5, Guy Fawkes Day.
that Mary of Modena had never been pregnant and that a Had James marched resolutely on William he might
foundling had been smuggled into her bed in a warming- have defeated him in battle, for he had an army of nearly
pan. William may also have sought the Crown of England 30,000 men. Instead, he marched to Salisbury, paused,
for himself, but if he did it was less for the tinsel repute heard rumors of disaffection in the army, held a council
a Crown brought than for the ability it provided to bring of war, and then resolved to return to London. That night
England into the European coalition against Louis XIV. John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, and 400 other offi-
Ever since the Dutch had called him to the office of cers rode out of camp and joined William in Exeter. The
­Stadtholder in 1672, William had devoted his life to com- leaderless English army fell apart, while English nobles
batting the growing power of France. In 1688 there was the raised the counties for William. The nobility took the lead
danger that James might abandon his neutrality and ally in the revolution, but 19 out of 20 people were behind
himself with Louis. In January James demanded the return them. Almost no one rallied behind James, despite frantic
of the English and Scottish regiments serving in Holland. concessions made that autumn. The crux of the matter was
William might have acquiesced in an England that was a free Parliament. When William landed at Torquay he is-
Catholic; he could never acquiesce in an England that fell sued a proclamation in which he announced that he had
into the French orbit. come at the invitation of certain prominent Englishmen in
Bringing an army to England was a gamble that succeeded order to secure the meeting of a free Parliament. In A­ ugust
because several events worked toward success. Among James had issued writs for the election of a Parliament, but
242 A History of England

in September he had canceled them. By late November declared that no Catholic could succeed to the Crown; the
James had resolved on neither concessions nor resistance, second placed the succession in the children of William
but on flight. Sending his wife and son ahead of him, he and Mary, then in those of Anne (Mary’s younger sister),
attempted on December 11 to escape abroad. He even bun- and finally in those of William should he marry again.
gled his flight, being captured by fishermen and brought The Declaration and the Bill of Rights contained almost
back to London. He was pleasantly surprised when W­ illiam no new law. In this sense the Glorious Revolution was re-
granted his request to retire to Rochester and posted no ally a Glorious Restoration, the restoration of a constitu-
guards at the back of his house. On December 23 he fled tion James had invaded. England had new monarchs, but
to France, a broken-down, feeble, empty shell of a king. A not a new monarchy. This was true if one ignores the fi-
day later 60 peers, meeting in London, asked William to nancial settlement that accompanied the political settle-
take over the administration of the realm and to issue let- ment, but one should not. Parliament in 1690 repudiated
ters for the election of a Parliament. On December 26, 300 once and for all the ancient principle that the king should
former members of the House of Commons concurred in “live of his own.” It voted William and Mary the customs
this request. revenues for only four years, not for life, and it voted a per-
manent revenue (including the customs) which fell at least
£200,000 short of peacetime expenditures. All this it did
The Revolutionary knowingly, not from ignorance or confusion. It deliberately
voted an inadequate revenue in order to secure frequent
Settlement Parliaments. The Bill of Rights protected the liberty of the
The Convention Parliament met on January 22, 1689, and subject; the financial settlement guaranteed the power of
during the next year drew up a settlement in Church and Parliament.
State that Edmund Burke a century later regarded as one of The settlement of the Church, like the financial settle-
the most perfect works of man. The first issue that faced the ment, marked a break from the past. Reluctantly, almost
convention was the succession to the Crown. The Tories surreptitiously, the Church of England squires granted
clung to the principle of hereditary monarchy like limpets religious toleration to Protestant Dissenters. Parliament
to a rock, but they were divided among those who were for passed the Toleration Act of 1689, which ordered that the
restoring James on conditions, those who were for a re- penal statutes should not be enforced on Nonconformists.
gency, and those who were for granting the Crown to Mary Parliament could hardly do less to reward the Noncon-
alone. The Whigs subjected the various Tory solutions to formists for refusing to follow James. Toleration came in
a barrage of criticism, and William let it be known that he the back door, a matter of political convenience not philo-
would return to the Netherlands if not given a share of the sophical principle. It did not extend to Catholics, nor did it
Crown. The Lords held out the longest, but finally agreed remove the political disabilities of the Dissenters. The Test
with the Commons that King James II had “endeavored to Act remained in force.
subvert the constitution of his kingdom by ­breaking the The Declaration and Bill of Rights amounted to a con-
original contract between king and people,” had “violated tract between king and subjects. It was a historical embodi-
the fundamental laws,” had “abdicated the government” by ment of the Whig doctrine of a social contract, a doctrine
his flight, and that “the throne is thereby vacant.” The two John Locke publicized in 1690 in his Two Treatises on Civil
Houses thereupon voted to grant the Crown to ­William Government. Locke, who was the son of a Puritan attor-
and Mary jointly, with the administration in William’s ney, attended Westminster School and Oxford University,
hands. joined the Royal Society, and became physician to the fi-
But they made the grant conditional. When on ery Earl of Shaftesbury. It was during the turmoil of the
­February 13, in the exquisitely proportioned splendor of Exclusion Crisis that he composed the Two Treatises, but
the ­Banqueting Hall, they offered the Crown to the two not until 1690 did he dare publish them. Like Hobbes,
monarchs, they first secured their assent to a ­Declaration Locke believed that man once lived in a state of nature,
of Rights. The Declaration asserted that it was illegal to but he painted a much less gloomy picture of the state of
suspend or dispense with the laws, to collect taxes by pre- nature. As God’s creature man possessed reason, and rea-
rogative, to maintain a standing army without the consent son made him capable of cooperating with other men and
of Parliament, to interfere in parliamentary elections, to of discerning the laws of nature, the chief of which guar-
tamper with juries, or to impose excessive fines or bail. In anteed a man life, liberty, and property. But though the
December Parliament turned the Declaration of Rights state of nature was not as barbarous as Hobbes thought,
into the Bill of Rights, adding two new provisions. The first it had its disadvantages. Men might be led by passion and
 Restoration and Revolution: 1660–1689 243

interest to judge partially in their own cases, particularly in and perverse,” as Macaulay said of him) but a revolution-
matters of property. “The preservation of their property,” ary inspired by the example of his cousin, Louis XIV. The
he wrote, “is the great and chief end . . . of men’s uniting latter had created in France a centralized bureaucratic state
into Commonwealths.” And though he believed that men and land-based empire. James worked to create a similar
were born equal, with an equal claim to the fruits of the monarchist government with a degree of toleration but
earth, he also believed that by industry and frugality some one that was unambiguously sovereign and absolutist. His
could accumulate more property than others. It was to pre- Whig opponents proposed a different post-Restoration
serve this property, unequally divided, that men formed society, one based on manufactures and commerce rather
governments. than land; thus financial institutions, including a national
Men entered into political society by making a contract, bank, would be necessary. In religion a broad toleration
one with another, to set up a legislature, which should would prevail. Kingship was retained, but only under the
make laws, and an executive, which should enforce law. contractual model described by Locke. Foreign policy
This original contract implied majority rule, for the state would be based on naval power, since standing armies
is the collective body of the people. Locke, however, said might threaten the political liberty prized by the Whigs.
little about who should vote for the legislature. Since he Thus the Glorious Revolution was not a relatively peaceful
did urge that the end of government was the protection of transition from one king to another but a titanic clash of
property, he implied that he who possessed no property ambitious and irreconcilable programs of modernization.
had no interest in government and so deserved no vote. Yet Far from being an event that hardly affected most Britons,
Locke was careful to protect the liberties of all. He argued the Glorious Revolution initiated a decade of violence and
that the laws of nature created rights which existed before warfare that ended only with the Treaty of Ryswick that
man entered political society and which no government recognized William and Mary as de facto rulers. Once vic-
might violate. Among these he listed the right to life, health torious, the Whigs pushed forward the policies they be-
(meaning no man’s health should be harmed), liberty, and lieved represented the national interest: war with France,
possession. Not only was government limited by the laws an economy based on manufacturing and commerce, and
of nature, but it might be dissolved if it neglected the ends a settlement in the Church that upheld toleration as nec-
for which it was created. If the executive, which might be essary to secure civil liberties. Thus 1688 was the first of
in one person or a group, violated the terms of its trust, it the modern revolutions that would transform European
would forfeit those rights; and if the legislators developed society.
an interest separate from the people, they might be op-
posed. Revolution, in Locke’s scheme, became the ultimate Notes
safeguard of the law. 1. Bacon, Sir Francis. Novum Organum. 1628.
When Locke first wrote down these ideas in 1679 and
1680 they were too radical to be published, but gradually
they gained support from men of property. By the eigh- Further Reading
teenth century his Two Treatises on Civil Government had Richard Ashcraft. Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s “Two
become a manual of orthodoxy. Newton’s picture of an or- Treatises of Government.” Princeton, NJ, 1986. A revisionist
dered universe, functioning according to observable laws, interpretation of Locke’s Two Treatises; depicts Locke as a
gave support to Locke’s appeal to natural law. Locke’s ap- radical who justified resistance to kings and favored a dem-
ocratic franchise.
peal to reason satisfied men and women in the age of rea-
son, and his defense of property justified the oligarchy that Tim Harris. Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British
­Monarchy, 1685–1720. London, 2006. Best recent interpreta-
had seized power in 1688. But beyond this he had written
tion of the Glorious Revolution; especially good on events
a classic defense of those two ideals for which the English in I­ reland and Scotland.
had struggled throughout the seventeenth century and
J. R. Jones. Country and Court 1658–1714. London, 1978. A
which they finally gained in 1689: individual liberty guar- sound, solid digest of current knowledge rather than a radi-
anteed by law and representative government expressed cal reinterpretation; chapters on administration, finance,
through Parliament. and social trends precede the political narrative.
The idea of the Glorious Revolution as a “bloodless, David Ogg. England in the Reign of Charles II. 2 vols. O­ xford,
consensual and aristocratic” event that preserved the lib- 1934. Contains an immense amount of information about
erty of Englishmen and saved them from Catholic obscu- Restoration England, about commerce, the army and
rantism has been challenged by modern historians. In this navy, taxation, medicine, literature; written with urbanity
view James II was not a reactionary bigoted papist (“stupid and wit.
244 A History of England

Steven Pincus. 1688: The First Modern Revolution. New Haven, Andrew Swatland. The House of Lords in the Reign of
CT, 2008. Provocative and stimulating in argument and Charles II. New York, 1996. Excellent book on the institu-
vivid in its prose; Pincus takes on three centuries of histo- tional and political role of the Caroline peerage. Rejects the
riography to reclaim 1688 as a truly revolutionary moment idea that Whigs and Tories espoused consistent political
that ushered in a new society for Britons. philosophies during the Exclusion Crisis.
Paul Seaward. The Cavalier Parliament and the R­ econstruction Keith Thomas. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York,
of the Old Regime, 1661–1667. Cambridge, England, 1989. 1971. A rich, fascinating study of prophecy, fortune-telling,
An exhaustively researched, carefully argued account thief-detection, miraculous healing, astrology, and alchemy,
of Clarendon’s role in shaping the Restoration, of his fall and their relation to religion and science.
from power, and of the emergence of a coherent “country” Richard S. Westfall. Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac
opposition. ­Newton. Cambridge, England, 1980. A brilliant portrait of
John Spurr. The Restoration Church of England, 1646–1689. Newton the scientist, philosopher, theologian, and public
New Haven, CT, 1991. Best account yet of the eclipse, sur- figure; the core of the book describes the development of
vival, and eventual triumph of the Anglican Church. his scientific ideas.
 War and Society 245
Chapter 16

War and Society

T
Chapter Outline
he glorious revolution made war with France inevitable, for
William had not led an army to England merely to win the title of
■ The War of the League of Augsburg King; he had led an army there principally to bring England into the
balance of power against France. This fact became clear in May 1689
■ The Financial Revolution when William, as King of England, with the support of Parliament, de-
clared war on France. The war upon which England then embarked
■ The Politics of War and Peace continued (with one short interruption between 1697 and 1701) until
1713. The nation was at war for 21 of the 25 years William and Anne
reigned in England. It was a far-flung war. English armies fought in
■ The War of the Spanish Succession
Ireland and Flanders, on the banks of the Danube and on the plains of
Spain, at Port Royal in Acadia and at Port Mahon in Minorca. The fleet
■ The Politics of Victory fought in the Channel, in the Mediterranean, and on the high seas.
England maintained 40,000 men on the Continent, built and manned
■ The New World of Trade 323 ships of war, sent 9000 men to Spain, and spent over £5 million a
year to support its forces and subsidize its allies.
■ The Social Pyramid Such an effort could not fail to affect English society. Because of the
war, Parliament met every year and became an indispensable part of
■ The Augustan Age
the government. Because of the war, the royal administration grew in
numbers and efficiency. Because of the war, new financial institutions
emerged, which split propertied society into landed and monied in-
■ Marriage, Courtship, and the Family
terests. At the same time, the values of commerce permeated all ranks
of society and helped shape English civilization. England entered the
■ The Act of Union with Scotland war a second-rate European power, divided from Scotland, unstable
in its politics, and unsure of its colonies. It emerged a major European
■ The Treaty of Utrecht power, united with Scotland, politically stable, and set on the path of
imperial greatness. England became Great Britain. A nation that had
■ The Hanoverian Succession
endured a century of discord and revolution now entered a century of
peace and stability.

The War of the League

of Augsburg
In 1667 the armies of Louis XIV invaded the Spanish Netherlands;
in 1672 they attacked the Dutch; in 1681 they seized Strasbourg; and
in 1688 they laid waste the Palatinate. These acts persuaded William
to devote his public life to the task of curbing the power of France in

245
246 A History of England

Europe. They also drove the nations of Europe (Austria, 15 ships and Louis never again sent out the fleet. Sea power
Spain, Sweden, Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatinate) to had saved E ­ ngland from invasion, as it had done once be-
form the League of Augsburg in 1686 and to ally with the fore when Philip II launched the Armada and as it was to
Dutch and the English in 1689 to resist French aggression. do again when Napoleon and Hitler threatened to hurl
The English shared these fears that the greatness of France their armies across the Channel.
would endanger the liberties of Europe, but they had a fur- Victory at the Boyne and victory at La Hogue ­secured the
ther reason for declaring war: Louis XIV in March 1689 Protestant succession in England, but the war to lessen
gave James II the men, money, and ships with which to re- the power of France raged on in Flanders. Louis XIV
turn to Ireland to recover the Crown he had lost. For the won the battles but could not win the war. William was
English, the War of the League of Augsburg was also the not a brilliant soldier, but what he lacked in brilliance he
War of the English Succession. made up for in perseverance. Not until the sixth year of the
James landed in Ireland only to discover that the Irish war could the Allies hold their own against the French, but
were more intent on recovering the lands Cromwell had in that year, 1695, they captured the great fortress city of
stolen from them than helping James to recover the Crown Namur. The fall of Namur and the financial exhaustion of
of England. Ireland for the Irish was their program, “Now France led Louis XIV in 1697 to negotiate the Peace of Rys-
or Never” their motto. An Irish Parliament repealed the wick. Louis agreed to recognize William as King of Eng-
Act of Settlement of 1661 and confiscated the lands of 2400 land and to restore all the territories he had seized since
Protestants who had fled to England. But the Presbyterians 1678, except Strasbourg.
in Ulster did not flee; they sought safety behind the walls of
Londonderry and Enniskillen. Their stubborn resistance,
withstanding siege and assault, secured Ulster for William,
thus providing him with a base from which, in the summer
of 1690, he could lead 35,000 well-disciplined men south
toward James’s retreating and ill-equipped army of 21,000.
Outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and outfought, the Irish
could not prevent the English from storming across the
river Boyne on the first of July. Among the first to flee the
battlefield was James himself; a week later he took ship for
France. His flight made the defeat of the Irish at the Battle
of the Boyne the decisive engagement in the Protestant re-
conquest of Ireland.
In the next 20 years, the English reduced the Irish to a
condition of virtual slavery. The Catholics, who composed
four-fifths of the population, now owned but one-seventh
of the land. A series of penal laws kept Catholics from pub-
lic life. A Catholic could not hold office, sit in Parliament,
vote in elections, serve on a jury, practice law, teach school,
purchase land, or own a horse worth more than £5. And no
Irishman whatever, not even the industrious ­Protestants,
could export woolen cloth, sell cattle in England, or trade
with the colonies. The Irish became, in Jonathan Swift’s
words, “hewers of wood and drawers of water” to their
English conquerors.
In 1690 Ireland was the pivot of Europe; in 1692 the
Channel was. Emboldened by a naval victory over the
­English at Beachy Head in 1690, Louis XIV in 1692 pre-
pared to invade England. He assembled an army at
Barfleur, which James II joined. But a French fleet sent to
clear the Channel met defeat at La Hogue at the hands of a
combined English and Dutch fleet that outnumbered the
French fleet by 99 ships-of-the-line to 44. The French lost An engraving of the Battle of the Boyne.  (Bettmann/Corbis)
 War and Society 247

