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The secrets of the past are all
around us, hidden in our streets

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and buried under our feet
and in this series

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I'll be uncovering those

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secrets as I explore
Britain's Most Historic Towns.

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I'll decipher physical clues.

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You can make out details of her
face, her ruff.

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And get to know some extraordinary

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characters who are often
over-looked.

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With the help of Ben Robinson's
eye-in-the-sky I'll discover

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which towns across the UK reveal
the most about each period

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in British history and find out how
those stories still resonate today.

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3,880.

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More and more individuals are
still dying from the plague.

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It's quiet overwhelming.

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From the adventurous Elizabethans
to the elegant Georgians,

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from medieval knights through to
the height of empire,

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I'll tell the story of an era
through the story of a single town.

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Today I'm in Britain's most
medieval town.

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A town that found itself at the
centre of an era-defining battle.

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I think I'm holding my breath.

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Where powerful merchants stylishly
challenged the status quo.

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So I'm regal? Or a merchant's wife
who is breaking rules.

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Oh, I like that.

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Home to a stunning cathedral
and an awesome castle,

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the site of one of the most decisive
battles in English history.

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If the French had won this battle,
history would have played out

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very differently. Yes,
we would have had a French monarchy.

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If you want to understand the power
and the politics, the cut

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and thrust of medieval England,
Lincoln is the place to come.

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Modern Lincoln is a picturesque
university town,

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where the medieval period
is very much still on show.

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And its 100,000 residents get used
to rubbing shoulders with

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four million tourists every year.

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It's not hard to see the draw.

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Beyond the cathedral walls,

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there's a wealth of history
woven into the very fabric

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of a beautifully preserved old town,
that perches on top of quite a hill.

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Lincolnshire is fairly flat,
so a vantage point like this,

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with clear lines of sight
for miles in every direction,

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makes Lincoln a prime location for
military strong hold and there's no

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doubt that Lincoln castle saw plenty
of action during the Middle Ages.

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I'm focusing on the Medieval Period
from the explosive Norman

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invasion in 1066 until the
catastrophic arrival

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of bubonic plague in 1348.

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Through almost three centuries,

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conflicts between the crown and the
people have reshaped England

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and laid the foundations of identity
that are still being built

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upon today. Worshippers thought
an all-powerful church held the keys

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to heaven but an evil king could
make everyday life a living hell.

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War, rebellion and stark inequality
put huge strains on the population.

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But despite the hardship, many
in England somehow thrived, until

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that lethal, cataclysmic plague
which rocked the pillars of society.

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Lincoln was witness to
so many pivotal moments during this

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pivotal period, but why was the town
established here in the first place?

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150 miles north of London

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and 70 miles to the south of York,

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it was the Romans who put Lindum,

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as they called it, on the map.

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As well as being on a main Roman
road, Lincoln was

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also bisected and connect by major
waterways that flowed from the rich

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farmland and out to the North Sea.

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After the Roman army withdrew from
Britain in the fifth century,

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Lincoln would became a Saxon town
but changed

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little until William the Conqueror's

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invading Norman army arrived in
1067.

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Recognising the strengths of the old
Roman fortress, William decided

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this would be home to one of several
huge new cathedrals across England

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that would become the lynchpins
of a new Roman Catholic Church.

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Lincoln's would be one of the
finest.

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In 1072 the Normans begin
building their cathedral on the site

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of pre-existing Anglo-Saxon church.

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It was ravaged by fire,

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almost completely demolished
by an earthquake but it kept coming

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back and you can just imagine in,
teeming with activity, labourers and

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stone masons and when they paused,
worshippers and pilgrims here.

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Lincoln Cathedral was the beating
heart of Medieval Lincoln.

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It's impossible to resist
the magnetism of a structure that

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stood as the world's tallest
building for over 200 years

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until its spire fell in the 1500s.

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Medieval expert Dr Antonella Luzzia
Scorpo wants to show me how the

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cathedral transformed Lincoln

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from a simple Anglo-Saxon
settlement.

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It is a magnificent cathedral,

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and the oldest bits of it the
origins of it are Norman? They are.

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And in this case William the first

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I think is actually suing it
to make a very clear statement

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about controlling the North. Yes.

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It's the start of Lincoln
booming as a centre, not just

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an ecclesiastical centre, a centre
of power, administration but also

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a centre of trade and commerce that
would continue actually throughout.

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A really booming medieval economy.
Indeed.

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The busy cathedral boosted footfall
to the area.

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Add to that the security
provided by a powerful

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garrison of soldiers in the castle
and it wasn't long before

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Lincoln had a bustling high street,
complete with merchants' houses.

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This is a Norman house from
the 1170s. That's lovely.

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That's Norman up there, is it?
The window is.

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It means people must've lived
on the first floor while downstairs

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would have been used for commercial
activity or transaction.

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Yeah, it's lovely that we've got

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these bits of Norman Lincoln
still there.

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It is, it is, and it's still there.

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I love the fact that they've
still got this market here

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and there's still trade going on

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that would have been here in the
Middle Ages. Yeah.

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It's brilliant. Lots of people of
Lincoln

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and the surrounding countryside
pouring into the city.

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Foreign merchants would have been

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here as well trading different
goods, different products,

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it's a place of gossip,
of sharing news, information.

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It must have been really lively,
really colourful.

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Think about the languages,

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the sounds, the colours as you say,
the textures as well.

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There are a loads of tourists here
and there would have been lots

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of people coming from further afield
centuries ago.

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Already with the Normans, I mean,
coming over and that brings

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a lot of different communities,

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we know the Jewish community,
for example, massively increased

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and the market place really was a

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place where you could see a lot of
them.

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Lincoln's markets really flourished
from the late 11th century

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with people coming from right across
Northern Europe to trade crafts

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and goods. And the locals here
played to their strengths using

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the surrounding fertile grazing
lands to produce

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much sought-after sheep's wool.

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And the producers of the wool.
Are these your sheep?

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These are my sheep, yeah.

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They'll be clipped some time
around earlyjune, we'll package it

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all up, roll it up and we'll
be selling it.

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They'll be about 2.5 kilos
of wool from that sheep.

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My sheep actually graze around an
abbey that was built upon

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the wool trade initially. Really?

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Yeah. Oh, yeah, there's a few round
the area.

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Indeed, and obviously wool was
one the main products that was

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exported by Lincoln, a key
centre of trade internationally.

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Space hungry sheep and their produce
were crucial to Lincoln's

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medieval economy and the Norman's
recognised the need to grease

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the wheels of commerce with
advances in infrastructure.

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Aerial archaeologist Ben Robinson is
using his eye-in-the-sky to get

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a better look at the transport links
that helped Lincoln prosper.

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Lincoln was developing
into a thriving economic hub with

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cash pouring into the city,
filling up the coffers of not

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only its increasingly rich merchants
but also, the crown.

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To get his cut, the king needed
a local tax office.

