Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T10:13:17.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rex et ministri: English Local Government and the Crisis of 1341

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

W. R. Jones
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Edward III's foreign ambitions, which in 1337 precipitated the Hundred Years' War, generated such severe financial pressures at home that eventually the fiscal crisis became a political one. Exasperated by the inability or unwillingness of the government of regency under Archbishop Stratford to provide him with money and matériel for his continental campaign, an outraged Edward returned to England on November 30, 1340, determined to purge the government of those corrupt and disloyal officials whom he blamed for his humiliation. The attack on the chief ministers, especially Stratford, who was both primate and principal councillor, created a political crisis of considerable proportions, wherein some dominant issues of medieval English politics — the liberties of the church and clergy and the role of the baronage in political decision-making — were re-stated and re-argued. Modern historians have focused their attention on the more dramatic aspects of the crisis of 1341, particularly its “constitutional” implications. Lapsley, Clarke, and Wilkinson, for instance, examined the conflicts of the king with Stratford and with the baronage — events reminiscent of the confrontations of Henry II with Thomas Becket and of Edward II with the Lancastrians. Tout explained the administrative reforms of the early part of Edward III's reign, which, by subjecting the great offices of state to the control of the king's itinerant household, were designed to transform the administrative system into a device for purveying supplies and cash to feed the English war-machine. More recently, E. B. Fryde has described the ordinary and extraordinary financial techniques employed to subsidize the king's expensive foreign policies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , November 1973 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Lapsley, Gaillard T., “Archbishop Stratford and the Parliamentary Crisis of 1341,” Crown, Community and Parliament in the Later Middle Ages: Studies in English Constitutional History, eds. Cam, Helen M. and Barraclough, Geoffrey (Oxford, 1951), pp. 231–72Google Scholar; Clarke, Maude Violet, “Forfeitures and Treason in 1388,” “The Origin of Impeachment,” Fourteenth Century Studies, eds. Sutherland, L. S. and McKisack, M. (Oxford, 1937), pp. 127–29, 247–51Google Scholar; Wilkinson, B., “The Protest of the Earls of Arundel and Surrey in the Crisis of 1341,” English Historical Review, CLXXXII (1931), 177–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilkinson, B., “The Crisis of 1341,” Constitutional History of Medieval England, 1216-1399 (London, 1948–1958), II, 176–203Google Scholar.

2. Tout, T. F., Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England (Manchester, 1920–1933), III, 69–150Google Scholar.

3. Fryde, E. B., “Edward III's Wool Monopoly of 1337,” History, XXXVII (1952), 8–24Google Scholar; Fryde, E. B., “The English Farmers of the Customs, 1343-51,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, IX (1959), 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fryde, E. B., “Parliament and the French War, 1336-40,” Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, eds. Sandquist, T. A. and Powicke, M. R. (Toronto, 1969), pp. 250–69Google Scholar. See also Harriss, G. L., “The Commons' Petitions of 1340,” English Historical Review, LXXVIII (1963), 625–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Hughes, Dorothy, A Study of Social and Constitutional Tendencies in the Early Years of Edward III As Illustrated More Especially By the Events Connected with the Ministerial Inquiries of 1340 and the Following Years (London, 1915), pp. 182–211Google Scholar.

5. See especially Public Record Office [PRO] Assize Rolls, Justices Itinerant [Just] 1/521 (Lincolnshire, 14-15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/691 (Nottinghamshire, 15-18 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/770 (Somersetshire, 15-16 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/858 (Suffolk, 15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/258 (Essex, 15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/337 (Hertfordshire, 15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/74 (Buckingham-shire, 14-15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1./1141 (Yorkshire, 14-16 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/715 (Oxfordshire, 15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/716 (Oxfordshire, 15 Edward III).

6. For the attack on the chief officials, see Tout, , Chapters, III, 121–23Google Scholar.

7. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward III, 1327-[1377] (London, 1891–1916), 1340–43Google Scholar, pp. 110-11.

8. Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward III, 1327-[1377] (London, 1896–1913), 1339–41Google Scholar, p. 607.

9. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1340-43, pp. 206-07.

10. Tout, , Chapters, III, 122Google Scholar, n. 3.

11. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1340-43, pp. 106, 111-13.

12. The writ authorizing the commissions is quoted in the rolls of the justices, e.g., PRO, Just 1/638/1; PRO, Just 1/521/1; PRO, Just 1/549/1; PRO, Just 1/770/1. The French Chronicle of London gives a paraphrase of it, Aungier, George James (ed.), Chroniques de Londres, depuis l'an 44 Hen. III. jusqu'à l'an 17 Edw. III [Camden Society, 28] (London, 1844), pp. 88–89Google Scholar.

13. Tout, , Chapters, III, 120, 124–25Google Scholar.

14. Rymer, T. (ed.), Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, et Acta Publica inter Reges et Altos … (London, 1816–1869), II, pt. 2, p. 1142Google Scholar.

15. Quoted in translation by Wilkinson, , Constitutional History of Medieval England, II, 189Google Scholar.

16. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 209–11Google Scholar. In Oxford the mayor, bailiffs, and other ministers of the city came before the justices and asked to make a fine to the king. The amount was set at £50. See PRO, Just 1/715/16d.

17. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 170–71Google Scholar. The writs were quoted in the justices' rolls, e.g., PRO, Just 1/521/2; PRO, Just 1/715/3; PRO, Just 1/337/1d. Several of the rolls of the period dealt exclusively with violations of the wool customs, e.g., PRO, Just 1/259 (Essex, 15 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/550 (Middlesex, 16 Edward III); PRO, Just 1/399 (Kent, Edward III).

18. Putnam, Bertha Haven, “Shire Officials: Keepers of the Peace and Justices of the Peace,” The English Government at Work, 1327-1336, (eds.) Willard, James F., Morris, William A.et al. (Cambridge, Mass., 1940–1950), III, 196Google Scholar; Holdsworth, William, A History of English Law (7th ed. rev.; London, 1956–1966), I, 265–74Google Scholar.

19. See the articles of the eyre of 1274 printed by Cam, Helen M., The Hundred and the Hundred Rolls: An Outline of Local Government in Medieval England (London, 1930), pp. 251–55Google Scholar.

20. Powicke, Maurice, The Thirteenth Century: 1216-1307 (Oxford, 1953), pp. 360–64Google Scholar.

21. Davies, James Conway, The Baronial Opposition to Edward II: Its Character and Policy (London, 1918), p. 472Google Scholar.

22. Statutes of the Realm (London, 1810–1817), I, 259Google Scholar; 2 Edward III, Statute of Northampton, c. 7.

23. Rotuli Parliamentorum: ut et petitiones, et placita in Parliamento tempore Edwardi R. I. [ad finem Henrici VII] (London, 1767–1777), II, 9bGoogle Scholar.

24. Taylor, Mary Margaret, “The Justices of Assize,” English Government at Work, III, 240Google Scholar, citing Statutes of the Realm, I, 264Google Scholar: 4 Edward III, c. 10.

25. McKisack, May, The Fourteenth Century: 1307-1399 (Oxford, 1959), p. 206Google Scholar; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1330-34, p. 449.

26. See Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 8, 11, 22–23, 94–97Google Scholar.

27. Fryde, , “Parliament and the French War,” Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, pp. 258–59, 266Google Scholar.

28. Tout, , Chapters, III, 146–47Google Scholar.

29. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 94–97Google Scholar.

30. Ibid., pp. 182-83.

31. Pike, Luke Owen (ed.), Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the Third. Years XIV. and XV. [Rolls Series, 31b] (London, 1889), pp. 258–63Google Scholar; Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 183–84Google Scholar; PRO, Just 1/258/3, 4.

32. Sayles, G. O. (ed.), Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench under Edward I[-III] [Selden Society] (London, 1936–1971), VI, xviiGoogle Scholar.

33. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, p. 184Google Scholar; PRO, Just 1/258/3, 3d.

