SOCIAL HISTORY TO 1700
There is little evidence for the social history of
Coventry before the mid 14th century. A rural
society of unfree villeins in 1086, it had become, by
1280, a town of burgage-holders and cottagers
holding per cartam, but the process is obscure. The
transformation of villeins into free burgesses
probably took place early in the 12th century,
marked in the Earl's Half by the charters confirming
burgess tenure and encouraging outsiders to settle in
the town. Coventry's imitation of the Lincoln
charters, particularly the clause allowing anyone who
managed to stay a year and a day (fn. 1) unchallenged in
the town to remain as a freeman, must have encouraged the most enterprising villeins from the
surrounding countryside to seek their fortune in the
town. In 1280 about 31 per cent. of the population
were immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.
By the mid 14th century the numbers were even
higher. (fn. 2) This process seems to have been even more
advanced in the Prior's Half where trading probably
began, and certainly developed more rapidly, and
where, even in 1280, there were more burgageholders in comparison with cottage-holders than in
the Earl's Half. Apparently contradicting the innate
conservatism of monasteries, particularly their reluctance to manumit unfree tenants, this may represent
part of a deliberate attempt by the priory to win
over the inhabitants during the period of its encroachment on the lordship of the town. By encouraging trade and offering favourable conditions
of tenure, the priory may have hoped to contribute
to a lapse of memory on the part of the inhabitants as
to whom they held as lord. Where the priory's lordship was secure, in some of the outlying rural areas,
such generosity was not necessary and villein tenure
remained.
The priory's encroachment was probably helped
by the absence of any powerful opponents during
the earl's minority in the early 12th century. Unlike
Warwick, Coventry does not seem to have attracted
nobility and gentry from the outlying areas as
burgage-owners in the town, while during the 12th
and 13th centuries the townsmen themselves were
not yet rich or powerful enough to challenge the
church. Guilds, both merchant and craft, do not
seem to have developed in Coventry until the 14th
century, and, significantly, the first attempt, in 1267,
to found one was made on behalf of the prior's
tenants. (fn. 3)
The dominant factor in the life of the town during
this period was the church, mainly the Benedictine
priory, but increasingly the two friaries and the
Carthusians outside the town. The religious houses
contributed to the growing prosperity of the town,
attracting visitors and pilgrims, and even on occasion
providing lodging for royalty or accommodation for
a parliament. (fn. 4) Chapters (fn. 5) brought religious, some of
them rich and important, from other parts of the
country, an opportunity for trade which was not
missed by the townsmen. As late as 1498 the mayor
had to keep a check on prices, to see that they were
not raised for the Benedictine chapter held at
Coventry Priory in that year. (fn. 6) Pilgrims also visited
the town to see the relics at the priory. These
supposedly included an arm of St. Augustine of
Hippo, St. Osburg's head, various relics of Becket,
St. Cecilia, St. James, St. George, St. Jerome, St.
Andrew, St. Lawrence, and St. Katherine, part of
the true cross, and 'a piece of the most holy jawbone
of the ass that killed Abel'. (fn. 7) Whitefriars, which was
dedicated to the Virgin, had a chapel near the
London road, containing a picture or statue which
became famous and probably gave its name to the
inn nearby, the Salutation Inn. By the late 15th and
early 16th centuries the cult of this statue had
reached exaggerated proportions. Sir Thomas More,
who visited his sister who lived in Coventry,
became involved in a local controversy between a
Coventry Franciscan and a secular priest. The
Franciscan preached that whoever said the psalter
of the Virgin daily could never be damned. The
intensity of Marian devotion in Coventry provoked
an equally exaggerated reaction and Coventry
Lollards were especially indicted for scoffing at the
Whitefriars image. (fn. 8)
Beneath the Christian devotion there lay a substratum of pre-Christian superstition which lingered
on in a community that still retained its rural roots,
and which was surrounded by dense woodland and
springs, and by a peasantry which was among the
most superstitious in the country. Superstition, however, was not confined to ignorant and backward
peasants. Walter de Langton, Bishop of Coventry,
was accused in 1301 of a more sophisticated kind of
witchcraft, worshipping the devil in the form of a
goat. Whether the bishop was guilty or not, the case
demonstrates that either he or his accuser, a knight
named Lovetot, were familiar with a cult that was
spreading in Europe from Arab sources during this
period. (fn. 9) Another case, not long afterwards, reveals
the presence of a professional necromancer in the
town. In 1323 a group of prominent Coventry
citizens called on the help of John de Nottingham in
their struggle with the prior, Henry Irreys. The
sorcery took the common form of stabbing wax
images of the victims. The citizens were tried and
released but the prior himself was charged, at the
pope's instigation, with 'sortilege'. (fn. 10)
The case was indicative of the strong feelings
aroused during the struggle between the priory and
the inhabitants of the town, which increasingly
dominated the history of the first half of the 14th
century. The townsmen, growing increasingly
prosperous and consequently more impatient of the
priory's political control, received just the help they
needed when Queen Isabel acquired Cheyles more
in 1330. The queen's successful challenge of the
priory's rights led directly to the charter of 1345 and
the tripartite indenture of 1355, upon which the
prosperity of the next 200 years was founded. (fn. 11)
Coventry's greatest period was in the century and
a half following the charter of 1345. Professor
Hoskins's list (fn. 12) of the ranking of provincial towns
gives some indication of their relative wealth and
importance. According to this, in 1334 Coventry
ranked nineteenth and in 1377 third. This was the
period of great building activity, the foundation and
growth of the guilds and crafts, the nationally-famous Corpus Christi plays, and civic pageantry.
Coventry became one of the most beautiful cities in
the country. The two great parish churches in the
centre of the city were largely rebuilt. Whitefriars,
the collegiate church of St. John the Baptist, and the
Charterhouse were all founded in the later 14th
century; the churches belonging to St. John's
Hospital and the Greyfriars were also reconstructed
at this period. St. Mary's Hall was first built in
1340-2 and rebuilt about 50 years later. The town
walls, with twenty towers and twelve gates, enclosing
the largest fortified area in the midlands, were begun
after a licence to crenellate was granted in 1362. The
streets were paved in 1407, when the mayor was
John Botoner, a member of the family largely
responsible for the rebuilding of St. Michael's.
Behind this considerable building activity lay the
skill and creative imagination of a host of anonymous
artists and craftsmen. A certain amount is known
about a group of glaziers in Coventry, one of whom,
John Thornton, was responsible for the great east
window in York Minster c. 1405. (fn. 13)
The prosperous, self-confident community which
produced this spate of building in the century c.
1340-1440, can be loosely divided into three classes:
an upper class of merchants and landowners, a
middle class of manufacturers and shopkeepers, and
a working class of journeymen, labourers, and those
engaged in the humblest trades. (fn. 14) Most of the
economic, social, and political power and prestige of
the town was concentrated in the hands of the upper
class of merchants, mercers, and drapers, which
emerged as a result of the development of the credit
system and the rapid growth of trade fostered by a
series of charters in the 1330s and 1340s. (fn. 15) Among
the most important developments of this period was
the foundation of the guilds, beginning with the
merchant guild of St. Mary's in 1340 and culminating in the amalgamation of four guilds as Holy
Trinity Guild by 1392. (fn. 16) The corporate sense
fostered by membership of the guilds found
expression in the charter of 1345 which confirmed
town government in the hands of the dominant
merchant class. It was symptomatic of the allpervading power of this class that, of the twelve who
obtained the charter of 1345, eleven were members
of Trinity Guild and three were future mayors. One
of these, Nicholas Mitchell, a merchant, was also an
M.P. for Coventry. Of the 94 mayors from 1420 to
1547 whose occupation is known, 57 were wool
merchants, mercers, or drapers. (fn. 17) The earlier mayors
equally were drawn from this class: men like Jordan
Shepey, the traditional builder of Jordan Well,
Robert Shipley, John Cross, and John Onley, 'who
did erect St. Mary's Hall', Adam and William
Botoner, the builders of St. Michael's, and the
merchants Richard Clerk and Richard Luffe who
were also leet jurors and members of the peace
commission. (fn. 18) The same names constantly occur as
municipal officers, members of the twenty-four who
elected the mayor and served on the leet jury, as
members of the peace commissions and masters of
the guilds. (fn. 19) Among important families were the
Botoners, Braytofts, Bradmeadows, Saunders,
Staffords, Onleys, and Wildgrices. (fn. 20) Most of them
lived in Gosford Street and Earl Street, (fn. 21) the wealthy
part of Coventry, and on plots newly leased out by
Queen Isabel in Cheylesmore Park, (fn. 22) and many also
held land in the outlying areas. Some, like the
Keresley family, or the Crosses of Willenhall, retained their family holdings after they had become
merchants in Coventry. Others, like the Frebernes,
Shipleys, and Bristows, bought land and built up
estates as an investment for the money earned in
trade in Coventry. (fn. 23) One family, the Marlers, can
be taken to illustrate the way in which merchant
families developed. In the early 14th century the
Marlers were small landowners, probably peasants,
near Coventry. They first appear in Coventry in the
1460s and in the years from 1469 to 1540 provided
three generations of merchants. Richard Marler,
described as a grocer but more correctly a mercer,
owned 50 houses in Coventry in 1522 and was
wealthier than any Bristol merchant. (fn. 24)
Below the upper-class merchant oligarchy was a
middle class of manufacturers and shopkeepers,
master craftsmen who found some sort of corporate
identity in the craft guilds. (fn. 25) The largest class
consisted of apprentices, journeymen, humbler
tradesmen, and the unemployed. The divisions
between classes were never rigid. Journeymen became master craftsmen and the status of different
crafts varied as their relative wealth and importance
waxed and waned. The development of trade and
credit enabled craftsmen to sell directly to London
and abroad, by-passing the Coventry merchant. This
was especially true of the dyers, many of whom had
credit with London and Italian drapers, and the
dyers formed the most formidable challenge to the
merchant oligarchy. The position of the merchant
was not assured - even the Marler wealth disappeared during the next generation (fn. 26) - and it was
this that made the city government regulate and
repress the lower classes.
