WEBVTT

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Well, last time looking at the
household provided a point of

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entry to some of the basic
realities and priorities that

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shape people's lives at the most
basic level in the sixteenth

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century.

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But as is already apparent,
I hope, these households of

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course didn't live in isolation.

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On the contrary,
every family was conducting its

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affairs in the context of a
larger landscape of social

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institutions and relationships,
and what I want to do this

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week, in concluding the sort of
contextual introduction,

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is to talk about some of these
connections that bound people

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together and bound the country
together.

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And I'll start by looking at
some of the more localized

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institutions and relationships,
those which bound them together

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into local communities.

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But as soon as I use that word,
"community,"

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I have to pause because it's a
very loaded term.

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Its use tends to beg an
important question about society

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in the period.

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Put simply, people in
sixteenth-century England didn't

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live in entities called
communities.

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They lived in places they
described as manors or parishes,

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villages or townships.

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They very rarely used the term
"community"

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at all.

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When we talk about communities,
as we often do,

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we're actually introducing a
concept which is largely a

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construct of sociologists and
historians,

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and more than that we're also
implying something about the

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nature and the quality of the
social relationships that

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existed in the manors and
parishes and villages and

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townships of the distant past.

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The very word
"community"

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carries a great deal of warmth.

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It's a good word to co-opt in
the cause of any argument as we

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see constantly in political
life.

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It vibrates with a certain
moral resonance,

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and when that term gets adopted
by historians and sociologists

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it often also invokes a certain
nostalgia about the past.

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Community always seems to be
just out of reach,

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something that belongs to a
generation or two ago;

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just over the hill;
in decline or under threat.

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It's sort of the before of
which we are the after;

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tantalizing,
warm, the attractive feature of

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a world we have lost.

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And that shouldn't surprise us.

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The very term
"community"

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has very old roots derived from
the Latin and meaning literally

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the quality of being at one.

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But the concept as it was
developed by nineteenth- and

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twentieth-century sociologists
was often used by them as a

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point of reference from which to
examine,

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and often to judge,
the rapid social changes taking

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place at that time.

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So the traditional or the folk
community was very commonly

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envisaged by the founders of the
social sciences as being almost

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everything that modern European
and American society was ceasing

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to be.

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It's rural.

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It's small scale.

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It's economically simple.

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It's introverted and deeply
rooted and warm and personal and

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homogeneous in values and
stable--

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embodying indeed,
one could say,

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some of the traditions of
pastoral literature.

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I don't know if you know Thomas
Gray's eighteenth-century poem

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the "Elegy in a Country
Churchyard,"

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but it's a good example of that
kind of literature.

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Gray envisaged what he called
the "rude Forefathers of

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the hamlet"
buried in the churchyard.

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He described them as having
bent themselves to "useful

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toil" and "homely
joys",

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"far from the madding
crowd," living in a

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"cool,
sequester'd vale of life."

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These are all phrases from the
poem, many of which have become

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widely used.

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Okay.

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Well, it's easy to appreciate
why historians exposed to that

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long tradition of thinking about
small communities in the past

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are sometimes apt to imagine the
past and to assume certain

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things about the quality of life
in the past in those morally

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loaded terms.

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To one historian,
for example,

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the late fifteenth- and early
sixteenth-century village was

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like--
he describes it as--"a

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family embracing and composed of
many families."

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Another describes how,
to quote him,

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"the unchanging
traditional life of the peasant

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system flowed on uninterrupted
like a deep underground

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river."

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It had flowed thus for a
thousand years and it

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"would continue to flow for
another two hundred."

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Now in contrast you get some
historians who react violently

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against what they see as a
sentimentalization of these

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rural communities.

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One in particular has described
a Tudor village as being,

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to quote him,
"a place filled with

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malice and hatred,
its only unifying bond being

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the occasional episode of mass
hysteria which temporarily bound

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together the majority in order
to harry and persecute the local

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witch."

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So that's how he sees it,
but both of these positions

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derive from a concept,
the concept of community,

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which is so emotionally
powerful that it tends to seduce

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some scholars into a kind of
sentimentality and on the other

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hand it enrages others into an
equally distorted cynicism about

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human relations.

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Some have suggested that it
might be better if we just

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stopped talking about
communities altogether,

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but to do that would surely be
to throw out the baby with the

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bath water,
because the concept of

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community is very hard to do
without.

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It does describe a certain
aspect of social relationships

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in local society which is not
just a nostalgic myth;

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a certain intensity of
connectedness amongst people

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focused on their local
institutions;

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certain qualities of
recognition of one another,

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of reciprocity in relationships
with one another,

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of mutuality,
of identification,

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of obligation.

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As historians,
we mustn't assume uncritically

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that particular settlements or
localities in the past were

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communities in the classical
sense with all the positive

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characteristics traditionally
believed to go along with them.

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Community isn't a thing or a
place.

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It's a quality of living.

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It varies.

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It's not always present.

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It waxes and wanes over time.

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It's subject to change.

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It exists in different forms
and it doesn't simply,

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of course, belong to the past.

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It's a perennial aspect of the
human situation,

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but if you want to consider it
in the past then we can best do

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so by trying to carefully
reconstruct the actual ties,

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institutional and personal,
that linked people together,

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the ties through which they
mapped out their social world,

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so to speak;
the ties through which they

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made it legible and
understandable.

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Well, such relationships and
the institutions that embodied

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them could be thought of as the
connective tissue of society at

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the most basic level and they
were of many kinds.

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Some were relationships of
authority.

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We've already encountered these
in a social order imagined in

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terms of hierarchical ties of
obligation and differentiation.

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In rural society,
more broadly,

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the basic defining relationship
was a relationship of authority,

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the relationship of lordship
and tenancy.

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You can imagine
sixteenth-century England as

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being like a myriad of small
settlements,

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most of them of less than 500
people,

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scattered over a landscape of
considerable diversity.

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In the early sixteenth century
that landscape hadn't even been

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mapped.

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The first county maps,
which county by county

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attempted to survey and map
England, were actually produced

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by Christopher Saxton in 1576.

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It was such an important
publication that as the maps

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were pulled from the press some
of them were taken still wet to

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Elizabeth I's chief minister
Lord Burghley.

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He saw the political potential
of having accurate maps of the

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country for the first time.

