Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval English Kingship
- Cambridge Companions to History
- The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval English Kingship
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Part I Chronology and Context
- Part II Kingship in Practice
- Part III The King and His Subjects
- 10 The Clergy
- 11 The Nobility
- 12 The Gentry
- 13 Citizens
- 14 The ‘Public’
- 15 The King’s Subjects beyond the Realm
- Part IV Representations
- Part V Reflection
- Index
- References
14 - The ‘Public’
from Part III - The King and His Subjects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2025
By
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval English Kingship
- Cambridge Companions to History
- The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval English Kingship
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Part I Chronology and Context
- Part II Kingship in Practice
- Part III The King and His Subjects
- 10 The Clergy
- 11 The Nobility
- 12 The Gentry
- 13 Citizens
- 14 The ‘Public’
- 15 The King’s Subjects beyond the Realm
- Part IV Representations
- Part V Reflection
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter examines the relationship between the king and his ‘ordinary’ subjects and asks whether such a thing as ‘public opinion’ evolved over the period to play a role in politics. For medieval historians, ‘the public’ used to be synonymous with the nobility and gentry. They were the section of the population that had some formal role in governance and had time outside of the demands of labour to devote to political questions. However, recent scholarship has emphasised that most if not all people in later medieval England had access to texts, could hear them read aloud and discuss their contents. This has led to a reappraisal of the later medieval public, towards an expansionist view that includes people below the ranks of the gentry as politically aware and engaged.
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- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Late Medieval English Kingship , pp. 278 - 297Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Dumolyn, J., Haemers, J., Oliva Herrer, H. R. and Challet, V., eds., The Voices of the People in Late Medieval Europe: Communication and Popular Politics, Studies in European Urban History 33 (Turnhout, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firnhaber-Baker, J. and Schoenaers, D., eds., The Routledge History Handbook of Medieval Revolt (Abingdon, 2017).Google Scholar
Fletcher, C., ‘News, Noise and the Nature of Politics in Late Medieval English Provincial Towns’, JBS 56 (2017), 250–72.Google Scholar
Harriss, G. L., ‘Political Society and the Growth of Government in Late Medieval England’, Past & Present 138 (1993), 28–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacey, H., ‘Defaming the King: Reporting Disloyal Speech in Fourteenth-Century England’, in Monarchy, State and Political Culture in England, 1300–1500: Essays in Honour of W. Mark Ormrod, ed. Dodd, G. and Taylor, C. D. (Woodbridge, 2020), 71–93.Google Scholar
Lantschner, P., The Logic of Political Conflict in Medieval Cities: Italy and the Southern Low Countries, 1370–1440 (Oxford, 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddy, C. D., ‘Cultures of Surveillance in Late Medieval English Towns: The Monitoring of Speech and the Fear of Revolt’, in The Routledge History Handbook of Medieval Revolt, ed. Firnhaber-Baker, J. and Schoenaers, D. (London, 2017), 311–29.Google Scholar
Watts, J. L., ‘The Pressure of the Public on Later Medieval Politics’, in The Fifteenth Century, Vol. 4: Political Culture in Late Medieval Britain, ed. Clark, L. and Carpenter, C. (Woodbridge, 2004), 159–80.Google Scholar
Watts, J. L. ‘Public or Plebs: The Changing Meaning of “the Commons”, 1381–1549’, in Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davies, ed. Pryce, H. and Watts, J. (Oxford, 2007), 242–60.Google Scholar
Watts, J. L. ‘Power, Government, and Political Life’, in The Later Middle Ages, ed. Lazzarini, I. (Oxford, 2021), 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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