Between Subjects and Citizens: the Commons of England, c. 1300-1550

Between Subjects and Citizens: the Commons of England, c. 1300-1550

Lecture by John Watts

Given at Durham University on June 24, 2015

The political, social and cultural conditions of later medieval England fostered a situation in which ordinary people could have remarkable political agency. Popular risings in 1381 and 1450 transformed the political landscape, and – partly through the key notion of ‘the commons’ – a varied cast of artisans, labourers, husbandmen and tenant farmers affected trends in religion and literature as well as political and social life. My lecture will explore the rise, the fall and the implications of this historic state of affairs.

John Watts is Professor of Later Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He has written widely on the politics and political culture of England and Europe in the later middle ages. He is currently working on a book for the New Oxford History of England series, entitled Renaissance England, 1461-1547.

This lecture is part of the “From Subjects to Citizens? 800 Years of Citizen Politics” Seminar Series in conjuntion with the Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt Exhibition.