34. Just 1/258/5, 12d. For the indictment of other judges, see PRO, Just 1/258/4d.

35. Sayles, (ed.), Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench under Edward III, VI, xxv–xxviGoogle Scholar.

36. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 185–91Google Scholar. Pole had been pardoned and had founded a new wool company by 1343. See Fryde, , “English Farmers of the Customs,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, IX, 9–10Google Scholar. Accusations of the other prominent merchant-financiers, John Pulteney and Reginald Conduyt, both former mayors of London, are to be found in the private petitions submitted to the king and council, PRO, Just 1/552/38, 69, 74.

37. E.g., PRO, Just 1/770/6d, 11, 12, 14; PRO, Just 1/1141/18; PRO, Just 1/31/2; PRO, Just 1/74/7, 10, 13; PRO, Just l/258/4d, 6.

38. During the late 1330s the crown turned from assemblies of merchants to parliament to obtain approval for augmented customs duties and a forced loan of wool, thereby broadening the basis of payment to include a larger part of the population. See Wilkinson, B., “The Beginnings of Parliamentary Control over the Custom of Wool,” Studies in the Constitutional History of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries [Publications of the University of Manchester, Historical Series, 73] (2d. ed.; Manchester, 1952), pp. 55–81Google Scholar; Fryde, , “Parliament and the French War,” Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, pp. 250–69Google Scholar.

39. PRO, Just 1/74/7.

40. PRO, Just 1/716/3. See also PRO, Just 1/715/9, 17d.

41. PRO, Just 1/1141/14.

42. PRO, Just 1/770/2, 4.

43. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, p. 204Google Scholar.

44. Some tax collectors weighed the monies collected from the people against standard coins in their possession and devalued accordingly the currency coming from tax payers. For an example of this practice from 1340, see Sayles, (ed.), Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench under Edward III, V, 123–24Google Scholar.

45. Johnson, Charles, “The Collectors of Lay Taxes,” English Government at Work, II, 216–18Google Scholar; Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 197–98Google Scholar.

46. PRO, Just 1/770/12.

47. Fryde, , “Parliament and the French War,” Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, pp. 258–59, 266Google Scholar.

48. E.g., PRO, Just 1/858/4, 7, 8; PRO, Just 1/521/3, 4, 7; PRO, Just 1/691/3, 4; PRO, Just 1/258/5, 5d, 6, 6d, 7, 7d, 8, 11, 12.

49. Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 152aGoogle Scholar.

50. PRO, Just 1/337/5, 6d; PRO, Just 1/258/6d.

51. PRO, Just 1/521/14, 15, 17, 18.

52. For a discussion of the office of sheriff in this period, see Morris, William A., “The Sheriff,” English Government at Work, II, 41–108Google Scholar; and, for some of their alleged faults, Cam, , Hundred and the Hundred Rolls, pp. 67 ff.Google Scholar

53. PRO, Just 1/258/3, 3d, 4, 4d, 5.

54. PRO, Just 1/770/14. For another indictment of John of Coggeshall, sheriff of Hertfordshire, see PRO, Just 1/337/4.

55. PRO, Just 1/770/14.

56. For the indictment of John le Mareschal, John Husbonde, John of Oxford, and Ivo of Aldeburgh, former sheriffs of Buckinghamshire, London, Nottinghamshire, and Rochester respectively, see PRO, Just 1/74/7; PRO, Just 1/552/43; PRO, Just 1/691/1; PRO, Just 1/730/1d.

57. Cam, , Hundred and the Hundred Rolls, pp. 201–02Google Scholar; Cam, E. R., “The Escheator,” English Government at Work, II, 167Google Scholar.

58. PRO, Just 1/521/14, 17, 18, 20, 20d.

59. PRO, Just 1/770/16, 16d.

60. Hunnisett, R. F., The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 118–33Google Scholar; Cam, , “Shire Officials,” English Government at Work, III, 159Google Scholar; Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, p. 199Google Scholar. For indictments of coroners before the justices, see PRO, Just 1/770/9; PRO, Just 1/521/13, 17.

