Overview: The Middle Ages, 1154 - 1485
By Professor Tom James
Far from their dour reputation, the Middle Ages were a period of massive social change,
burgeoning nationalism, international conflict, terrible natural disaster, climate change, rebellion,
resistance and renaissance.
Norman legacy
In December 1154, the young and vigorous Henry II became king of England following the
anarchy and civil war of Stephen's reign.
Stephen had acknowledged Henry, grandson of Henry I of England, as his heir-designate. His
eldest son, Eustace, had died in 1153, but his younger son, who might have succeeded, lived on as
count of Mortain. Primogeniture was not then established in England.
The Britain of Henry II, and of his sons Richard I and John, was experiencing rapid population
growth, clearance of forest for fields, establishment of new towns and outward-looking crusading
zeal.
'The families of Balliol, Bruce and Wallace, dominant in Scottish medieval history, all derived
from French origins.'
The country also witnessed the cultural feast of the '12th-century renaissance' in the arts,
exemplified by the Winchester Bible of c. 1160, created from the skins of over 300 calves and
lavishly decorated with lapis lazuli and gold applied by a team of manuscript illuminators from
continental Europe.
Legacies of the Norman invasion of 1066 remained. The aristocracy spoke French until after 1350,
so saxon 'ox' and 'swine', for example, came to the table as French boeuf and porc.
North of 'sassenach' (Saxon) England, Normanised lowland Scotland (which shared a common
vernacular dialect with England North of the Humber) remained distinct from the Highlands
where Gaelic flourished.
The families of Balliol, Bruce and Wallace, dominant in Scottish medieval history, all derived
from French origins - a minority overlaying the population of Scots.
Ireland was less dominated by Normans. However, much of the regional indigenous culture
survived despite Norman monarchy and aristocracy.
English nationalism
A combination of external factors made England more inward-looking and more dissonant after
1200.
Internationally the crusading ideal was weakening. The Battle of Hattin and the recapture of
Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187 were considerable blows to western hopes. Richard I's subsequent
failure to recapture the city in his campaign against Saladin was discouraging.
Worse still, the crusading ideal was fractured in 1204 with the siege and capture of Christian
Constantinople by a crusading force destined for infidel Egypt, and led by Venetians. Crusading
never recovered.
'English barons became increasingly conscious of their Englishness, which they declared in
anti-foreign attitudes'
John's loss of French lands soon after 1200 also made England more inward-looking and
frustrated.
Population continued to rise in the 1200s, primogeniture became more established and there were
many younger warrior sons looking for lands and glory.
Henry III (1216 - 1272) was not a soldierly king. His half-hearted campaigns in France were
unsuccessful in regaining lands lost by his father, John. By the Treaty of Paris (1259) he admitted
failure and secured remote Gascony by giving up claims to lands in northern France, including
iconic Normandy.
Henry III's reign witnessed many closer links with France, where Louis IX (St Louis) was his
brother-in-law.
French culture was echoed in Britain, especially in Gothic architecture. But despite Frenchness of
manners and names, English barons became increasingly conscious of their Englishness, which
they declared in anti-foreign attitudes which focused on immigrant courtiers.
It is no accident that scholars have dubbed the spare, simple Gothic architecture of the 13th
century 'Early English', epitomised by Salisbury Cathedral, largely built between 1220 and 1258.
England dominant
Crusading continued during the 13th century, indeed Edward I (1272 - 1307) was away crusading
when his father died in 1272 and did not return for two years.
Such a smooth transition was a tribute to effective government administration in England.
Incredibly, centralised financial record-keeping on the great roll of the exchequer survives
unbroken from early in Henry II's reign.
Tributes to growing institutions of English government - and hints of a less dominant monarchy are prevalent in this period:
'Expansionism wasn't the sole preserve of England - Scotland regained the Western Isles.'
Richard I's realm was governed successfully in his absence for almost his entire reign; Henry III
inherited from his unpopular father as a child of nine, with a regency lasting almost a decade; and
the transition of power from Henry III to Edward I, when the latter was absent for two years.
There was a downside to effective financial organisation. The prosperity arising from peasant
agriculture, growing urbanism and burgeoning population growth meant England could focus
more directly on its near neighbours Wales, Scotland and to a lesser extent Ireland, in the 13th and
early 14th centuries.
Wales was partly subdued by Edward I, who put his government's wealth into building the great
castles through which he gained control of north Wales. But expansionism wasn't the sole preserve
of England. Scotland regained the Western Isles from Scandinavian colonists following the Battle
of Largs in 1263.
An opportunity arose for England to become involved at the centre of Scottish politics with the
untimely death of Alexander III, who died in a riding accident in 1289.
Edward I was called upon to judge different claimants to the Scottish throne, which he did, and his
pre-eminence is displayed in a contemporary manuscript illumination which shows him with
Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, and Alexander, King of Scotland, on his right and left respectively.
