The Yorkist Age: Daily Life During the Wars of the Roses

by Paul Murray Kendall

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Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval History, Medieval, British Literature, 15th Century

526 pages

First published December 1, 1961

About the author

Paul Murray Kendall was an American academic and historian. A 1928 graduate from Frankford High School, Kendall studied at the University of Virginia, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1932, and master's in 1933. In 1937, while studying for a Ph.D, he became an instructor in English at the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1939, and continued as professor at Ohio University until his retirement in 1970, after which he served as head of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Kansas.

Reviews

[Norav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très très intéressant comme le livre du même auteur sur Richard III. On découvre un autre aspect de l'Angleterre pendant cette période.

[Pauline Calkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the subtitle indicates, this book is about the daily life of the people—gentry, merchants and nobility alike—during this time period, and touches the political and military struggles only incidentally. The epilogue is a summary of the main events of what is commonly known as the War of the Roses.

The book is divided into three main parts: The Mayor (the municipality and its government), Other Important People (the different levels of society from the King to the merchants and pirates) and the Household (from estate management to marriage and the place of women and children in society.) The author does not settle for mere abstract discussions, but illustrates each section with the actions of particular persons: the resolute actions of Thomas Wranwysh as mayor and then alderman of York; and long battle Exeter’s mayor John Shillingford waged against the bishop’s assertion of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the center of town.

Other Important People section includes
The King and the Royal Household which details the splendor of King Edward’s court

In the “Lords and Gentry” section, the breakdown of feudalism into a bastard feudalism is the shown as the result of the decrease in the peasant population who could work the land. (The sharp decrease was due to the ravages of the previous century—plague and warfare. The picture drawn resembles the Wild West with lords besieging manor houses, defended by loyal stewards and/or intrepid wives. The Paston family is prominent in their disputes with the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, but I soon lost sympathy with this jumped up family as they failed to make any reward to the stewards who defended their disputed holdings.

Although in “Churchmen and the Church” we see that religious life was embedded in society, churchmen were involved in secular life and the monastic life was no longer proving to be attractive. Lawyers and others learned men were replacing clerics as we see in the “Merchants, Pirates, Aliens, and Lawyers” section which also provides extensive detail about the everyday issues wool traders. encountered. As a trader himself, Edward IV had constructive policies fostering trade.

In the “The Fabric of Life” we learn about the household goods, tapestries, plates, etc. in use by the middle and upper classes.
Foreigners of the time commented that the Englishmen knew nothing about love, although they also thought English women were beautiful and licentious. Uppermost in the minds of the English in “The Marriage Hunt” was finding a spouse with standing and money. Here again the Pastons are featured with the brothers Sir John and his younger brother John (how’s that for imaginative naming) long searches. Their sister Margery did marry for love--one of her family’s able and loyal stewards, Richard Calle, although this match was opposed by the rest of the family. (Margery and Richard’s story would make for an interesting novel, but I don’t care if I never read anything more about that family. The “Wives” and “Children” sections conclude the book. Here again, foreigners believed that the English had an odd way of raising children by placing them in someone else’s household. Because the English liked good food, parents farmed out their children so that they would not have to share the choicest meats and foodstuffs with them—at least this is what one observer concluded.

All in all, this presents a comprehensive, detailed look at all aspects of daily life in Yorkist England.

[Jamie Adair · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many books about daily life in the middle ages. However, they often cover a broad period (several centuries) in the middle ages and may cover continental kingdoms. Few, if any, focus so specifically on the social history of the Wars of the Roses.

While if memory serves this book takes many examples from London, it also discusses examples from Bristol and other medieval English cities.

The city of London played a decisive role in 1461 when Edward IV overthrew the Lancastrians. However, there are relatively few books that discuss London and the politics between the wealthy merchants, guilds, and mayor.

Dating back to the middle ages, London has had a legally distinct status and level of autonomy, especially in regards to trade. This book indirectly alludes to the origins of this power.

Kendall divided the book into three major sections: (1) The Mayor, (2) Other Important People, and (3) The Household.

