English towns in the late middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth

Historians are divided over the economic fortunes of English towns in the late middle ages. Many argue for a ‘general crisis’ while others emphasize the variety of urban experience. Great Yarmouth is a striking example of a town facing protracted difficulties. Its decline in relation to other English towns between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is particularly marked. Fourth among provincial towns in the 1334 tax return, Yarmouth ranked eighteenth in 1377 and twentieth in the subsidies of the 1520s.Yarmouth's problems become apparent soon after 1350, but while the Black Death may have killed one-third of its inhabitants, it is not the main cause of the town's misfortunes. Yarmouth depended heavily on two industries: shipping and fishing. The former was undermined by the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the latter by competition from the Low Countries. A silting harbour which drove away trade and the high cost of building and repairing the town walls added to Yarmouth's difficulties.Whether economic decline is measured in terms of totals, for example total volume of trade, or in terms of individual production or wealth, Yarmouth fared badly. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Yarmouth's trade was much reduced and the town's leading burgesses seem much poorer than their counterparts before 1350. While Yarmouth clearly was in decline from about 1350 onwards, the town's experiences cannot be used to prove the case for a ‘general crisis’. They have to be seen in the context of the continuing prosperity of Norwich and the revival of Ipswich.     

English towns in the late middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth

Historians are divided over the economic fortunes of English towns in the late middle ages. Many argue for a ‘general crisis’ while others emphasize the variety of urban experience. Great Yarmouth is a striking example of a town facing protracted difficulties. Its decline in relation to other English towns between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is particularly marked. Fourth among provincial towns in the 1334 tax return, Yarmouth ranked eighteenth in 1377 and twentieth in the subsidies of the 1520s.Yarmouth's problems become apparent soon after 1350, but while the Black Death may have killed one-third of its inhabitants, it is not the main cause of the town's misfortunes. Yarmouth depended heavily on two industries: shipping and fishing. The former was undermined by the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the latter by competition from the Low Countries. A silting harbour which drove away trade and the high cost of building and repairing the town walls added to Yarmouth's difficulties.Whether economic decline is measured in terms of totals, for example total volume of trade, or in terms of individual production or wealth, Yarmouth fared badly. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Yarmouth's trade was much reduced and the town's leading burgesses seem much poorer than their counterparts before 1350. While Yarmouth clearly was in decline from about 1350 onwards, the town's experiences cannot be used to prove the case for a ‘general crisis’. They have to be seen in the context of the continuing prosperity of Norwich and the revival of Ipswich.     

The Arctic in the middle ages

The rather sparse and dubious data about Arctic regions known to Antiquity were taken over, mostly via Pliny, by the middle ages and reinforced and expanded in significant ways. This paper, which was delivered as an Inaugural Lecture at the University of Groningen in November 1982, reviews the activities and reports of medieval explorers, colonists and traders in or about the Arctic and considers the handful of medieval writers who display some real knowledge about Arctic regions. The generality of medieval writers on history and geography knew little or nothing. Even so, it is shown that here and there references are made to many of the features which are thought of as typically Arctic in the modern popular consciousness, with the exception of igloos and muskoxen. Commercial connections with the Arctic through Novgorod and Bergen are examined, and some account given of contacts with Iceland and the disappearance of the Norse settlement in Greenland. Polar bears and white falcons in western Europe, both of nearly indisputable Arctic origin, are discussed, attention is drawn to the very inadequate portrayal of the Arctic on medieval maps, and the paper closes with a glance at Olaus Magnus's account of northern peoples published in 1555.     

The Arctic in the middle ages

The rather sparse and dubious data about Arctic regions known to Antiquity were taken over, mostly via Pliny, by the middle ages and reinforced and expanded in significant ways. This paper, which was delivered as an Inaugural Lecture at the University of Groningen in November 1982, reviews the activities and reports of medieval explorers, colonists and traders in or about the Arctic and considers the handful of medieval writers who display some real knowledge about Arctic regions. The generality of medieval writers on history and geography knew little or nothing. Even so, it is shown that here and there references are made to many of the features which are thought of as typically Arctic in the modern popular consciousness, with the exception of igloos and muskoxen. Commercial connections with the Arctic through Novgorod and Bergen are examined, and some account given of contacts with Iceland and the disappearance of the Norse settlement in Greenland. Polar bears and white falcons in western Europe, both of nearly indisputable Arctic origin, are discussed, attention is drawn to the very inadequate portrayal of the Arctic on medieval maps, and the paper closes with a glance at Olaus Magnus's account of northern peoples published in 1555.     

Food and the middle ages

The study of food in the middle ages attracted much interest among antiquarians from the eighteenth century on. New perspectives came with the growth of social and economic history. Over the last two decades, re-evaluations of historical sources, along with contributions from other disciplines, especially archaeology, the archaeological sciences, anthropology and sociology, have changed the possibilities for this area of research. The study of cooking, of cuisine and its cultural context, as much as food production and the material conditions of life, is now central to developing our understanding of consumption. This paper explores new possibilities for the study of taste and demotic cuisine, food and virtue, the association of women with food, and the role of food in society and in cultural change.     

A multiple myeloma of the late middle ages from unterregenbach,southwestern Germany

In the early 1960s the grave of a probable donor was discovered in the St Veit church in Unterregenbach, Stadt Langenburg, Kreis Crailsheim, southwestern Germany. After a re-examination, the skeleton may be regarded as clearly corresponding to the typical clinical picture of a multiple myeloma/plasma cell myeloma. The 45–55-year-old female individual shows all the characteristics of a malignant plasma cell tumour, with specific osteolytic lesions of the skull, vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, scapulae and long bones, and even-sized single defects without reactive zones on the edges. Several pathological fractures of the ribs and a vertebral compression fracture can be observed. The gnawing-mark-like features on the inner surface of the compact bone and the ‘punched-out’ lesions on the outer are distinguishing marks of a multiple myeloma.     

