0304C

In eastern England watermills had for some time been used for corn-grinding, but water-driven fulling mills were also coming into use, improving the quality of locally-produced cloth. Wind-power was now beginning to be exploited, with windmills for grinding corn soon becoming a regular feature of the landscape. Such technological developments occurred even though no formal technical education was available. Academic science was studied only by small numbers of students who travelled to Spain or Sicily, where Muslim scholars had transmitted Greek learning. Oxford University was developing in the late 12th century; Cambridge followed in John's reign. Roman civil law and canon law (the law of the church, which became of increasing importance in England in the aftermath of the murder of Thomas Becket) were the most popular subjects for ambitious students who wanted to join the growing ranks of' bureaucrats employed by church and state. News travelled along trade routes and was diffused in market places. Monastic chroniclers, the historians of the period, gathered news of political developments from distinguished visitors who broke their travels with overnight stops at abbeys.
   By 1200, England was a well-established, unified kingdom, although the far north was effectively governed by the bishops of Durham, while the borders with Wales were largely, defended by the lords of the March. Legal developments over the 12th century, improved the maintenance of law and order. The English common law evolved from the case law that was built up by itinerant justices acting in the king's name. The king's authority was strengthened by the continuing extension of royal justice into the localities: litigants increasingly preferred royal to baronial justice and as fewer people resorted to self-help in tenurial disputes, there was an improvement in political stability. The fees which people paid to have their cases heard were a steady, and increasing source of royal revenue. In all three countries laws were still proclaimed verbally.
   Following over a century free from invasion, a sense of national identity was emerging. Generations of intermarriage had resulted in English, rather than the French introduced after the Norman Conquest, being once again spoken by members of the landed classes. The royal treasurer, Richard Fitz Nigel, wrote in the 1180s that, among the free classes, it was now impossible to distinguish between people of French descent and of English. The royal court remained French-speaking due to the Continental interests of the kings, and to the entourage of French-speakers which accompanied each successive royal bride.
Scotland, too, was now a coherent kingdom, thanks to David I (r 1124-53) and his grandsons Malcolm IV (r 1153-65) and William I (r 1165-1214). Their fostering of urban activity and encouragement of feudal settlers contributed to the resources at their disposal. Royal control over the remoter regions of the mainland was increasingly strengthened, although the northern and western isles still owed allegiance to Norway. The Scottish court was strongly, influenced by French culture, while a dialect of the English language increasingly predominated in the 'governed lands' of the south and east. This took root following Anglian settlement in the south in early medieval times, and was fostered by immigration in the 12th century.
Wales, which had been united for a short period in the mid-eleventh century, was once again fragmented into principalities. In the northernmost of these, Gwynedd, the long rule of Prince Llywelyn ap lorwerth (r 1195-1240) was getting under way, but the power of the southern principality of Deheubarth waned, following the death in 1197 of its able ruler Rhys ap Gruffyd. Powys, which emerged in the mid-eleventh century, split into two during the mid-twelfth century.
In all three countries the social structure remained hierarchical, while under their respective rulers, the aristocracy asserted a dominant political voice. In the leading English towns, prominent merchants conducted a limited form of urban self-government, as permitted by the royal charters that had been obtained over recent decades. A town's citizens - a group virtually co-terminous with the members of the gild merchant - were 'at scot and lot' with one another, sharing both in the obligation to render taxes and in the commercial privileges afforded by gild membership. In Scotland, urban government was beginning to flourish in the recently-established burghs, sometimes with the help of immigrants head-hunted for the purpose, but in Wales urban activity was minimal before Edward I's conquest of the late 13th century.
   From the mid-twelfth century, there were small Jewish communities in the larger towns of southern and eastern England. They had derived prosperity from their role, as money-lenders, but this was undermined when Henry II introduced periodic 'tallage', an arbitrary royal tax. Both landholders and merchants made use of the credit facilities they offered, but over the course of the 12th century, indebted gentry increasingly stirred up mobs to attack the Jews, who were technically under royal protection. The situation was worsened by Crusading fervour which led to hostility against non-Christians, and by growing attacks from theologians. The accession of Richard I in 1189 led to savage outbursts against Jews, culminating in a massacre in York in 1190. From 1194 strong measures were taken by the crown to secure the records of the bonds of debt (in which the king had a direct interest); this indirectly curbed the violence of the mobs, whose main motive was the destruction of these bonds.

Politically Scotland was stable at this period, but Wales was less so, owing to its political fragmentation. Here, however, laws and language were unifying forces, cutting across the boundaries of the principalities. In England, the political tensions of the late 12th century were in part due to a conflict between a growing expectation of the rule of law, and the authoritarian acts of the king and his ministers as they increased royal revenues through rising taxation and arbitrary exactions. Outbursts of unrest in the late 12th century were followed by the crisis between King John and his barons, which led to the granting of Magna Carta in 1215.                                             ENDS