The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century (47 page)

10.
Kaeuper, “Two Early Lists of Literates.”

11.
For comparison, it has been estimated that the overall literacy level in England in 1500 was about 10 percent (Stephens, “Literacy,” p. 555). An urban literacy rate of 20 percent and a rural one of 5 percent would equate to 6 percent overall, based on the 12 percent of people living in urban areas mentioned in
chapter 1
. As the main force of the revolution in record keeping and education was a thirteenth-century development, this 6 percent figure seems commensurate with the estimate of 10 percent in 1500, prior to the significant developments in education and literacy of the sixteenth century

12.
Hingeston (ed.),
Royal and Historical Letters,
I, pp. 421-22.

13.
M ortimer,
Perfect King,
p. 360.

14.
Simek,
Heaven and Earth,
pp. 61, 86.

15.
“The spherical shape of the Earth was taken for granted and had been
so since Aristotle. This fact had been an integral part of scholarly knowledge since the Carolingian renaissance of the eighth century … By the thirteenth century the spherical shape of the earth . . . had found its way not only into scholarly but also popular literature.” Simek,
Heaven and Earth,
p. 25.

16.
Simek,
Heaven and Earth,
pp. 88-89.

17.
Simek,
Heaven and Earth,
p. 83.

18.
Coulton (ed.),
Social Life,
p. 522.

19.
Quoted in Gimpel,
Medieval Machine,
p. 193.

1.
Ruffhead (ed.),
Statutes,
I, p. 311.

2.
This is adapted from R. L. Poole, quoted in Cheney,
Handbook of Dates,
p. 3.

3.
Chaucer wrote a treatise on the astrolabe for his son. Henry IV’s accounts refer to repairs to his astrolabes when he was earl of Derby. See Mortimer,
Fears,
p. 154.

4.
Smith (ed.),
English Gilds,
pp. 370-409. This is certainly the case in the fifteenth century; at what date it commences is unclear; these ordinances predate Edward IV’s reign but the terminology may be contemporary

5.
Dilley “Customary Acre.”

6.
Finberg,
Tavistock Abbey,
p. lln.

7.
Hindle,
Medieval Roads,
p. 31.

8.
The statistics in this paragraph are from Finberg,
Tavistock Abbey,
pp. 30-31.

9.
Aspects of repute, manners and politeness have largely been taken from Furnivall (ed.),
Babees Book,
especially “The Babees Book,” “Stans Puer ad Mansam” and John Russel’s “Boke of Nurture.” The notes on female behavior are largely from “How the Good Wijf Taughte Hir Doughtir” in the same volume.

10.
Wylie states Jean de Hangest, lord de Hugueville, shook hands with Henry IV after his audience with him at Windsor in 1400 (Wylie,
England under Henry IV, TV,
p. 263). Le Roy Ladurie refers to the unusu-alness of handshaking among thirteenth-century French people in
Montaillou,
p. 140.

11.
Bradley (ed.),
Dialogues,
pp. 4-5.

12.
Fisher and Jurica (eds),
Documents,
pp. 237-38.

13.
Coulton,
Medieval Panorama,
p. 302.

14.
I have followed
The Cambridge Urban History of Britain
in using the
spelling “guild merchant” as opposed to the more usual “gild merchant.” As is well known, some of the most important cities never had a guild merchant (London and Norwich are the most frequently cited examples). However, as the subject is complicated, and to describe the relationships between guilds, guild merchants, and the administration of incorporated towns would take more space than can be warranted here, the description of town administration has been kept simple.

15.
See Bolton,
Economy,
chapter 4
, “The Growth of the Market.”

16.
These are all from fourteenth-century cases noted in Riley (ed.),
Memorials.

17.
M ortimer,
Perfect King, p. 210.

18.
Bradley (ed.),
Dialogues,
pp. 15-16.

19.
Rowe and Draisey (eds.),
Receivers’Accounts,
p. 7.

20.
Dyer,
Standards,
p. 210.

21.
For the carpenter and laborer, working on the estate of the bishop of Winchester (eight manors, average), see Bolton,
Economy,
p. 71; for the thatcher and his mate see Dyer,
Standards,
p. 215; for the royal masons see Salzman,
Building,
pp. 70-77.

