Volume 36 Issue 4 April 1986

Inflation and the Moral Order

The new phenomenon of inflation in 16th-century England not only disrupted the medieval social order, it also challenged the traditional moral censure of usury and capital expansion.

A Norfolk Village: Cawston 1595-1605

What was it really like to live in an English village at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign? To what extent was it a close-knit community? How deeply was it divided by wealth and religious belief? Was the village even an important part of the identity of its members? Susan Amussen addresses these questions in one village in East Anglia.

A Fragile Tenure: England & Gascony 1216-1337

Robin Studd shows how Henry III's acceptance after 1259 of vassal status for England's one remaining continental territory of Gascony gave enormous scope for interference by the French crown.

The Fall of the Angevin Empire

A damned inheritance, hopelessly over-extended and out-resourced by the kings of France? Or an effective empire thrown away by incompetence and harshness? John Gillingham weighs the blame for John's loss of the Angevin dominions.

Indian Labour in British Guiana

Emancipation in British Guiana brought an influx of indentured labourers from India, whose working and living conditions were destructive of caste and culture, and often as harsh as those of the slaves they replaced.