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English and French towns in the sixteenth century
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Roberts, Penny (2007) English and French towns in the sixteenth century. In: Conference on Rodney Hilton's Middle Ages, Univ Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK, Sep 2003. Published in: Past & Present (Supplement 2). pp. 166-181. ISSN 0031-2746.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtm028
Abstract
Comparative history, to paraphrase Rodney Hilton in the first line of his last book English and French Towns in Feudal Society, ‘is rather a risky venture’.1 Nevertheless, it is a valuable exercise for determining what is peculiar in a particular national context, as long as the historian is aware of the pitfalls of generalization. Hilton in this book set out to compare the relative integration of English and French urban communities into medieval economic and social structures, as well as their role in feudal society. He identified a number of trends which he posited would be consolidated in the following centuries, in particular, the dominance of officialdom in France and of a mercantile elite in England. The comparative approach will be used here not so much to establish what had changed in urban communities by 1600, but rather what perspectives a sixteenth-century viewpoint can give us on some of Hilton's conclusions. Of course, one century is far too short a period over which to expect much to have changed, and 1500 is a rather artificial divide for the essentially socio-economic developments Hilton discussed. Arguably it is 1600 rather than 1500 which marks the more significant watershed.2 As Peter Clark and Paul Slack put it, the ‘traditional, relatively closed, and semi-autonomous worlds’ of early sixteenth-century towns contrast with ‘the more modern, open and integrated urban society’ in existence by 1700, a theme which has been continued by others.3 At any rate, the sixteenth century is far from being a foreign country for late medievalists; certainly its urban politics and culture should be clearly recognizable.
Item Type: | Conference Item (Paper) | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Past & Present | ||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||
ISSN: | 0031-2746 | ||||
Official Date: | 2007 | ||||
Dates: |
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Number: | Supplement 2 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 16 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 166-181 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Conference Paper Type: | Paper | ||||
Title of Event: | Conference on Rodney Hilton's Middle Ages | ||||
Type of Event: | Conference | ||||
Location of Event: | Univ Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK | ||||
Date(s) of Event: | Sep 2003 |
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