swuklink: Towns

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.

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