This tutorial course will introduce students to the history of London between 1066 and circa 1550, a period that witnessed the establishment of London as the capital of England and the largest, most prosperous town in the kingdom. This course will explore the growth and development of the city and its population via examination of contemporary documentation and secondary sources; recent archaeological research and field study visits to surviving buildings and sites. These activities will be complemented and informed by classes at the IES Abroad Centre that will explore aspects of everyday life, cultural belief, social structure and the governance of London.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
This course will enable students to: a) Demonstrate an understanding of economic, cultural and social issues and relationships that influenced the evolution of Medieval London; b) Develop a critical appreciation of the relative strength of different kinds of associated historical data; c) Exercise and enhance their research, writing and presentational skills.
Method of presentation:
Lectures (including DVD & visual materials), seminar discussions and student presentations and field trips. These activities have been integrated into a series of twelve classes, including field study activities.
Field study:
Guided tours of the Tower of London; Westminster Abbey; St. John’s Priory and other relevant sites.
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (10%); Quiz (20%); Oral presentation (10%); Term Paper (60%)
Students will be expected to read the assigned texts and must be prepared to contribute to discussion in class. Each student will give a presentation either during one of the field study visits or in class. The subject of the presentation or another topic, agreed by prior negotiation with the lecturer, may be used for the term paper. All students will be expected to contribute constructively to the group discussion of presentations. Students will also be required to select a theme of their choice for a final term paper of 2000 words which must show evidence of wide secondary reading around the subject, and most importantly, the consultation and analysis of primary sources.
content:
Class 1: Course Introduction
Introduction to course: themes and sources; aims and methods; the image, growth, and development of medieval cities; London before the Norman Conquest; Visit: British Museum – medieval artefacts.
Reading: Thomas, 1 – 35; Lilley 17 – 41.
Class 2: Early Medieval London
Outcomes of the Norman Conquest; FitzStephen’s London; social structure: the Crown, merchants, Church and citizenry; London defences and fortifications.
Class 3: Merchants
Crafts & commerce; the form and function of guilds; the Mayor and Aldermen; Governance, from Commune to Capital.
Reading: Thrupp 1-27.
Class 4: The Crown [Meet at Sundial above Tower Hill Station]
The power of the medieval monarchy: Stephen & Matilda; the Tower of London as fortress, palace, prison, armoury, mint and royal menagerie.
Reading: Handout.
Class 5: Citizens
Households and domestic architecture; food and drink; street markets.
Reading: Either Schofield (1995): 6 – 60 or Thrupp: 130-174.
Class 6: The Church [Meet at Westminster Abbey]
Visit Westminster Abbey, shrine of Edward the Confessor, and the memorial to Geoffrey Chaucer. The role of the church in medieval life will also be explored.
Reading: Rosser pp. 120-165.
Class 7: Later Medieval London [Meet at Barbican Station]
Visit London Guildhall and library; St. Paul’s Cathedral and London Wall; Museum of London (Medieval Gallery); Examination of the urban environment of later medieval London.
Reading: Barron (2004) 239-264.
MIDTERM EXAM AND TERM PAPER UPDATE
Class 8: Pestilence
Medieval medicine, aliments and illnesses. The cause, impact, and consequences for Londoners of the
Black Death of 1348-1349.
Reading: Horrox: Rochester (70-74); John of Reading (74-75); Henry Knighton (75-80); Geoffrey Le Baker
(80-82); Meaux Abbey (67-70); Thomas Walsingham (88-90).
Class 9: Welfare Provision [Meet at Farringdon Street Station]
Religious Orders, piety and charity; Visit to St. Bartholomew-the-Great Church & Hospital, and sites in the vicinity of Smithfield.
Reading: Handout.
Class 10: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
An examination of the causes and grievances of the rebels; leadership; negotiations with the Crown, outcomes and interpretations of the Revolt. DVD: The Peasants Revolt (BBC 2004).
Reading: Dobson: Anonimalle Chronicle (155-168); Thomas Walsingham (168-181); Henry Knighton (181-
187); Froissart (187-199); Monk of W’minster (199-204); E. Historiarum (204-208).
Class 11: The Nobility [Meet at Farringdon Street Station]
The relationship between the Crown, aristocracy, and medieval London; chivalry, patronage and marriage. The Crusades and the Magna Carta. Visit to the Priory of the Hospitaller Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
Reading: Handout; Chaucer: The Knight’s Tale.
