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