¹ This paper is an amplified version of part of the paper read by Professor Cheney on 11 December in place of the Presidential Address which Professor Seton-Watson was prevented by illness from delivering. [Ed.]

² Opera (Rolls Series), viii. 311.

³ See Mitchell, S. J., Studies in taxation under John and Henry III (New Haven, 1914), pp. 93–109.Google Scholar Further discussion of the reparations will be found in an unpublished thesis (M.A., Manchester, 1947): ‘Anglo-papal relations 1213–1216’, by Miss Stella M. Whileblood.

⁴ The list of King John's receipts which is found in Red book of the exchequer (Rolls Series), ii. 772–3 is of unknown origin, provides no analysis to show what items of income are included, and is almost certainly incomplete. The total, as printed, amounts to £100,000, 5 marks, 5s. 3d., but this should probably be read as 100,055 marks, 5s. 3d.; the total of the separate items should be 113,412 marks, 12s. 5d. The details of this list do not appear to agree with the figures recorded by the Dunstable annalist for the diocese of Lincoln and Christ Church, Canterbury (Ann. monastici (Rolls Series), iii. 39). The sum of £53,474 3s. 9d. added up by Mitchell (op. cit., pp. 106–8) as profits of church lands in hand is, as he observes, not exhaustive. It must also be noted that the sum represents gross receipts, from which considerable deductions must be made to discover the real profit to the Crown. Out of two years' gross revenues of Whitby amounting to £412 12s. 6½d., £181 185. 6d. was spent on the abbey. At Ramsey, in one year, gross revenues were £1,219 os. 8½d., and internal expenditure £156 12s. 2d. (P.R.O., Pipe Roll 14 John, rot. 1, m. 2 and m. 1d). Moreover, these profits cannot be regarded wholly as consequent upon the interdict.

¹ Rotuli litterarun patentium (Record Commission), p. 80a, b.

² Gervase of Canterbury, Works (Rolls Series), ii, 101, 107; Chron. abbatiae de Evesham (Rolls Series), p. 225; Roger Wendover, in Matt. Paris, Chron. maiora (Rolls Series), ii. 522.

³ Cf. C. R. Cheney, ‘King John and the papal interdict’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library (hereinafter, B.J.R.L.), xxxi (1948), pp. 300–1.

⁴ Rotuli litierarum clausarum (Record Comm.), i. 109b. Sir Maurice Powicke is the only historian who has noted the importance of this as a precedent for the summons to St. Albans in August 1213 (Cambr. Med. Hist., vi. 235, n. 1).

⁵ Rot. lit. claus., i.111b: ‘per visum iiii legalium homimim de eadem villa’,

⁶ B.J.R.L., xxxi. 302,

¹ Erfurt, Amplonian MS. F. 71, fo. 194V. I am indebted to Mr. R. W. Southern, who discovered the letter, for a transcript.

² Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 13 A. xii, fo. 89r. The Dunstable annalist says that the church property was put in the charge of constables (Annales monastici (Rolls Series), iii. 30). ‘Constabularius’ can have the general meaning of warden or controller (cf. A. L. Poole, Obligations of society, p. 50) and may here refer to the four legal men.

³ Ungedr. anglo-normannische Geschichtsquellen, ed. F. Liebermann, p. 146.

¹ Rot. lit. claus., i. 110a.

² Curia Regis Rolls, v. 157, 207. Four years later the abbey successfully claimed its jurisdiction when the plaintiff tried to get a hearing in the king's court (ibid., vi. 206).

³ Memorials of St. Edmunds (Rolls Series), i. 111.

⁴ Chron. abbatiae de Melsa (Rolls Series), i. 326; cf. 351–2,

⁵ Annales monast., iv. 396.

¹ Rot. lit. claus., i. 111b.

² Ibid., i. 107b (26 March).

³ Ibid., i. 110a (7 April).

⁴ Ibid., i. 1086 (4 April: Peter of Blois).