22.
Erskine (ed.),
Fabric,
pp. 182-83; Salzman,
Building,
p. 72 (tilers).

23.
Salzman,
Building,
p. 74.

24.
Woolgar,
Great Household,
pp. 31-32.

25.
This applies to building work too. See Salzman,
Building,
p. 71.

1.
Riley (ed.),
Memorials,
p. 20.

2.
PROME,
1363 October, nos 25-32; Ruffhead (ed.),
Statutes, I,
pp. 315-16.

3.
TNA E 101/386/9 m. 12.

4.
TNAE 101/386/18 m. 59.

5.
TNAE 101/385/4 m. 28; E 101/386/18 m. 59.

6.
Newton,
Fashion,
p. 4.

7.
By 1334 buttons were being used on royal garments, as shown by TNA E 101/386/18 m. 58: “fifty-six pearls delivered to the prince’s tailor to make buttons for the prince’s surcote” (March, 30 1334).

8.
The change in design seems to draw its inspiration from the aketon, a quilted jacket which usually fits between the shirt and the chain mail covering the chest. Because the aketon has to fit the body closely (as looseness will result in rips), the sleeves cannot be cut from the same fabric as the rest of the garment. So they have to be cut separately and sewn onto the quilted body of the aketon (which is laced up the back). From about 1330 the narrow-sleeve principles on which aketons are
made are applied to items for civilian dress. When Edward III ordered aketons for those who helped capture Roger Mortimer in 1330, he gave them also to two noncombatants, a physician and a clergyman (Shen-ton, ‘Coup of 1330’, pp. 23-24). Therefore the aketon by this time had a nonjousting purpose. In February 1333 Edward ordered payment of an account with his armorer, John de Cologne, which mentions “an aketon of purple velvet embroidered with a rose of pearls” and “two aketons covered in vermilion velvet and embroidered with images of parrots and other decorations” (TNA E 101/386/9). Obviously, these were meant to be seen. With regard to the purple aketon, if it served a practical function rather than a ceremonial one, it would not have been encrusted with pearls. We know that as early as 1327 Edward’s own practical tourneying aketons did have gold embroidery, and so they did have a high level of decoration (like the Black Prince’s extant jupon or aketon at Canterbury Cathedral). Nevertheless, the evidence that aketons were given as personal gifts to men who would never be expected to joust (let alone fight), coupled with the fact that they also might be bedizened with pearls, shows that quilted jackets were being used for noncombative purposes by 1333, and moreover they were made by a linen armorer, a member of the Guild of Tailors and Armourers to whom Edward granted a charter in 1327 (Davies and Saun-ders,
Merchant Taylors’ Company,
pp. 13, 50). This suggests that tailored garments were being made for civilians at exactly the right time to be the impetus for the new fashion. This is supported by contemporary references to aketons being “open over the chest” (Newton,
Fashion,
p. 15). The transition was complete by 1338, for the roll of liveries of cloth and furs made by the clerk of the great wardrobe during the year September 1337-September 1338 records “fourteen ells of green taffeta and 1
Vi
lbs of cotton in order to stuff and line a short robe made of mixed red cloth of Cologne, spattered with black dye, as well as silver, gilded, enamelled buttons, to be fashioned in the style of a doublet for the king’s person .. . fourteen ells of red taffeta and 1
Vi
lbs of cotton to line and stuff an identical garment of mixed red fustian and black spattering, which was to have similar buttons and was to be fashioned as a doublet in the same way” (TNA E 101/388/8). Having said all this, it is just possible that the credit for the new style should in fact be ascribed to Edward II, for the king’s tailor Henry of Cambridge was paid in 1327 for “eight cotehardie tunics at 14d each”: this predates the earliest previously noted appearance of the front-buttoned cotehardie by six years (Cunnington and Beard,
Dictionary,
p. 54).

9.
Brie (ed.),
Brut,
II, pp.
296-97.

10.
Courtpieces do date from much earlier than this, though they seem to be rare before the late fourteenth century The earliest example I have
come across is the
“curtepye”
given by the king to the queen in 1334-35. This was made of brown scarlet
“oneree des gargulottes dor de les elees de soie de diverses coloures”
(TNA E 101/386/18 m. 59). Although this is clearly a female garment, and presumably was worn over a tunic (to cover the legs), it was adopted by men by 1344. The royal accounts for 1342-44 mention courtpieces for eleven earls and knights to go hunting with the king (TNA E 101/390/2 m. 1).

