The Wool Inheritance

It is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of wool to medieval England. It powered the economy in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was to do four centuries later. England produced the best wool in Europe, much prized by the weavers of Flanders and Florence, and the best of English wool came from the Cotswolds.

Wool paid the huge ransom of Richard the Lionheart after his capture while returning from the Crusades; it paid for the military adventures of Edward I; it funded the entire cost of the early stages of the Hundred Years War during the reign of Edward III. It is no surprise that wool was often referred to as ‘the jewel of this realm’.

Overseas trade in wool was conducted by the Company of the Merchants of the Staple, who were granted a monopoly by Edward III in the 1340s. Exports were taxed, and trade was strictly controlled by exporting all wool through the ‘staple port’ of Calais, which was under English control at that time. The Merchants of the Staple, in turn, sourced their wool from local merchants known as woolmen.

Prominent among the Merchants of the Staple during the 15th century were the Celys, who traded from Mart Lane in London. We know much about the Celys, since their papers are preserved in the Public Record Office.

The wool bought by the Celys came almost entirely from Northleach and the surrounding area, and the Cely letters make frequent reference to the town and its woolmen.