⁵ Ibid., i. 108a (2 April), and cf. 110a, 1116, 113a.

⁶ Ibid., i. 109b (7 April).

⁷ Ibid., i. 108b, 111a, 1136 (the word is not used in the case of Hereford).

⁸ Ibid., 1086 (4 April).

⁹ Ibid., i. 1086 (Philip de Lucy), 1106 (prior of Frampton), 1136 (Humphrey de Bassingbourne, archdeacon of Salisbury). Also grants for Hugh de Nevill (i. 111a) and Richard de Marisco (i. 111b).

¹ Rot. lit. claus., i. 108b, 109a.

² Ibid., i. 109b (William Malet), 110b (William of Huntingfield and Henry Hosatus), 114a (William de Sancto Iohanne and Ralph Hareng).

³ Ibid., i. 108a (1 April).

⁴ Ibid., i. 108b (4 April).

⁵ Ibid., i. 112a (13 April).

⁶ Ibid., i. 108b, 111a (1, 10, 12 April).

⁷ Ibid., i. 107b, 110a (26, 27 March, 9 April).

⁸ Ibid., i. 110a, 112a (Exeter and Lincoln).

⁹ Magna vita S. Hugonis (Rolls Series), pp. 303–4.

¹⁰ Gesta abbatum S. Albani (Rolls Series), i. 241–3.

¹¹ P.R.O., Pipe Roll 12 John rot. 19, m. Id.

¹² Pipe Roll 13 John rot. 17, m. Id. To this sum was added 400 marks and 100 measures of corn and 100 measures of oats for possession of the abbot's portion during vacancy. Madox, T., Hist, of the Exchequer (2nd ed., 1769), i.Google Scholar 411, note t, quoting this entry, reads 300 for 400 marks.

¹ Rot. lit. claus., i. 107b. Described as the Abbey of Shouldham.

² Ibid., i. 112a.

³ Ibid., i. 113a and b (about 20 April and 28 April).

⁴ Ibid., i. 108b.

⁵ On this episode see Innocent III's letters of February—March 1209 in Migne, Patrologia latina, ccxv. 1563, 1564, ccxvi. 19, 21; Wendover in Matt. Paris, Chron. maiora, ii. 524; Walter of Coventry, Memoriale (Rolls Series), ii. 109; Statuta capitulorum gen. ord. Cisterc., ed. J. M. Canivez, i. 351.

⁶ Lancs. Pipe Rolls, ed. W. Farrer, p. 237. They were the equivalent of £10 (ibid., p. 241).

⁷ Pipe Roll 13 John rot. 14, m. 2d.

⁸ Ibid., rot. 7, m. 2d. There were possibly special political reasons for a heavy fine on Strata Florida: cf. Rot. lit. claus., i. 122 (17 August 1212).

⁹ Cf. Mitchell, Studies in taxation, p. 105.

¹ Durford was committed to its patron and Langley to its abbot in April 1208 (Rot. lit. claus., i. 110b).

² Supra, p. 134. We may credit the statement of the Gesta abbatum that Abbot John de Cella recovered custody of his abbey, apparently by grant (in pace). But when this happened is doubtful. Whereas Matthew Paris says that Robert of London was granted the custody (before the abbot recovered seisin) as a reward for his embassy to Morocco, placed in 1213, the letters patent appointing Robert of London and Matthew Mantell to be custodians are dated 29 March 1208 (Chron. maiora, ii. 564; Gesta abbatum, i. 241; Rot. lit. pat., p. 81a).

³ Pipe Roll 10 John, ed. Doris M. Stenton (Pipe Roll Soc., N.S. xxiii, 1947), pp. xi-xii. In references hereafter in the text to the Pipe Roll of a particular year, the year is the one in which the account was made up (at Michaelmas and after). In footnotes P.R. = Pipe Roll.

⁴ P.R. 11 John, rot. 8, m. Id.

