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Forfeitures and Treason in 1388

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Abstract

My interest in the forfeitures of 1388 was first roused by an examination of the printed inventories of the reign of Richard II, undertaken in the hope of finding references to pictures painted for the king. The examination was necessarily brief, as there is little in print except Gloucester's great inventory of 1397, a few wills, some short lists in the calendars of Close Rolls and the inventories, chiefly of forfeitures, published in Palgrave's Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury. Palgrave naturally suggested a search in the Record Office, and I soon became aware of a considerable body of material there, relating to the forfeitures of 1388. Though none of it turned out to be directly useful for my original enquiry, it seemed to have sufficient historical interest to deserve discussion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1931

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References

page 65 note 1 The results of the original enquiry are stated in an article on the Wilton, diptych, Burlington Magazine, 06, 1931Google Scholar.

page 65 note 2 P.R.O., Miscellaneous Books, No. 66.

page 66 note 1 P.R.O., Liber Forisfacturarum, ff. 1719Google Scholar; E. 154/1/24.

page 67 note 1 Devon, , Issues, p. 250Google Scholar.

page 67 note 2 These valuations do not include the mattresses, blankets, sheets and pillows, which are always valued separately. The linen nearly always came from France or the Low Countries, e.g., “un peire de lyncheaux de Reynes, pris XVIs. VIIId.; IIII naps de Parys pour la table le seignur contenant LXIII verges, (pris) XLIIIs.; deux napes de Dynant molt usez, (pris) VIs., Vllld.”

page 67 note 3 Rotulus expensarum diversarum in officio magne Garderobe domini regis … 9–11 Richard II, P.R.O., E. 101/401/15. Account of Walter Rauf, king's tailor. The entry quoted comes at the end of a bill for sheets. The elaborate description indicates a special order and it is evident that there was still no word to describe what the king required. I have not found any other reference to handkerchiefs used for this purpose in England before the sixteenth century.

page 68 note 1 Liber Forisfacturarum, f. 20.

page 68 note 2 P.R.O., Liber, ff. 58Google Scholar; 20–1; 25–26. E. 101/334/23. E. 101/335/1.

page 68 note 3 Liber, f. 7. “Item, ii celles novelles pour damoiselles de Boeme, pris iiii livres. Item, i veille celles a guyse de Boeme, pris XXs.”

page 68 note 4 Walsingham, II, 160: Higden, IX, 95: Dieulacres Chronicle, 45 (Rylands Library Bulletin, Jan. 1930). Cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1389–92, p. 20.

page 68 note 5 De Vere had been given custody of the Lordship of Ireland when he was made Marquis of Dublin, 1 Dec. 1385 (Rot. Parl., III, 209–210), but entries on the close and patent rolls suggest that he abandoned the idea of going there soon after the parliament of 1386. On 8 Sept., 1387, he was appointed Justice of Chester, on the surrender of the office by the Duke of York (Chester Recognizance Rolls, Appendix, 31st Report of Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, p. 254).

page 69 note 1 P.R.O., E. 101/335/1.

page 69 note 2 Inventory of the goods and chattels belonging to Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and seized in his castle at Pleshy, Co. Essex, 21 Richard II …The Archæological Journal, Vol. LIV, 1897Google Scholar. My thanks are due to Professor A. Hamilton Thompson for drawing my attention to this inventory and for much other help in examining the Book of Forfeitures.

page 69 note 3 Kirkstall Chronicle, p. 31 [Rylands Library Bulletin, Jan. 1931].

page 69 note 4 P.R.O., E. 154/1/19.

page 69 note 5 I hope to publish the whole or the more interesting portions of the roll in the near future.

page 69 note 6 The heading runs: “Conuz soit a toutz gentz que monsieur Simond de Burley ordeina affaire son inventore le VIII iour de Novembre lan XIe. de toutz les biens que le dit monsieur Simond avoit a le Meawes come a Baynardes Castell in Loundres, les queux biens sont contenuz en y cest rolle.”

page 70 note 1 “i livre de Englys del Forster et del Sengler.” I have been unable to trace this book.

page 70 note 2 Henri de Gauchi's translation of the De Regimine Principum by Egidio Colonna. The Duchess of Gloucester left in her will “i livre de Giles de regimine principum,” possibly Burley's book (Nichols, J., Royal Wills, p. 181Google Scholar).