The Financial Revolution the bank to sell stock, receive deposits, make loans, and
issue banknotes. The scheme was an immediate success;
The money that paid for the siege and capture of Namur within 12 days subscribers bought up all of the bank’s stock.
came from the newly created Bank of England, the estab- In the years that followed, its notes retained their value,
lishment of which marked a revolution in the financial af- and the government found in the bank an indispensable
fairs of England. source of further credit.
During the reigns of Charles II and James II the English The Bank of England was the first joint-stock bank in
government spent about £2 million every year; during the England, but not the first bank. Private banking emerged in
reigns of William and Anne it spent nearly £6 million. The England during the 1650s, when the goldsmiths of London
ability to tap the wealth of all Englishmen allowed this vast began to accept gold and silver for safekeeping and to lend
increase in public expenditure and permitted a nation with out part of it at interest. Soon the receipts the goldsmiths
less than 6 million inhabitants to send out a powerful fleet gave for the gold and silver deposited with them began to
and support a formidable army. Two-thirds of the money circulate as paper money. By 1675 bankers were performing
needed for the war came from taxes, of which the land tax the three essential functions of banking: accepting depos-
was the most important. Each year a Parliament elected its, lending money, and issuing notes. To these functions
by the landowners of England voted that the landowners banks founded by scriveners, whose trade was the convey-
of England should pay the government 4 shillings on the ance of property, added a fourth: the loaning of money on
pound on the rents they collected, the equivalent of an in- the security of a mortgage. Soon politicians saw that banks,
come tax of 20 percent. When it came to raising money— by providing more generous credit and by increasing the
the very sinews of war—the parliamentary monarchy of supply of money, promoted new enterprises and thereby
England proved far more effective than the royal absolut- the employment of the poor. In the 1690s England needed
ism of France. credit and a circulating medium more than ever before,
Government borrowing provided for that part of the and the new Bank of England provided them.
budget not met by taxes. In times of need both Charles I The establishment of a stock exchange was the third step
and Charles II had borrowed from wealthy individuals, of- in the financial revolution of William III’s reign. Stockbro-
ten pledging crown revenues for repayment. But such loans kers were already gathering at Jonathan’s and Garraway’s
were short-term, expensive, and destructive of future in- coffeehouses in Exchange Alley and were dealing in com-
come. What England needed were long-term loans, secured pany stocks and government securities. Because many
by parliamentary revenues, and participated in by prosper- brokers sold bogus stock or stock at double its price, Parlia-
ous subjects from all walks of life. Such a loan P ­ arliament ment decided in 1697 to limit their number to 100 and to
devised in 1693, when it authorized the sale of life annuities, require those selling government securities to register with
secured on an excise voted by Parliament for 99 years. In the government. Pamphleteers continued to denounce
effect, the government would not repay the principal, but “stock-jobbers,” but without them there would have been
would pay 14 percent interest on it until the holder died. no capital market.
The act of 1693 marks the beginning of a permanent na-
tional debt in England, one in which any person with a few
extra pounds could participate. The Dean of Norwich, for
The Politics of War
one, rushed out to buy his daughter an annuity. and Peace
The idea of a permanent national debt gained a more The authors of the revolution settlement did not intend
solid foundation in 1694 with the establishment of the Bank that Parliament should meet every year, only every three
of England. The idea for a bank arose from the fertile mind years. But the insatiable demands of war forced William to
of William Patterson, son of a Scottish farmer, successful summon it every year so it could vote the taxes and float
London merchant, and traveler to Holland (where he stud- the loans needed to pay for the war. William’s dependence
ied their bank) and to America (where he was, according on Parliament had a profound influence on the develop-
to his friends, a missionary; according to his enemies, a ment of the constitution, especially when coupled with the
buccaneer). But it was Charles Montagu, the brilliant Whig passions of party. Virtuous men decried the spirit of party,
politician, who translated Patterson’s idea into legislation but they could not extinguish it. Division lists (that is, lists
and who steered it through Parliament. According to that of how men voted on certain issues) survive for eight votes
legislation, a bank should be created that would lend the taken in the House of Commons during William’s reign.
government £1.2 million. In return, the government would They show that among those who voted, 85 percent cast
pay 8 percent interest on the money and would empower votes solely on the Whig or solely on the Tory side. These
248 A History of England

party divisions were not fortuitous, for social ­differences In 1697 William, who kept a tight grip on the reins of
and political principles divided people. Most squires were foreign policy, negotiated the Peace of Ryswick. The com-
Tories, though not all, or else the Whigs would never ing of peace spelled doom for the Whigs, for the Tories
have won an election. Most merchants and bankers were were now able to turn against them the country members’
Whigs. The Tories favored the persecution of Dissenters, anger at the courtiers who had grown rich during the war.
a naval war only and the inviolability of the hereditary The split between Court and Country was as important
­succession, which many of them placed in the House of in the politics of William’s reign as the division between
Stuart. The Whigs favored religious toleration, a land war Whig and Tory. “If an angel came from Heaven that was
in Europe, and the revolution settlement. a Privy Councilor,” cried one member, “I would not trust
William III desired to be king of all the English, not my liberty with him for one moment.” This spirit of dis-
merely of the Whigs. He therefore chose to govern with a trust led Parliament in 1698 to deny William a standing
mixed ministry composed of statesmen from both parties army of more than 7000 men, for a standing army was seen
or none. But the partisan passions of the Whigs in 1690 as an instrument of tyranny. It also led the Commons in
drove him to turn to the Tories from 1690 to 1692. The 1701 to impeach the Whig ministers who dared to negoti-
Tories, however, failed to defend English shipping at sea, ate treaties without first seeking the advice of Parliament.
grew hostile to the land war, and proved unable to manage And it led Parliament that same year to add to the Act of
Parliament. Their failure gave the Whigs their opportunity. Settlement (passed in order to settle the succession on the
Gaining a predominant influence in Parliament, they grad- House of Hanover) a whole charter of liberties: No person
ually forced William to give them high office. By 1696 only who held an office of profit under the King should sit in
Whigs sat in the Cabinet, that inner group of advisers who the House of Commons; all resolutions taken in the Privy
now replaced the Privy Council as the mainspring of gov- Council should be signed by the councillors; judges should
ernment. It was the first party ministry in English history. be removable only upon the address of both Houses of
Parliament; no pardon should be pleadable to an impeach-
ment. Parliament in 1705 repealed the first two of these
clauses, thus allowing the growth of cabinet government in
England, but their passage in 1701 shows how deep was the
countryman’s distrust of the Court. The spirit of Eliot and
Pym was not wholly dead.
The Tories, by exploiting the countrymen’s fury against
the Court, were able, between 1698 and 1700, to drive the
Whigs from office. In the autumn of 1700 W ­ illiam was
forced to bring the leading Tories into the Cabinet, but
his mind was less absorbed by these domestic quarrels
than by the question of the Spanish succession. Because
the Treaty of Ryswick had made no provision for the suc-
cession to the Spanish crown after the death of Charles
II, its sickly, childless, imbecile king, William had to ne-
gotiate two partition treaties with Louis XIV. The second
of these allotted to the Austrian claimant Spain, its col-
onies, and the Spanish Netherlands, and to the French
claimant Naples, Sicily, and Milan. But this treaty, which
the merchants of London detested because it surren-
dered the Mediterranean to French dominance, never
came into effect.
In 1700, Charles II left behind a will that bequeathed
to Philip, Duke of Anjou, Louis XIV’s grandson, the en-
tire Spanish empire. Most people, though not William,
preferred the will and peace to partition and war. But
Louis XIV then embarked on a series of arrogant actions
“King William III,” portrait by Gottfried Schalcken.  (Crown Estate/ that turned English public opinion in favor of war. He
Institute of Directors, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) sent French armies into the Spanish Netherlands, seized
 War and Society 249

the Dutch fortresses there, forced the Spanish to grant a

French company the contract for supplying African slaves
to ­Spanish America, and refused to demand from Philip
a renunciation of his rights to the French crown. The
threat posed to the balance of power no doubt alarmed
the ­E nglish, but many were even more alarmed at the
threat posed to the markets for English cloth in Spain, the
­Netherlands, and the Mediterranean.
In the summer of 1701 William skillfully edged
­Parliament toward war and negotiated an alliance with
the Dutch and the Emperor. This alliance was completed
in September, several weeks before Louis XIV, standing at
the deathbed of James II, recognized James’s son, James III,
as King of England. By this act Louis guaranteed that the
English—Tories as well as Whigs—would rally behind the
war. William, however, did not live to lead the armies of
England once more against France. In February 1702, rid-
ing in the park of Hampton Court, his horse stumbled on a
mole hole and pitched William to the ground. Two weeks
later he died, leaving to others the prosecution of his life-
long duel with Louis XIV.

The War of the Spanish

Succession
Princess Anne, daughter of James II, ascended the throne
in 1702. She was 37 years old, exceedingly fat, red and spot-
ted in complexion, and wracked by gout. She had to be car-
ried to her coronation. She was slow-witted, uninformed,
obstinate, and narrow-minded; yet also pious, sensible,
good-natured, and kind. She bore 15 children and buried Queen Anne (1665–1714), portrait by William Wissing. Oil on
them all. She loved the Church and those who defended it, canvas, 199.4 × 128 cm.  (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
but had no interest in art, music, plays, or books. Her one
hobby was eating; her husband’s, drinking. This ordinary
woman, whom the laws of hereditary monarchy raised to
the throne, helped shape events during these years in two was mistress to James, Duke of York. He rose in the army
ways: first, by naming the Earl of Marlborough in 1702 to through his great courage and skill. He learned the French
command her troops, and second by dismissing him from way of war when fighting for Louis XIV at Maestricht. He
that command in 1711. By the first act she brought England proved his own tactical genius by defeating the Duke of
unparalleled military victories; by the second she brought Monmouth at Sedgmoor. At Walcourt in 1689 he fought
peace to her kingdom. side by side with the Dutch, while at Kinsale in 1690 he dis-
During the War of the Spanish Succession, John played a keen strategic sense. To the skills of a soldier he
Churchill, Earl (later Duke) of Marlborough, waged ten added the talents of a courtier and diplomat. He was hand-
campaigns, fought four major battles, and besieged over 30 some, urbane, charming, never without a compliment, al-
towns. In all this fighting he never lost a battle or a skir- ways persuasive, impossible to anger. Yet he was also crafty
mish or a siege. He was one of the great generals of history. and dissimulating, kept his counsels to himself, and seized
His skill in war was no accident, for he had chosen the ca- every opportunity to advance his family and fortune. Un-
reer of arms as a young man. The son of a royalist gentle- der William III he fell into disfavor, but the succession of
man who had lost his lands fighting for Charles I, he was Queen Anne saw his star rise again, for Sarah Jennings,
poor, obscure, and ambitious. He rose at Court through whom he married in 1678, was the close confidante of the
his own charm and through the charm of his sister, who Queen.
250 A History of England

Marlborough assumed command of the Allied armies

at a moment when the nature of European warfare was
changing profoundly. It was his genius to adapt his tac-
tics to these changes; it was the misfortune of the French
that they did not. Three technical innovations lay be-
hind these changes: the flintlock musket, the prepacked
paper cartridge, and the socket bayonet. The flintlock
musket was several pounds lighter than its predeces-
sor, the matchlock, misfired only twice in ten shots,
and could be discharged eight times faster (about two
shots a minute). The prepacked paper cartridge, con-
taining powder and a one-ounce ball, simplified re-
loading. The socket bayonet, which allowed a soldier to
fire his musket or stab with it, made the pike unneces-
sary. ­Marlborough saw that these innovations made the
­infantry a source of firepower, not blocks of resistance.
He therefore placed his men in three lines, staggered,
so that an entire platoon could fire at once. The French
clung to the column, four or five deep, with only the
front line firing. The French were equally old fashioned
in their use of the cavalry. Marlborough adopted the
tactics of ­Gustavus Adolphus and Cromwell: The cav-
alry should ride hard against the enemy, disrupt them
“Portrait of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough,” by with the shock of the impact, and cut them down with
Adriaan van der Werff. Oil on canvas.  (Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy. naked steel. The French still regarded the cavalry as a
The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
mobile source of firepower, riding to within 30 paces of
the enemy and discharging their pistols. The tactic cost
them dearly at Blenheim.
Marlborough was equally innovative in his strategy. For
40 years the armies of Europe had fought by siege. ­Having
besieged and captured one town, an army would lay siege
to the next. At this rate it would take 30 years to cross
­Flanders. Marlborough preferred a war of movement, lead-
ing to a decisive battle.
The supreme instance of such a war of movement oc-
curred in 1704. Bavaria’s entry into the war on the side of
France posed a threat to Vienna and to Austria’s continu-
ance in the Grand Alliance. Marlborough resolved to save
Austria. With his usual painstaking attention to supply
and with the gold of England behind him, he marched
his army 250 miles across Europe, from the Netherlands
to Bavaria. He momentarily paralyzed the French army
by making a feint toward the Moselle; he then crossed the
Rhine and marched on to Bavaria. At Heidelberg he had
a new pair of shoes ready for each soldier. After driving
the local Bavarian forces into Augsburg, he turned to face
Marshal Tallard, who had pursued him at the head of a
French army.
Though Marshal Tallard’s army outnumbered that of
“Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough,” portrait by William the Allies 56,000 men to 52,000, it was Marlborough, not
Derby.  (Wallace Collection, London. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.) ­Tallard, who sought battle. At the village of Blenheim,
 War and Society 251

Europe in the
Late 17th and
Early 18th Centuries

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 Kilometers

SWEDEN

ENGLAND U N ITE D
London N E TH E R L AN D S
Rh

PA L ATIN ATE
ine R .

FLANDERS
Namur
Heidelberg
Mos e lle R

Se
. Blenheim
in e

Strasbourg B AVAR IA
Vienna
R.

AU S TR IA
FRANCE
Milan

.
D a n u be R
AL
UG

SPAIN
RT

Naples
PO

Me
diter
ra n e a n S e a

on the banks of the Danube, on August 13, Marlborough attacked the center, where Marshal Tallard had only 64
launched his attack. By bringing relentless pressure on the squadrons of horse and 9 battalions of foot. The center
village itself, he caused the French to move troops there broke and the English raced to the Danube, thereby encir-
from the center. Sixteen English battalions thus pinned cling most of the French army. Before the day was done the
down 27 French. Then late in the afternoon, with 81 squad- English had destroyed two-thirds of the French army and
rons of horse and 18 battalions of foot, Marlborough captured its commander. The Battle of Blenheim ended
252 A History of England

40 years of continuous French victories, saved Vienna, pre- manage Parliament through an alliance of Whigs, court-
served the alliance, and made Marlborough’s name famous iers, and moderate Tories; and it was the Queen’s hope
throughout Europe. that such an alliance would allow her to retain the right to
appoint ministers of her own choice. Both were to be dis-
appointed. The passions of party swept away all such rec-
The Politics of Victory onciling schemes. For the support they gave Godolphin in
The cost of victory was nearly £9 million a year. The task Parliament, the Whigs demanded payment: the appoint-
of raising this sum fell on Sidney, Earl of G ­ odolphin, a ment of William Cowper as Lord Keeper in 1704, of the
loyal public servant, an astute financier, a compulsive Earl of Sunderland as Secretary of State in 1706, of Lord
gambler, and a breeder of racehorses. He raised one- Somers as President of the Council and Lord Wharton as
third of the amount through loans; the other £6 million Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1708, and of Lord Orford as
came from Parliament. This posed the central politi- First Lord of the Admiralty in 1709. Fiercely, stubbornly,
cal problem of the age: the successful management of then pathetically, Queen Anne opposed all these appoint-
­P arliament. The Queen solved it initially by relying ments. She was resolved not to become a prisoner of party.
on Tory ministers who enjoyed the support of a Tory By 1709, however, she was. A Whig landslide in the gen-
­Parliament. But the unrelenting fury of the High Church eral elections of 1708 left her no choice. The power of the
Tories against the Dissenters, and the Tories’ dwindling purse allied to the passions of party had proved too strong
zeal for waging war on the Continent, soon wrecked the for the royal prerogative.
Queen’s scheme. The fact of party permeated all the politics of the reign of
The High Church Tories directed their special anger Queen Anne. Out of 1064 members returned to Parliament
against the practice of occasional conformity, a practice between 1702 and 1714, only 71 cannot be clearly identified
that allowed the Dissenters to circumvent the Test Act. as Whig or Tory. And the rage of party flowed out from
That act denied state or municipal office to any person who the Houses of Parliament to divide people in the counties,
did not take communion by an Anglican Church at least in the boroughs, in the city of London, in the Church, in
twice a year. The Dissenters circumvented the Act by tak- the army, in coffeehouses, in the theater, in the journals—
ing communion as required, then worshipping every Sun- everywhere. The chief effect of party was to place political
day in their own chapels. The anger of the Tories at this power in that party that prevailed at the polls and so won a
practice arose less from a desire to correct religious error majority in the House of Commons.
than from a desire for a monopoly of office. The religious The House of Commons represented a narrow social
fervor of the age of Cromwell had become the political pas- elite, those who owned property, principally land. The ranks
sions of the age of Anne. In 1702 the extreme Tories carried from which members of Parliament were drawn made up
through the House of Commons a bill against occasional only 0.5 percent of Englishmen. Even then the country
conformity, but the Whigs and moderates in the House squires who crowded the benches of St. Stephen’s—where
of Lords threw it out. In 1703 the Commons again passed the Commons met—protested against the chance army of-
the bill; the Lords again threw it out. The extreme Tories ficer or merchant who strayed into the House. In an attempt
therefore sought in 1704 to tack it to a money bill, so that to keep them out, they passed the Property ­Qualification
the Lords could not refuse it. But the Queen’s servants and Act of 1711, which required county members to own landed
the Whigs joined forces to defeat it in the Commons. The property worth £600 a year and borough members, prop-
Queen now turned away from the High Church Tories. erty worth £300—though the act was easily evaded by tem-
By dividing her subjects, endangering bills of supply, and porarily transferring land to a new member.
opposing the war on the Continent, the Tories had made Those who had the right to vote for members of
their further employment impossible. ­Parliament were more numerous, but still an elite. Only
Though they had to rely on the Whigs, Marlborough 4.3 percent of the population had the vote, about one adult
and Godolphin did not intend to surrender power to male in five. And many of these voters were freehold ten-
them. They remained the managers, dispensing patron- ants whom the landlord marshaled to the polls or towns-
age, advising the Queen, governing the realm. But in order men in a borough where a great peer had a predominant
to manage Parliament they needed the help of the Whigs, influence. Of 513 seats in Parliament, perhaps. 120 were at
who had increased their numbers in the 1705 elections: the nomination of a great magnate; another 20 were at the
Together with the Queen’s servants, they now formed nomination of the Crown. In many constituencies a Whig
a majority in the Commons. It was Godolphin’s plan to or Tory family would have so firm a grip on the seat that
 War and Society 253