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But in the early sixteenth
century they didn't yet exist.

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Nonetheless,
the landscape was mapped and

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structured in another sense by
the realities of lordship,

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the possession of the land and
the authority over tenants that

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went with it.

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So, late medieval,
early sixteenth-century,

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social organization was
inscribed on the land through

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lordship and the characteristic
unit of lordship was what they

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called the 'manor',
a unit of land under the

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authority of a lord.

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Some lords held only a single
manor, the petty gentlemen of

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the countryside.

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Some of them held many.

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One for example,
Lord Berkeley,

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which is spelled Berkeley as in
our college,

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pronounced "Barkley"
in England,

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Lord Berkeley owned so much of
the county of Gloucestershire

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down here that he was described
by one contemporary as being

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"embowelled into the soil
of that country."

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But whatever the case,
whether their land holdings

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were small or great,
the fact of lordship over

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manors was fundamental to the
structure of local society.

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The people who cultivated the
land usually did so as tenants

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of such manorial lords,
and the forms in terms of their

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tenancies determined their
relationship to their lords and

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in many respects their
relationships to one another.

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Now these forms of tenancy were
many and varied but there were

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some general patterns.

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The terminology is a little
tricky so I've put all the

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definitions on your handout.

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You've probably got more
definitions of sixteenth-century

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land ownership and land holding
than you will ever need,

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but they're down there in case
you ever want to refer to them.

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Basically, each manor was
divided into what was described

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as the demesne land and what was
tenant land.

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If you look at your handout,
there's a map there of the

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manor of Laxton in
Nottinghamshire.

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That's almost right in the
center of England.

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And you'll see on one side at
the top the demesne land and the

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village and then around it the
great fields of the manor in

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which the tenants held their
land;

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the demesne and the tenant land.

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Demesne land in the Middle Ages
had been mostly cultivated by

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serf labor,
that's to say the labor of

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tenants who were not free and
who held their land from the

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lord in return for labor service
on his land.

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By 1500, serfdom had died out
in most parts of England.

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It died out in the course of
the late fourteenth and

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fifteenth centuries,
still left to some extent over

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in parts of East Anglia but it
was mostly gone.

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By 1500, the demesne land
tended to be let out by lords in

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large units to yeoman farmers.

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As for the tenant land,
some of it was held by

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freehold, probably about a fifth
overall.

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A freeholder owned his land,
he could leave it in his will,

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he could sell it,
but he owed the duty of

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'recognition of lordship' to the
lord of the manor;

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he had to pay a small annual
sum to recognize such lordship.

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Most tenants,
however, held their land by

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what was described as 'customary
tenure'.

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That's to say the land was
granted out to them in the court

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of the manor,
which would meet two or three

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times a year,
and they held it on terms

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"according to the custom of
the manor".

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"According to the custom
of the manor";

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that's a phrase that's often
used.

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The custom of the manor laid
down their terms.

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These customary tenants were
usually described as

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"copyholders".

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They held their land according
to a copy of an entry in the

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records of the manor court which
was given to them as a record.

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Sometimes if you go back
through the deeds of a very old

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house you will find,
by the time you get back to

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sixteenth- and fifteenth-century
deeds,

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a little strip of parchment
which is actually a copy of the

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original grant of the land on
which that house is built to a

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copyholder.

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Okay.

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Copyholders paid a down payment
to their lord called a fine.

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They paid an annual rent.

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They might hold their land for
a period of years like a modern

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lease or they might hold it for
a period of lives.

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That was a customary form by
which you would take land for

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the life of yourself,
your wife, and your eldest

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child.

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The terms on which they held
their land might be fixed

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according to the custom of the
manor,

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in which case they were usually
very fortunate,

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or they might be 'arbitrary';
that's to say they could be

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changed.

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So lordship and the
relationship between lords and

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tenants was a defining
relationship in any rural

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community.

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It created a local map of
rights and of obligations.

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The particular pattern
represented usually a particular

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local working out of a kind of
accommodation between the power

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of the lord and what his tenants
had been able to win with him--

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win from him--or negotiate with
him,

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and those terms were enshrined
in their local custom.

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So, given those realities,
custom, and the notion of

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custom, not surprisingly,
is another keyword of the

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period, a very important notion.

15:27.678 --> 15:33.018
Custom, a word they use
constantly, was an accumulation

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of rules.

15:34.110 --> 15:38.050
An accumulation of rules about
what was considered to be right

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and proper in a particular place
and the correct procedures for

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maintaining and enforcing those
rules.

15:44.759 --> 15:46.929
Custom laid down,
as I've already said,

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the respective rights of the
lord and the tenant over the

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land.

15:50.639 --> 15:54.739
It also laid down the rules for
the use of the common grazing

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land of the manor.

15:56.110 --> 15:59.680
It laid down the rules for the
settlement of disputes if they

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arose between the tenants of the
manor or between tenants and

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their lord.

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It's been described as a
lived-in environment of

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expectations which had grown up
slowly over time.

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Generally, people tended to
argue when there was any dispute

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that customs had existed
"time out of mind of

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man";
that's another phrase that's

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often used.

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Custom had governed their rules
in that locality "time out

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of mind of man",
and when there was a dispute

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they usually recruited the
oldest tenants they could find

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in order to pronounce on what
they had known throughout their

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sixty or seventy years of life,
on what they'd heard from their

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fathers or their grandfathers,
and so on to confirm the

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customs.

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In practice,
in fact, custom could be

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changed.

16:49.548 --> 16:54.038
It was subject to gradual
modification over time if all

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the tenants consented and it was
malleable in accordance with

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changing circumstances.

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Nevertheless,
it carried this aura of

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antiquity.

17:07.910 --> 17:11.660
So at any one time the
operative custom in a particular

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place was the outcome of a kind
of adjustment amongst the

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tenants and between the tenants
and their lord.

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To this extent custom was seen
as being essentially the

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property of the tenant
community.

17:26.048 --> 17:30.868
It presupposed a community of
interest amongst them,

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and it set the pattern of
expectations that provided the

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criteria for judging their
relationships with one another

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and their relationships with
their lord.

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Was that relationship with
their lord equitable and

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legitimate according to custom?

17:46.529 --> 17:48.389
The word they often used was
"reasonable."

