Abstract:

By using population size and non-agricultural occupations as criteria, Euro-American scholars have classified settlements of a few hundred inhabitants as “small towns”, thereby broadening the definition of “medieval towns”. This approach has led to the assertion of a high level of urbanization in medieval England. However, this assertion neither aligns with the actual developmental level of the medieval Kingdom of England nor preserves the logical self-consistency of the “medieval town” concept. The inclusion of numerous small towns without charters and rights undermines the very definition of a medieval town, which is best understood as a collective entity of “freedoms and rights” embodied in urban charters. Urbanization was thus not merely the migration of rural population but, more critically, a process of establishing urban self-governance and enabling rural inhabitants to break free from dependency. It was precisely the endowment of charters and associated rights that allowed medieval towns to grow, transform into powerful bastions against autocratic monarchy in the early modern period, and ultimately become a direct force for social transformation.

Published on Economic and Social History Review, Issue 4, 2025.