Ys the harpe lykened weyl.
LADY SAVING A STAG FROM THE HUNTERS
Harl. MS., 4751 (13th cent.).
He who looks and listens for the voice of the people in these ancient times hears no more than a confused murmur: one sees a swarm working like ants; a bell rings, they knock off work; another bell, they run together, they shout, they wave their hats; the listener, however, hears no words. It is difficult in any age—even in the present day—to learn or understand what the bas peuple think and what they desire. They want few things indeed in every generation; only, as I said above, the three elements of freedom, health, and just pay. Give them these three, and they will grumble no longer. When a poet puts one of them on his stage and makes him act and makes him speak, we learn the multitude from the type. Later on, after Chaucer and Piers Plowman have spoken, we know the people better—as yet we guess at them, we do not even know them in part. Observe, however, one thing about London—a thing of great significance. When there is a Jacquerie—when the people, who have hitherto been as silent as the patient ox, rise with a wild roar of rage—it is not in London. Here, men have learned—however imperfectly—the lesson that only by combination of all for the general welfare is the common weal advanced. I think, also, that London men, even those on the lowest level, have always known very well that their humility of place is due to their own lack of purpose and self-restraint. The air of London had always been charged with the traditions and histories of those who have raised themselves: there never has been a city more generous to her children, more ready to hold out a helping hand: this we shall see illustrated later on: at present all is beginning. The elementary three conditions are felt, but not yet put into words.
We are at present in the boyhood of a city which after a thousand years is still in its strong and vigorous manhood, showing no sign, not the least sign, of senility or decay. Rather does it appear like a city in its first spring of eager youth. But the real work for Saxon and Norman London lies before. It is to come. It is a work which is to be the making of Great Britain and of America, Australia, and the Isles. It is the work of building up, defending, and consolidating the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon race.”
The question of slavery—whether it was common in London, and how long it lasted, is very difficult. When William told his new subjects that they were “law worthy,” he meant that the freemen were law worthy; none but freemen had any privileges at all. No one was allowed to have the freedom of the City unless he was known to be of free condition: and “even if, after he had received the freedom, it became known that he was a person of servile condition, through that same fact he lost the freedom of the City” (Liber Albus, p. 30). Witness the case of Thomas le Bedell, Robert le Bedell, Alan Underwoode, and Edmund May, who in the year 1301 lost their freedom because it was discovered that they held land in villeinage of the Bishop of London. The serfs or villeins held their land “in villeinage” or “in demesne.” They had no rights, and were the absolute property of their lords, who could dispossess them at any moment. Of the lower or dependent class, there were many subdivisions; all these were more or less serfs, holding their lands by the tenure of certain services; in the whole of England, according to Domesday Book, there were about 225,000 of these people, so that, if each of them had a wife and four children, there were a million and a quarter of cultivators of the soil who were also serfs. There is evidence, in plenty, that the condition of these people under the Normans rapidly improved; the Norman knight could not understand all the distinctions; he lumped the people all together and treated freemen and villani in much the same manner. Some of the villeins grew rich; some were emancipated formally; some passed through no form of emancipation; there remained, however, certain disabilities: they were not admitted to the freedom of the City of London, and we hear of complaints made about their admission to holy orders.
If we try to apply these facts to London we are baffled by a difficulty already indicated. Were there serfs in the City? If so, how many? What work did they undertake? Remember—a point already advanced—that in a city of many industries, if any industry or craft becomes regarded as especially the work of a slave, no freeman will ever after touch it; and if the slave is emancipated, he will never again do any of that work. But in London there has never been any prejudice against any kind of work. I cannot understand how London, at such a time, could have been composed entirely of freemen; but of the slaves, if there were slaves, I can find no trace, no memory, and no indication.
SAXON DOORWAY, TEMPLE CHURCH
There is, however, the ancient Saxon custom that obtains in all free boroughs, if a villein fled from his master and found shelter within the walls for a year and a day unclaimed, he thereby became free. Now it is true that mere residence is not enough; a man must remain all that time unclaimed. May we not see in this law the determination that within the walls of London there should be no slave at all? In the Liber Albus all that I can find on the subject is that persons holding land in villeinage shall not be allowed the freedom of the City: this fact seems rather to point in the direction of allowing none but freemen in the City. In 1288 the attorney of the Earl of Cornwall preferred a claim in the Hustings against nine men, the bondmen of the Earl, runaways. The decision of the Court is not given, but it is clear that the men, who were villagers, hoped to remain unclaimed in London, and that they were disappointed. On the whole, therefore, I am of opinion that London would not allow any but freemen to live and work within her walls. And we may remember the clause (No. 24) in the Ordinances of the Council of 1103, to the effect that there shall be no more buying and selling of men, “which was hitherto accustomed.”