Yorkshire Dev Diary: To Scarborough Fair
It's time for a dev diary! Today I'll cover RICE's upcoming
Yorkshire Flavor Pack. Although it focuses mainly on Yorkshire, some features affect rulers throughout England as well. And, for all the VIETerans, I finally get to meme about Scarborough Fair in RICE. If you’d like to try out the new features,
a beta version has also been uploaded to GitHub, ETA for release will be next weekend.
As an aside, I’ve just released a new mini-mod,
Rename Tribal Era to Late Antiquity, that literally does just that, for you history nerds/academics out there who'd prefer a better term than "Tribal Era" -
steam link here.
Charter Fairs
In medieval England, settlements could be granted the privilege to hold a so-called charter fair, an important source of wealth and prestige for these towns. Several, including a couple in the in-game Duchy of York, became prominent enough to form a set sequence by the 1200s. Four feature in RICE:
Stamford during mid-Lent,
Boston in July,
Winchester in September, and
Northampton in November.
Once your culture has the Guilds or Urbanization innovations, if you own the counties these are in, or are an independent king/emperor of whoever holds them, you gain access to a decision to
Grant a Major Charter Fair that adds to the relevant county a county modifier that increases tax and development. Note that if you are under a king/emperor, you’ll need to pay extra prestige in order to ask your liege to grant it.
Once all four of these charter fairs have been granted, an event has a chance of firing randomly a little after that upgrades these county modifiers to be more powerful. This represents the development of the aforementioned set sequence.
Besides these four, there are two unique “minor” charter fairs that can be granted:
Stourbridge (in Cambridge) and
Scarborough (in North Riding). Stourbridge, though not part of the aforementioned set sequence of charter fairs, still ended up being one of the largest trade fairs in England for centuries. It was visited by famous figures like Isaac Newton, and inspired the setting of Vanity Fair in the novel The Pilgrim's Progress.
Meanwhile, Scarborough was the inspiration for the famous English folk ballad, Scarborough Fair. Those of you who’ve played my CK2 and CK3 mods for a while know I’m obsessed with the song so I wanted to make a mention of it.
Historically, there were many of these charter fairs across medieval and early modern England, so I decided to focus on a special few. In the future, if RICE returns to England, I may feature one or two of the more unique ones.
Special Buildings
The
Foss Dyke is a special building in Lincoln that will always be present. It is the oldest canal still in operation in the British Isles, and may have been built by the Romans, or even earlier.
The
Humber Ferries also feature as a special building in the baronies of Grimsby (in Lincoln) and Cottingham (in East Riding). At the 867 start date, they don't exist yet, but can be built later.
Lastly, any Duchy in England or Wales can now construct a new duchy building called
Wool Industry. Wool was a cornerstone of the English economy particularly in the high medieval period, and wool produced here fed into markets throughout continental Europe.
Saint John of Beverley
John of Beverley was a 8th century Bishop of York who was canonized in the 11th century. Popular in medieval England, especially among royalty, he was believed to have aided English monarchs in battle. Henry V, for example, credited his victory at Agincourt to John of Beverley. John founded Beverley and his tomb is there, hence his association with the town.
In-game, if you start in 867, own Lincolnshire (where Beverley is located), and are sufficiently powerful, you can take a once in a game decision to
Pay Homage to John of Beverley. Doing so will grant you a modifier,
Blessed by Bishop John of Beverley, that provides various military bonuses. This is loosely based on a legend that King Athelstan visited the Bishop’s tomb before achieving military victory; he afterwards granted the town a number of privileges, such as the right to sanctuary.
100 years after someone pays homage to John of Beverley, another decision is available to
Secure Canonization of John of Beverley. Historically, he was canonized in 1037.
Besides netting you piety, more importantly, canonizing John of Beverley allows you or any rulers in England to
Go on a Pilgrimage to Beverley. If you played from the 1066 start, all the above has already happened and the pilgrimage is available from the get-go.
The pilgrimage is similar to other basic pilgrimage decisions and event chains previously added in RICE, but there's a twist. Going on the pilgrimage once unlocks the decision to
Borrow the Banner of Saint John of Beverley if you either control Lincolnshire or the Duchy of York, and are either at least Duke tier, or a King or Emperor liege of whoever controls the county. Taking this decision grants you a modifier with various military benefits for 10 years, but it can only be done once in your lifetime. There's a further twist - the more times you've gone on a pilgrimage to Beverley, the more powerful the modifier is. Thus, you may want to time your pilgrimages, wars, and when you borrow the banner for best effect. Lastly, you obviously cannot borrow the Banner if someone else is currently borrowing it.
Stamford Bull Run
Bull runs were a common festivity in parts of England during the early modern age. Some famous bull runs started in the medieval period, such as the one held at Stamford in Lincolnshire (interestingly, it is 100 miles from the more famous site of Stamford Bridge).
According to legend, the Stamford Bull Run began around 1200 when a Norman lord named William de Warenne assisted locals with pacifying a couple of bulls. He enjoyed it very much, and requested the townspeople recreate the spectacle every year. Though the story is probably fictitious, it's plausible that the de Warenne family were involved in supporting the tradition for many years, and so the legend may have been a way to explain that.
At some point, a small event chain based on this legend will trigger for whoever owns Lincolnshire, where Stamford is located. Once that happens, rulers of Lincolnshire and nearby counties will be able to take a decision to
Spectate the Stamford Bull Run. It's a very small festival event chain that nets you some bonuses, and you can choose whether to participate in the bull run itself or just observe the exciting chaos from afar.
Miscellaneous
As always, there will also be new events, music (including several renditions of Scarborough Fair), and so on with the update. Check out
the beta if you’re interested, though do be warned that while it’s playable and stable, it may have bugs and some missing features.
Also want to mention again that I just released a new mini-mod renaming the Tribal Era to Late Antiquity, for you history nerds/academics out there -
steam link here.
Selected Sources for Further Reading
- An Archaeological Resource Assessment of the Roman Period in Lincolnshire, Mark Bennet
- Boston, 1086-1225: A Medieval Boom Town, Stephen H. Rigby
- Hull in the Beginning, Richard Clarke
- ‘In Which Land Were You Born?’: Cultural Transmission in the Historie van Jan van Beverley, Ben Parsons and Bas Jongenelen
- November Bull-Running in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Martin W. Walsh
- St John of Beverley, 7th May, Diocese of Shrewsbury
- The 800-year-old story of Stourbridge Fair, Honor Ridout
- The Mercers in medieval York, 1272/3 to 1529: Social Aspirations and Commercial Enterprise, Louise Russell Wheatley
- The Public Space of the Marketplace in Medieval England, James Masschaele
- Victoria County History - Yorkshire, Various authors, British History Online
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