In a London street, sometime around 1416, a badly injured child saw a merchant passing through the crowd. “This is my father,” he cried. The […]
Read moreTag: Bishop’s Lynn
How Lynn’s Merchants Helped Finance Edward III and the Start of the Hundred Years’ War
In April 1337, Thomas de Melchebourn of Bishop’s Lynn supplied four anchors, three cables, and rope for one of Edward III’s great ships. Two months […]
Read moreBound to the Borough: Freemen and Apprentices in Old Lynn
The names in the books The old civic records of Lynn are not quiet books. They are full of boys sent into service, craftsmen taking […]
Read moreThe Ship Nicholas: When Edward I’s Scottish War Reached Bishop’s Lynn
A medieval king’s war could arrive in a town in several ways. It might arrive as a royal command, a tax demand, a requisitioned cargo, […]
Read moreThe Friars in Sackcloth: King’s Lynn’s Lost Medieval Order
A short-lived friary King’s Lynn had several medieval friaries, but one of the least visible was the house of the Friars of the Sack. Their proper […]
Read moreThe Great Guild of Lynn: The Merchants Who Prayed, Traded, and Helped Rule the Town
The building in the market place The Trinity Guildhall stands in one of the most telling positions in King’s Lynn. It faces Saturday Market Place, […]
Read moreWhen Lynn Became One Town: John de Gray and the Great Exchange of 1205
In May 1205, the monks of Norwich gave up a town. That sounds dramatic, but the truth is more interesting. The monks did not abandon […]
Read moreHalf of Lynn? The d’Aubigny Family and a Medieval Myth
For centuries, one of England’s most powerful aristocratic families is said to have owned half of Lynn. It is a memorable claim. The bishop of […]
Read moreMice, Mellow Men, and Candlewives: The Strange Names of Medieval Lynn
What sort of man acquired the name Richard Skin-the-Cat? Why was another Lynn resident known as William the Mellow? Was Agnes the Candlewife a candle seller, a candle maker, […]
Read moreWhen Lynn Seized the Lord of Castle Rising and Paid Heavily
The castle itself probably was not stormed. Its lord was. Early in the fourteenth century, Robert de Montalt left his great stone residence at Castle […]
Read moreCabbages, Corruption, and Commerce: Bishop’s Lynn in Edward I’s Hundred Rolls
A boat carrying grain arrives at Bishop’s Lynn from the Fenland waterways. Before its cargo can be sold, the merchant must hire an official measuring […]
Read moreThe Bishop Next Door: Gaywood’s Lost Medieval Estate
Anyone passing Gaywood Hall today sees a nineteenth-century house standing among lawns and mature trees. Little above ground suggests that this was once the centre […]
Read moreMoney, Mayors, and Mistrust in Bishop’s Lynn
Who watched the Mayor? Who controlled Lynn’s money? And who had the right to check the men who governed it? The unrest that shook Lynn […]
Read moreLocked in Prayer: Anchorites and Hermits in Medieval Lynn
Medieval Bishop’s Lynn was not a quiet place. It was a port, market town and pilgrimage crossroads, with ships moving along the haven, carts passing […]
Read moreFrom Fleece to Freight: The Long History of Trade in King’s Lynn
Stand on Purfleet Quay and you can still see why King’s Lynn became a port of consequence. The river meets the sea-world here, and the […]
Read moreThe 1347 Summer when Lynn Seized the Corn
Hunger on the Quay: When Bishop’s Lynn Stopped the Grain Ships A June day at the waterfront The grain was already on the move. On […]
Read moreThe King Punishes Lynn
How a Medieval Port Lost, and Regained, Its Freedom In the first years of the thirteenth century Bishop’s Lynn looked like a town with a […]
Read moreThe Angels Of King’s Lynn
Angelic beings were important in late medieval life. They are often represented in English parish church art, especially in open timber roofs. You can see […]
Read moreJohn Capgrave
John Capgrave – the Lynn historian, hagiographer, theologian, and church leader who saw the princess with his own eyes. In 1406 the twelve year-old Princess […]
Read moreMargery Kempe’s Horses and Cries
”His death to me is as if he had died this same day …” Margery Kempe’s Business Failures In Lynn After the failure of one […]
Read moreHostage Taking in Lynn
The French Are Coming Ironically, although King John had proved himself very capable of hostage taking and demanding ransom, it was not King John who […]
Read moreLynn Priest Makes National History
One-time Lynn priest at St Margaret’s, William Sawtry, was the first person in England to be officially burned alive for heresy. He was executed at […]
Read moreKing John Had At Least Three Very Cunning Plans
The leader, commemorated locally for giving Lynn a Charter in 1204, was infamous nationally for taxing certain mistresses – a trick he had adapted from […]
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