Life in a Mediæval City | Page 2

to be found all over England. The
majority of them are examples of an architecture that has not been
surpassed for majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill. Such
buildings, without the help of the literary and other memorials, testify
by themselves to the greatness of the Middle Ages.
Through the fifteenth century England continued to be in a state of
political unrest. There were wars and risings both abroad and at home,
for besides the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the
Roses (1455-1485) there were wars with the Welsh and the Scots, as
well as disorders made by powerful, intriguing barons. The barons and
great landowners took advantage of the weak royal rule to increase
their own power. Parliament, especially the House of Commons,
succeeded in the first half of the century in strengthening its
constitutional position, but during the Wars of the Roses it became less
truly representative of the solid part of the nation, the middle class, and
more and more a party machine worked by the baronial factions. The
proportion of people wanting peace and firm government steadily
increased, and, when the internecine Wars of the Roses, which affected
the lords and kings far more than the people, were followed by the
protection and order provided without excessive cost by the Tudors, it
was the people who most welcomed the change.
The towns were, however, comparatively little disturbed by these

perpetual disorders. The mayors and corporations as a rule guided their
cities through difficult times with politic shrewdness. Town life
developed through flourishing trade and an increasing sense of
municipal unity, and municipal importance.
CHAPTER II
IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF YORK
A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
Among the factors affecting this particular city geographical position is
evidently the most important. It is to this, combined with the
consequent military value of the site, that York owes its origin as a city,
its importance in the Middle Ages, and its practical importance to-day.
York, which is the natural centre for the North of England, is the
halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and is on the shortest
and quickest land or air route, however the journey is made, between
these two capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it always to be
within navigable distance of the North-East coast. The city itself is
situated on an advantageous site in the centre of a great plain, the north
and south ends of which are open. The surrounding hills and valleys are
so disposed that a large number of rivers radiate towards the centre of
the plain. Civilisation--if we must rank the ultra-fierce Norsemen, for
instance, among its exponents--proceeded westwards from the coast,
and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed with ease the
eastern and north-eastern hills, which are far less formidable than those
on the west. York was already an important place in the days of
Britain's making, the days when the land was in the melting-pot as far
as race and nationality are concerned.
B. MILITARY VALUE OF ITS POSITION
York is situated on the higher ground, in the angle made by the rivers
Ouse and Foss at their junction; a little to the south, the east and the
west there are low ridges of mound. The outer, main series of hills
which border the central plain, are some dozen miles away, their outer
faces being more or less parallel and running very roughly north and

south. It seems clear that the site was chosen from the first for its
immediate defensive value, the direct result of its geographical features.
The position was of both tactical and strategic importance. In Roman
times, however, its tactical value decreased when the great wall was
built that stretched with its lines of mound, ditch, stone-rampart, and
road, and its series of camps and forts, from near the mouth of the Tyne
to Solway Firth. Henceforth the wall marked the debatable frontier, but
York never lost its strategic value. It was thus used by the Romans,
William I., Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III. in their occupation
of and their expeditions against the North. It has served as a base depôt
and military headquarters for centuries.
C. POLITICAL IMPORTANCE
York, then, whatever its name (for it had many names) or condition,
inevitably became an occupied place, a stronghold or a town from
earliest times. When the Church attained great importance in the north,
York, in addition to its natural and military values became, in 735, an
ecclesiastical metropolis, for from this date the Archbishop of York
was not only the ruler of the diocese of York, but in addition spiritual
head of the Church in the North of England. Further, there were
established in the city branches of the civil government. Business of the
state, both civil and