17:48.390 --> 17:49.790
Was it reasonable?

17:49.788 --> 17:53.908
Was it maintaining custom or,
on the other hand,

17:53.906 --> 17:57.846
was it becoming oppressive or
exploitative?

17:57.848 --> 18:01.718
And as a result of all of this,
in times of economic stress,

18:01.720 --> 18:04.870
such as were to come later in
the sixteenth century,

18:04.868 --> 18:09.158
custom could very often become
a field of contest in which

18:09.156 --> 18:13.286
lords and tenants staked
competing claims about what the

18:13.292 --> 18:15.552
customs were or should be.

18:15.548 --> 18:19.218
And this was very often to
happen in the later sixteenth

18:19.219 --> 18:22.759
and seventeenth centuries as
we'll see when we come to

18:22.756 --> 18:27.156
consider peasant rebellion and
popular protest in this period.

18:27.160 --> 18:30.540
Very often it revolves around
custom.

18:30.539 --> 18:34.009
Okay.

18:34.009 --> 18:40.329
Well, let's turn now to another
aspect of the tenant community,

18:40.325 --> 18:43.275
the community of neighbors.

18:43.279 --> 18:46.889
If custom was one key word in
rural society,

18:46.887 --> 18:51.417
"neighborliness"
was emphatically another.

18:51.420 --> 18:56.320
Neighborliness was recognized
as being a critically important

18:56.324 --> 19:00.004
social virtue,
and the word is constantly used

19:00.002 --> 19:03.112
as a kind of norm of good
conduct.

19:03.108 --> 19:07.778
It was of course based on
residence near one another.

19:07.778 --> 19:10.258
The very word
"neighbor"

19:10.257 --> 19:12.957
derives from an Anglo-Saxon
word,

19:12.960 --> 19:16.690
"neah-gebur,"
which means "near

19:16.689 --> 19:19.509
dweller,"
literally "near

19:19.508 --> 19:20.998
dweller."

19:21.000 --> 19:23.530
Neighborliness was based upon
residence,

19:23.528 --> 19:27.308
then, and it was conducted and
developed through frequent

19:27.306 --> 19:31.416
interaction amongst those who
lived near one another and their

19:31.419 --> 19:34.789
mutual recognition of
obligations to one another of

19:34.790 --> 19:36.140
certain kinds.

19:36.140 --> 19:39.560
In part it was created by the
institutions and the customs of

19:39.561 --> 19:43.211
the manor which fostered a sense
of place and a sense of identity

19:43.212 --> 19:45.612
associated with that particular
place.

19:45.608 --> 19:48.998
For example,
the manor court served as an

19:48.996 --> 19:53.986
instrument of self-regulation
especially in the organization

19:53.990 --> 19:57.040
of agriculture within the manor.

19:57.038 --> 19:59.738
If you look at the other side
of the handout,

19:59.740 --> 20:06.180
you'll see the portrayal by the
surveyor of Laxton of one of the

20:06.178 --> 20:10.178
fields,
and look at how those fields

20:10.182 --> 20:16.362
are--the field is divided up
into little strips of land,

20:16.358 --> 20:19.958
each of one is numbered--each
one of which is numbered.

20:19.960 --> 20:24.950
The tenants held their land
scattered in strips across the

20:24.949 --> 20:25.649
field.

20:25.650 --> 20:28.900
The numbers are there so that
the surveyor could put down

20:28.903 --> 20:32.273
which pieces of land were held
by particular tenants in his

20:32.271 --> 20:35.151
survey book,
and there at the edge of the

20:35.147 --> 20:38.917
field is an area of common land
which was used by all the

20:38.923 --> 20:41.423
tenants for grazing their
animals.

20:41.420 --> 20:45.500
The surveyor has portrayed
various sheep grazing on it.

20:45.500 --> 20:48.560
It's a particularly beautiful
map, this map of Laxton,

20:48.556 --> 20:51.436
which was done in the early
seventeenth century.

20:51.440 --> 20:54.920
Well, that kind of arrangement,
that kind of scattering of land

20:54.924 --> 20:58.584
around the field,
that sharing of common grazing

20:58.583 --> 21:03.313
land inevitably meant that there
had to be a good deal of

21:03.311 --> 21:08.381
cooperative organization of
agriculture in such a place,

21:08.380 --> 21:13.140
and the manor court provided
the opportunities to pass bylaws

21:13.135 --> 21:18.045
which enabled people to draw up
the rules for their cooperative

21:18.050 --> 21:19.320
agriculture.

21:19.318 --> 21:23.608
Bylaws were described in one
contemporary law book as being

21:23.614 --> 21:27.614
made for the "common profit
and with the assent of

21:27.613 --> 21:28.653
all."

21:28.650 --> 21:32.050
Ideally, you should have
unanimity about what they were

21:32.053 --> 21:35.713
and they governed not only
cooperative agriculture but also

21:35.708 --> 21:38.668
the mediation of disputes which
arose and,

21:38.670 --> 21:41.720
if necessary,
the punishment of recalcitrant

21:41.721 --> 21:42.361
people.

21:42.358 --> 21:45.628
The aim, as one manor court
book describes it,

21:45.630 --> 21:49.210
was that--I'm quoting
it--"all should concur in

21:49.208 --> 21:53.698
the keeping of good neighborhood
one with another in tilling,

21:53.700 --> 21:56.510
in laboring,
in sowing, in shearing,

21:56.509 --> 22:01.139
in pasturing and all other
things pertaining to good and

22:01.138 --> 22:03.578
thrifty neighborhood."

22:03.579 --> 22:04.769
Okay.

22:04.769 --> 22:06.379
That was the ideal.

22:06.380 --> 22:09.310
Of course, it wasn't simply a
happy world of peasant

22:09.314 --> 22:10.124
cooperation.

22:10.118 --> 22:13.538
In any manor the bigger
tenants, the ones who held the

22:13.542 --> 22:15.612
most land, tended to dominate.

22:15.608 --> 22:19.678
There were plenty of disputes
and arguments,

22:19.680 --> 22:23.330
but the constant stress that
they placed on the value of

22:23.327 --> 22:26.347
neighborhood,
the constant appeals that were

22:26.354 --> 22:30.244
made to that ideal,
were certainly part and parcel

22:30.241 --> 22:34.181
of ensuring that these arguments
got resolved.

