youth, concept of 759with a mayor from 1213. It had also become an active
manufacturing town with a prominent Jewish commu-
nity. The JEWS, however, became the victims of a mur-
derous pogrom in 1190 and were finally expelled in
1290.
During the wars between SCOTLANDand EDWARDI
and in the 14th century, York again became a major mili-
tary stronghold. The Scots never succeeded in capturing
York itself. By the late 14th century, conditions had set-
tled and York was prosperous again. Despite the ravages
of PLAGUESof the mid-14th century, York was probably
the largest provincial town, with perhaps 15,000 inhabi-
tants in England. In the 15th century, the town was dom-
inated by GUILDS of MERCHANTS who paid for the
impressive buildings still standing today, such as a Guild-
hall from about 1449 to 1459, a Tailors’ Hall from about
1405, and some 40 rebuilt or refurbished parish
churches. By 1450 York had become famous for its walls
and cathedral with its STAINED GLASS, and the annual per-
formances of its Corpus Christi MYSTERYplays. By the end
of the 15th century, however, the local merchants were
lamenting the city’s economic decline.
Further reading: R. Barry Dobson, The Jews of
Medieval York and the Massacre of March 1190(York: St.
Anthony’s Press, 1974); P. J. P. Goldberg, Women, Work,
and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy: Women in York and
Yorkshire c. 1300–1520(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992);
S. R. Jones, ed., The Government of Medieval York: Essays
in Commemoration of the 1396 Royal Charter(York: Borth-
wick Institute of Historical Research, University of York,
1997); Jennifer Kermode, Medieval Merchants: York, Bev-
erley, and Hull in the Later Middle Ages(Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1998); Heather Swanson,
Medieval Artisans: An Urban Class in Late Medieval En-
gland(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989).
York dynasty SeeEDWARDIV; RICHARDIII; WARS OF
THEROSES.
York Plays The York Plays were a cycle of plays of
unknown authorship that were enacted at YORKfrom the
late 14th century to the third quarter of the 16th century.
They were a cycle of 48 or 50 plays or pageants that con-
tained more than 300 speaking parts and more than
14,000 lines of Middle English stanzaic verse. The cycle
dramatically covered all of sacred history from the fall of
the Angels, through creation, the temptation of Adam
and Eve by the DEVIL, the expulsion from Eden, the flood,
the story of Moses, the Incarnation, the life of Christ, his
temptations by the devil, his trial and Crucifixion, the
Resurrection, and the LASTJUDGMENT. They were per-
formed by the craft GUILDSof the city on the movable
summer feast day of Corpus Christi. They were all per-
formed on one day on pageant wagons.
See alsoDRAMA; MYSTERY PLAYS.
Further reading: Richard Beadle and Pamela M.
King, eds., York Mystery Plays: A Selection in Modern
Spelling(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984); Richard Beadle,
“The York Cycle,” in The Cambridge Companion to
Medieval English Theatre,ed. Richard Beadle (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994), 85–108; Richard J.
Collier, Poetry and Drama in the York Corpus Christi Play
(Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1978); Clifford David-
son, From Creation to Doom: The York Cycle of Mystery
Plays(New York: AMS Press, 1984).youth, concept of Any concept of “youth” in the
Middle Ages and Renaissance was not actually a clearly
defined age group of all members of society but a tem-
porary limited social status one characteristically
passed through while growing up as a noble. The idea
of youth meant little to the majority of society, whose
members were locked into labor or service as soon as
they were able to perform it. In the development of the
young, primarily male, noble it was a status beyond
that of childhood or adolescent yet with limited rights
and certainly not the privileges of a fully free and inde-
pendent adult.
The term was primarily applied to a grown man who
had been educated and become a knight. However, but
not yet in control of his property or recognized as the
head of a family or lineage. He was dependent on his
father, who was the holder of patrimony and had author-
ity over him and the rest of the family and household. It
did not end at a particular age. The younger sons or
cadets in this status might have little hope or prospect of
ever succeeding their father or attaining economic inde-
pendence. Males, excluded from much autonomy by this
nebulous and perhaps irresponsible state, were thus often
drawn to violence, the abduction of women, and preda-
tory behavior as they sought to make their way in the
world. TOURNAMENTS provided other opportunities for
advancement, as in the case of WILLIAM THEMARSHAL.
The younger sons of monarchs often participated in
rebellions against their father as RICHARDI Lionheart did
against HENRYII. Historians are only recently beginning
to study what being a youth meant to women and other
classes and groups in the societies of the Medieval world,
if it meant anything at all.
See also AGING; CHILDHOOD; CHIVALRY; FAMILY AND
KINSHIP.
Further reading: Georges Duby, The Chivalrous
Society(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977);
Konrad Eisenbichler, ed., The Premodern Teenager:
Youth in Society, 1150–1650(Toronto: Centre for Refor-
mation and Renaissance Studies, 2002); Giovanni Levi
and Jean-Claude Schmitt, eds., A History of Young
People,Vol. 1, Ancient and Medieval Rites of Passage,
trans. Camille Nash (1994; reprint, Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1997); Shulamith Shahar,