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Lincoln Guildhall stands on the site
of the medieval town's

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administrative centre. Many
merchants,

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traders and kings would have passed
under the archway here,

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but it's the ancient documents,
which are now held above it,

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that dictated how costly or
profitable their visit would be.

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Oh, you've got these lovely
documents out.

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Aren't they beautiful?
They're amazing.

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The mayor's officer Richard Storey
has retrieved

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some of the town's most historic
archive from under lock and key.

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Thank you for getting these
documents out for me

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to have a look at such close quarter
as well, this is fantastic.

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Is that oldest document you've
got here in Lincoln?

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The oldest one that survives, yes.
When does that date to?

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That dates to 1157.

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That's Henry II. It confirms
previous privileges as far

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back as Edward the Confessor which
compels all the merchants

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of the county of Lincolnshire
to come to the city of Lincoln

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to trade so if you want to conduct

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your business you have to come to
Lincoln to do that.

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You've got to come here?
You've got to come here.

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It increases the revenue in the
city, there by increases

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the revenue to the crown.

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The city paid the king directly for
the monopoly on trade in the area.

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This was always a flat rate of tax
regardless of profits,

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a privilege granted only to the
most important trading

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and financial centres in England.

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So we pay £180 at this stage to the
crown to hold the city

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of the king in chief, we account for
our own revenue at the Exchequer.

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Anything we make over and above

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£180 is for the purse of the city,
the common purse.

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And was Lincoln making money over
and above that rent? Yes.

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Substantially we believe, yes.

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But there's no doubt
the money from the additional purse

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did go to make the ruling elite even

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wealthier than they had been for
years.

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The peasants weren't doing
very well. No, not really.

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These ancient documents,

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and subsequent Royal charters laid
the foundations upon which

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Lincoln's elite built their most
profitable trade.

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So throughout this period, how
important is wool?

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Is it kind of the primary trade?

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It does start to develop,
certainly after 1262

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when a man called john de Blighton,
in about 1307 he exported

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the equivalent of 33,000 kilos
of wool through the city of Lincoln.

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That sounds fairly impressive to me.
It's hugely impressive.

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The crown's trust in Lincoln is
obvious from the impressive

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relics here at the Guildhall.

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By the time King Richard <i>ll</i> gifted
this sword to the mayor

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the senior townsmen reaping were
healthy profits.

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And as Lincoln's wool trade grew,
so did the traffic to the city,

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demanding improvements in the road
network serving the town.

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We're just coming up the river to
this very beautiful bridge.

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00:13:31,975 --> 00:13:35,639
Is that medieval? It is, 1160 the
high bridge was built.

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The River Witham runs right through
town and joins the Fosse Dyke

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00:13:41,335 --> 00:13:43,030
canal at Brayford pool.

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This bridge replaced an archaic
ford, propelling the city towards

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a more permanent, prosperous future.

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It was as important as the water
networks to one extent.

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So those people that didn't have
goods to move them via boat

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along the river, could still
bring them in and access the

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00:14:00,135 --> 00:14:02,110
city markets and commerce could
continue.

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00:14:02,135 --> 00:14:05,719
And building bridges like this,
that's part of reinvesting

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that wealth coming to the city.
Absolutely.

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00:14:08,465 --> 00:14:12,440
I think I'm holding my breath.
SHE LAUGHS

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With its farmland, transport
networks

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and thriving commercial hub,

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Lincoln in the 12th century was
a key player in England's economy

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and was poised to become one of the
nation's five most populous towns.

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00:14:28,025 --> 00:14:32,000
But then King John arrived
on the throne - greedy, rapacious,

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00:14:32,025 --> 00:14:36,599
not the best liked of kings and
trouble was brewing on the horizon.

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I'm in Lincoln, exploring
the advances that revamped

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medieval England in the 11th
to 14th centuries.

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A wool-fuelled economic boom
placed this cathedral town

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00:14:58,275 --> 00:15:03,920
firmly within the crown's favour,
but the good times weren't to last.

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Relations between Norman kings
and the wealthy barons,

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who actually controlled
places like Lincoln,

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had always been strained, but
outright conflict had been avoided.

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When Richard the Lionheart
died in 1199

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the barons accepted his brother
as king.

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It was a decision
they would come to regret.

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A hapless military leader, early
in his reign John lost Normandy -

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00:15:38,205 --> 00:15:41,359
and its huge revenues -
to the King of France.

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00:15:43,675 --> 00:15:46,000
To try to compensate
he waged expensive

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00:15:46,025 --> 00:15:50,650
and largely unsuccessful campaigns
in Ireland and Wales, mercilessly

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taxing his barons, making ever more
enemies along the way.

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In 1208, John managed to fall out
with the Pope,

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over who should be
Archbishop of Canterbury,

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00:16:03,795 --> 00:16:06,460
and the result was
a papal interdict.

233
00:16:06,485 --> 00:16:08,770
This was a colossal price to pay.

234
00:16:08,795 --> 00:16:12,010
Religion was so important
in people's lives and this

235
00:16:12,035 --> 00:16:16,539
interdict meant that people couldn't
be buried in consecrated ground.

236
00:16:16,564 --> 00:16:21,130
John had effectively
locked his subjects out of heaven.

237
00:16:21,155 --> 00:16:25,539
Matthew Paris, the chronicler of St
Albans, gives us a bit of an insight

238
00:16:25,564 --> 00:16:28,340
into just how unpopular
John had become.

239
00:16:28,365 --> 00:16:31,489
He wrote, "Foul as it is,

240
00:16:31,514 --> 00:16:36,539
"Hell itself is defiled by the
foulness of john."

241
00:16:38,514 --> 00:16:41,130
Within five years
his dominance had faltered.

242
00:16:41,155 --> 00:16:44,340
King John was forced to
agree to Magna Carta,

243
00:16:44,365 --> 00:16:48,340
limiting the power of the crown for
the first time in English history,

244
00:16:48,365 --> 00:16:52,340
guaranteeing many rights
to his angry barons.

245
00:16:52,365 --> 00:16:56,730
For a while it seemed like things
would proceed on an even keel.

246
00:16:56,755 --> 00:17:00,489
But then he started to flout
the terms of the Magna Carta

247
00:17:00,514 --> 00:17:04,419
and the political situation
became dangerously unstable.

248
00:17:04,444 --> 00:17:08,060
John's rebel barons turned to
France's Prince Louis to

249
00:17:08,085 --> 00:17:10,130
challenge the English throne,

250
00:17:10,155 --> 00:17:14,090
and key parts of the country
soon became war zones.

251
00:17:14,115 --> 00:17:17,730
By 1217, huge swathes of England
lay in rebel hands

252
00:17:17,755 --> 00:17:22,260
and things were looking bleak for
the future of the Norman dynasty.

253
00:17:22,285 --> 00:17:25,650
Professor Louise Wilkinson
has studied this critical moment

254
00:17:25,675 --> 00:17:30,210
and how the fate of England would
come to be decided at Lincoln.

