Life in a Mediæval City | Page 3

military, and of the Church was regularly
conducted at York from early times. This political importance lasted
long and is intimately connected with many events in the city's history.
The fort and military defences were renewed from time to time, and
staff-work and general administration, whether Roman or Edwardian,
were conducted from York. The king, from whom York was rented by
the citizens, had his official representatives with their offices
permanently established here. The siege of 1644 after the royalist
defeat at Marston Moor, was due mainly to the political importance of
the city. In Danish times there were kings of York. The Archbishops,
besides owning large areas of land in and around the city, had their
palace in the city. Monasteries grew up and flourished till the
Dissolution; churches and other religious buildings were everywhere.
Further, from century to century, York was the home of important
nobles of the realm.

This political importance has persisted through the centuries. York still
claims its traditional rank of second city in the kingdom.
CHAPTER III
APPEARANCE
A. GENERAL APPEARANCE
A general view of fifteenth-century York ("Everwyk" in Anglo-French
and "Eboracum" in Latin) would give the impression of a very compact
city within fortifications. Almost immediately it would be noticed how
the three great elements of national society were very clearly reflected
in the general appearance. First, the Church, the tremendous and
ubiquitous power of which is emphasised by the strikingly beautiful
and wonderfully constructed massive Minster, but so recently
completed, standing, with its more than five hundred feet of length, its
central tower two hundred feet high, most of its roofs a hundred feet or
more above the ground, dwarfing the petty, storied dwellings. This is
but one great church. In brilliant contrast in another quarter, adjoining
the city, is the great abbey church of St. Mary, crowned by a lofty and
magnificent spire rising above the equally fine conventual buildings.
All over the city are seen the churches and buildings of other monastic
and religious houses. The background of dwellings and shops, built in a
similar style, is cut by a few winding streets, and studded with the
towers, spires, and roofs of the multitude of parish churches. The
intense and far-reaching influence of the Church in all phases of life is
indelibly marked on this city.
The great influence of the royal State, second only to that of the Church,
appears in the enclosing fortifications and especially in the solid stance
of the Castle, where the keep stands out stoutly on its fortified mound.
The whole castle, self-supporting within its own defences, its massive
walls, broad moats, outer and inner wards, protected gateways,
drawbridges and other tactical devices, conveys an impression of power.
On the Bishop-hill side of the river there remains the mound (Baile Hill)
on which the other castle was erected by order of William the

Conqueror. The whole city is enclosed by defensive works consisting
of an embattled wall on a mound, with a moat or protecting ditch
running parallel to it. At intervals along the walls there are towers.
Where the four main roads enter the city there are the four gateways, or
Bars, high enough to act as watch-towers and fit by their solid
construction to offer a stout defence. The royal State keeps its stern
watch around and within.
The third great element, the People, are represented by the few narrow,
winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke from
their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and State.
The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of the city. On
the western side the houses are grouped along the river bank and
between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
city and guild halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
erections of the Church and the State.
A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in the
view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
offices in the fifteenth-century city.
St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside
the city walls.
Without the city and the cultivated land near by most of the country
consisted of great stretches of forest,[1] i.e. wood, marsh, moor,
waste-land. This surrounding forest-land was crossed by the few
high-roads leading to and from