the election would go uncontested. During Anne’s reign whose imports came from America, the West Indies, and the
only about 100 seats were contested in a general election, East. The volume of trade also increased. English imports
though in those contests the battle between Whig and Tory rose by £1.4 million a year; exports, by £2.3 million. But what
raged furiously. truly brought joy to the hearts of the mercantilists was the
The power of the squirarchy in local government was fact that during these same years a trade deficit of £300,000
even greater than its power in the House of C ­ ommons. a year became a trade surplus of £600,000. England now en-
The squires, as justices of the peace, sat on the county joyed a favorable balance of trade.
bench, where they judged, administered, and taxed their Large as England’s foreign trade was, its domestic trade
countrymen. And the Revolution of 1688 had taught was three times greater. Ships and barges carried grain,
the Crown not to interfere in local government. In coal, salt, bricks, and iron from port to port and up the
­Cromwell’s England the middle classes had endeavored navigable rivers. Cloth was still the greatest of English
to seize power; draymen, leather merchants, and the manufactures and was still organized according to the
sons of butchers were found among those who governed domestic system. But the salt panners on the Tyne, the
England. The Restoration and the Glorious Revolution sugar boilers on the Mersey, the tin smelters of Cornwall,
restored the rule of the wealthy. England became an oli- the brewers of London, and the glass makers of Newcastle
garchy, in which the divine right of property replaced the formed a semi-industrialized society. And each of these
divine right of kings. industries by 1700 had solved the problem of how to pan
salt, boil sugar, smelt tin, brew beer, and make glass with
coal rather than charcoal, thus escaping from the shortage
The New World of Trade of wood in England. Then in 1709, in Shropshire, a Quaker
The society over which this oligarchy ruled was one made ironmaster, Abraham Darby, discovered how to smelt iron
rich by commerce. The hub of this new world of trade ore with coke (coal heated in an oven in order to drive off
was London, with its half-million inhabitants. Below impurities). In time his discovery would transform the
­London Bridge the Thames was a forest of masts. Out of iron industry, but for the moment the greatest advances
the Thames sailed the great East India ships, to bring back in manufacturing arose from an act of religious intoler-
the tea that was to make the English a nation of tea drink- ance, not an advance in industrial technology. By revok-
ers. From North America came the beaver, with which to ing the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Louis XIV drove 15,000
manufacture hats for gentlemen of fashion, and tobacco, ­Huguenots, mostly skilled artisans, to settle in ­L ondon,
with which to fill their pipes. From the Levant came cof- at Spitalfields, Soho, and Bethnal Green. There they
fee and cotton; from the African coast ivory and dyewood; ­manufactured for peers and squires, for merchants and
from the Baltic hemp, tar, and timber. A steady stream of lawyers, the crystal, fine paper, cutlery, watches, and pre-
colliers brought coal from Newcastle, a trade that tripled cision instruments the wealthy prized. Above all, the silk
in the seventeenth century. The small pinks, which carried manufacturers of Spitalfields produced the velvets, satins,
more cargo and employed fewer men than the older ships, and brocades that an age of elegance required.
challenged the supremacy of the Dutch flyboat in the The spirit of commerce pervaded English society. Even
North Sea. By 1700 shipping owned in London reached the gentry engaged in economic activity. Sir John Lowther
140,000 tons, and one in every four Londoners depended produced coal as well as grain on his Whitehaven estates.
on the sea for a living. Thomas Foley, who founded a family in the West ­Midlands,
Though London was the hub of trade, it did not domi- mined iron ore on his property. Not all landlords had coal
nate trade as it had under the Tudors. Merchants in London or iron on their land, but most of them produced wool
owned 140,000 tons of shipping, but those in the outports or wood for sale to the manufacturers of England. A ­ ngry
owned 183,000 tons. Every year 240 ships went in and out squires might curse the monied men over tankards of
of Bristol harbor, carrying English manufactures to the colo- ­October ale, but the Marquis of Tavistock had no qualms of
nies and bringing back tobacco and sugar. Exeter became a marrying the granddaughter and heir of Sir Josiah Child,
thriving port on the export of woolen cloth. Liverpool grew once a brewer, now an East India merchant, and one of
wealthy by refining the sugar its ships brought from the West the wealthiest men in England. Prosperous merchants, on
Indies. The re-export of colonial products, principally to- their part, bought land and became gentlemen.
bacco, accounted for nearly one-third of England’s total ex- The growth of joint-stock companies permitted all men
ports. Once dangerously dependent on its trade to northern of wealth, whether great courtiers or successful landlords
Europe, England now became a world entrepôt, one-third of or wealthy lawyers or well-placed clergymen, to invest
254 A History of England

in the trade of England. In 1688 there were only 15 joint- This meant more dairy products and more lamb, mutton,
stock companies in all England; by 1696 there were over and beef. The introduction of up-and-down husbandry
100. One could invest not only in the great companies— was accompanied by other changes. Turnips and clover
the Bank of England, the East India Company, Hudson’s were introduced as field crops and allowed the farmer
Bay—but also in companies to manufacture gunpowder, to feed livestock during the winter. Permanent meadows
smelt copper, produce hollow swordblades, and carry wa- were watered to give more and better grass. Marshes, such
ter from Hampstead to London. The luckiest of all were as the Fenland in East Anglia, were drained and their rich
those who invested in William Philips’s company to salvage soil exploited. Marl, sand, lime, and manure were spread
a Spanish plate ship that had sunk off Hispaniola. The com- on fields to increase their fertility. Selective breeding im-
pany found gold and silver equal to that which Drake had proved cattle and sheep; during these years the Cotswold
brought home, and returned to each investor £100 for ev- sheep were transformed—their legs shortened and their
ery £1 invested, a return of 10,000 percent! carcasses made larger and fleshier (for it was not their
This structure of trade and manufacturing rested se- wool but their flesh that made them profitable). The sum
curely on the agricultural wealth of England. This wealth total of these changes—themselves the product of the en-
was astonishing. Yields of wheat per acre in the seven- terprise and ingenuity of English farmers—was to end
teenth century were close to modern yields. In 1720 dairy the curse of widespread famine that hung over medieval
cows gave a gallon and a third a day, only a little less than England.
what they give today. Between the later Middle Ages and
the end of the seventeenth century grain and grass yields
rose about fourfold, and the increase in sheep and cattle
The Social Pyramid
was even greater. On the average, agricultural output rose The wealth this labor and enterprise produced was dis-
fivefold between 1400 and 1700. Medieval agriculture was tributed among England’s 5 million inhabitants in a
hardly able to support 3 million people; by 1700 England highly inequitable manner. There was nothing new in
could feed 5 million and still export grain. this. What was new was the rise of “political arithme-
The explanation for this great increase in productiv- tic,” a science that allowed the distribution of wealth to
ity lies in the agricultural revolution that occurred be- be measured. The greatest of the political arithmeticians
tween 1560 and 1720. The heart of this revolution lay in was Gregory King, son of a Lichfield surveyor, a skillful
the replacement of permanent tillage (with the arable ly- mathematician, an ingenious statistician, and a minor
ing fallow every third year) and permanent pasture with civil servant who loved curious facts. During the reign of
a system of alternation called up-and-down husbandry. William III he described the structure of English society
Under this system, a farmer would grow wheat or barley in table form.
on a piece of land for four or five years, then put it to grass At the apex of the pyramid were 160 noblemen, with
for seven or eight years, then return it to tillage. This alter- an average income of £3200 a year, and 26 bishops with
nation preserved the fertility of the land, and though no incomes ranging from the bishop of Bristol’s £360 a year
more grain was produced, far more grass nutrients were. to the bishop of Durham’s £6000. The nobility used their

Blenheim Palace, designed in the English baroque style by Sir John Vanbrugh and built at the public expense for the Duke
of Marlborough.  (John Bethell/The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)
 War and Society 255

Eltham Lodge, a modest country house built in the late seventeenth century.  (Topham Picture Source, Edenbridge, Kent,
UK. The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd.)

opulent fortunes to build great country houses, to retain often five feet high, replaced the mullioned windows of
a phalanx of servants, to serve sumptuous meals, to pur- the ­Elizabethans. Their wives avidly collected chinaware
chase pictures from Italy, to buy furniture from France, to brought from the East.
spend the season in London, and to wager vast sums at the Below the gentlemen came the yeoman, a man who
­gaming table. owned the land he farmed, but who possessed no coat of
Below the peers came the gentry, some 16,400 bar- arms and presumed to no gentility. Gregory King called
onets, knights, esquires, and gentlemen, the richest of them the freeholders of England and numbered them
whom might be worth £2000 a year, the poorest only at 160,000. The better sort made, on average, £91 a year;
£200. Their average income was £354 a year. The rustic the lesser sort only £55. To their numbers may be added
squire spent his business hours selling grain and buy- 150,000 farmers, or husbandmen, who rented land as
ing livestock, his leisure hours hunting, shooting, and copyholders or leaseholders and who earned, on aver-
drinking. He spoke with a provincial accent, and his li- age, £42 a year. The squires showed their contempt for
brary had few books b ­ esides the Bible and Foxe’s Book of these classes by passing a law that prevented all freehold-
Martyrs. He rarely visited L ­ ondon, but when he did he ers worth less than £100 a year from killing game—even
stood out in the crowd because of his old-fashioned coat on their own land. The partridges were to be reserved for
without sleeves. The more prosperous among them built gentlemen.
manor houses in the style of Wren, simple yet elegant. More numerous than the yeomen were those whom
Paneling now replaced tapestries, and the sash window, Gregory King called the laboring people and outservants.
256 A History of England

They worked in the fields as employees of the yeomen and person a year for the poor—quite unevenly distributed.
farmers. They numbered some 364,000 families, and the This was merely enough to stave off the worst hunger and
average income of a family was about £15. cold. Each parish sought to exclude from its boundaries
Life for these husbandmen and laborers was simple, the poor from other parishes. By the Act of Settlement
arduous, but not intolerable. More of them ate wheaten of 1662, a parish in which a person sought to settle could
bread than rye or barley bread. They saw roast meat on send him back to the parish from which he came if they
the table at least twice a week, perhaps more often when thought he might someday be a burden. The true answer
beef fell to 2½ pence a pound and mutton to 2 pence. They to this appalling problem of poverty, as Daniel Defoe saw,
had yet to learn to drink coffee and tea, but they drank was not charity, but the employment of the poor. Sir ­Josiah
enormous quantities of beer—between 2 and 4 pints a Child, a governor of the East India Company and a writer
day. Foreigners were impressed with their clean, neat cot- on economics, even proposed that the government buy
tages. Hours of labor were long. The husbandmen return- land, build workhouses, and set the poor to work. His ad-
ing from the field, complained the pious, were too tired to vice went unheeded.
say prayers. Child labor was common, and praised. Daniel
Defoe rejoined that around Halifax hardly anyone above
the age of four was idle. Wages in the fields ran from 8 to
The Augustan Age
12 pence a day, too little to feed a wife and children. Only London, which was the center of trade, was also the cen-
where the wife could earn 9 pence carding wool and the ter of a new middle-class culture. It was here that men
children 4 pence each spinning yarn could the working conversed in their favorite coffeehouses, dined in taverns,
family fare well. read The Spectator, applauded the latest play, heard the
Trade, then as now, was where fortunes were made. new Italian opera, and purchased their waistcoats, cravats,
Three million people earned £25 million in agriculture (or and wigs (which even tradesmen now wore). The center of
about £8 a person), while 300,000 earned £10 million in gravity in London moved westward as the great deserted
trade (or about £33 a person). According to Gregory King’s the city and built townhouses in Bloomsbury, Piccadilly,
calculation, some 2000 eminent merchants earned £400 and St. James’s Square. Christopher Wren, after the Great
a year; another 2000 merchants earned £198. Shopkeep- Fire, had proposed rebuilding London with wide, straight
ers and tradesmen, of whom there were 50,000 families, streets meeting in a star-shaped open space. This was the
earned £45 a year, while artisans, 60,000 in number, earned principle of the rond-point, adopted by the French under
£38. The professions offered a second avenue to wealth. Louis XIV. But Charles II, after a few days’ thought, re-
Lawyers earned £154 a year, eminent clergymen £72, lesser jected the proposal. London’s contribution to town plan-
clergymen £50, naval officers £80, and army officers £60. ning in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was to
Common seamen earned only £20, common soldiers £14. be the square, a garden or field around which were built
Great offices of state brought an income of £240 a year, privately owned houses of similar design. These houses
lesser offices £120. These, then, were the classes—common were usually of brick, of uniform height (three or four sto-
seaman, soldier, and husbandman apart—who enjoyed the ries), sparsely decorated, the façade broken only by sash
new wealth of England. windows that diminished in size as they rose from story to
At the very base of the pyramid were 400,000 fami- story. As the rond-point reflected the majesty of an abso-
lies of cottagers and paupers, the largest class of all and lute monarch, so the London square reflected the wealth,
the poorest. Their yearly income averaged £6 10s. The power, good taste, and independence of the ­E nglish
terms cottager and poor were nearly synonymous, for a gentleman.
cottage was a small house or hovel with little or no land. Though the English in Charles II’s reign had con-
Sir Francis Bacon called cottagers “but housed beggars.” demned coffee as useless, “since it serves neither nourish-
Since there was little regular employment on farms in the ment nor debauchery,” by Queen Anne’s reign there were
early eighteenth century, the squatters eked out a liveli- over 500 coffeehouses in London. Everyone had a favorite
hood by squatting on the commons, keeping geese, cut- coffeehouse. Men of fashion went to White’s in St. James’s
ting wood, and poaching. Their inadequate incomes often Street. Poets drank their coffee and chocolate at Will’s,
had to be supplemented by parish poor relief and private scholars at The Grecian. Merchants wrote marine insur-
charity. The first provided about £900,000 a year; the sec- ance at Lloyd’s and brokers traded in stock at Jonathan’s. At
ond, about £200,000. Together they yielded about £1 per coffeehouses great noblemen conversed easily with private
 War and Society 257

gentlemen and persons of all ranks learned the latest news for never before had the politician so great a need to sway
from abroad and at home. public opinion. The control of Parliament might depend
The theaters opened their doors at 6 p.m. In the ­London upon it.
of Queen Anne there were two theaters—at Lincoln’s Inn Swift and Defoe appealed to the public’s interest in poli-
Field and in Drury Lane. Then in 1705 John Vanbrugh, tics; Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, to its interest in
soldier, playwright, and future architect of Blenheim society. Richard Steele, at various times a captain in the
­Palace, built a theater in the Haymarket, called the Queen’s Life Guards, playwright, theatrical manager, and projec-
Theater or the Italian Opera House. Though literary crit- tor of commercial schemes, began The Tatler in 1709 and
ics found Italian opera to be merely “nonsense well tuned,” The Spectator in 1711. He prevailed on his friend, Joseph
it conquered London during the reign of Queen Anne. ­Addison, a shy Oxford scholar, an undersecretary of state,
England had its native composers, of whom Henry Purcell and a literary genius, to contribute to both. The Tatler and
was the greatest. But even Purcell came under the Italian The Spectator were instant successes, for their satire of vice
influence, bringing melodic expressiveness and dramatic and praise of virtue taught the newly enriched gentlemen,
declamation to his opera, Dido and Aeneas. Throughout merchants, lawyers, and government servants how to act
Europe a new spirit entered music; the religious gave way and how to spend their money.
to the secular. The Spectator sought to reform the manners and
Despite the power of Thomas Betterton’s Hamlet, the quicken the moral life of English men and women. It
theater did not flourish during the reigns of William and prized good sense over great learning and preferred virtue
Anne. Most of the plays performed were comedies of man- to mere politeness. It satirized boorishness and ridiculed
ners by the Restoration dramatists. The plays were witty, dueling. It directed men away from both political fanati-
cynical, and indecent, which led the clergy to denounce the cism and religious enthusiasm. “Reason,” it urged, “should
immorality of the stage and the government to prosecute govern passion.” It praised honesty above the affectation
actors for lewdness. During these years there occurred a of good breeding: “The Tradesman who deals with me, in
shift in taste away from the brilliant and cynical world of a commodity which I do not understand, with upright-
the Restoration wits to the amiable morality and sentimen- ness, has much more right to the character of a gentleman
tality of eighteenth-century comedies. than the courtier who gives me false hopes or the scholar
The Augustan age of Queen Anne—so called because who laughs at my ignorance.”1 It contrasted the “pride and
the greatness of its literary achievement resembled that of beggary” of the European nobility with the willingness of
Rome under Augustus—was not an age of drama, nor of ­English gentlemen to send their younger sons into trade.
poetry, but of prose. Its characteristic literary forms were The Spectator was both a manual of deportment and a
the newspaper, the pamphlet, and the review, all of which model of correct style. Its prose was balanced, graceful,
enjoyed a new freedom with the ending of the Licensing polished, and clear—a style that suited an age that believed
Act in 1695. An author could now, within the law of li- in reason, good sense, elegance, and sobriety.
bel and sedition, write what he pleased. In the opening The same spirit pervaded religion, where the fury of the
months of Queen Anne’s reign the first daily newspaper High Churchmen against the Dissenters could not con-
in England, The Daily Courant, began; before she died the ceal the growth of moderation and toleration within the
circulation of all newspapers had reached 67,000 a week. Church (a movement soon to be called Latitudinarianism).
But the newspapers of that day, a single sheet printed on Under the influence of Newton and Locke, people began
both sides, carried only news and advertisements; there to emphasize the reasonableness of Christianity. They also
was no editorial comment. The political pamphlets and sought a practical divinity, one that would teach people
the review provided that. The greatest of these pamphle- how to live. To this end, a group of clergymen founded the
teers and reviewers were Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. Society for the Reformation of Manners, which did much
Defoe’s ironical attack on intolerance, in The ­Shortest Way to reduce swearing and drunkenness, but perhaps did even
with the Dissenters, led him to the pillory; and Swift’s bit- more to promote the gloomy English Sunday. Even the
ter denunciation of the Dutch in The Conduct of the ­Allies Quakers grew more mellow, devoting their energies to the
helped bring peace to England in 1713. For eight years counting house rather than to the disruption of church ser-
­D efoe wrote The Review to win people over to modera- vices. As Daniel Defoe, the spokesman for the ­Dissenters,
tion and for two years Swift wrote The Examiner to make remarked, after riding through much of England, “the
them Tories. Never before had the pen been so powerful, main affair of Life” is “getting money.”
258 A History of England

