The Problem of Labour in Fourteenth-Century England

by Bothwell, James; Goldberg, P. J. P.; Ormrod, W. M.

• ISBN13: 9781903153048
• ISBN10: 1903153042
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: York Medieval Pr

Summary

At the very moment that the image of the honest labourer seemed to reach its apogee in the Luttrell Psalter or, a few decades later, in Piers Plowman, the dominant culture of the landed interests was increasingly suspicious of what it described as the idleness, greed and arrogance of the lower orders. Labour was one of the central issues during the fourteenth century: the natural disasters and profound social changes of the period created not merely a 'problem' of labour, but also new ways of discussing and (supposedly) solving that problem. These studies engage with the contrasting and often competing discourses which emerged, ranging from the critical social awareness of some of the early fourteenth-century protest literature to the repressive authoritarianism of the new national employment laws that were enforced in the wake of the Black Death, and were expressed in counter-cultures of resistance and dissent. JAMES BOTHWELL and P.J.P. GOLDBERG lecture in history, and W.M. ORMROD is Professor of History, at the University of York. Contributors: CORDELIA BEATTIE, CHRISTOPHER DYER, RICHARD K. EMMERSON, P.J.P. GOLDBERG, KATE GILES, CHRIS GIVEN-WILSON, STEPHEN KNIGHT, DEREK PEARSALL, SARAH REES JONES.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vi
Preface	vii
The Problem of Women's Work Identities in Post Black Death England	1	(20)
Cordelia Beattie
Work Ethics in the Fourteenth Century	21	(22)
Christopher Dyer
`The Lord Geoffrey had me made': Lordship and Labour in the Luttrell Psalter	43	(22)
Richard K. Emmerson
P. J. P. Goldberg
Framing Labour: The Archaeology of York's Medieval Guildhalls	65	(20)
Kate Giles
The Problem of Labour in the Context of English Government, c. 1350-1450	85	(16)
Chris Given-Wilson
The Voice of Labour in Fourteenth-Century English Literature	101	(22)
Stephen Knight
Piers Plowman and the Problem of Labour	123	(10)
Derek Pearsall
Household, Work and the Problem of Mobile Labour: The Regulation of Labour in Medieval English Towns	133
Sarah Rees Jones