Monty Python - The Background to History (Matching Tie and Handkerchief)

Lyrics:

The Background to History, part 4

Good evening. One of the main elements in any assessment of the medieval open-field farming system is the availability of oxen for the winter plowing. Professor Tofts of the University of Manchester puts it like this:

To plough once in the winter Sowing, and again in Lent,
Sowing with as many oxen
Sowing with as many oxen
As he shall have yoked in the plough
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
As he shall have yoked in the plough.
Oh yeah
Oh yeah

But of course there is considerable evidence of open-field villages as far back as the tenth century. Professor Moorhead:

Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence
Theeeeeere's ev-i-de-ence
There's evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence)
Evidence (evidence)
There's evidence (evidence)

Evidence of settlements with one long village street,
Farmsteads, hamlets, little towns - the framework was complete
By the tiiiiime ... (OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST!) The rural framework was complete
Rur-al
frame-work
wa-as
com-plete.

This is not to say, of course, the system was as sophisticated as it later came to be. I asked the Professor of Medieval studies at Cambridge why this was.

Well, i-it may not have been a - a statutory obligation, but, uh, I mean, uh, a guy who's a freeman who, uh - was obliged in the medieval system to... uh...

To do boonwork?

That's right, yeah. There's an example, ah, from the village rolls, ah, in 1313.

And I believe you're going to do it for us now.

That's right, yeah...

Oh it's written in the village rolls
That if one plough-team wants an oxen
And that oxen is lent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the loooord's consent.
Yes sir,
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent.

That was a talk on the open-field farming system by Professor Angus Jones. Some of the main points covered in this talk are
now available on a long-playing record "The Ronettes Sing Medieval Agrarian History."

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Background
• to
• History

[DERBYCFC]

The Ronettes Sing Medieval Agrarian History, please.

Sorry, we're sold out. It's terrifically popular. We've got First World War noises?

Is that The Ronettes?

No no, the French and the Germans.

[ahtaimo]

there's EVIDENCE! ahahahaha

[SweetSweetWaldo]

"Village Rolls" Compare Joe Cocker, "When the Night Comes"!

[hrhlordwurlibird]

Been looking for this for about 15 years now.... Brilliant! :)

[andreasegde]

Brilliant. Thank God this is here.

[GrandFunker]

@GrandFunker Graham? You mean Chapman you stupid git!

[GrandFunker]

Prof. Jones sounds more like Prof. Graham, and that 'folk' song sounds more like reggae.

[graytart]

Neil Innes: "I went up and sang a few songs, and went off for a meal, and we started talking about doing records for Monty Python. And I said, 'Well, what sort of songs have you written?' I think Eric said, 'Well, Michael's written this thing about Agrarian Reform in the Middle Ages.' So I said, 'Ah. Ah. Right.' And they said, 'What sort of music do you think that would have?' And I said, 'Reggae?' And that's how it began. The collaboration, as it were.

[SecretTimeWarp]

Eric Idle's definitely singing lead on the second one.

[SecretTimeWarp]

@narozzz They just released a series of remastered Python albums.

[SecretTimeWarp]

@mageestout Joe Cocker with a touch of the Beatles. (And damn, I had no idea "R&R Part 2" was from 1972?!)