page 71 note 1 Guyart des Moulins' translation of Comestor's Biblia Scholastica.

page 71 note 2 A long religious poem in French beginning “Miserere mei Deus, trop me sui longement teus,” by Renches de Moiliens or Molliens. My thanks are due to Miss K. Chesney for much help in tracing these books.

page 71 note 3 Todd, Henry S., Illustrations of Chaucer and Gower, 1810, pp. 161–2Google Scholar.

page 71 note 4 Inventory, loc. cit., pp. 300–3. Gloucester's wife bequeathed in her will eleven books—a Bible, five works of devotion, two chronicles, a law book, a book of philosophy and a romance. Royal Wills, loc. cit., pp. 181–3, 9 Aug., 1399.

page 72 note 1 Devon, , Issues, p. 213Google Scholar; a French Bible, the Romance of the Rose and the Romances of Percival and Gawain were bought for £28, 12 Sept., 1379.

page 72 note 2 Rotulus expensarum … 9–11 Richard II, loc. cit.—“pro emendacione et ligacione unius libri de closett domini regis vis. 8d.: et pro factura et garnistura xiiii coopertoriorum de satyn pale blue et albo, liniatorum cum satyn rubeo, cum serico blu et botonatorum de auro de cipre et tassellis de serico pro xiiii libris de closett domici regis; et iiii coopertoriis de panno de aureo liniato cum satyn, garnitatis cum serico et botonatis de auro et tassellis pro iiii libris; sic pro consutura et garnistura diversarum bagarum de tel, de Reyns et tel' lini Brabancie pro eisdem libris imponendis, £1. 15. 1.”

page 72 note 3 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1385–9, p. 84, Oct. 12, 1385.

page 72 note 4 Liber, loc. cit., f. 10.

page 73 note 1 Chronicon, II, 294.

page 73 note 2 Chapters in Mediæval Administrative History, III, 418.

page 73 note 3 Rot. Parl., III, 228–56. Cf. the Placita Corone of 1397, where the hearing of the appeals is recorded separately.

page 74 note 1 Edited by McKisack, M., Camden Miscellany, Vol. XIV, 1926Google Scholar.

page 74 note 2 Higden, IX, pp. 119–65.

page 75 note 1 Rot. Parl., III, 236.

page 75 note 2 Ibid., 243.

page 75 note 3 For example, ProfessorRezneck, S., The Early History of the Parliamentary Declaration of Treason, E.H.R., 1927, p. 503Google Scholar.

page 76 note 1 Rot. Parl., II, 166, 239. Cf. ProfessorRezneck, , loc. cit., p. 449Google Scholar.

page 76 note 2 Hales, , Hist. Plac. Coronæ, pp. 80–1Google Scholar.

page 77 note 1 British Museum, Arundel MS. 17, ff. 40–40v.

page 77 note 2 Cal. Cl. Rolls, 1318–23, pp. 541–6.

page 77 note 3 Printed in full by Harcourt, Vernon, His Grace the Steward, pp. 327–34Google Scholar.

page 77 note 4 Rot. Parl., II, 33, 55.

page 77 note 5 Ibid., p. 56.

page 78 note 1 Rymer, V, 228. Cf. the report made to the Pope of the king's words: “I believe that the archbishop wished me, by lack of money, to be betrayed and killed.” Cal. Papal Letters, II, p. 585. The charge of treason was repeated in two other royal letters, Rymer, V, 236, 240.

page 78 note 2 Birchington, , Anglia Sacra, I, pp. 31, 34Google Scholar.

page 78 note 3 Rot. Parl., II, 127, 129.

page 78 note 4 Ibid., 131.

page 78 note 5 French Chronicle of London, p. 90. Cf. E.H.R., April, 1931, for a full discussion of the protest of the earls by Dr. B. Wilkinson.

page 79 note 1 Warenne did not sit on any committee and his name does not occur elsewhere in the records. It is therefore probable that his nephew, Arundel, was the real leader of the barons.

page 79 note 2 Sentence of excommunication against violators of Magna Carta, Walsingham, I, 238. Cf. ibid., pp. 235, 236; Birchington, p. 32.

page 79 note 3 Rot. Parl., II, 127, 130.

page 79 note 4 15 Ed. III, stat. 1, § 2; Rot. Parl., II, 132.

page 79 note 5 1 Oct., 1341. Rymer, V, 282.

page 79 note 6 15 Ed. III, stat. 2; Rot. Parl., II, 139.

