The Moryses were a powerful Cambridge family in the fourteenth century, and Stephen Morys was Mayor of the town in 1360. There is some suggestion that he was corrupt, although that was probably true of most officials at this time. The Tulyets were another well-known local clan, several of whom were named Richard. Edmund Lister, Hugh FitzAbsolon and John Baldok were fourteenth-century burgesses. John Godenave was a convicted felon who lived in the 1340s. Robert de Blaston was a Cambridge carpenter in the mid-1300s.
Unlike Oxford, Cambridge has very few written records from the fourteenth century and earlier, as they were destroyed during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. One story is that they were tossed on a great bonfire in the Market Square by a woman named Margery Starre.
By 1360, Thomas de Lisle, the Bishop of Ely, had fled his diocese and was living with the Pope in Avignon. Five years earlier, he had been involved in a very public dispute with one of Edward III’s kinswomen, which culminated in charges of murder, assault, kidnapping and theft. He was almost certainly complicit in the crimes, most of which were committed by his steward, but he never answered for them in a court of law, and died, still in self-imposed exile, in 1361.
The Great Bridge (now called Magdalene Bridge) was always a bone of contention in the town. It was used by everyone, but the burgesses were expected to pay for its upkeep. In 1362, the King appointed three commissioners to oversee repairs. These were Thomas de Shardelowe, Gilbert Bernarde and John de Lyonnes. There is no suggestion that their improvements lasted, because the cost of maintaining the bridge continued to cause friction for years to come.
As contemporary and later documents contradict each other, there is some confusion as to who was Chancellor of the University in 1360. Some sources say Michael Aynton (or Haynton) held the post until 1362. Others record that it was Michael de Causton. Michael’s election was contested by John Donwich of Clare Hall, who then set himself up as the Anti-Chancellor.
Indignant, two senior and well-connected Regent Masters – John Ufford and William Rawby – appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent three vicars-general to sort the matter out. Their names were William Teofle, John Tinmouth and Thomas Ely. They found in favour of Michael, leaving Donwich to lick his wounds until the 1370s, when he put himself forward for the post again, and was lawfully elected.
Bartholomew and Matilde are entirely fictional, but, as a scholar, he would have had to resign from the University if he had wanted to marry her.