Chaucerian Period – Social History of England

Lecture: What is the Origin of English?

Lecture: How Middle English Language is Different from Old English?

War and France (Hundred Years’ War)

1. The Hundred Years’ War began in 1338 as a consequence of the territorial ambitions of Edward III between England and France.
2. Edward III earned the English supremacy by securing the English Channel through his naval victory of Sluys in 1340.
3. Edward III restored the prestige of English soldiery and the military supremacy by the victory of Crecy in 1346 and by capturing Calais in 1347.
4. The Black Prince, the son of Edward III won a great victory at Poitiers in September 1356.
5. Edward III was confirmed in the independent sovereignty of Aquitaine by the treaty of Bretigy in 1360.
6. Edward III was the first king to conspicuously direct policy to commercial expression.
7. The security of the trade with Flanders was one of the main objectives of his French Wars.
8. Edward III’s reign is the midsummer of English chivalry and the highest development phase.

Trade and Commerce

1. Edward III encouraged the foreign trade.
2. At that time the chief export material was raw wool.
3. After taking control of Calais, it was made the sole center for foreign sales and all the wool shipped to England or to other countries only by English ships which promoted the growth of two more industries: shipbuilding and seafaring other than cloth industry.

The Black Death

1. The victory over Crecy and Poitiers were the most significant events during Edward’s reign.
2. All the glory was subdued by the pestilence which swept over Europe and reached England in 1348.
3. Though there had been an epidemic before, this was the worst to turn London a graveyard.
4. Nearly half of the people of England died.

Statue of Labourerers

1. After escaping the plague nearly all the workers and labourers left the country.
2. Labour became very expensive and crops were left uncut.
3. The price of food touched four fold.
4. To check the disaster in 1351 The Parliament passes a Statue of Labourers compelling workmen to accept the wages in vogue before the plague.
5. In 1353, a second statue supplemented the earlier forbidding labourers to quit the locations in which they worked.

Statutes to Limit Papal Authority 

1. During Edward III’s reign the power of the Pope over the English Church was drawn to the limit by the passage of two other statutes.
2. Papal power grew a good deal of hostility in England as early as the reign of Henry III. This increased a strong feeling of nationality at the time of Edward III.
3. In 1351 the statute forbade the revenues of English benefices to be sent to the Pope.
4. The Statue of Preamunire in 1353 made it illegal to bring Jaw cases before papal courts, or to bring papal bulls or orders into the country without the permission of the king.

Attack of Wycliffe on the English Church

1. The aims of these statutes were to limit the undue dominance of the Pope on the English Churches.
2. Due to the reserve of unpaid papal revenue the English churches became wealthy and it attracted greedy people to become clergy who had no true claim to respect.
3. Some friars became dishonest and the higher ranked clergy like archdeacons, deans, bishops started living luxurious lives devoting themselves to earthly interests.
4. People started to question the worth of the churches. John Wycliffe went on to attack the Sacerdotal Theory of religion and to question The Doctrine of Transubstanitation.
5. He organized a band of poor preachers to spread his message, and these converted people were known as the “Lollards”.
6. Wycliffe was condemned by the Archbishop of Canterbury for his “heretical” views, and Lollards suffered persecution.
7. Thus Wycliffe became the forerunner of the Reformation and called “The Morning Star of the Reformation”.
8. He translated the Bible into English which is regarded as the first English prose classic.

Death of Edward III and of the Black Prince

The Peasants’ Revolt

The Beginning of the Renaissance