A SO C I A L H IS TORY OF E NGL A N D,     

The years between  and  saw transformative social change in Europe, including the creation of extensive town-dwelling populations and the proliferation of feudalized elites and bureaucratic monarchies. In England these developments were complicated and accelerated by repeated episodes of invasion, migration and changes of regime. In this book, scholars from disciplines including history, archaeology and literature reflect on the major trends which shaped English society in these years of transition and select key themes which encapsulate the period. The authors explore the landscape of England, its mineral wealth, its towns and rural life, the health, behaviour and obligations of its inhabitants, patterns of spiritual and intellectual life and the polyglot nature of its population and culture. What emerges is an insight into the complexity, diversity and richness of this formative period of English history.   is Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of Exeter. Her research interests include property, power and gender before , aspects of palaeography and the transmission of texts in the Middle Ages, monastic culture and the uses of the past. Her publications include The Uses of Script and Print –, edited with Alexandra Walsham () and Charters of St Albans ().    is Lecturer in Medieval History at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge. She has published extensively on Anglo-Norman history and the history of gender in the Middle Ages. Her recent publications include Exile in the Middle Ages () with Laura Napran and Medieval Writings on Secular Women in the Middle Ages () with Patricia Skinner.

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Horse harness pendants, c.  Numerous pendants have been unearthed in recent years with metal detectors. They are difficult to date, because they were presumably lost from horses on the move and are not usually found in datable layers of archaeological sites. The earliest pendants sometimes have the kind of decoration which was incorporated into early heraldry and which might be interpreted as armorial; but heraldry itself was in its infancy and it is impossible to be certain that personal association was intended. These examples (and photographs) are from the collection of Sir John Baker (JHB) and they are reproduced with his kind permission.  Chequy or and [tincture]. Th is may represent the arms of Warenne (Chequy or and azure), though in later times a chequered field would be represented with more squares. Warenne shield-pendants become common in the thirteenth century, the incised squares being fi lled with blue enamel. From a Yorkshire collection. JHB   A cross. The cross is indicated merely by raised lines, incised in the mould, and there is no cutting away for enamel as in later times. A cross occurs in numerous early coats of arms, but could perhaps have religious significance. Found in East Anglia. JHB   Bendy of fourteen argent and azure. These arms were on the seal of Amaury de Montfort (d. ), count of Evreux, earl of Gloucester jure uxoris, the same tinctures as here being recorded in thirteenth-century rolls: Dictionary of British Arms, ii. –. Found at North Owersby, Lincs., in . JHB   Argent, a cross formy azure. These arms are not recorded. There appear to be traces of whitish enamel in the field, and of blue in the cross. Found in Yorkshire. JHB   Or, a fret [tincture]. The fret was used as an armorial device by several early families, but it may not here be heraldic. Th is example retains much of the gilding. Found at Great Wakering, Essex. JHB   Barry of six, a bordure. These arms occur on the seal of Reynold, count of Boulogne: Dictionary of British Arms, ii. . Found in Essex. JHB 

A SOC I A L H IS TORY OF E NGL A N D,           J U L I A C R IC K AND E L IS A BE T H VA N HOU TS

University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006, usa 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia 314-321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi - 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06-04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521713238 © Cambridge University Press  This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published  A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data A social history of England, – / [edited by] Julia Crick, Elisabeth van Houts. p.  cm. – (A social history of england)  ---- (pbk.) .  England–Social conditions. .  England–Economic conditions.  i.  Crick, Julia C., –  ii.  Van Houts, Elisabeth M. C.  iii. Title.  iv. Series. .  .´–dc  isbn ---- Hardback isbn 978-0-521-71323-8 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

List of figures List of maps and tables List of contributors Acknowledgements List of abbreviations

page viii ix x xi xii

Introduction



Julia Crick and Elisabeth van Houts

I.

Land use and people



Robin Fleming

I.

Water and land



Stephen Rippon

I.

Forest and upland



Oliver Rackham

I.

Mineral resources



Peter Claughton

I.

Health and disease



Carole Rawcliff e

II. Authority and community



Bruce O’Brien

II. Lordship and labour



Stephen Baxter

II. Order and justice



John Hudson

II. War and violence



John Hudson v

Contents

vi II.

Family, marriage, kinship



Elisabeth van Houts

II.

Poor and powerless



David A. E. Pelteret

III.

Towns and their hinterlands



David Griffiths

III. Commerce and markets



Richard Britnell

III.

Urban planning



Julia Barrow

III. Urban populations and associations



Charles West

IV.

Invasion and migration



Elisabeth van Houts

IV.

Ethnicity and acculturation



D. M. Hadley

IV.

Intermarriage



Elisabeth van Houts

IV.

The Jews



Anna Sapir Abulafia

V.

Religion and belief



Carl Watkins

V.

Rites of passage and pastoral care



Sarah Hamilton

V.

Saints and cults



Paul Antony Hayward

V.

Public spectacle



Tom Licence

V.

Textual communities (Latin)



Teresa Webber

V.

Textual communities (vernacular) Elaine Treharne



Contents VI.

Learning and training

vii 

Julia Crick

VI.

Information and its retrieval



Nicholas Karn

VI.

Esoteric knowledge



Andy Orchard

VI.

Medical practice and theory



Carole Rawcliff e

VI.

