1483 1558

This volume in 'The Oxford History of the Laws of England' covers the years 1483-1558, a period of immense social political, and intellectual changes which profoundly affected the law and its workings.

Over the last forty years, Sir John Baker has written on most aspects of English legal history, and this collection of his writings includes many papers that have been widely cited. Providing points of reference and foundations for further research, the papers cover the legal profession, the inns of court and chancery, legal education, legal institutions, legal literature, legal antiquities, public law and individual liberty, criminal justice, private law (including contract, tort and restitution) and legal history in general. An introduction traces the development of some of the research represented by the papers, and cross-references and new endnotes have been added. A full bibliography of the author's works is also included.

This significant new work by a prominent medievalist focusses on the period of transition between 1250 and 1550, when the wealth and power of the great lords was threatened and weakened, and when new social groups emerged and new methods of production were adopted. Professor Dyer examines both the commercial growth of the thirteenth century, and the restructuring of farming, trade, and industry in the fifteenth. The subjects investigated include the balance between individuals andthe collective interests of families and villages. The role of the aristocracy and in particular the gentry are scrutinized, and emphasis placed on the initiatives taken by peasants, traders, and craftsmen. The growth in consumption moved the economy in new directions after 1350, and this encouragedinvestment in productive enterprises. A commercial mentality persisted and grew, and producers, such as farmers, profited from the market. Many people lived on wages, but not enough of them to justify describing the sixteenth century economy as capitalist. The conclusions are supported by research in sources not much used before, such as wills, and non-written evidence, including buildings.Christopher Dyer, who has already published on many aspects of this period, has produced the first full-length study by a single author of the 'transition'. He argues for a reassessment of the whole period, and shows that many features of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries can be found before 1500.