Beneath a surface of civic pride and splendour in
this period, the most dynamic and prosperous in
Coventry's history, there were strong undercurrents
of dissension and conflict. The craftsmen resented
the concentration of political and social power in the
hands of the merchants who used it for their own
ends, living by usury, regulating trade through the
decrees of the leet and depriving the people of their
share in the common lands, which they managed for
their own advantage, while, through Holy Trinity
Guild, they exercised control as landlords over a
considerable section of the population. Equally they
resisted the pretensions of the journeymen and
jealously guarded the privileges of Coventry craftsmen against outsiders. The merchant oligarchy was
alarmed by the growing wealth and ambition of some
of the bigger craftsmen and strenuously repressed
the aspirations of the journeymen whom they feared,
not without reason, as a potentially subversive and
revolutionary force threatening the very structure of
society. It was the interplay between the fears and
ambitions of these three classes which provided the
background to this period of Coventry's history.
Sometimes the merchant oligarchy used the
journeymen as a counterbalance to the craftsmen.
Thus they gave favourable terms to the men in a
dispute in 1424 between master craftsmen and
journeymen, and they recognised some of the
journeymen's guilds. In 1435 when they were
attacking the large employers in the metal trade,
they encouraged the journeymen to work in their
own houses. (fn. 27) But the encouragement was only
relative, as a check to the wealth and power of the
craftsmen. Any serious attempt by the journeymen
to challenge the position of the master craftsmen
was repressed by the city government. This was
especially true of the 16th century when numerous
orders of the leet testify to the government's policy
of enforcing rank and position in society. In 1517
rough masons and daubers were told to remain as
'servants'. In 1528 the journeymen dyers were told
to 'use themselves as servants and as no craft or
fellowship'. Even the games and out-of-work
activities of the 'common sort' of people were
increasingly regulated during the first half of the
16th century. Sometimes the craftsmen combined
with the lower class in common action against the
town government. When they did, as in the dispute
over enclosing the commons, the combination of a
leader like Laurence Saunders, a dyer, and the mob
could be formidable.
Riots over the price of bread and the inclosure of
common land were frequent. Between 1370 and 1422
the city annals record seven occasions upon which
'the commons arose', two of them involving throwing
loaves at the mayor. (fn. 28) The part played by Coventry
in the Peasants' Revolt is obscure. John Ball was
captured in Coventry, (fn. 29) but his presence there was
probably due to the fact that he seems to have had
relatives in the town, rather than to the status of
Coventry as a revolutionary centre. Coventry in
1381 lacked the motives both of the peasant and
urban rebels. Half a century earlier the priory might
have been sacked. A century later, when the city
oligarchy had become entrenched and when there
was a leader and a substantial mob with grievances,
there might have been an uprising. The Laurence
Saunders affair, which lasted for more than two
decades (c. 1469-96), did provide an explosive
situation. Saunders himself was an instinctive rebel.
He asserted that the people would never have justice
until 'we have striken off the heads of three or four
of these churls' heads that rule us'. (fn. 30) The inclosure
of common lands had excited feelings of grievance
for more than a century. But the situation in the
1490s was aggravated by a number of factors. Verses
nailed to the door of St. Michael's in 1495 expressed
a widespread feeling that the oligarchy was turning
into a tyranny. They referred to leet orders to
confine the cloth trade to the Drapery, to enforce
payment for apprenticeship, and to restrict the
Lammas riding, from which they concluded 'this
city should be free and now is bond'. (fn. 31) Resentment
against the rich rulers of the city was fostered by
Lollard beliefs about social equality. Coventry had
a considerable reputation as a Lollard centre, (fn. 32)
especially during this period, and schemes for the
disendowment of the church might well have been
extended to include over-rich merchants. (fn. 33) The
authorities were especially alarmed by the presence
of 'vagabonds and idle persons' among the Coventry
commons and throughout the 15th century the city
government had tried to enforce the royal decrees
against livery and maintenance.
In Coventry this took place against a worsening
economic situation. The decay of Coventry is usually
dated from the mid 16th century and was attributed
by Dugdale to the Dissolution, but the seeds were
there much earlier. In 1523, for example, there was
a total of about 565 empty houses in the city, including 131 in Bishop Street ward, 107 in Spon Street
ward, and 62 in Gosford Street ward. (fn. 34) The decline of the cloth trade was marked by a tendency
for a few rich to get richer and for the growth of a
large class living very near the poverty line. The
fact that Coventry was still fourth in the list of
provincial towns in the payment of the subsidy of
1523-7 is a misleading indication of the true wealth
of Coventry society. An analysis of the list of tax-payers shows that just under two-thirds of the total
taxable wealth in the city was owned by 7 per cent.
of the population, and of this, 2 per cent. owned 45
per cent. Half the population paid no taxes at all,
and of the remainder, half were paying at the lowest
rate. Allowing for poor widows, about one-third of
the population was without property of any kind,
and another third was largely dependent on wages.
Plague, a bad harvest, or an adverse movement of
trade would have serious consequences for these
people. (fn. 35) The reaction of the city government was to
tighten their control in every department of life -
from legislating against 'sturdy beggars' and
restricting drinking in alehouses by the lower orders
to minute regulations on the manufacture of goods
and organization of the craft guilds.
The guilds - the great merchant and religious
guilds of Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, the craft
guilds, and the journeymen's guilds - formed the
framework of social life for almost all the citizens,
except those of the very lowest rank. With the
exception of St. Mary's Guild, the primary purpose
of the foundation of the guilds - St. John's, St.
Katherine's, Corpus Christi, and Holy Trinity -
was avowedly religious: to maintain priests to
say mass daily and perform obits for departed
members, and to 'bestow alms and do other works
of piety'. The guilds also served as friendly and
insurance societies, giving help to members who had
suffered financial loss and providing the security
and social life of a fraternity. The corporate sense of
the guilds was fostered by the wearing of livery and
by the services and banquets at which the members
met together. (fn. 36) Membership was in theory open to
anyone but was restricted by the high entrance fee. (fn. 37)
Holy Trinity Guild took over from St. Mary's Guild
the functions of a merchant guild and the economic
advantages of membership were undoubtedly the
predominant motive of many who joined the guild,
especially of those outside Coventry. (fn. 38) Others joined
for political reasons. Among these were John of
Gaunt and his brother Thomas of Woodstock
who joined in 1378 after they had quarrelled with
the Londoners. Kings and prominent noblemen
probably joined when they needed money and
political support, (fn. 39) since they knew that Holy
Trinity Guild was a powerful and prosperous
organization in its own right and in a strong position
to determine the official policy of the corporation.
Holy Trinity Guild was a considerable landlord,
owning a large number of houses and shops in the
main streets of the city and fields outside the walls. (fn. 40)
This was partly due to the Black Death which
impelled many people to make over their property
to the guild in anticipation of their imminent death.