255
00:17:30,235 --> 00:17:33,700
So what was Lincoln's role in this?
What was the official position here?

256
00:17:33,725 --> 00:17:35,260
Are they supporting John

257
00:17:35,285 --> 00:17:38,010
or supporting the French claim
to the throne?

258
00:17:38,035 --> 00:17:42,820
Within the castle they were very,
very firmly royalist, but in the

259
00:17:42,845 --> 00:17:45,980
city, I think they were definitely
more sympathetic towards the rebels.

260
00:17:46,005 --> 00:17:47,730
But who was in charge here
at the castle?

261
00:17:47,755 --> 00:17:50,369
Here at the castle there was
a brilliant noble woman,

262
00:17:50,394 --> 00:17:53,010
then in her sixties,
called Nicola de la Haye.

263
00:17:53,035 --> 00:17:56,419
She governed the royal castle
on behalf of the king... Right.

264
00:17:56,444 --> 00:17:58,730
...and she presided over the prison,

265
00:17:58,755 --> 00:18:01,780
over the life of the castle
and its garrison... Yeah.

266
00:18:01,805 --> 00:18:05,010
...so she was the leading
royal figure in the locality.

267
00:18:05,035 --> 00:18:07,369
She sounds like
an extraordinary woman.

268
00:18:07,394 --> 00:18:10,700
Yeah, I think Nicola really was an
iron lady of her day.

269
00:18:10,725 --> 00:18:15,090
When the rebels occupied the city
early in 1217,

270
00:18:15,115 --> 00:18:17,419
when Prince Louis came and visited
in February,

271
00:18:17,444 --> 00:18:19,369
she held the garrison very loyally.

272
00:18:19,394 --> 00:18:20,900
Oh, my goodness. So he's here?

273
00:18:20,925 --> 00:18:22,220
So he's herembriefly.

274
00:18:22,245 --> 00:18:25,060
Presumably expecting
to take the castle, to...

275
00:18:25,085 --> 00:18:26,900
I think he was very opti...
..Take the north.

276
00:18:26,925 --> 00:18:29,549
Hoping to take the castle, being
the operative word. He didn't.

277
00:18:29,574 --> 00:18:32,830
But she's kind of holed up in here,
and there are, if not French forces,

278
00:18:32,855 --> 00:18:35,220
then French sympathisers
out there in the town.

279
00:18:35,245 --> 00:18:37,940
Yeah, a whole sea of danger
just out in the town,

280
00:18:37,965 --> 00:18:42,700
so it must have been really
incredibly stressful for her. Yeah.

281
00:18:42,725 --> 00:18:47,090
Outnumbered more than three to one,
Nicola de la Haye

282
00:18:47,115 --> 00:18:49,980
and her besieged forces
were almost defeated.

283
00:18:51,574 --> 00:18:54,940
This battle for Lincoln
was the last throw of the dice

284
00:18:54,965 --> 00:18:58,660
and the royalists were
depending on a 70-year-old knight,

285
00:18:58,685 --> 00:19:01,940
William Marshal, and his scratch
army approaching from the west.

286
00:19:03,324 --> 00:19:06,860
Ben Robinson is poised to show us
the field of battle and demonstrate

287
00:19:06,885 --> 00:19:11,980
William Marshal's strategy as it
played out on the 20 May 1217.

288
00:20:25,765 --> 00:20:28,910
So it all comes to a climax here
just outside the castle?

289
00:20:28,935 --> 00:20:32,660
It does. The royalists pushed out
towards the cathedral

290
00:20:32,685 --> 00:20:36,429
and there was dramatic hand-to-hand
fighting in the city streets.

291
00:20:36,454 --> 00:20:40,270
In the meantime, the crossbow men
were raining down their bolts

292
00:20:40,295 --> 00:20:43,940
on the rebel barons and the knights
below them. It was brutal.

293
00:20:43,965 --> 00:20:46,580
CROWD SHOUTING

294
00:20:50,895 --> 00:20:53,190
So what happens at the end?

295
00:20:53,215 --> 00:20:56,460
By the middle of the afternoon
on the day of the battle

296
00:20:56,485 --> 00:20:58,460
the French just turned and ran.

297
00:20:58,485 --> 00:21:01,740
And they referred to the battle
actually as the Fair of Lincoln,

298
00:21:01,765 --> 00:21:05,020
really largely just to taunt Louis
and the French

299
00:21:05,045 --> 00:21:07,429
for losing such a dramatic battle.

300
00:21:07,454 --> 00:21:10,070
If the French had won this battle,
history would have played out

301
00:21:10,095 --> 00:21:11,379
very differently.

302
00:21:11,404 --> 00:21:14,790
Yes, we would have had a French
monarchy, so really it's probably

303
00:21:14,815 --> 00:21:18,429
the second most important battle
in English history after Hastings.

304
00:21:20,485 --> 00:21:22,820
The weapon that had
tipped the battle

305
00:21:22,845 --> 00:21:25,710
in Nicola de la Haye's favour
was the crossbow.

306
00:21:28,485 --> 00:21:32,270
Expert medieval armourer Tod
Todeschini is showing me

307
00:21:32,295 --> 00:21:36,179
just why the royalist crossbowmen,
with their weapons of choice,

308
00:21:36,204 --> 00:21:38,429
were so lethally effective.

309
00:21:42,485 --> 00:21:43,590
Hi.

310
00:21:43,615 --> 00:21:45,270
Hi, how are you doing? Hello.

311
00:21:45,295 --> 00:21:46,870
That's a crossbow.
SHE LAUGHS

312
00:21:46,895 --> 00:21:48,590
That is a crossbow.

313
00:21:48,615 --> 00:21:51,280
I recognise that, and that looks
more like an ordinary longbow.

314
00:21:51,305 --> 00:21:53,820
You know, we think of the English
always using the longbow

315
00:21:53,845 --> 00:21:56,230
but that's not at all the case
so sieges particularly,

316
00:21:56,255 --> 00:21:57,990
crossbows were very well-suited.

317
00:21:58,015 --> 00:22:00,559
What were the advantages of a
crossbow compared with a longbow?

318
00:22:00,584 --> 00:22:02,309
We've got a crenulation here.

319
00:22:02,334 --> 00:22:05,870
With the crossbow, you can shoot
from here, so you're well covered.

320
00:22:05,895 --> 00:22:08,350
What I can also do,
and I can't do with the longbow,

321
00:22:08,375 --> 00:22:11,670
is I can get right out
and I can shoot here.

322
00:22:11,695 --> 00:22:14,030
But also, I can shoot down, and
I can shoot left,

323
00:22:14,055 --> 00:22:15,590
and I can shoot right.

324
00:22:15,615 --> 00:22:18,670
When I'm shooting this one,
I have to shoot from back here

325
00:22:18,695 --> 00:22:21,710
because what I can't have,
is I can't have the bow ends

326
00:22:21,735 --> 00:22:24,070
hitting the wall
or anything like that.

