2 - The crisis of the early fourteenth century

Summary

The reign of Edward II marks one of the great turning-points of English history. Demographic historians have shown that at some point in the reign of his father Edward I (1274–1307), the population of England reached a peak of nearly six million. Since the time of his mysterious disappearance and suspected murder, in 1327, Edward II has been regarded as a weak king. His contemporaries eventually judged him to be a tyrant (and therefore, according to contemporary constitutional theory, fit to be deposed). Yet Edward II was at least as unlucky, historically speaking, as he was weak and tyrannical. His reign coincided with the rapid termination of a long period of growth and the advent of a long demographic depression.

The population of England fell rapidly, from a peak of about six million in c.1300, to a final low of two and a half to three million in c.1500. Coming as he did at the end of a long secular boom, Edward II inherited a remarkably integrated kingdom. Traffic was heavy and news spread rapidly. This country had emerged from two centuries of growth. Hundreds of market towns, all over the country, revived or sprang into new existence, linking the increasingly populous and enterprising villages of their hinterlands. Traffic steadily built up along the trunk-roads, interconnecting the provinces of England into a system increasingly centred on London and Westminster. The two centuries following Henry I's endowment of St Mary's Abbey saw Cirencester grow steadily to meet the needs of the inter-regional traffic along Akeman and Ermine Streets, the Fosseway and the White Way.