Conclusion

Conclusion. Summing up the events of Plantagenets rule and their role in the history of England, we should mark the following. 11th - 12th centuries the first Plantagenets were the years of constitutional progress and territorial expansion.

The 13th century is described as a Plantagenet spring after a grim Norman winter. The symbol of this spring is the century of new Gothic Style. One of the best example of Gothic architecture is Salisbury Cathedral. Also it is a century of growing literacy which is closely connected with 12th century cultural movement, which is called Renaissance. In England Renaissance was a revolution in thoughts, ideas and learning, foundation of universities, the development of the Common Law and the Parliament, and emergence of English as the language of the nation.36 The 14th century brought the disasters of the Hundred Years War 1337 - 1453, the Peasants revolt 1381, the extermination of the population by the Black Death 1348 1349. Although the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 dominated the economy of the 14th century, a member of adversities had already occurred in the preceding decades.

Severe rains in 1315 and 1316 caused famine, which lead to the spread of disease.

Animal epidemic in succeeding of currency in the 1330s. Economic expansion, which had been characteristic of the 13th century, had slowed to a halt. The Black Death, possibly a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plagues, carried off from one-third to one half of the population. In some respects it took time for its effects to become detrimental to the economy, but with subsequent outbreaks, as in 1361 and 1369, the population declined further, causing a severe labor shortage.

By the 1370 wages had risen dramatically and prices of foodstuffs fallen. Hired laborers, being fewer, asked for higher wages and better food, and peasant tenants, also fewer, asked for better conditions of tenure when they took up land. Some landlords responded by trying to reassert labor services where they had been commuted. The Ordinance1349 and Statute 1351 of Laborers tried to set maximum wages at the levels of the pre-Black Death years, but strict enforcement proved impossible.

The Peasants Revolt of 1381 was one result of the social tension caused by the adjustment needed after the epidemic. Great landlords saw their revenues fall as a result of the Black Death, although probably by only about 10 percent, whereas for the lower orders of society real wages rose sharply by the last quarter of the 14th century because of low grain prices and high wages.37 Edward III ruined the major Italian banking companies in England by failing to repay loans early in the Hundred Years War. This provided opening for English Merchants, who were given monopolies of wool exports by the crown in return for their support.

The most notable was William de la Pole of Hull, whose family rose to noble status. Heavy taxation of wool exports was one reason for the growth of the cloth industry and cloth exports in the 14th century. The wine trade from Gascony was also important. In contrast to the 13th century, no new towns were founded, but London is particular continued to prosper despite the ravage of plague.

In cultural terms, a striking change in the 14th century was the increasing use of English. Although an attempt to make the use of English mandatory in the law courts failed because lawyers claimed that they could not plead accurately in the language, the vernacular began to creep into public documents and records. Henry of Lancaster even used English when he claimed the throne in 1399. Chaucer wrote in both French and English, but his important poetry is in the latter.

The early 14th century was an impressive age for manuscript illumination in England, with the so-called East Anglian school, of which the celebrated Luttrell Psalter represents a late example. In ecclesiastical architecture the development of the Perpendicular style, largely in the second half of the 14th century, was particularly notable.38