¹ P.R. 13 John rot. 5, m. 2d. There was perhaps a cell of S. Valéry here. The remaining half of this fine was pardoned to the prior in 1214, ‘pro dampnis sibi factis per preceptum regis’ (P.R. 16 John rot. 1, m. 2).

² P.R. 11 John rot. 11, m. 1 (chapter of York); P.R. 12 John rot. 4, m. 2 (Geoffrey, archdeacon of Suffolk) and rot. 12, m. id (prior of Blyth); P.R. 13 John rot. 3, m. id (Laurence, clerk of Wilton) and rot. 21, m. 2 (Roger, archdeacon, of Suffolk).

³ P.R. 13 John rot. 17, m. Id; rot. 17, m. 2; rot. 21, m. 2; P.R. 14 John rot. 2, m. 2d.

⁴ Supra, p. 134. ‘Et idem prior etiam reddet singulis annis regi de firma eiusdem abbatie £600.’

⁵ P.R. 11 John rot. 4, m. Id; P.R, 12 John rot. I, m. id; Red booh of the exch., iii. 822.

¹ P.R. 13 John rot. 8, m. 2. Cf. Ogbourne and Ruislip, ibid., rot. g, m. Id; Goldcliff, ibid., rot. 12, m. Id; Steventon, ibid., rot. 17, m. 2; Stoke, ibid., rot. 21, m. 1. William II, abbot of Le Bee, died 18 September 1211 and his successor was elected and consecrated within a fortnight (A. A. Porée, Hist, de l'abbaye du Bec, i. 523, 544). Cf. Pipe Roll 10 John, p. xiv.

² Supra, p. 137. In July 1213 the king wrote to the priors and convents of St. Augustine's, Canterbury and Peterborough and Battle, whereas he addressed the custodians of St. Benet's Holme and Whitby (Rot. lit. claus., i. 150).

³ Curia Regis Rolls, v. 157 (St. Edmunds), 158 (Peterborough, Croyland, Sempringham), 161 (Dereham, Lewes; cf. p. 174 (about 27 April): ‘quia prioratus est in manu comitis Warenn’, and Rot. lit. claus., i. 112b), 188 (Thornholm), 199 (Clerkenwell), 202 (Osney), 271 (St. Benet's Holme). Cf. C. T. Flower, Intro, to the Curia Regis Rolls (Selden Soc, lxii, 1944), p. 458.

⁴ Curia Regis Rolls, v. 207, vi. 251, etc.

¹ Ibid., v. 189, 199, 223.

² Ibid., v. 158, 187, 188. The abbot appoints an attorney. The king tells the justices to postpone an advowson case between the prior of Thornholm and the abbot of Peterborough ‘quamdiu prioratus fuerit in manu sua’.

³ Ibid., v. 271 (St. Benet's Holme), 283 (St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London). In the second case—one of mort d'ancestor—the defendant produced the prior to warranty ‘et petit pacem per hoc quod domus S. Bartholomei est in manu domini regis. Nichil dictum est quare assisa remaneat.’ The defendant lost his case.

⁴ Ibid., vi. 69.

⁵ Ann. monast., ii. 265.

⁶ He died 4 February 1210 (Chron. Ioh. de Oxenedes (Rolls Series), pp. 296, 434).

⁷ Curia Regis Rolls, vii. 6; cf. 24, 40.

¹ In probably all the recorded cases of postponement (above, p. 138, n. 3), it was the defendant's house which was in custody.

² Cf. B.J.R.L., xxxi. 308.

³ Ann. monast., iii. 31; iv. 54. Hugh de Wells was bishop-elect of Lincoln by 14 April 1209 (Rot. chartarum, p. 185b); Henry de Londres was elect of Exeter by 8 August (Gervase of Canterbury, Works, ii, p. ci); Walter de Gray appears as elect of Coventry on P.R. 12 John rot. 16, m. 2; Master Nicholas de Aquila is apparently described as bishop of Chichester in a document of 1 June 1209 (Dallaway, Hist, of W. Sussex, II. ii (1830), 270). The elections of Londres and Gray were quashed in 1211 (Ann. monast., iv. 399; cf. Monasticon angl. (ed. 1817–30), viii. 1242–4).

