A Pauper's History of England

1,000 Years of Peasants, Beggars & Guttersnipes

Peter Stubley

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781473871618
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

A unique tour through British history—from the perspective of the peasants and the poverty-stricken. The past is traditionally told from the viewpoint of kings and queens, politicians and pioneers. But what about the people struggling to survive at the very lowest levels of society? A Pauper's History of England covers a thousand years of poverty, from Domesday right up to the twentieth century, via the Black Death and the English Civil War. It paints a portrait of what life was like for the peasants, paupers, beggars, and working poor as England developed from a feudal society into a wealthy superpower. Experience the past from a different perspective:

• Tour the England of the Domesday Book
• Make a solemn Franciscan vow of poverty
• Join the Peasants' Revolt of 1381
• Converse with Elizabethan beggars and learn their secret language
• Meet the inmates of Bedlam Hospital and Bridewell Prison
• Enjoy a gin-soaked Georgian night of debauchery
• Spend the night in a workhouse
• Go slumming in Victorian London, and more!

CHAPTER 1

Domesday

In which we journey through Norman England from Winchester to Gloucester twenty years after the Battle of Hastings

The ceremony begins. In the middle of the marketplace a slave stands before his lord, the man who owns his body and controls where he lives, works and sleeps. In one hand the slave holds the symbol of his bondage; a sickle used to harvest the crops, a goad for prodding the cattle, or some other farming tool. In the other hand he holds 30 pence in coin. This is the price of his freedom, the literal ‘value of his skin’. Once the money is handed over to his lord in the presence of suitable witnesses, the slave puts down his tool and takes up a sword, a lance or another symbol of his new status. He is no longer a slave. He is now a freeman.

Slavery has been part of English life for centuries. It existed before the Roman invasion. It continued under the Anglo-Saxon kings. And while the custom is gradually dying out, there are still many slaves living under our new Norman rulers. The survey being carried out throughout this year (AD 1086) will show that there are more than 25,000 slaves among the 268,863 people counted. Although the survey does not include family members and the inhabitants of the major cities of London and Winchester, it suggests that slaves account for as much as 10 per cent of the total population of England (guessed to be around two million). Most appear to work as ploughmen or household servants. They may have been born into slavery, or taken captive during a raid or war. They may have been enslaved as a punishment for a crime. They may have been sold into slavery by their poor families or even volunteered themselves as a last resort.

Slavery may be dying out slowly but many of the peasant classes above them are hardly ‘free’. Most are required to pay rent and work a set amount for their landlord before they can produce anything for themselves. Just like the slave, they are punished if they attempt to run away or move without consent of their lord. Under Anglo-Saxon law if a captured fugitive cannot pay his lord 60 shillings then he becomes a slave. The penalty for killing your lord is to be tortured, scalped or disembowelled (or a combination of all three).

The largest group among the peasantry are the ‘un-free’ villeins (40 per cent of the population) who on average have 30 acres of land and two plough oxen. Next come the poorer bordars (30 per cent) and cottars or cottagers who generally own between one and five acres of land, just enough to feed their family. For them an ox would be a luxury.

Freemen (14 per cent of the population) are mainly found in the Viking-influenced north and own an average of 30 acres and two oxen. They are mostly rent-paying tenant farmers who do not have to perform extra duties for the lord of the manor. Some may be better off than the villein but others suffer a ‘wretched and miserable’ life. It is thought their numbers are decreasing as the Normans impose their rule upon the country.

The most significant change brought about by the invasion was the replacement of Anglo-Saxon nobles with Norman ones. It is argued that the rest of society remains much the same and is divided into three sections; those who pray, those who fight, and those who work. At the top is King William, followed by his lords and the chiefs who hold the land in his name. At the bottom are the peasants who work on the land and make up 95 per cent of the population. If a person has no land to work and no lord then he is found one.

*  *  *

We can see some of the effects of the Norman invasion as we make our 80-mile journey between the major cities of Winchester and Gloucester. Winchester is the old Anglo-Saxon capital of England and the burial place of King Alfred the Great. While London is larger (estimated population 10,000), Winchester remains the administrative capital and the location of the treasury. Taking the Broadway into the heart of Winchester we can see the new cathedral being built using limestone from the Isle of Wight. Near the west gate stands William the Conqueror’s castle, built on land freed up by the destruction of fifty Anglo-Saxon homes. It is a reminder of the devastation wrought upon England by the Norman invaders over the last twenty years, burning down Canterbury and York, razing the ports, building castles and monasteries, and imposing taxes and tolls. There are reports of harsh weather, dying crops, pestilence, famine and death, particularly in the north. Supporters of the new regime will however tell you that the roads are now so safe that a girl laden with gold could travel from one end of the country to the other without fear.