Class 12: Conflict & Change
Issues of historical periodisation; Secular values & religious belief; Wyclif and the English Protestant Reformation; ‘The stripping of the altars’ in London; Reflection: Tudor London, Stow’s Survey and the Copperplate Map.
Reading: Handout (Stow/extracts); the Copperplate Map.
COURSE REVIEW
Required readings:
As listed per class session
Recommended readings:
Baker, T. (1970) Medieval London (London, Cassell)
Barron C.M. (1974) The Medieval Guildhall of London (London, Guildhall)
Barron, C.M. ‘Centres of conspicuous consumption: the aristocratic town house in London 1200 – 1500’ London Journal 20 (1986)
Barron, C. & Sutton, A. (eds.) (1994) The Widows of Medieval London 1300-1500 (London, Hambledon) Barron, C.M. (2004) London in the later Middle Ages (Oxford, OUP)
Beer, B.L. (1998) Tudor England Observed. The world of John Stow (Stroud, Sutton) Bell, W.G. (1994 edn.) The Great Plague in London (London, Folio Society,)
Binding, G. (2004) Medieval building techniques (London, Tempus) Bolton, J.L. ’The City and the Crown 1456-61’, London Journal 12 (1986)
Brigden, S. ‘Religion and Social Obligation in early C16th London’ Past & Present 103 (1984)
Brigden, S. (1989) London and the Reformation (Oxford, OUP)
Brooke, C.N.L. & Keir, G (1975) London 800-1216: the shaping of a City (London, Secker & Warburg) Brown, A. (2003) Church and Society in England 1000-1500 (London, Palgrave)
Brown, R.A. (1985 edn.) The Normans and the Norman Conquest (Woodbridge, Boydell)
Clark, J. (1989) Saxon and Norman London (London, HMSO)
Clark, J. (1995) Medieval Finds from London 5: The medieval horse and its equipment (London, MOL) Cowgill, J. & de Neergard, M., (1988) Medieval Finds from London 1: Knives & Scabbards (London, MOL) Delogu, P. (2002) An Introduction to Medieval History (London, Duckworth)
Dobson, R.B. (1970) The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (London, Macmillan)
Egan, G. (1998) The Medieval Household (Woodbridge, Boydell)
Egan, G. & Pritchard, F. (1991) Medieval Finds from London 2: Shoes & Pattens (London, MOL) Ekwall, E. (1956) Studies in the Population of Medieval London (Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell)
Foster, F.F. (1977) The politics of stability: a portrait of the rulers in Elizabethan London (London, RHS)
Freeman, J. ‘The Mistery of Coiners and King’s Moneyers of the Tower of London c.1340-c.1530’ The British Numismatic Journal 70 (2001), 67-82
Galloway, J.A. & Murphy, J.A. ‘Feeding the city: medieval London and its agrarian hinterland’ London Journal 16 (1991)
Hahn, D. (2003) The Tower Menagerie (London, Simon & Schuster) Hanawalt, B. (1992) Growing up in Medieval London (Oxford, OUP)
Harding, V., ‘Reconstructing London before the Great Fire’ London Topographical Record 25 (1985)
Hawkins, D., The Black Death and the New London Cemeteries of 1348’ Antiquity 64 (1990), 637-642
Hillaby, J., ‘London: The Thirteenth Century Jewry revisited’ Jewish Historical Studies: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England 32 (1990-2), 89-158
Home, G. (1994) edn. Medieval London (London, Bracken Books) Horrox, R. (1994) The Black Death (Manchester, MUP)
T. Jones, (1980) Chaucer’s Knight (London, Methuen)
Katz, D.S. (1994 edn.) The Jews in the History of England 1485-1850 (London, OUP)
Keene, D., ‘Shops and shopping in Medieval London’, in Grant, L., 1996 Medieval Art, Architecture & Archaeology in London
Keene, D. ‘Medieval London and its region’ London Journal 14 (1989) Kingsford C.L. (ed.) (1971) A Survey of London by John Stow (2 vols.)
