Late Medieval London Research Articles

The rhetoric of the royal chamber in late medieval London, York and Coventry

In the late medieval period several English cities claimed the distinction of being a royal chamber: London and York referred to themselves as the ‘king's chamber’, whilst Coventry called itself the ‘prince's chamber’. Examining the meaning of the metaphor of the chamber, this article provides a new perspective on the way in which cities negotiated their relations with the crown and shows how the chamber became an important aspect of corporate urban identity from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

Trends of Mortality in Late Medieval London, 1348-1400

Trends of Mortality in Late Medieval London, 1348-1400

The Life of Thomas More (review)

187 Reviews Ackroyd, Peter, The Life of Thomas More, London, Chatto and Windus, 1998; paper; pp. ix, 434; 8 b/w, 8 colour plates; R.R.P. £8.99. Thomas More is a popular historical figure, for both academic and general audiences, and there has been a steady stream of books and articles on the saintly Lord Chancellor from the seventies onward. Original angles are hard to find for such a well studied figure, yet Ackroyd attempts a new analysis of More's childhood, schooling, and early legal career, before relating the more readily known later public l i f e . The book contains a wealth of detail on the society and background of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century London. Overall, however, this results in a book that, for the first two-thirds at least, is a biography of some generic late medieval London man, rather than Thomas More perse. . There are many diversions and digressions in Ackroyd's writing, some of which have limited relevance. For example, Ackroyd gives a vivid two-and-a-half page description of the Coventry Corpus Christi play (pp. 119-121), but the pretext for this is that More m a y have been inCoventry for the event; or then again he m a y not. The whole book is infused with maybes and might haves, particularly in regard to More's early life. A n y biographer of the young Thomas More must cope with the lack of surviving evidence, which is w h y so m a n y books have glossed over, or skipped completely, More's childhood years. Ackroyd's solution is to f i l l in the gaps with conjecture and extrapolations from the lives of others of the period. Thus w e get James Olney's house as a proxy for More's childhood home. The 'charming reminiscence' (p. 11) of a fifteenth-century schoolboy is presented as a parallel to More's schooling. The household of the Bishop of Winchester serves as an approximation to that ofArchbishop Morton, in which More served as 188 Reviews a page. While this approach does have its merits, it reduces More's l i f e to a generic patchwork. Despite the scarcity of evidence, Ackroyd willingly ignores what little survives when it suits him. For example, he suggests that i t is 'more likely' (p. 77) that More and Erasmus first met at the house of Sir William Say than, as the evidence suggests, at the Lord Mayor of London's table. Ackroyd can provide no evidence for what is surely a pointless bit of conjecture. The book has a number of similar speculations, which reduce portions of More's life to calculations of imagined probability, rather than an examination of the historical evidence. Ackroyd sees More as fixed in his opinions and ideals from an early age, and this partly stems from his recreation of More's childhood identity from his adult character: 'as the adult, so the child' (p. 19), He therefore rejects the idea that More and his father argued over the direction of his career. As the adult More was always very obedient and respected his father's wishes, so must have been the younger More. Ackroyd reasons that More's public career was 'carefully managed and willingly undertaken' (p. 36) and that More desired his legal and stately life. Later, however, Ackroyd admits that More strove to be the opposite of his father in m a n y ways, especially with his kind and gentle behaviour toward his o w n children. H e goes on to note Erasmus' claim that More's father had threatened disinheritance if his then teenage son shunned a legal career. The reader is left to choose between the interpretation of Ackroyd and the evidence of Erasmus. Ackroyd's More is a conservative traditionalist, and essentially medieval in his outlook. More's opposition to medieval schooling is explained by Ackroyd as fears the old curriculum had the potential to create theological disorder or doubt, and not as an endorsement of the new learning associated with the Renaissance. Yet More's o w n writings suggest otherwise. In a...

Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London: The Usury Trails of 1421

This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most importantly the law and practice of the church. It concludes that church courts dealt with different types of usurious conduct to that shown in the 1421 London cases. The broad conclusion of the article is that the 1421 London cases show that the law against usury was by no means a dead letter outside the jurisdiction of the church in late medieval England: in London at least, it was part of a burgeoning and increasingly sophisticated commercial jurisdiction.

Kinship and Friendship: The Perception of Family by Clergy and Laity in Late Medieval London

One of the most persistent and frustrating problems which the social historian faces is that of gaining access to private lives in the past. This is true for all periods, but it is especially so for the Middle Ages. There are some letters available, but they tend to be scarce and limited in nature. Another type of document which proves a useful means of entry into medieval life is the testament. The information it contains is often of an intensely personal nature and allows the reader to understand the testator's relationships with others.The wealth of information contained in testaments is only beginning to be fully exploited. In his article “Fifteenth and Sixteenth-Century Wills as Historical Sources,” Michael L. Zell has demonstrated the breadth of information which these documents contain and points the way to many areas of further investigation. The usefulness of testamentary evidence to trace inheritance patterns and the disposition of property is well established. Eleanor S. Riemer has used testaments from Siena to examine the economic position of women. W. K. Jordan used wills extensively in his three volume study of charity in urban and rural England. More recently, Joel T. Rosenthal employed them to study gift-giving patterns among the English aristocracy. Wills have been used as sources for the study of religious values and popular piety, as a means of investigating the patterns of epidemic disease, and of tracing the spread of literacy. Historians have also begun to use testamentary evidence in the investigation of family life. For the history of the English family, the use of testamentary evidence is just beginning.

Money Lending on the Periphery of London, 1300–1600

Money lending was an essential part of the local and regional economies of England during the later medieval and Tudor periods. Cash was required for purchases of goods, animals, or land, payment of rents and taxes, and the wages of hired workers. People who lacked money to cover these expenses between 1300 and 1600 commonly resorted to borrowing. Borrowing thus might be undertaken for purposes of either consumption or investment. Further, during much of the later medieval period and occasionally during the Tudor years specie was in short supply. Even a man of some wealth might find himself without sufficient currency on hand to cover his immediate needs. In nearly all cases late medieval and Tudor loans were for short terms, for periods ranging from a few weeks to six months. Interest was normally charged on local loans, although the amount was concealed due to the Church's prohibition of usury.Money lending was particularly important within commercialized areas—the major cities and their economic hinterlands. The region lying within a radius of about twenty miles from London formed one of the most thoroughly commercialized parts of the country. By the fourteenth century people living on the periphery of the capital were deeply involved in furnishing consumer goods to London. Agriculture among middling and larger tenants focused upon market sale; craftsmen sometimes sold to citizens as well as to their own neighbors. Late medieval London was surrounded by a ring of at least thirty-two market towns located within twenty miles of the capital. These markets served to channel grain, animals, fuel, and craft items into the city while also functioning as centers of trade for their own areas. In the market communities around London the extent of trade was unusually large and the economic sophistication of local people unusually high. Cash was the medium of accounting for all transactions and the medium of exchange for the great majority of them. It is not surprising that money lending played an especially significant role in this area.

Piety and Charity in Late Medieval London

The recent work of Professor W. K. Jordan on charitable benefactions in the period between 1480 and 1660 has focused the attention of historians on this aspect of social history, and there is no doubt that his studies have made a significant contribution to the understanding of these years. Certain aspects of the work have, however, been criticised by reviewers, and. the purpose of the present paper is to examine the subject from the viewpoint of the medievalist to see if this throws light on general problems of the study of charity as well as on the more specific topic of late medieval charity.