The Normans themselves are notorious for their love of arms and horses, hunting and hawking. Unlike the hairy Anglo-Saxons, the Normans shave their faces and the back of their necks. They are also distinguished by their wealth, their silks and furs and their French tongue. It will be another 350 years before English is recognised as the language of government again.

From Winchester we set off towards Andover along the straight road set out by the Romans hundreds of years ago through gently undulating countryside dotted with small farms, towns and villages. To our right is Headborne Worthy. The ploughland and meadows here were once held by King Harold, Earl of Wessex, and the Saxon lord Cypping. Now the peasants here serve the Normans Ralph de Mortimer and Bernard Pauncevolt. To the left is Littleton, granted to Hugh de Port after the Conquest. To the victor goes the spoils.

Then comes Chibolton. The land here has always belonged to the monastery, and now belongs to Walkelin, the first Norman bishop of Winchester.

On arriving at Andover we learn that the surveyors have recorded 107 male inhabitants, six watermills grinding grain into flour, 18 acres of meadow and enough woodland for 100 pigs. In the King’s land there are sixty-two villeins, thirty-six bordars, three freemen and six slaves with twenty-four ploughs.

Seeing one of the slaves at work with the plough, we decide to ask him a few questions. Alf is of Saxon appearance, with a fringe and short hair cut at the back rather than shaved. He is perhaps 5ft 7in tall, with small feet clad in simple shoes cut from leather. He is wearing a knee-length tunic beneath a short cloak, secured at the front. His legs are bare, although he might wrap a few rags around them in winter. He has a wife and two sons, one of whom works the land with him. He has a twelve-year-old daughter, who within a couple of years will be married, most likely to another ploughman on the manor. Their home is made of timber, perhaps 20ft by 10ft, with a hearth in the middle.

‘So, ploughman, is this hard work?’ we ask.

‘Oh I work very hard indeed, sir. It’s more than my life is worth to stay at home – not with the landlord I’ve got. As soon as the sun rises I drive the oxen out to the field and yoke them to the plough. I have to plough a full acre or more every day.’

‘Do you work with anyone else?’

‘My eldest son drives the oxen with his goad, although he can hardly speak today what with the cold and all the shouting at the animals to keep them at it.’

‘Do you have any other duties?’

‘Sure I have. A lot more. I have to water the oxen, fill up their stable with hay and take their dung out. It’s hard work all right, sir, but I don’t have a choice, because I am not free.’

Disheartened by his gloomy tone, we leave the fields, stopping only to view the dead crows hung above the fields to scare off other birds. At the stable we find the oxherd, who takes the oxen out to pasture when the ploughman has finished.

‘I work hard for my lord too,’ he says. ‘I stand over the oxen from dusk until dawn to prevent the thieves getting at them and then I make sure the beasts are well fed and watered ready for the day’s work.’

We bid good day to the workers in the fields and plough our own route past the Savernake Forest to Marlborough. We can see the motte and bailey castle – a castle on top of a mound of earth surrounded by a wall – still being fortified. Next on our route is Cirencester, once the second largest city in Roman Britain. Here the land is owned by Regenbald, one of the few Englishman who profited from the conquest because he was once chaplain to Edward the Confessor, King William’s cousin. He also owns land in Berkshire, Herefordshire, Dorset, Somerset and Buckinghamshire.

From Cirencester we take the Roman Road north-west to Gloucester, our final destination. Once the capital of Mercia, and home to the palace of Edward the Confessor, it now holds perhaps as many as 3,000 people. Its Roman walls still stand and, like Marlborough, it too has a Norman motte and bailey castle, built on land once occupied by sixteen Saxon houses.

Gloucester was also the birthplace of the survey that is taking place across the while country. In the winter of 1085 King William gathered his most trusted men here together for a council. After much discussion it was decided to send out his men across every shire of England to find out who owned the land and what the land was worth.

We can see part of the process in the county court. Men from every part of the shire have gathered here to give their evidence to the King’s Commissioners. There are barons, landlords, priests, the reeve (who oversees the peasants) and villeins from each ‘hundred’, which is a Saxon term referring to the amount of land which can support 100 households. Gloucestershire is made up of forty such hundreds.

As we enter the King’s Commissioners, Remigius the Bishop of Lincoln, Henry de Ferrars, Walter Giffard, and Adam, brother of Eudes the Steward, are questioning the men of Langley hundred, perhaps 30 miles to the south-west of Gloucester, about the manor of Alveston. They are interested in the taxable value of the land (divided into units called hides) and the division of ploughs between those attached to the manor and those used by the peasants.

