In the course of the 14th century parliament took its modern shape consisting of two Houses — the House of Lords and the House of Commons. In this division the knights of the shire took their places in the House of Commons with the burgesses, whereas the lords and the top clergy sat in the […]

With the Norman conquest the Norman-French language became the official language in the country. It was the tongue spoken by the ruling class, the language of the court. Court literature was written in Norman-French. But it was not the language of the people and could not become the means of communication between the various layers […]

In  the  13th-14th  centuries  the  inhabitants  of  the  bigger  towns  had  to  rely  more  and  more  on  the  neighbouring  country-side  for  their  foodstuffs  and  raw  materials  for  their  crafts. Trade  between  the  town  and  the  country-side  began  to  develop. Now  we  shall  learn  more  about: -  the  trade  connections  between  the  town  and  the  village; […]

People  from  the  country  would  come  to  the  town  markets  to  sell  their  surplus  produce  and  to  buy  the  townsmen’s  goods.  The  town  market  was  held,  as  a  rule,  on  a  certain  day  of  the  week.  On  market-day  stalls  were  put  up  in  the  mar­ket-place,  which  was  in  any  open  space  near  the  centre  of  […]

Far  more  important  and  exciting  than  the  weekly  mar­kets  were  the  fairs.  Fairs  were  held  once  a  year  and  they  lasted  a  week,  or  even  two  or  three  w’eeks. The  fairs  could  also  be  held  only  with  the  king’s  permis­sion  and  not  every  town  had  one.  The  same  sort  of  preparations  went  on  as  for  […]

From the eleventh to the thirteenth century, though prog­ress was made in technique and in utilizing waste lands, rural society and agricultural tenures remained for the most part static. During the whole of that period the bulk of cul­tivators were of villein status: they held their land “at the will of the lord”, and rendered […]

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church was at one time a mighty and magnificent institution. It covered the whole of the Christian world with such an organisation that no one could be unaware of its existence. It controlled the life of every human being from the moment of birth to the last dying […]