Marriage, Courtship, they chose to be bachelors. Their choice in turn increased

the number of spinsters. In the sixteenth century 5 percent
and the Family of the daughters of the landed classes never married; in the
Public affairs loom large in works of history, but for most eighteenth century 25 percent never married. Because of
people public affairs are a very small thing compared to their high social background they would not work, so they
their private lives. And nothing is more central to a per- either served as housekeepers to a sister’s family or existed
son’s private life than the choice of a husband or wife. In in lonely lodgings on small pensions.
the sixteenth century, among the landed classes, one’s par- In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the children
ents made that choice for one and based it on consider- of shopkeepers, artisans, and yeomen enjoyed somewhat
ations of lineage, property, power, and honor. The family greater freedom in the choice of wives and husbands than
line must be continued, the estate augmented, political al- did the children of the rich, but where there was property—
liances cemented, and social degradation avoided. The sys- a shop or a copyhold—parental control was exercised. By
tem allowed little time for courtship, the bride and groom the eighteenth century that control had lessened; children
often seeing each other for the first time after the marriage from the lower middle class often married by free choice,
had been negotiated. “People in my way,” wrote the daugh- even without their parents’ consent. Among the property-
ter of a marquess, “are sold like slaves.” less poor, young men and women chose each other freely,
This system of arranged marriages slowly decayed, with hardly any interference from parents. Courtship
weakened by the Protestant insistence on affection within within the lower middle class tended to be decorous and
a marriage, by the seventeenth-century emphasis upon the motives leading to marriage prudent. Courtship among
personal liberty, and by the eighteenth-century celebra- the poor, who could afford few pleasures beyond sex and
tion of sentiment. The change was slow and uneven. The drink, was far less inhibited, as the figures for prenuptial
great peers with great estates clung to arranged marriages pregnancies demonstrate. A prenuptial pregnancy was a
the longest. Yet the forces of change were inexorable. In pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a child eight and a
1660 Parliament abolished the Court of Wards, where the half months after the wedding, or earlier. In the sixteenth
Crown auctioned off the right to select husbands and wives and seventeenth centuries recorded prenuptial pregnan-
for fatherless heirs and heiresses. In 1680 Aphra Behn, a cies ran well below 20 percent of all first pregnancies; in the
zealous feminist, launched an attack upon arranged mar- eighteenth century it shot up to 40 percent. In part this was
riages. In 1705 Daniel Defoe denounced “marriages for the a result of the revival between 1620 and 1720 of the belief
preserving of estates” as equivalent to rape. And Joseph that a betrothal (an exchange of promises to marry) justi-
Addison called for long courtships. By 1700 most children fied the consummation of the sexual act, but many preg-
of squires and merchants possessed the right to veto their nancies occurred long before the wedding day and can
parents’ choice; by 1800 they possessed the right of choice, only be explained by a decline in the moral, ­legal, and eco-
with a veto left to their parents. This change made neces- nomic inhibitions against premarital sexual intercourse.
sary opportunities for courtship, which were soon estab- The collapse of the Puritan movement lessened the moral
lished. In the eighteenth century there grew up that world inhibitions; the decay of Church courts lessened the legal
celebrated in the novels of Jane Austen, a world of balls, impediments; and the rise of a landless laboring class able
card parties, teas, assembly rooms, and the London and the to find employment in cottage industries increased the op-
Bath seasons. portunities. As a result, among the poor in the eighteenth
Not all English men and women married and those who century most brides had had sexual intercourse with their
did often married late in life. The average age at marriage future husbands before marriage.
for daughters of the nobility was 20 in the sixteenth cen- Once married, the bride was wholly subject to her
tury, 23 in the eighteenth. The median age at marriage for husband. The principle of patriarchy held sway through-
the heirs of squires rose from 21 in the sixteenth century to out the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In law, wrote
28 in the eighteenth, while younger sons in the eighteenth Blackstone, “the husband and wife are one, and the hus-
century did not marry until their thirties. The explanation band is that one.” Both their property and their children
for this trend lies in the turn toward choice in marriage, in belonged to the husband alone. This subjection of the wife
the greater number of years spent at school and university, was accompanied by deference and distance; wives called
and in the need for younger sons to accumulate the wealth their husbands “Sir”; husbands, their wives “Madam.” The
necessary to support a marriage. Many of these younger Reformation and the Renaissance state both deepened the
sons never accumulated that wealth, with the result that subjection of women. Protestantism laid on the husband
 War and Society 259

the duty, once exercised by the priest, to supervise the re- which the commonest was coitus interruptus. There should
ligious and moral conduct of the family—family prayers be no expression of passionate love in marriage, which
took the place of the confessional. The Renaissance state they regarded as no better than adultery. Actual practices
regarded deference to the father as a guarantee of law and may have differed considerably from these precepts, yet
order, the equivalent of obedience to the monarch. Not there were other obstacles to a high level of sexual activity
without reason did James I call himself “the politic father in these years. Lack of personal hygiene, frequent illness,
of his people.” Among the lower middle classes the fact prudishness about appearing naked, and fear of pregnancy
that marriage was an economic partnership gave the wife all inhibited sexual activity. During the eighteenth cen-
some leverage, but she was more often treated as a servant tury, however, a desire to limit families and the new ideal
than as a partner. Among the laboring poor, wives were of the pursuit of pleasure led to the liberation of sexual-
subjected to a crushing burden of toil and to beatings by ity among the upper classes. The new hedonism separated
their husbands. the pleasures of sex from the procreative function. Authors
During the eighteenth century, among the wealthier such as Aphra Behn, Mrs. Manley, Bernard de Mandeville,
classes, a more intimate, more affectionate, more equal, and and John Wilkes unblushingly celebrated the pleasures of
less patriarchal marriage appeared, a companionate mar- sex. From 1675 onwards the upper classes practiced birth
riage, in which wives and husbands addressed each other control. And the bookstores of London freely sold porno-
by their first names. Since Elizabeth’s reign, if not earlier, graphic books and pictures. But the new hedonism was
such companionate marriages were common among crafts- largely for men. During these centuries, as during most of
men and tradesmen; now they spread to the upper classes. human history, there existed a double standard of sexual
The forces producing the companionate marriage were behavior. A bride was expected to be a virgin on her wed-
many. The decline in religious enthusiasm led to a decline ding night; a man was expected to have had some sexual
in family prayers and to the authority the father exercised experience. Fornication and adultery by men were re-
there. The growing belief in religious toleration and respect garded as minor sins; for women they brought the deepest
for the individual conscience furthered personal autonomy dishonor.
within the family. The Glorious Revolution, by discrediting This double standard was only possible because the
patriarchy in the state, made it harder to justify it in the bachelors and adulterous husbands of the upper classes
home. A growing revulsion against cruelty of all kinds led found sexual partners in the actresses, milliners, maids,
to the condemnation of wife-beating. In 1782 there was a and whores of the lower classes. Promiscuity and prostitu-
public outcry when a judge sought to revive the doctrine tion among the poor supported female chastity among the
that it was lawful for a husband to beat his wife, provided rich. There is evidence to show that such promiscuity ex-
that the stick was no thicker than a thumb. But perhaps isted even in Elizabethan times. In Essex during ­Elizabeth’s
the most powerful force was the growing education of reign 15,000 persons out of a population of 40,000 adults
women. It was good conversation, wrote John ­Milton, that were summoned before church courts for sexual offenses,
made for a good marriage, and it was education, asserted which meant that an adult during those years had one
Dr. ­Johnson, that made for good conversation. In 1600 chance in four of being summoned before a court for adul-
only one woman could sign her name to every eight men tery, fornication, incest, or homosexuality. The rate of ille-
who could; by 1750 the ratio was one to two. And by then gitimacy in Elizabethan England was 4 percent. Under the
numerous boarding schools were turning out women well- pressure of Puritan preaching a stricter standard of sexual
versed in history, poetry, French, music, and dancing. morality was achieved in the seventeenth century; the rate
Parallel to these changes in marriage were changes in of illegitimacy fell to 11⁄2 percent. But in the eighteenth cen-
the attitude of men and women towards sexuality. Medi- tury both promiscuity and prostitution flourished, with the
eval theologians had condemned all sex as unclean and rate of illegitimacy rising to over 4 percent in 1760 and to
had made an ideal of virginity. The Protestant reform- 8 percent in the 1780s. London became the scene of a vast
ers replaced the ideal of virginity with that of holy matri- sexual underworld, made up of kept mistresses, high-class
mony, citing the Biblical injunction to be fruitful. But the houses of assignation, general and specialized brothels,
Protestant theologians condemned all sexual activity that and common street whores. Men of all classes made use of
was not designed for procreation. There should be no prostitutes, the demand for which increased with the grow-
sexual activity when conception is not possible, as dur- ing number of bachelors and late marriages. Poverty drove
ing pregnancy. There should be no oral or manual sexual young girls to become prostitutes, in accordance with Fran-
play. There should be no use of birth control practices, of cis Place’s law that “chastity and poverty are incompatible.”
260 A History of England

The growing culture of sexual promiscuity among the poor family. Swaddling gave way to the use of loose cloth-
also helped swell the ranks of prostitutes. Many were re- ing. Maternal breast feeding, which deepened the af-
cruited from unwed mothers. Prostitutes ranged in age fection of the mother for the child, replaced wet nurses.
from 15 to 22; the median age was 18; none was active after More affectionate modes of address such as “Mamma”
22. They were an abject, wretched, hopeless class, the most and “Papa” replaced “Sir” and “Madam.” Symbolic acts
pitiable class of persons in England. of deference, such as kneeling or standing when in the
The begetting of children was one of the principal presence of p ­ arents, faded away. Children’s books that
purposes of marriage, though among the landed-classes offered plain entertainment and fun replaced those that
daughters were less welcome than sons (since the dowries threatened divine vengeance. Toy shops sprang up in the
needed to find them husbands could bankrupt a family). towns and dolls with changeable clothing were mass pro-
Among the poor few, if any, children were welcome (since duced. ­Parents limited the size of their families in order to
it was a struggle to find the food to feed them). In the six- have the means to educate their sons and marry off their
teenth and seventeenth centuries parents were negligent in daughters. Increasingly parents educated their children
the care of infants, with the result that infants were weaned at home in order to save them from the brutality of the
from the mother’s breast at a later date than they are today schools. But that brutality diminished as flogging students
and were not subjected to severe toilet training. In other simply for academic lapses declined. The causes for these
ways, though, they were more severely treated. In order changes were many. John Locke provided the intellectual
to keep a child from breaking its leg or scratching out its premise for them by arguing that man was not born evil,
eyes or tearing off its ears, it was wrapped tightly in ban- as ­C alvin taught, but a blank slate, a tabula rasa, upon
dages for the first four months of its life, a practice called which a favorable environment might inscribe virtue. This
swaddling. view, joined to the growing individualism of the age, made
Once the child had left infancy for childhood, he or she abhorrent the doctrine that the purpose of childrearing
entered a world marked by formality, distance, deference, was to break the will of the child. Then there were those
and obedience. Children of the upper classes saw little of eighteenth-century ideals of the pursuit of happiness and
their parents, being entrusted to a wet nurse as an infant, the ­c ultivation of sentiment, which inevitably led to a
then to nurses and tutors, and finally, at about ten, to the more cheerful, affectionate home. And finally there was
master or mistress of a boarding school. Boys and girls that movement against cruelty that led not only to the ab-
lower in the social scale left home at about the same age to olition of the slave trade and the suppression of cockfight-
become domestic servants or apprentices. Not only defer- ing but to the decline of flogging.
ence but cruelty marked the years of childhood. This was These changes took place first in the families of the ur-
in part a product of Puritanism, which taught the doctrine ban, literate middle class, but they spread to the landed
of Original Sin and regarded the child in the cradle as a gentry, and later to the nobility. These new ideas had less
sinner. His will must be broken, he must be taught obe- influence upon the lower middle class, who were often
dience to God’s commandments, he must be made virtu- Nonconformists. Such families became increasingly child-
ous; otherwise the dream of creating a Godly society on oriented but remained authoritarian. Among cottagers
this Earth could not be realized. To this end parents and and artisans parents often treated their children brutally,
masters used not a system of rewards but of physical pun- but prized them as economic assets. Among the very poor,
ishment, to which was added the psychological terrors of parents were careless, indifferent, and cruel. Where they
death and Hell. The children’s books of the time threatened could exploit their children’s labor they did so; where they
divine vengeance on the sinner. It was even believed that could not, they neglected them. Death by neglect contrib-
schoolmasters could by flogging teach boys Latin gram- uted significantly to the child mortality of the eighteenth
mar. The commonest form of punishment of an errant boy century. The new, affectionate, happy family was rarely to
was to lay him over a bench and flog his naked buttocks be found among the poor.
with a bundle of birches until the blood flowed. Many ap-
prentices were exposed to similar sadism from their mas- The Act of Union
ters. The one redeeming feature of the Puritan approach
to childhood is that, unlike the earlier indifference shown
with Scotland
children, it arose from a concern for the child’s future. The most important public act of Queen Anne’s reign may
During the eighteenth century this gloomy picture well have been the Act of Union, which led the ­English
changed. Signs of greater warmth, affection, intimacy, and the Scots to bury centuries of strife. The Scotland
cheerfulness, and permissiveness appeared within the of Charles II’s reign was a monument to fanaticism. At
 War and Society 261

the Restoration Scotland recovered its Parliament, which so many people had invested, proved a fiasco. The com-
Cromwell had abolished, but that Parliament was subser- pany placed its colony in the center of a swamp, sent out
vient to the Privy Council in Edinburgh, which Charles woolens and Bibles the natives did not want, and offended
II controlled from London. Charles used his power to Spain, then the ally of England. Disease, bankruptcy, and
restore episcopacy and to force the Presbyterians to re- Spanish troops soon ended the life of the colony. The Scots
nounce the Covenant (a solemn agreement, sworn to now saw that their only salvation was to enter into a union
by the Scots, to defend their Church). Unwilling to take with England, a union that would bring them within the
the tests imposed on them, a third of the clergy—the Navigation Acts.
­Covenanters—left their churches and conducted religious The Scots had sought such a union in the past—in
services on lonely hillsides or in thick forests. The gov- 1667, in 1670, and again in 1689—but had always been re-
ernment sent the militia to suppress these conventicles; pulsed. They now found a lever with which to pry open
the fierce Covenanters answered with rebellion, which the E ­ nglish commercial empire. In 1703 the Scottish
the government then ruthlessly crushed. But though the ­Parliament passed an Act of Security, which provided
English denied the Scots political and religious inde- that the Parliament should meet on Queen Anne’s death
pendence, they forced on them an unwanted economic and choose a successor. That successor would not be the
independence. By the Navigation Acts the Scots were for- person the English chose unless England had previously
bidden to trade with the English colonies or to engage in conceded Scotland freedom to trade with England and
the English coastal trade. its colonies. The passage of the Act of Security forced the
By no means did all Scots favor the Coventanters, for English to choose between the perpetual hostility of a
their tyranny was as dreaded as the Court’s, but all did separate Scottish kingdom or a union that guaranteed full
oppose the popish designs of James II. Thus when James reciprocity of trade.
withdrew his troops from Scotland to resist ­William, The English chose union and reciprocity. In 1706 Queen
the government in Edinburgh found itself powerless. Anne, with the consent of both Parliaments, named com-
A group of Scots hurried south to persuade William to missioners to negotiate a Treaty of Union. The treaty was
summon a convention in Edinburgh. It met in March a triumph of good sense and compromise. The two king-
1689 and drew up a Claim of Right similar to the ­English doms became one, under a single Crown, with a single
Declaration of Rights, only more radical: Where the Parliament, and with trade laws that applied to all the in-
­English said James had “abdicated,” the Scots boldly said habitants of “Great Britain,” as the new kingdom was to be
he was “deposed.” The convention also forced William to called. Though Scotland surrendered its Parliament, it re-
reestablish the Presbyterian Church and to abolish the tained its own system of law, so different from the English
Lords of the Articles, the committee through which the Common law, and the Presbyterian Church, whose privi-
Crown controlled Parliament. For the first time in cen- leges the treaty guaranteed for all generations to come. The
turies, the Scottish people enjoyed both religious and po- taxation and tariff systems of Great Britain were to be one,
litical independence. though Scotland, in consideration of its poverty, was to pay
But though a free Parliament quickened the political only one-fortieth of the land tax.
life of Scotland and a restored Presbyterianism calmed The English Parliament ratified the treaty with little de-
its religious quarrels, the Scots remained poor. A million bate, but a bitter struggle ensued in the Scottish P
­ arliament.
inhabitants scratched a meager existence from the soil Popular opinion in Scotland opposed the treaty, or did so
or engaged in a limited local trade. Scottish agricultural until the Presbyterians saw that it offered adequate safe-
methods were medieval; no money was invested in the guards for their Church. But the final decision rested with
land; improvements proved impossible because of short Parliament. In 1707 the Scottish Parliament ratified the
leases and insecurity of tenure. The per capita wealth of treaty. Some English money no doubt lubricated the pro-
Scotland was thought to be one-fifth that of England. What cess, but bribery alone cannot explain ratification. The
the Scots wanted most was a chance to participate in the true explanation lies in economic interests. The Scottish
English trading empire, but the English persisted in ex- merchants who hoped to trade with the colonies and the
cluding them. The Scots therefore resolved to create their ­Scottish landlords who wished to export corn, cattle, and
own commercial empire. In 1695 they founded a Company coal to England had the numbers and the power to per-
to Trade with Africa and the Indies, and in 1698 that com- suade the Scottish Parliament to ratify the treaty. Their
pany founded a colony at Darien, on the Isthmus of Pan- calculations were not mistaken, for the Act of Union made
ama. From here they hoped to dominate the trade of both possible the unprecedented prosperity of Scotland in the
Atlantic and Pacific. But the Darien adventure, in which eighteenth century.
262 A History of England

