ABSTRACT
If personal wealth and professional status were the key components in establishing an individual’s position in society, they must also have had a part to play in the development of his or her civic awareness. There can be little doubt that several, if not all, of the individuals discussed in the last chapter were well placed to influence affairs in the early fourteenth-century village. The same can be said for at least two of the women discussed in Chapter 5. Some of these individuals must also have been predisposed to support charitable and religious institutions, not only through financial support during their own lifetimes, but also in legacies and testamentary stipulations drawn up to ensure their spiritual well-being in the after life.
