English life in the thirteenth century was characterized by: a single Christian Church owing allegiance to Rome and living on the revenues of its estates; kingship with difficulty kept intact in the face of scheming magnates jealous of their privileges; a countryside divided into thousands of small estates, tilled by peasants--some of them serfs--and owned by lords with considerable power over their tenants; armies of knights fighting on horseback; Gothic cathedrals; monasteries; castles; town gilds. Professor Holmes describes this medieval society and its evolution, after the Black Death, into a somewhat different kind of society in the late fifteenth century. He argues that the population decrease as a result of the plague, beginning in 1349, brought about fundamental transformations: village life changed, serfdom disappeared, the great estates became less important, industry grew, and the commodities and directions of trade changed.

Spans the period 1272-1485 and includes biographies of 200 individuals from all walks of life.

Providing the chronological setting for many of Shakespeare's plays, various swashbuckling novels from Sir Walter Scott's to Robert Louis Stevenson's, and such Hollywood films as Braveheart, late Medieval England is superficially well known. Yet its true complexity remains elusive, locked in the covers of specialized monographs and journal articles. In over 300 entries written by 80 scholars, this book makes the factual information and historical interpretations of the era readily available. Covering political, military, religious, and constitutional subjects as well as social and economic topics, the volume is easy to use, comprehensive, and authoritative. It provides a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and educated laymen. Rightly characterized as an age of crisis, the 14th century saw the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Avignon Papacy, and the Great Schism of the Western Church. All placed great stresses on English society, aggravating old problems and creating new ones. In the late Middle Ages, parliament became an important element in English government; Cambridge and Oxford universities attained European-wide reputations; and general literacy increased. The Church remained a paramount religious, political, and social institution, but its independence and intellectual monopoly slipped. The entries in this book synthesize recent scholarship on these and other historical events. While emphasizing political, religious, constitutional and military topics, the book also provides brief introductions to social, economic, cultural, and intellectual topics. It is a valuable guide for those wishing to understand this complex, tumultuous, and until recently, poorly understood era.

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1973, England in the Later Middle Ages has become a seminal text for students studying this diverse, complex period. This spirited work surveys the period from Edward I to the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, which heralded in the Tudor Age. The second edition of this book, while maintaining the character of the original, brings the study up to date. Each chapter includes a discussion of the historiographical developments of the last decade and the author takes a fresh look at the changing world of the Later Middle Ages, particularly the plague and the economy. Also included is a rewritten introduction.