If they survived they held their old property from
the guild as leaseholders. Many, most of them
already members of the guild, made transactions
involving life tenancies or entails to widows and
children, with reversion to the guild. In return for
paying the annual farm of £10 to the priory in
accordance with the 1355 agreement, the guild
received part of the common lands held in severalty. (fn. 41)
The guilds maintained chapels in St. Michael's and
Holy Trinity and were wholly responsible for St.
Nicholas's and St. John the Baptist's, Bablake. At
the latter they maintained a college of priests and a
grammar school (fn. 42) while from 1506 Holy Trinity
Guild was responsible for Bond's Hospital. (fn. 43) The
guild-hall of St. Mary's served as a civic centre for
the whole community. Holy Trinity guild also
regularly contributed to the stipends of several of the
principal civic officials and advanced money to the
city when it was especially in need. (fn. 44) The prestige
of the guild was reflected in the rule dating from
1484 which gave precedence to the master of the
guild over everyone except the mayor. (fn. 45)
The journeymen, in spite of the regulations against
them, had their own guilds, such as St. Anne's and
St. George's. They may have envied the feasting and
sociability of their masters' guilds and they took
care to give a religious and convivial covering to
their meetings. (fn. 46) But the strongest motive was one
of economic self-interest in the face of regulation
and oppression by their masters, and it was on the
grounds of fomenting unrest that the acts against
new guilds were invoked.
The craft guilds, for the organization of which
there is no evidence earlier than the 14th century, (fn. 47)
exercised some of the same functions as the merchant
guilds: they maintained priests and chapels; held
property and acted as a fraternity, attending
weddings and burials of members, and sharing in
obits and communal meals. The main purpose was,
however, economic, the combination for common
interests of the members of the same craft or
mystery. Members of craft guilds, particularly those
of the highest rank - mercers, drapers, or dyers -
might well also belong to Holy Trinity Guild or
Corpus Christi Guild, while there was frequently
rivalry among the various craft guilds. They did not,
therefore, combine to form a united front against
the oligarchy of the two merchant guilds. The
organization of citizens into craft guilds had distinct
advantages for the city government. It gave it an
instrument through which it could regulate, not only
the economic, but also the social life of the town,
especially the nationally famous Coventry plays.
An entry in the city annals under the year 1416
states that 'the pageants and Hox Tuesday [were]
invented wherein the king and nobles took great
delight'. (fn. 48) There was, however, a reference to a
pageant house in 1392 (fn. 49) and the plays had probably
then been in existence for some time. Medieval
mystery plays grew out of the elaboration of tropes
and antiphons in the liturgy of the church. Although
there is no evidence of this at Coventry, the large,
wealthy Benedictine priory provided the ideal conditions for the development of religious drama, and
it is known that at Lichfield under Bishop Hugh de
Nonant (1188-98) there were Pastores and Peregrini,
Latin plays which provided the kernel for the later
Christmas and Easter cycles. (fn. 50)
The origin of the Coventry plays, however, was
ascribed not to the Benedictines but to the Franciscans, according to a tradition deriving from
Dugdale. Dugdale thought he had found the original
Coventry plays in a manuscript now in the British
Museum. (fn. 51) The manuscript, which had belonged to
Robert Hegge of Durham, and which had been
purchased by Sir Robert Cotton c. 1629, bore an
inscription on the fly-leaf in the hand of Richard
James, Cotton's librarian. The inscription reads:
Elenchus contentorum in hoc codice; Contenta novi
testamenti scenice expressa et actitata olim per
monachos sive fratres mendicantes vulgo dicitur hic
liber Ludus Coventriae sive ludus corporis Christi.
Scribitur metris Anglicanis. (fn. 52)
This, together with an entry in one version of the
city annals (fn. 53) that in 1493 the king and queen came
to see the plays acted 'by the Grey Friars' gave rise
to the statement in Dugdale (fn. 54) that the plays were
'acted with mighty state and reverence by the friars
of this house'. Although they realized that the
ludus Coventriae or Hegge plays were not those
acted by the craft guilds, neither Sharp (1825) (fn. 55) nor
Halliwell (1841) (fn. 56) rejected Dugdale's statement.
Poole (1869) (fn. 57) and Fretton (1878-9) (fn. 58) accepted the
Hegge plays as belonging to the Coventry Franciscans and spoke of the Corpus Christi plays being
performed under the direction of the friars. Even
Burbidge, (fn. 59) writing in 1952, thought that the Ludus
Coventriae might represent an early cycle of
Coventry plays or plays performed by a wandering
troupe of Coventry players. Burbidge did, however,
discover the source of Dugdale's mistaken ascription
to the Franciscans. He noted another version of the
city annals which spoke of the plays being acted not
'by' but 'at the Grey Friars', the wide space outside
the Franciscan house providing a suitable station for
the pageants. Finally philological research cast doubt
on the provenance of the Hegge plays, the dialect
suggesting eastern England, probably Lincoln,
rather than the midlands. (fn. 60)
There may have been an early, Latin liturgical
drama performed by the Benedictine monks in the
cathedral church, but the famous Coventry Corpus
Christi plays were from the start secular and written
in the vernacular and were almost certainly always
the responsibility of the craft guilds. The feast and
festival of Corpus Christi was first promulgated by
Pope Urban IV (1261-4) and, with its procession
and play, it spread rapidly during the first half of the
14th century. There is no evidence to show when the
Coventry fair, granted in 1218 to be held 'during
the octave of Trinity', became Corpus Christi fair,
opened on the feast of Corpus Christi, the Thursday
after Trinity Sunday. (fn. 61) It may well have coincided
with the founding of Corpus Christi Guild in 1348.
There are many examples of guilds being founded
in the 14th century to provide processions on Corpus
Christi day, and the accounts of Corpus Christi
Guild (fn. 62) reveal the dominant part played by the guild
in the Coventry procession. The guild provided the
chalice bearing the sacrament, a canopy to hold over
it, a processional cross, and images of the Virgin
and St. John. The guild, while responsible
for the procession, never seems to have presented
plays.
There is nothing in the office of Corpus Christi to
explain the widespread Corpus Christi cycles, and
it is probable that the custom was invented in one
place, probably Italy, and spread for fashionable
rather than liturgical reasons. The plays grew out of
the coalescence and filling-in of earlier cycles like the
Christmas and Easter plays, and the process was
facilitated by the translation into the vernacular of
New Testament apocrypha like the Gospel of
Nicodemus, which provided the basis for the
Harrowing of Hell and Assumption plays. The cycle
of plays running from the Fall of Lucifer to Doomsday thus provided, found an ideal framework in the
organization of craft guilds, each of which could
present an episode in the cycle. Coming at a time of
growing civic consciousness, when the vernacular
was gaining ground, and drama, like other arts, was
freeing itself from clerical control, the Corpus
Christi procession, already in the hands of a lay
guild, provided the focus for the performance of a
cycle of plays. The plays were established at Chester
by 1327-8 and were at Beverley before 1377 and at
York by 1378. They probably reached Coventry
between 1348 and 1392. (fn. 63)
Only two of the Coventry Corpus Christi plays (fn. 64)
survive - the shearmen and tailors' pageant, dealing
with the events from the Annunciation to the
Slaughter of the Innocents, and the weavers' pageant
covering those from the Presentation in the Temple
to the Disputation with the Doctors. Of the other
pageants, it is known that the smiths were responsible
for the events centring round the Passion, the cardmakers, until 1531 when they were replaced by the
cappers, for the Resurrection, and the drapers for
Doomsday, while the mercers were almost certainly
responsible for the Assumption of Mary. Since, from
1456 at least, there were probably ten pageants, this
leaves four, those of the girdlers, pinners, tanners,
and whittawers, unaccounted for. Various hypothetical lists have been compiled (fn. 65) based on the
supposition that all the plays dealt with New
Testament subjects. The latest research on Corpus
Christi plays in general, however, has demonstrated
that Old Testament subjects presenting the Fall were
as important in the cycle as the New Testament
subjects of the Redemption of Man. Of New
Testament subjects only the events from the
Baptism to the Passion are not represented among the
known pageants. Since each of the Coventry pageants
embraced a number of stories, this would only
provide material for one, or at the most, two
pageants. The remaining two or three, therefore,
must have centred round Old Testament subjects. (fn. 66)
When the Corpus Christi cycle was first presented,
the units were probably smaller and the number of
pageants greater, one episode being presented by
one or at the most two crafts. Thus in 1414 the
pinners and needlers presented the single episode of
the Deposition. (fn. 67) The structure of the shearmen
and tailors' pageant suggests that it originally
consisted of two plays -the Annunciation, Nativity,
and Shepherds being presented by the tailors, and
the Visit of the Kings, Flight into Egypt, and
