Medieval Suffolk——An Economic and Social History, 1200-1500

Mark Bailey 2010

ISBN: 9781843835295, 1843835290

Published: February 18, 2010

Publisher: Boydell Press

The late middle ages were without doubt the most interesting period in Suffolk's history. By the end of the eleventh century Suffolk was wealthy, densely populated, highly commercialised and urbanised; in the fourteenth century its people faced three of the most tumultuous events of the last millennium, the Great Famine (1315-22), the Black Death (1349) and the Peasants' Revolt (1381). Their response was flexible and innovative, because by 1500 Suffolk was one of the richest and most industrialised regions of England, with a strong economy based on cloth manufacture, fishing, dairying and tanning.