The Treaty of Utrecht the Exchequer, and moderate Tories filled the other offices.
It was a splendid illustration of the power that remained in
The Act of Union was one of the most constructive acts the Queen’s hands, but Harley could not hope to remain in
carried out by the Whig ministers during these years. Their office unless he could manage Parliament successfully for
most destructive act was the failure to negotiate peace with her—and it was a Whig Parliament he must meet in the
France in 1709. The problem was Spain. In order to secure autumn. He therefore persuaded the Queen to dissolve
Portugal’s adherence to the Grand Alliance, England in ­Parliament and send out writs for the election of a new
1703 had promised not to make a peace that left Spain in one. Desperate for peace and angered by the ­Sacheverell
the hands of the Bourbons. “No peace without Spain” be- trial, the voters returned a Tory majority, a majority which
came the slogan that imprisoned the minds of the Whigs. Harley, himself a moderate Tory, skillfully managed to
It proved particularly inappropriate when in 1707 a French bring the country the peace it sought.
and Spanish victory at the Battle of Almanza ended all The greatest obstacle to peace lay with England’s allies,
hopes that Charles II, the Austrian claimant, could ever particularly Austria, whose claims at the peace table far
gain the Spanish throne. True, the next year Marlborough exceeded its contributions on the battlefield. To circum-
won another great victory and in 1709 France suffered the vent the allies, the new Tory ministry negotiated a sepa-
worst frost in living memory. A bankrupt Louis XIV even rate peace. It began secret negotiations in August 1710 and
agreed to surrender Spain to Charles III, but when the reached a preliminary agreement with France in October
­English and Dutch demanded that he send French troops 1711. It provided for a peace without Spain, which provoked
to drive his own grandson, Philip V, from Madrid, he re- the fury of the Whigs. Only by persuading the Queen to
fused. “If I must wage war,” replied Louis XIV, “I had rather name 12 new peers was Harley able to win the support of
wage it against my enemies than against my children.” The the House of Lords for the preliminaries; and only by with-
peace negotiations at Getruydenberg collapsed and the drawing English troops from combat in June 1712 could
costly war dragged on. he force the allies to join in the negotiations at Utrecht.
In 1710 the nation grew weary of the war and Queen ­Britain undoubtedly deserted its allies and made a separate
Anne grew weary of the Whigs. Not only did the squires peace, but it is difficult to see how it could have made peace
groan under the heavy taxes, but shipping and trade suf- otherwise.
fered, as it had during William’s war. Between May 1702 The resulting Treaty of Utrecht showed once again
and Christmas 1709 the English lost 1146 merchantmen. that most peace treaties reflect the disposition of mili-
The nation longed for peace, but the Whigs drove on the tary forces at the end of hostilities. The forces of Philip V
war. They then made a serious tactical error; they im- had conquered Spain and the treaty acknowledged him
peached Dr. Henry Sacheverell, an unimportant High as King of Spain, with the provision that the crowns of
Church clergyman, for preaching a sermon against France and Spain should never be joined in one person.
the principles of the Glorious Revolution. In the ensu- ­Marlborough had won that part of the Netherlands which
ing trial the Whig lawyers duly exposed the fallacies of is now ­B elgium; it became the Austrian Netherlands. The
passive obedience and the Lords found Dr. Sacheverell Dutch received the right to garrison the barrier fortresses
guilty, but they only suspended him from preaching for in the Austrian Netherlands. Above all the treaty reflected
three years. The sentence was in fact an acquittal. The the dominance of English sea power. Since 1694, the
long trial, the publicity that attended it, and the virtual ­English fleet had wintered in the Mediterranean. In 1704,
acquittal of Sacheverell turned public opinion away from a week before the Battle of Blenheim, the fleet had seized
the Whigs and the Dissenters and toward the Church ­Gibraltar, and four years later it captured Minorca, with its
and the Tories. splendid harbor at Port Mahon. By the Treaty of Utrecht
At this very moment, Robert Harley, a country Whig Britain retained both. In September 1710, 400 ­British ma-
in William’s reign, a Speaker of the House in 1701, a Tory rines and 1500 New Englanders captured Port Royal in
secretary of state under Queen Anne, and a politician fa- Acadia, which was renamed Nova Scotia. The Treaty of
mous for his skill in managing the Commons, found his Utrecht recognized it as English. The treaty likewise gave
way up the back stairs of Kensington Palace. Winning the Britain a clear title to Newfoundland and the Hudson’s Bay
Queen’s favor, he skillfully directed her actions and quietly region, and granted to it the island of St. Kitt’s in the West
undermined the power of Godolphin and the Whigs. In Indies. Finally, Britain wrested from Spain the Asiento, an
August the Queen dismissed Godolphin and in September agreement whereby Spain gave Britain the exclusive right
removed the Whigs. Harley himself became Chancellor of to carry black slaves to the Spanish Indies and permission
 War and Society 263

to send one English ship of 500 tons each year to trade at lot with the Jacobites. Winning the Queen’s favor, he was
the annual fairs in the Caribbean. able to engineer Oxford’s dismissal and plan the ­admission
Britain had not yet won Canada or gained India, but it of ­Jacobites to the Cabinet. But he had only two full days
was firmly set on the path of imperial greatness. The Treaty in power before the Queen died on August 1, 1714. Had
of Utrecht made that plain, but so did the demographic she lived another six months, Bolingbroke might have
facts. In 1688 there were only 200,000 British settlers in sought to bring in the pretender, but he also might have
North America; by 1713 there were 350,000. shrunk from so hopeless an enterprise. It is almost cer-
tain that he could not have found a majority to repeal the
Act of ­Settlement, and rebellion brought with it too many
The Hanoverian Succession risks. The one certain fact is that Bolingbroke in these last
The succession question dominated the last years of months shattered the unity of the Tory party, thereby as-
Queen Anne’s reign, but intermingled with it was the suring that when the Whigs came to power under George I
question of the unity of the Tory party. Robert Harley, they would face a divided and discredited opposition. The
who became the Earl of Oxford in 1711, sought to govern Whig ascendancy of the eighteenth century was prepared
above party, as Godolphin and Marlborough had tried in the last months of the Queen’s reign.
to do in the early years of Anne’s reign. But once again
the managers came up against the insatiable demands Notes
of party. The Tories wanted every Whig thrown out of
office and replaced with a Tory. These Tories found a 1. Addison and Steele, The Tatler: With Notes and
leader in the brilliant and mercurial Henry St. John, a General Index; Complete in One Volume. 1837.
Viscount Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke believed that a gov- London.
ernment could no more be carried on with mixed hands
than a coach could be driven with unequal wheels. He
vowed to drive every Whig from office, even the most Further Reading
minor. The Earl of Oxford, who as Lord Treasurer and David Chandler. Marlborough as Military Commander.
the Queen’s favorite controlled patronage, protested New York, 1973. Not as limited as the title suggests;
and delayed, finally yielded. Gradually Tories replaced rather, a ­well-written biography by a leading authority on
eighteenth-­century warfare.
Whigs in the government, but not fast enough for
Bolingbroke, who now sought to curry the Queen’s favor P. G. M. Dickson. The Financial Revolution in England:
A Study in the Development of Public Credit 1688–1756.
behind Oxford’s back.
­London, 1967. A scholarly, technical, yet important study of
Allied with Bolingbroke were the High Churchmen, the origins of the national debt, the money market, and the
who wished to suppress the Dissenters totally. In 1711 they Stock Exchange.
secured an act against the practice of occasional confor- Richard Gough. The History of Myddle. Penguin Books,
mity and in 1714 a Schism Act that would close down all 1981. The history of a seventeenth-century parish, writ-
Dissenting academies and schools. The hatred of the High ten in 1701 by Richard Gough, a resident of the parish;
Churchman for the Dissenter remained unabated to the filled with vivid insights into the lives of ordinary English
bitter end. countryfolk.
But the time was running out for the Tories. The Queen’s Geoffrey Holmes. British Politics in the Age of Anne. London,
health declined and the prospect of the succession of the 1967. A penetrating and vivid picture of the politics of the
House of Hanover plunged the Tories into gloom, for they age, not only in Parliament, but in the counties, coffee-
had offended Hanover. The Tories had on their right wing houses, theaters, and the press.
the Jacobites, so called because they supported the claims Judith Hook. The Baroque Age in England. London, 1976. Dis-
to the crown of James II and his son, James III, whose cusses art and architecture during the whole seventeenth
names in Latin would be Jacobus. Jacobitism was largely century, though the baroque, narrowly defined, flourished
a sentimental movement, but the Jacobites were noisy and only after 1690.
powerful enough in the Tory party, particularly among Henry Horwitz. Parliament, Policy, and Politics in the Reign
the Scottish members, to frighten Hanover. The Earl of of William III. Manchester, England, 1977. Narrowly politi-
Oxford, now descending into indolence and drink, prob- cal; focuses on how the King’s business was transacted in
ably remained loyal to Hanover, but Bolingbroke in the ­Parliament; not easy reading but incorporates in its narra-
tive the most recent scholarly work on the reign.
last few months of the Queen’s reign appeared to cast his
264 A History of England

Ralph A. Houlbrooke. The English Family 1450–1700. New Craig Rose. England in the 1690s: Revolution, Religion and
York, 1984. A useful survey and critical analysis of current War. Oxford, 1999. Employs ballads, correspondence, dia-
work on the early-modern English family; rejects the nega- ries, pamphlets, sermons, plays, and poetry to understand
tive view of parent–child relations advanced by Lawrence the 1690s as a time shaped by the debates, controversies,
Stone in The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500– and struggles of earlier decades; complements but does not
1800 (Penguin Books, abridged ed., 1990). supersede Horwitz.
Eric Kerridge. The Agricultural Revolution. London, 1967. A George Macaulay Trevelyan. England Under Queen Anne. 3
study of alternate husbandry, fen drainage, the use of fertil- vols. London, 1930, 1932, 1934. An epic survey of the reign,
izers, water meadows, and new crops such as turnips and written with charm, acuity, and authority by a distinguished
clover; its thesis that these amounted to an agricultural rev- English historian.
olution is controversial.
 Appendix

Dynasties of England 802–1714

The Kings of Wessex

Name Years of reign

Egbert 802–839
Ethelwulf 839–855
Ethelbald 855–860
Ethelbert 860–865
Ethelred 865–871
Alfred 871–899
Edward the Elder 899–924
Athelstan 924–939

265
266 Appendix

The Rulers of England Until 1714

Name Dynasty Years of reign

Athelstan Saxon 924–939
Edmund I Saxon 939–946
Eadred Saxon 946–955
Edwig Saxon 955–959
Edgar Saxon 959–975
Edward the Martyr Saxon 975–978
Ethelred II the Unraed Saxon 978–1016
Edmund II Ironside Saxon 1016
Cnut Danish 1016–1035
Harold I Harefoot Danish 1035–1040
Harthacnut Danish 1040–1042
Edward the Confessor Saxon 1042–1066
Harold II Saxon 1066
William I Norman 1066–1087
William II Norman 1087–1100
Henry I Norman 1100–1135
Stephen Blois 1135–1154
Henry II Angevin (or Plantagenet) 1154–1189
Richard I Angevin 1189–1199
John Angevin 1199–1216
Henry III Angevin 1216–1272
Edward I Angevin 1272–1307
Edward II Angevin 1307–1327
Edward III Angevin 1327–1377
Richard II Angevin 1377–1399
Henry IV Lancaster 1399–1413
Henry V Lancaster 1413–1422
Henry VI* Lancaster 1422–1461
Edward IV York 1461–1483
Edward V York 1483
Richard III York 1483–1485
Henry VII Tudor 1485–1509
Henry VIII Tudor 1509–1547
Edward VI Tudor 1547–1553
Mary Tudor 1533–1558
Henry VI was restored to the throne for a short period from October 5, 1470, to April 11, 1471.
*

Cont.
 Appendix 267

The Rulers of England Until 1714—Cont.

Name Dynasty Years of reign

Elizabeth I Tudor 1558–1603
James I Stuart 1603–1625
Charles I Stuart 1625–1649
(Commonwealth from 1649 to 1660:
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector,   1653–1658
Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector,   1658–1659)
Charles II Stuart 1660–1685
James II Stuart 1685–1688
William III Orange 1689–1702
  (with Mary II, Stuart, until 1694)
Anne Stuart 1702–1714
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 Index

A suitability, 1, 3 Apprentices, Statute of (1563), 173–174

Abelard, Peter, 59, 84 three-field rotation, 54–55 Apprenticeship, women, 77–78
Acts 12th and 13th centuries, 54–56 Aquinas, Thomas, St., 84, 123
of Attainder (1459), 118 up-and-down husbandry, 254 Aquitaine, 64, 68
of Attainder (1534), 147 water mills, 55, 76–77 Edward III’s claim, 96, 97
for Burning Heretics (1414), 158 windmills, 55 gained by Henry II, 64
Chantry, 158 Aidan, 25–26 Arabic numerals, 59
Conventicle (1664), 237 Alaric, 20 Arches, pointed, 81
Corporation (1661), 237 Albinus, Clodius, 20 Architecture
Five Mile (1665), 237 Alcuin, 35 cathedrals, 79–83, 106
Militia, 237 Aldhelm, 35 under Charles I, 198–199
Monopolies (1624), 196, 202 Alençon, Duke of, 177 church building, 130
Navigation (1651), 219 Alfred the Great, 28–30, 36 country houses, 127, 130, 138, 182
Navigation (1660), 235 Algebra (Al-Kwarizmi), 59 effects of Black Death, 101–102
Property Qualification (1711), 252 Al-Kwarizmi, 59 15th century parish churches, 122
in Restraint of Annates (1534), 146 Almagest (Ptolemy), 59 Inigo Jones, 199
in Restraint of Appeals (1533), 146, 149 Alva, Duke of, 177 London after Great Fire, 256–257
of Revocation (1325), 210 Anatomy of Melancholy (Burton), 199 medieval castles, 72–73
Schism (1714), 263 Ancaster, 23 Norman castles, 44
of Security (1703), 261 Angevin empire, 64–65 peasant’s houses, 34, 76
Settlement (1662), 256 maps, 64 Perpendicular style, 82, 106, 122, 182
of the Six Articles (1539), 154, 158 Angles (tribe), 23 pointed arches, 81
Staple (1663), 235 Anglesey, 14 Restoration domestic, 233–234
of Succession (1534), 147 Anglican Church. See Church of England Roman towns, 18
of Supremacy (1534), 146, 151 (English Church) Wren, Christopher, 227, 231–233
of Supremacy (1559), 169 Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, 29 Aristotle, 59, 84, 108, 136, 228
of Supremacy for Irish Church, 151 Anglo-Saxons Arlington, Earl of, 238
Test (1673), 238, 240, 242 agriculture, 33–35 Armada, Spanish, 177–178
Toleration (1689), 242–243 Alfred the Great, 28–30 Arminians, 202, 203
Treason (1534), 158 art, 36 Arminius, Jacobus, 202
of Uniformity (1549), 158 conquest of Britain, 22–25 Army
of Uniformity (1552), 162–163 conversion to Christianity, 25–26 Commonwealth, 221, 224
of Uniformity (1559), 169, 172 creation of monarchy, 27–30 modern standing, 227
of Uniformity (1662), 237 currency, 27, 30 New Model Army, 215, 219
Union (1707), 260–261 English language, 22, 27 Arran, Earl of, 152
Addison, Joseph, 257, 258 government, 30–32 Arranged marriages, 258
Adelard of Bath, 59 invasions, 20–21 Arras peace conference (1435), 116
Adolphus, Gustavus, 250 map, 24 Art
Aelfgifu, 44 monasteries, 35–37 Anglo-Saxon, 36
Aelle, 23, 25 slavery, 32, 33 cave paintings, 4
Agincourt, Battle of (1415), 112, 114–115 society, 32–33 Celtic, 10–11
Agricola, Julius, 16 Anglo-Spanish Treaty (1604), 203 under Charles I, 198
Agriculture Annates, 104, 144, 146 illuminated manuscripts, 36, 106–107
Anglo-Saxon, 33–35 Anne, Queen of England, 249 Roman Britain, 21
Celtic farms, 19 Augustan Age, 256–257 See also Architecture; Music
changes in manor farming, 100–101 makeup of Commons, 252–253 Arthur, King, 24, 73
Deverel-Rimbury culture, 9 Scotland, 260–261 Arthur, son of Henry VII, 133, 134
early, 1, 3, 4–5 succession, 263 Arthur of Brittany, 68
enclosures, 128–130, 159–160 Anne of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII, 134 Arundel, Earl of, 109
engrossment of farms, 128 Anne of Cleves, 154 Aske, Robert, 147–148
15th century depression, 121 Anne of Denmark, queen of James I, 195 Assarting, 55
medieval, 73–76 Anselm, 47 Assizes, 61
plows, 33–34 Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, 84 Atheling, Edgar, 40, 41
reclaimed land, 55–56 Anticlericalism, 93, 104–105, 106, Athelney, 28
during reign of Elizabeth, 174, 179 144–146, 203 Athelstan, King of Wessex, 30
Restoration, 235–236 Antonine’s Wall, 17 Atrebates, kingdom of Verica, 14

269
270 Index

Attainder, Act of (1534), 147 Beaufort, Cardinal, 116, 117 Burbage, James, 187
Attainder, Acts of (1459), 118 Beaufort, Edmund, Duke of Somerset, 118 Burghley, Lord, 127
Augustan Age, 256–257 Beaufort, Margaret, 125 Burgundy, Duke of, 114, 116, 119, 122
Augustine, St. (Augustine of Canterbury), Becket, Thomas, St., 59, 62–63 Burhs, 28
25, 26, 35 Bede, 22–23, 29, 35, 36, 59 Burial practices
Augustine, St. (Augustine of Hippo), 21, Bedford, Duke of, 116, 117 Beaker Folk, 6–7
29, 136 Bedford, Earl of, 211 Celts, 10
Augustus (Emperor), 13 Behn, Aphra, 232, 258 Food Vessel culture, 9
Augustus, Philip, King of France, 65, 67, 68 Beowulf (poem), 23–24 Neolithic, 5–6
Aumale, Countess of, 45 Bernard of Chartres, 59 Urn culture, 9
Austin canons, 49 Berwick, Treaty of (1639), 210 Wessex graves, 7
Bible, King James Version, 200 Burke, Edmund, 242
B Bible translations, 36, 105, 136–137, 155 Burning Heretics, Act for (1414), 158
Babington plot, 177 Bill of Rights, 242–243 Burning of Heretics, Statute (1401), 105
Bacon, Francis, 196, 197, 199, 228, 229, 256 Biscop, Benedict, 35 Burton, John, 209
Bacon, Roger, 83, 107, 108 Bishops, medieval, 79 Burton, Robert, 199
Ball, John, 103, 106 Bishops’ Book (The Institutions of a Butchers, 131
Ballads, 123 Christian Man), 154 Byrd, William, 189
Balliol, John, 89–90 Black Death, 100, 101–102, 126
Baltimore, Lord, 206 Black Prince. See Edward (the Black C
Bancroft, Archbishop, 196, 206 Prince) Cabot, John, 132
Bank of England, 247 Blake, Robert, 219 Cabot, Sebastian, 132
Banks Blenheim, Battle of, 250–252 Cade, Jack, 117
Bank of England, 247 Bloody Assize, 239 Caedman, 36
private, 247 Boethius, 29 Caesar, Julius, 10, 13, 14
Bannockburn, Battle of, 94 Boleyn, Anne, 143, 144, 147, 150, 154 Calais, loss, 166
Barates, 14 Boleyn, Thomas, 143 Calvinist influence on English Church,
Barnet, Battle of (1471), 120 Bolingbroke, Henry. See Henry IV 163, 169
Barons Bolingbroke, Viscount, 263 Cambridge University, 60, 83, 136, 172
under Edward II, 93–95 Boniface, 35 Campion, Edmund, 172
feudal anarchy, 52 Boniface VIII, Pope, 91 Canada, 263
under Henry III, 84–86 Bonner, Edmund, 165 Canmore, Malcolm (Malcolm III), King of
under King John, 69 Bookland, 32 Scotland, 66
under Richard II, 108–109 Book of Common Prayer, 158, 162–163, 169, Canon law, 59, 60, 62, 137, 144, 146
13th century, 71–73 195, 237 Canterbury Tales, The (Chaucer), 105
Barton, Elizabeth, 147 Book of Martyrs (Foxe), 166, 255 Caratacus, leader of the Silures, 14
Basilicas, 79 Boroughbridge, Battle of, 94 Carols, 123
Basset, Roger, 50 Bosworth Field, Battle of (1485), 125 Carr, Robert, 196
Bastwick, John, 209 Bothwell, Earl of, 171 Cartimandua, queen of Brigantes, 14
Bath, 18 Boudicca, 14–15, 16 Cartwright, Thomas, 173
Battle Bouvines, Battle of, 68–69 Carucage, 67
of Agincourt (1415), 112, 114–115 Boyle, Robert, 229, 231 Cassivelaunus, 13
of Bannockburn, 94 Boyne, Battle of, 246 Castles
of Barnet (1471), 120 Bracton, Henry de, 86, 95 medieval, 72–73
of Blenheim, 250–252 Bradwardwine, Archbishop, 103 Norman, 44
of Boroughbridge, 94 Brétigny, Treaty of (1360), 97 Câteau-Cambrésis, Treaty of (1559),
of Boyne, 246 Brigantes, 14, 16–17 169, 171
of Crécy, 96 Britain, physical description, 1–3 Cathedrals
of Evesham, 85 British Broadcasting Corporation, 8 Decorated style, 82
of Exeter, 117–118 Brittany, 64, 68, 97, 114, 134 flying buttresses, 81
of Flodden, 152, 171 Bronze Age Gothic style, 81–83
of Hastings, 42 early, 6–7 Perpendicular style, 82, 106
of Mount Badon (c.500), 23 late, 9 Romanesque churches, 79–80
of Pinkie, 158, 171 Brooke, Lord, 206–207 vaulting, 80–82
of Poitiers, 96, 97 Browne, Robert, 173 Cathedral schools, 58
of Solway Moss, 152 Bruce, Robert, 90 Catherine, queen of Henry V, 114, 115
of St. Albans (1455), 118 Bubonic plague, 100–102, 126 Catherine, queen of Henry VIII, 134,
of St. Albans, Second Battle of (1461), 118 See also Black Death; Great Plague; Plague 143–144, 147
of Stirling Bridge (1297), 90 Bucer, Martin, 158, 162 Catholicism
of Stoke, 133 Buckingham, Duke of (reign of Charles II), Irish, 211, 219, 220
of Tewkesbury (1471), 120 238 reign of Charles I, 203
of Towton Moor (1461), 118 Buckingham, Duke of (Villiers, George), reign of Charles II, 238
of Wakefield (1460), 118 197–198, 200–201, 202 reign of Elizabeth I, 169–172
Battle of Brunanburgh, The (poem), 32 Buckland, William, 3 reign of James I, 195
Beaker Folk, 6–7, 9 Building industries, 130 reign of Mary I (Mary Tudor),
Beaton, Cardinal, 152 Bunyan, John, 237 164–166
 Index 271