Slaughter of the Innocents by the shearmen. The
seal of the shearmen, representing the Virgin and
Child receiving gifts from the Magi, is additional
evidence for this suggestion. (fn. 68) Similarly, the seal of
the mercers, representing the crowned Virgin rising
out of clouds, reinforces the probability that the
subject of their pageant was the Assumption and
that it had always been their responsibility. (fn. 69)
In the course of the two centuries during which
they were presented there were considerable changes
in the structure of the plays themselves and in
the organization surrounding them. There were
numerous redactions, some simply adding material
or modernizing language, some involving more or
less complete rewriting. The 'invention' of the
pageants recorded in the annals in 1416 probably
represents one such redaction. So does the notice of
'new plays' in 1490 and 1519. (fn. 70) Robert Croo was
responsible for the version in which the only extant
plays have come down to us. The shearmen and
tailors' play was 'newly correct' and the weavers'
play 'newly translate' by Robert Croo in 1534, (fn. 71)
while the same man appears to have revised the
drapers' plays in 1557 (fn. 72) and the smiths' in 1563. (fn. 73)
The discovery of two leaves of an earlier version of
the weavers' pageant allows comparison with the
16th-century version. It confirms what had already
been suspected - namely that revisions were never
complete, preserving large sections of earlier
versions. The core of the plays, telling the story in a
simple, straightforward way, was usually primitive,
while the didactic embellishments reveal the work
of late-15th- and 16th-century redactors. The plays
also show the influence of, and possibly even their
origin in, the Chester and York plays. In the case of
the latter, the borrowing must have taken place
before 1390. (fn. 74)
Unlike the Chester and York cycles, however, the
responsibility for the revision of plays seems to have
been that of the crafts alone. In York, a great
ecclesiastical centre, there was always careful supervision and the municipal authorities kept a register
containing all the plays in the cycle. There is no
evidence of any such register in Coventry. The craft
guilds had copies of their own plays and seem to have
had complete freedom in providing for revisions in
the text (fn. 75) and in appointing pageant-masters to direct
the plays. There was, however, rigid supervision by
the council over the organization of the guilds
presenting the plays. The plays were soon felt to be
a burden by the crafts and they frequently tried to
drop them. But the council, concerned with the
trade and prestige that the plays brought to Coventry,
made strenuous efforts through orders of the leet and
heavy fines to force crafts to continue. To counteract
the plea of poverty made by individual guilds, they
provided for contributions to be made by other
guilds. Thus there were constant combinations and
dissolutions in the groupings of crafts, groupings
often affected by the rise and decline in the wealth
and importance of the various occupations. Only
the drapers and mercers were wealthy enough to
maintain their pageants without any help, partly
because, in the case of the latter at least, they
included several minor crafts. In an account book of
the company, the mercers are divided into five
groups: mercers, linen-drapers, haberdashers,
grocers, and hat-makers. (fn. 76) After their early union,
the shearmen and tailors maintained their play
without any subsidiary help, in spite of the loss of
the walkers or fullers in 1448. (fn. 77) The weavers,
because of the decline of the cloth trade, were in
difficulties in 1529 when the leet ordered the transfer
of their pageant to the cappers, making them merely
contributory to it. (fn. 78) The scheme does not seem to
have materialized, however, for the fullers and
skinners were told to contribute to the weavers'
pageant in 1531. (fn. 79) The whittawers' company which
included glovers, fellmongers, and parchment-makers, was joined by the butchers in 1495. (fn. 80) The
butchers must have been reluctant for in 1507 they
were again ordered by the leet to contribute to the
whittawers' pageant. (fn. 81) In the same year the corvisers
or shoemakers were ordered to support the tanners'
pageant. The order was repeated in 1509 and seems
to have been observed by 1552 when the tanners,
though 'not as prosperous as they used to be', were
supported by the corvisers and later by the
butchers. (fn. 82) The pinners and needlers, who alone
presented the single episode of the Deposition in
1414, had been joined by the wrights and tilers
before 1436. The carpenters were added in that year
and the coopers in 1459. A number of people,
mainly wheelwrights, were ordered to contribute in
1495. (fn. 83)
The smiths and cutlers appear to have had a joint
pageant before 1420 when the smiths asked to be
discharged. In 1427 at the request of the mayor, the
smiths took over the pageant for that year. But when
they asked to be discharged in 1428, they were
forced to continue. (fn. 84) The smiths' craft, however,
embraced a variety of metal-workers - goldsmiths,
pewterers, cutlers, and wiredrawers as well as
ordinary blacksmiths. Chandlers were made contributory in 1493 and cooks in 1494, and possibly
earlier, while bakers were added in 1507. (fn. 85) The
smiths' pageant covered the important subject of the
Passion. Equally important was the Resurrection,
presented by the cardmakers, to whom the saddlers
and painters were made contributory in 1435. (fn. 86) In
1444 the craft of cardmakers, saddlers, painters, and
masons, said to 'have long been one fellowship',
were breaking up and the mayor had to order them
to remain united. (fn. 87) Although the skinners and
barbers were made contributory in 1495, (fn. 88) the
situation was critical in 1531, the craft 'being now
but a few persons' unable to bear the expense of
the pageant. The cappers, 'now being in number
many wealthy and honest persons', were therefore
associated with the cardmakers. They replaced the
barbers and part of the payment made by the
painters. (fn. 89) By 1536 the wealthy cappers replaced the
cardmakers who, together with the saddlers, walkers,
skinners, painters and joiners, remained merely
contributory. (fn. 90) From 1495 until their association
with the cardmakers' pageant in 1531, the cappers
had been contributory to the girdlers' pageant. The
girdlers had also been helped by the fullers since
1495, and, after the reorganization of the cardmakers' pageant in 1531, by the barbers and
painters. (fn. 91)
Economic decline is clearly apparent in an order
of the leet in 1494 which states that crafts had been
'more wealthy, rich and more in number than now
be' and that they needed help in discharging the
burden of pageants 'for the worship of the city'.
Dyers, skinners, fishmongers, cappers, corvisers,
and butchers were listed among those who had
hitherto not been involved in the pageants, but who
were henceforth to contribute to the cost. A similar
order involving fishmongers, bowyers, and fletchers
was enacted in 1533. Fishmongers, at least in the
first half of the 15th century, may have been included
in the craft of cooks, and so have been contributory
to the smiths' pageant, but there is no evidence that
the relatively wealthy dyers were ever contributory.
They probably regarded the pageants as yet another
area of conflict with the council. (fn. 92)
In 1539 the mayor told Cromwell that the expense
of the pageants left the 'poor commons' badly off for
the rest of the year. (fn. 93) The costumes and properties
were kept in pageant-houses with the pageants, the
moveable vehicles which served as stages. The
pageant-houses of the weavers, shearmen and tailors,
and cappers were in Mill Lane, those of the mercers
and drapers in Gosford Street and of the whittawers
in Hill Street. (fn. 94) The equipment had to be kept in a
good state of repair and the account books of the
various crafts are full of payments for costumes and
properties, some of which, like the satin for Herod's
gown or the Hell-mouth for Doomsday, could be
very expensive. The two-storied pageants were very
elaborate, embellished with carved crests and gilt
vanes, and hung with curtains. Other expenses
included the hire of a place for rehearsal, usually at
St. Mary's Hall, St. Nicholas's Hall, the Bishop's
Palace, or the park, and refreshment for the players
and pageant-master. (fn. 95)
The Corpus Christi procession started early on
the morning of Corpus Christi, the crafts, dressed
in livery, proceeding in twos, preceded by torchbearers and attended by their journeymen. The
senior company, the mercers, came last, immediately
before the Host, which was the special responsibility
of Corpus Christi Guild. Trinity Guild was also
represented, its priests bearing equally valuable
processional crosses, canopies and candlesticks. The
mayor and civic dignitaries, probably robed in their
scarlet and green gowns, armed guards and some
of the principal actors also took part in the procession. The streets were decorated with boughs
and noisy with the ringing of bells and the music of
the waits. The plays were probably performed after
the procession, the heavy pageants being dragged
into position in places where there was enough space
for the spectators and for performances which
sometimes spilled over into the street. Gosford
Street, Greyfriars, New Gate, Jordan Well, the
Conduit, Cross Cheaping, Little Park Street end,
and Richard Wood's house provided such stations
and it has been suggested that there were ten
stations, one for each ward, (fn. 96) although in his latest
work on the subject, Hardin Craig thought ten were
too many. (fn. 97)
There were other plays outside the Corpus
Christi cycle. A play of St. Katherine was given in
the Little Park in 1490 or 1491 and a play of St.
