A Basic Framework for the English Urban Sector

What features of the English polity facilitated links between towns and promoted collective urban influence on national politics? Firstly, this chapter traces the ways in which charters and law courts moulded the relationships that townspeople had with the Crown, aristocratic landholders, and (crucially) one another. Secondly, it considers the inter-urban links generated by domestic and international trade, as well as the role in shaping royal policy that townspeople assumed through their mercantile activities. Thirdly, it examines parliament as a venue for interaction between residents of different towns and as a vehicle for the formation of collective goals. Lastly, the chapter explores the role of towns themselves as spaces for the dissemination of political messages.