22:34.180 --> 22:38.870
One historian of this period
has described community as being

22:38.868 --> 22:43.008
in one sense belonging to the
same argument and to the

22:43.010 --> 22:46.450
institutions which helped to
resolve it.

22:46.450 --> 22:50.200
There was a very strong
expectation that ultimately

22:50.198 --> 22:54.988
people would conform to a system
which was ruled by custom in the

22:54.994 --> 22:58.444
interests of ensuring the
sustainability of the

22:58.442 --> 23:03.022
agriculture of the community as
a whole and the subsistence of

23:03.016 --> 23:05.486
its component households.

23:05.490 --> 23:09.760
Well, so much for the immediate
economic dimension of

23:09.763 --> 23:13.253
neighborhood,
but in addition neighborhood

23:13.251 --> 23:17.601
involved of course much more
than simply engaging in that

23:17.597 --> 23:21.687
kind of communal agriculture,
and in fact there were some

23:21.688 --> 23:25.248
areas of the country where that
kind of communal agriculture was

23:25.253 --> 23:26.673
much less significant.

23:26.670 --> 23:29.800
Already in the sixteenth
century there were some counties

23:29.798 --> 23:33.148
in which land wasn't held in
great open fields like at Laxton

23:33.153 --> 23:36.673
but was already divided up into
the kinds of fields we associate

23:36.673 --> 23:38.913
with the English landscape
today,

23:38.910 --> 23:42.880
enclosed with hedges and
ditches, each farmer owning a

23:42.880 --> 23:47.080
certain number of fields or
holding as a tenant a certain

23:47.075 --> 23:51.045
number of fields and farming
them according to his own

23:51.046 --> 23:52.016
wishes.

23:52.019 --> 23:56.219
That kind of agriculture,
enclosed agriculture,

23:56.220 --> 23:59.070
was already widely practiced in
Kent,

23:59.068 --> 24:02.198
in parts of the north of
England, and in some parts of

24:02.201 --> 24:05.451
eastern England in the counties
of Suffolk and Essex for

24:05.451 --> 24:07.461
example,
long established there,

24:07.460 --> 24:10.750
and it was to become the norm
throughout the whole country,

24:10.750 --> 24:12.780
as we will see.

24:12.778 --> 24:16.838
So the economic structure of
the manor and of neighborhood

24:16.844 --> 24:19.914
was of less significance in such
places,

24:19.910 --> 24:24.280
but everywhere neighborliness
also found its expression in

24:24.277 --> 24:25.347
other forms.

24:25.348 --> 24:30.708
One form, a very important
form, was the ecclesiastical

24:30.707 --> 24:31.597
parish.

24:31.598 --> 24:35.128
England was divided up not only
into units of lordship,

24:35.130 --> 24:39.670
the manor, but also into about
ten thousand ecclesiastical

24:39.671 --> 24:43.891
parishes which provided an
additional unit of identity

24:43.893 --> 24:48.123
expressed through people's
collective worship in their

24:48.115 --> 24:49.705
parish church.

24:49.710 --> 24:56.730
Duties to one's neighbor were
of course a central element in

24:56.730 --> 24:59.230
Christian teaching.

24:59.230 --> 25:04.050
They implied a certain
universal moral obligation.

25:04.048 --> 25:06.698
Children were asked when they
were taught the church

25:06.695 --> 25:08.975
catechism, "who is my
neighbor?"

25:08.980 --> 25:12.890
Everyone was your neighbor,
not only those who lived by

25:12.894 --> 25:15.964
you;
a universal moral obligation.

25:15.960 --> 25:20.250
And they were taught also that
the second part of the Ten

25:20.250 --> 25:22.170
Commandments,
four to ten,

25:22.166 --> 25:25.076
involved duties to one's
neighbor;

25:25.078 --> 25:29.558
the second table were duties to
one's neighbor just as the first

25:29.560 --> 25:32.620
table, the first few,
were duties to God.

25:32.618 --> 25:36.528
The church taught that one
should love one's neighbor as

25:36.532 --> 25:39.462
one's self,
which was of course exceedingly

25:39.458 --> 25:43.058
hard to do sometimes,
but the duty to try was

25:43.059 --> 25:45.419
reinforced in many ways.

25:45.420 --> 25:50.390
At the ritual of the mass,
the kiss of peace was part of

25:50.390 --> 25:55.360
the ritual which expressed
symbolically being in charity

25:55.361 --> 25:57.531
with your neighbors.

25:57.529 --> 26:02.019
Those who were known to be out
of charity with their neighbors

26:02.016 --> 26:05.906
could actually be excluded from
church services and in

26:05.914 --> 26:09.674
particular from the communion
service until they had

26:09.665 --> 26:14.425
reconciled themselves,
reentered charity with their

26:14.429 --> 26:19.219
neighbors and were then allowed
to take communion.

26:19.220 --> 26:21.910
The parish also stimulated
neighborly sentiments in other

26:21.913 --> 26:22.253
ways.

26:22.250 --> 26:26.010
The fifteenth and the early
sixteenth centuries saw a

26:26.009 --> 26:29.909
remarkable flowering of what's
been described as parish

26:29.913 --> 26:33.553
communalism;
a whole world of activity

26:33.554 --> 26:35.944
centered on the church.

26:35.940 --> 26:39.610
It involved the rebuilding and
beautification of many churches.

26:39.608 --> 26:42.408
Some of the most beautiful
parish churches surviving today

26:42.410 --> 26:44.670
were actually reconstructed in
this period,

26:44.670 --> 26:48.870
a period of relative prosperity
in which parishioners invested

26:48.869 --> 26:50.729
in their parish churches.

26:50.730 --> 26:54.870
It was a period of the founding
of many parish religious guilds.

26:54.868 --> 26:58.468
These were associations of
parishioners sometimes drawn

26:58.467 --> 27:02.237
from the entire community,
sometimes particular sections:

27:02.244 --> 27:06.034
associations for the women,
associations for the young,

27:06.030 --> 27:09.590
associations for those
associated with particular

27:09.589 --> 27:13.409
manors and so forth,
who maintained altars in the

27:13.405 --> 27:16.245
parish church,
maintained candles on those

27:16.250 --> 27:19.540
altars,
had patron saints and owed

27:19.541 --> 27:21.961
duties to one another.

