Providing the chronological setting for many of Shakespeare's plays, various swashbuckling novels and Hollywood films, late Medieval England is superficially well known. Yet its true complexity remains elusive, locked in the covers of specialized monographs and journal articles. Covering political, military, religious and constitutional subjects as well as social and economic topics, this work is a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars and educated laymen. Rightly characterized as an age of crisis, the 14th century saw the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Avignon Papacy, and the Great Schism of the Western Church. All placed great stresses on English society, aggravating old problems and creating new ones. The entries in this book synthesize recent scholarship on these and other historical events.