This book is based on the biographies of some 1400 individuals who lived in three northern English towns during the later Middle Ages. It analyzes the many aspects of merchant society: achievements in politics, attitudes toward religion, the family, wider circles of friends and business acquaintances, and the nature and conduct of trade. Merchants were at the core of urban society and played a central role in the development of urban mentalite. This is one of the broadest studies of them yet published, integrating a very wide range of original sources.

This book is based on the biographies of some 1400 individuals who lived in three northern English towns during the later Middle Ages. It analyzes the many aspects of merchant society: achievements in politics, attitudes toward religion, the family, wider circles of friends and business acquaintances, and the nature and conduct of trade. Merchants were at the core of urban society and played a central role in the development of urban mentalite. This is one of the broadest studies of them yet published, integrating a very wide range of original sources.

Recent years have witnessed a considerable body of published research on both crime and women in the early modern period. There have been few attempts, however, to synthesize such studies and to examine in detail the relationship between the law and women's lives. This collection of seven original essays explores that relationship by examining the nature and extent of women's criminal activity and surveying the connections between women, their legal position, and their involvement in legal processes. The words, actions, and treatment of women who came before the courts as plaintiffs,...