A monumental mediaeval muddle

The history of England in the 14th and 15th centuries has traditionally been regarded either as a corrupt aftermath (as in ‘Bastard Feudalism’) or a confused prelude (as in the ‘New Monarchy’ of the Tudors). Its most vivid narrator remains Shakespeare who, perhaps surprisingly, supplies the title for this earnestly modern new account by Professor Miri Rubin of London University’s Queen Mary College. As so often, tradition misleads. To these centuries belong the origins or establishment of such enduring features of national life as the collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge; Justices of the Peace; parl- iamentary scrutiny and audit of public finances; the legal profession; the Order of the Garter; printing; and English as the language of literature and government. These centuries saw the most radical demographic shift in recorded history, the Black Death and the subsequent outbreaks of plague killing up to half the population, the new circumstances of the rural economy leading to the slow demise of serfdom.