Bygone Hertfordshire, Ed. by W. Andrews baixar o livro de graça

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Hbbots' Claims anb Hlbantans' (Srievmnces. 1foertfortsbire tu tbe peasants' IRevolt. By V. R. Willis. county of Hertford, and the town of J- St. Albans in particular, participated in no small degree in the social disorders of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which culminated in the civil wars, and the ultimate abolition of serfdom. It may be interesting to recall some features of the national history as it worked itself out in the county of Hertford. In common with the peasantry throughout the country, the Hertfordshire villans were in serfdom, but the position of the men of St. Albans was slightly different in some respects to that of their fellows in the country, although the essential features were similar. In the Domesday Survey the town and burgesses of St. Albans are mentioned as part of the possessions of the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, who held it of the King in capite andis said to contain at the time forty-six burgesses, who were the demesne men of the Abbot. It is the attempt of the townsmen to assert their freedom from the rule of the Abbot as lord of the manor which we now propose to relate. The manor was, for practical purposes, a kingdom within a kingdom, and the lord made his own rules, which his tenants were compelled to obey. One of these laws was in the direction of establishing a monopoly for his mills. It was enacted that all the cloth made in the town should be fulled at the Abbot's mills, and all the townsmen's corn should be brought to the monastery mills to be ground. The Albanians set up their own handmills, and refused to send their corn to the Abbot's mills. They likewise declined to recognise the Abbot's right to full their cloth, which they sent to those traders who would do it cheaper. Finding his ordinance evaded, t...