#english_history 

## Society
Society was still based upon rank:
![[Pasted image 20220703111210.png]]
The most famous example of the conversion from a serf into a freeman was Dick Whittington, although in reality he was the son of a knight.
The real story is an example of the 2 classes: merchants and the gentry, overlapping.

### Economy
As a natural evolution of the burgeoning [[The growth of towns as centres of wealth in Medieval England|guilds]], they started isolating themselves from the poorer members of society.
As a result, the 14th century saw the first attempts to establish **trade unions**. ^00201d

However, the guilds were declining in importance because of a new force: "factories", trading stations established by English merchants across Europe, though they were similar to the guilds in terms of their aims and methods.

One of the most important of such factories was **the Company of the Staple** (staple in the Middle Ages - the place where all trade had to be done) in Calais. The "staple" aspect was introduced because:
1. It suited the Crown (easier taxation)
2. It suited the merchants (no competition)

Another important company was the "Merchant Adventurers".

### Agriculture
Wages for farmworkers and for skilled townspeople rose faster than the price of goods in the 15th century, but more and more good land was being used for sheep instead of food crops, with affluent sheep farmers fencing in land [[Government and society of the Saxons#^55e23e|which had alwasy been used by other villagers]]. This led to social and economic crisis in the 16th century.

### The growth of the middle class
By the 15th century most merchants, lawyers, yeomen and gentlemen were well educated. By the end of the Middle Ages the more successful of these were increasingly forming a single class of people. This was also the case in Scotland and Wales, with the Welsh middle class coming to England to study, trade or practise law.

The growth of this new middle class created a new atmosphere in Britain, mostly because of the increase in literacy. These people questioned the Church and the state's affairs (were supporters of [[Heresy and orthodoxy in the 14th century England|Wycliffe]]), disliked serfdom and feudalism.

### The condition of women
It was most certainly hard.
The Church taught that women should obey their husbands, spreading two ideas, like chalk and cheese,: that they should pure and holy like the Virgin Mary, and that, like Eve, they could not be trusted and were a moral danger to men. 

The first duty of every wife was to give her husband children, preferably sons. Because so many died as babies and childbirth back then was risky, producing children was dangerous. Yet this was the future for every wife from <=20 to 40.

The wife of a noble had more responsibilities: she was in charge of the manor and the village lands, all the servants etc, had to protect the manor if it was attacked, run the householf and many more.

# Government
![[English Parliament#^f1b885]]

## Justice
The another important change was that the courts of local lords no longer existed. The king's ones could no deal with all the work, so in 1363 Edward III appointed **"justices of peace"** (JP) to deal with smaller crimes and offences, and to hold court four times a year.
These JPs were usually from the middle class.