'Wyde howses full of wolle sakkes': 'Estate of Merchants' and the Parliamentary Commons in Wynnere and Wastoure

This article argues that the mid-fourteenth-century alliterative poem Wynnere and Wastoure alludes to the rivalry between the 'estate of merchants' and the parliamentary Commons, which arose from Edward III's war finance issues during the Hundred Years War. Another line of inquiry in this article explores the difference between 'estate' as literary order and 'estate' as historical ranking. It concludes that Wynnere and Wastoure suggests that constitutional integrity is achieved only when opposite forces are recognized as interdependent. Moreover, a literary 'estate' is not a static representation of historical reality but captures the dynamic evolution of political entities.