Life in the 13 th Century
Dec 20, 2014
Life in the 13th Century
Sumer is icomen inCuckoo Song
• Oldest song in Middle English
• Round or rota for 4 voices
• Religious text and secular text
• Instructions in Latin
13th Century: Aspects of Life
JanuaryFeasting
February, Warming
March, Digging
April, nobles
May, Hawking
June, Cutting clover
July, Mowing
August, Reaping
September, Grape picking
October, Grape treading
November, Gathering acorns
December, Hog slaughtering
Aspects of Life in the 13th Century
• Population rise• Village – manor also towns• Disconnect between social and economic
status• Importance of parish church• Commerce
– Money supply– Markets and fairs
Estimate of population
Urbanization by 1300
• Total population 6-7 million: other estimates closer to 3 million
• London <75,000• Norwich 10,000• Small towns ~10% of population
St. Ives
As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives
And every wife had seven sacks
And every sack had seven cats
And every cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?
Why were they going to St. Ives?
St. Ives Fair
1110 Granted to abbey for a week– ‘Tolls’ for fair– Administrative court
1213 King John spends £843 on blanket cloth1252 Attempt by Henry III to add a three week extension under his own jurisdiction
– 1255 King’s rights sold to abbey
Ellen Wedemeyer Moore The fairs of medieval England : an introductory study Toronto, Ont., Canada : Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985
Who was going to St. Ives, Huntingdonshire?
Population ~800
St. Ives - Sales
• Cloth• Stalls grouped by origin of vendors• Wholesalers in front of permanent dwellings
or rows of stalls• Foreign merchants sell luxury goods; buy
commodities
St. Ives - Locals
• Ale– ~ 30 brewers in St. Ives– ~ 15 sold at fair (four alewives)
• Baked goods• Butchers• Crafts and craft services
Growth of markets and fairs
Growth of Fairs and Markets in SE England
Value of fairs to abbey
Bury St. Edmunds 1286-7• Stall and shop rentals £126• Fines £8 9s
Stephen Edward Sachs “The ‘Law Merchant’ and the Fair Court of St. Ives, 1270-1324” B.A. thesis Harvard published w. revision in Am. U Intl. Law Review£1 = £714 (2010)http://www.measuringworth.com
(Possible) Social Consequences of Fairs (& Markets)
• Need to bridge regional language differences• Acquisition of some commercial French• Appreciation for written records, even by the
non-literate• Growth of money economy• Competition
Decline of fairs
Wool trade• Middlemen purchase from producers• Warehouses• Supply to exportersFood products• Obtained by contract
Video Daily Life in the 13th Century
Dr. Jennifer Paxton
KilpeckParish Church of St Mary and St David~1140
6/22009/
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/kilpeck-church-corbels.htm
Kilpeck, South Entrance
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/kilpeck-church-photos/index.htm
Trends –Increasing use of credit
• At the top– To finance wars– To finance increased consumption
• For the peasant– To obtain suitable sized farms– To buy livestock and seed which would be
recouped from production
Estimate of coinage in circulationAllen, Martin. "The volume and composition of the English silver currency, 1279-1351." Agricultural History Review 35 (1987): 121-32.Allen, Martin. "The volume of the English currency, 1158–1470." The Economic History Review 54.4 (2001): 595-611.
Land and Labor
• 1300 20-25% of labor is wage labor– Poor have small families (generally absent from
any records)– Better off have larger families which contribute to
later generations of poor (landless)• Use of private contracts at manorial courts to
convey small amounts of land.– Importance of common law protections
Change in Land Distribution
UnfreeSource (Date) Largeholders Middleholders Smallholders
Domesday (1086) 19% 37% 44%
Hundred Rolls (1279-80)
22% 31% 47%
FreeSource (Date) Largeholders Middleholders Smallholders
Domesday (1086) 50% 40% 10%
Hundred Rolls (1279-80)
18% 12% 70%
Largeholder >1 virgate Middleholder 0.5.-1 virgate Smallholder <0.5 virgate
1 virgate = ~ 15 acres
Wheat YieldsBruce M. S. Campbell (2007), Three centuries of English crops yields, 1211 1491‑ [WWW document]. URL http://www.cropyields.ac.uk [accessed on 14/04/2013]
Magor Pill Shipwreck – Detail
Example of a 15 m coastal boat used to carry iron ore/
Guilds
• Generally chartered– 1155 London weavers– 1175 Oxford shoemakers
• Quality control; Fixed prices in some areas• No
– Monopoly, restraint of trade. exclusive rights to sell, barriers to entry
Gary Richardson “Guilds, laws, and markets for manufactured merchandise in late-medieval England” Explorations in Economic History 41 (2004) 1–25
Peasant Houses – 13th Century
Houndtor, Dartmoor
Houndtor‘Manor house’
Houndtor, drying barns
Development of medieval housing
Manorial or sub-manorial: Addition of aisles
Nick Hill and Daniel Miles “The Royal George, Cottingham, Northamptonshire: An Early Cruck Building” Vernacular
Architecture, 32 (2001), 62-67Is this a 'peasant' building built by carpenters used to working on higher-status buildings? Or, despite its small size, was it built for a patron of high status?
Cruck truss, Royal George, 1262
Lacock, WiltshireCruck house, 14th C.
London
1212 regulations• Roofs
– New houses with tile only, or shingle, or boards,– Whitewash thatched roofs of existing houses
• Demolish wood houses that threaten stone ones
• Businesses– Cookshops plastered inside and out– Alehouses built of stone
Medieval Merchant's House, Southampton, ~1290