12/30/2023 0 Comments Middle ages village![]() ![]() The small size of regional cities shouldn’t make you assume that they were sleepy, however. In total, about 12% out of a population of 2.5 million English people in 1377 lived in a town of some sort, while 6-7% percent lived in the largest cities. Beyond the biggest cities, there were about two hundred other market towns in England with more than four hundred inhabitants. Following London, the ten largest cities in 1377 were:Īll in all, historians can assume that around 170, 000 people lived in the thirty largest settlements in England. Only the largest – London, with a population of around 40, 000 – could compete with the largest continental cities: Bruges, Ghent, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome, all of which had populations of over 50, 000. The city:īy the standards both of our own time and of the Middle Ages, the cities of medieval England were small. Exeter Cathedral is typical of England’s Gothic architecture. Travellers with a particular interest in the Middle Ages might want to take a look at our previous articles on the topic: A Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, Village Life in Medieval Britain and Understanding British Churches. Our articles on England can be found here. This article is part of our series on England and Great Britain, designed to provide background before you go on an England tour with us, or to simply help you firm up your travel plans. (Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, 1). Painted signs above the doors show what is on sale in the shops beneath. The wooden beams of houses project out over the street. ![]() Nearby traders call out from their market stalls while two women stand chatting, one shielding her eyes from the sun, the other with a basket in her arms. A dog guarding a traveller’s packhorses starts barking. A servant opens an upstairs shutter and starts beating a blanket. Imagine yourself in a dusty London street on a summer morning. Mortimer begins his immersive history by vividly setting a typical scene: To do this, we have drawn on Ian Mortimer’s book, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. This article aims to immerse the reader in the landscapes – town, city, and countryside – of medieval England, with a focus on the 14th century (1300-1400). We cannot assume that the landscapes of the past are the same as what we see around us today. In reality, human activity and the land are always entwined, constantly shaping one another as they evolve. While human history is portrayed as ever changing, we tend to think of the natural landscape as static and unmoving. ![]()
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