LATE MIDDLE AGES

1272-1485
The First English King of England
Edward I, The Law-Giver
1272 – 1307

• First truly English King since William, the Conqueror

• Kingly personality – great leadership skills
• Reformed laws
• Conquered Wales
• Aimed to unite the whole island under one
government
• Died of Dysentery while going to battle the Scots
 Wales and Scotland
• One of Edward’s favourite schemes was to unite the whole
island of Great Britain under one government.
• So far, the kings had made little attempt to conquer Wales.
• In Scotland there was only one king (William the Lion).
 Wales
•In the time of Henry III, Prince Llewelyn ap Griffith (Wales)
attacked on the border shires.
•When Edward I became king, he took this opportunity to invade
Llewelyn’s country.
•However, he didn’t abolish the old Welsh laws and customs, and
thus he established the conditions which exist in Wales today: a self
contained little nation, cherishing its own language and traditions
without aspiring to political independence.
 Scotland
•William the Lion had done homage to Henry II. When the king
died, there were several claimants to the throne.
•The most notable were John Baliol and Robert Bruce.
•They agreed to submit their claims to Edward I’s judgment.
•He decided in favour of Baliol.
 Expulsion of the Jews
• Jews were hated because they had crucified Jesus Christ.
• Ways of living were forbidden to them because they couldn’t hold land
without taking a Christian oah of homage.
• Christian ceremonies were also necessary to becoming members of a
Gild.
• They were moneylenders since Christians weren’t allowed to (it was
sinful to take interest on loans)
• Now, Jews were also prohibited to lend money and they were
ultimately expelled (Edward I was too upright and God-fearing).
 Statutes
They were meant to subordinate the Nobles power to his and to
earn more money from the land.
E.g: Statute of Gloucester and Statute of Mortmain
The beginning of the end (1290)
• Quarrel with the King of France over Gascony.
• Revolt in Wales and Scotland.
• Scotland and France allies against England.
 Model Parliament
• In 1290 there was a quarrel with France over Gascony.
• This developed into a war, but Edward was prevented from going to take
command because of a revolt in Wales.
• Then, another disturbance broke out in Scotland.
• Edward had demanded that they should do him feudal service in France.
• The Scots not merely declined to do so, but also joined France in an alliance
against him
• This was the beginning of an anti-English connection between France and
Scotland lasting for three hundred years.
 Great Council
•The King called a meeting of the Great Council to ask for support.
•This assembly in 1295 was called the “Model Parliament” because its
constitution was copied afterwards.
•Summoned magnates by name and made sheriffs elect representatives for each
shire.
•He summoned the magnates: earls, barons, abbots and bishops (titles).
•For the shires and boroughs he merely sent instructions to the sheriffs to have
representatives elected.
•This was the origin of the future House of Lords and House of Commons.
 Wallace and Bruce
•When this “Model Parliament” had voted, the King raised an
army and marched into Scotland, where he drove Baliol into exile.
•However, the English nobles refused to go and fight in France.
•The clergy declared that the Pope had just issued a “Bull” (Clericis
Laicos) forbidding them to contribute to the revenue of rulers.
•The Scots saw the opportunity to rise again under Sir William
Wallace.
 •Edward could not postpone his departure for France.
•However, it was too late: he had to come to an agreement with France
by which neither party gained anything.
•When he returned, he led another army into Scotland.
•Nevertheless, there was another force at work in Scotland: patriotism.
•He defeated Wallace at Falkird, with the aid of Welsh archers.
•The Scots didn’t surrender: they flared up again as soon as his back was
turned.
 Robert Bruce
•When Wallace was betrayed and executed as a traitor, the Scots
found a new leader: Robert Bruce.
•He managed to get himself crowned at Scone.
•King Edward, who had hoped that with the death of Wallace the
resistance of the Scots was broken, had to set out yet again to
subdue them.
•However, he was nearly seventy years old, and his wonderful
health and vigour were breaking down.
•He died near the Scottish border on his way north.
 Edward I’s end

• Neither England nor France won.