Cavendish, William, 149 Church of England (See Church of Ulster, 205–206

Cave paintings, 4 England) Virginia, 206
Caxton, William, 124, 136, 138 early, 21 Columba, St., 25
Cecil, Robert (Earl of Salisbury), Great Schism, 104 Commentaries (Caesar), 13
191, 195 Henry II and Church relations, 62–64 Committee of Public Safety, 212
Cecil, William (Lord Burghley), 168, 171, 172, Lollardy, 103–105, 154 Common Law, 59, 60–62, 86, 90, 109, 135,
174, 179, 183 Lutherans, 153–155 196, 201–202, 203, 209, 211
Celtic and Roman Christianity, 25–26 medieval clergy, 78–79 Commons, village, 73, 74, 78, 159
Celts, 9–11, 18, 19, 21, 25–26 monasteries (See Monasteries) Commonwealth
Ceorl, 32 Norman Church, 46–49 abolished House of Lords, 217
Cerdic, 27 Protestantism (See Protestantism) colonies, 221
Chad, Bishop of Mercia, 26 Puritans (See Puritans) financial problems, 224–225
Chamberlain, Roger, 116 See also Religion foreign trade, 219
Chancellor, defined, 49 Chronology (Bede), 59 Grandees and Levellers, 217–218
Chancellor, Richard, 161 Church. See Catholicism; Christianity; Instrument of Government, 223, 224
Chantries, 122, 158 Church of England (English Church); Ireland, 219–220
Chantry Act (1547), 158 Protestantism navy, 219
Charlemagne, 34, 35 Churchill, John. See Marlborough, Earl of property, 218–219
Charles I Church of England (English Church) rule of army, 221, 224
colonies, 205–207 Book of Common Prayer, 158, 162–163, 169 Commonwealth movement, 149
customs duties, 200, 202 Calvinist influence, 163, 169 Commonwealth Party, 160
death, 217 Charles II, 237 Compton, Henry, Bishop of London,
economic depression, 203–205 Edward VI, 158, 162–163 240, 241
increased trade, 205 Elizabeth I, 168–169 Compurgation, 61
Ireland, 211–212 Forty-two Articles, 163 Confirmation of the Charters (1297),
Parliament, 200–202 Henry VIII, 153–156 91, 99
Petition of Right, 201 Lutheran influence, 163 Consolation of Philosophy, The
prerogative government, 196, 202–203 reform, 153 (Boethius), 29
as Prince Charles, 197, 198 Ten Articles (1536), 154 Constantine, 21
Scotland, 210–211 Thirty-nine Articles, 169 Constantine III, 20
support of arts, 198–200 See also Christianity; Religion Constitutions of Clarendon, 62, 63
war with France, 200–201 Cimmerians, 9 Conventicle Act (1664), 237
Charles II Cistercians, 49, 104 Conway, Treaty of (1277), 87
attributes, 232 Civil law, 59–60 Cooper, Ashley. See Shaftesbury, Earl of
Declaration of Breda, 225 Claim of Right, 261 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 230
Dutch wars, 237–238 Clarendon, Earl of, 237 Copyhold (land tenure), 100, 101
failure of settlement, 237–239 Claudius (Emperor), 13–14 Copyholders, 100, 101, 184
growth of French power, 238–239 Clement VI, Pope, 102 Coram rege, 62
Parliament and finances, 236–237 Clement VII, Pope, 142–144 Coronation oaths, 51, 94, 95
recalled by Parliament, 225 Clergy, medieval, 78–79 Corporation Act (1661), 237
settlement, 236–237 Clericis Laicos, 91 Corpus Juris Civilis, 59
Charles II, King of Spain, 248 Clifford, Thomas, 237–238 Council
Charles of Austria, Archduke, 177 Climate, 1, 3–4 under Edward IV, 120
Charles of Navarre, 97 Cloth manufacturing, 76–77, 121–122, 130, under Henry VI, 115–117
Charles V, King of France, 97 160–161, 173–174, 203–204 under Henry VII, 135
Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman See also Wool trade Council of Arles, 21
Emperor, 142, 143, 152, 154 Cluniac monasteries, 48 Council of Nine, 85
Charles VI, King of France, 114 Cnut, 37–38 Counter-Reformation, 166, 172, 177, 231
Charles VII, King of France, 116 Coal, 3, 57, 131, 174, 204, 234 Countess of Leicester, 72
Charles VIII, King of France, 134 Cockayne, William, 203–204 Country houses, 127, 130, 138, 182
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 104, 105–106, 123 Coffeehouses, 256–257 Countryside in Roman times, 19–20
Chaundler, Thomas, 136 Cogidubnus, 14 Court favorites of James I, 196–198
Cheke, John, 156 Coke, Edward, 196, 197, 200, 201–202 Court of Augmentations, 149
Chevage, 101 Colchester, 14, 18 Court of Chancery, 222, 223
Chichester, Bishop of, 117 Coldstream Guard, 227 Courts. See Law and courts
Child, Josiah, 253, 256 Colet, John, 136–137 Covenanters, 261
Childe, Gordon, 6 Coloniae, 18 Coverdale, Miles, 155
Childhood, 260 Colonies Cowper, William, 252
Child labor, 256 Charles I, 205–207 Coxe, Richard, 156
Chillenden, Edmund, 224 during Commonwealth, 221 Craft guilds, 76
Chivalry, 73 Connecticut, 206 Cranfield, Lionel, 197, 204–205
Christianity early, 175, 177 Cranmer, Thomas, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158–159,
Anglo-Saxons, 25–26 map 17th century colonies, 222 162, 163, 165
cathedrals, 79–83 Newfoundland, 205 Crécy, Battle of, 96
Catholicism (See Catholicism) Plymouth Colony, 206 Crew, Chief Justice, 201
Celtic and Roman, 25–26 Rhode Island, 206 Cro-Magnons, 4
272 Index

Cromwell, Oliver Dissenters, 239, 240, 242, 252, 257, Edward (the Black Prince), 96, 97, 100, 108
battle tactics, 250 262, 263 Edward (the Confessor), 38, 39–40
Civil War, 213, 215, 216 Dissolution of monasteries, 148–149 Edward, King of Wessex, 30
early life, 221 Domesday Book, 45–46 Edward, Prince, son of Henry VI, 119
Independent, 216 Dominican friars, 79, 83, 84 Edward I
Ireland, 219–220 Donne, John, 199 conquest of Wales, 87–88
Protectorate, 223–224 Dover, Treaty of (1670), 238 Gascony, 88
quarrel with Rump, 222 Drake, Francis, 175, 177, 178 Parliament, 97–98
Scotland, 220–221 Drama as Prince Edward, 85–86
Cromwell, Richard, 225 Elizabethan, 187–189 Scotland, 89–90
Cromwell, Thomas, 139, 146–150, 154–155 Jonson, Ben, 199 statute law, 86–87
Crusades and Richard I, 66, 67–68 literature, 187–190 taxation, 90–91
Cunobelin, 14 Marlowe, Christopher, 186, 188 Edward II
Curia Regis (King’s Court), 49–50, 51, masques, 199 dealings with barons, 93–95
62, 90 miracle and morality plays, 106, 123 murder, 95
Currency modern theaters, 227 Parliament, 97–99
Anglo-Saxon, 27, 30 Puritans closed theaters, 199 Scotland, 94–95
Celtic, 9–10 Queen Anne’s reign, 257 Edward III
coinage reform in Elizabeth’s reign, 173 Restoration, 232 dealings with papacy, 105
collapse after Rome, 34 Shakespeare, William, 10, 112, 114, 117, 125, descendants, 110
debasement of coinage, 152, 160 168, 181, 186, 188–189 Hundred Years’ War, 95–97
Normans, 49 theaters and theater companies, 187–188 Parliament, 97–100
pre-Roman, 14 Tudor interlude, 188 Scotland, 95–96
Cuthbert, St., 35 Druids, 10, 16 Edward IV
Cyneruth, 44 Dryden, John, 227, 232 death, 124
Cynric, 27 Dudley, Edmund, 140, 161 finances, 120
Dudley, John institutions of power, 120
D Duke of Northumberland, 160, 161–163 strong claim to throne, 119–120
Danby, Earl of, 238, 239, 241 Earl of Warwick, 160 taxation, 120
Danegeld, 30, 37 Dudley, Robert (Earl of Leicester), 179, Edward VI, 157–158, 161, 162–163
Danelaw, 27, 31–32 182, 187 Edwin of Northumbria, 25, 27
Danes, 27–28, 30 Du Guesclin, Bertrand, 97 Egbert, King of Wessex, 27
Darby, Abraham, 253 Duns Scotus, John, 84, 123, 137, 138 Eleanor of Aquitaine, 64
David I, King of Scotland, 66 Dutch wars, 219, 237–238 Elementary schools, 123–124
David of Wales, 87 Elements (Euclid), 59
Davys, John, 175 E Elfric, Abbot, 36
Declaration of Indulgence (1672), 238 Ealdorman, 30, 32 Eliot, John, 209
Declaration of Indulgence (1687, 1688), 240 Earldoms, 40–41 Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII, 133
Declaration of Rights, 242–243 Earl of Leicester (Dudley, Robert), 179, Elizabethan voyages of discovery, 175–178
Decorated style of architecture, 82 182, 187 Elizabeth I, 144
De Courcy, John, 66 Early inhabitants, 3–4 Catholic threat, 171–172
Decretum (Gratian), 84 East India Company, 175, 205, 235 death, 191
Defoe, Daniel, 256, 257, 258 Eastland Company, 175 economic recovery, 173–174
De la Mare, Peter, 100 Ecclesiastical Commission, 240 English Church, 168–169
De Laov, Hugh, 66 Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation government, 178–181
De la Pole, Michael, 108 (Bede), 29, 35 Ireland, 190–191
De la Pole, William, Duke of Suffolk, 117 Economic crisis of 1551, 160–161 navy, 177–178
De Legibus et Consuetudines Regni Angliae Edgar the Peaceable, 30, 36 Parliament, 180–181
(Glanvill), 62 Edinburgh, Treaty of (1560), 171 Puritan threat, 173
Demesne, 34 Edington, Battle of, 28 rise of gentry, 181–183
See also Manors Edith, queen of Henry I, 51 Scotland, 169–171
Demesne farming, 56 Edmund, Duke of York, 109 Spanish Armada, 177–178
De Montfort, Simon, 72, 85 Edmund, King of Wessex, 30 war with Spain, 177–178, 190–191
Desborough, General, 223–224 Edmund, son of Henry III, 85 Elizabeth II, 27
Descartes, Réne, 229 Edmund Ironside, 37 Ellendun, Battle of (825), 27
Desmond, Earl of, 190 Education Elton, G. R., 149
Despenser, Hugh, 94–95 Alfred the Great, 29 Emma of Normandy, 38
De Temporum Ratione (Bede), 35 cathedral schools, 58 Empedocles, 228
De Vere, Robert, 108 14th and 15th century schools, 123–124 Emperors, Roman
Deverel-Rimbury culture, 9 grammar school, 123–124, 136 Augustus, 13
Devereux, Robert (Earl of Essex), 191 humanism, 136–137 Claudius, 13–14
Devonshire, Earl of, 241 liberal arts, 58–59 Constantine, 21
Dialogues (Gregory I), 29 literacy, 18, 123–124 Hadrian, 16
Diggers, 217 monasteries, 35–37 Justinian, 59
Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying universities (See Universities) Severus, 17, 20
(Taylor), 216 for women, 183 Empson, Richard, 140
 Index 273

Enclosures, 128–130, 159–160 F Frederick, Elector of Palatinate, 197

map, 129 Fairfax, Thomas, 215, 216, 217 Friars, 79, 83, 84
Encyclopedia (Isidore of Seville), 59 Fairfax, William, 182 Frisians, 23
English Church. See Church of England Fawkes, Guy, 195 Frobisher, Martin, 175
English Common Law. See Common Law Felton, John, 201 Fuller, Thomas, 184
English language Femme sole, 78 Fundamental law, 201
ballads and carols, 123 Ferdinand, King of Spain, 140 Fyrd, 28, 49
early literature, 36 Feudalism
Elizabethan age, 189 brought to England, 43–45 G
increased use, 105–106 decay, 117–118 Galen, 136, 228
influences, 22, 27 effect of longbow, 93 Galileo, 229, 230
translations of Bible, 36, 105, 136–137 end of knight service, 218, 227 Gardiner, Stephen, 154, 164, 165
See also Drama; Poetry and poets statutes of Edward I, 86 Gascony, 68, 88, 90, 91, 97, 109, 116,
English Revolution 13th century, 71–73 120, 121
causes, 208–210 Fiefs, 43, 45 Gaveston, Piers, 94
Common Law, 209, 211 Field of the Cloth of Gold, 142 Gebur, 32, 33
death of Charles I, 217 Fifth Monarchists, 223, 236 Geneat, 32
map of Civil War, 214 Filmer, Robert, 231 Gentry, 181–183, 255
Puritanism, 209–210 Finch, Chief Justice, 203 Geoffrey of Anjou, 52
reform attempts, 210–212 Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 147 Geoffrey of Mandeville, 52
rise of Independency, 215–217 Fisheries, Newfoundland, 205 George I, 263
Roundheads and Cavaliers, 213–215 Fitch, Ralph, 175 Germanus, St., 21
weakness of Crown, 210 Fitzgerald, Gerald, Earl of Kildare, 151 Gibraltar, 262
Engrossment of farms, 128 Fitzralph, Richard, 104 Gilbert, Humphrey, 177
Erasmus, 136–137, 140 Fitzroy, Henry, Duke of Richmond, 143 Gilbert of Sempringham, 49
Essex, Earl of (Devereux, Robert), 191 Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry Gildas, 22
Étaples (1492), Treaty of, 134, 141 (Tusser), 174 Glanvill, Ranulf, 62, 69
Ethelbert, King of Kent, 25 Five Mile Act (1665), 237 Glebes, 78
Ethelflaed, 30 Flambard, Ranulf, 50, 51 Glendower, Owen, 113
Ethelred (“the unready”), 31, 37 Flodden, Battle of, 152, 171 Glorious Revolution, 241–242
Ethelred, Lord of Mercia, 30 Flowerdew, John, 159 Gloucester, 18
Etherege, George, 232 Flying buttresses, 81 Gloucester, Duke of, 116, 117
Eton School, 124, 136 Foley, Thomas, 253 Gloucester, Statute of (1278), 87
Euclid, 59 Food Vessel culture, 9 Godolphin, Earl of, 252, 262
Eustace, son of Stephen, 52 Forest laws, 51–52, 55, 202, 209, 211 Godwin, Earl, 40–41
Everyman, 123 Form of Apology and Satisfaction, The, 194 Godwinson , Harold (King Harold), 41–42
Evesham, Battle of, 85 Fortescue, John, 120–121 Goodwin, Francis, 194
Exchequer, 50, 52, 62 Forty-two Articles, 163 Gothic cathedrals, 81–83
Exeter, Battle of, 117–118 Fourth Lateran Council, 61 Gothic vault, 81
Experimental method, 228, 231 Fox, Bishop, 137 Governance of England (Fortescue), 120
Exploration and discovery Foxe, John, 166, 255 Grammar schools, 123–124, 136
Davys, John, 175 France Grandees, 217
Drake, Francis, 175, 177, 178 Angevin empire, 64–65 Grand Remonstrance, 212
early colonies, 175, 177 Aquitaine, 64, 68, 96, 97 Gratian, 84
East India Company, 175, 205, 235 Battle of Agincourt (1415), 112, 114–115 Graunt, John, 231
Elizabethan voyages of discovery, 175–178 Battle of Crécy, 96 Gravitation, 230
Fitch, Ralph, 175 Brittany, 64, 68, 97, 114, 134 Great Council, 85, 90, 91
Frobisher, Martin, 175 Charles II, 238–239 Great Fire of 1666, 227, 233, 256
Gilbert, Humphrey, 177 Edward III, 95–97 Great Ice Age, 3–4
Grenville, Richard, 177 Gascony, 68, 88, 90, 91, 97, 109, 116, Great Plague of 1665, 233
Hawkins, John, 175, 177 120, 121 Great Schism, 104
Jackman, Charles, 175 Henry VII, 134 Gregorian chant, 37
Jenkinson, Anthony, 175 Henry VIII, 140–141, 142, 149, 152 Gregory I, Pope, 25, 29
John Cabot and Newfoundland, 132 Hundred Years’ War, 95–97 Gregory VII, Pope, 46, 47, 62
Levant Company, 175, 205 King John, 67–68 Grenville, Richard, 177
map of Tudor voyages, 176 loss of English possessions, 68, 97 Gresham, Thomas, 160, 230
Muscovy Company, 161, 175 maps, 64, 98, 115 Grey, Lady Jane, 163, 164
northeast passage, 161, 175 Normandy, 39, 50, 52, 64, 65, 68, 114, Grindal, Archbishop, 173
northwest passage, 132, 175 116, 117 Grocyn, William, 136, 138
Pett, Arthur, 175 Franciscans, 79, 83, 84, 104 Grosseteste, Robert, 83, 107–108, 228
Raleigh, Walter, 177 Francis I, King of France, 141–142, Guise, Mary, 169, 171
Sebastian Cabot and Hudson’s Bay, 132 152, 154 Gunpowder Plot, 195
Turkey Company, 175 Francis II, King of France, husband of Guthrum, King of Danes, 28
White, John, 177 Mary Stuart, 171 Guzman, Dominic, 79
Willoughby and Chancellor voyage, 161 Francis of Assisi, St., 79 Gypsies, 184–185
Eyre, 50 Frankpledge, 60 Gyrth, 41
274 Index

