general characteristics and transitions

The many sources throwing light on the existence, function and significance of the towns of south-eastern England during the middle ages are, as for other regions, fragmentary and incomplete. Measures of urbanisation are crude and below the top rank of towns indicators of urban function are lacking. The contemporary terminology for towns can mislead, although in the South-East, unlike East Anglia, those settlements whose urban status achieved formal recognition broadly corresponded to those which can be demonstrated to have been towns by virtue of social or economic function (Map 22.1). Thus, much of the discussion is concerned with the 150 or so places within the eleven counties surrounding London which at some time during the period were legally identified as towns (Map 22.2).

This definition of south-eastern England, more extensive than that adopted in many regional studies, emphasises the capacity of the region for internal communication and for interaction with commercial networks overseas. The definition also acknowledges the role of London in shaping the region. Since Roman times London has been the dominant city of the British Isles and one of the most substantial in Western Europe. Yet over at least the first half of the period London occupied a site which was marginal in relation to kingdoms whose heartlands lay far from the city. Nevertheless, it was a powerful attraction and perhaps at times a seat of power shared between competing authorities. A continuing theme throughout the period, therefore, concerns London's integrating function, manifested in its special impact on the countryside and towns around it and in the way it gave shape to the English state whose capital it became shortly before 1300.