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It was soon after this, in
the very early 14th century, that the Parliament was divided into the House
of Lords, which included bishops, and the House of Commons. But always there
was tension between the rights and claims of the king, the barons, the
Church, and the ordinary people. This same tension underlay the much later
events of the
Civil War (1640) and the
Glorious Revolution (1688).
The rise of towns was slow. From the beginning London was central,
with various royal palaces including the Abbey at Westminster, and the Tower
of London built by William beside the Thames. But the kings were often
absent, in France or in other royal houses.
In the Church, too, this is a time of revolutionary change.
For centuries, the highest form of Christian life had been considered to be
the monastic life, retreat from the world into a life of prayer.
In all the 14th century, England had only five kings: Edward
I, II, III, Richard II, Henry IV. Edward II was deposed and murdered in 1327
in circumstances of social conflict and personal corruption that Christopher
Marlowe dramatized in his play Edward II. Edward III initiated
the
Hundred Years’ War in an attempt to regain control over the lands in
Normandy and Anjou lost to France in 1204. His invasion of France in 1337
began a series of campaigns, often interrupted for lack of money, which only
ended with the defeat of the English in 1453. The great military hero of the
later years of Edward’s reign was his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince,
who died just before his father, in 1376. A younger son, John of Gaunt, was
the patron of Chaucer and the nation’s leading power-broker.
During this century England became fully integrated in a
complex network of international trade and was deeply affected by the rise
of a dynamic and ambitious merchant class of free citizens in London and the
other main cities. Chaucer belonged to this class. England had a population
of less than five million in the first half of the century. It is striking
that Edward III and Richard II ruled in a very luxurious style, inspired by
the codes of chivalry found in the romances. The royal court was the centre
of a refined culture that cost a lot of money, while many peasants in the
countryside could scarcely live.
The most terrible event of the century was the
Black Death,
the plague pandemic that spread across the world. Altogether in 1348-9,
between one third and one half of the population of Western Europe died.
There was no protection, the rich died like the poor. It is astonishing that
the structures of society did not collapse.
One major result of so many deaths was a sudden rise in the
demand for farm laborers, whose wages were kept low by law. In 1381 there
was the Peasants’ Revolt in Kent and elsewhere, led by Watt Tyler, John
Ball, Jack Strawe. Thousands of them marched on London, killing the
Archbishop of Canterbury and many noblemen before being overcome during a
dramatic encounter with the young Richard II. There was a strong
anti-clerical side to their protest, since the Church was identified with
power. It owned vast areas of land, and high churchmen were great lords. The
peasants also singled out for murder the Flemish weavers who had settled in
England to benefit from the famous English wool, producing expensive cloth.
The Black Death brought a new urgency to people’s search to
be assured of Christ’s salvation, since the plague might strike at any
moment and seemed to take the young and strong first. A new movement of
popular Christianity began to challenge the structures of feudalism, and
especially of feudal Christianity, under the leadership of an Oxford
teacher, John Wyclif (1330-84). He became the intellectual leader of people,
soon called Lollards, who wished to return to a more intensely personal form
of Christianity. He realized the need to have the Bible in English and with
others began the work of translation. This was the first such work since
King Alfred’s time and became a symbol of democratic rights. All people
should be able to read the Bible in their own language. He was a popular
preacher and his anti-clericalism made him popular with great lords.
In 1445, Henry VI married a French princess,
surrendering Normandy and Maine to France as the price for a peace that
still did not come. At last, at Castillon in 1453, the English were
overwhelmed by the French army’s use of guns, and the only part of France
remaining in English hands was the port of Calais, which France took back a
hundred years later.
In 1453 there was another Peasants' Revolt in England,
led by Jack Cade, with complaints about corruption, unfair taxation, low
wages... but nothing was done. Henry VI, who had inherited a weak mind from
his mother's family, was only interested in religion and good works;
meanwhile, the great families were fighting for control, while money was
being wasted in conspicuous consumption at court. The royal family, the
Lancasters, with their supporters, were opposed by a coalition led by the
heir-apparent Richard, the duke of York. In 1455 this became open warfare,
largely inspired by the king's wife, Margaret.
These Wars of the Roses were mostly fought in and near Wales,
and in 1460 Henry VI was taken prisoner, while the son of Richard of York
became king as Edward IV. The fighting stopped for a time and the nation
became more prosperous. In later battles, Henry VI's supporters tried to
restore him, but finally he was murdered in 1471, soon after his only son
had been killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
It was during Edward’s reign and with his support that
William Caxton set up his printing-press in Westminster in 1476. Edward
encouraged the rising merchant classes to expand their business and trading
activities. But in 1483 he died and the throne was seized by the ambitious
Richard of Gloucester, who directly or indirectly murdered a number of
rivals in order to become king Richard III. Shakespeare’s play has
immortalized an almost certainly untrue portrait of him as a warped monster.
Two years later Henry Tudor, the earl of Richmond, returned from exile and
defeated Richard, who was killed, at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. He
became Henry VII, the first of the Tudors.
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