The Mayor includes:
1. The Mayor at Home - discusses the role of guilds on an everyday level
2. The Mayor: Abroad
3. Rebel Against the Mayor
4. The Lord Mayor of London - discusses the socio-economic changes in London, how it drew the young/ambitious

Other Important People includes:
5. The King and the Royal Household - the splendour of the court in detail amongst other topics
6. Lords and Gentry
7. Churchmen and the Church
8. Merchants, Pirates, Aliens, and Lawyers - piracy was an important and underdiscussed issue affecting the wool trade and prosperity, in the 1460s and 70s. Kendall provides extensive detail about the everyday issues wool traders encountered and their role in England's economy. While Kendall doesn't appear to discuss the break with the Hanse around ~1468, this book would likely provide helpful background material.

The Household includes:
9. The Fabric of Life - the material life (e.g., household good, tapestries, plates) of the middle and upper-middle classes
10. The Marriage Hunt - a discussion of gentry marriages
11. Wives
12. Children

I strongly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand how the middle ages felt if you weren't royalty. I also strongly recommend this book for historical novelists. I would not necessarily recommend this book for people looking to understand the political events in the Wars of the Roses - that isn't within the book's scope.

This book provides more details about daily life than I've seen anywhere else. In fact, in many ways, this book is a towering achievement. Kendall bases a lot of it on the Paston letters, but appears to also use numerous other sources. The bibliography is a superior resource.

I would have given this book five stars, but while it is an excellent resource, it isn't riveting. I think this may be because it doesn't have an overarching narrative and tends to have a fair number of disparate facts. Still, don't let that deter you from reading it because it still an illuminating read.

Those interested in the city of London or the lives of the gentry, might also enjoy Desmond Seward's The Wars of the Roses: Through the Lives of Five Men and Women of the Fifteenth Century. The two books might be interesting to read one after the other.

By Jamie Adair

[Andrew Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Murray Kendall Examines Everyday Life During England's Epic Struggle Between York & Lancaster, The Wars Of The Roses.

The historical period described by Paul Murray Kendall as The Yorkist Age encompasses roughly the span of time from 1455-1487 during which the famous English civil war, the Wars of the Roses, raged intermittently throughout Great Britain. Shadowy monarchs such as Henry VI Lancaster & Louis XI 'the Prudent' were manipulating events behind the scenes & clashing with powerful, charismatic potentates such as Richard, 3rd Duke of York, & his sons Edward IV York, & George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, & all the while Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, called 'the Kingmaker', was employing a dangerous strategy by fighting on both sides of the conflict, switching allegiances in an effort to carve out his own portion of the realm while he himself danced upon the strings of France's 'Universal Spider', & attempted to disrupt the carefully-wrought plans of the Burgundian Duke, Charles the Rash.

But what of the non-noble, peasant classes, the merchants, the tailors, the artisans? What of the constables & the cooks, the mayors & the men of the cloth, the royal household & the families, wives & children? Paul Murray Kendall's The Yorkist Age: Daily Life During the Wars of the Roses attempts to answer these questions, & more besides. It reads like a verdant, colorful tapestry of anecdotes from all walks of fifteenth century everyday life, winding its way through the different areas of medieval English society like a delightfully old-fashioned dirt road rambling over pleasantly rolling hills & meadows. In the preface, Kendall endearingly confides to his audience the profound degree of affection that he has for the English people.

This 1970 paperback edition of Paul Murray Kendall's 1962 The Yorkist Age: Daily Life During the Wars of the Roses is published by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., & its 504-page main text is split into twelve chapters which are divided into three parts, & a preface, prologue, & epilogue. The parts are named The Mayor, Other Important People, & The Household, the epilogue, entitled The Wars of the Roses, is the only section wholly devoted to the actual conflict between Lancaster & York. There is a list of principal persons at the beginning of the volume which lists notable royalty, lords, gentry, mayors, merchants & other townspeople, clergy, & others. There is also a ten-page bibliography & index at the end of the book.