327
00:22:24,095 --> 00:22:27,460
It's great for an open field, where
you've got all the room you need,

328
00:22:27,485 --> 00:22:30,590
but where you're tight,
it just doesn't work.

329
00:22:30,615 --> 00:22:33,950
Crossbows may have
been around for centuries,

330
00:22:33,975 --> 00:22:36,950
but it was the streamlined
version of the 11th century...

331
00:22:36,975 --> 00:22:38,179
Whoa!

332
00:22:38,204 --> 00:22:42,030
...that allowed the royalists to
defend Lincoln Castle.

333
00:22:45,204 --> 00:22:47,559
Under Tod's expert guidance,
I'm going to see

334
00:22:47,584 --> 00:22:50,950
if I've got what it takes to be
a medieval sharpshooter.

335
00:22:52,815 --> 00:22:54,429
0h!

336
00:22:54,454 --> 00:22:56,790
Aim it down, because you're quite
high at the moment.

337
00:22:57,895 --> 00:23:00,189
So, aim it down, a little bit more,
a little bit more,

338
00:23:00,214 --> 00:23:01,030
a little bit more.

339
00:23:09,745 --> 00:23:11,280
Put your left arm down.

340
00:23:14,925 --> 00:23:16,720
Whoa!
SHE LAUGHS

341
00:23:16,745 --> 00:23:20,030
Unlucky. The melon survives!
The melon survived another day.

342
00:23:20,055 --> 00:23:22,360
I think I'd need a bit more training

343
00:23:22,385 --> 00:23:25,080
before I was able to defend
a medieval castle.

344
00:23:25,105 --> 00:23:28,110
Yes, but actually don't forget,
look at that.

345
00:23:28,135 --> 00:23:31,000
I mean, all of those would fit
within the torso of a person.

346
00:23:31,025 --> 00:23:33,309
S0, yes, you might not have
got their heart,

347
00:23:33,334 --> 00:23:35,639
but they're not having a good day.

348
00:23:35,664 --> 00:23:39,000
The Battle of Lincoln turned
around the fortunes of Marshal,

349
00:23:39,025 --> 00:23:42,920
De la Haye and the royalists.
With King John now dead,

350
00:23:42,945 --> 00:23:45,309
and his nine-year-old son
on the throne,

351
00:23:45,334 --> 00:23:47,639
there was hope for a second chance

352
00:23:47,664 --> 00:23:51,189
at the Magna Carta's
steadying powers.

353
00:23:51,214 --> 00:23:54,439
But while the powerful men
of England found new confidence,

354
00:23:54,464 --> 00:23:56,800
it was the common people
that continued

355
00:23:56,825 --> 00:24:02,189
to suffer from neglect and, for one
minority, devastating demonisation.

356
00:24:11,414 --> 00:24:13,100
I'm in Lincoln

357
00:24:13,125 --> 00:24:16,389
discovering how some aspects of
medieval life in England

358
00:24:16,414 --> 00:24:19,670
still resonate today.

359
00:24:19,695 --> 00:24:23,670
This vibrant cathedral town had
become a flourishing centre of trade

360
00:24:23,695 --> 00:24:28,720
and commerce, lining the pockets
of the crown and local merchants.

361
00:24:28,745 --> 00:24:33,509
New buildings, bridges and waterways
ensured that even more wealth

362
00:24:33,534 --> 00:24:36,670
was flowing through the urban
community.

363
00:24:36,695 --> 00:24:40,230
But outside the city walls, for most
people,

364
00:24:40,255 --> 00:24:43,670
simply surviving was still a
struggle.

365
00:24:43,695 --> 00:24:46,309
Ben is looking at the evidence
of what life was like

366
00:24:46,334 --> 00:24:50,620
for the rural population out in the
countryside around medieval Lincoln.

367
00:24:53,645 --> 00:24:56,110
Now, at ground level, it's a little
bit difficult

368
00:24:56,135 --> 00:24:59,439
to make out what's going on.
But from above,

369
00:24:59,464 --> 00:25:03,980
all these shapes, patterns start to
make sense

370
00:25:04,005 --> 00:25:06,309
and this is absolutely thrilling

371
00:25:06,334 --> 00:25:12,259
because I can see the layout of an
entire lost medieval village.

372
00:25:12,284 --> 00:25:14,590
I can see individual streets here,

373
00:25:14,615 --> 00:25:17,720
these slightly sunken areas with
raised banks on either side

374
00:25:17,745 --> 00:25:20,750
and you can really pick out the plan
of the village.

375
00:25:20,775 --> 00:25:25,670
And the cottages would have had
animals in the back yard.

376
00:25:25,695 --> 00:25:29,620
You've got barns, so obviously
they were farming the land.

377
00:25:29,645 --> 00:25:33,340
Those little circles,
these are probably dovecots.

378
00:25:33,365 --> 00:25:36,910
In order to keep doves or pigeons
for their eggs and their meat

379
00:25:36,935 --> 00:25:38,439
you had to have a licence,

380
00:25:38,464 --> 00:25:41,230
so the only people that would get
license were the lords of the manor.

381
00:25:41,255 --> 00:25:43,589
So if I've got a couple
of dovecots in there,

382
00:25:43,614 --> 00:25:47,228
I've probably found the site of the
manor house.

383
00:25:47,253 --> 00:25:51,039
I think the fact of the matter for a
lot of these deserted settlements

384
00:25:51,064 --> 00:25:53,348
was a combination of things.

385
00:25:53,373 --> 00:25:56,199
A combination of environmental
factors,

386
00:25:56,224 --> 00:25:59,589
economic factors that
just conspired against them.

387
00:25:59,614 --> 00:26:02,789
And then you've got landlords
turning vast areas

388
00:26:02,814 --> 00:26:04,348
over to sheep farming,

389
00:26:04,373 --> 00:26:07,429
you've got deteriorating weather
conditions,

390
00:26:07,454 --> 00:26:09,119
wet summers, wet winters -

391
00:26:09,144 --> 00:26:12,478
you can't grow much so people are
literally starving.

392
00:26:12,503 --> 00:26:16,429
Put all this together and you got
formerly thriving communities

393
00:26:16,454 --> 00:26:18,119
just disappearing,

394
00:26:18,144 --> 00:26:21,119
not necessarily overnight
but over a period of time.

395
00:26:24,454 --> 00:26:27,919
Whether it was ruined harvests
or rebel barons,

396
00:26:27,944 --> 00:26:31,869
in 1217 the King of England had
a lot on his plate.

397
00:26:31,894 --> 00:26:35,199
The fact that he was nine years
old, hardly helped.

398
00:26:35,224 --> 00:26:38,989
But his guardians, the knight
William Marshal among them,

399
00:26:39,014 --> 00:26:43,398
knew what to do
to calm the population down.

400
00:26:43,423 --> 00:26:49,199
Sealed inside the castle is
Lincoln's own Magna Carta.

