population, 1, 2, 4, 6-7, 12-16, 18, 30, 46, 153, 195, 206
Postan, M. M., 82, 153
pottage or porridge, 91, 94-96
poultry, 38, 62, 145-146
preaching, see sermons
Prest, Hugh, 144, 184-85, 196
priests, parish, 156-58, 169-71
celibacy of, 161-62
education of, 157-58
manuals for, 158-59
marriage of, 161
religious instruction of parishioners by, 169-70
primogeniture, 110
prison as punishment, 193
Proby, Sir Thomas, 205
Prudhomme, Alexander, 180-81
Prudhomme, Emma, 79, 86, 178
Prudhomme, Matilda, 78, 86, 180
Prudhomme, Richard, 86
Prudhomme, Walter, 86
Prudhomme, William, 86
punfold or pinfold (pound), 38, 41, 48, 245
Quinel, Peter, bishop of Exeter, 163
Raftis, J. A., 70-71, 75, 152
Ramsey (Huntingdonshire), 152, 173
Ramsey Abbey, 2, 5, 24-27, 28-29, 42, 43, 45, 46-47, 48, 50, 55, 58, 65, 75, 82, 83, 93, 109, 112, 113, 127, 133-34, 140, 152, 156, 159-60, 173, 187-88, 190, 199, 204
acquisition of Elton by, 24-27
cartulary of, 31, 69, 144, 185, 187-88
founding of, 24
knight service owed by, 28-29
suppression of, 201
rape, 180, 190
reaping, 139-41, 197
reap-reeve, 57
recreation, 99-103, 206
rector, 41, 77-78, 156-58, 160-61
absentee, 157-58
rectory, 39, 161
reeve, 49, 53-56, 83, 84, 87, 93, 245
Reeve, Andrew, 187
Reeve, Emma wife of Richard, 113
Reeve, Gilbert son of Richard, 84
Reeve, Henry, 55
Reeve, John son of Henry, 81, 108
Reeve, Michael, 87
Reeve, Richard, 87, 178
Reeve, Richard son of Richard, 181
rents, 64, 73, 77-78, 108
repegos (goose-reap), 102
Richard I (Lionheart), king, 193
ridge and furrow, 41, 137
Roberts, Brian K., 41
Robin Hood, 193
Roman conquest of Britain, 19-20
roof truss, 90
Rouvehed, William, 89
Rowley, Trevor, 7
rye, 9, 16, 55, 60, 198
Sabbe, Emma, 86
Sabyn, Richard, 181
Sabyn, Robert, 181
St. Albans, 112, 175, 188
St. Ives (town), 29, 48, 52
fair of, 48, 51
St. Laurence, church of, Bradford-on-Avon (Wiltshire), 23
St. Neots, 51
St. Swithun’s Abbey, 56
Saladin, Agnes daughter of Philip, 180
Saladin, Andrew, 150
Saladin, Matilda, 180
Saladin, Philip, 180
sale of land, 73,80-82, 111, 154
sanctuary, 192
Saul, Nigel, 56
Scott, Sir Walter, 193
Searle, Eleanor, 112
selion (strip), 129-30, 245
Seneschaucie, 49-50, 53, 54, 59, 64, 142
serf, see villein
serfdom, 64, 68-69, 152, 199-200
serjeant, 51
sermons, 33, 92-93, 115, 120, 127-28, 165-66
structure of, 166-68
servants, 78
servile fees, 64, 75-77, 199
sheep, 22, 35, 48, 59, 62, 65, 83, 135, 143, 147, 196
sheepfold, 38, 48, 59, 77
Shepherd, Gilbert, 108
sickness, 120-21
slander, 87, 187
slavery, 64, 68
Smith, Henry son of Henry, 85, 177, 180-81, 186
Smith, John son of Henry, 85, 186
Smith, Muriel daughter of Richard, 113
Smith, Nicholas son of Richard, 85, 178
Smith, Robert, 79, 186
smiths, 39, 149, 150-51
smithy, 39, 41, 79, 151, 196
solar (room of house), 90
spinning, 145, 196
sporting chance, 138-39
Stamford, 51, 52, 152
fair of, 51, 52
standard of living, 97-98, 141-42, 153-54
status of peasants, 67-69, 71-85, 154, 205-6
economic, 67, 68, 71-78, 80-83
legal, 67-69, 71-78, 133-34, 205-6
social, 67, 69, 83-85
Statute of Laborers (1351), 197, 198, 199
Stekedec, Athelina, 79
Stekedec, Robert, 79, 85
Stevenage (Hertfordshire), 148
steward (seneschal), 49-51, 144, 172, 173, 184, 185, 246
stocks, 41, 182, 189
Stoke Pryor, 125
sunken hut (grubenhaus), 11,14
surnames, 69-71
Tacitus, 10-11, 14
tallage, 76, 154, 246
tally stick, 55, 246
tanning, 152
taxation, see lay subsidies, poll tax
technology, agricultural, 16-17, 22, 153, 203, 204
thatch, 34, 38
threshing, 61, 141, 143
Tilmanstone (Kent), 89
tithe, 159-60, 246
tithing, 179-80, 188, 246
head of (chief pledge), 83-84, 179
Titow, J. Z., 97, 153
toft, 34, 35, 41, 246
tools, 9, 11-12, 135, 143, 151
torture, 193
towns, 152
trespass, 190
trial by combat, 191
trial by jury, 191
trial by ordeal, 191
Trow-Smith, Robert, 64, 136
Trune, John, 184
Trune, Richard, 42, 90
Tyler, Wat, 198
Tysoe (Warwickshire), 45
Upwood (Huntingdonshire), 123
Vaughan, Rowland, 203
vicar, 50, 156-57
villa, 7, 11, 13, 20
village autonomy of, 48-49, 205
decline of, 195-207
definition of, 7-8
function of, 3, 6-7
history of, 7, 9-10, 12-18, 36, 43, 195-207
layout of, 4, 41-42
Mediterranean, 14
nucleated, 14-16
open field, 1-2, 5, 14-16, 205-7
origins of, 11-15
types of, 41-42
villein, 68, 74-77, 245 (see also serfdom, status of peasants)
vineyards, 41
Vinogradoff, Paul, 154, 189
violence in the village, 84-85, 103-5, 180-81
virgate, 47, 72, 246
wages, 61, 145, 197
Wagge, John, 78, 81
Wagge, Sarah, 187
waif and stray, 48
Wakefield (Yorkshire), 107
wakes, 127, 162
Walter of Henley, 49, 51, 56, 57, 59, 62, 64, 136, 137-38, 141
Warboys (Huntingdonshire), 47, 70-71, 115, 124-25, 160
wardens of the autumn, 57, 183, 246
wardship, 108-9, 246
Warenne, earl of, 44
Water, Henry atte, 76
wattle and daub, 11, 33
week-work, 47, 56, 58, 134-35, 246
