Historian Michael Wood delves through medieval
court records to follow the fortunes of a village in
Hertfordshire and, more particularly, the family of peasant
Christina Cok.The 14th century was a
perilous time in British history, shot through with famine,
plague and war. It was a time of climate change, virulent cattle
diseases and, above all, the Black Death. But it was also the
time when modern mentalities were shaped, not just by the rulers
but increasingly by the common people. It was the beginning of
the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the
start of a capitalist market economy.
Michael chooses an everyday story of a
medieval country family through which to illustrate the bigger
picture of how the character and destiny of ordinary British
people was being shaped. It is history told not from the top of
society but from the bottom - and especially through the eyes of
the forgotten half of the workforce, women.
