Middle English Literature

Ordinance and Statute of Laborers
Legislation to enforce labor as well as fix wages and prices was aimed at serfs
bound to serve a lord, at free laborers who worked in agriculture, at specific
crafts such as masonry or brewing, and at mendicant beggars. The king’s
council, which published the 1349 Ordinance on June 18, sought to lower
workers’ wages to pre-plague levels (which had doubled in some cases, see
“Pestilence,” p. 169), curb the laborers’ abilities to move around for work
as they saw advantages, and press free people who refused to work into
service. The 1351 Statute in the first parliament (February 9–March 1)
extended the list of occupations the legislation covered and specified how
and when the justices appointed in a district were obliged to enforce the
law. Convictions and sentences of fines, the stocks, and forced service exist
from the many commissions and local bodies who prosecuted the cases.
Very few convictions against the enforcers for corruption or abuse exist, of
which many people complained. Coupled with high and repeated taxation,
Ordinance and Statute of Laborers
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the laws aimed against laborers contributed to the causes of the 1381 revolt
(see “The Revolt,” p. 175).
Primary documents and further reading
Dyer, C. (2000) “Wages and Earnings in Late Medieval England: Evidence from
the Enforcement of the Labour Laws.” In C. Dyer (ed.) Everyday Life in Medieval
England. London: Hambeldon Press, 167–89.
Hilton, R. H., and T. H. Aston (eds.) (1984) The English Rising of 1381. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knighton, H. (1995) Knighton’s Chronicle, 1337–1396, ed. and trans. G. H. Martin.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Putnam, B. H. (1908) The Enforcement of the Statute of Labourers During the First
Decade of the Statute of Labourers, 1349–1359. New York: Columbia University
Press.
—— (ed.) (1938) Proceedings before the Justices of the Peace in the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries. London: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne.
Ritchie, N. (1962) [1934] “Labour Conditions in Essex in the Reign of Richard II.”
In E. M. Carus-Wilson (ed.) Essays in Economic History, vol 2. London: Arnold,
91–111.
Sillem, R. (ed.) (1936) Records of Some Sessions of the Peace in Lincolnshire, 1360–
1375. Hereford: Lincoln Record Society.
The Statutes of the Realm (1810) vol. 1. London: Eyre and Strahan, 23. Edward 3, stat. 1,
cc. 1–6, 307–8.
Language: Latin
Date: 1349
Edward,
1
by the grace of God, etc., to the reverend father in Christ
William, by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all Eng-
land, greeting. Because a great part of the people and especially of the
labourers and servants recently died of the pestilence, some, seeing the
needs of masters and scarcity of servants, are unwilling to serve unless they
receive excessive wages while others prefer to beg idly rather than labour to
get their living. We, considering the grave inconveniences which might
come especially from the lack of ploughmen and such labourers, through
deliberation and discussion with prelates and nobles, and with assistance
from other learned men concerning this and with their unanimous counsel,
do hereby ordain:
1
Edward III (r. 1327–77).

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[1.] That every man and woman of our realm of England, of whatever
condition, free or bonded, who is able bodied and younger than sixty years
old, not living by trade, carrying on a determinate craft, owning enough by
which to live, or else having his own land to cultivate and occupy himself,
nor serving another, if he, his estate considered, be required to serve in a
suitable role, he shall be bound to serve the man who needs him, and he
shall take only the wages, livery, recompense, or salary which was customary
in the places where he ought to serve in the twentieth year of our reign of
England or five or six common years ago.
2
This with the proviso that the
lords are preferred before others in retaining the service of their bondsmen
or their landed tenants so long as the lords only retain as many as are
necessary and not more. If any such man or woman, being sought after to
serve, will not do this, and this is proven by two or three true men before
the sheriff, bailiffs of our lord the king, or constables of the community
where this happens to take place, immediately they or someone else shall
arrest the person and send him to the nearest jail, and there he shall remain
in secure custody until he find surety to serve in the aforesaid form.
[2.] If any reaper, mower, or other labourer or servant, of whatever degree
or condition he be, is retained in anyone’s service but departs from the service
before the end of the agreed term without reasonable cause or permission,
he shall undergo the punishment of imprisonment. Moreover, no one, under
the same penalty, shall presume to receive or retain such a person in his service.
[3.] That no one shall pay or allow to be paid to anyone more wages,
livery, recompense, or salary than was customary as stated before, nor shall
any in another manner ask for or receive it under penalty of paying double
the amount paid, promised, demanded, or received to him who feels him-
self aggrieved. And if no such person is willing to proceed, the sum shall be
devoted to any of the people who will prosecute, and such prosecution shall
be in the court of the lord of the place wherever this case shall happen.
[4.] Also, if the lords of the towns or manors presume in any way by
themselves or through their servants to act contrary to the present ordin-
ance, then they shall be prosecuted in the counties, wapentakes, trithings,
3
or some such other courts for treble the penalty paid or promised by them
or their servants in the aforesaid manner. And if, by any chance, prior to the
present ordinance the employer has agreed with anyone else that the worker
will serve for a higher salary, the employer shall not be bound because of
the agreement to pay more than was customarily paid at the previous time
2
January 25, 1346–January 24, 1347.
3
Wapentakes are parts of counties and similar to hundreds; trithings are third parts of shires.
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to such a person; indeed, upon the aforesaid penalty, he shall not presume
to pay more.
[5.] Item, that saddlers, skinners, leather preparers, cordwainers, tailors,
smiths, carpenters, masons, tilers, shipwrights, carters, and all other crafts-
men and labourers shall not take for their labour and handiwork more than
was customarily paid to them in the said twentieth year and other common
years preceding, as said previously, in the places where they happen to work
and, if any man take more, he shall be committed to the nearest jail in the
aforesaid manner.
[6.] Item, that butchers, fishmongers, hostlers, brewers, bakers, pullers,
and all other vendors of whatever kind of victuals shall be bound to sell
such victuals for a reasonable price, having consideration for the price at
which such victuals are sold in the adjoining places so that these vendors
have moderate, not excessive, profits, which depend upon how much the
distance of the places from where the victuals have to be carried seems to
require. And if anyone sells these victuals in another manner and therefore
is convicted in the aforesaid way, he shall pay double of that which he
received from him whom he caused the loss to or, in default of him, to any
other person who will prosecute on his behalf. Also, the mayors and bailiffs
of the cities and boroughs, merchant and other towns, and of sea ports and
other maritime places shall have the power to inquire whether anyone in
any way offend against this and to levy the stated penalty to go to those
who bring a suit against such who are convicted. In cases where the same
mayors and bailiffs are negligent in executing the aforesaid and because of
this are convicted before the justices to be assigned by us, then these mayors
and bailiffs shall be compelled by the same justices to pay treble the price of
the item sold to the wronged person or to him who will prosecute in his
place, and moreover, they shall be grievously punished by us.
[7.] Because many healthy beggars refuse to labour as long as they are
able to live by begging alms, giving themselves to idleness and sins, and
sometimes to larceny and other shameful acts, no one shall give anything to
those who are able to work under colour of mercy or alms or presume to
nurse them in their laziness so that they may thus be compelled to labour
for the necessities of life.