-
Articles/Ads
Article Untitled Article ← Page 5 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
Cambridge , within which manor the said Richard and William and their ancestors were born , had obtained against him and others divers oyers and terminers in the county of Norfolk , " pretending maliciously" that they ought to have them in session at Norwich ;
and had done divers other " horrible trespasses" against them , by reason of having the said oyers and terminers to enfranchise them by people of the said county of Norfolk , who could in no manner have cognizance of their birth or blood , " to the disinheritance of the bishop and of his church . " Sometimes the villans went to London , which had " no cognizance of villenage , " and there " pursued writs
of debts and other contracts against their lords . " The inhabitants of cities and boroughs generally gave encouragement to the villans in these practices , and did their utmost to protect them against their lords ; and it appears that at this time a statute was passed for the punishment of villans who assembled together in great companies , took oaths to stand by one another against their lords , and subscribed money in order to carry on their opposition in the courts of law .
These were the precursors of the great insurrection which happened about three years afterwards . Froissart , the grand panegyrist of the feudal aristocracy , has recorded it as his opinion that the turbulence of the English peasantry arose from their being too comfortable in comparison with the villans of France ; but every one acquainted with French history knows , that amid the domestic
troubles and hostile invasions of the fourteenth century , the French peasantry were reduced to the lowest point of human misery . " These wicked people , " as the knightly chronicler terms the English villans , said , that , at the beginning of the world " there were no slaves , nor could there be any , unless they committed treason against their lord , as Lucifer did against Grod . " The great extent of the
insurrection in England proved that it was the result of suffering and misery . The villans , who found little relief in opposing their lords at law , determined to put in practice the lessons which had been so often repeated to them in the popular ballads : they would go in person to lay their grievances before the King . Thousands of peasantry crowded in arms to London , from the eastern and
southeastern counties , where the reforming spirit was generally strongest , on account of their frequent communication with the agitators on the Continent . On the way they would not let slip the opportunity of trying if " villans' blows were as hard as lords' blows ; " and a few acts of violence showed that they were but too ready " to destroy all gentility . " Their leader , indeed , preached that in the days of Adam
there were no gentlemen . They obtained for a moment possession of London ; and if their leader had been steady and skilful , it is impossible to say what might have been the result ,. They had come together with a variety of complaints , which , however , at last all emerged into one great grievance ; and when the King had consented to give them general chapters of enfranchisement , they returned willingly to their homes . But when they had laid down their arms , the charters of enfranchisement were withdrawn ; and the villans
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
Cambridge , within which manor the said Richard and William and their ancestors were born , had obtained against him and others divers oyers and terminers in the county of Norfolk , " pretending maliciously" that they ought to have them in session at Norwich ;
and had done divers other " horrible trespasses" against them , by reason of having the said oyers and terminers to enfranchise them by people of the said county of Norfolk , who could in no manner have cognizance of their birth or blood , " to the disinheritance of the bishop and of his church . " Sometimes the villans went to London , which had " no cognizance of villenage , " and there " pursued writs
of debts and other contracts against their lords . " The inhabitants of cities and boroughs generally gave encouragement to the villans in these practices , and did their utmost to protect them against their lords ; and it appears that at this time a statute was passed for the punishment of villans who assembled together in great companies , took oaths to stand by one another against their lords , and subscribed money in order to carry on their opposition in the courts of law .
These were the precursors of the great insurrection which happened about three years afterwards . Froissart , the grand panegyrist of the feudal aristocracy , has recorded it as his opinion that the turbulence of the English peasantry arose from their being too comfortable in comparison with the villans of France ; but every one acquainted with French history knows , that amid the domestic
troubles and hostile invasions of the fourteenth century , the French peasantry were reduced to the lowest point of human misery . " These wicked people , " as the knightly chronicler terms the English villans , said , that , at the beginning of the world " there were no slaves , nor could there be any , unless they committed treason against their lord , as Lucifer did against Grod . " The great extent of the
insurrection in England proved that it was the result of suffering and misery . The villans , who found little relief in opposing their lords at law , determined to put in practice the lessons which had been so often repeated to them in the popular ballads : they would go in person to lay their grievances before the King . Thousands of peasantry crowded in arms to London , from the eastern and
southeastern counties , where the reforming spirit was generally strongest , on account of their frequent communication with the agitators on the Continent . On the way they would not let slip the opportunity of trying if " villans' blows were as hard as lords' blows ; " and a few acts of violence showed that they were but too ready " to destroy all gentility . " Their leader , indeed , preached that in the days of Adam
there were no gentlemen . They obtained for a moment possession of London ; and if their leader had been steady and skilful , it is impossible to say what might have been the result ,. They had come together with a variety of complaints , which , however , at last all emerged into one great grievance ; and when the King had consented to give them general chapters of enfranchisement , they returned willingly to their homes . But when they had laid down their arms , the charters of enfranchisement were withdrawn ; and the villans