Urban class structure and usurpationary closure

Abstract

Having examined medieval English rural society in terms of its relations of production and property rights, we need next to turn our attention to social stratification within the towns. What were the characteristic class and property relations and forms of social exclusion to be found within urban society and what was the extent and significance of the usurpationary struggles which they provoked? This chapter examines the nature and limits of urbanisation in medieval England (section i), establishes the major urban economic classes (section ii), sets out the economic and political privileges enjoyed by the towns (section iii), and discusses the forms of conflict which arose from urban social and political inequalities (section iv).