ABSTRACT
The period ad 1050-1500 in the British Isles is conventionally divided into three successive phases:
1 the development of towns and the countryside in a period of growth, 1050-1300; 2 the crises of the early and mid-fourteenth century, including the Black Death; 3 a long period of mixed fortunes from about 1350 to 1500, which comprised both decline
for some towns and the rise of others, including in England the increasing dominance of London over a widening hinterland and a similar dominance in Scotland of Edinburgh (the national picture is provided in Palliser 2000).
