The economic and social
condition of England arguably could be said to have changed from the years 1154
to 1216, as looking at Henry II’s reign as the framework, England under Richard
and John had changed significantly in contrast to the years in which their
father had reigned. However, although there were changes in the social
condition of England, these had only effected the Jews and thus disputes the
idea that England had such significant social changes.
The social and economic
condition of England had effectively changed to some extent from 1154 as this
is seen once Henry II succeeds the throne. The royal demesne had been alienated
by Stephen and in order to regain royal authority, royal finances had to be
recovered and stable. By pulling Bishop Nigel of Ely out of retirement, the
exchequer had worked to full efficiency by 1169 and it is evident that between
1159-1189, the royal demesne had stood at £3,000, which was an improvement and
change of the economic condition. Additionally, farming had flourished under
Henry II as prices had increased, enabling farming to be profitable as in 1180,
the cost of plough beasts rose from 3s to 4/5s and sheep rose from 4d to 6d. The
clothing industry flourished as it was a profitable monopoly for the
water-driven cloth-falling method and likewise, mining thrived as there was
further increased profit and productivity. With the acquisition of Guienne,
there was also an increase in trade as England had imported grain from East
Anglian and Kentish fields, exported wool to Flanders and corn to Barren
Norway. This exemplifies that England under Henry II had become more involved
in trade and despite still remaining rural, had still impacted the economic
conditions of England. The social conditions of England had remained the same
as it were in 1154 whilst Stephen was still on throne as peasants remained
illiterate. Furthermore, in 1167, Henry had banned English students from
attending the University of Paris which thereby lead to an increase of students
at the University of Oxford and in relations to the Jews, there was little
opposition and the Jews remained as a royal possession due to being able to
practice usury and being wealthy money lenders. Looking at Henry II’s reign,
the economic conditions of England had more of an impact and change as seen by
the increase of profit, the stable royal demesne and flourishing trade. The
social conditions by 1189 remained the same as it did in 1154 many people like
lords remained illiterate and found no use for reading as they could hire
servants, demonstrating the limited social change.
Under Richard’s reign of 1189
to 1199, the economic and social condition of England had further changed as
there had been multiple changes in the governance of England. A key example
that would prove this is the exchequer records of 1190 which indicated that
Richard raised £31,000, which is more than Henry II ever raised and this is due
to the new administrative reforms under Hubert Walter as chief justiciar. The
new reform enabled the wealth of the Jews were better regulated and also
secured the debts of Jews were recorded and stored so that the crown could
recover them upon their death. Richard the ‘Lionheart’ King had also placed
extensive financial exactions on England for three reasons: to go on the Third
Crusade, to pay his ransom of 150,000 marks after being captured by the German
emperor and to go to war against Philip II. In order to raise funds, Richard
had levied a tax known as the Saladin tithe in 1188 (tallage) in England,
levied a 25% tax of revenues on all laymen and the English church, sold a range
of royal offices, castles and charters (which stimulated economic growth of
English towns and increased prosperity), increased the costs of feudal incidences
and fines for wardships increased from 176 marks to 1158 marks, which had all
placed huge financial strain on the people confined to the feudal system. This
thereby led to a gradual growth in anti-Semitism as many barons were indebted
to the Jews. This is specifically seen in York where 1190 where nobles, knights
and citizens of York (many of which were heavily indebted to the Jews) attacked
a small Jewish community. However, arguably it could be said that the catalyst
of the growth in anti-Semitism was after the Third Lateran Council had regarded
them as enemies of Christ and after the surrender of Jerusalem. Nevertheless,
the English society remained rural as the population of towns continued to
increase at an impressive rate and trade continued to increase internally and
externally which was no change to Henry II’s reign. The economic and social
condition of England had evidently changed in contrast to Henry II’s reign in
terms of the extensive financial exactions which put a financial burden on the
people, resulting in an increase anti-Semitism.
Lastly, England under the
last Angevin king, John during 1199 to 1216 could be said to be a continuation
of Richard, as financial exactions were still in place as well as the treatment
of the Jews. It is seen that the treatment of Jews under John were however
extremely savage as the tallages imposed on Jewish boroughs in 1207 (of £2,666)
and in 1210, where Abraham of Bristol had a tooth removed every day until he
managed to pay the tallage demanded by John. The financial exactions were still
in place, which enabled John to generate huge sums of money from a variety of
innovations. For example, two taxations were levied in 1203 and 1207 demanding
a portion of value of all moveable property and/or all incomes and this raised
an enormous sum of £60,000, in which there was little complain where barons and
sheriffs were willing to pay. John also collected records of debts that the
Jews held and personally demanded from the barons to pay up which was
considered far more extreme as John at times irrationally demanded random sums
of money from the barons and as seen by the example of William de Braose, had
resulted in a mass increase in baronial discontent and ultimately affected
John’s relationship with the barons. With the temporary interdict imposed on
England in 1208 due to the ordeal with recognising Langton as Archbishop of
Canterbury, this heavily effected the lives of the citizens in England as
considering England was largely religious, this meant that people couldn’t
practice Church services, people couldn’t get married, be buried, be baptised
and this placed enormous strains on the ordinary citizens. Nonetheless, population
grew without sufficient improvements in agriculture production and peasants
still remained illiterate, limiting the amount change of the social conditions
in England. Evidently, the social and economic conditions in England under John
had changed dramatically in that financial exactions were harsher leading to
severe inflation and that with the interdict imposed on England, people were
unable to practice religious activities and placed social strains on the
citizens.
When evaluating how far the
economic condition of England had changed under the Angevin kings, during
Richard and John’s reign, the use of financial exactions was imposed on more
than in Henry II’s reign, indicating a change in the economy as it generated huge
sums of money and debt of the nobles and barons which led to severe inflation
by John’s reign. Towns, trade and farming had continued to flourish as per
usual and social conditions in relations to illiteracy remained the same
throughout the years 1154 to 1216. To some extent it could be said that there
were dramatic changes in the social condition in England when Pope Innocent III
had placed an interdict on England affecting people’s lives as they couldn’t be
buried, be married, be baptised or even practice church practises, however this
was later lifted in 1213, thereby indicating that the social conditions were
not permanently affected yet had changed during the years 1154 to 1216.
Ultimately, the economy and social condition changed to some extent, although
not majorly significant, solely due to the only changes of financial exactions
which gradually led to inflation in John’s reign and the temporary social
difficulties in which the people of England had undergone from the interdict.
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