Starting a new life as artisans and traders in Ricardian and Henrician Canterbury (c.1400 and c.1500)

Migration and social mobility in medieval England by artisans and traders have received limited scholarly attention. In large part this is due to the nature of urban documentary sources. This article uses the rich Canterbury sources comparing the experiences of these groups around c.1400 and c.1500 to show how some individuals and families were able to thrive in Canterbury, especially during the former period, but that circumstances were far more precarious a century later.