Apart from the coastal and inland ports, many towns grew up around the numerous Norman castles built throughout England after the conquest of 1066 providing what would today be called "support services" and "industries" to these hubs of local activity. Early in the medieval period, towns would be "owned" in the same manner as any manor.
As the populations of the towns grew, particularly after the ravages of the first outbreaks of the black death (1348), so did the emerging merchant class with the coneqent growth of trade and established trade routes (the poor and dangerous condition of the roads meant that most goods were transported by water wherever possible).
As the towns prospered on trade, so did the merchants who, in the interests of the stablity they required for their trading activities, sought to remove the towns from the control of local barons and supported successive monarchs in establishing strong central government. The medival monarchs encouraged the growth of both trade and towns and the granting of charters to those towns rich enough to afford them became a major source of royal revenue.
The merchants became the eilte of the townsfolk and it was their money which bought the charters guaranteeing the independance of the towns which they governed (although the merchant guilds frequently clashed with the craft guilds over power). This growth in the indepence of the towns contributed to breakdown of feudal society centered on the manor.
|
| | | Links to Other Pages on this Site
|
| |
| | |
|
| | | Links to Other Sites
|
| |
| | |
Recommend a Book for this Page
Hits on this page since December 6th| Jan | | | | | Feb | | | | | Mar | | | | | Apr | | | | | May | | | | | Jun | | |  | | Jul | | | | | Aug | | | | | Sep | | | | | Oct | | | | | Nov | | | | | Dec | | |  |
| current year: | | previous year: |
No messages posted on this page Only Members of the Site can post messages in this section. Signing in is easy from our Home Page. DISCLAIMER: Whilst we endeavour to ensure the content of this site is correct, we cannot undertake that information you find here, is, or will remain accurate and complete. We do not warrant that any information contained on this site is fit for any purpose. If you wish to place reliance on any such information you must check its accuracy by some other means before doing so. MEMBERS get aditional features on our pages and will soon be able to interact with the site and add their views and informastion. Sign up, from the Home-Page, is simple and involves typing in your email address and a password of your choice. If you are in any way connected with any location or interested in the subject mentioned on this page and have an hour or two a month to spare, we would welcome you as a local moderator - please email the webmaster by CLICKING HERE. Privacy Policy
|
| 
