English rural life in the fifteenth century
A rare opportunity to know English provincial life in the fifteenth century is afforded in that wonderful collection known as ‘The Paston Letters.’
The medieval peasant house in Bohemia – continuity and change
The archaeologically resolved theme of the medieval peasant house can be divided into three developmental areas, an understanding of which has various groundings, while yielding diverse results.
Medieval Fishing at Gufuskálar, Snæfellsnes, Iceland
Recent excavations at the site of Gufuskálar on the far western tip of Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula are attempting to rescue valuable archaeological information from a quickly eroding coastline.
How Great Was the Great Famine of 1314-22: Between Ecology and Institutions
The first aspect to be examined is the extent of harvest failures within different crop sectors. The second issue is to what degree was the Great Famine of 1314-22 a subsistence crisis…My project is based on over 3,000 manorial and monastic accounts compiled between c.1310 and 1350.
Agricultural wage labour in fifteenth-century England
In the period when agriculture dominated almost every aspect of daily life, the lords and wealthy peasants relied on paid labourers for farming business, yardlanders hired labourers to work with them, whilst moderate and landless villagers worked for hire. Agrarian wage labour is a window on the economy as well as on agricultural society.
Labor Markets After the Black Death: Landlord Collusion and the Imposition of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
The differences in the imposition of serfdom led to different economic and political effects for the peasantry in Europe. In Western Europe, wages rose, grain prices fell, and the consumption of meat, dairy products, and beer increased. More and more peasants moved into a widening “middle class” that could afford to buy manufactured goods.
Herding horses: a model of prehistoric horsemanship in Scandinavia – and elsewhere?
This article discusses a possible system of horse keeping, used in prehistoric Scandinavia, with focus on the Late Iron Age.
What work did Viking slaves do?
‘Slave work in general was heavy and dirty’ explains Janken Myrdal in his article ‘Milking and Grinding, Digging and Herding: Slaves and Farmwork 1000-1300’.
A Tale of “Benevolent” Governments: Private Credit Markets, Public Finance, and the Role of Jewish Lenders in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
In Tuscan private credit markets, Jewish lending helped households to smooth consumption, buy working capital, and provide dowries for daughters.
Plague And Changes In Medieval European Society And Economy In The 14th And 15th Centuries
Standards of hygiene in the Middle Ages appeared high enough to prevent diseases as medieval Europeans, contrary to popular beliefs, bathed quite often. However, contact with domestic animals, which were frequently kept in the part of the house reserved for human activity, exposed people to animal-related diseases passed to humans via insects.
The Decline of the Cow: Agricultural and Settlement Change in Early Medieval Ireland
This article considers cows and dairying as the basis of value system in early societies, particularly in Ireland.
The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy
The rabbit was a rare beast in medieval England, and much sought after for both its meat and its fur.
The North Italian Cotton Industry 1200-1800
The versatility of cotton and its adaptability to a wide range of climatic conditions ensured a steady demand among urban and rural consumers linked by extensive commercial networks.
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
As I have shown elsewhere, the county of Holland underwent a structural change in the second half of the fourteenth century, when economically the emphasis shifted from agriculture to trade and industry and demographically from the country to the towns. The institutions however did not change.
The cost of enclosure and the benefits of convertible husbandry among peasant holdings in medieval England
The present paper will attempt to address these issues and outline the attitudes of the peasantry in regard to the potential of enclosing land and adopting convertible husbandry.
The Prince, the Park, and the Prey: Hunting in and around Milan in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Cristina Arrigoni-Martelli of York University examines the efforts made by the Dukes of Milan during the later Middle Ages to take part in one of the most popular activities of European aristocrats – hunting.
The Infrastructure of the Novgorodian Fur Trade in the Pre-Mongol Era (ca. 900-ca. 1240)
The urge to find additional supplies of pelts and better-quality furs drove not only the Novgorodian traders and tribute collectors to cross the Urals during the Middle Ages, but later the Muscovites to colonize Siberia and even later the Russian Empire to explore and establish control over the Russian Far East and Alaska.
A Hotbed for Dissidence: Southeast England in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
What were the causes and circumstances that led not only to the ebullient revolt in Southeast Europe, but also to ist relative success?
Writing Land in Anglo-Saxon England
In using writing as a means to contain dispute over time, the Anglo-Saxons repeatedly inscribed the troubling evidence of past dispute and anticipated loss into their thinking about land.
Great Sites: Hamwic
Helena Hamerow on excavations at Southampton, which reshaped our views of the origins of English towns and of long-distance trade in the 8th/9th centuries.
The Cost of Capital and Medieval Agricultural Technique
A major purpose of this paper is to consider the consequences of high medieval interest rates on wages and production techniques. It is argued that the high capital costs of medieval times had an important role in shaping medieval agricultural institutions and production techniques, and must also have sharply reduced wages in medieval Europe.
Alternate fortunes? The role of domestic ducks and geese from Roman to Medieval times in Britain
In this paper the relative frequency of duck and goose bones found in archaeological sites of Roman and medieval times in Britain will be discussed.
Millstones for Medieval Manors
Richard Holt recently reminded us that mills were at the forefront of medieval technology and argued persuasively that windmills may have been invented in late twelfth-century England.
The City of York in the time of Henry VIII
During this period, the role of the landed aristocracy was changing. With the creation of a professional standing army, in which soldiers were paid a wage, and the use of foreign mercenaries (think of the Swiss Guard), the traditional military function of the nobility receded.