4. Growth of towns

• Free towns

The changes in the economic and social conditions were accompanied by the intermixture of people coming from different regions, the growth of towns with a mixed population, and the strengthening of social ties between the various regions.

The growth of trade promoted the growth of towns. (See Map 9) London, the residence of the Norman kings, became the most populous town of England.Two centuries before, kings had realised that towns could become effective centres of royal authority and balance the power of the local nobility. As a result, many towns got ‘charters of freedom’ which freed them from feudal duties to the local lord. These charters, however, had to be paid for, but they were worth the money. Towns could then raise their own taxes on coming goods. They could also have their own courts, controlled by the town merchants, on condition that they paid an annual tax to the king. People who lived inside the town walls were practically free from feudal rule. It was the beginning of a middle class and a capitalist economy.

Map 9

(From S.D. Zaitseva, Early Britain, Moscow, 1975.)

• Guilds

In towns, the central role was played by guilds. These were brotherhoods of merchants or artisans. The word ‘guild’ came from the Saxon word ‘gildan’ which meant ‘to pay’, as members of guilds had to pay towards the cost of the brotherhood. The right to form a guild was sometimes included in a town’s charter of freedom. It was from the members of the guild that the town’s leaders were usually chosen. The guilds defended the rights of their members and saw to the high standards of the trade.

During the 14^th century, as larger towns continued to grow, there appeared craft guilds: all members of each of the guilds belonged to the same trade or craft. The earliest craft guilds were those of weavers in London and Oxford. Each guild tried to protect its own trade interests. Members of the guilds had the right to produce, buy or sell their particular goods without paying special town taxes. But they also had to make sure their goods were of a certain quality, and had to keep to agreed prices so as not to undermine the trade of other members of the guild.

In London the development of craft guilds went further than elsewhere. The rich upper part of the craft community, the so-called livery companies, developed into large financial institutions. Today they pay an important role in the government of the City of London, and the yearly choice of the Lord Mayor of London.

• C

  5. The Hundred Years War

  auses of the war

The 14^th and 15^th centuries were also marked by the Hundred Years War which lasted from 1337 to 1453. The causes of the war were both political and economic. Politically, King Edward III of England claimed the French throne and wanted to get back the English possessions in France which had already been lost. It was a good enough reason for starting a war. But there were far more important reasons. The king of France, who ceased Gascony and Burgundy, and the French feudal lords who wanted to better themselves by seizing the free towns of Flanders, deprived England of its traditional wool market. England could not afford the destruction of overseas trade. The threat to their trade with Flanders persuaded the English merchants that war against France was inevitable. In 1337 Edward III declared war on France.

The beginning of the campaign was rather successful for England because of its military supremacy. Due to the newly invented cannons the English defeated the French army in several battles, the most important of which were the battles at Crecy in 1346 and at Poitiers in 1356. By 1360, the English had regained their lands on the Continent. But then the tide of war turned and the territories gained at the beginning of the war were lost in the next fifteen years. At the beginning of the 15^th century, Henry V, who is remembered as the most heroic of English kings, undertook successful military campaigns in France. In 1415 he won the battle of Agincourt, in which the French outnumbered the English by more than three to one. In accordance with the Treaty of Troyes (1420), Henry V of England was recognized as heir to the French king. Moreover, Henry married the French king’s daughter Katherine of Valois. But Henry V never took the French throne as he died a few months before the French monarch. His nine-month-old son inherited the crowns of England and France.

• Joan of Arc

After Henry V’s death in 1422, Joan of Arc rallied the French and had Charles II of France crowned as the lawful King of France. The English were gradually expelled from France, until only Calais remained in their possession.

Joan of Arc, or the Maid of Orleans, is the French national heroine. She claimed to hear voices urging her to help the dauphin, Charles II, to regain the French crown from the English. Joan convinced Charles of her mission, and led a large army to raise the siege of Orleans in 1429. Charles was crowned in Reims the same year. In 1430 Joan was captured by the Burgundians who sold her to the English. Joan was tried for heresy and sorcery by an ecclesiastical court at Rouen. She was condemned and burned at stake. King Charles II of France, who could have saved her, turned a blind eye on the trial and the execution. He was evidently frightened that he had been assisted by a witch. Joan’s condemnation was annulled in 1456 and she was canonized in the 20^th century, in 1920. The feast is celebrated on May 30.