The most interesting type of citizens was that composed of the freemen, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants.  As the name implies, they were historically the descendants of the men who in earlier times were freed from serfdom.  It was the freemen who, through the Mayor and Corporation, paid rent to the King for the city, its rights and possessions.  There are still, it may be noted, freemen of the city, distinct from those distinguished men who have received its honorary freedom.  The main privileges of the mediaeval freemen included the right of trading in the city, and of voting.  They also had rights over the common lands attached to the city, and they were eligible to fill the offices of local civic government if thought wealthy enough to be elected into such a “close self-elected corporation.”

Soldiers of the royal army were stationed in York at the Castle.  The Wars of the Roses, wars of kings and nobles, lasted from 1455 to 1485 and, although York itself hardly experienced the warfare, it saw contingents of the forces of both sides, as well as the leaders and royal heads of both parties.

There lived in the city a number of men in the royal service.  Some worked at the administrative offices of the royal forest of Galtres, Davy Hall, where the chief officer himself dwelt.  There were also the men who worked at the royal Fish Pond near which was Fishergate in which street most of these men lived.

Those afflicted with leprosy, a disease which in England disappeared toward the end of the fifteenth century, dwelt apart for fear of infecting the healthy.  The four hospitals outside the four main entrances to the city served to keep the disease isolated.

York received from time to time a large number and a great diversity of visitors.  Distinguished visitors usually received gifts from the Corporation.  Kings, queens, and full court and retinue came, and sometimes the entire houses of Parliament.  At such times great crowds of nobles, spiritual lords, commoners, officers, military and civil, thronged the city and taxed its accommodation.  On such an occasion as Richard III.’s attendance at the Minster for mass, or the visit of Henry V., the narrow streets were packed to suffocation with people assembled to watch the processions of gorgeously arrayed sovereigns, princes, peers, ecclesiastics, soldiers, and distinguished commoners.  The Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., was very popular in the North, especially in York, where he was received (as in 1483) with magnificence and festivity.  The north was loyal to him and gave him much support in his political schemes.

The visits of the royal judges of assize, of sailors and pilgrims, have already been mentioned.  Pedlars, who were active nomad tradesmen, were always to be found in town and country dealing in their small wares.

Last, and some of the unhappiest, among the types of people to be found in a mediaeval city were serfs who had absconded from the lands or the service to which they were bound.  They sometimes fled to a city for the security it afforded.  Serfdom, however, was rapidly disappearing.