401
00:26:49,224 --> 00:26:51,869
Now, john, and in fact,
the barons,

402
00:26:51,894 --> 00:26:54,949
would go on to renege on the terms
of that charter,

403
00:26:54,974 --> 00:27:00,429
so it was edited and reissued under
the boy king, Henry Ill.

404
00:27:00,454 --> 00:27:03,639
But alongside the Magna Carta,

405
00:27:03,664 --> 00:27:08,069
Henry Ill issued this document, this
charter

406
00:27:08,094 --> 00:27:12,069
and I think it deserves much more
recognition than it usually gets.

407
00:27:12,094 --> 00:27:15,719
This is the Charter of the Forest.

408
00:27:17,864 --> 00:27:20,389
It's essentially a piece
of legislation

409
00:27:20,414 --> 00:27:24,199
that would have a huge impact on the
lives of ordinary people,

410
00:27:24,224 --> 00:27:28,919
that enormous section of society
that led a hand to mouth existence

411
00:27:28,944 --> 00:27:34,278
and could easily find themselves
starving after a poor harvest.

412
00:27:34,303 --> 00:27:37,999
While just out of grasp, in the
vast Royal Forests,

413
00:27:38,024 --> 00:27:42,589
lay a potentially life-saving
source of food and fuel.

414
00:27:45,744 --> 00:27:48,639
I've met up with Dr Claire Kennan in
the ancient woodland

415
00:27:48,664 --> 00:27:50,949
of Lincolnshire's Doddington Hall

416
00:27:50,974 --> 00:27:54,408
to discover why the Charter of the
Forest was necessary.

417
00:27:55,664 --> 00:27:59,358
William the Conqueror makes large
areas of the country royal forest

418
00:27:59,383 --> 00:28:01,669
and then by the time we get to King
John's reign,

419
00:28:01,694 --> 00:28:03,309
a third of England is royal forest.

420
00:28:03,334 --> 00:28:06,228
So this disquiet had been brewing
for a couple of hundred years, then?

421
00:28:06,253 --> 00:28:07,669
For a long time. Yeah. Yeah.

422
00:28:08,974 --> 00:28:13,028
The royals essentially locked out
the common people from forest lands

423
00:28:13,053 --> 00:28:16,389
and the rich natural bounty that was
found there.

424
00:28:16,414 --> 00:28:19,238
Grazing pastures, wild game

425
00:28:19,263 --> 00:28:22,389
and forest fruits were
strictly out of bounds.

426
00:28:24,383 --> 00:28:27,919
Previously, there were really hard
penalties in place

427
00:28:27,944 --> 00:28:30,278
for things such as felling trees for
firewood.

428
00:28:30,303 --> 00:28:32,639
If you were caught poaching a bore
or a deer

429
00:28:32,664 --> 00:28:35,799
you could be mutilated, blinded or
even executed.

430
00:28:35,824 --> 00:28:40,199
The foresters, as well, would often
fine entire villages

431
00:28:40,224 --> 00:28:42,559
if perpetrators couldn't be
found. Really?

432
00:28:42,584 --> 00:28:44,488
So they were really severe
penalties.

433
00:28:44,513 --> 00:28:46,849
But under the Charter of the Forest,

434
00:28:46,874 --> 00:28:49,599
a lot of these restrictive rules and
regulations are removed.

435
00:28:49,624 --> 00:28:52,209
It must have made a massive
difference to people

436
00:28:52,234 --> 00:28:55,488
just being able to use land. It
freed them up to...

437
00:28:55,513 --> 00:28:58,519
I mean, to do this. Yeah, exactly.
Chop down trees, make a fire.

438
00:28:58,544 --> 00:29:00,488
Forage for ingredients for soup.
Definitely.

439
00:29:00,513 --> 00:29:02,799
I did not forage for these
ingredients. No.

440
00:29:02,824 --> 00:29:04,079
Somebody else foraged for them.

441
00:29:04,104 --> 00:29:05,769
In the supermarket, I imagine.

442
00:29:06,984 --> 00:29:09,679
While the Magna Carta has hogged
the limelight,

443
00:29:09,704 --> 00:29:12,028
the lesser known Charter of the
Forest

444
00:29:12,053 --> 00:29:15,569
was arguably more important for
ordinary people.

445
00:29:15,594 --> 00:29:18,288
Landowner at Doddington Hall,
Claire Birch,

446
00:29:18,313 --> 00:29:23,389
honours her duty to provide public
access to the ancient woodlands.

447
00:29:23,414 --> 00:29:24,929
I think it's incredibly important.

448
00:29:24,954 --> 00:29:26,679
There's a lot of research, isn't
there,

449
00:29:26,704 --> 00:29:29,649
about how access to the
countryside and to nature

450
00:29:29,674 --> 00:29:32,358
is so important for mental and
physical health,

451
00:29:32,383 --> 00:29:34,769
and you know as landowners, we've
got a huge asset here,

452
00:29:34,794 --> 00:29:38,488
it's a massive opportunity
to do stuff along those lines.

453
00:29:38,513 --> 00:29:41,649
What sort of things do people come
and do in the woodland here?

454
00:29:41,674 --> 00:29:46,038
We have lots of people who walk and
they come and pick blackberries,

455
00:29:46,063 --> 00:29:49,929
and more recently we tarmacked over
a big farm track

456
00:29:49,954 --> 00:29:53,488
and it actually joins the village to
the Sustrans Cycle Route.

457
00:29:53,513 --> 00:29:56,129
So you basically get the whole way
in to Lincoln

458
00:29:56,154 --> 00:29:59,679
without having to be anywhere
near cars.

459
00:30:03,104 --> 00:30:06,488
I'm sure that many people's lives in
medieval England

460
00:30:06,513 --> 00:30:08,799
were absolutely miserable.

461
00:30:08,824 --> 00:30:10,759
But this Charter of the Forest
meant that,

462
00:30:10,784 --> 00:30:13,488
for some of the common people,

463
00:30:13,513 --> 00:30:16,729
their lives were set to improve
somewhat.

464
00:30:16,754 --> 00:30:20,238
But there was a section of society
in medieval Lincoln

465
00:30:20,263 --> 00:30:22,799
that was absolutely thriving

466
00:30:22,824 --> 00:30:24,519
and that was the Jewish community.

467
00:30:26,393 --> 00:30:30,158
A small number of Jewish people
arrived in England with the Normans

468
00:30:30,183 --> 00:30:33,569
from Northern France in the later
11th century.

469
00:30:33,594 --> 00:30:36,649
One of the most successfuljewish
communities

470
00:30:36,674 --> 00:30:41,038
was established here in Lincoln,
second in importance only to London.

471
00:30:41,063 --> 00:30:43,569
And Professor Anthony Bale is
showing me

472
00:30:43,594 --> 00:30:46,599
why this community flourished here.

473
00:30:49,114 --> 00:30:51,809
It is.

474
00:30:56,674 --> 00:30:59,209
Yeah.