Feasts and gifts: sharing food in the middle ages

This essay introduces a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History on feasting and gifts of food from the early middle ages through to the early modern period. It discusses the tensions between hierarchy and community, largesse and luxury in the feast, and the continued importance of communal eating throughout the medieval period.     

Luni in the middle ages: The agony and the disappearance of a city

Rich town, center of marble trading, and important port of transit during the Imperial Age, Luni outlived the end of the Roman Empire, although weakend, and experienced without major destruction domination by Byzantines and Longoboards, and annexation to the Carolingian kingdom. Luni held an advantage over other cities of Roman origin in lying along one of the most important land-based routes of the Middle Ages and in lying close to the sea on the mouth of a major river. Yet while neighboring cities were flourishing, Luni reached the lowest point in a decline that culminated in its final abandonment in 1204. The primary cause lay in the vast effects of the area's environmental deterioration. The natural modifications made it nearly impossible to restore its commercial and Mediterranean trading systems and for its population to grow, after the tenth century. Even the presence in town throughout the medieval period of a powerful episcopal authority could not ensure Luni's survival. For the period between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries, the documentation shows considerable activity on the part of the bishops. This was oriented towards the new and more profitable settlements in the countryside around Luni, however, rather than towards the organization and development of lasting economic structures in the city itself. Financial and social elites never arose in the city as in coeval Italian civitates and Luni was unable to become part of the new system of commercial and political relationships in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and was shortly thereafter abandoned.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.     

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.     

Why praise Jews: satire and history in the middle ages

Modern readers, including highly sophisticated, professional historians, have not always understood that medieval praise of jews, in its rare occurrences, never signifies categorical approval of Israelites. Instead, such praise functions as a condemnation, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, of Christians whose behavior is not even equal to that of the lowest members of society. The elaborate story told by Richard of Devizes about the murder, towards the end of the twelfth century, of a young Christian by a Jew at Winchester provides a clear illustration of the problem.     

Boston and Grimsby in the middle ages: an administrative contrast

Study of the Lincolnshire towns of Boston and Grimsby throws light on the question of borough status in the middle ages. Both towns shared the basic liberties which made urban life possible in the middle ages: personal and tenurial freedom, freedom from tolls and other economic privileges such as the right to hold fairs and markets. Although contemporaries had no clear definition of ‘the borough’ and boroughs were not a distinct legal category, historians have profitably employed this concept to draw attention to these fundamental tenurial and economic liberties. However, the privileges held by individual boroughs varied enermously. Royal boroughs, such as Grimsby, tended to be marked by an administrative independence where the community of burgesses were free to elect their own mayors and bailiffs, and paid salaried officials from a common purse. In many seignorial boroughs, including Boston, the burgesses enjoyed less self government. Here the town's overlords maintained a more active interest in administration through their control of the town courts and their appointment of officers. Nevertheless there is little evidence for conflict between lords and burgesses at Boston (as there was in many monastic boroughs) and the town flourished. Urban liberties were the essential pre-condition of town life but there was no necessary correlation between urban growth and town franchises. Boston was a wealthier and more populous town than Grimsby and yet enjoyed less administrative independence. The extent of urban liberties reflected lordship rather than economic importance.     

Boston and Grimsby in the middle ages: an administrative contrast

Study of the Lincolnshire towns of Boston and Grimsby throws light on the question of borough status in the middle ages. Both towns shared the basic liberties which made urban life possible in the middle ages: personal and tenurial freedom, freedom from tolls and other economic privileges such as the right to hold fairs and markets. Although contemporaries had no clear definition of ‘the borough’ and boroughs were not a distinct legal category, historians have profitably employed this concept to draw attention to these fundamental tenurial and economic liberties. However, the privileges held by individual boroughs varied enermously. Royal boroughs, such as Grimsby, tended to be marked by an administrative independence where the community of burgesses were free to elect their own mayors and bailiffs, and paid salaried officials from a common purse. In many seignorial boroughs, including Boston, the burgesses enjoyed less self government. Here the town's overlords maintained a more active interest in administration through their control of the town courts and their appointment of officers. Nevertheless there is little evidence for conflict between lords and burgesses at Boston (as there was in many monastic boroughs) and the town flourished. Urban liberties were the essential pre-condition of town life but there was no necessary correlation between urban growth and town franchises. Boston was a wealthier and more populous town than Grimsby and yet enjoyed less administrative independence. The extent of urban liberties reflected lordship rather than economic importance.     

Sermon,preacher and society in the middle ages

Over the past twenty-five years, studies produced on medieval preaching and sermons have grown so considerably that they now constitute a discipline known as sermon studies. The discipline incorporates various methodologies which include exegesis, liturgy, theology, social history, cultural history, literary criticism, textual criticism, and art history. Therefore, this essay can only be a sampling of some of the literature which has recently appeared. The essay is ordered under the headings: ‘sermon’, ‘preacher’, and ‘society’. The section on sermons isolates methodological issues which form the basis of sermon studies. It outlines the criteria scholars have established to use medieval sermons as an historical tool. The second section investigates the diversity of preachers and considers their role as educators. The third section on society considers those studies which have examined sermons as sources which reflect as well as influence moral and intellectual tendencies in the Middle Ages.