Rebellion
In the last quarter of the 13th century, English dominance over Ireland, Scotland and Wales was
apparently being achieved. But that famous image of Edward I with Scots and Welsh rulers
illustrates a high point of English predominance.
From the last quarter of the 13th century, fundamentals underlying the dynamics of development
in Britain and Ireland changed.
Population growth slowed down, inflation began to affect wealth and bloody civil war as a way of
managing royal power became tempered by embryonic parliamentary developments.
'Rebellions in Wales are testament to some Welshmen's continuing struggle for independence.'
Henry III's struggle with Simon de Montfort, who the king defeated and killed at Evesham in 1265,
exemplifies this.
De Montfort's unofficial 'model parliament' of 1263 and Edward I's official model of 1295 were
designed by magnates to curb royal power by increasing representation of counties and boroughs.
Problems with the feudal army also emerged at the 1295 parliament when the earl marshal refused
to serve abroad unless the king was present. He was threatened with hanging, but neither served
nor was he hanged.
The remainder of the period from 1300 to 1485 is traditionally seen as a disastrous period in
English history, which in many ways it was. However, Scotland and Ireland achieved growing
independence during this period.
A Scottish highlight in the 'wars of independence' was the victory of Robert the Bruce over
Edward II at Bannockburn near Stirling in 1316.
The Avignon papacy recognised an independent anointed Scottish monarchy before Bruce's
untimely death in 1329, and the long-term 'auld alliance' with France from 1296 secured
Scotland's independence.
Rebellions in Wales, especially that of Owen Glyn Dwr between 1400 and 1409, are testament to
some Welshmen's continuing struggle for independence, although their own princes were replaced
by English princes of Wales from the time of Edward I.
Famine and plague
Remains of Black Death victims, Hythe Ossuary
The long view of the period from 1300 to 1485 suggests climate and demographic change were
probably key determinants of developments in Britain and Ireland.
Climatic deterioration began from about 1300, with colder winters and wetter summers. These
conditions contributed to the Great European Famine of 1315 - 1322, in which millions perished.
'The Black Death was the worst disease in recorded history, killing 50% of the population in a
year.'
Chronic malnourishment weakened the population, perhaps making people more susceptible to the
Black Death, the worst disease in recorded history, which arrived in Europe in 1347 and in
England the following year.
The disease killed 50% of the population within a year, but the main effect was that it returned
with alarming regularity in 1361, 1374 and regularly thereafter until it disappeared from Britain in
about 1670.
The population of Britain and Ireland before the Black Death may have been eight million, of
which three-quarters lived in England.
Decline continued until about 1450, when the population was perhaps two or three million, the
lowest count during the last millennium. By 1485 the population was beginning to rise again.
Succession struggle
Climate change and plague were not the only external factors to affect Britain and Ireland. The
Capetian royal dynasty in France, which had produced male heirs since 987 AD, died out in 1328,
provoking a succession struggle in which Edward II and his son Edward (III to be) were prime
claimants.
These claims lay dormant for several years, as Edward II's French wife Isabella and her lover
Roger Mortimer invaded England in 1326, imprisoned and murdered Edward II and brought
Isabella's son Edward III to the throne in January 1327.
Isabella and Mortimer were effectively in power, but in 1330 Edward III asserted himself, had
Mortimer executed, and staked a claim to the throne of France.
'Scotland, like England, could function effectively without a king for long periods.'
This led to the Hundred Years' War, which lasted from 1337 until the English were defeated and
driven from France, except Calais, in 1453.
The war was not without English successes both over France (Crécy in 1346, Poitiers in 1356,
Agincourt in 1415) and over the Scots (Neville's Cross in 1346).
Kings of Scotland spent considerable periods in English captivity, such as David II who was in
captivity from 1346 - 1357, and James I who spent 18 of his 31 years as king in prison between
1406 and 1424. But by this period Scotland, like England, could function effectively without a
king for long periods.
The church and its leading institution, the papacy, like the monarchy so strong in the 12th and
early 13th centuries, also became weak and disorganised in the later Middle Ages.
The conflict between Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket, who was killed in his cathedral
church at Canterbury in 1170 by royal knights, was an early manifestation of church-state struggle
in this period.
A more legalistic approach was followed by Edward I, whose Statute of Mortmain in 1279 was
designed to prevent the 'dead hand' of the church gaining further gifts of land to add to its already
large land-base, thereby enabling land to circulate within lay society, and making land more easily
taxable by the crown.
Nationalism triumphs
The exile of the papacy from Rome to Avignon from 1305 distanced the English from a papacy
seen to be dominated by an increasingly powerful French monarchy. Almost all the Avignon popes
and cardinals were French.
In 1378, a schism developed in the church, with rival popes based in Avignon and Rome.
Inevitably Christendom split and predictably France and Scotland were on the side of Avignon,
and England on that of Rome.
When the Conciliar movement of the early 15th century was established, no fewer than three rival
popes had to be deposed by the Council of Constance in 1417, which duly elected a fourth, Martin
V.
'Royal families were so intermarried that mental instability was passed across the Channel.'