61. See, for background, Cam, , “Shire Officials,” English Government at Work, III, 165–83Google Scholar. For the indictment of bailiffs, see PRO, Just 1/770/4d, 6; PRO, Just 1/258/7.

62. For the sheriffs' assistants, see Morris, , “The Sheriff,” English Government at Work, II, 100 ff.Google Scholar

63. PRO, Just 1/770/14.

64. PRO, Just 1/715/7.

65. The indictments of the earl of Hereford's seneschal and the keeper of Colchester castle are in PRO, Just 1/258/4; and those of the jailer of Newgate and the constable of Banbury castle are in PRO, Just 1/552/71, 72 and PRO, Just 1/715/5, 6d.

66. Jones, W. R., “Bishops, Politics, and the Two Laws: Gravamina of the English Clergy, 1237-1399,” Speculum, XLI (1966), 220, 227–30Google Scholar; Jones, W. R. “Relations of the Two Jurisdictions: Conflict and Cooperation in England during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, ed. Bowsky, William M., VII (1970), 190–91, 194 ff.Google Scholar

67. For indictments of local ecclesiastical judges for exacting fees for testamentary probate and acquittance, see PRO, Just 1/770/16; PRO, Just 1/521/10; PRO, Just 1/691/6; PRO, Just 1/337/7; PRO, Just 1/258/5, 5d, 6d. For their indictment for commuting penance, see PRO, Just 1/770/14, 15; PRO, Just 1/716/1d; PRO, Just 1/521/14d; PRO, Just 1/337/1d, 3, 5, 6.

68. PRO, Just 1/715/5d.

69. PRO, Just 1/521/12d.

70. PRO, Just 1/258/3d.

71. PRO, Just 1/521/9d.

72. PRO, Just 1/770/14; PRO, Just 1/258/3d; PRO, Just 1/715/2d; PRO, ust 1/691/2. The prosecution for perjury in a church court of a person who had accused another before a secular judge was said to be contra coronam et dignitatem Regis in PRO, Just 1/770/6d. See the petition, Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 9bGoogle Scholar.

73. Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 129bGoogle Scholar; Statutes of the Realm, I, 296Google Scholar: 15 Edward III, Statute 1, c. 6.

74. PRO, Just 1/716/1d.

75. Statutes of the Realm, I, 297Google Scholar; 303: 15 Edward III, Statute 2, and 18 Edward III, Statute 3, c. 6; Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 152aGoogle Scholar.

76. E.g., PRO, Just 1/430/28.

77. Rotult Parliamentorum, II, 128bGoogle Scholar.

78. Ibid., p. 131a.

79. Ibid., pp. 133b-34b.

80. Ibid., pp. 130b, 133a; Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 175–77Google Scholar.

81. Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 141aGoogle Scholar. For a specific complaint, see PRO, Just 1/258/9d.

82. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 171–73Google Scholar; Rotuli Parliamentorum, II, 137Google Scholar.

83. Statutes of the Realm, I, 305Google Scholar: 20 Edward III, c. 6.

84. For an example of official misconduct at the end of the reign, see PRO, Just 1/749/2d.

85. See McKisack, , Fourteenth Century, pp. 203–09Google Scholar; Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, pp. 212–36Google Scholar.

86. Hughes, , Early Years of Edward III, p. 219Google Scholar. For an especially notorious case of the use of armed force to intimidate the king's justices, see the indictment of John of Wodehull in PRO, King's Bench [KB] 9/1/1/3; PRO, KB 9/1/1/5; PRO, KB 9/1/1/12; PRO, KB 9/1/1/13, PRO, KB 9/1/1/18.

87. In 1341 the crown ordered Robert Parving and his colleagues in Middlesex to investigate the existence of unlawful associations (colligaciones et confederaciones per convenciones iuramenta et alios modos illicitos) in the vicinity of London. See PRO, Just 1/552/4.

88. The author expresses his appreciation for assistance provided by the Central University Research Fund of the University of New Hampshire in completing research for this article.