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I.e., yard or small enclosure.

bushels. And he ought to go for the said grain and bring it
to the granary of the lord with the aforesaid horse and his
own sack.
And he shall have as often as he hauls as much
oats as he is able to measure and carry in the palm of his
hand three times. And if he shall not have carried he is
not to give anything, but there will be appointed in the place
of each carrying one work of the price of a half penny.
And he shall give aid and must attend the court. And he
shall give merchet on the marriage of his daughter, at the
will of the lord.

The same Walter holds one toft which contains 2 acres of land. And he shall perform in each week, from the feast of the Trinity to the first of August, 2 works, the price of a work being a half penny. And for a half toft in each week during the same period, I work, the price as above. And from the first of August to the feast of St. Michael in each week, I work and a half, without the food of the lord, the price of a work being id. And he shall have a bundle called the tofsheaf, as large as he is able to bind in a band cut off and not uprooted nor extracted from the earth along with its roots.

Contemporary Document.

Translated and edited by E. P.

Cheyney, Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, IV, 282-284.

By HENRY
KNIGHTON,
a canon of
Leicester
in the four-
teenth cen-
tury. Con-
temporary
accounts of
the visitation
of the plague

in 1348 and

33. The Foul Death (1349)

Then the grievous plague penetrated the seacoasts 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

1349 are exceedingly few and meagre.

description may be

accepted as main, and gives a vivid picture of the condition of It is taken from Knighton's great work, a History of England.

correct in the

the country.

sun. There died at Leicester in the small parish of S. Leonard more than 380, in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400; in the parish of S. Margaret of Leicester Knighton's more than 700; and so in each parish a great number. Then the bishop of Lincoln sent through the whole bishopric, and gave general power to all and every priest, both regular and secular, to hear confessions, and absolve with full and entire episcopal authority except in matters of debt, in which case the dying man, if he could, should pay the debt while he lived, or others should certainly fulfil that duty from his property after his death. Likewise, the pope granted full remission of all sins to whoever was absolved in peril of death, and granted that this power should last till next Easter, and everyone could choose a confessor at his will. In the same year there was a great plague of sheep everywhere in the realm, so that in one place there died in 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 gather 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 It is estifood. Wherefore many crops perished in the fields for want of some one to gather them; but in the pestilence from 50 to year, as is above said of other things, there was such abundance of all kinds of corn that no one troubled about it.

mated that wages rose

100 per cent.

In 1349 a royal ordi

nance to this effect was

The Scots, hearing of the cruel pestilence of the English, believed it had come to them from the avenging hand of God, and as it was commonly reported in England took for their oath when they wanted to swear, "By the foul death of England." But when the Scots, believing the English were under the shadow of the dread vengeance of God, came together in the forest of Selkirk, with purpose to invade the whole realm of England, the fell mortality came upon them, and the sudden and awful cruelty of death winnowed them, so that about 5,000 died in a short time. Then the rest, some feeble, some strong, determined to return home, but the English followed and overtook them and killed many of them.

Master Thomas of Bradwardine was consecrated by the pope archbishop of Canterbury, and when he returned to England he came to London, but within two days was dead. He was famous beyond all other clerks in the whole of Christendom, especially in theology, but likewise in the other liberal sciences. At the same time priests were in such poverty everywhere that many churches were widowed and lacking the divine offices, masses, mattins, vespers, sacraments, and other rites. A man could scarcely get a chaplain under £10 or 10 marks to minister to a church. And when a man could get a chaplain for 5 or 4 marks or even for two marks with his food when there was an abundance of priests before the pestilence, there was scarcely anyone now who was willing to accept a vicarage for £20 or 20 marks; 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 issued. Two

years later the first

Statute of was passed.

Labourers

acres.

and obstinate that they would not listen to the king's command, but if anyone 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 wishes of the workmen. And when it was known to the king that they had not observed his command, and had given greater wages to the labourers, he levied heavy fines upon abbots, priors, knights, greater and lesser, and other great folk and small folk of the realm, of some 100s., of some 40s., of some 20s., from each according to what he could give. He took from each carucate of the realm 20s., and, notwithstanding this, a fif- A hundred teenth. And afterwards the king had many labourers arrested, and sent them to prison; many withdrew themselves and went into the forests and woods; and those who were taken were heavily fined. Their ringleaders were made to swear that they would not take daily wages beyond the ancient custom, and then were freed from prison. And in like manner was done with the other craftsmen in the boroughs and villages. . . 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, not a house being left in them, all having died who dwelt there; and it was probable that many such villages would never be inhabited. In the winter following there was such a want of servants in work of all kinds, that one would scarcely believe that in times past there had been such a lack. . . . And so all necessaries became so much dearer that what in times past had been worth a penny, was then worth 4d. or 5d.

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Magnates and lesser lords of the realm who had tenants made abatements of the rent in order that the tenants should not go away on account of the want of servants and the general dearness, some half the rent, some more, some less, some for two years, some for three, some for one year,

according as they could agree with them. Likewise, those who received of their tenants daywork throughout the year, as is the practice with villeins, had to give them more leisure, and remit such works, and either entirely to free them, or give them an easier tenure at a small rent, so that homes should not be everywhere irrecoverably ruined, and the land everywhere remain entirely uncultivated.

Henry Knighton, History of England (Hearne, Historia Anglicanæ Scriptores Decum, London, 1652), 2599. Translation by W. J. Ashley, Edward III and his Wars (London, 1887), 122-127.

By JEHAN FROISSART. See No. 29. The account

here given of the popular rising of 1381 point of view

is from the

of the ruling classes, and is unsympathetic,

although on the whole correct as to facts. - On the Peasants' Rising, see

University of
Pennsyl-
vania, Trans-

lations and
Reprints,
II, 5; G. M.
Trevelyan,
England

in the Age of
Wycliffe.

See No. 32.

34. The Peasants' Rising of 1381

In the mean season while this treaty was, there fell in England great mischief and rebellion of moving of the common people, by which deed England was at a point to have been lost without recovery. There was never realm nor country in so great adventure as it was in that time, and all because of the ease and riches that the common people were of, which moved them to this rebellion, as sometime they did in France, the which did much hurt, for by such incidents the realm of France hath been greatly grieved.

It was a marvellous thing and of poor foundation that this mischief began in England, and to give ensample to all manner of people I will speak thereof as it was done, as I was informed, and of the incidents thereof. There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by servage, and

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