Lilley, K.D. (2002) Urban Life in the Middle Ages (London, Palgrave)
Marsden, P. (1996) The Ships of the Port of London, vol. 2: C12th to C17th (London, English Heritage) Myers, A.R. (1972) London in the Age of Chaucer (University of Oklahoma Press)
Nightingale, P. ‘ Capitalists, crafts and constitutional change in the late Fourteenth century’ Past & Present 124 (1989)
Parnell, G. (1993) The Tower of London (Stroud, Sutton) Porter, S. (1999) The Great Plague (Stroud, Sutton)
Power, M.J. ‘John Stow and his London’ Journal of Historical Geography 11 (1985)
Prescott, A. ‘London in the Peasants’ Revolt: a portrait gallery’ London Journal 7 (1981) Prockter, A. et al. (1979) The A to Z of Elizabethan London (London, Topographical Society) Rawcliffe, C., ‘Medicine and Medical practice in late Medieval London’ GSLH 5 (1981)
Rosser, G. (1989) Medieval Westminster 1200 – 1540 (Oxford, OUP)
Saunders, A. & Schofield, J. (2001) Tudor London: a map and a view (London, Topographical Society) Salzman, L.F. (1952) Building in England down to 1540 – A documentary history (Oxford, OUP)
Schofield, J. (1993 edn.) The Building of London from the Conquest to the Great Fire (Stroud, Sutton)
Schofield, J. 1995 Medieval London Houses (Yale University Press)
Seton-Watson, R.W. (ed.) (1924) Tudor Studies presented to A.F. Pollard (University of London)
Sisson, C.J. ‘ A Colony of Jews in Shakespeare’s London’ Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association 23 (1938)
Sloane B., et al. (2000) The Archaeology of Greater London (London, MOL)
Stow, J. (Revised edn. 1603/1997)A survey of London written in the year 1598 (Sutton, Stroud) Thomas, C. (2002) The archaeology of Medieval London (Stroud, Sutton)
Thrupp, S.L. (1948) The merchant class of Medieval London (University of Michigan)
Tout, T.F. ‘The beginnings of a modern capital: London and Westminster in the Fourteenth Century’ Proceedings of the British Academy 11 (1923)
Veale, E., ‘The Great Twelve: Mistery and Fraternity in Thirteenth Century London’ Historical Research 64 (1991), 237-63
Vince, A. (1990) Saxon London: An Archaeological investigation (London, Seaby)
Vince, A. (1991) Aspects of Saxo-Norman London 2: Finds and Environmental evidence (London & Middlesex Archaeological Society)
Weinstein, R. (1994) Tudor London (London, HMSO)
Wheatley, H (ed.) (1956) Stow’s Survey of London (London, Dent)
White, W. (1988) The cemetery of St. Nicholas Shambles (London & Middlesex Archaeological Society) Williams, G. (1963) Medieval London. From Commune to Capital (London, Athlone Press)
Wilson, C. et al. (1986) Westminster Abbey (London, New Bell’s Cathedral Guides)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
In addition to his contributions to London’s City University’s MA in Non-fiction Writing, and the IES Abroad History of London course, Julian Putkowski specializes in teaching overseas students about UK media and politics. Julian’s post graduate teaching specialism is English & Communications, and he has worked in a range of non-academic contexts, including journalism, business development, and management of a not-for-profit youth education project. His established interest in linking British media, politics and history has most recently been reflected in “Tommyrot”, a critical essay he contributed to Sir Michael Howard’s (ed.) “A Part of History” (2008). He has two reference works about British military officers (forthcoming: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2010) and has recently completed a (co-authored) manuscript of a book about murderers.
Medieval London
This tutorial course will introduce students to the history of London between 1066 and circa 1550, a period that witnessed the establishment of London as the capital of England and the largest, most prosperous town in the kingdom. This course will explore the growth and development of the city and its population via examination of contemporary documentation and secondary sources; recent archaeological research and field study visits to surviving buildings and sites. These activities will be complemented and informed by classes at the IES Abroad Centre that will explore aspects of everyday life, cultural belief, social structure and the governance of London.
None
This course will enable students to: a) Demonstrate an understanding of economic, cultural and social issues and relationships that influenced the evolution of Medieval London; b) Develop a critical appreciation of the relative strength of different kinds of associated historical data; c) Exercise and enhance their research, writing and presentational skills.
Lectures (including DVD & visual materials), seminar discussions and student presentations and field trips. These activities have been integrated into a series of twelve classes, including field study activities.
Guided tours of the Tower of London; Westminster Abbey; St. John’s Priory and other relevant sites.
