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13 - Government, power and authority 1300–1540

from Part III - The later middle ages 1300–1540

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
S. H. Rigby  and
Elizabeth Ewan
Edited by
D. M. Palliser
D. M. Palliser
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
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Summary

The nature and development of late medieval town government remains an extremely controversial issue amongst urban historians. Was this, as some claim, a time of growing exclusivity and oligarchy or was it an era of increasing popular participation in town government? Was urban political conflict, particularly that of the communitas against the mercantile oligarchy, the inevitable result of opposing class interests or were shared ideological norms and a sense of civic community effective in legitimating the authority of town rulers and minimising conflict? Is the concept of ‘oligarchy’ itself a loaded anachronism when applied to a society which saw the rule of the rich as ‘aristocratic’ (i.e. rule by the ‘better sort’ for the ‘common profit’) rather than as ‘oligarchic’ (i.e rule by the self-interested few)? Did urban political conflicts revolve around the corruption of individual rulers rather than issues of political principle or a desire for structural change in town government?

the extent of self-government

The survival of the records of civic administration generated by the self-governing royal boroughs has tended to give a misleading impression of late medieval town government. In fact, in England, only a minority of towns achieved the degree of autonomy enjoyed by royal towns such as York and Winchester, where the burgesses elected their own mayor and bailiffs to govern the town, to collect royal revenues and account for the fee-farm, and to administer justice in the borough court. By the thirteenth century, many of these self-governing towns had acquired a ‘mayor's council’ but, in the later middle ages, many added a second or ‘common’ council.

Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge Urban History of Britain
, pp. 291 - 312
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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