H pretenders to throne, 134 Hunne, Richard, 145

Hadrian (Emperor), 16 relations with France, 134 Hunting
Hadrian’s Wall, 16–17 revenues, 135 Anglo-Saxon, 32
Hakluyt, Richard, 161, 189 taxes, 135 forest laws, 52, 55, 202, 209, 211
Hales, Edward, 240 transition from medieval England, Henry II, 60
Hales, John, 160 137–138 Henry VIII, 140, 141
Halley, Edmund, 230 voyages of exploration, 132 Mesolithic, 4
Hampden, John, 203 Henry VIII Normans, 52
Hanseatic League, 122, 131, 160–161, 175 attributes, 139–140 thirteenth century, 71, 73
Hanse of London, 57 battles in France, 140–141, 142, 149, 152 Hunting dogs, 10, 20
Hardrada, Harold, King of Norway, 41–42 break with Rome, 144–146 Husbandmen, 184
Harley, Robert. See Oxford, Earl of dissolution of monasteries, 148–149 Husbandry (Walter of Henley), 56
Harold, son of Cnut, 38 divorce from Catherine, 142–144 Hyde, Edward. See Clarendon, Earl of
Harrington, James, 210, 219 excommunication, 154
Harrison, General, 221–222, 221–223, 225 Field of the Cloth of Gold, 142 I
Harthacnut, 38, 41 Ireland, 151 Iceni, 14, 16
Harvey, William, 229, 230, 231 music, 139 Illuminated manuscripts, 36, 106–107
Hastings navy, 150 Impositions, 195–196, 200, 202
Battle of Hastings, 42 Parliament, 144–146 Indenture system of raising armies, 97
map of battle, 42 Protestantism, 153–156 Independents, 215–217, 220, 221–222, 225
Hastings, Battle of, 42 resistance and rebellion, 147–148 India, 205, 263
Hawking, 73 Scotland, 151–153 Industries
Hawkins, Gerald S., 8 Tudor revolution in government, 149–151 building, 130
Hawkins, John, 175, 177 Wales, 151 cloth, 130 (See also Wool)
Head tax, 102 Herbert, Arthur, 241 leather, 131
Hearth tax, 237, 239 Heregeld, 38 metal, 130–131
Hengest, 22 Heriot, 74 mining (See Mining)
Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I, Herleve, 39 shipbuilding, 131
199, 200 Hertford, Earl of, 152 Inertia, 230
Henry I, 47, 50, 52 Hertford, Synod of, 26 Injunctions of 1536 and 1538, 154
Henry II Heytesbury, William, 108 Innocent III, Pope, 68
Angevin empire, 64–65 Hilda, St., 35 Inns of Court, 124, 137, 187, 209
attributes, 60 Hilliard, Nicholas, 182 Institutions of a Christian Man, The
Church relations, 62–64 History Against the Pagans (Orosius), 29 (Bishops’ Book), 154
Common Law, 60–62 History of the World (Raleigh), 199 Instrument of Government, 223, 224
as Henry of Anjou, 52 Hobbes, Thomas, 4, 217–218, 242 Iona, 25, 26
Ireland, 65–66 Holles, William, 182 Ireland
rebellion of sons, 64–65 Holmes, George, 121 Battle of the Boyne, 246
Scotland, 66 Holy League, 140 Catholicism, 211, 219, 220
Wales, 65–66 Hooker, Richard, 189 Charles I, 211–212
Henry III, 84–86 Hordeum spontaneum, 4 Cromwell, Oliver, 219–220
Henry IV Horsa, 22 Elizabeth I, 190–191
dealings with Commons, 113 Housecarls, 38 Henry II, 65–66
(Henry Bolingbroke) exiled by Richard House of Commons, 97, 99, 100, 113 Henry VIII, 151
II, 109 changes during Elizabeth’s reign, 180 James II, 240
invasion and claim of Crown, 109, 111 consent to legislation, 116 maps, 66, 220
Wales, 113 control of taxes, 99 Parliament, 239–240
Henry of Anjou. See Henry II James I, 194 penal laws, 246
Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. See makeup during Anne’s reign, 252–253 Richard II, 109
Henry VII power of impeachment, 100 William III, 246
Henry V House of Lords, 97–99, 100 Ireton, General, 216, 217, 218, 220
Battle of Agincourt (1415), 112, 114–115 abolished by Commonwealth, 217 Iron ore, 3
death, 115 restored, 225 Isabella, queen of Edward II, 94, 95
Henry VI Howard, Katherine, 155 Isabel of Angouleme, queen of King
Council, 115–117 Howard family, 196–197 John, 68
death, 119 Humanism, 136–137 Isidore of Seville, 59
founding of Eton, 124 Humble Petition and Advice, 224, 225 Ivan the Terrible, 161
Holy Roman Emperor, 67 Hundreds (shires/subdivisions), 30
Parliament, 115–117 Hundred Years’ War J
restored to throne, 119 Battle of Agincourt (1415), 112, 114–115 Jackman, Charles, 175
Henry VII Battle of Crécy, 96 Jacobites, 263
claim to throne, 125 Henry V, 114–115 James I
consolidation of power, 133–134 Joan of Arc, 116 appearance, 193–194
Council, 135 maps, 98, 115 Catholics, 195
defeat of Richard III, 125 renewal in 15th century, 112 conflict with Commons, 194
justices of the peace, 135–136 Treaty of Brétigny, 97 court favorites, 196–198
 Index 275

finances, 195–196, 197 Anglo-Saxon, 30–32 map of Elizabethan London, 187

as James VI, King of Scotland, 171, Bloody Assize, 239 mayor and self-government, 58, 187
191, 194 canon law, 59, 60, 62, 136, 144, 146 Peasants’ Revolt, 102–103
law, 195–196 civil law, 59–60 population growth, 77
Parliament, 194–195, 197 Common Law, 59, 60–62, 86, 90, 109, 135, Roman, 18
Puritans, 194–195 196, 201, 203, 209, 211 women as apprentices, 78
Spain, 197–198 Court of Augmentations, 149 Longbow, 93, 96, 114
James II Court of Chancery, 222, 223 Long Parliament, 211, 225
attack on universities, 240 Court of High Justice, 216–217 Lords of the Congregation, 171
attempt to reclaim Crown, 246 Curia Regis (King’s Court), 49–50, 51, Louis IX, King of France, 85
escape to France, 242 62, 90 Louis VII, King of France, 65
Parliament, 239–240 frankpledge, 60 Louis XI , King of France, 119, 120, 122, 134
religion, 239–240 fundamental law, 201 Louis XII , King of France, 141
James III, King of Scotland, 134 under Henry VII, 135 Louis XIV, King of France, 241, 243, 245–
James III, son of James II, 249, 263 James I, 195–196 246, 248–249, 253, 256, 262
James IV, King of Scotland, 134, 151–152 juries, 61–62 Lowther, John, 253
James V, King of Scotland, 152 Magna Carta, 68–69 Lucilla, Julia, 14
Jeffreys, Chief Justice, 239 manor courts, 74 Lumley, Lord, 241
Jenkinson, Anthony, 175 Norman, 44–45, 46, 49–50 Lunsford, Colonel, 212
Jennings, Sarah, 249 origins of parliament, 90–92 Luther, Martin, 104
Jews, 78, 223 Roman law, rediscovery, 59–60 Lutheran influence on English Church, 163
Joan of Arc, 116 shire courts, 49 Lutherans, 153–155
John, King Star Chamber, 120, 135, 137, 209, 211, 216, Lyons, Richard, 100
coronation, 69 217, 218
Magna Carta, 68–69 statue law, 86–87 M
John, King of France, 97 writs, 61–62 MacMurrough, Dermot, King of Leinster,
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 100, 104, See also Acts; Parliament; Statutes 65–66
105, 108, 109 Laws and Customs of England (Bracton), 86 Madrigals, 189, 199
John of Salisbury, 59 Lead, 19–20, 57, 130, 131 Maglemosian culture, 4
Joint-stock companies, 175, 253–254 League of Augsburg, 245–246 Magna Carta, 68–69
Jones, Inigo, 199 League of Cognac, 142 Magnus, King of Norway, 41
Jonson, Ben, 199 Leather industries, 131 Malcolm II, King of Scotland, 66
Juries, beginnings, 61–62 Lee, Joseph, 219 Malcolm IV, King of Scotland, 66
Justices of the peace, 135–136 Leland, John, 130 Malden, William, 155
Justinian (Emperor), 59 Levallois culture, 4 Malory, Thomas, 124
Jutes (tribe), 23 Levant Company, 175, 205 Malynes, Gerard, 204
Levellers, 217–219 Manor courts, 74
K Leviathan (Hobbes), 218 Manors
Kepler, Johannes, 230 Libel of English Policy, The, 122 Anglo-Saxon, 34
Ket, Robert, 159–160 Liberal arts, 58–59 14th century, 100–101
Ket’s Rebellion, 159–160 Liberties, individual, 201, 208 Norman, 45–46
King, Gregory, 235, 254–255 Lilburne, John, 217–218, 225 and villages, medieval, 73–76
King James Bible, 200 Limited government, 208 Mansfeld, Count, 200
King of Brefni, 65 Linacre, Thomas, 136, 137, 138 Manwaring, Roger, 202
King’s Merchant Adventurers, 203–204 Lincoln, 18, 23 Maps
King’s peace, 31, 50 Lindisfarne, 25, 27, 35 Angevin empire, 64
Knights, 43–44, 47, 71–73 Lindisfarne Gospels, 36 Anglo-Saxon Britain, 24
See also Feudalism Literacy, 18 Battle of Hastings, 42
Knox, John, 171 Literacy increase, 123–124 Civil War England, 214
Literature in English. See Drama; Poetry and conquest of Wales, 88
L poets Elizabethan London, 187
Laborers, Statute of (1351), 101, 102, 117 Liveried retainers, 117 enclosures, 129
Lancaster, House of, 105, 120 Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, 87 Europe during Henry VIII’s reign, 141
See also Wars of the Roses Locke, John, 208, 242–243, 260 Europe 17th–18th centuries, 251
Land reclamation, 55–56 Lok, John, 161 15th century England, 119
Land tax, 247 Lok and African coast, 161 Hundred Years’ War, 98, 115
Lanfranc, prior of Le Bec, 46–47 Lollards and Lollardy, 105, 123 Ireland, 66, 220
Langland, William, 104, 106 Lombard, Peter, 84, 137 London after Great Fire, 233
Langton, Stephen, 68 London Norman invasion, 41
Lasco, John à, 158 brothels, 78 physical, 2
Latimer, Hugh, 155, 160, 165 commune, 58 Roman Britain, 15
Latimer, Lord, 100 early 16th century wealth, 127–128 Scotland, 89, 153
Laud, William, 198, 203, 206, 209 Elizabethan, 185–187 17th century colonies, 222
Lauderdale, Earl of, 238 15th century prosperity, 122 Tudor voyages of discovery, 176
Lavoisier, Antoine, 229 liberties revoked by Richard II, 109 March, Earl of, 100
Law and courts map after Great Fire, 233 Margaret, queen of James IV, 134
276 Index

Margaret, queen of Malcolm Canmore, 66 Monmouth, Duke of, 239 Northwest passage, 132, 175
Margaret, sister of Henry VIII, 142, 152 Monopolies, 196, 197, 202, 204, 205, 218 Norwich, 23
Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI, 117 Monopolies, Act of (1624), 196, 202 Nova Scotia, 262
Margaret of Burgundy, 133 Montagu, Charles, 247 Novum Organum (Bacon), 228
Market towns, 57, 132 Montagu, Ralph, 239 Noyon, Treaty of (1516), 142
Marlborough, Earl of (John Churchill), 241, Montagu, Richard, 202
249–252 Montgomery, Treaty of (1267), 87 O
Marlowe, Christopher, 186, 188 Moot, 30 Oates, Titus, 239
Marriage, courtship and family, 258–260 More, Thomas, 123, 130, 137, 140, 146, 147, Occasional conformity, 252, 263
Marsilius of Padua, 104 149, 150 Oceana (Harrington), 219
Martel, Charles, 43 Morris, Christopher, 163 O’Donnell, Hugh, 191
Martin, Pope, 105 Morte d’Arthur (Malory), 124 Offa, King of Mercia, 27
Martyr, Peter, 158 Mortimer, Edmund, 113 Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
Mary, sister of Henry VIII, 142 Mortimer, Roger, 94, 95 (Hooker), 189
Mary I (Mary Tudor), 157 Mortmain, Statute of (1279), 86 Olaf, King of Dublin, 30
accession to throne, 163–164 Mount Badon, Battle of (c.500), 23 Olav Tryggvason, 37
attributes, 163 Mountjoy, Lord, 191 Old Draperies, 204
death, 166 Mousterian culture, 4 Old Stone Age (Paleolithic age), 4
loss of Calais, 166 Mun, Thomas, 204 O’Neil, Owen Roe, 219
marriage, 164, 166–167 Mund, 32 O’Neill, Hugh, 190
reunion with Rome, 164–166 Muscovy Company, 161, 175 On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
Wyatt’s rebellion, 164 Music (Harvey), 229
Mary of Lorraine, queen of James V, 152 ballads and carols, 123 Opera, 256–257
Mary of Modena, queen of James II, 241 Byrd, William, 189 Ordeal by water or fire, 31, 61
Masques, 199 Gregorian chant, 37 Orford, Lord, 252
Massachusetts Bay Company, 206 Henry VIII, 139 Ormond, Earl of, 219–220
Mathematics, 59, 107–108 madrigals, 189 Orosius, 29
Matilda, daughter of Henry I, 52, 143 masques, 199 Osborne, Thomas. See Danby, Earl of
Maximilian, Emperor, 140 opera, 256–257 Oswald, King of Northumbria, 25–26
Maximilian of Bavaria, 197 polyphony, 37 Oswy, King of Northumbria, 26, 27
Maximum, Magnus, 20 Purcell, Henry, 257 Owain of Gwynedd, 65
Mayflower, 206 Oxford, Earl of (Robert Harley), 262–263
Medina del Campo (1489), 134 N Oxford University, 59, 83–84, 103, 105,
Merchant Adventurers, 122, 131, 155, 161, 174, Nantes, Edict of, 253 107–108, 136–137, 172, 183, 231
175, 202, 203–204 National debt, 247
Mercia, kingdom, 27 Navigation Act (1651), 219 P
Merciless Parliament, 109 Navigation Act (1660), 235 Pace, Richard, 137
Mesolithic age, 4 Navy, 150, 177–178, 219 Paleolithic age, 4
Metal industries, 130–131, 174 Naylor, James, 224 Paradise Lost (Milton), 232
Metallurgy, 6, 9 Neanderthals, 4 Parker, Henry, 210
Metaphysics (Aristotle), 84 Neolithic people, 4–6 Parliament
Militia Act, 237 Neville family, 116 Barebones, 222, 224
Militia Bill, 212 New Devotion, 154 Cavalier, 237
Millenary Petition, 194 New Draperies, 174, 204 under Charles I, 200–202
Milton, John, 215–216, 218, 225, 232 Newfoundland, 132, 205, 262 under Charles II, 236–237
Mining New Model Army, 215, 219 Convention, 237, 242
Neolithic, 5–6 Newspapers, 257 under Edward II, 97–99
Roman times, 19 Newton, Isaac, 229–230, 231 under Edward III, 97–100
water-powered pumps, 130 Nonconformists, 237, 238, 242 under Elizabeth I, 180–181
See also Coal; Lead; Tin Norfolk, Dukes of evolution, 97–100
Minorca, 245, 262 first, 116, 117 Great Council, 85, 90, 91
Misselden, Edward, 204 fourth, 172 under Henry IV, 113
Missionaries, Catholic, 172 third, 147–148, 149, 152, 154, 155, 156 under Henry VI, 115–117
Monarchy, creation under Anglo-Saxons, Normandy, 39, 50, 52, 64, 65, 68, 114, House of Commons (See House of
27–30 116, 117 Commons)
Monasteries and monasticism Normans House of Lords (See House of Lords)
Anglo-Saxon times, 35–37 Church, 46–49 under James I, 195–198
Celtic, 25 conquest, 39–42 under James II, 239–240
Cistercian, 49 feudalism, 43–45 Long, 211, 225
Cluniac, 48 government, 49–50 Merciless, 109
dissolution, 148–149 maps, 41, 42 Model (1295), 91–92
Iona, 25 slavery, 46 origins, 90–92
Lindisfarne, 25, 27 Northeast passage, search for, 161, 175 Protectorate, 223–224
12th century, 48–49 Northumberland, Duke of. See Rump, 216, 217, 219, 221–222, 225
Whitby, 35 Dudley, John under William and Mary, 242–243,
Monck, George, 225, 235 Northumbria, kingdom, 25–27, 35–36 247–249
 Index 277

