During the last generation a vast amount of research has been done on all aspects of the late Middle Ages in England, and this has radically modified previous views; yet no general synthesis has hitherto been attempted. Moreover, the period has suffered undue neglect and disparagement in comparison with the preceding "Age of Faith" or the subsequent triumphs of Elizabethan England.

          But our generation may well find a particular interest in an England afflicted by war and disillusionment – from which it eventually recovered; and the late Middle Age in England was a time not merely of violence and decay but of growth and creativeness. Its Canterbury Tales and its Paston Letters, its ballads and its carols, its Perpendicular churches and its unsurpassed wood-carving, are still an essential part of English culture. It was an age of decisive importance for the future – the time of a developing Parliament and common law, of a government learning how to cooperate with the governed, of the rise to political and social importance of the middle classes, of a new pride in the English tongue, English ways, and English nationality.

CONTENTS:
PART 1: 1307-1399
1. THE TRAGIC DILEMMA
2. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REALM
3. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
4. RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS
5. THE ARTS
PART 2: 1399-1471
1. THE NEMESIS OF LANCASTER
2. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REALM
3. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
4. RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS
5. THE ARTS
PART 3: 1471-1536
1. GOD SAVE THE KYNGE!
2. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REALM
3. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
4. RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGES
5. THE ARTS