27:21.960 --> 27:23.530
They prayed for one another.

27:23.529 --> 27:25.619
They looked after one another.

27:25.618 --> 27:29.518
It was also a period which saw
a flowering of elaborate ritual

27:29.522 --> 27:30.742
and festive life.

27:30.740 --> 27:34.880
A great many of the traditional
seasonal festivals which are

27:34.882 --> 27:38.112
recorded in early
sixteenth-century England had

27:38.111 --> 27:42.251
actually emerged in the course
of this relatively prosperous

27:42.253 --> 27:44.153
late medieval period.

27:44.150 --> 27:46.550
If this kind of aspect of
traditional popular culture

27:46.546 --> 27:49.206
interests you,
there's a wonderful book on the

27:49.214 --> 27:52.874
subject by Ronald Hutton called
The Rise and Fall of Merry

27:52.865 --> 27:56.445
England in which he goes in
to a great deal of detail on

27:56.453 --> 27:57.613
these matters.

27:57.608 --> 28:01.398
So whatever the framework,
whether we're talking about the

28:01.403 --> 28:05.333
manor or the parish or just
living close to one another,

28:05.328 --> 28:10.288
neighborhood found expression
and it found expression also of

28:10.292 --> 28:14.432
course in persistent
face-to-face daily contact.

28:14.430 --> 28:18.630
The neighborhood was a primary
group.

28:18.630 --> 28:21.570
People knew each other
exceedingly well.

28:21.568 --> 28:24.968
They knew one another's
business exceedingly well as was

28:24.965 --> 28:28.665
often revealed when they were
called upon to give evidence in

28:28.672 --> 28:29.292
court.

28:29.288 --> 28:33.258
Households interpenetrated one
another in all kinds of ways:

28:33.258 --> 28:36.428
assisting one another,
borrowing from one another,

28:36.434 --> 28:39.644
lending to one another,
and a host of small-scale

28:39.642 --> 28:41.102
buying and selling.

28:41.098 --> 28:44.448
We get constant glimpses of
these interactions in the

28:44.451 --> 28:46.321
records that survive to us.

28:46.318 --> 28:50.158
One I recently saw for example
involved a woman who described

28:50.160 --> 28:54.130
how on one day she went 'round
to her neighbor to borrow a bowl

28:54.126 --> 28:57.776
of flour because she'd run out
and couldn't get any at the

28:57.776 --> 28:58.476
mill.

28:58.480 --> 29:01.990
On another day she went 'round
to see her neighbor to get some

29:01.988 --> 29:05.318
burning coals from her fire so
that she could start her own

29:05.324 --> 29:08.634
fire more easily,
this kind of constant little

29:08.630 --> 29:11.180
small change of daily
interaction.

29:11.180 --> 29:14.650
We know about these things
because she happened to notice

29:14.653 --> 29:18.503
on her visits that her neighbor
was a little over-friendly with

29:18.501 --> 29:22.101
her lodger which resulted in an
adultery case in the church

29:22.101 --> 29:24.081
courts,
and these little details of

29:24.083 --> 29:27.853
their relationship,
both positive and negative,

29:27.846 --> 29:29.346
are revealed.

29:29.348 --> 29:32.638
We find neighbors involved in
arbitrating quarrels,

29:32.640 --> 29:36.270
in child minding,
in visiting one another when

29:36.272 --> 29:38.802
sick,
in giving one another advice,

29:38.797 --> 29:43.517
in gossiping with one another,
in reproving one another.

29:43.519 --> 29:48.199
It's all well documented,
involved in one another's

29:48.200 --> 29:53.910
business to an extent which
would be very unfamiliar today.

29:53.910 --> 30:00.120
It all adds up to a tangled web
of interpersonal obligation.

30:00.118 --> 30:03.418
Christopher Dyer,
who has written a wonderful

30:03.420 --> 30:06.420
book about part of the west
Midlands,

30:06.420 --> 30:08.950
over here on the border with
Wales,

30:08.950 --> 30:14.700
did one study of the wills of
fifteen families in a village in

30:14.696 --> 30:18.086
that region between 1513 and
1540.

30:18.088 --> 30:22.378
He found that of the fifteen
families some of them were

30:22.384 --> 30:27.084
linked to as many as seven of
the others by ties of debt and

30:27.075 --> 30:29.415
credit,
of god parenthood,

30:29.415 --> 30:32.185
of witnessing one another's
wills,

30:32.190 --> 30:36.260
of leaving things to one
another in their wills,

30:36.259 --> 30:38.669
all adding up,
as he describes it,

30:38.666 --> 30:41.436
to "a close web of
friendship,

30:41.440 --> 30:43.600
of mutual regard,
and of shared

30:43.601 --> 30:46.711
responsibility"--
and those are just the

30:46.709 --> 30:50.469
relationships which happen to
have left recorded evidence for

30:50.471 --> 30:51.791
historians to see.

30:51.788 --> 30:58.698
Well, drawing on these ties
could be crucial at times of

30:58.698 --> 31:00.958
particular need.

31:00.960 --> 31:04.000
This is a period which lacks,
as I've said before,

31:04.000 --> 31:07.540
any form of life insurance or
other forms of insurance.

31:07.538 --> 31:12.258
Neighbors could provide a kind
of social insurance.

31:12.259 --> 31:14.339
You find them backing one
another up.

31:14.338 --> 31:16.458
For example,
when a couple were to be

31:16.461 --> 31:20.061
married it was common for the
neighborhood to gather to hold a

31:20.056 --> 31:20.996
'bride-ale'.

31:21.000 --> 31:23.760
Ale would be brewed,
people would come along,

31:23.760 --> 31:27.530
they would pay for the ale and
the proceeds would be given to

31:27.527 --> 31:28.717
the new couple.

31:28.720 --> 31:32.540
You also get 'help-ales' when
someone was in need in another

31:32.540 --> 31:32.930
way.

31:32.930 --> 31:36.880
One from the late sixteenth
century for example describes

31:36.878 --> 31:41.178
how a help-ale was organized for
a widow whose cow had died to

31:41.181 --> 31:47.201
provide her with a new animal,
which was important to her

31:47.196 --> 31:49.376
family economy.

