The paucity of evidence about Maldon throughout the medieval period,
even in the fifteenth century for which there are some meagre
local archival records, make the
following conclusions somewhat speculative.
It appears that Maldon was a moderately important settlement in late Saxon
East Anglia, both as a trading centre and a defensive outpost.
But, its defensive role diminished once the Viking threat was over and
its commercial role eclipsed by other Essex centres, it was beginning
to decline by the end of the twelfth century. The distancing of
the king from his original lordship of the town,
and the subsequent fragmentation of lordship, combined
with strong landlordship in the century or so before the Black Death
and the Peasants Revolt, made it difficult for the townsmen to move
beyond the initial royal charter of 1171 in acquiring additional
privileges and freedoms that would have assisted Maldon in competing
with other towns of the region for a role as market centre or a conduit
for international trade. For two hundred years it was either quiescent
or unsuccessful in obtaining from the king any expansion of the
jurisdictions obtained in 1171.
Furthermore, Maldon had attached to it relatively little by way of
the agricultural property that might have been a source of a profitable
volume of surplus produce to supply the increasing demands of a rapidly
growing population.
These were probably factors in retarding Maldon's political and economic
development along the lines and at the pace of other boroughs. These
poor prospects would not have encouraged immigration from rural areas
that might have contributed to industrial development. During the
thirteenth century uncertainty arose whether it should be accorded
the status of a borough or only that of a vill. It was not only
overshadowed by London, Ipswich and even Colchester (which itself was
overshadowed by the other two), but also outclassed and outdistanced
by newer Essex towns of size comparable to its own (e.g. Harwich).
However, it became caught up in the expansion of trade from which East
Anglia benefited in the latter half of the fourteenth century, based at
first upon the wool trade and subsequently on the growth of the
cloth-making industry. There is much greater evidence in the second
half of the fourteenth century of Maldon men being involved in mercantile
pursuits. As these merchants acquired some measure of wealth, their
self-confidence and assertiveness grew and they were inclined to lead
the burgesses into negotiating with the town's lords concessions which
allowed greater self-determination. The first phase of this seems to
have taken place in the 1380s, directed against the FitzWalter lord (the
same family with which Colchester had a
territorial rivalry), who appears to have turned over his administrative
rights within the town, in return for an annual payment. It was followed
at the close of the century by similar pressure directed against the
Bishop of London, again largely successfully.
This late flowering was doubtless fostered by the sympathetic lordship
of the Darcy family in the fifteenth century, but offset by the general
decline in international commerce of the fifteenth century and by the
loss of its share in the cloth trade to larger towns – none of the
chapters of the fifteenth century custumal were directly concerned with
regulating the making or sale of cloth. The royal charter of 1554
described Maldon as "ruinous and decayed".
History of
medieval Maldon