'Crytyan' in 1504 or 1505, although this may also
have been the St. Katherine play. (fn. 98) The plays
provided Coventry's chief claim to national renown. (fn. 99) So well-known were they that it has been
suggested that 'Coventry plays' became a generic
term for mystery plays in general, a suggestion
which would explain the inscription ludus
Coventriae in the Hegge plays. Kings and nobles
came to see them. In 1457 Margaret of Anjou,
surrounded by lords and ladies nibbling green
ginger, pippins, oranges, and 'two coffins of comfits',
saw all the plays except Doomsday performed
outside Richard Wood's house, where she was
staying. (fn. 1) Richard III and Henry VII also saw the
plays, the latter twice, once on St. Peter's day. (fn. 2) This
may refer to the festivities which took place on St.
Peter's eve or a special performance of the plays
may have been put on for the king's benefit.
Frequently royal visits were greeted with special
pageants, written or chosen for their appropriateness
to the distinguished visitor. Margaret of Anjou was
welcomed in 1456 by speeches from Isaiah, Jeremiah,
St. Edward, and St. John and the four cardinal
virtues. But the highlight of the entertainment was
the pageants of the nine conquerors written by John
Wedurby of Leicester, and a representation of St.
Margaret slaying the dragon. (fn. 3) A pageant featuring
Samson greeted Edward IV in 1460, (fn. 4) and in 1474
his son, though only four years old, in addition to
pageants of Jacob's sons, the three kings of Cologne,
and St. George, had to listen to King Richard II
and Edward the Confessor who made speeches
alluding to the legitimacy of the Yorkist dynasty. (fn. 5)
When Prince Arthur visited the city in 1498 he saw
a pageant of the nine worthies and was welcomed by
speeches from King Arthur, the Queen of Fortune,
and St. George. (fn. 6) Henry VIII and Katherine of
Aragon saw three pageants in 1511, one 'with nine
orders of angels', another 'with divers beautiful
damsels'. (fn. 7) Princess Mary's entertainment when she
visited Coventry in 1526 was more modest. She saw
the mercers' pageant, doubtless chosen because it
honoured her name-saint. (fn. 8)
Music was often an important part of the
pageants. At Prince Edward's reception in 1474,
the four pageants were accompanied by minstrelsy
'of the waits of the city', 'of harp and dulcimer', 'of
small pipes' and 'of organ playing'. (fn. 9) The pageant to
welcome Prince Arthur in 1498 included 'angels
censing and singing, with organs and other melody'. (fn. 10)
Songs, like the well-known Coventry carol in the
shearmen and tailors' pageant, (fn. 11) were probably an
integral part of most of the plays and there are
payments for singers and musicians in the accounts
of the cappers, drapers, smiths, weavers, and
carpenters. The singers were often clerks and
there were probably some independent minstrels, (fn. 12)
but most of the music was provided by the city waits.
The earliest reference to the waits is an entry in the
leet book under 1423, recording the appointment of
four men as city minstrels and giving details as to
their payment. Although this entry is sometimes
cited as evidence for the first appointment of city
waits, it clearly implies the existence of earlier waits.
The 1423 men were to have 'as others have had afore
them'. They were paid by quarterage, a rate of 1d.
from every hall and ½d. from every cottage each
quarter. (fn. 13) Trinity Guild provided them with rent-free cottages, (fn. 14) and they also received payment from
the guilds and crafts for each occasion upon which
they were hired. These included, besides playing in
the pageants and processions on Corpus Christi day,
festivities on Midsummer eve, and the annual
feasts held by each guild. (fn. 15) Any occasion calling for
general rejoicing included the waits, from the
reception of royalty to the triumphal procession of
the rioters who had torn down Bristow's enclosures
at Whitley in 1469. (fn. 16) The waits must have been in
demand throughout a wide area, for in 1467 a leet
order restricted them to within 10 miles of the city,
unless high-ranking ecclesiastics should ask for
them. (fn. 17) One of the places which sometimes employed
them was Maxstoke Priory. (fn. 18)
There were probably always four waits, the chief
of whom was a trumpeter, (fn. 19) and the rest played
pipes, and probably drums and a stringed instrument - perhaps a dulcimer, later a violin. Organs
and regals or small organs were favourite instruments in the 16th century. The waits wore the city's
livery - coats or cloaks of green and red and silver
escutcheons and collars or chains. (fn. 20)
There were many occasions throughout the year
for feasting, ceremonial, and general festivity. The
year began with the twelve days of Christmas,
conducted by a Lord of Misrule. (fn. 21) St. George's day
on 23rd April and Hock Tuesday, the second
Tuesday after Easter, were followed soon after by
May day. Most festivities fell in the summer -
Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity
Sunday, then Midsummer day and the Nativity
of St. John the Baptist on June 24th, St. Peter's day
on June 29th and Lammas day on August 1st. May
day involved the usual decoration of the streets and
setting up of maypoles with accompanying rites. (fn. 22)
Hock Tuesday, which was originally celebrated by
very primitive and boisterous customs, seems to have
been turned into a play in 1416, representing the
defeat of the Danes by the English. (fn. 23) St. George's
day, St. Peter's eve, and Lammas day were marked
by feasting and ridings, in the case of the latter to
open the common fields. (fn. 24) But, apart from Corpus
Christi, the biggest occasion was Midsummer eve.
The Midsummer eve torchlit procession, called a
'watch', involved the mayor and civic officials in
scarlet and velvet robes, the city's armed guard, the
crafts proceeding in the same order they observed in
the Corpus Christi procession, bearing huge straw
figures of giants which were probably burnt in the
bonfires in which the celebrations culminated. The
streets were decorated with flowers and branches,
mainly of birch, and there was much eating and
drinking, (fn. 25) although in 1545 the mayor and sheriffs
were ordered to restrict their drinking to before the
watch. (fn. 26) Holy Trinity Guild also held processions,
although there is no indication of feasting, on Shire
Thursday, Whit Sunday, and Holy Rood day (14
Sept.). (fn. 27)
There were, however, other occasions for
communal feasting. Besides Midsummer eve and
St. Peter's eve, Holy Trinity Guild celebrated the
feasts of St. John Lateran (6 May), the Trinity, the
Decollation of St. John (29 Aug.), St. Matthew (21
Sept.), Michaelmas (29 Sept.), and St. Luke (18
Oct.), as well as numerous obits. (fn. 28) Corpus Christi
held a Lenten dinner, a breakfast on the morning
of Corpus Christi, a goose dinner in August and a
venison dinner in October. In 1492 the guild spent
£26 in feasts, only 13s. less than the annual stipend
of its five priests. (fn. 29) The craft guilds also enjoyed
refreshment, both on special occasions like Corpus
Christi day, and after general meetings of the craft.
The members of Holy Trinity Guild consumed a
variety of wines - white wine, 'wine of Tyre',
claret, malmesey, sack, and muscatel. The more
prosperous craft guilds like the dyers had red and
white wine while the most common drink of all was
ale. St. Mary's Hall was used for feasting not only
by Holy Trinity Guild but by some of the more
important crafts, such as the drapers and mercers.
