Historian Michael Wood delves through medieval court records to follow the fortunes of a village in Hertfordshire and, more particularly, the family of peasant Christina Cok, her father Hugh, estranged husband William, and her children John and Alice.

The 14th century was a perilous time in British history, shot through with famine, plague and war. It was a time of climate change, virulent cattle diseases and the Black Death. But it was also the time when modern mentalities were shaped, not just by the rulers but increasingly by the common people. It was the beginning of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a capitalist market economy.This is an everyday story of a medieval country family which illustrates the bigger picture of how the character and destiny of ordinary British people was being shaped. It is history told not from the top of society but from the bottom – and especially through the eyes of the forgotten half of the workforce, women.