31:49.380 --> 31:52.680
Because these ties could be so
supportive,

31:52.680 --> 31:56.220
at best, there was a strong
imperative amongst people to

31:56.219 --> 32:00.079
maintain what they described as
their "credit",

32:00.078 --> 32:02.618
to maintain their credit in the
neighborhood,

32:02.618 --> 32:06.748
by which they meant their
reputation in general,

32:06.750 --> 32:10.290
their reputation for
reliability, for honesty,

32:10.289 --> 32:12.029
for good conduct.

32:12.028 --> 32:15.408
It involved much more than
simply a sort of credit rating

32:15.413 --> 32:18.803
in a financial sense as we are
familiar with it today.

32:18.798 --> 32:21.528
It was a form,
as I've said,

32:21.526 --> 32:25.966
of social insurance in an
insecure world,

32:25.970 --> 32:30.170
and the price of good credit,
the price of that element of

32:30.165 --> 32:33.375
security,
was conformity,

32:33.376 --> 32:40.976
conformity to the standards of
the neighborhood.

32:40.980 --> 32:46.020
So ties of neighborhood were
something which one could also

32:46.022 --> 32:50.722
extend from the countryside in
to urban communities.

32:50.720 --> 32:53.980
In the town of Folkestone,
which is down here on the south

32:53.984 --> 32:55.584
coast in Kent,
for example,

32:55.578 --> 32:58.628
one young woman who had been
recently married and was coming

32:58.626 --> 33:01.926
to the town with her husband for
the first time found that in the

33:01.932 --> 33:04.722
street where they were going to
live the neighbors were

33:04.722 --> 33:05.552
gathered.

33:05.548 --> 33:07.988
When she arrived they called
out, "where is she that

33:07.993 --> 33:09.263
will be our neighbor?"

33:09.259 --> 33:10.789
and drank to her.

33:10.788 --> 33:13.998
They had a barrel of beer ready
to welcome her.

33:14.000 --> 33:17.910
It matters in towns too,
often at the level of the

33:17.911 --> 33:18.631
street.

33:18.630 --> 33:22.530
The towns also had distinctive
institutions which you wouldn't

33:22.528 --> 33:24.188
find in the countryside.

33:24.190 --> 33:30.570
Most towns had a very strong
sense of identity as autonomous,

33:30.568 --> 33:34.108
self-governing communities,
especially those of them which

33:34.106 --> 33:37.636
actually had a charter from the
king which laid down their

33:37.644 --> 33:41.434
rights of self-government,
those which were chartered

33:41.425 --> 33:42.135
boroughs.

33:42.140 --> 33:46.430
The core members of these
communities were the citizens

33:46.432 --> 33:51.442
who held the freedom of the city
and as freemen of the city were

33:51.442 --> 33:55.182
enabled to participate in civic
government.

33:55.180 --> 33:57.100
So in the city of York for
example,

33:57.098 --> 34:00.248
up here in the north,
about half the male household

34:00.248 --> 34:03.958
heads of the city had the status
of freemen and were able to

34:03.961 --> 34:07.301
participate in the city's
political institutions.

34:07.298 --> 34:10.468
In the city of Norwich,
over here in the east,

34:10.467 --> 34:14.057
it was about a third of the
male household heads.

34:14.059 --> 34:18.159
Citizenship was usually
contingent on having served an

34:18.159 --> 34:21.099
apprenticeship in a craft or
trade,

34:21.099 --> 34:26.569
having served it to its end,
become a member of a craft

34:26.568 --> 34:31.938
fellowship or guild and
consequently being admitted to

34:31.936 --> 34:35.276
the full freedom of the city.

34:35.280 --> 34:38.090
And the great men in the
political life of the cities

34:38.088 --> 34:41.328
were usually the chief officers
of those craft fellowships or

34:41.331 --> 34:45.181
guilds,
especially the most powerful

34:45.182 --> 34:45.872
ones.

34:45.869 --> 34:49.999
Guilds varied in number.

34:50.000 --> 34:52.810
The city of York had sixty-four.

34:52.809 --> 34:55.739
The much smaller city of
Carlisle over here in the

34:55.742 --> 34:57.362
northwest only had eight.

34:57.360 --> 35:01.380
It all depended on the size and
complexity of the urban economy,

35:01.378 --> 35:04.438
but their functions were
essentially the same.

35:04.440 --> 35:07.610
They regulated particular
trades.

35:07.610 --> 35:10.810
They governed the taking on of
apprentices, how many

35:10.813 --> 35:13.643
apprentices could be admitted to
the trade.

35:13.639 --> 35:17.309
They tried to keep nonmembers
of the guild out of practicing

35:17.311 --> 35:18.061
the trade.

35:18.059 --> 35:20.979
Such people were usually
described as foreigners,

35:20.976 --> 35:24.676
those who were not members of
the guild and were trying to get

35:24.682 --> 35:26.752
in on its particular activity.

35:26.750 --> 35:29.500
They controlled the business
practices of masters.

35:29.500 --> 35:32.810
They laid down the rules for
good business practice and they

35:32.809 --> 35:35.109
controlled labor relations and
labors--

35:35.110 --> 35:39.940
and wages--between masters and
those who worked for them.

35:39.940 --> 35:44.650
But in addition the guilds had
a host of social and religious

35:44.648 --> 35:45.588
functions.

35:45.590 --> 35:49.570
Members of the guild were under
obligation to relieve other

35:49.570 --> 35:52.110
members of the guild who fell
sick.

35:52.110 --> 35:55.470
They provided them with medical
care.

35:55.469 --> 35:58.939
They were under obligation to
relieve members of the guild who

35:58.940 --> 36:00.080
became unemployed.

36:00.079 --> 36:04.599
They provided for widows and
orphans from charitable funds

36:04.603 --> 36:06.433
that they maintained.

36:06.429 --> 36:10.509
It was obligatory for members
of the guild to attend one

36:10.514 --> 36:13.044
another's funerals and weddings.

36:13.039 --> 36:17.449
They were obliged also to pray
for the souls of dead brothers

36:17.452 --> 36:21.502
and sisters of the guild and
they were obliged to attend

36:21.500 --> 36:24.520
annual feastings and
"drinkings"

36:24.516 --> 36:28.636
at which members of the guild
would assemble to celebrate

36:28.635 --> 36:30.985
their common fraternity.

