The conventional wisdom about the late middle ages is that this was 'a period of disaster' when 'a general feeling of impending calamity hangs over all' and 'perpetual danger prevails everywhere.' In England, historians emphasise economic depression, growth in social tensions, decline of kingship and increasing lawlessness. In this unit we examine the reasons for these negative images: the Black Death, economic decline, peasant uprisings, religious dissent, the long, disastrous war in France and civil war at home. We also closely examine the fortunes of one family, the Pastons, to discover how it was possible to thrive and prosper in an age of uncertainty.