wells, 34, 41
Westminster, First Statute of (1275), 191
Westminster, Second Statute of (1285), 192
Weston (Huntingdonshire), 64, 173
West Stow (Suffolk), 20, 21, 22, 92
wet nurse, 119
Wharram Percy (Yorkshire), 4-5, 36, 64, 88, 90, 200
wheat, 9, 11, 16, 60-61, 137-38, 140, 141, 153
wheelbarrow, 135, 151
Whitby Abbey, 202
widows, 107
Wijster, Netherlands, 12-13
William of Pagula, 159, 165, 169
William the Conqueror, 28, 30, 44, 190
wills, 110-111
Winchelsey, Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, 163
winnowing, 61, 141, 143
Wistow (Huntingdonshire), 109, 127, 173
women
in land transactions, 111
status of, 145
work of, 144-146, 153
Wood, John, 7
woodward, 57, 246
wool, 62, 64-66, 147
Worcester, bishop of, 58, 141-42
workday, length of, 134
Wyse, Alice wife of Reginald le, 86
Wyse, Gilbert son of Reginald le, 181
Wyse, Reginald le, 84
Wyse, Richard le, 80
Yelden (Bedfordshire), 80
yields, 60-61
Yorkshire, 30
COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint:
Excerpts from The Court Roll of Chalgrave Manor, translated by Marian K. Dale, and from Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls, translated by R. F. Hunnisett, by the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society;
Passages translated by Susan Edgington from Goscelin’s Life and Miracles of St. Ivo, by permission of Susan Edgington.
Excerpts from Nevill Coghill’s translation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, copyright 1958, 1960, 1975, and 1977, and from Geoffrey Brereton’s translation of Froissart’s Chronicles, copyright 1968, by Penguin Books Ltd.
Acknowledgments
This book was researched at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library of the University of Michigan.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Professor J. A. Raftis of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, who read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. We also wish to express thanks to Mr. Alan Clark of Elton and to Miss Kate Chantry of the Cambridgeshire Public Record Office in Huntingdon.
Other Books By
Also by Frances Gies:
The Knight in History (1984)
Joan of Arc (1981)
By Frances and Joseph Gies:
Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages (1987)
Women in the Middle Ages (1978)
The Ingenious Yankees (1976)
Life in a Medieval Castle (1974)
Merchants and Moneymen (1972)
Leonard of Pisa (juvenile) (1969)
Life in a Medieval City (1969)
Copyright
LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE.
Copyright © 1990 by Frances and Joseph Gies.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-01668-3
First HarperPerennial edition published 1991.
* * *
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Gies, Frances.
Life in a medieval village/Frances and Joseph Gies.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-06-016215-5
1. Elton (Cambridgeshire, England)—Social conditions. 2. Elton (Cambridgeshire, England)—Rural conditions. 3. Peasantry—England—Elton (Cambridgeshire)—History. 4. England—Social life and customs—Medieval period, 1066-1485. I. Gies, Joseph. II. Title. HN398.E45G54 1989
306’.09426’5—dc20 89-33759
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*Photographs are the authors’ unless otherwise credited.
†Formerly Huntingdonshire, until the redrawing of county lines in 1974.
*One expert dates them later, c. 1100.
*Conversion among variant acres was none too easy for medieval mathematics, which lacked plural fractions. The author of one treatise, attempting to express the quantity of one acre, three and nine sixteenths rods, gave it as “one acre and a half and a rod and a half and a sixteenth of a rod.”
*Surnames are spelled in a variety of ways in the records—for example, Prudhomme, Prodhomme, Prudomme, Prodom, Produmie, Prodome, Produme, Prodomme; Saladin, Saladyn, Saldy, Saldyn, Saldin, Salyn, Saln; Blaccalf, Blacchalf, Blacchelf, Blacchal, Blakchalf. We have chosen one spelling and used it throughout.
*He apparently traced his family back to a “Richard son of Reginald,” a free tenant in the survey of 1160, to whom Abbot Walter had granted two virgates of land formerly held by Thuri Priest. Richard may have inherited another virgate from his father, and the family seems to have acquired three virgates belonging to another landholder in the survey, one Reiner son of Ednoth.13 In a survey of 1218, “John son of John of Elton” is listed as holding a hide of land “of the lord abbot of Ramsey.”
*The Hundred Rolls of 1279, seventeen manorial court rolls (1279-1 342), and ten manorial accounts (1286-1346).
* Likc all other excerpts in Middle English in this hook, this is translated into modern English.
* Such as the Last Judgment discovered in the church at Broughton, currently heing restored.