Division in the papacy exacerbated growing nationalism in western countries. At the Council of
Constance representatives voted by 'nations' as England, France and Germany, and later Spain.
Throughout Europe, bloody civil wars resulted as rival magnates fought for power during this
period. In France some magnates, such as the dukes of Burgundy, sided with the English,
prolonging the Hundred Years' War.
When the war was over, rival groups of magnates in England fought among themselves.
Lancastrians, who had usurped the throne from Richard II in 1399, against Yorkists, whose
forebears had a better claim in 1399.
Kings came and went, for example Charles VII in France, who was banned from inheritance by
his parents in 1420, and Henry VI, deposed in England during the Wars of the Roses.
Royal families were so intermarried that mental instability was passed across the Channel from
Charles VI of France to his grandson Henry VI of England.
Propaganda
Upheavals occurred lower down the social scale following the Black Death and during the wars.
The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was one manifestation of this, while Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450
another.
In France, the peasant girl Joan of Arc moved centre stage for two years, advising the heir to the
French throne and even leading forces in war from 1429 until 1431, when she was captured and
burnt as a heretic and sorcerer by the English.
The topsy-turvy world of late medieval Britain and Ireland did not stabilise abruptly when, as
Shakespeare put it, the Tudor Henry VII rescued the crown of England from a bush on Bosworth
Field after the defeat of the reigning monarch Richard III in August 1485.
'Henry V's giant ship of 1,600 tons was a unique achievement and brought peace to the Channel.'
Much of what the Tudors claimed as 'new government' was already in place in Yorkist England.
War against France and Scotland continued, while Ireland remained semi-independent. At the end
of the Wars of the Roses at Bosworth in 1485, England actually came under a Welsh dynasty.
Much of the bad press of the 1400s derives from Tudor propaganda. There was, in fact, much to
praise in 15th-century Britain.
The deafening clash of arms produced as many heroes as villains. The extraordinary Grace Dieu,
Henry V's giant ship of 1,600 tons, not rivalled again until the reign of Charles II and Victory, was
a unique achievement and brought peace to the Channel, discouraging invasion.
Renaissance
The renaissance of Chaucer, Gower, Barbour and Dunbar percolated society. Libraries, such as
that of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, were established and the art of biography began.
Universities increased in number and scope. Oxford and Cambridge were joined by Scotland's St
Andrews in 1410 and two other Scottish universities by 1500.
Ideals of internationalism faltered, including crusading, the universal church, monasticism.
Nationalism triumphed. Royalty in many respects were as disreputable at the beginning of the
period as at the end.
'War and depopulation allowed women to contribute much more effectively and influentially to
society.'
Throughout England much that we recognise today was established and survives: the parish
churches with their towers, now fossilised in their late medieval form by the Reformation;
oak-framed timber buildings scattered across the country; universities and schools.
Ireland, Scotland and Wales all enjoy similar cultural characteristics. Maybe it was the wars of the
period that led the Scots to place their faith in education with their several universities and the
Welsh and Irish to develop their bardic and oral traditions during a turbulent but heroic period of
British and Irish history.
And what of the ordinary people? In 1485 over 95% of the people of Britain lived in the
countryside, towns despite their small share of national populations had an impact far outweighing
their demographic significance.
The period between the Black Death of 1348 and 1485 was, among much else, a golden age for
women. War and depopulation allowed them to contribute much more effectively and influentially
to society.
But the cold wind of climate change, disease and war was by no means to everyone's
disadvantage.
Find out more
Books
Medieval Britain: A Very Short Introduction by J Gillingham and RA Griffiths (Oxford
Paperbacks, 2000)
A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages 1100 - 1500 edited by SH Rigby (Blackwell,
2003)
Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology by Colin Platt (Routledge, 1978)
This Sceptered Isle, Audio CD Boxes 1-3, 55 BC to 1547by Christopher Lee (BBC Worldwide
1996)
The Story of England by Tom Beaumont James (Tempus, 2003)
A New History of Ireland: Medieval Ireland 1169 - 1534 edited by Art Cosgrove (Oxford
University Press, 1995)
The Cambridge Urban History of Britain Volume 1 edited by David Palliser (Cambridge
University Press, 2000)
The Medieval Town by Colin Platt (Secker, 1976)
The Black Death: The Complete History by Ole Benedictow (Boydell, 2004)
Medieval Architecture by Nicola Coldstream (Oxford Paperbacks, 2002)
Scotland: From Prehistory to the Present by Fiona Watson (Tempus, 2003)
About the author
Author, broadcaster and lecturer Professor Tom Beaumont James teaches archaeology and history
at the University of Winchester. He has published special studies of the Black Death as a turning
point in history, and of medieval palaces. He contributed a history of Britain to BBC Worldwide's
This Sceptered Isle. Two major publications are out in 2006: The King's Landscape: Clarendon
Park (Wiltshire), with Chris Gerrard and The Winchester Census of 1871, with Mark Allen.