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English and Galician in the Middle Ages:
A Sociohistorical Survey
Begoña Crespo García
lords was the last step before the revolt. A combination of
these factors made peasants, townsmen and, in some cases,
even members of the landowning group join the rising. The
claimings of this varied group were held by the Commons
in petitions to Parliament (Thompson, 1983: 30). All this evidence
points towards the existence of a group at an inter-mediate
level or drawing towards it. (note 6) With parliamentary
representation they had some force to claim the rights of the
economically weak: those who spoke English, or, those who,
at least, were of clear native extraction. The revolt was, fi nally,
supressed, but the presence of the bourgeoisie went on being
felt everywhere. The fi nal triumph of this middle stratum can
be seen, as far as language is concerned, through the literary
revival prompted by men like Chaucer, Gower or Hoccleve.
In 15 th century Galicia the second wave of foreign noblemen
led to the increase of social tensions and confl icts between
the different groups. The new aristocrats, supported by the
king, tried to expand their wealth by corrupt means, even by
looting and ravaging. Their main aim was the redistribution of
territories in order to gain properties to the detriment of the ecclesiastical
feuds. The tension culminated in an open confl ict
known as “Guerras Irmandiñas”: in 1431 and between 1467
and 1469. Some Galician-born noblemen, prelates and peas-
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