Enclosure: How the English Lost Their Lands

Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on medieval history continues with a video on the process of Enclosure which started in England during the middle ages and continued well into the early modern period. The common lands were seized, which pushed the English peasants, who lost their lands, into the city. This created a large landowner class in England, which still controls most of the land.

Art and animation: Haley Castel Branco
Script: Turgut Gambar

Production Music courtesy of EpidemicSound

#Documentary #Enclosure #Feudalism

[KingsandGenerals]

We love videos on economic history so much. Hopefully, you also enjoy them!

[hq]

My wife: get out of the bed! We have errands to do.

Me: Not now! I need to find out how the English peasants lost their lands.

[Artur_M.]

Interesting to see you covering socioeconomic history. It would be great if you would make a video about serfdom and how it died out in parts of Europe during the Late Medieval and Early Modern period, while getting entrenched and intensifying in other parts. The river Elbe in Germany being the approximate border. I think that this topic isn't talked about much, and when it is, it's full of misconceptions and simplifications.

[aidena]

Ah thats why the countryside looks the way it does even now.

[benajminfelix]

Thief's of private property pass their lives in chains, thief’s of public property pass their lives in riches and luxury

[Tommykey]

"The peasants are revolting!"

"Yes, they are, aren't they?"

[Poopdahoop]

Thank you for presenting Enclosure as more complex than just 'sure it was bad, but this is why we have such agriculture today' and emphasizing that agricultural development was happening before and after enclosure as well, and not solely because of it.

[FlashPointHx]

This makes me want to play every medieval city builder game out there

[DieNibelungenliad]

The enclosing of private land that was in common use so that it could be in private use of the landlord also happened in Mexico. It would be one of the causes of the Mexican Revolution.
Where ever there is a rural movement, their concerns are often similar: the landless want land to use, those in debt want to be free, and peace.

[Canhistoryismylife]

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who takes things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

[raquetdude]

A video on the English civil war factions such as the diggers and levellers would be interesting.

[Mojo-IRE]

There's a docudrama series about the Norman Invasion called "Battle for Middle Earth".

They gave out some fascinating info at the end:

When William conquered England in 1066 he took half the land for himself, gave a quarter to the church and the rest he divided among 190ish Noble Norman families. The descendants of William and just those families still own 20% of the land in the entire UK today...

[Brahmdagh]

One of the best K&G videos. Please also make one on the Iqta system and how it impacted medieval Islamic societies' productivity.
Battles sound exciting, but its seemingly "trivial" stuff like this that decides the fate of the said battles far before the battle lines get drawn.

[denebaguirre]

This kind of stuff is more important for universal history than battles and kings. Still there is little attention to this matter from the public at large. So I'm glad to see this kind of videos. Congratulations!

[AcenPoint]

I'm really loving this trend from youtube historians to shy away from battles and so on which all get a bit samey anyway, and bring more light on historical politics, economics, etc. Fascinating.

[brokenbridge]

I had heard about this process. But this video has made me realize that this issue was a lot more complex than I originally thought. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

[dankirslis]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your videos. Public education in my country 🇺🇸 is horrible. Your videos and videos provided by other channels taught me much more than 13 years of school could ever teach me. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

[williamblake]

Nice one. I'm up in the Western Isles of Scotland where we had a similar and much better known phenomenon in the Highland Clearances.

[johnforbes]

I studied 1760 - 1870 social history at school for GCSE and our syllabus covered Enclosure. This lead to people moving into the cities in the long term.

[steinway]

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

That's the first stanza of a 17th century poem protesting enclosures.