Corpus Christi Guild seems to have held its celebrations at St. Nicholas's Church though it may have
dined in Mill Lane as well. The other craft guilds
hired rooms in one of the religious houses -
Bablake, Greyfriars, and especially Whitefriars, but
they probably also met in inns and alehouses, like
the Gascoyne tavern where the smiths met in
1468-71. (fn. 30)
Other inns which existed in the 15th century were
the 'Bear', (fn. 31) the 'Star', (fn. 32) the 'Angel' where the Duke
of Buckingham stayed in 1460, (fn. 33) the 'Rose',
originally the 'Red Rose', headquarters of the
Lancastrian party, the 'White Rose' or 'Roebuck',
meeting-place of the Yorkists, (fn. 34) and the 'Cardinal's
Hat' in Earl Street. Some inns were really private
houses owned by wealthy citizens who lodged visitors
to the city. The 'Cardinal's Hat' was thus originally
'Langley's House', (fn. 35) and the 'Bull' in Smithford
Street (fn. 36) belonged to Robert Onley. Henry VII
lodged there after Bosworth in 1485 (fn. 37) and Mary
Queen of Scots stayed there as a prisoner in 1569. (fn. 38)
The 'Peacock', mentioned in 1447, (fn. 39) contained fifteen beds in 1487-8. (fn. 40) Part of it is said to have been
converted into the Mayor's Parlour in 1574-8, and
was demolished in 1878. (fn. 41) Other visitors to Coventry
could stay at the priory guest house and the Hospital
of St. John the Baptist provided accommodation
for poorer travellers. (fn. 42) Inns mentioned in the 16th
century include the 'Red Lion' in Greyfriars Lane, (fn. 43)
the 'George' in Gosford Street, (fn. 44) the 'Ram' in Smithford Street, (fn. 45) and probably also the 'Golden Cross'. (fn. 46)
In addition to the inns which provided accommodation, there were numerous alehouses. When a census
of people and grain was taken in 1520 there was
a total population of 6,601. There were 68 brewers
brewing 146 quarters of malt a week and 43 bakers
baking 132 quarters of wheat a week. From this it
has been calculated that the consumption of ale or
beer was a quart a day for each member of the
population, man, woman and child. (fn. 47)
The council tried to control the ale and wine
trade, restricting the number of alehouses, fixing
prices, and attempting to reduce drunkenness.
According to the mayor's proclamation in 1421 the
price of ale was fixed at 1¼d. and 1½d. a gallon, of
White Rochelle at 6d., red and white Gascony at
8d., and Malmesey and 'Romeney', a sweet Greek
wine, at 16d. a gallon, while no one was to sell the
Spanish wines 'Algarbe' or bastard, or 'Osey' from
Alsace until the mayor had inspected them. (fn. 48) But it
was in the 1540s and 1550s that the problem of
excessive drinking assumed considerable importance.
In 1544 prices were again fixed and the council
enacted that nobody was to brew or sell ale without
a licence from the mayor and J.P.s. This was
prompted by the large number of people who left
their occupations to become brewers and tapsters,
and who charged high prices after forestalling and
regrating barley when it was brought into the city
on market days. The effect of this, according to the
leet book, was that 'Almighty God is highly displeased, the commonwealth of this city greatly
decayed and vice, idleness and other innumerable
mischiefs nourished and increased'. (fn. 49) It seems to
have been the latter which especially incensed the
council. In 1547 they complained that 'those of the
poorest sort' sat all day in the alehouse drinking
and playing cards and 'tables' when they should be
at home giving part of their earnings to their wives
and children. The leet, therefore, forbade any
labourer, journeyman, or apprentice to resort to any
inn, tavern, or alehouse to eat or drink on a workingday. (fn. 50) In 1553 they enacted that no alehouse-keeper
was to allow any Coventry inhabitant to eat or drink
in his alehouse, except on market or fair days and
then only in the company 'of an honest stranger',
and no inn-holder was to allow any handicraftsman, labourer, journeyman or apprentice to eat,
drink, or play except in the company of a stranger. (fn. 51)
This legislation was a typical example of the
determination of the upper-class oligarchy to keep
the restless and ambitious lower class in subjection.
Merchants, mercers, and drapers, unlikely to resort
to common alehouses, would be unaffected by the
first part of the legislation, while the second part,
relating to inns, specifically exempted them. There
were frequent enactions to curb the number of alehouses, which in 1552 were considered 'excessive', leading to 'an increase of vice and decay
of the commonwealth'. At the same time there
was an attempt to separate the functions of brewing and selling ale. (fn. 52) The efforts of the council,
however, seem to have been in vain. The number
of alehouses did not diminish and tippling remained the chief recreation for the majority of the
inhabitants.
For those who liked more strenuous pastimes
there was archery, racing, bowls, quoits, hunting,
and the baiting of animals - bulls, bears, and cocks.
One of the grievances of the inhabitants against the
inclosure of common land was that it deprived them
of their recreation ground where they could shoot
arrows, wrestle, run races of men and horses, dance,
and hold feasts. (fn. 53) That they did not always confine
these recreations to commons is evident from the
complaint of the prior in 1480 that his corn and grass
had been damaged by the citizens during their
'roving' expeditions. (fn. 54) Roving, a popular but
dangerous sport consisting of shooting at moveable
targets, had been forbidden by the leet in 1468.
At the same time butts were ordered to be
made around the city (fn. 55) in accordance with Edward
IV's decree ordering butts to be set up in every
township, the inhabitants to shoot there on all feast
days. (fn. 56) In 1496 every craft was ordered to make its
own butts. (fn. 57) The position of some of these is
known: Drapers' and Skinners' Butts stood outside
New Gate, (fn. 58) and Barkers' Butts to the west of the
city. (fn. 59) Other butts mentioned are Somerles, near
Spon, and Childrous. (fn. 60) Shooting at butts, however,
never seems to have been as popular as roving, which
survived the decrees against it, (fn. 61) and by the 16th
century gaming in alehouses had largely replaced it.
A leet order of 1517 empowered aldermen to stop
'unlawful games' and to see to the exercising of long
bows. (fn. 62)
Cock-fighting, mentioned in 1441, remained a
favourite sport at Coventry until recent times. (fn. 63) A
rather curious leet order was enacted in 1423 and
again in 1474 that no butcher could kill a bull, unless
it had been baited at the accustomed place. The
penalty was a fine and forfeiture of the bull. (fn. 64) The
chamberlains were ordered in 1424 to make a ring at
the bull-ring so that bulls could be baited 'as they
have been heretofore'. (fn. 65) The bull-ring, next to the
Great Butchery, was near Holy Trinity Church. (fn. 66)
Evidence for bear-baiting exists in entries in
chamberlains' and wardens' accounts of payments to
Sir Fulke Greville's bear-ward. (fn. 67)
Cheylesmore originated as a hunting lodge and
when Roger de Montalt left for the Holy Land in
1249-50 and granted part of the manor to the priory,
he specifically reserved the right for himself and his
heirs to hunt and hawk when they came to
Coventry. (fn. 68) The park was stocked with deer during
the late 14th century and retained its reputation for
venison well into the 17th century. (fn. 69) The proximity
to Cheylesmore Park and the commons surrounding
the city provided the citizens of Coventry with
plenty of opportunity for hunting and hawking. This,
however, was frowned upon by the authorities when
it was indulged in by the lower classes. Greyhounds
were forbidden to anyone below the rank of a 40s.
freeholder in 1510. (fn. 70) In 1525 the prohibition was
extended to hawks, hounds, ferrets, nets, or any
other hunting aids. The reason for this was alleged
to be the excessive hunting by inhabitants 'disposed
to idleness not having 40s. of freehold', which
destroyed the beasts and fowls of the warren and
chace, 'whereby much idleness and poverty is
greatly increased within the city'. (fn. 71) The order was
probably ineffective, however, for it was repeated in
1550, the hunting of ducks in other men's waters
being then added to the other prohibited sports. (fn. 72)
Duck-hunting was still, about 1800, a popular
sport around Coventry. (fn. 73) In 1518 bowls and quoits
were forbidden to 'poor craftsmen' although
bowling at St. Anne's by the Charterhouse was
permitted to 'honest persons that will make little
noise'. (fn. 74)
The Reformation wrought a profound change in
the life of Coventry's inhabitants far beyond
questions of dogma or forms of worship. Although
the citizens had spent much of their history in
conflict with the great Benedictine priory in their
midst, its dissolution, and that of the Charterhouse
and two friaries, brought a deep sense of shock. Since
the Dissolution coincided with a period of economic
depression and social unrest, many connected the
two events and attributed the loss of Coventry's
former glory to the disappearance of the monks. It
was felt that the priory had attracted visitors and
trade to the city and the end of the hospitality and
almsgiving of the friaries was especially regretted.
But all efforts to reprieve the religious houses were
disregarded by the Crown; the great priory decayed (fn. 75)
and the other houses passed out of clerical hands.
