During the Late-Medieval period, London was established as a leading commercial city in Europe due to its dominance as a trader of wool, distributor of fine goods, and, increasingly, as a producer of luxury items. The capital also benefitted economically from a period of great military success under Henry V in the context of the Hundred Years War. Following a decisive victory at Agincourt, England exerted political control over the duchy of Normandy and entered into a considerably pro-English alliance with the French in 1419 following the murder of the Dauphin. Indeed, the city became increasingly dominant on the international stage under Henry V, placing female Londoners in a unique position of increased economic responsibility wherein the transmission of wealth through women and particularly through their marriages posed more significance. A married woman became more valuable to local government by encouraging a greater circulation of wealth and, therefore, increasing cashflow within different economic sectors. European Christian culture assumed that these women
looking to marry should not have already engaged in sexual activity. Simultaneously, however, evidence demonstrates that there was also a popular belief that the male sex drive was something that was considered natural to expel: a necessary evil. Thus, the societal role of the sex worker was established. These women acted as human safety valve[s] in order to protect other women, and their economic value as wives, from being corrupted when the dam of male sexuality burst and men were supposedly driven to seduction, rape, adultery and sodomy. Indeed, as the thirteenth-century theologian St. Thomas Aquinas is quoted to have said, if prostitution were to be suppressed, careless lusts would overthrow society. There is ample evidence to suggest that this was a commonly held view most notably: the establishment of London prostitution on an institutional level in the Southwark borough. However, despite this, it was in the interests of lawmakers to conspicuously regulate the sex industry and maintain a critical stance towards these women in order to maintain credibility.