York, England
The Romans founded York in 71AD, calling it Eboracum, and stamped their military authority on the North of England but local tribal leaders were allowed to keep their power in exchange for accepting Roman rule. Although they were now living in the Empire, the Empire did not wipe out existing culture but lived alongside it and Imperial standards, traits and fashions were often adopted by local tribes.
It's often been written that the Romans left Britain because they had their own troubles at home and were recalled, this is true, however, they also had troubles in Britain and there were no forces to come to their aid. In the 4th and 5th Centuries, the Angles and Saxons from North Germany were raiding Britain. The trouble started on the south east coast and the Romans built ‘forts of the Saxon Shore’ to deter them. The raids just moved further up the east coast and into Yorkshire. The Romans could not defend all fronts and they were short on soldiers, with no reinforcements to aid them, they were recalled back to Rome in the early 5th century and this opened Britain to Saxon migration.
The end of the 8th Century saw the first Viking raid on Northern England, when the monastery of Lindisfarne was plundered. For the next one hundred years there were Viking raids but it wasn’t until the end of the 9th Century, that they stayed over the winter and began to settle in Britain. In 876, the Vikings seized York, naming it Yorvik. Danish Kings ruled York, as well as much of Northern England until 927, but York was their capital.
In 927, King Athelstan of Wessex was the first King to rule over all of England. It was York that offered the greatest opposition and the city was fortified against him. After Athelstan’s death, there were further Viking raids on England. From 1016-1042, the Danish kings, Canute and Harthecanute ruled England until, in 1042, the Anglo-Saxon dynasty was restored and King Edward the Confessor took the throne.
In the first half the 11th Century a visitor to York wrote:
‘The city of York is the metropolis of the whole race of the Northumbrians, which city was once nobly built and strongly constructed with walls, but which is now abandoned to antiquity. It rejoices however in a multitude of inhabitants; not fewer than 30,000 men and women are number in this city, which is filled with the riches of merchants coming from everywhere especially from the Danish nation. ‘
York had been the center of the Viking Kingdom during the 10th Century, and even under Anglo-Saxon kings of the 11th Century it continued to attract Viking immigrants.
King Harold Godwinson was at York after defeating Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge on the 25th of September 1066. On the 28th of September, William of Normandy and his army landed at Pevensey on the south coast of England. Harold immediately marched his tired army south and met William of Normandy at Hastings. King Harold died on the battlefield, and William of Normandy became known forever after, as William the Conqueror. They city of York would give William more trouble than any other.
In 1067, the North revolted against Norman rule and proclaimed Eadgar Atheling as king. King William marched on York and the city made peace with him. William immediately had a wooden castle erected on Baile Hill, and he left there a garrison of 500 men. In 1069, the North was again in revolt. At York, William’s castle had been destroyed and its garrison slaughtered. William returned to the north, rebuilt his castle and ordered a second castle on the other side of the River Ouse, which is now known as Clifford’s Tower. Leaving both castles garrisoned, William returned south but, by August, King Sweyn of Denmark invaded and sailed up the Humber and threatened York. York threw their lot in with the invading force and sided with them, against King William. Disaster struck when the uprising, which intended to burn Norman property, got out of control and the fire burned most of York including the Minster, it's library, the hospital and many of the parish churches. They also again captured William’s castles and killed the garrisons. William returned to York a third time and vowed to teach them a lesson.
The 'Harrying of the North' was vicious and cruel. When King William arrived at York for the third time, he let his men plunder what little was left of the city. Inhabitants who had not fled, were slaughtered. He then ravaged the countryside between York and the River Tees. Thousands were killed and hundreds of villages were burnt. King Sweyn retreated and York made its final peace with Norman rule. William’s castles were rebuilt at York and it's defenses strengthened. A motte was added to Cifford’s Tower, this meant raising the level of the river to such an extent, that 120 acres of arable land, and two mills were flooded.
An Anglo-Norman chronicler wrote:
‘The king stopped at nothing to hunt his enemies. He cut down many people and destroyed homes and land. Nowhere else had he shown such cruelty. To his shame, William made no effort to control his fury, punishing the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of starvation after he left. I have often praised William in this book but I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter, God will punish him.’
It was over a century before York recovered from the effects of the Norman Conquest. It was further devastated in 1137, by a fire that burned the Minster and nineteen churches as well as hundreds of houses.
The importance of York increased throughout the 12th Century. Early in the reign of Henry II, in the mid-12th Century, the city obtained its first charter. Soon after, new defenses were built to protect the city.
Henry II stayed at York regularly, most often during his war against the Scots. In 1175, he came to York to receive the homage of William the Lion, King of the Scots.