The prologue, The Times, establishes the setting of the Yorkist Age & introduces some of the main contenders for power during the Wars of the Roses, in addition to explaining the result that years of warfare effected upon the English people during this tumultuous period. The era's larger-than-life personalities such as Edward IV York, of the House of Plantagenet, & Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as 'the Kingmaker', are introduced with Paul Murray Kendall's signature prose style for which he is famous, such as this passage describing King Edward & his accomplishments for the British people: "The least-appreciated of English monarchs, Edward IV was Queen Elizabeth's great-grandfather in more than blood; it was he, not Henry VII, who revived the realm of England & set it moving towards the splendours of the sixteenth century. No king of that realm owned a more brilliant habit of victories coupled with a greater love of peace than Edward IV; no king of England since the Conquest was so familiar with his subjects & beloved by them as he; & no king of England up to that time, save William I & Henry II, performed so seminal a labour in reinvigorating the institution of the monarchy."

The prologue also discusses the effects that prophecy, rumormongering, witchcraft & other medieval practices & beliefs placed upon a culture that was quickly changing into the beginnings of the Renaissance, also highlighting the increased literacy rates' benefits to society while introducing four crucial groups of extant written correspondence that are vital to understanding how life in the middle classes functioned during the fifteenth century: the Paston Letters, the Stonor Letters, the Plumpton Letters, & the Cely Letters, each group originating from a unique clan from a different slice of British society, from wool traders to Merchant Staplers from Calais & London, to families who rose through the ranks of the middle class to ascend to the upper gentry.

Kendall also muses on viewing with modern eyes the myriad similarities & disparities between the Yorkist Age & our own period in history: "In looking at the past, we are easily bemused by the intricate interplay of likenesses & differences; aiming for the special tone & style of an age, we are more likely to overshoot the mark than to fall short. To our time-charmed eyes, differences project so picturesquely or repellently or seem so alien that they startle us from feeling the deep ties of common experience that bind us to those who have gone before." He continues, later in the passage: "Though modes of thought, attitudes, styles of living, & what-there-is-to-be-talked-about have changed, 'the olde daunce' of marrying & rearing children & losing in death & hoping for tomorrow & trying to get ahead & envying the neighbors & enjoying the evening air & laughing with friends, the small pains & pleasures, the 'buzz & hum' of daily life, went on during the Wars of the Roses much as it goes on today."

Chapter 1, The Mayor: At Home, canvasses such topics (among many, many others) as the basic guild operations in England's villages, towns, & cities. The Corpus Christi gild was responsible for enacting theatrical productions depicting various Biblical scenes throughout the year, & Kendall highlights a number of the illustrious attendees these productions would attract, such as Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who became King Richard III, & Queen Margaret of Anjou, the wife of England's shadow king, Henry VI. The Corpus Christi festival was taken very seriously by the towns of England, & various acts & regulations were put into place to ensure the plays were of the highest possible quality, while also setting up collection funds of 'pageant-pense' to which members from other gilds were responsible for contributing when they were not staging a spectacle of their own. Also discussed is the grave nature of the bubonic plague, even a century after its initial, & most infamous outbreak in 1347, & the author provides a grouping of diary excerpts from different times during 1454-1485 to better give the reader an idea of the pervading threat this pandemic illness still posed to England during this period, also listing the various measures taken by the towns in their efforts to prevent infection.

At the beginning of the chapter Kendall describes a handful of the most populous & prosperous English towns & cities, including London, York, Norwich, Bristol, & Coventry, the last of which he limns in the following passage: "Coventry, magnificently walled & surrounded by a broad belt of common lands, was likewise a hive of weavers & dyers. Coventry blue thread was known abroad; her merchants freighted imports & exports on the Severn or to & from the Eastern ports; lords & gentry from all over England were happy to become members of the city's great religious guilds."