The dissolution of the religious houses was followed
in 1545 by that of the chantries and guilds. The
power of the great guilds had already begun to
decline by 1535 when Corpus Christi united with
Holy Trinity Guild, (fn. 76) and although there was some
opposition to their suppression in 1547, it was feeble
and was readily appeased by the passing of an Act of
Parliament in the following year which enabled the
corporation to purchase the guilds' property. (fn. 77)
Nevertheless, the removal of Holy Trinity Guild left
a gap in the pageantry and social life of Coventry
which was not wholly filled by the craft guilds or by
the corporation, in spite of the latter's effort in
1555 at display in 'scarlet and velvet' on principal
days. (fn. 78)
The burning in Coventry of several Marian
martyrs (fn. 79) strengthened the anti-Catholic and Puritan
tendencies in the city, which erupted during the
1560s in an orgy of iconoclasm. 'Good ministers'
were sent to Coventry in 1559 and the mayor and
aldermen passed an act of the leet to make a levy on
every house to maintain them. (fn. 80) Under the influence
of the new ministers and the Puritan council, the
mass was suppressed, images and relics were beaten
down and burnt in the streets, organs were removed
from the churches, paintings whitewashed, and in
an excess of zeal even the registers of St. Michael's
were burnt because they contained 'some marks of
Popery'. (fn. 81) Only Coventry Cross was spared, and
that was because the Puritans who set out to destroy
it were met by butchers with cleavers. (fn. 82)
Although religion in Coventry was of a strongly
Protestant tone, fanatical Puritanism seems to have
been resisted by the majority of the population. It
was, however, the creed of the ruling oligarchy and
of the clergy, who would have been happy to move
in the direction of a Calvinistic theocracy. They
were frustrated, at least for almost half a century,
by the resistance of the people who clung, in spite
of their Protestantism, to the pastimes and festivities
of a pre-Reformation society, and by the policy and
inclinations of the queen. Thus the Puritan council
in the first flush of its iconoclastic enthusiasm 'put
down' Hox Tuesday in 1561 and the Midsummer
eve procession c. 1563. (fn. 83) But the Corpus Christi
plays survived after the Chester and York cycles
had been suppressed. This was probably partly due
to the queen's interest. When she visited the city in
1565, Elizabeth I saw four pageants and was greeted
by the recorder, John Throgmorton, who told her
the story of Hock Tuesday, adding that 'a certain
memorial whereof is kept to this day, by certain
open shows in this city yearly'. (fn. 84) Whether this means
that the 'putting-down' of 1561 had been ineffective,
or whether it was a hint to the queen is not known,
but the Hock Tuesday play, as well as the Corpus
Christi plays, was certainly being performed again in
1567. (fn. 85) It was probably suppressed again soon afterwards for when it was played before the queen at
Kenilworth in 1575 it was described as 'now of late
laid down ... by the zeal of certain of their preachers:
men very commendable for their behaviour and
learning, and sweet in their sermons, but somewhat
too sour in preaching away their pastime'. The
players, wishing the preachers would confine themselves to preaching and leave matters of 'government'
to the mayor and magistrates, requested the queen
that they should have their play again. (fn. 86) The request
seems to have been granted, for an entry in the city
annals records that Hock Tuesday, which 'had been
laid down 8 years', was played again. The annals,
notoriously inaccurate on the question of dating,
give 1575 for this entry, (fn. 87) but it should probably be
dated a year later since the queen's visit to Kenilworth took place in July, that is later than Hock
Tuesday.
With the single exception of 1575, which was a
plague year, (fn. 88) the Corpus Christi plays were
regularly played until 1580 when they were 'laid
down'. This seems to have caused considerable
discontent among the people and players, however,
for in 1584 a new play, dealing with the theologically
respectable subject of the Destruction of Jerusalem,
was commissioned from John Smythe of Oxford,
who was paid the large sum of £13 6s. 8d. for it.
The play, which was probably based on Josephus,
seems to have been a very elaborate one, involving
all the crafts. (fn. 89) No plays were performed again until
1591 and several of the pageant-houses and properties
were sold during the 1580s, although the weavers
rebuilt their pageant-house in 1587. (fn. 90) Their
optimism was justified to some extent for in 1591 'at
the request of the commons of this city' the council
gave permission for the Destruction of Jerusalem
and the Hock Tuesday play to be played on the
pageants on the following Midsummer day and St.
Peter's day, 'and none other plays'. By this time
the plays had broken completely with tradition, in
subject, in the days upon which they were played,
and even in the responsibility of the craft guilds. A
general contractor, Thomas Massey, managed the
plays, being paid by crafts, many of which had
already sold their equipment. (fn. 91) This was the last
occasion upon which any plays were performed
although Massey tried to revive them to celebrate
the coronation of James I. He spread the rumour
that the king's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was
coming from Combe Abbey to see the plays. The
Puritan council referred the question to two local
preachers who vetoed the plays and Massey was
imprisoned. (fn. 92) Thus by 1628 the pageants could be
spoken of as 'put down many years since' and about
the same time Sir Robert Cotton's librarian wrote
his misleading inscription on the Hegge plays. (fn. 93)
The 1590s and 1600s were marked by another
period of activity on the part of the Puritan council.
The same council meeting which gave permission
for the last performance of plays in Coventry
ordered all the maypoles in the city to be taken
down 'and not hereafter to be set up'. With the
suppression of the last of the public festivals, life
became very drab, and, moreover, trade probably
suffered. Ben Jonson's description of the Puritan
tradesmen of Coventry, though written in 1625, (fn. 94)
doubtless applied equally to the 1590s:
'A pure native bird
This: and tho' his hue
Be Coventry Blue
Yet is he undone
By the thread he has spun
For since the wise town
Has let the sports down
Of May games and morris
For which he right sorr' is,
Where their maids and their mates
At Dancing and Wakes,
Had their napkins and posies . . .'
Jonson ends by suggesting that the only use left for
the Puritan's thread is 'to hang or choke him'.
Sabbatarianism was also growing during this
period. In 1588 the opening of shops, playing games,
or idly walking about were forbidden during servicetime on Sundays. (fn. 95) In 1599 these orders were
intensified, indoor games and idly sitting in streets
or fields being added to the other forbidden activities. (fn. 96) Football in the streets would incur gaol
after 1595 and children's games in the street were
forbidden in 1605. (fn. 97) This suggests that the earlier
prohibitions were being disregarded, as does the
complaint of churchwardens that, in spite of their
efforts, many 'do lie in bed', while others went to
neighbouring villages where they could spend the
Sabbath profanely, drinking and enjoying themselves 'to the great dishonour of God and the offence
of others'. (fn. 98) In the same year church attendance on
Sundays was made compulsory (fn. 99) and listening to
sermons and theological debates replaced the more
frivolous recreations of the past. The first weekly
lecture, which was to become a feature of the
Commonwealth period, was established in 1609. (fn. 1)
The Puritans found that James I, like Elizabeth,
disappointed their expectations. In 1611 they were
ordered, in a letter from the king himself, to receive
the sacrament kneeling, 'to the grief of many'. Ten
years later James refused to approve the new charter
until he was satisfied that the orders of the church
were being observed. The bishop informed him that
there were 'not above seven of any note who do
not conform themselves'. This was almost certainly
an understatement and Laud's measures caused
particular dismay. After recording the order in 1635
to turn the communion table into an altar, the
writer of the city annals remarked 'God grant it
continueth not long'. (fn. 2) During part of the 1630s and
early 1640s there were orders for the wearing of
scarlet on festival days, defined in 1640 as All Saints
day, Gunpowder Treason day, Christmas day, New
Year's day, Candlemas, Easter day, Whitsun,
Trinity Sunday, Coventry Fair day, and both Great
Leet days. (fn. 3) These 'festival days', however, must have
been drab affairs compared with those of the past.
Even the waits, who had survived longer than the
rest, had been discharged in 1634 for being 'troublesome'. (fn. 4)
The Puritans were back in the ascendancy in 1641
when the altar of Holy Trinity was replaced by the
table. Two Presbyterians, Obadiah Grew and John
Bryan, became vicars respectively of St. Michael in
1642 and Holy Trinity in 1644. The covenant was
taken in 1643 (fn. 5) and Coventry remained staunchly
Parliamentarian throughout the Civil War period.
