‘Stond Horeson and Yelde thy Knyff’: Urban Politics, Language and Litigation in Late Medieval Canterbury

Abstract

This chapter examines the Rosier Riot of 1500 in Canterbury. It does so in the context of the city's relationships with religious houses during the late Middle Ages, most notably St. Augustine's Abbey and Christ Church cathedral priory. It examines the strategies - law, violence and the arbitration of great men - that both sides used to settle these frequent and ongoing disputes within the city. It draws on local and national archives and sets the Canterbury experience in the context of recent research into urban political culture in late medieval England.