475
00:31:04,114 --> 00:31:07,399
I mean, this must have been very
high value property,

476
00:31:07,424 --> 00:31:09,729
we're right...we're very close to
the cathedral,

477
00:31:09,754 --> 00:31:10,809
we can hear the bells clearly.

478
00:31:27,554 --> 00:31:29,498
The building of Norman England,

479
00:31:29,523 --> 00:31:31,479
including Lincoln's own cathedral,

480
00:31:31,504 --> 00:31:35,319
had in part been bank rolled
by Jewish financiers.

481
00:31:35,344 --> 00:31:39,248
While Christians were forbidden
from money lending for profit,

482
00:31:39,273 --> 00:31:42,859
Jews were not. In return, The
Crown's protection

483
00:31:42,884 --> 00:31:46,679
allowed a lively Jewish community to
become well established

484
00:31:46,704 --> 00:31:50,248
and largely integrated here by the
mid-12th century.

485
00:31:52,634 --> 00:31:54,329
That's a beautiful building.

486
00:31:57,994 --> 00:32:00,859
And what about what the Jews were
doing here?

487
00:32:00,884 --> 00:32:04,118
Was there a specific trade or
a specific function in society

488
00:32:04,143 --> 00:32:05,579
that they were performing?

489
00:32:31,504 --> 00:32:34,298
It's almost like they're
sort of permitted to exist

490
00:32:34,323 --> 00:32:38,019
in a largely Christian society
but with very strict rules.

491
00:32:56,684 --> 00:32:59,329
Following strong anti-Jewish
guidance from the Pope

492
00:32:59,354 --> 00:33:01,378
in the early 1200s,

493
00:33:01,403 --> 00:33:05,409
the English crown started relying
more on alternative funds,

494
00:33:05,434 --> 00:33:07,128
reducing their protection of the
Jews

495
00:33:07,153 --> 00:33:09,849
and imposing hefty taxes upon them.

496
00:33:11,474 --> 00:33:14,099
Forced into claiming back the money
they had lent,

497
00:33:14,124 --> 00:33:16,529
the Jews of Medieval England were
ostracised

498
00:33:16,554 --> 00:33:21,298
and became desperately unpopular
amongst a largely Christian society.

499
00:33:24,634 --> 00:33:29,219
The disharmony in Lincoln came to a
head in 1255

500
00:33:29,244 --> 00:33:32,329
When the body of an eight-year-old
boy was said to have been found

501
00:33:32,354 --> 00:33:34,128
in a well near the town,

502
00:33:34,153 --> 00:33:38,769
it was the Jewish community that
was accused of his murder.

503
00:33:38,794 --> 00:33:42,248
His remains were supposedly entombed
in the cathedral

504
00:33:42,273 --> 00:33:44,889
in a shrine that once stood here.

505
00:33:58,604 --> 00:34:01,209
And was there any evidence it was
the Jews

506
00:34:01,234 --> 00:34:02,739
that had killed this little boy?

507
00:34:20,964 --> 00:34:22,459
Yeah.

508
00:34:27,484 --> 00:34:29,378
The death of a child is
a terrible thing...

509
00:34:29,403 --> 00:34:31,378
...but then what it turns in to...

510
00:34:31,403 --> 00:34:34,178
...is persecution of the Jewish
community.

511
00:34:53,364 --> 00:34:56,099
Yeah.

512
00:35:00,684 --> 00:35:03,979
Yeah. And that echoes down the
centuries.

513
00:35:04,004 --> 00:35:06,619
After becoming entirely
marginalised,

514
00:35:06,644 --> 00:35:11,659
the Jews were ultimately expelled
from England in 1290,

515
00:35:11,684 --> 00:35:14,849
not to return for over 350 years.

516
00:35:16,644 --> 00:35:19,699
I find this story of Little Hugh
so distressing.

517
00:35:19,724 --> 00:35:22,378
It seems dreadfully familiar,

518
00:35:22,403 --> 00:35:27,099
this idea of a community being
scapegoated for a crime,

519
00:35:27,124 --> 00:35:30,258
a minority being persecuted.

520
00:35:30,283 --> 00:35:31,739
It rattles down the centuries,

521
00:35:31,764 --> 00:35:36,308
The Holocaust of the 20th century
has extremely deep roots.

522
00:35:36,333 --> 00:35:40,669
Jews being marked out, being made
to wear...

523
00:35:40,694 --> 00:35:42,128
...yellow stars.

524
00:35:44,444 --> 00:35:48,388
And I think we still see
some of that today,

525
00:35:48,413 --> 00:35:52,739
we see minorities being othered,

526
00:35:52,764 --> 00:35:58,029
being persecuted in apparently
enlightened, developed countries.

527
00:35:58,054 --> 00:36:00,499
It is medieval.

528
00:36:04,163 --> 00:36:07,859
Today, the city's cathedral welcomes
all faiths and none,

529
00:36:07,884 --> 00:36:10,619
to commemorate it's medieval
heritage,

530
00:36:10,644 --> 00:36:15,949
to be uplifted by its architectural
grandeur and aesthetic pleasure.

531
00:36:19,083 --> 00:36:23,469
But in the 1348, the faith of
Lincoln's medieval congregation

532
00:36:23,494 --> 00:36:27,819
would be sorely tested by the
arrival of a disease

533
00:36:27,844 --> 00:36:30,419
that ripped through the population

534
00:36:30,444 --> 00:36:32,979
and shocked society to its core.

535
00:36:43,434 --> 00:36:48,209
I'm in Lincoln where I'm immersing
myself in the Middle Ages.

536
00:36:48,234 --> 00:36:52,819
Looking at architecture and economy,
politics and prejudice.

537
00:36:52,844 --> 00:36:56,739
I've seen how power struggles
between medieval England's

538
00:36:56,764 --> 00:37:01,128
elite sowed the seeds of democracy
but did little to reduce vast

539
00:37:01,153 --> 00:37:04,339
inequality between the social
classes, In the eyes

540
00:37:04,364 --> 00:37:08,258
of the church all people were
subjects of a greater power,

541
00:37:08,283 --> 00:37:11,569
a message that needed to be
constantly reinforced,

542
00:37:11,594 --> 00:37:16,369
and nowhere were these mind games
more evident than in Lincoln's

543
00:37:16,394 --> 00:37:18,369
magnificent cathedral.

544
00:37:18,394 --> 00:37:22,769
This architecture is designed to be
awesome, to give you a real

545
00:37:22,794 --> 00:37:25,128
sense of the sublime and a sense
of being a small part

546
00:37:25,153 --> 00:37:28,699
of something much, much bigger,

547
00:37:28,724 --> 00:37:34,008
but there are also some tiny
intricate details to be found here.

548
00:37:34,033 --> 00:37:36,699
Hidden messages amongst
the stone masonry.

549
00:37:44,484 --> 00:37:47,779
There's some really,
really curious images.