Class participation (10%); Quiz (20%); Oral presentation (10%); Term Paper (60%)
Students will be expected to read the assigned texts and must be prepared to contribute to discussion in class. Each student will give a presentation either during one of the field study visits or in class. The subject of the presentation or another topic, agreed by prior negotiation with the lecturer, may be used for the term paper. All students will be expected to contribute constructively to the group discussion of presentations. Students will also be required to select a theme of their choice for a final term paper of 2000 words which must show evidence of wide secondary reading around the subject, and most importantly, the consultation and analysis of primary sources.
Class 1: Course Introduction
Introduction to course: themes and sources; aims and methods; the image, growth, and development of medieval cities; London before the Norman Conquest; Visit: British Museum – medieval artefacts.
Reading: Thomas, 1 – 35; Lilley 17 – 41.
Class 2: Early Medieval London
Outcomes of the Norman Conquest; FitzStephen’s London; social structure: the Crown, merchants, Church and citizenry; London defences and fortifications.
Reading: FitzStephen in Stow, 73; 105-7; 117-119; 129-130; 143; 383; 434; 439.
Class 3: Merchants
Crafts & commerce; the form and function of guilds; the Mayor and Aldermen; Governance, from Commune to Capital.
Reading: Thrupp 1-27.
Class 4: The Crown [Meet at Sundial above Tower Hill Station]
The power of the medieval monarchy: Stephen & Matilda; the Tower of London as fortress, palace, prison, armoury, mint and royal menagerie.
Reading: Handout.
Class 5: Citizens
Households and domestic architecture; food and drink; street markets.
Reading: Either Schofield (1995): 6 – 60 or Thrupp: 130-174.
Class 6: The Church [Meet at Westminster Abbey]
Visit Westminster Abbey, shrine of Edward the Confessor, and the memorial to Geoffrey Chaucer. The role of the church in medieval life will also be explored.
Reading: Rosser pp. 120-165.
Class 7: Later Medieval London [Meet at Barbican Station]
Visit London Guildhall and library; St. Paul’s Cathedral and London Wall; Museum of London (Medieval Gallery); Examination of the urban environment of later medieval London.
Reading: Barron (2004) 239-264.
MIDTERM EXAM AND TERM PAPER UPDATE
Class 8: Pestilence
Medieval medicine, aliments and illnesses. The cause, impact, and consequences for Londoners of the
Black Death of 1348-1349.
Reading: Horrox: Rochester (70-74); John of Reading (74-75); Henry Knighton (75-80); Geoffrey Le Baker
(80-82); Meaux Abbey (67-70); Thomas Walsingham (88-90).
Class 9: Welfare Provision [Meet at Farringdon Street Station]
Religious Orders, piety and charity; Visit to St. Bartholomew-the-Great Church & Hospital, and sites in the vicinity of Smithfield.
Reading: Handout.
Class 10: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
An examination of the causes and grievances of the rebels; leadership; negotiations with the Crown, outcomes and interpretations of the Revolt. DVD: The Peasants Revolt (BBC 2004).
Reading: Dobson: Anonimalle Chronicle (155-168); Thomas Walsingham (168-181); Henry Knighton (181-
187); Froissart (187-199); Monk of W’minster (199-204); E. Historiarum (204-208).
Class 11: The Nobility [Meet at Farringdon Street Station]
The relationship between the Crown, aristocracy, and medieval London; chivalry, patronage and marriage. The Crusades and the Magna Carta. Visit to the Priory of the Hospitaller Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
Reading: Handout; Chaucer: The Knight’s Tale.
Class 12: Conflict & Change
Issues of historical periodisation; Secular values & religious belief; Wyclif and the English Protestant Reformation; ‘The stripping of the altars’ in London; Reflection: Tudor London, Stow’s Survey and the Copperplate Map.
Reading: Handout (Stow/extracts); the Copperplate Map.
COURSE REVIEW
As listed per class session
In addition to his contributions to London’s City University’s MA in Non-fiction Writing, and the IES Abroad History of London course, Julian Putkowski specializes in teaching overseas students about UK media and politics. Julian’s post graduate teaching specialism is English & Communications, and he has worked in a range of non-academic contexts, including journalism, business development, and management of a not-for-profit youth education project. His established interest in linking British media, politics and history has most recently been reflected in “Tommyrot”, a critical essay he contributed to Sir Michael Howard’s (ed.) “A Part of History” (2008). He has two reference works about British military officers (forthcoming: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2010) and has recently completed a (co-authored) manuscript of a book about murderers.