EMERGENCE OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE

1272-1485


In 1265, simultaneously with the appearance of English townsfolk in
parliament, an official document couched in the English tongue appeared
like a first peak above the subsiding flood of foreign language. When,
three generations back, Abbot Samson had preached English sermons, they
were noted as exceptions; but now the vernacular language of the
subject race was forcing its way into higher circles, and even into
literary use. The upper classes were learning English, and those whose
normal tongue was English were thrusting themselves into, or at any
rate upon the notice of, the higher strata of society.

The two normal ranks of feudal society had in England naturally been
French lords and English tillers of the soil; but commerce had never
accommodated itself to this agricultural system, and the growth of
trade, of towns, of other forms of wealth than land, tended
concurrently to break down French and feudal domination. A large number
of towns had been granted, or rather sold, charters by Richard I and
John, not because those monarchs were interested in municipal
development, but because they wanted money, and in their rights of
jurisdiction over towns on the royal domain they possessed a ready
marketable commodity. The body which had the means to pay the king's
price was generally the local merchant guild; and while these
transactions developed local government, they did not necessarily
promote popular self-government, because the merchant guild was a
wealthy oligarchical body, and it might exercise the jurisdiction it