• Scots’ leader, Sir William Wallace, was killed but Robert Bruce was
their new leader.
• King Edward I died when travelling to battle against Robert Bruce.
 Edward II
1307 - 1327
• Unworthy and irresponsible son of Edward II.
• Replaced his father’s ministers by his own liked
people.
• Nobility was against him.
 Lords Ordainers
• They were mistreated by the Kings’ friends and new ministers.
• They wanted to choose a committee to take over the King’s
government.
• They raised an army against him.
Victories, defeats and downfall
• Victory against the Ordainers .
• Defeat against Scots – The King retired and Robert
Bruce was King of Scotland.
• Edward’s II wife (Isabella of France) plotted against
him with an exiled noble.
• She summoned a parliament and put the King in jail.
• Edward II was ultimately killed by his wife’s lover.
Edward III
1327 - 1377
• He was 14 when he ascended to the throne.
• Ambicious for warlike glory.
• Chivalrous and courteous values
• He started the Hundred Years’ War.
• The Black Death broke out in his reign.
• Implemented changes in wool commerce.
• Limited the Pope’s power.
The Hundred Years’ War
 Causes
1. Homage of the English King to the French King.
2. French kings supported the Scots.
3. Edward III supported the Flamish cloth-waving cities against
their ruler, the Count of Flanders, who appealed to his
overlord, the King of France.
4. Edward’s claim to the French throne was dismissed.
 Characteristics
• On-and-off war.
• King Edward appealed to the nation’s patriotism to wage the war
successfully.
• Villagers were interested in joining the army to escape their routine
and to improve their social and economic position.
• They were convinced by the King: they were told war was worthy
and noble.
The Black Death
The most devastating pandemic
Causes
• People didn’t know much about medicine.
• Insanitary houses.
• Religious components.
Migration
350 – 450 millions of victims
30% to 60% of the
European population died
 Consequences
• Manorial system’s break-down
-Hired labourers demanded higher wages because of lack of men.
• First hints of peasants gaining power
 Wool trade changes
• Chief export had always been raw wool.
• Flemish wool-workers taught the English the arts of spinning and
weaving.
• Ship-building and seafaring grew due to Calais’s being an English
possession.
Religious changes
• The King limited the Pope’s power in
England since he lived in France and
were controlled by the French Crown.
• Church was becoming wealthier and
badly-conducted.
• John Wyclif wanted to restore poverty
and devotion as the key of religion.
• He translated the Bible and organised
the Lollards.
 Edward III’s downfall
• Inhabitants of French provinces didn’t accept him as their ruler.
• English fleet was defeated.
• Neglected his King’s duties because of love.
• He didn’t try to recover the land he lost.
• Two rival factions tried to control the Council.
• As his son, the Black Prince had died, his grandson took over the throne:
Richard II.
The Peasants’ Revolt
 The Break-Up of Manorial Life
•Before Black Death, landlords had been exchanging the service of
their villeins for a money-rent, which they sepent on hiring
labourers.
•When the latter took advantage of the shortage of labor to insist
on higher wagers, the lords found they had made a bad bargain.
•Many lords tried to compel the copy-holders to pay an increased
rent, resulting in fierce quarrels.
•Other lords tried to compel labourers to work for the old rate of
pay (penalties under the Statute of labourers were increased until
they included branding with re-hot irons).
•Result: increased bitterness, discontent and violence
•Many villeins were angry to see free labourers enjoying good
wages while they were still forced to do the same services before
the Black Death raised the value of labour.
•They ran away from villages to work on some distant manor.
•In the old days, it had been almost impossible for men to migrate
in this way, since every one had his place and his rights in his native
village (and there was no room for an outsider).
•However, now the bailiffs who managed the manors for the lords
were ready to employ new hands for their fields, and this made it
difficult for a lord to recapture their villeins.
•Some villeins went to the woods and lived as bandits, which made
the country unsafe for travellers and crippled trade.
•Others villeins went to the towns, because there was a custom that
any villein who lived in a town for a year and a day was free.
•However, the gild system made it very difficult for a stranger to
get employment.
• Consequently, towns were as disturbed and discontented as the
country side (particularly London, already the greatest city in the
kingdom)
 The Poll Tax
•By 1380, the poorer were eager to revolt, it only needed some new
grievance to provoke one.
•That new grievance was a tax.
•Historically, it had been difficult for English kings to make ends
meet even in peace time
•The government was more costly to run in England than in a
purely feudal country like France.
•In the year Richard II became king, he introduced a tax payment
for every person over fifteen.
•Two years later, this tax was enforced.
•In 1381, was enforced for a third time and also increased to
three times the previous amount.
•There was an immediate revolt in Brentwood, Essex.
 The revolt
•Villagers mobbed a tax-collector in Brentwood, Essex, where they
drove him back to London.
•They scattered in all directions, inciting the neighbouring village to
revolt.
•On that same day, there was a similar outbreak in Kent, provoked
by a landlord trying to recapture a runaway serf.
•Within a few days, all the country-side round London was
seething .
•The Kentish congregated on Blackheath, where a priest preached
them a sermon pointing out that all men were created equal.
•The lead was taken by a man named Wat Tyler.
•As there was no army in those times, the rebels had gained
possession of all the roads into London.
•At a parley, they promised to grant the peasants’ demands: that all
villeins should be released from labour-rent.
•Unfortunately, their trust was misplaced: as soon as the King’s
promises had served their turn they were shamelessly broken.
When some of them came to Richard II and reminded him of this
promise, he laughed at them: “Serfs you were and are and will
remain!”
 •However, the effect of the shortage of labour was as potent as
ever.
•Lords still found that they must emancipate their serfs to get their
work done.
•By 1500, there were not many villeins left in England.