The primary scenario discussed in Chapter 2, The Mayor: Abroad involves an ongoing dispute between the city of Exeter, whose cause was championed by its mayor, John Shillingford, & the clergy of its local house of worship, the cathedral Church of St. Peter, which was led by its bishop, Edmund Lacy. The city had been enduring unruly behavior from the bishop's clerks engaging in disorderly conduct as well as other infractions, including the reselling of spoiled wine & the sale of light loaves of bread, which was in direct defiance of the city's assize of bread. This tense state of affairs in Exeter began to manifest with what the author quotes from his sources as, "'night-walking, evil language, visaging, shouldering, & all riotous rule.'", & eventually, a partisan of the Bishop, one Hugh Lucays, gets into a scuffle with one of the citizens & provokes a general ruckus, & Mayor Shillingford is summarily dispatched to London to plead his city's case before John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury & Chancellor to the King of England.

Kendall describes the highlights of their multiple dinners & meetings, & as the mayor is a personal friend of the archbishop, Exeter's case appears to be assured to go in its favor, as this passage elucidates upon in the author's ever-artful prose style: "The Archbishop of Canterbury's treatment of the Mayor betokens the importance of townsmen in this age, as his marked favour to the man indicates the impact of John Shillingford's personality. The Chancellor's friendliness also hints--& Shillingford may have missed this--of his uneasy desire to placate the party which, though it had the better cause, he could not quite bring himself to declare for, against the pull of his loyalty to a brother bishop & his realization that many towns, likewise doing battle with the Church, would be heartened by Exeter's victory."

However, things did not turn out quite as Shillingford hoped, & after much deliberation on the part of the Archbishop, Stafford finally decides to place the case in the hands of two powerful lords, Sir William Bonvile & Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, who decide to award the parish of St. Peter with a separate jurisdiction that did not fall under the authority of Exeter's lawmen, who were forbidden to make arrests within its confines. This was a very interesting chapter & the story of this ongoing struggle for dominance between church & city certainly make for compelling reading.

Chapter 4, The Lord Mayor of London is primarily an expository chapter which explores the bustling city of London in the fifteenth century & provides a fascinating tableau of historical data, vivid descriptions of the city's different sections, & contemporary accounts which usually originate from the diaries of wealthy Italian merchants & ambassadors who conducted business in London during this exciting period in history. At the chapter's beginning Kendall limns for his reader some of the exciting sights & locales London could offer its visitors during the era of the Wars of the Roses: "Highways converging on the capital channeled a swelling stream of goods to & from the city marts. The broad estuary of the Thames enticed the traffic of the seas. To foreigners, London blazed on the far western perimeter of civilization, the metropolis of the oceans. If Rome was the grandest & Venice the most romantic & Paris the largest of cities, travellers declared that London was the most enterprising & busiest, & marvelled to find it so lovely."

Later in the chapter the author discusses how the different customs of the mayoral office evolved during the reign of Edward IV, also describing an honorary banquet held for Sir Bartholomew Read in 1502 with an eye for detail & a penchant for artistic prose. He provides an impressive list speaking to the accomplishments of another mayor who enjoyed such popularity he served three terms: "In the earlier years of the fifteenth century Richard Whittington, thrice Mayor of London & the 'Sun of Marchandy' blazoned the theme of civic devotion which city magnates coming after him strove with splendid emulations to follow. He bequeathed money for Whittington College. He rebuilt churches & established conduits & 'bosses' of fresh water. That symbol of municipal power, Gildhall, begun in 1411, owed much to him: his money paved the hall with Purbeck marble, glazed windows in the hall & the mayor's court, edified the chapel & college & the fine library."

In Chapter 5, The King & the Royal Household, the reader is offered an in-depth look at the court of King Edward IV York & the illustrious high lords & ladies who comprised his retinue, utilizing contemporary sources such as the well-known Black Book of the Household of Edward IV, a set of regulations, expenditures, & allowances for food & fuel. There was a diverse assortment of characters who rose to prominence during Edward's reign, from the Machiavellian Earl of Worcester, John Tiptoft, a nobleman who studied law at the Italian city-state of Padua & translated an English version of The Orations of Cornelius Scipio & Gaius Flamnineus. His grim reputation led him to be known as 'The Butcher of England' & elicited his friend, William Caxton (the inventor of the printing press) to make the comment that he "flowered in virtue & cunning to whom I knew none like among the lords of the temporality in science & moral virtue."