Subversion



Martha Bayless

Glossary Time line – Further reading Index

   

Figures

Frontispiece Horse harness pendants, c.   The reclaimed wetlands of the North Somerset Levels  Outlines of some representative medieval parks  Lead vessel from Bottesford, Scunthorpe (Lincs.), typical of those found on Middle to Late Saxon sites in the Trent valley  Evidence of cribra orbitalia in a medieval skeleton  Evidence of hypoplasia in dental remains  Examples of castles and planned lordships in Yorkshire  The more important towns in   Domesday population  Zones of nucleation and dispersal  Urban castles at York and Nottingham a The ship list of William the Conqueror b Portrait of William the Conqueror, from the Gesta Normannorum Ducum, autograph manuscript of Orderic Vitalis, c.   Gunhild (d. ) burial plaque, © KIK-IRPA, Brussels  Liturgical compendium in Latin and Old English, c.   Burnham Deepdale font  Tombstone of Gundrada of Warenne (d. ) a Burial casket of Gundrada of Warenne b Burial casket of Gundrada of Warenne (with close-up of her name)  The use of cauteries illustrated in an early twelfth-century English manuscript owned by the monks of Durham  A late eleventh-century herbal produced at the abbey of Bury St Edmunds

viii

page                    

Maps and tables

   page xiv xv

 England and its neighbours  England –      Kings of England –  The Norman and Angevin kings of England –

ix

 

Contributors

               , Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge         , School of History, University of Nottingham             , Department of History, King’s College, London              , Department of English, University of Oregon              , Department of History, University of Durham          , Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter          , Department of History, University of Exeter         , Department of History, Boston College             , Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford . .      , Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield            , Department of History, University of Exeter             , Department of History, University of Lancaster        , School of History, University of St Andrews          , School of Humanities, University of Southampton        , School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich   ’    , Department of History, University of Mary Washington         , Trinity College, Toronto    . .       , Independent Scholar            , Corpus Christi College, Cambridge            , School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich           , Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter               , English Department, Florida State University              , Emmanuel College, Cambridge         , Magdalene College, Cambridge           , Trinity College, Cambridge            , Department of History, University of Sheffield x

Acknowledgements

During the preparation of the volume our contributors have been unfailing in their willingness to respond to our original brief. We owe particular thanks to Dr Sarah Hamilton and Professor Stephen Rippon for additional help and advice in the preparation of the volume. We are also indebted to Professor Sir John Baker, Dr Oliver Creighton, the Reverend Stephen Day, Professor Stephen Rippon and Mr Mike Rouillard for permitting us to publish photographs and illustrations in their possession. We should, however, add that some of the photographs and illustrations are the choice of the editors, and not the authors. We have received encouragement from successive history editors at Cambridge University Press: Simon Whitmore, Michael Watson, Elizabeth Friend-Smith and their staff, amongst whom Gillian Dadd was particularly helpful. We would like to acknowledge the constructive comments and criticism of the anonymous referees who read our proposal and final typescript. We acknowledge use of the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England database, the Patrologia Latina database and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

xi

Abbreviations

ANS ASC ASE BHL

BL Councils and Synods

DB fol. EcHR EEA EETS EHD

EHR JEH JMH ODNB

Anglo-Norman Studies Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Anglo-Saxon England Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, Antiquae et Mediae Aetatis, Subsidia Hagiographica  ( vols., Brussels, –); with Novum Supplementum, H. Fros, ed. (Subsidia Hagiographica ; Brussels, ) British Library D. Whitelock, M. Brett and C. N. L. Brooke, eds. Councils and Synods with Other Documents Related to the English Church, vol. , A.D. –, ( vols., Oxford, ) Domesday Book, (A. Williams, G. H. Martin, eds., Domesday Book. A Complete Translation. Alecto Historical Editions, (London, )) Economic History Review English Episcopal Acta Early English Text Society Dorothy Whitelock, ed. English Historical Documents, vol. , (nd edn; London, ); David Douglas and George Greenaway, eds., vol. II (London, ) English Historical Review Journal of Ecclesiastical History Journal of Medieval History H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Times to the Year  ( vols.; Oxford, ; online edn ) xii

Abbreviations OMT PL P&P PRO RS Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters TRHS

xiii

Oxford (formerly Nelson’s) Medieval Texts (Oxford, –) J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina ( vols.; Paris, –) Past and Present Public Record Office (The National Archives) Rolls Series (London, –) P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography, (London, ) Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

250 100

500 200

750 km 500 miles

400

300

NORWAY Bergen

SC O

TL

AN

Oslo

Glasgow

D St. Andrews

Edinburgh Jelling

NORTHUMBRIA

E D A N

IRELAND ES

Dublin

DENMARK

York Lincoln

E

lb Bremen e

L A

W AL

Gloucester

MERCIA W

ENGLAND

Westminster

Bruges

Saint-Omer

Caen

Se

e ld Antwerp

Cologne

FLANDERS

Rouen in e

Trier R hi

ne

Paris

GERMANY

le el

Mo s

WESSEX Canterbury KENT

Sche

0

S c a n d i n a v i a

0

Loire

Fleury-sur-Loire

F R A N C E

Map  England and its neighbours

xiv

50

25

0 0

75

100

50

25

125

150 km

75

100 miles

Alnwick

Ty ne

Newcastle

Carlisle Durham Tees

Wharfe

York

Lincoln Chester

t en Tr

Norwich Sev e

rn

Ely Bury St Raunds Furnells Edmunds Huntingdon Cambridge Ipswich

Worcester Hereford Gloucester

Eynsham Oxford Westminster

Malmesbury Bristol

ha

T

Cardiff

me

Cheddar Glastonbury

Rochester Canterbury Dover

Winchester

Exeter

Dartmouth

Map  England –

xv

s