Mobility, law and sedition: the rise and impact of vagrancy in late medieval England

In so doing, it seeks to challenge the traditional narrative that vagrancy was purely a post-Black Death concern tied to labour shortages, arguing instead that vagrancy was a multifaceted concept shaped by broader societal, political, and cultural forces. The study examines how vagrancy laws, chroniclers, and literary works like Piers Plowman contributed to the construction and regulation of the vagrant figure, which was used by elites to enforce social order, manage economic disruptions, and control marginalised populations. <br><br>In so doing, this thesis is indebted to New Historicism.

It integrates legal texts, literary analysis, and documentary records to examine the intertextuality between legislative measures and cultural depictions of vagrancy. This methodology allows for a comprehensive understanding of how themes of mobility, rebellion, and labour control were interwoven into both <br>government policy and literary narratives. Further, it allows us to consider how images were disseminated between genres and where they originated. <br><br>We find that vagrancy images were not only a response to economic conditions, but also a tool used by medieval authorities against various social, political and religious or moral concerns.