Abstract
Townspeople were far less numerous than peasants, but more important to cultural assimilation, and perhaps to the survival of Englishness. Towns were important in ethnic interaction, due to the fair amount of immigration from the Continent to urban centres, and natives also remained an important presence at all levels of urban society. Towns and cities were therefore obvious places where Normans and English could intermingle and cultural influences could be interchanged. This chapter examines the strength of the English presence among the elites of both large cities and small towns in England. Because a relatively small social distance divided rural landholders and powerful townspeople, many of whom were rural landholders themselves, wealthy native townspeople could interact and intermarry not only with their immigrant counterparts in towns, but also with immigrant aristocrats. All townspeople, French and English, poor and rich, played a role in assimilation and the question of identity, but the native urban elites were particularly important.