11.
Harvey,
Living and Dying,
p. 132.

12.
Some contemporary images of Richard show him completely beardless: for example, the portraits in Westminster Abbey and the Wilton Diptych, and the image of Philip de Mezières presenting his manuscript to Richard (see plate 4). Even Richard’s funeral effigy, made during his lifetime, shows him with the smallest imaginable beard and hardly any mustache. The tiniest forked beard and mustache are shown in Creton’s illustrations (painted 1401–1405). Just a little more hair is visible in the illuminated initials in the Book of Statutes (St. John’s College, Cambridge: MS A7) and the Shrewsbury charter.

13.
Cunnington and Cunnington,
Underclothes,
p. 33.

14.
Most of the descriptions of the peasant clothing of 1340 are from the illustrations in the Luttrell Psalter and, to a lesser extent, the Smithfield Decretals (both in the British Library).

15.
Sources for peasant clothing for the end of the century are nowhere near as rich as the Luttrell Psalter. In addition to various British Library manuscript images online, see Basing,
Trades and Crafts;
Cunnington and Lucas,
Occupational Costume.

16.
For cosmetics see Woolgar,
Senses,
pp. 136–40,175.

17.
In 1341 a London apprentice is found with money in his two pockets. See Sharpe (ed.),
Letter Books 1337–1352,
pp. 249-75, at fol. ccxviii b.

18.
All the references in this paragraph come from TNA DL 28/1/6 fol. 22r–23v (goldsmiths), fol. 24r–v (jewels).

19.
See for example the famous illustration of the men at an inn in Glasgow University Library, MS Hunter 252, fol. 70. Reproduced in Thorp,
Glory of the Page,
p. 31.

20.
Duby (ed.),
Private Life: Revelations,
p. 525.

21.
Duby (ed.),
Private Life: Revelations,
p. 525; Woolgar,
Senses,
p. 35.

22.
Mortimer,
Perfect King,
p. 100.

23.
Woolgar,
Senses,
p. 35.

1.
See Milles,
The Gough Map.

2.
Fisher andjurica (eds),
Documents,
p. 289.

3.
Bradley (ed.),
Dialogues,
pp. 49-50.

4.
Hindle,
Medieval Roads,
p. 31.

5.
Henry IV did visit Devon, at least three times. However, the first two were before he was king and the last after the end of the fourteenth century. Edward II and Edward III avoided the peninsula altogether.

6.
Mortimer,
Perfect King,
p. 460.

7.
Hindle,
Medieval Roads,
p. 20. Another example, from 1499, is given in Coulton (ed.),
Social Life,
pp. 426-27, in which a glove merchant was drowned in a clay pit dug in a road near Aylesbury by a miller. Chaucer mentions the same problem befalling a student in “The Miller’s Tale.”

8.
Hindle,
Medieval Roads,
pp. 41-43.

9.
The Boke of St. Albans, quoted in Reeves,
Pleasures and Pastimes,
p. 103. There is a similar quotation in the book of The Menagier of Paris, according to Bayard (ed.),
Medieval Home Companion,
p. 108.

10.
Woolgar,
Great Household,
p. 190.

11.
Lyon, Lyon and Lucas (eds.),
Wardrobe Book,
pp. 313-27.

12.
Henry IV, before his accession, purchased a St. Christopher for his messenger going to the king. See Mortimer,
Fears,
p. 154.

13.
Ohler,
Medieval Traveller,
p.
97.

14.
Chaplais,
Piers Gaveston,
p. 23.

15.
TNADL 10/253.

16.
The actual timing of this message is a matter of inference, not precise recording. See Mortimer,
Fears,
p. 216.

17.
Hill,
King’s Messengers,
p. 108.

18.
Woolgar,
Great Household,
p. 193.

19.
TNADL 28/1/9 fol. 6v, 7r.

20.
Woolgar,
Great Household,
pp. 181-82.

21.
Jusserand,
Wayfaring Life,
p. 95.