Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, Volume 1 (of 2)

								




                              TOWN LIFE



                                  IN



                         THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

  VOL. I
TOWN LIFE



                                  IN



                         THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

                                  BY



                            MRS. J. R GREEN



                           IN TWO VOLUMES



                                VOL. I

                                London

                           MACMILLAN AND CO.

                             AND NEW YORK

                                 1894



        The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved

                    RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,

                          LONDON AND BUNGAY.

                             IN MEMORY OF

                          JOHN RICHARD GREEN

                              MARCH, 1894

PREFACE

IN the twenty years which have passed since Mr. Green drew his
brilliant sketch of the early life of English towns, and of their
influence on the history of English liberty, the study of the subject
in this country has advanced but little; and it is not, I think, too
much to say that the pages of his History still present the most vivid
and suggestive picture which we possess of the mediæval boroughs—a
picture inspired by ardent sympathy and emotion. In this rapid and
original survey the true proportions of civic history in our national
life are boldly drawn; and the burghers and shopkeepers of the towns,
long neglected and despised, take their place in the distinguished
ranks of those by whom our freedom has been won by their sturdy battle
against oppression, leading the way in the growth and elevation of
the English people, and carrying across the ages of tyranny the full
tradition of liberty. But the history of this great civic revolution,
which in Mr. Green’s day cannot be said to have existed at all, has
since then remained strangely neglected among us. While in foreign
countries the study of the origin and growth of municipal institutions
has been recognized as of overwhelming importance, and has already
employed the erudition and tried the ingenuity of a long succession
of scholars, English historians have stood aloof. No English name
figures in the contests of the schools; nor is any English authority
called to witness when a learned theory is advanced to solve the
riddle; and if from time to time foreign scholars attempt to draw
English towns within the range of their generalizations, the lack of
sufficient or trustworthy materials at their disposal makes the result
vain and unfruitful. No country indeed has been so backward as our
own in municipal history, whether we take it from the popular or from
the scientific side. The traveller who has asked at the bookshop of a
provincial town for a local history or even for a local guide is as