page_title: Charter fair
section_title: Rise of the chartered fair in England
hierarchical_section_title: Charter fair / Rise of the chartered fair in England
caption_attribution_description: Bartholomew Fair
context_page_description: A charter fair in England is a street fair or market which was established by Royal Charter. Many charter fairs date back to the Middle Ages, with their heyday occurring during the 13th century. Originally, most charter fairs started as street markets but since the 19th century the trading aspect has been superseded by entertainment; many charter fairs are now the venue for travelling funfairs run by showmen.
context_section_description: In England, fairs began to develop in the early Norman period, reaching their heyday in the 13th century. During the 12th century, many English towns acquired the right from the Crown to hold an annual fair, usually serving a regional or local customer base and lasting for two or three days. By the end of the century, however, international trade with Europe in wool and cloth was increasing; London merchants were attempting to exert control over this process, acting as middlemen, but many of the English producers and ports on the east coast attempted to use the chartered fair system to circumnavigate them. Simultaneously, wealthy magnate consumers in England began to use the new fairs as a way to buy goods like spices, wax, preserved fish and cloth in bulk from the international merchants at the fairs, again bypassing the usual London merchants. Local nobles and churchmen could draw a considerable profit from hosting these events, and in turn the crown benefited from the payments given for the original charter. Over 2,200 charters were issued to markets and fairs by English kings between 1200 and 1270.
  Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the number of markets and fairs across England burgeoned. Although the terms "fair" and "market" were often used synonymously, key differences distinguished them. Markets were held daily in the more populous towns and cities or weekly in rural districts, and sold fresh produce and necessities, while fairs operated on a periodic cycle, and were almost always associated with a religious festival.    Fairs were associated with high value goods and non-perishables such as farm tools, homewares, furniture, rugs and ceramics.  Although a fair's primary purpose was trade, it typically included some elements of entertainment, such as dance, music or tournaments.  By 1516, England had some 2,464 markets and 2,767 fairs while Wales had 138 markets and 166 fairs. Both fairs and markets were important centres of social life in medieval society. 
  Towns such as Boston, Winchester, Stamford and St Ives acquired royal charters to hold huge, extended events focusing on the international markets. The major fairs had formed a set sequence by the mid-13th century, with the Stamford fair in Lent, St Ives at Easter, Boston in July, Winchester in September and Northampton in November. Secondary chartered fairs, such as those at Stourbridge, Bury St Edmunds, King's Lynn, Oxford and Westminster filled the gaps in between, although Stourbridge fair would grow to be the biggest fair in Europe towards the end of the medieval period. Many of these fairs would have been small in comparison to the largest European international fairs, but still involved international contracts and advance selling on a significant scale.
  These "great fairs" could be huge events; St Ives' Great Fair drew merchants from Flanders, Brabant, Norway, Germany and France for a four-week event each year, turning the normally small town into "a major commercial emporium". Dozens of stalls would be established and hundreds of pounds of goods bought and sold. Special courts, called courts of piepowders would be established to govern the events and settle disputes; this would include establishing local law and order, imposing systems of weights and measures; monitoring legal contracts and other features of medieval trade.
caption: Bartholomew Fair, one of London's chartered fairs in Microcosm of London 1808
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