From the Bakehouse to the Courthouse: Bakers, Baking, and the Assize of Bread in Late Medieval England

Abstract

Bread was a central component of the medieval English diet; all social classes consumed bread on a daily basis. Because of a general dependency upon bakers, towns in late medieval England instituted a variety of regulations, like the Assisa Panis, on the weight and quality of bread to ensure that consumers purchased a good-quality loaf, regardless of what type of bread they could afford. Bakers produced tens of types of bread, each made of different grains and associated with different social classes. Medieval regulations also fixed the price of bread, even when the price of grain fluctuated. Many bakers, however, violated these regulations. I have examined printed excerpts of assize hearings for Oxford (1309-1338), Southampton (1482-1483), and London (1292-1437). Using the quantified data from hundreds of hearings and narrative descriptions of baking incidents, I explore the process of regulating bakers, as well as the profession and products of baking.