Brooding & melancholy, Anthony Woodville was a close friend of Charles the Rash who had traveled with King Edward during his flight to the Low Countries after Warwick turned traitor in 1470, following the earl's abandonment of the Yorkist cause for the Lancastrians. The author writes of him, "Anthony Woodville, the Queen's brother, was a courtier, in an age not quite ready for the courtier, rather than a man of state; & in his contrarieties he seems almost Elizabethan. Pilgrim & knight, worldly & ascetic, he was moved both by the vision of the Grail & of the Good Life. He was the most famous jouster of the age & a patron of Caxton. He translated three devotional works which Caxton printed; yet he was also given to penning mediaeval ballads against the Seven Deadly Sins."

Chapter 8, Merchants, Pirates, Aliens, & Lawyers contains an intriguing glimpse of how piracy operated during the fifteenth century in England, as many of the pirate bands were under sponsorship from legitimate noblemen or landowners who wanted to collect extra income to supplement their primary sources. Kendall describes the dubious profession's rise & apogee during the reigns of arguably weak monarchs such as Henry VI, in the following excerpt: "The merchant's greatest enemy remained the pirate, though there is nothing very distinctive about piracy during the Yorkist Age. It had flourished in the fourteenth century & it would go on flourishing under the Tudors. During the fifteenth century piracy reached its apogee of success during the last bad years of Henry VI; the failure of Henry's government to keep the seas & the ill-concealed partnership between some of Henry's lords & pirate chieftains drove the merchants of the realm into the arms of the Yorkists."

The author proceeds to limn an interesting scenario involving a legitimate merchant ship, The Kateryn of the port town of Bayonne, France, is boarded & relieved of its cargo by a pirate vessel, also named The Kateryn, of the city of St. Ives, in Cornwall, England, that ends up being principally owned by an English magistrate, Richard Penpons, & which frustrates the merchant craft's owner when he attempts to litigate his case in court, & ultimately leads to him not being able to retrieve his goods, even after the Yorkist administration of Edward IV investigates the matter.

The Epilogue, entitled The Wars of the Roses contains a cursory synopsis of the famous series of civil wars that wracked Great Britain from 1455-1487, beginning with the division of the English royal court into two opposing factions following the marriage of Henry VI & Margaret of Anjou. The deaths of the Lancaster partisans Bishop Moleyns & the Duke of Suffolk serve as a powder keg upon which the rise of the rebel leader Jack Cade, who was also known as Jack Mortimer, was ignited, eventually leading to his surprise victory at Sevenoaks against a royalist force led by Sir Humphrey Stafford & his brother William.

Kendall's prosaic eloquence captures the beginning of the final act of Cade's uprising: "In the late afternoon of Friday, July 3, Jack Cade appeared on London Bridge at the head of his host. The drawbridge was lowered. Cade swung his sword, hewed the ropes, & rode into the capital like a conqueror. Joined by a rabble of Londoners, his forces paraded the city. When the Captain of Kent reached the famous London stone on Candlewick Street, he reportedly drew his sword, struck the stone, & announced, 'Now is Mortimer lord of this city'." The Jack Cade Rebellion in 1450 served as a short-lived, bloody prologue to the Wars of the Roses, & according to Wikipedia, it "has been perceived as reflection of the social, political, & economic issues of the time period".

Other interesting events such as the John Boon affair are also discussed. Boon was originally an intriguer ostensibly dispatched by Edward IV to treat with the Count of Armagnac to discuss the king's impending invasion of France, but in reality he was the Earl of Warwick's double agent who was sent to report information to the French king, Louis XI, employing him in a dangerous subterfuge engineered to spread false rumors about the Count. Eventually, Boon makes a narrow escape after his relations with the French king quickly deteriorate & the last bit of history known of him is that he eventually married & was living in Mantes, France.

