Maryanne Kowaleski

A Commercialising economy : England 1086 to c.1300

Commercialization and economic development in England, 1000-1300, R.H. Britnell the dynamic role of the market in the Anglo-Norman economy and beyond, 1086-1300, Graeme Donald Snooks modelling medieval monetization Nicholas Mayhew Jewish lending and the medieval English economy, Robert C. Stacey disposing of a surplus, or producing for the market? some reflections on woodland and pasture sales on the Winchester manors in the 13th century, David L. Farmer how commericalized was the seigneurial sector of English agriculture c.1300? some evidence from the hinterland of London, Bruce M.S. Campbell. Appendices: a note on the calculation of GDP and GDP per capita in 1086 and c.1300, Graeme Donald Snooks the calculation of GDP from Domesday Book, Nicholas Mayhew a note on the calculation of GDP for 1086 and c.1300, Christopher Dyer.

Medieval People in Town and Country: New Perspectives from Demography and Bioarchaeology

Medievalists, especially medievalists in North America, pay far too little attention to the medieval 90 percent, above all the peasants, who vastly outnumbered the kings, popes, poets, mystics, preachers, and artists that we know so well. All of us, scholars, students, and the general public, can greatly enrich our understanding of the Middle Ages if we take more notice of the ordinary men and women who constituted the backbone and chief support of the medieval economy and society. To awaken readers to the charms of the 90 percent, I focus here on a long-standing topos in medieval studies: the contrasts and interplay of rural and urban societies. I aim particularly to highlight the new perspectives that demography and archaeology, particularly the field of bioarchaeology, can offer to this old debate.

The history of urban families in medieval England

Few medieval historians have turned their attention to the history of families in urban England. But the groundwork for such studies has been laid in previous scholarship on the merchant class, on women and work in towns, and on borough law and customs. Future studies, more specifically focused on families in towns, will draw upon a wide variety of sources including wills, property records, marriage litigation, coroners rolls, poll taxes, borough customs, and, most importantly, borough plea rolls. These studies should allow us to explore how the special characteristics of the medieval urban environment – continual in-migration, economic opportunity, commercial and industrial diversity, extremes of wealth, high population density, and borough legal structures – affected family formation, life-cycle, demography, and domestic life in medieval towns.

Lordship and the Urban Community: Durham and Its Overlords, 1250-1540.

Laurence the monk of Durham, c.1140 Introduction 1. Urban origins: the growth and development of Durham to 1250 2. The urban landscape of Durham 1250-1540 3. Durhams medieval buildings 4. Landlord and tenants: the economic relationship between Durham priory and its urban tenants in the later middle ages 5. Trades and occupations 6. Lordship in action: the maintenance of law and order in late-medieval Durham Conclusion Appendices, Bibliography Index.