During Henry II’s reign, Jewish business activity flourished, especially money-lending. The Jews spread out from London and set up in the main cities of Norwich, Lincoln and York. They were under the protection of the King and this was afforded at the Royal castles in York. The emerging gentry and monasteries in the north, provided a good source of clients for their money lending businesses. At this time, Christians were forbidden from lending money and without banks to borrow from, the Jewish communities provided this business. After the death of Henry II, who had protected them, religious attacks began to break out. This culminated at York, with the mass suicide of almost the entire Jewish community, in March of 1190.
Despite the horrors endured by the Jews in York, the community again began to grow, until in 1275, Edward I introduced the Statute of Jewry, which made the practice of money lending, illegal and thus put them out of business. In 1290, Edward I again made a law and this time ordered that, ‘all the Jews of our Kingdom leave in perpetual exile’. Their assets were seized and sold.
After the death of Edward I, and Edward II’s defeat at Bannockburn in 1314, York was on the front lines of Scottish invasion. In 1319, the Archbishop of York raised an army and was defeated at the Battle of Myton-on-Swale. The city was visited many times by Edward II and Edward III, who oversaw the city’s defenses and strengthened the city’s walls. York was one of the few barriers preventing the Scots advancing south.
Edward III married his Queen, Philippa of Hainault, at York Minster in 1328. William Melton, who was Archbishop of York at the time, married them. The event was celebrated in the city by three weeks of jousting, reveling, feasting and dancing. However tensions rose between the citizens of York and the Hainaulters, which came to a climax when one of the foreigners set fire to one of the suburbs of the city. As a result, 347 Hainaulters and 242 Englishmen were drowned in the river Ouse.
In 1346, Queen Philippa returned to York as Regent, when Edward III was off fighting in France. She made York her headquarters while dealing with the crisis of King David II, who had crossed the border and ravaged Northumberland. The Archbishop of York, with the Lords Neville and Percy, took command of the army and met the Scots at Neville’s Cross. The battle was fought on the 24th of August 1346, near Durham, where it could be seen from the Cathedral’s tower. King David II was hit by an arrow, which was deeply embedded into his cheekbone. Afterwards, he was captured and taken to Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. The Queen sent two Barber Surgeons from York, a William de Bolton and Hugo de Kilvington, to attend King David. They operated on the King’s cheek, extracted the arrow and attended him until the wound was completely healed. They were paid £6 from the royal exchequer for their services.
The Barber Surgeon’s Guild, was one of around sixty Guilds. These controlled the trade, and industry of York throughout the Middle Ages. All the Guilds were organized in the same way, members of the Guild were either Masters, Journeymen or Apprentices. Apprentices served a master for at least seven years and learned their craft. Their parent or guardian signed an indenture and paid a premium to the master, who agreed to train the boy, and the boy agreed to serve his master faithfully and obey him.
A boy was normally apprenticed at the age of twelve. He would be given free room and board in his masters house and be given the equivalent of pocket money each week. At the end of his Apprenticeship, he took a test arranged by the Guild and if he passed he would become a Journeyman. He would then be paid for his work. The Journeyman could either stay and continue working for his master, or transfer to another master, or set up a business of his own. If he did the latter, he had to take a further test arranged by the Guild, which involved making a masterpiece or special project connected to his particular trade. If he passed this, he was accepted as a full member of the Guild and, once he had paid the customary fees, became a Freeman of the City of York. His name would be added to the list of Freemen of the City and kept in the Guildhall, by the Clerk to the Corporation.
York was an up and coming city in the 14th Century. Perhaps second only to London by this time, with a population of eleven or twelve thousand.. It possessed the Minster, six Monasteries and approximately thirty parish churches. It had an important Royal castle and a number of noblemen’s houses. The town held prosperous fairs and markets, and in it lived specialist craftsmen and many merchants, dealing in goods from all over Europe.
When King Athelstan took York in the 10th Century, his attention was drawn to a religious order known as the Culdees, who looked after the sick and aged. The King decided to grant them land and endowments, to found a hospital in York. After the Norman Conquest, this was re-endowed, rebuilt and rededicated to become St. Leonard’s, and it grew to become the largest medieval hospital in England. The ruins are still visible in part of York Museum Gardens.
By the early 14th Century, Barber Surgeons were providing medical care in York. A red and white striped pole today identifies barbers, this may have originally been a bloody bandage hung outside the shop.
There were seventeen hospitals in York by the 16th Century, four of these cared exclusively for those suffering from leprosy. Hospitals in York were run by a Master Warden and they tried to relieve the pain and suffering of the sick rather than cure them, as this was seen as interfering with the will of God.
The poll tax register in York from 1381, lists 18 Barber Surgeons and one Physician practicing. The York Company of Barber Surgeons, was a small Craft Guild consisting of three classes- these were Masters, Journeymen and Apprentices. Membership was compulsory, as was attendance at meetings and those who did not attend were fined. In 1540, the Guild was given the bodies of executed criminals. It was the duty of the Master of Anatomy, who was appointed each year, to ensure that these bodies were made available for Surgeons to practice upon.