550
00:37:47,804 --> 00:37:51,058
There's a man's face up
there, his hands are curling over

551
00:37:51,083 --> 00:37:54,619
the parapet
and his hair is flowing back as

552
00:37:54,644 --> 00:37:56,289
though it were a lion's mane.

553
00:37:57,884 --> 00:38:02,928
I like this jovial fellow with his
cap and his prodigious sideburns.

554
00:38:02,953 --> 00:38:05,499
I wonder if he's one of the
stone masons.

555
00:38:05,524 --> 00:38:07,979
This one is really weird.
Look at that.

556
00:38:08,004 --> 00:38:12,369
A woman playing the fiddle but
she has the hind quarters of a cow

557
00:38:12,394 --> 00:38:17,469
and a then there is a man
behind her, he has wings.

558
00:38:17,494 --> 00:38:19,979
You think he might be an angel,
but look at his body.

559
00:38:20,004 --> 00:38:23,339
It's covered with lizard-like
scales.

560
00:38:23,364 --> 00:38:26,729
This is the kind of medieval
imagination gone wild.

561
00:38:28,244 --> 00:38:31,729
For the church to remain all
powerful in a time of deep

562
00:38:31,754 --> 00:38:35,539
superstition, notions
of the afterlife, whether heaven or

563
00:38:35,564 --> 00:38:39,008
hell, had to be omnipresent.

564
00:38:39,033 --> 00:38:41,649
For a largely illiterate
congregation,

565
00:38:41,674 --> 00:38:46,579
imagery like this was worth far more
than a thousand words.

566
00:38:46,604 --> 00:38:51,188
Art has the potential to let us in
to the medieval mind so I'm headed

567
00:38:51,213 --> 00:38:56,579
to the cathedral library to look at
a very special 700-year-old book.

568
00:38:56,604 --> 00:39:00,979
Commissioned by wealthy landowner
Sir Geoffrey Luttrell,

569
00:39:01,004 --> 00:39:03,659
this celebrated manuscript
favourably depicts everyday

570
00:39:03,684 --> 00:39:06,699
life in 14th century Lincolnshire.

571
00:39:06,724 --> 00:39:10,729
It contains 150 Psalms
of the Old Testament

572
00:39:10,754 --> 00:39:17,188
but presented in this kind of
mind-bending framework of images.

573
00:39:17,213 --> 00:39:21,579
Medieval Art Historian
Professor Alixe Bovey is helping me

574
00:39:21,604 --> 00:39:25,339
decipher the images in this
beautiful facsimile of the book.

575
00:39:25,364 --> 00:39:27,379
This lady who's been spinning

576
00:39:27,404 --> 00:39:30,499
and she's interrupted her activity
to go out and feed her chickens.

577
00:39:30,524 --> 00:39:34,089
So that's looks quite normal,
like a normal domestic scene

578
00:39:34,114 --> 00:39:36,469
and then you have a fish with a
man's head with a beard.

579
00:39:36,494 --> 00:39:39,549
Right, and these kind of jarring
pivots between every day life

580
00:39:39,574 --> 00:39:42,099
and natural world. And then, yeah,
these mad creatures.

581
00:39:42,124 --> 00:39:44,779
I might have a go at drawing him,
actually.

582
00:39:47,124 --> 00:39:50,299
Between the 13th and 14th century
English illuminated

583
00:39:50,324 --> 00:39:54,829
manuscripts abound with
inventive and perplexing imagery.

584
00:39:58,213 --> 00:40:02,068
But Sir Lutteral's text
completed by around 1340 is surely

585
00:40:02,093 --> 00:40:04,549
one of the most intricate.

586
00:40:06,854 --> 00:40:12,299
I can see some similarities
perhaps with Viking art,

587
00:40:12,324 --> 00:40:13,829
with Anglo-Saxon art,

588
00:40:13,854 --> 00:40:17,349
and even going back to the Iron Age
where you've got those hidden faces

589
00:40:17,374 --> 00:40:21,068
and animals mixed up with
geometric patterns.

590
00:40:21,093 --> 00:40:26,359
It's a very particular response to
a Christian system

591
00:40:26,384 --> 00:40:29,248
that has a heaven and it has a hell

592
00:40:29,273 --> 00:40:34,609
and it has a world that's overrun
with sinful bodies and rejoicing

593
00:40:34,634 --> 00:40:37,918
bodies and I think there is quite
a...

594
00:40:40,073 --> 00:40:43,128
"complex inheritance in this
imagery.

595
00:40:43,153 --> 00:40:48,918
I love this juxtaposition
of the pious text, the Psalms

596
00:40:48,943 --> 00:40:54,359
and then these really playful
funny characters in the margins.

597
00:40:54,384 --> 00:40:56,998
I mean, they're just weird and
wonderful.

598
00:40:59,823 --> 00:41:03,689
The Lutteral Psalter is teeming
with those fantastic beasts

599
00:41:03,714 --> 00:41:06,689
but it also gives us a glimpse
of the agricultural year

600
00:41:06,714 --> 00:41:09,128
and Medieval fashion.

601
00:41:09,153 --> 00:41:12,969
By the mid-1300s the streets of
Lincoln would have been awash

602
00:41:12,994 --> 00:41:16,168
with a multicultural melange
of styles

603
00:41:16,193 --> 00:41:20,569
and fabrics, but no matter your
social standing or your costume,

604
00:41:20,594 --> 00:41:25,439
by 1348 everyone was at risk
of falling foul of the Black Death.

605
00:41:25,464 --> 00:41:28,489
Plague had reached Britain's shores.

606
00:41:28,514 --> 00:41:30,819
Costume historian Pauline Loven

607
00:41:30,844 --> 00:41:33,639
and hair and make-up historian
Olivia Free

608
00:41:33,664 --> 00:41:38,048
are going to help me understand how
nice clothes became about

609
00:41:38,073 --> 00:41:41,798
much more than just looking good at
the time of a lethal pandemic.

610
00:41:41,823 --> 00:41:43,439
This looks like an undergarment.

611
00:41:43,464 --> 00:41:45,849
I'm going to have to get out of
this, aren't I? Yes, 'fraid so.

612
00:41:45,874 --> 00:41:47,248
I'll start getting undressed.

613
00:41:47,273 --> 00:41:48,819
That's your cue to leave!

614
00:41:51,744 --> 00:41:54,769
It's thought the Black Death
wiped out almost half of England's

615
00:41:54,794 --> 00:41:58,409
population, forcing a social
upheavaL

616
00:41:59,594 --> 00:42:04,079
Oh, I think that's a bit of a shame
to cover up the gorgeous

617
00:42:04,104 --> 00:42:06,689
dress underneath.

618
00:42:06,714 --> 00:42:10,539
But for those that survived, ere
was hope for a better life

619
00:42:10,564 --> 00:42:14,159
as labour shortages meant
increased wages,

620
00:42:14,184 --> 00:42:19,969
reduced taxes and an abundance
of now affordable commodities.