36:30.989 --> 36:35.169
All of this fostered a very
strong sense of fraternity or

36:35.166 --> 36:36.206
brotherhood.

36:36.210 --> 36:39.450
They constantly referred to one
another as brothers and sisters

36:39.445 --> 36:42.465
of the guild,
the sisters being the wives and

36:42.472 --> 36:45.022
daughters of members of the
guild,

36:45.018 --> 36:48.568
and it created a strong sense
of identity both within a

36:48.572 --> 36:52.122
particular sector of urban
economies and in the citizen

36:52.123 --> 36:53.443
body as a whole.

36:53.440 --> 36:56.550
And in the citizen body as a
whole it would be periodically

36:56.547 --> 36:59.547
displayed in processions on
important feast days in which

36:59.548 --> 37:02.548
the members of the guild arrayed
in their liveries--

37:02.550 --> 37:05.690
the colors of their guild,
gowns in particular colors--

37:05.690 --> 37:09.870
would parade in order;
generally in order with their,

37:09.869 --> 37:13.119
of their, precedence and
importance within the city.

37:13.119 --> 37:16.829
When Queen Elizabeth I made her
first entry into the city of

37:16.827 --> 37:18.957
London in 1559,
for example,

37:18.963 --> 37:23.393
the streets were lined by the
city guilds all in their

37:23.393 --> 37:26.323
liveries to greet the new queen.

37:26.320 --> 37:31.530
Finally, the fraternity and the
brotherhood which was much

37:31.532 --> 37:36.932
stressed by the guilds and the
friendship which was fostered

37:36.925 --> 37:41.465
amongst neighbors,
ideally, could both be

37:41.465 --> 37:47.775
described as being extensions
into social relations of the

37:47.775 --> 37:49.985
idiom of kinship.

37:49.989 --> 37:52.839
"Friend"
was often used in the sense we

37:52.836 --> 37:56.036
use it, a personal friend,
but it also in the sixteenth

37:56.039 --> 37:57.759
century meant a relative.

37:57.760 --> 38:01.060
It's still used in that sense
in parts of Ireland today.

38:01.059 --> 38:07.219
A friend was commonly a cousin,
a brother-in-law and so forth.

38:07.219 --> 38:12.079
Brotherhood and fraternity
obviously involve comparison to

38:12.083 --> 38:13.793
a bond of kinship.

38:13.789 --> 38:18.109
When one turns to actual
kinship, be it by birth or be it

38:18.110 --> 38:21.970
by marriage, that was,
of course, another bond that

38:21.969 --> 38:24.439
held together local society.

38:24.440 --> 38:28.810
The gentry of the countryside
were much linked together within

38:28.806 --> 38:31.596
particular counties by
intermarriage.

38:31.599 --> 38:35.779
A close social network can
often be uncovered amongst

38:35.780 --> 38:40.440
gentry families who not only
lived within easy reach of one

38:40.443 --> 38:43.583
another but also sometimes
formed,

38:43.579 --> 38:46.509
through their marriage
alliances, political alignments

38:46.514 --> 38:48.734
within the politics of their
counties.

38:48.730 --> 38:51.700
And we get the same sort of
thing going on in the cities too

38:51.697 --> 38:53.957
especially amongst the elite of
the cities.

38:53.960 --> 38:57.680
In the city of Coventry,
which is the greatest city of

38:57.681 --> 39:01.891
the Midlands at this time,
in Coventry there were

39:01.885 --> 39:07.885
twenty-four men who served as
sheriff of the city between 1517

39:07.887 --> 39:09.067
and 1547.

39:09.070 --> 39:12.120
On closer examination,
it turns out that six of them

39:12.115 --> 39:15.925
were either fathers,
sons or brothers of others who

39:15.925 --> 39:19.375
served as sheriff,
nine of them were interlinked

39:19.382 --> 39:22.042
by marriage into one another's
families,

39:22.039 --> 39:25.449
and another four were
interlinked by ties of

39:25.449 --> 39:26.719
godparenthood.

39:26.719 --> 39:30.999
They'd acted as godparents of
one another's children,

39:31.003 --> 39:34.383
establishing a bond of fictive
kinship.

39:34.380 --> 39:37.920
And more generally,
as you know from the reading

39:37.918 --> 39:41.218
for this week,
the extent to which people in

39:41.221 --> 39:45.121
any given settlement were
actually related to one another

39:45.123 --> 39:46.173
was limited.

39:46.170 --> 39:50.790
People moved around a good deal
more than used to be thought.

39:50.789 --> 39:54.899
In most rural communities one
finds little knots of people

39:54.900 --> 39:58.940
related to one another but
within the context of a larger

39:58.938 --> 40:01.678
neighborhood of unrelated
people,

40:01.679 --> 40:06.589
and beyond that there would be
a scattering of kin over a

40:06.592 --> 40:09.052
significantly larger area.

40:09.050 --> 40:11.540
Nevertheless,
if it wasn't the case that most

40:11.543 --> 40:14.323
village communities were heavily
interrelated,

40:14.320 --> 40:18.010
those close kin scattered
around over what can be

40:18.005 --> 40:22.305
described as a social area
around a particular settlement

40:22.306 --> 40:26.756
undoubtedly possessed quite a
strong sense of obligation to

40:26.760 --> 40:28.680
assist one another.

40:28.679 --> 40:33.179
And across even larger areas
one's kin could form a broad

40:33.181 --> 40:37.361
resource of people who could be
called upon with some

40:37.364 --> 40:40.504
expectation of a positive
response.

40:40.500 --> 40:43.800
If you hoped to apprentice one
of your sons to a nearby city

40:43.800 --> 40:46.280
for example,
one of the best ways of doing

40:46.275 --> 40:49.765
that was to activate kin living
there who could help to prepare

40:49.773 --> 40:52.653
the way by finding a master to
whom the boy could be

40:52.650 --> 40:53.610
apprenticed.

40:53.610 --> 40:57.490
Kin also helped one another in
finding suitable marriage

40:57.487 --> 40:59.177
partners and so forth.

40:59.179 --> 41:06.939
So kinship was also one of the
bonds which tied together social

41:06.940 --> 41:10.070
areas into communities.

