17. THE FARE OF A FARMER IN EDWARD III'S REIGN [A.D. 1346] SOURCE: William Langland, Piers Plowman. Ed. Burrell (Evcryman's Library). The points of the Articles touching the trade of Hatmakers, accepted by Thomas Leggy, Mayor, and the Aldermen of the City of London, at the suit, and at the request of the folks of the said trade. In the first place,—that six men of the most lawful and most befitting of the said trade shall be assigned and sworn to rule and watch the trade in such a manner as other trades of the said city are ruled and watched by their wardens. Also, that no one shall make or sell any manner of hats within the franchise of the city aforesaid, if he be not free of the same city; on pain of forfeiting to the chamber the hats which he shall have made and offered for sale. Also, that no one shall be made apprentice in the said trade for a less term than seven years, and that, without 1 Unleavened. 2 August 1st. 3 Pea-pods. fraud or collusion. And he, who shall receive any apprentice in any other manner, shall lose his freedom, until he shall have bought it back again. Also, that no one of the said trade shall take any apprentice, if he be not himself a freeman of the said city. Also, that the wardens of the said trade shall make their searches for all manner of hats that are for sale within the said franchise, so often as need shall be. And that the aforesaid wardens shall have power to take all manner of hats that they shall find defective and not befitting, and to bring them before the Mayor and Aldermen of London, that so the defaults which shall be found may be punished by their award. Also, where some workmen in the said trade have made hats that are not befitting, in deceit of the common people, from which great scandal, shame, and loss have often arisen to the good folks of the said trade, they pray that no workmen in the said trade shall do any work by night touching the same, but only in clear daylight; that so, the aforesaid Wardens may openly inspect their work. And he who shall do otherwise, and shall be convicted thereof before the Mayor and Aldermen, shall pay to the Chamber of the Guildhall, the first time, 40d., the second time half a mark, and the third time he shall lose his freedom. 19. THE BLACK DEATH AND ITS EFFECTS [A.D. 1348] SOURCE: Robert of Avesbury, De Gestis Mirabilibus. Rolls Series. The plague, which first began in the country of the Saracens, spread to such a degree that, without sparing any country, it visited with the scourge of sudden death every place in all the kingdoms stretching from that country northwards, even as far as Scotland. Now in England it started in the county of Dorsetshire, about the festival of St. Peter in Chains,1 in the year of our Lord, 1348; and immediately spreading with great rapidity from place to place, it attacked between morning and noon a very large number of people in perfect health, and rid them of this mortal life. Not one of these so doomed to death was permitted to live more than three or four days at the most. With the exception perhaps of a few, rich persons of every degree were attacked. On the same day, twenty, forty, sixty, and indeed many more bodies received the rites of burial in the same grave. And about the festival of All Saints, the plague came to London, and killed off many people every day; and it spread to such an extent that, from the feast of the Purification till after Easter, more than two hundred bodies were buried daily in the new cemetery that had just been made near Smithfield, to say nothing of those buried in the other cemeteries of the city. But by the grace of the Holy Spirit it departed from London at Whitsuntide, and went on its way northwards; and it departed thence about the festival of St. Michael, in the year of our Lord, 1349. SOURCE: Henry Knighton, Chronicle, II. Rolls Series. The grievous plague penetrated the sea coasts from Southampton and came to Bristol, and there almost the whole strength of the town died, struck as it were by sudden death; for there were few who kept their beds more than three days, or two days, or half a day; and after this the fell death broke forth on every side with the course of the sun. There died at Leicester in the small parish of St Leonard more than 380; and in the parish of the Holy Cross more than 400; and so in each parish a great number. . . . In the same year there was a great plague of sheep everywhere in the realm, so that in one place there died in 1 August 1st. K 2 November 1st. one pasturage more than 5,000 sheep, and so rotted that neither beast nor bird would touch them. And there were small prices for everything on account of the fear of death. For there were very few who cared about riches or anything else. For a man could have a horse which before was worth 40s. for 6s. 8d., a fat ox for 4s., a cow for 12d., a heifer for 6d., a fat wether for 4d., a sheep for 3d., a lamb for 2d., a big pig for 5d., a stone of wool for 9d. Sheep and cattle went wandering over fields and through crops and there was no one to go and drive or father them, so that the number cannot be reckoned which perished in the ditches in every district for lack of herdsmen; for there was such a lack of servants that no one knew what he ought to do. In the following autumn no one could get a reaper for less than 8d. with his food, a mower for less than 12d. with his food. Wherefore, many crops perished in the fields for want of some one to gather them; but in the pestilence year, as is above said of other things, there was such abundance of all kinds of corn that no one much troubled about it. . . . Priests were in such poverty that many churches were widowed and lacking the divine offices, masses, matins, vespers, sacraments, and other rites . . but within a short time a very great multitude of those whose wives had died in the pestilence flocked into orders, of whom many were illiterate and little more than laymen, except so far as they knew how to read, although they could not understand. Meanwhile the King sent proclamation into all the counties that reapers and other labourers should not take more than they had been accustomed to take under the penalty appointed by statute. But the labourers were so lifted up and obstinate that they would not listen to the King's command, but if any wished to have them he had to give them what they wanted, and either lose his fruit and crops or satisfy the lofty and covetous desires of the work men after the aforesaid pestilence many buildings, great and small, fell into ruins in every city, borough and village for lack of inhabitants, likewise many villages and hamlets became desolate, all having died who dwelt there. 20. "EVERY MAN SHALL SERVE THE MASTER SOURCE: The Statute of Labourers. Statutes of the Realm, I, quoted in Henderson's Historical Documents of the Middle Ages. Because a great part of the people, and especially of workmen and servants, lately died of the Pestilence, many seeing the necessity of the masters of great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they receive excessive wages, and some rather willing to beg in idleness than by labour to get their living. We considering the grievous incommodities, which of the lack, especially of ploughmen and such labourers may hereafter come, have upon deliberation and treaty with the prelates and nobles, and the learned men assisting us, ordained that every man and woman in England of whatever condition they may be, bond or free, able in body and under sixty years of age, not living by merchandise, or being an artificer, and not having property whereby they may live, shall serve the master requiring him or her. 21. REGULATIONS REGARDING PLAGUE FUGITIVES [a.d. 1349] SOURCE: Rymer, Fœdera, V. The King [Edward III.] to the Mayor and Sheriffs of the town of Sandwich, greeting: Whereas no small portion of the people of our realm of England hath died during the present plague, and our Treasury hath been greatly exhausted and we are given to understand that many of our people are daily betaking, |