page 80 note 1 He was then high in royal favour. In 1345 he had married Eleanor, sister of Henry of Lancaster, and in the same year he was appointed sheriff of Shropshire for life. His brother-in-law, Henry, was made duke of Lancaster in 1351. Tout, III, 188, 191.

page 80 note 2 Rot. Parl. II, 226–7.

page 80 note 3 Ibid., 256–7.

page 80 note 4 Ibid., 255–6.

page 80 note 5 Ibid., II, 53, 243–4. The pardon, which was at first temporary, was issued as a reward for services in Flanders, 28 Dec, 1347. Rymer, Vol. V, pp. 600–1.

page 81 note 1 25 Ed. III, stat. 6, § 4. Cf. Gabel, Leona C., Benefit of Clergy in the later Middle Ages, pp. 35–6, 59Google Scholar.

page 81 note 2 Statutes of the Realm, Vol. I, p. 328. This article is written on the dorse of the statute roll after the Ordinatio pro Clero. The reference was plainly to the third definition in the treason statute. It was provided that, in the meantime, no clerk should be executed on such a charge. Cf. Wilkins, III, pp. 28–9.

page 83 note 3 Coke, , III, Institutes, p. 19Google Scholar; Hale, , loc. cit., p. 240Google Scholar.

page 81 note 4 Bracton, II, 261 (Rolls Series).

page 82 note 1 The negotiations of the bishop's captains with the French were termed treason, but this was not a political charge. (Rot. Parl., IIl, 153. 158.)

page 82 note 2 Ibid., pp. 233–4.

page 83 note 1 Nov. 14 and 17, 1387. Rot. Parl., III, 229. Derby and Nottingham did not join the other appellants until they marched against de Vere.

page 83 note 2 Stephens, , Hist. Crim. Law, I, p. 245Google Scholar.

page 84 note 1 The indenture was drawn up at the “Parliament” of Shirburn in Elmet, June 28, 1321. An English translation of it is printed in Rob. Brady's, Continuation of the Complete History of England (1700), p. 128Google Scholar, taken from a French document in a register of Christ Church, Canterbury. Cf. a transcript in Bodley MS. Tanner 12, XII, f. 50. What appears to be the Latin preamble to the indenture appears in a volume of Ashmole's transcripts, Bodley, MS. Ashmole 860, ff. 375–6.

page 84 note 2 C.C.R., 1318–23, pp. 492–5.

page 84 note 3 Black Book of the Admiralty, I, 300 seq. Gloucester may also have been influenced by the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum and the Lancastrian tract on the Steward, , Harcourt, Vernon, loc. cit., pp. 164–7Google Scholar.

page 84 note 4 Higden, IX, p. 108. Cf. p. 106.

page 85 note 1 Favent, p. 10; Knighton, II, 248–9; Walsingham, II, 166.

page 85 note 2 Gloucester's, library contained: “II larges livres de ley cyvill en Latyne, lun appellez Digeste veil et lautre Code, pris VIs. VIIId.”, Inventory, loc. cit, p. 301Google Scholar.

page 85 note 3 Rot. Parl., III, 229.

page 86 note 1 Rot. Parl., III, 442; Stat. I Hen. IV, C. 14; Annales Ricardi secundi et Henrici quarti, pp. 309–10, 313–14; MS. Bodley, 596, ff. 82–85, translated Archæologia, XX, pp. 278–81Google Scholar. For example, when Fitz Walter appealed Aumarle of treason “getta avant soun chaperoun. Et XX autres seigneurs et barouns getterount auxi lour gages pur mesme la querele devers Damerle …” Aumarle also “getta avant soun chaperoun sur la terre encountre Fitz Walter, les queux gades furont lyveres a Constable et le Marchal dengleterre et lés parties arestez …” Bodley 596, ff. 83–83v.

page 86 note 2 It is possible that the accusation of raising armed forces on the king's behalf—articles 22, 37–39—may have been stretched to cover levying war against the king, even though chivaucer was excluded under the statute.

page 87 note 1 Higden, IX, 167–8.

page 87 note 2 Davies', Chronicle, pp. 56 (Camden Society)Google Scholar; cf. Eulogium Contin., III, 366, for the same statement in Latin.

page 87 note 3 Holdsworth, II, 107; V, 192.

page 88 note 1 It was not until 1695 that a prisoner was allowed a copy of the indictment.

