Life in a Mediaeval City, Illustrated by York in the XVth Century — 01 - Chapter I: Introduction; Chapter II: Important Factors Affecting the History of York

INTRODUCTION

In English history the fifteenth century is the last of the centuries that form the Middle Ages, which were preceded by the age of racial settlement and followed by that of the great Renaissance.

Although the active beginnings of this new era are to be observed in the fifteenth century, yet this century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.

Perhaps the most attractive feature of the Middle Ages is that they were so intensely human.

A naïve spirit appears in their formal literature, as in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in their decorated religious manuscripts, in their thought, and very characteristically, in their architecture, which combines a simple naturalness with a bold and daring ingenuity.

From columns, the constructional motive of which is so simple and natural, and walls pierced with windows, they erected systems of lofty arches and high stone-vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended on very skilled balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.

To-day mediæval buildings are to be found all over England.

The majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill.

Such buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials, testify by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.

Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of political unrest.

There were wars and risings both abroad and at home, for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons.

The barons and great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase their own power.

Parliament, especially the House of Commons, succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became less truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle class, and more and more a party machine worked by the baronial factions.

The proportion of people wanting peace and firm government steadily increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which affected the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed by the protection and order provided without excessive cost by the Tudors, it was the people who most welcomed the change.

The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these perpetual disorders.

The mayors and corporations as a rule guided their cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness.

Town life developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of municipal unity, and municipal importance.

CHAPTER II IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK

A.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position is evidently the most important.

It is to this, combined with the consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a city, its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance to-day.

York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is the halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between these two capitals.

The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be within navigable distance of the North-East coast.

The city itself is situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the north and south ends of which are open.

The surrounding hills and valleys are so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards the centre of the plain.

Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce Norsemen, for instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from the coast, and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less formidable than those on the west.

York was already an important place in the days of Britain's making, the days when the land was in the melting-pot as far as race and nationality are concerned.

B.

MILITARY VALUE OF ITS POSITION

York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and the west there are low ridges of mound.

The outer, main series of hills which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their outer faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north and south.

It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for its immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical features.

The position was of both tactical and strategic importance.

In Roman times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great wall was built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch, stone-rampart, and road, and its series of camps and forts, from near the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Firth.

Henceforth the wall marked the debatable frontier, but York never lost its strategic value.

It was thus used by the Romans, William I. , Edward I. , Edward II.

, and Edward III.

in their occupation of and their expeditions against the North.

It has served as a base depôt and military headquarters for centuries.

C. POLITICAL IMPORTANCE

York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition, inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from earliest times.

When the Church attained great importance in the north, York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in 735, an ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop of York was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition spiritual head of the Church in the North of England.

Further, there were established in the city branches of the civil government.

Business of the state, both civil and military, and of the Church was regularly conducted at York from early times.

This political importance lasted long and is intimately connected with many events in the city's history.

The fort and military defences were renewed from time to time, and staff-work and general administration, whether Roman or Edwardian, were conducted from York.

The king, from whom York was rented by the citizens, had his official representatives with their offices permanently established here.

The siege of 1644 after the royalist defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political importance of the city.

In Danish times there were kings of York.

The Archbishops, besides owning large areas of land in and around the city, had their palace in the city.

Monasteries grew up and flourished till the Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were everywhere.

Further, from century to century, York was the home of important nobles of the realm.

This political importance has persisted through the centuries.

York still claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.

CHAPTER III APPEARANCE