41:10.070 --> 41:13.090
To give just a small,
petty example of the way in

41:13.094 --> 41:17.024
which kinship could function,
we have the record from the

41:17.021 --> 41:20.281
1550s of an old lady called
Christian Hatton.

41:20.280 --> 41:24.590
In her old age when she was
unable to take care of herself

41:24.588 --> 41:27.408
fully,
she was cared for in turn by

41:27.413 --> 41:31.853
kinsmen who lived in a number of
settlements within walking

41:31.853 --> 41:33.923
distance of one another.

41:33.920 --> 41:37.380
They shared the responsibility
and periodically she walked

41:37.378 --> 41:41.198
between the different households
where she was going to live for

41:41.201 --> 41:45.771
a few months at a time,
taking with her her two cows.

41:45.769 --> 41:47.619
She had two cows.

41:47.619 --> 41:52.639
They were called Browny and
Fillpale.

41:52.639 --> 41:56.949
Fillpale was presumably a very
good milker.

41:56.949 --> 42:00.159
We know about these
arrangements about Christian

42:00.155 --> 42:04.245
Hatton and her two cows because
after her death the relatives

42:04.250 --> 42:08.210
who had been helping her fell
out over who was going to get

42:08.208 --> 42:12.258
the cows,
and so by this little accident

42:12.264 --> 42:18.004
of human frailty Browny and
Fillpale have entered the pages

42:17.996 --> 42:19.376
of history.

42:19.380 --> 42:21.690
>

42:21.690 --> 42:25.550
So let's put all this together.

42:25.550 --> 42:28.020
It's been said that in late
medieval and early modern

42:28.023 --> 42:30.453
society "the most
fundamental of all bond...

42:30.449 --> 42:33.619
was that of mutual
obligation."

42:33.619 --> 42:36.309
That's what I've been talking
about obviously.

42:36.309 --> 42:39.979
We have been looking at the
realities of those bonds.

42:39.980 --> 42:43.930
The institutions and the
relationships that I've been

42:43.934 --> 42:47.814
surveying provided the basic
coordinates of people's

42:47.811 --> 42:50.551
identities beyond the household.

42:50.550 --> 42:55.590
They bound them together into
networks of relationships in

42:55.585 --> 42:58.755
guilds,
in manors, amongst neighbors,

42:58.759 --> 43:03.099
amongst kinsmen,
which provided those

43:03.103 --> 43:06.763
coordinates of identity.

43:06.760 --> 43:11.750
Those ties were mostly local
and they gave a strong flavor of

43:11.746 --> 43:16.396
local particularity to the
society and the culture of the

43:16.400 --> 43:19.050
time;
a particularity of place,

43:19.048 --> 43:22.238
a particularity of custom in
that place,

43:22.239 --> 43:26.189
a particularity of known faces
and those with whom you

43:26.190 --> 43:30.900
regularly interacted,
a particularity of assumptions

43:30.902 --> 43:34.902
about shared values and proper
behavior.

43:34.900 --> 43:39.110
In such a context people's
everyday dealings were very

43:39.114 --> 43:43.574
closely bound up with these
direct, face-to-face personal

43:43.568 --> 43:44.998
relationships.

43:45.000 --> 43:47.410
They were rarely anonymous.

43:47.409 --> 43:52.269
Indeed, they can be said to
have taken on a very strong

43:52.268 --> 43:56.858
moral character implicitly,
sometimes explicitly.

43:56.860 --> 43:59.090
People were expected to meet
their obligations.

43:59.090 --> 44:03.080
They were enjoined to live in
charity with one another.

44:03.079 --> 44:06.089
They were reproved if they
failed to do so.

44:06.090 --> 44:09.770
In many ways it's a very
attractive ideal and has some

44:09.766 --> 44:13.096
features,
which clearly bear out some of

44:13.097 --> 44:16.847
the assumptions of the
sociological notions of

44:16.847 --> 44:17.927
community.

44:17.929 --> 44:21.839
But one should also never
forget that it could also be

44:21.840 --> 44:25.390
very demanding,
very restrictive,

44:25.389 --> 44:30.349
very excluding as well as
including,

44:30.349 --> 44:33.229
and it was something which
certainly couldn't be taken for

44:33.233 --> 44:33.743
granted.

44:33.739 --> 44:37.929
Community insofar as it existed
was always threatened with

44:37.934 --> 44:39.484
potential conflict.

44:39.480 --> 44:41.800
It had to be worked at.

44:41.800 --> 44:47.680
It has been described as being
a form of constantly negotiated

44:47.679 --> 44:52.209
community amongst a set of
well-known people.

44:52.210 --> 44:55.220
Well, that's a very important
aspect of the world I'm trying

44:55.217 --> 44:56.337
to introduce to you.

44:56.340 --> 44:59.670
We should certainly never
sentimentalize it.

44:59.670 --> 45:03.340
If it was attractive in some
ways, it could be very

45:03.344 --> 45:05.554
demanding, very restrictive.

45:05.550 --> 45:08.970
It wasn't an idyllic pre-modern
world.

45:08.969 --> 45:10.259
There was plenty of conflict.

45:10.260 --> 45:14.290
There was personal rivalry and
of course there were differences

45:14.293 --> 45:15.013
of power.

45:15.010 --> 45:18.770
But at the same time it was a
world that gave priority to the

45:18.769 --> 45:22.659
needs of these collectivities as
well as to those of individual

45:22.657 --> 45:25.567
households,
and the restraining bonds of

45:25.570 --> 45:29.460
these interpersonal obligations
could have a very powerful

45:29.460 --> 45:33.080
influence on how people
conducted themselves and could

45:33.079 --> 45:36.899
have a very powerful influence
on how they understood and

45:36.900 --> 45:40.590
perceived and responded to
various of the changes which

45:40.586 --> 45:44.546
were to come in the course of
the sixteenth and seventeenth

45:44.545 --> 45:45.975
centuries.

45:45.980 --> 45:47.170
Okay.

45:47.170 --> 45:50.210
I'll leave it there,
and next time I'll go on to

45:50.213 --> 45:54.233
look at urban society more fully
and the network of connections

45:54.230 --> 45:57.340
which bound together the kingdom
as a whole.

45:57.340 --> 46:03.000