page 88 note 2 Higden, IX, 148–9.

page 88 note 3 Rot. Parl., III, 238.

page 88 note 4 Favent, p. 16.

page 88 note 5 Higden, IX, 166.

page 88 note 6 Favent, loc. cit.

page 88 note 7 Higden, IX, 149, “… touz les seignurs appellantz devant le roy en plein parlement ont ewages les gaunz et toutz les seignurs piers du roiaume et plusours chevaliers et esquiers illoeqes gageront ensi lour gauntes et getteront devant le roy a nombre de CCC gauntz et V …” Cf. ibid., p. 166. The figure 305 offers a clue to the number of persons present “en plein parlement.” 57 temporal peers had been summoned (Report on Dignity of Peers, III, pp. 724 seq.): of these we may count out at least de Vere, de la Pole, and probably the 12 lords on the judicial committee, leaving 42 as the largest number of peers who offered battle. The rest, 263, may represent roughly the size of the Commons. Cf. the statement in Anonimalle Chronicle, p. 80, that 280 “chivalers et esquiers et citisayns et burgies” attended the Good Parliament.

page 89 note 1 Favent, , loc. cit. Higden, , IX, 149, 167Google Scholar.

page 89 note 2 Favent, p. 17.

page 89 note 3 Higden, IX, 168.

page 89 note 4 Rot. Parl., III, 225–6; Select Cases, pp. cvii–viii, 74–6. P.R.O., Parliamentary Petitions, S.C. 8, File 20, 999–1000; File 21, 1001–6. Hitherto these petitions have been assigned to the Parliament of 1386, though they were obviously drafted after the royal prohibition of seeking pardons for Northampton and his followers, 7 Oct., 1387 (Cal. Letter Book H, p. 317), while parliament was sitting and before Brembre's execution, Feb. 20, 1388. The charge of accroaching the royal power is plainly borrowed from the articles of appeal.

page 90 note 1 Higden, IX, 168.

page 90 note 2 Bracton (R.S.), II, p. 260, “Quod autem si ad tempus dissimulaverit et subticuerit, quasi consentiens et assentiens, erit seductor domini regis manifestus …” Cf. Holdsworth, III, 389, note 1.

page 91 note 1 Rot. Parl., III, 238.

page 91 note 2 The view, put forward in another connection by Miss Thornley (E.H.R., XXXII, 556–7), that the treason statute did not supersede the common law is rejected by Sir William Holdsworth (III, 293, n. 5) as “contrary to the whole history of the law of treason since the statute, and a wholly unnecessary supposition in view of the wording of the statute.”

page 91 note 3 It was not until the sixteenth century that proof came to depend mainly on the sworn testimony of witnesses. Holdsworth, I, 334.

page 91 note 4 Rot. Parl., III, 241–3.

page 92 note 1 11 Ric. II, c. 1.

page 92 note 2 Rot. Parl., III, 250; 11 Ric. II, c. 1.

page 92 note 3 26 Hen. VIII, 22; Thornley, I. D., “Treason Legislation of Henry VIII,” Transactions of Royal Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. XI, 116Google Scholar.

page 93 note 1 Rot. Parl., III, 237, 240, 241, 243.

page 93 note 2 The treason statute, of 1397, repealed in 1399, declared that the traitor “forface de luy et de ces heires queconqes toutz ses terres, tenementz et possessions et libertees et toutz autres enheritementz queux il ad … si bien en fee taille, come en fee simple …” Ibid. 351.

page 93 note 3 11 Ric. II, c. 5. An addition to a common petition, Rot. Parl., III, 246 (§ 24).

page 93 note 4 Rot. Parl., III, 460–1.

page 94 note 1 Rot. Parl., III, 442, 461; IV, 38, § 19; V, 393. For example, Hamond Bealknap petitioned “qu'il poet estre persone able al commune ley, et il, et son issu, et son sank, ables a demander par discent de lour auncestres … nient contre esteant ascun juggement ou estatut fait a contraire …” (V, 393).

page 94 note 2 Ibid., III, 464.

page 94 note 3 Ibid., III, 367, 668.

page 94 note 4 Ibid., III, 245.

page 94 note 5 Bracton, II, 261; cf. Coke, Hist., III, p. 211, “Corruption of blood, and that the children of a traitor should not inherit appeareth also by holy Scripture” (Psalm cix. 9–13).