Living in Medieval England: The Turbulent Year of 1326 – Kathryn Warner

The title and cover blurb are misleading. The book draws upon the recorded accounts of the king (Edward II) in 1326 and upon official records from that year - so the content is dominated by lists. The lists are somewhat organized by theme - e.g. purchases of fish, or contemporary names, or people charged with murder. (There are a lot of murders. I don’t know how much of that is because England of the early fourteenth century was a violent place and how much of that is because legal records are skewed towards the illegal.) The content is further organized chronologically, with a chapter for each month of 1326.

The best of the book is the intermittent scattering of minutiae pertaining to daily life. For example, a person’s date of birth was unlikely to be recorded, so if someone claimed to be of age to take on an inheritance, a jury was gathered to witness when the inheritor was born and how they knew. (“I broke my leg four days later…”) The author is extremely knowledgeable, but the reader has to work for the best bits.

1326 was the last year of the reign of Edward II, and that gives the book a unity it otherwise lacks. Edward is friendly and generous - and apparently unaware that he is hated.