It is possible that the phrase 'sent to Coventry'
derived from the unbending attitude of the townsfolk to Royalist prisoners sent there. (fn. 6) The diary of
Robert Beake (mayor, 1655) gives some indication
of the strict Sabbatarianism in force in Coventry
during the Commonwealth period. Offenders were
put in the stocks or the cage for travelling on Sunday,
and even the man who was travelling 'to be a godfather' was fined. Beake seems to have been very
zealous in his duties. He was active in suppressing
disorder and the selling of unlicensed ale and
personally visited all the unlicensed alehouses in
three wards, while he spent his Sundays in the park,
to observe 'who idly walked there'. (fn. 7)
Most of Coventry's chief citizens remained
Protestant and anti-Royalist in sympathy, (fn. 8) and many
of the measures of the Puritan years, like the
compulsory attendance at church and the closing of
shops on Sunday, remained. (fn. 9) Nevertheless, there
was a conscious reaction against Puritan repression
at the Restoration, at least on the part of those in
power, and probably among many of the people as
well. The Restoration was celebrated with feasting,
bonfires, and conduits running wine. Grew and
Bryan were ejected, the lectures suppressed, and
maypoles brought back. (fn. 10) In 1662 the font and
organ were restored to St. Michael's and the king's
brother, later James II, was entertained by the city
council. (fn. 11) The pageants were never revived but there
was some attempt to recreate the pageantry and
gaiety of an earlier period. Waits were appointed in
1674 'to play in the city as the waits formerly did,
during the pleasure of the house' and the Great
Show Fair, the successor of the Corpus Christi Fair,
was celebrated by feasting at about the same time. (fn. 12)
The year 1678 saw the permanent establishment of
two institutions - the waits and the Godiva procession. The four waits, whose instruments were
two trebles, one tenor, and a double curtell, were
placed on a regular footing. They were to be paid 20
nobles a year, given cloaks every two years, and were
to wear the city's badge. Their duties were to play
at all public feasts and fairs and to play through the
streets from 2.0 a.m. until dawn during the winter
from Michaelmas to April 22. (fn. 13) The waits continued
on this basis until 1706, when their wages were
stopped, and after that on a voluntary basis. (fn. 14)
The Great Show Fair procession, which was also
instituted in 1678, attained, during the next 150
years, something of the national fame of the religious
Corpus Christi celebrations it replaced. In place of
the mystery plays, the apparently secular, and
therefore respectable, subject of Lady Godiva became the focal point of the procession. The particular
interest in Godiva during the late 17th and 18th
centuries may have been fostered by the struggle of
the city government with Charles II. Godiva, as the
traditional originator of the city's liberties, provided
an ideal focus for city pride and patriotism. As in
the pre-Reformation Corpus Christi celebrations,
the craft guilds or city companies provided,
together with the city council, most of the pageantry.
They furnished followers to march in procession
with streamers bearing the company arms, following
the city's streamers of the elephant and castle and
cat-a-mountain, the mayor, and the boy, or later the
girl, who represented Lady Godiva. (fn. 15)
Processions to greet royal visitors to the town
were similarly composed of the mayor and aldermen,
the city companies, and the waits, supplemented by
trumpeters and drummers. When James II visited
the city in 1687 the streets were decorated with
branches, Turkish carpets and tapestries hung from
the newly white-washed houses, and the mayor and
aldermen and companies, all in their gowns and
carrying streamers, conducted the king to St. Mary's
Hall, where he was confronted with such a feast of
fish and sweetmeats that the table collapsed under
the weight. (fn. 16)
James's visit was a deliberate attempt to win the
goodwill of Protestant Coventry which had rapturously received the Duke of Monmouth in 1682. (fn. 17)
In spite of the official pageantry, however, Coventry
remained obdurate. Richard Hopkins, the prominent
citizen whom James had hoped to win over in 1687,
offered his hospitality to Princess Anne when she
fled from London in 1688. James's expulsion in that
year was celebrated by the 'rude people' of Coventry
and Birmingham in destroying the property of
Roman Catholics and hunting down priests. James's
welcome in 1687, therefore, was partly due to the
genuine delight of dissenters who welcomed the
Declaration of Indulgence, and partly the expression
of the citizens who welcomed pageantry and feasting,
irrespective of its object. (fn. 18)
Feasting, and especially drinking, seems to have
survived all the repressive legislation against it. The
measures of the 1550s (fn. 19) were succeeded by an effort
in 1622 to exclude strangers from the trades of
brewer, maltster, and victualler, (fn. 20) but in 1625 it was
reported that there was too much resorting to alehouses and aldermen were empowered to visit alehouses twice a week to punish offenders. (fn. 21) Yet even
the efforts of the conscientious Robert Beake in the
1650s (fn. 22) to suppress unlicensed alehouses had little
effect, and in 1661 there were said to be 137 inns and
alehouses in the city. (fn. 23) After the suppression of the
religious houses, inns became even more important
as the meeting-places of the city companies. Fretton
lists fifteen public houses at which the fullers'
company held its meetings and feasts. (fn. 24) Some
companies owned or rented rooms in which to meet.
The weavers were meeting in Leather Hall for
feasting on Midsummer eve in the middle of the
Commonwealth period. (fn. 25) The butchers held their
feast in St. Mary's Hall in 1661. (fn. 26) The companies
remained as dining clubs long after they had lost
their economic functions. When Poole wrote in 1869
the butchers, fullers, mercers, drapers, clothiers,
worsted weavers, and cappers still survived, but in
most cases they were represented by gentlemen
who held property in a corporate capacity, sometimes performed charitable functions, and met
annually to dine, but who had no connexion with the
trade which they represented. (fn. 27)
The grammar school and its library provided
Coventry with some literary pretensions during the
17th century. One of the ushers of the school was
Dr. Philemon Holland, who had practised medicine
in Coventry from c. 1585-1608. Holland was the
most famous translator of the early 17th century,
translating Camden, Livy, Pliny, Plutarch, Marcellinus, and Suetonius into English. His pupils
included the two Davenports, Christopher and
John, one a Catholic, the other one of the Puritan
founders of Newhaven (Connecticut). Another pupil
was Sir William Dugdale, the historian of Warwickshire. (fn. 28) Coventry had a modest record as the home
of historians, from Geoffrey, the chronicler of the
priory in the 13th century, to Richard Grafton (fn. 29)
in the 16th century and Dugdale and Humfrey
Wanley, the antiquary and cataloguer of the
Harleian collection, in the 17th century. (fn. 30)
The grammar school library is usually dated from
1601, when the building was begun at the expense
of the corporation and the headmaster, John Tovey,
made an appeal for books. (fn. 31) There seem to have been
earlier libraries in Coventry: the libraries of the
religious houses, (fn. 32) a house in Well Street mentioned
among Trinity Guild property in 1532, (fn. 33) and a
library belonging to the grammar school which
Elizabeth I visited in 1565. (fn. 34) But the 17th-century
library was the first to qualify as a public library
since it was open to scholars in the town as well as to
those of the school. In this respect it vies with
Norwich in being the earliest municipal public
library in England.
The library was housed in a large timber-framed
room on the south side of the school until it was
demolished when the street was widened in 1794.
In 1615 William Wheate devised a yearly rent-charge
of 13s. 4d. 'to the use of such person as should keep
the library lately built in the city of Coventry, for
their careful looking to the books thereof'. The
library-keeper, usually one of the senior boys,
continued to be paid 13s. 4d. until 1832. Most of the
books were acquired by donation. Early donors
included Humphrey Fenn, the Puritan divine, Vicar
of Holy Trinity in 1578 and 1585-90, Richard Butler,
mayor in 1601, Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley (d. 1635),
John Hales, nephew of the founder of the school,
Basil Feilding, Earl of Denbigh (d. 1675), recorder,
1647-51, and Dr. Ralph Bathurst, Vice-Chancellor
of Oxford University, who gave a copy of the
Bodleian Library catalogue in 1676. Among the
earliest gifts to the school were two volumes on
Egyptian hieroglyphics, given by the coroner,
Richard Randell. Most of the books, however, were
theological - a number of bibles and histories of the
bible, the works of Luther and Melanchthon, and,
surprisingly in such a Protestant town, the letters of
St. Ignatius. Secular books included Occleve, On the
Education of Princes, Lydgate's poems, the works of
Livy, and volumes in Greek, Hebrew, Syriac,
Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Irish, and Welsh.
Few of these can have found any readers, and doubtless they were valued as incunabula and rarities. In
1628 the corporation ordered that boys were not to
be allowed access at their pleasure, but marginalia
and other additions to those books which survived in
1908 show that they were in fact allowed to use the
books fairly freely.
The care taken of the books in the 17th century
was not maintained and the library, like the school
itself, was one of the many victims of neglect during
the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Charity
Commissioners' report of 1833 stated that 'the
books seem to have been entirely neglected and
exposed to distruction', and that some of them had
even been used to light fires. Part of the damage was
due to storage in a damp room - St. Mary's Hall -
after the library building had been demolished in
1794. Various committees of the council were
appointed to view the library in the 1820s and 1830s
but they seem to have contributed little to stopping
the decline and in 1908 the remaining books were
sold by the governors for £70. Some of the books,
including the original donation list and catalogue,
were acquired by Cambridge University Library. (fn. 35)
Seven volumes were acquired for the Coventry and
Warwickshire Collection of Coventry Public
Libraries in 1951. (fn. 36)