Parliament of Saints, 222–223 Poll tax, 102 Q

Parma, Duke of, 178 Poor Law (1536), 149 Quia Emptores, Statute of (1290), 86
Parr, Katherine, 155 Poor Law (1598), 185 Quo Warranto, Statute of (1290), 86
Parsons, Robert, 172 Pope, Thomas, 149
Paston, John, 117, 118 Population R
Paston, Margaret, 123 decline 14th century, 100–101 Raedwald of East Anglia, 25
Paston family letters, 118, 123 growth 1086-1300, 54 Rainsborough, Colonel, 217
Pastoral Care (Gregory I), 29 rural, Restoration, 236 Raleigh, Walter, 140, 177, 199–200
Patrick, St., 21 Poverty Recusancy, 172
Patterson, William, 247 Act of Settlement (1662), 256 Regency Council, 153, 156, 157
Paulinus, Suetonius, 14 early 18th century, 256 Regina, Catuvellaunian tribe member, 14
Peace of Ryswick (1697), 246, 248 Elizabeth’s reign, 184–185 Religion
Peacham, Edmund, 196 Henry VIII’s reign, 149 after Black Death, 102
Peasants, 32–33, 34, 75–76 Poor Laws (1536, 1598), 149, 185 anticlericalism, 93, 104–105, 106
See also Serfs; Sokemen; Villeins Poynings, Edward, 151 Druids, 10, 16
Peasants’ Revolt (1381), 102–103 Poynings Law, 151 Jews, 78
Pecham, Archbishop, 79 Praemunire, 144, 146 Stonehenge, 7–8
Pecock, Reginald, 123 Praemunire, Statute of (1353), 104–105 See also Christianity; Church of England;
Pelagius, 21 Prerogative, 196, 202–203 Clergy; Monasteries; Protestantism
Penda, King of Mercia, 25–26, 34 Presbyterians, 173, 217, 220, 221, 261 Representative government, 208
Percy family, 109, 113, 117 Presentment jury, 61 Restoration, 224–225
Perpendicular style of architecture, 82, 106, Preston, Thomas, 219 failure of settlement, 237–239
122, 182 Priests, medieval, 78–79 Restoration society, 232–235
Perrers, Alice, 100 Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques rural society, 235–236
Petition of Right, 201, 202 and Discoveries of the English Nation, The scientific revolution, 228–230
Pett, Arthur, 175 (Hakluyt), 189 settlement, 236–237
Pevsner, Nikolaus, 106 Principia Mathematica (Newton), 230 Restraint of Annates, Act in (1534), 146
Philip II, King of Spain, 177, 190 Printing presses, 124, 137, 155 Restraint of Appeals, Act in (1533),
as Philip of Spain, husband of Mary Private banks, 247 146, 149
Tudor, 164–166 Procurators, 19 Retainers, liveried, 117
Philip IV, King of France, 88 Property and the Commonwealth, 218–219 Revocation, Act of (1325), 210
Philip IV, King of Spain, 197 Property Qualification (1711), 252 Revolt of the Earls, 171
Philips, William, 254 Prophesyings, 173 Rhode Island colony, 206
Philip V, King of Spain, 262 Prostitution, 259–260 Rhys ap Gruffyd, 65
Philip VI, King of France, 96 Protectorate, 223–224 Riccio, David, 171
Physical description of Britain, 1–3 Protestantism Rich, Colonel, 217
Picquigny, Treaty of (1475), 120 Arminians, 202, 203 Rich, Richard, 149
Pilgrimage of Grace, 147 Baptists, 218 Richard, Duke of Gloucester. See
Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan), 237 Church of England (See Church of Richard III
Pinkie, Battle of, 158, 171 England) Richard, Duke of York, 118
Pius V, Pope, 172 Covenanters, 261 Richard I (the Lion Hearted), 56, 58, 61, 66,
Plague, 130, 160 Dissenters, 239, 240, 242, 252, 257, 67–68
Great Plague of 1665, 233 262, 263 Richard II
See also Black Death Huguenots, 253 abdication and death, 109, 111
Plato, 136 Lutheranism, 153–154 dealings with barons, 108–109
Plautius, Aulus, 14 Presbyterians, 173, 217, 220, 221, 261 dealings with papacy, 105
Plautus, 188 Puritans (See Puritans) Ireland, 109
Plows, 33–34 during reign of Henry VIII, 153–156 John of Gaunt’s lands, 109
Plymouth Colony, 206 Protestation of 1621, 197 Peasants’ Revolt, 103
Pocahontas, 206 Providence Island Company, 211 Richard III
Poetry and poets Provisions of Oxford (1258), 84–86, 90 coronation, 125
Anglo-Saxon, 36 Provisors, Statute of (1351), 104–105 death at Bosworth Field, 125
Beowulf, 23–24 Prynne, William, 209 Richard of Clare (Strongbow), 65–66
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 104, 105–106, 123 Ptolemy, Claudius, 59, 228 Ridley, Bishop, 165
decline of courtly verse, 123 Public schools, 123–124 Ridolfi, Roberto, 172
Donne, John, 199 Purcell, Henry, 257 River systems, 132
Langland, William, 104, 106 Puritans Robert, Duke of Normandy, 39
metaphysical, 199 dealings with James I, 194–195 Robert, son of William I, 50, 52
Milton, John, 232 ideology leading to revolution, 209–210 Robert of Chester, 59
Shakespeare, William, 10, 112, 114, 117, 125, Independents, 215–217 Robsart, Amy, 179
168, 181, 186 Plymouth Colony, 206 Roger of Salisbury (Roger Le Poer), 50, 52
troubadours, 73 during reign of Charles I, 203 Rogers, John, 165
Poitiers, Battle of, 96, 97 threat during reign of Elizabeth I, 173 Rolfe, John, 206
Pole, Reginald, 164–165 See also Commonwealth; Cromwell, Roman and Celtic Christianity, 25–26
Political parties, 239 Oliver Romanesque churches, 79–80
See also Tories; Whigs Pym, John, 211, 212, 213, 224 Roman law, rediscovery, 59–60
278 Index

Romans in Britain Scutage, 67 St. Kitt’s, 262

collapse of rule, 20–21 Second Treatise on Government (Locke), 208 St. Paul’s School, 136
conquest, 13–15 Security, Act of (1703), 261 Stafford, Thomas, 166
countryside, 19–20 Sele, Viscount, 211 Stamford Bridge, Battle, 42
garrisons, 16–17 Seneca, 188 Staple Act (1663), 235
Hadrian’s Wall, 16–17 Sentences (Lombard), 84, 137 Star Chamber, 120, 135, 137, 209, 211, 216,
maps, 15 Serfs, 46, 74 217, 218
slavery, 13, 19, 20 See also Peasants; Villeins Statute law, 86–87
taxes, 19 Settlement, Act of (1662), 256 Statutes
towns, 18–19, 21 Seven Bishops case, 240 Apprentices (1563), 173–174
Root and Branch Party, 211, 212 Severus (Emperor), 17, 20 Burning of Heretics (1401), 105
Royal African Company, 235 Sexuality, changes in attitude, 259–260 of Gloucester (1278), 87
Royal revenues, changes, 90 Seymour, Edward. See Somerset, Duke of of Laborers (1351), 101, 102, 117
Royal Society, 227, 230, 231, 233, 242 Seymour, Jane, 154 of Mortmain (1279), 86
Royal Society of Physicians, 136 Shaftesbury, Earl of (Ashley Cooper), of Praemunire (1353), 104–105
Rubens, Peter Paul, 198 238–239, 242 Provisors of (1351), 104–105
Rufinus, commander at High Rochester, 14 Shakespeare, William, 10, 112, 114, 117, 125, of Quia Emptores (1290), 86
Rufus, William, 47, 50–52, 62 168, 181, 186, 188–189 of Quo Warranto (1290), 86
Rump Parliament, 216, 217, 219, 221–222, 225 Sheep farming and enclosures, 128 Uses (1535), 147
Runnymede, 69 Sheriffs, office under Normans, 49–50 Westminster I (1275), 87
Rupert, Prince, 213, 215 Shipbuilding industries, 131, 161 Westminster II (1285), 87
Russell, Edward, 241 Ship money, 202, 203, 210 Winchester (1285), 86, 87
Shires, 30 Steele, Richard, 257
S Shrewsbury, Earl of, 241 Stephen, William Fitz, 77
Sacheverell, Henry, 262 Sic et Non (Abelard), 84 Stephen of Blois, 52
Saladin, 67 Sicily, 40, 85, 248 Stigand, Archbishop, 46
Salisbury, Earl of. See Cecil, Robert Sidney, Henry, 241 Stilicho, 20
Saxons (tribe), 23 Silchester, 18 Stirling Bridge, Battle of (1297), 90
Say, Viscount, 211 Simnel, Lambert, 133 Stock exchange, 247
Sceptical Chemist, The (Boyle), 229 Simon of Wells, 83 Stoke, Battle of, 133
Schism Act (1714), 263 Simony, 47, 145 Stonehenge, 7–9
Scholasticism, 136–137 Six Articles, Act of (1539), 154, 158 Strafford, Earl of (Thomas Wentworth),
Schools Slaves 210, 211
cathedral, 58 Anglo-Saxon times, 32, 33 Stratford, John, 99
14th and 15th centuries, 123–124 English slave trade, 161, 175, 235 Stuart, John, Duke of Albany, 142
grammar schools, 123–124, 136 Norman times, 46 Stuart, Mary (Mary Queen of Scots), 152, 158
See also Education Roman times, 13, 19, 20 Bothwell, Earl of, 171
Science sent to Spanish America, 249, 262–263 execution, 177
advances in 13th and 14th centuries, Virginia colony, 206 imprisoned by Elizabeth, 171
107–108 Smith, Thomas, 183, 206 marriage to Lord Darnley, 171
Greek, 59, 228 Social classes Sturmy, Robert, 122
scientific revolution, 228–230 late 15th century, 126–128 Subinfeudation, 86
Scientific revolution reign of William and Mary, 254–256 Submission of the Clergy, 146
causes and consequences, 230–232 Social contract, 242 Succession, Act of (1534), 147
from classical science, 228 Social disorder of 15th century, 118 Suffolk, Duke of, 117
experimental method, 228 Soil, 1, 3 Summa Theologiae (Thomas Aquinas), 84
science and literature, 232 Sokemen, 32, 45 Sunderland, Earl of, 252
science and religion, 231 Soliloquies (Augustine of Hippo), 29 Supremacy, Act of (1534), 146, 151
17th century scientists, 228–230 Solway Moss, Battle of, 152 Supremacy, Act of (1559), 169
Scotland Somers, Lord, 252 Supremacy for Irish Church, Act of, 151
Act of Union, 260–261 Somerset, Duke of, 157–160, 161, 162 Swein of Denmark, 37
Battle of Bannockburn, 94 Song of Maldon, 32 Swift, Jonathan, 246, 257
Battle of Flodden, 152, 171 Spain
Battle of Pinkie, 158, 171 Spanish Armada, 177–178 T
Battle of Solway Moss, 152 war in the Netherlands, 177 Tacitus, 14, 16, 19, 23
Charles I, 210–211 wars with England, 177–178, 190–191, Tallage, 74
Commonwealth, 220–221 197–198 Tallard, Marshall, 250
Edward I, 89–90 Spanish Armada, 177–178 Tanners, 131
Edward II, 94–95 Spectator, The, 256, 257 Tardenosian culture, 4
Edward III, 95–96 Spencer, John, 186 Taxes and taxation
Elizabeth I, 169–171 Spenser, Edmund, 189 Angevin, 67
Henry II, 66 Sprat, Thomas, 231 under Charles I, 209, 210
Henry VIII, 151–153 St. Albans, Battle of (1455), 118 coal, 234
maps, 89, 153 St. Albans, Second Battle of (1461), 118 Commonwealth, 221, 224–225
Presbyterian safeguards, 261 St. John, Henry. See Bolingbroke, Viscount Danegeld, 30, 37
Romans, 16 St. John, Oliver, 203, 211 under Edward I, 90–91
 Index 279

head tax, 102 Mediterranean, 205 Vanbrugh, John, 257

hearth, 237, 239 Merchant Adventurers, 122, 131, 155, 161, Van Dyck, Anthony, 198
under Henry VII, 135 174, 175, 202, 203–204 Vaulting, 80–82
House of Commons, 99 monopolies, 190 Venables, General, 221
land tax, 247 river systems, 132 Verica, 14
poll tax, 102 Roman times, 20 Verney, Edmund, 213
Roman, 19 treaties, 132 Vestiarian Controversy, 173
ship money, 202, 203 wool (See Wool trade) Vikings, 27–28, 37
12th and 13th centuries, 90–91 Treason Act (1534), 158 Villages and manors, medieval, 73–76
William and Mary, 247–248 Treasury, 49, 50 See also Manors
Taylor, Jeremy, 216 Treaties Villeins, 45–46, 128
Tenants, types, 129–130 Anglo-Spanish (1604), 203 Peasants’ Revolt, 102–103
Ten Articles (1536), 154 Berwick (1639), 210 See also Peasants; Serfs
Tertullian, 84 Brétigny (1360), 97 Villiers, George. See Buckingham, Duke of
Test Act (1673), 238, 240, 242 Câteau-Cambrésis (1559), 169, 171 Virginia colonies, 206
Tewkesbury, Battle of (1471), 120 Conway (1277), 87 Visigoths, 20
Thegns, 23, 32 Dover (1670), 238 Vision of Piers Ploughman, The (Langland),
Theobald, Archbishop, 52, 59, 62 Edinburgh (1560), 171 106
Theodore of Tarsus, 26, 35 Étaples (1492), 134, 141 Vortigern, 22
Theodosius, 20 Medina del Campo (1489), 134 Voyages of discovery. See Exploration and
Thirty-nine Articles, 169, 195 Montgomery (1267), 87 discovery
Thirty Years’ War, 197 Noyon (1516), 142
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, 109 Picquigny (1475), 120 W
Three-field rotation, 54–55 promoting trade, 132 Wakefield, Battle of (1460), 118
Tin, 3, 19–20, 57, 131 Troyes (1420), 115 Wales
Tirel, Walter, 51 Utrecht (1713), 262–263 conquest by Rome, 16
Tobacco, 184, 206 Westminster (1153), 53 Edward I, 87–88
Togodumnus, 14 Westminster (1654), 219 Henry II, 65–66
Toleration Act (1689), 242–243 Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 95 Henry IV, 113
Tombs in 15th century churches, 122 Triticum dioccoides, 4 Henry VIII, 151
Tool production Troilus and Cresyde (Chaucer), 105 map of conquest, 88
Beaker Folk, 6 Troubadours, 73 Wallace, William, 90
early, 4 Troyes, Treaty of (1420), 115 Walsingham, Thomas, 101, 102
late Bronze Age, 9 True Law of Free Monarchies, The, 196 Walter, Hubert, 68
Tories Tudor Revolution in Government, The Walter of Coutances, 67
beginnings, 239 (Elton), 149 Walter of Henley, 56
Convention Parliament, 242 Tunnage and poundage, 202 Walworth, William, 103
Queen Anne, 252, 257, 262–263 Turkey Company, 175 Wapentake, 32
William III, 247–249 Tusser, Thomas, 174 Warbeck, Perkin, 133
Tostig, 41–42 Two Treatises on Civil Government (Locke), Warenne, Earl of, 86
Tournaments, 73 242, 243 Warham, Archbishop, 144
Towns Tyler, Wat, 103 War of Spanish Succession, 249–252
Anglo-Saxon boroughs, 34–35 Tyndale, William, 155 War of the League of Augsburg, 245–246
14th and 15th centuries, 127 Tyrconnel, Earl of, 240 Wars of the Roses, 112, 117–119
market, 57, 132 Warwick, Earl of. See Dudley, John
medieval, 57, 76–78 U Warwick, Earl of (Richard Neville),
Norman, 46 Ulster colonization, 205–206 109, 118
Roman, 18–19, 21 Uniformity, Act of (1549), 158 Water mills, 55, 76–77
Towton Moor, Battle of (1461), 118 Uniformity, Act of (1559), 169, 172 Weapon production, late Bronze Age, 9
Trade Uniformity, Act of (1662), 237 Weapons innovations, 93, 96
Anglo-Saxon, 34–35 Uniformity, Acts of (1552), 162–163 Weber, Max, 231
balance of trade, 204–205 Union, Act of (1707), 260–261 Weldon, Anthony, 197
under Charles II, 234–235 Universities Wentworth, Peter, 180
coastal, 132 Cambridge, 60, 83, 136, 172 Wentworth, Thomas. See Strafford, Earl of
under Commonwealth, 219 Oxford, 59, 83–84, 103, 105, 107–108, Werferth, 29
earnings, 256 136–137, 172, 183, 231 Wergeld, 31, 32
East India Company, 175, 205, 235 rise of colleges, 183 Wessex
European, 57, 121, 132 Up-and-down husbandry, 254 Alfred the Great, 28–30
Hanseatic League, 122, 131, 160–161, 175 Uses, Statute of (1535), 147 burials, 7
under Henry VII, 131–132 Usury, 78 chieftains, 7, 9
increase after Glorious Revolution, Utopia (More), 137 kingdom, 27–30
253–254 Utrecht, Treaty of (1713), 262–263 Stonehenge, 7
India, 205 Westminster, Treaty of (1153), 53
internal, 57, 132 V Westminster, Treaty of (1654), 219
joint-stock companies, 175 Vacarius, 59 Westminster I , Statute of (1275), 87
Levant Company, 175, 205 Vagrancy, 184–185 Westminster II, Statute of (1285), 87
280 Index

Weston, Lord Treasurer, 202 William the Conqueror Woodville, Elizabeth, queen of
Wharton, Lord, 252 attributes, 39 Edward IV, 119
Whigs claim to English throne, 39–40, 39–41 Wool trade, 112, 138
beginnings, 239 conquest, 39–42 economic crisis of 1551, 160–161
Convention Parliament, 242 Domesday Book, 45–46 enclosures, 128–130
Queen Anne, 252, 262–263 Duke of Normandy, 39 exporting wool, 34, 56–57
reign of James II, 239–240 feudalism, 43–45 manufacture and export of cloth, 76–77,
William III, 247–249 William the Lion of Scotland, 66 121–122, 130, 160–161, 173–174, 203–204
Whitby, Synod of, 26 Willoughby, Hugh, 161 tax, 91, 121
White, John, 177 Winchester, Statute of (1285), 86, 87 Wren, Christopher, 227, 231–233, 256
Whitgift, John, 173 Winchester School, 136 Writs, 61–62
William and Mary Windmill Hill people, 5 Wyatt, Thomas, 164
death of William, 249 Windmills, 55 Wyatt’s rebellion, 164
financial settlement, 242–243 Winstanley, Gerrard, 217 Wycherly, William, 232
Glorious Revolution, 241–242 Winthrop, John, 206 Wyclif, John, 103–105
Ireland, 246 Witan, 30 Wyndham, Thomas, 161
joint sovereigns, 242 Wolsey, Thomas, 140–142, 143–144, Wyndham and Moroccan coast, 161
Parliament, 242–243, 247–249 145–146, 150 Wynfrith, 35
succession, 242 Women Wynter, William, 177
war with France, 245–246 Anglo-Saxon, 30
William, Prince of Orange, 241 education, 183, 259 Y
William of Braose, 69 formal apprenticeship of, 77–78 Yeomen, 122, 123, 127, 130, 184, 255–256
William of Edington, 101 legal status, 44–45 York, 16, 18, 21, 23
William of Newburgh, 62 monasticism, 35, 48–49 York, House of, 120
William of Ockham, 103, 108, 123 Norman times, 43, 44–45 See also Wars of the Roses
William of Sens, 81 servants, prostitution and, 78
William of Wykeham, 123 subjection of wives, 45, 258 Z
Williams, Roger, 206 work, 34, 75 Zwingli, Ulrich, 158