621
00:42:19,994 --> 00:42:23,439
Who would have been able to wear
materials like this,

622
00:42:23,464 --> 00:42:24,729
dresses like this?

623
00:42:24,754 --> 00:42:26,079
Anyone could who could afford it.

624
00:42:26,104 --> 00:42:30,489
After the Black Death the population
is so reduced so everybody's

625
00:42:30,514 --> 00:42:32,928
moving and adjusting their position
and they do it through clothing

626
00:42:32,953 --> 00:42:36,209
and if they can afford to
dress like a King, they will.

627
00:42:36,234 --> 00:42:40,619
If you can dress in a richer
fashion,

628
00:42:40,644 --> 00:42:44,409
than actually befits your social
standing... Yes. ..you can possibly

629
00:42:44,434 --> 00:42:46,729
bewitch people in to thinking

630
00:42:46,754 --> 00:42:49,569
you really were a higher status
individual.

631
00:42:49,594 --> 00:42:51,289
Yes, than you both would suggest.

632
00:42:51,314 --> 00:42:54,159
Sumptuary laws were introduced to
make fabrics like that

633
00:42:54,184 --> 00:42:57,539
exclusive to the elite,

634
00:42:57,564 --> 00:43:01,409
and particularly, cloth of gold was
the royal family only.

635
00:43:01,434 --> 00:43:03,979
Right, so I'm regal. Yes.

636
00:43:04,004 --> 00:43:05,928
Or a merchant wife who is
breaking rules.

637
00:43:05,953 --> 00:43:08,489
Ooh. Oh, I like that.

638
00:43:08,514 --> 00:43:12,899
Scrambling to maintain the
status quo, King Edward Ill

639
00:43:12,924 --> 00:43:16,699
attempted to quash upward mobility
with his sumptuary laws.

640
00:43:16,724 --> 00:43:20,619
Members of each of the seven social
categories were easily

641
00:43:20,644 --> 00:43:25,008
identified by their dress
and personal grooming.

642
00:43:25,033 --> 00:43:28,339
If women are wearing make-up for
their husbands alone

643
00:43:28,364 --> 00:43:31,258
and only if it's natural
make-up it was allowed.

644
00:43:31,283 --> 00:43:33,619
But it was lightning.
It wasn't all white.

645
00:43:33,644 --> 00:43:39,058
Because if you were pale, then that
meant that you were a wealthy lady,

646
00:43:39,083 --> 00:43:40,489
you were staying indoors,

647
00:43:40,514 --> 00:43:42,849
you weren't doing any hard labour
in sun.

648
00:43:42,874 --> 00:43:46,419
So, you certainly wouldn't want to
affect a tan, then.

649
00:43:46,444 --> 00:43:49,529
Fake tan would be...
Absolutely not, indeed.

650
00:43:49,554 --> 00:43:51,928
That would make you look like a
working-class woman.

651
00:43:51,953 --> 00:43:55,008
Yes, but you still had to
look healthy.

652
00:43:55,033 --> 00:43:58,699
Like I'm not just about to drop dead
of the Black Death. Sometimes...

653
00:44:00,083 --> 00:44:03,339
...physicians were called
in to make somebody look healthy.

654
00:44:03,364 --> 00:44:06,859
Often, kings, lords, particularly
the men, actually,

655
00:44:06,884 --> 00:44:08,729
would dye their hair. Mm-hm.

656
00:44:08,754 --> 00:44:15,699
It's all about maintaining this
look of a young, robust man,

657
00:44:15,724 --> 00:44:20,089
so a way of keeping hold of his
power is looking healthy.

658
00:44:20,114 --> 00:44:22,419
I think world leaders are still
doing that, don't you?

659
00:44:22,444 --> 00:44:24,258
Absolutely! Yeah, yeah!

660
00:44:24,283 --> 00:44:28,938
The church relaxed its rules on
make-up, but still strictly enforced

661
00:44:28,963 --> 00:44:34,529
veiling of hair, an excellent excuse
for some high-fashion accessorising.

662
00:44:35,674 --> 00:44:38,219
So, what did sumptuary law
say about veils?

663
00:44:38,244 --> 00:44:42,599
It restricted veiling to a value,
so that if you are a lower status,

664
00:44:42,624 --> 00:44:44,629
you could only spend so much
on a veil.

665
00:44:44,654 --> 00:44:47,629
Isn't it fascinating that there's
this constant push and pull

666
00:44:47,654 --> 00:44:50,599
between the attempt
at controlling people and the way

667
00:44:50,624 --> 00:44:54,988
they're expressing themselves and
then people managing to push back...

668
00:44:55,013 --> 00:44:58,479
Yes! ..to use the veil as a way of
expressing your status in society?

669
00:44:58,504 --> 00:45:00,199
It's lovely, isn't it? Yeah.

670
00:45:00,224 --> 00:45:02,788
I think, at this point now,
I need to see myself.

671
00:45:02,813 --> 00:45:04,788
I've got no idea what I look like!
THEY GIGGLE

672
00:45:04,813 --> 00:45:06,709
Have you got a mirror?
Yes, indeed.

673
00:45:18,424 --> 00:45:20,279
Oh, my goodness.

674
00:45:20,304 --> 00:45:21,969
That's extraordinary!

675
00:45:23,704 --> 00:45:26,038
I feel different. It's really...

676
00:45:26,063 --> 00:45:28,839
I think it's really interesting,
putting these clothes on.

677
00:45:28,864 --> 00:45:31,759
I think I knew what it felt like
to be...

678
00:45:31,784 --> 00:45:36,118
...an elite lady in Lincoln in the
14th century.

679
00:45:36,143 --> 00:45:38,149
You look stunning, as well!

680
00:45:38,174 --> 00:45:39,998
Eat your heart out, Game Of Thrones!

681
00:45:40,023 --> 00:45:42,759
I've just stepped out the pages of
the Luttrell Psalter!

682
00:45:45,994 --> 00:45:49,889
King Edward's sumptuary laws on
these fineries had little effect

683
00:45:49,914 --> 00:45:52,969
on the huge upheavals that
followed the Black Death -

684
00:45:52,994 --> 00:45:57,359
an event that brought to an end
an era which had seen Lincoln

685
00:45:57,384 --> 00:46:01,439
at the heart of the action,
a town whose entrepreneurs

686
00:46:01,464 --> 00:46:04,839
refined the advances that reshaped
the nation's economics...

687
00:46:06,143 --> 00:46:09,639
...where the great powers of the
Monarchy and the Barons clashed in

688
00:46:09,664 --> 00:46:12,969
a brutal town centre battle for the
future of England...

689
00:46:14,143 --> 00:46:19,409
...and home to a cathedral rich in
stories and covert messages

690
00:46:19,434 --> 00:46:21,969
that dominated the town
and its people.

691
00:46:23,254 --> 00:46:27,609
Lincoln beautifully, compellingly
captures the story

692
00:46:27,634 --> 00:46:28,998
of medieval England.

693
00:46:49,354 --> 00:46:52,329
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