‘Who held it in the time of King Edward?’

‘Earl Harold.’

‘How many hides?’

‘Ten.’

‘Ploughs?’

‘Three in demesne, twenty-two with the men.’

‘How many men?’

‘Twenty-three villeins, five bordars and two slaves.’

‘Has anything been added since?’

‘The reeve has added two ploughs and five slaves.’

‘How much is it worth?’

‘Twelve pounds.’

Next comes Thornbury, the market town just north of Alveston. This was once held by Beorhtric, son of Aelfgar, when there was eleven hides, four ploughs on the lord’s land, forty-two villeins and eighteen radknights with twenty-one ploughs, and twenty-four bordars and fifteen slaves and four freemen. ‘Radknights’ – meaning riding men – are free men belonging to the upper ranks of the peasantry who act as an escort for their lord, who is now Humphrey, the King’s Chamberlain.

The call then goes up for the manor of Woodchester – but it seems nobody has turned up to give evidence to the Commissioners. There are only the men from Longtree hundred, who explain that the land was once held by Gytha, the mother of Earl Harold, and is now held by Edward of Salisbury for King William.

Examining the records for Gloucester we see other inhabitants listed besides peasants, ploughs and pigs. At the top of the list of landowners is ‘Rex Willelmus’ – King William. Under the king comes the Archbishop of York, the bishops of Hereford and Worcester, the abbots and the Norman lords. There is Berdic, the King’s jester, who owns three villages and five ploughs in the Welsh marches, and pays no tax. And also a William the Scribe, who has one messuage (house and garden) worth 51 pence. William is a common name at this time, and there are other entries such as William the Bald, William the Priest and even William the Goat.

Eventually the information concerning Gloucestershire will be written down neatly in Latin, with red ink for the headings and place markers and black ink for the rest. Once combined with the information from the other regions it will not only give King William an idea of the value of his kingdom, but also provide people in the future with an insight into life in England in the eleventh century.

By the twelfth century the book containing this information became known by the English natives as ‘Domesday’, as in the day of judgement. The Domesday Book was never finished. In fact there are two books. The larger one of 800 pages covers the whole of England except for Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. There are also gaps left for the missing descriptions of London, Winchester and Hastings. A second volume, smaller in size but with 900 pages, contains a more detailed account of the missing section of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Historians are divided on the question of why the Domesday Book was not finished – one theory is that it was cut short by King William’s death on 9 September 1087.

CHAPTER 2

The King of the Poor

In which the bearded revolutionary William FitzOsbert attempts to stir up a revolt of the poor and middle classes against the wealthy citizens of London in 1196

The King of the Poor stands before a large assembly of Londoners in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral. He wears no crown but is immediately recognisable by his long bushy beard, even in the midst of a city as densely populated as the new capital of England. How many of those 25,000 souls have turned out to hear Longbeard speak? We find it impossible to count, hemmed in on all sides by shopkeepers, tradesmen, labourers and common paupers. All appear rapt by his words, occasionally cheering and shouting out in approval. Let us listen:

‘… with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation … I am the saviour of the poor. Do ye, oh, poor, who have experienced the heaviness of rich men’s hands, drink from my wells the waters of salvation, and ye may do this joyfully …’

Longbeard raises his hands, his face quivering with righteous fury.

‘For the time of your visitation is at hand, for I will divide the waters from the waters. The people are the waters. I will divide the humble from the haughty and treacherous. I will separate the elect from the reprobate, as light from darkness.’

The quotations from Scripture tumble out one after another, making it hard to decipher the meaning and purpose of his speech. Gradually it becomes clearer. Longbeard’s anger is directed at the leaders of this city, the ‘optimates’, the wealthy oligarchy of lords, bishops and merchant families, the mayor and his sheriffs who rule this city as if it were an independent state. In return they pay a yearly rent of £300 to King Richard. Longbeard claims their arrogance – and their treason – is compounded by their failure to pay a fair share of the King’s taxes. These miserly businessmen spare their own fortunes while the common man is forced to dig deep to pay for Richard’s war in France. Why should the poor shopkeeper in his wooden house pay the same as the rich merchant in his stone fortress? Should not every man pay a proportion of what he can afford? Look around you at this splendid city, says Longbeard. All around us is proof that there is one rule for the rich, cloaked in their silks and furs, fattened on goose, guinea-hen and woodcock, and another for the poor, bent double with the...