While it doesn't go into a great deal of detail, the epilogue provides a good foundation of the major events & battles of the Wars of the Roses & should prove useful to readers new to the subject, rendering it a good companion piece to Kendall's other biographies which are set during this exciting period, namely, Warwick the Kingmaker & The Wars of the Roses. I hope you enjoyed the review, thank you so much for reading!

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I just happened to stumble upon this history book because it was absolutely fascinating. I loved the descriptions he used in the who's who portion at the very beginning. I also really on the section devoted to the Household, especially The Fabric of Life part. The food and meals situation was so cool to read about. The Cokyntryce - a stuffed chicken pig Frankenstein concoction sounded like something I'd never want to see in person!

[Aneca · Rating 4 out of 5]

My last review for the Medieval challenge is about a non fiction book and so naturally different from my other reviews.


Paul Murray Kendall's The Yorkist Age is a very interesting book about the daily life during the Wars of The Roses - that is in fact its subtitle. I may not be the ideal book to read in one sitting but being filled with interesting historical facts, many of them quite fun, it is the ideal book to have at hand whenever you want to know more about this period. It's a valuable research tool but it's also something to savour now and then.




The prologue is an introduction to the period and the main body of work is divided in three parts focusing on The Mayor (the municipality and its government), Other Important People (the different levels of society from the King to the merchants and pirates) and the Household (from estate management to marriage and the place of women and children in society. It ends with an epilogue devoted to the Wars of the Roses.




Highly recommended to those who want to know more about the Yorkist Age.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is just OK. It does have some interesting information in it, but its presented in a scattered fashion that made it hard to figure out what the narrative theme was.

Also – way too much time spent discussing Henry VII, who was an age onto himself - he certainly wasn’t what anyone would call a part of the Yorkist era.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touch Ricardian, disappointingly sexist, and irritatingly malicious towards the Woodvilles, this book still provides fascinating and engaging slices of life for ordinary folks in England at the time.

[Errol Cavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with other books by this author: like the curate's egg, good in parts. Too much imaginative sympathy for my liking, the perpetual problem author's face when they cannot decide if they are writing history or an historical novel.

[Andrea Willers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much I broke the books spine from picking it up and getting quotes from it.

[Joanna Clausen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always liked history, especially learning about the daily lives of people during the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. I thought this book would be doubly interesting as I had discovered Lancastrians in the family tree through my Grandma Clauson's side. I figured I'd be able to take a side in the War of the Roses!

Wouldn't you know it! After I had finished reading this book, I had a breakthrough in my genealogy research. While my great-grandfather's family were Lancasters, my great-grandmother's family were Yorks. So, of course, I had to go back through the book and reread the bits about my newfound relatives. Actually, they seem rather evil and extremely conniving on both sides. Not that it matters. Our family long ago passed the seven generations it takes a family to fall from royalty, wealth, and power to poverty and humiliation.

This is a history text. It's dense with facts and broad in scope. Reading it was like being back in grad school, only I don't have to write a paper!

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually read social history, but Kendall's biographies set in this time are all excellent. I thought it would be a good time to read it, since I just finished MARGARET OF YORK. Actually, this would have been a good foundation for MARGARET OF YORK.

THE YORKIST AGE is insightful and well grounded. In addition to Kendall's lives of Richard III, Warwick the Kingmaker, and Louis XI, he could have written an extremely good life of Edward IV, but I suppose he said all he wanted to say about Edward here. His analyses cover Edward's policies of government, which were much more constructive than I had read before -- in spite of letting the Woodvilles run rough-shod over England.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not too bad. I'm glad to know more about Edward IV; however, I felt the author was a bit biased towards Edward and the Yorks in general. Or, perhaps it is that I'm biased towards the Lancasters. Great read if one is interested in this portion of English history.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great general background for a very specific time period. Just what I needed to research my latest novel!

[Nell Corkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting tidbits, but nothing special.

[Ellis Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a fun read. Kendall has a number of books, all of them highly readable and at least reasonably solid historically.