⁴ Giles de Braose had not recovered possession of the castles of the see of Hereford, and these, with all the other property, was committed to Gerard de Aties on 23 May 1208 (Rot. lit. clans., i. 1136, and Rot. lit. pat., P. 83b).

¹ Bishop Bernard of Carlisle is not mentioned by any of the chroniclers of the interdict and his movements are uncertain. An agreement between the abbeys of Furness and Fountains which he witnessed in 1211 (Fountains chartulary, ed. W. T. Lancaster, i. 61, no. 74) may have been made at Melrose (Chron. of Melrose, ed. A. O. and M. O. Anderson, p. 55).

² Rot. lit. claus., i. 108b.

³ Ibid., i. 111a, 113b.

⁴ P.R. 11 John rot. 13, m. 2.

⁵ P.R. 13 John rot. 5, m. Id; 14 John rot. 5, m. 1.

⁶ P.R. 13 John rot. 7, m. Id; 14 John rot. 1, m. Id; cf. 16 John rot. 7. m. 2d, and Rot. lit. claus., i. 135b.

⁷ The accounts for Chichester, Exeter, and Lincoln for the years 1208 and 1209 were not recorded at the exchequer because they were returned to the camera (P.R. 11 John rot. 1, m. 2; rot. 6, m. 2d; rot. 8, m. Id).

⁸ P.R. 14 John rot. 1, m. 1; rot. 1, m. 2d; rot. 6, m. 2d. The London account extends from 24 June 1211; it also covers arrears and the proceeds of Stortford and Maldon for three years before this date. An entry on 13 John rot. 10, m. 2, relating to the scutage of Wales shows Giun de Chancels, answering for a debt of the bishop of Worcester.

⁹ Lichfield was committed to Master John of Ramsbiiry and Robert Lupus on 9 October 1208 (Rot. lit. pat., p. 86b). On P.R. 16 John rot. 14, m. Id, is the unsatisfying item: ‘Idem R. [Robertus Lupus] (space) de exitibus episcopatus Cestrie.’

¹ Rot. de liberate ac de misis et praestitis (Rec. Comm.), p. 110. The missing figures for Lichfield (‘Cestr’… et ix l.’) are probably c iiii^xx, which brings the total to the £1,000 mentioned in the margin of the roll.

² Ibid., p. 115.

³ Hugh de Wells received the possessions of the see of Lincoln when elected, according to Wendover, and lost them when he was consecrated at the end of 1209 (Matt. Paris, Chron. maiora, ii. 526, 528).

⁴ Salisbury may provide an exception, since John FitzHugh accounted for ‘venditio instauri episcopatus’ on the Pipe Roll for 1209, but it is not impossible that this represents a seizure late in Michaelmas term. Bishop Herbert was in Scotland about Martinmas (Chron. Melrose, p. 54). He may have returned later on, for a letter of presentation was directed to him on 19 April 1212 (enrolled out of order, Rot. lit. pat., 95b; cf. Rot. chart., i. 189a). His property was then in the custody of John FitzHugh, who received orders of 13 December 1212 to hand over to Ralph of Winesham. Ralph was closely associated with the bishopric (cf. Salisbury charters and docs. (Rolls Series), pp. 66–8, and Curia Regis Rolls, vii. 124).

⁵ Abbotsbury, Battle, St. Aug. Canterbury, Ch. Ch. Canterbury, Chertsey, Eynsham, Grimsby, Kenilworth (with Stone and Calwich), Malmesbury (no amount stated), Middleton, Peterborough, Ramsey, St. Benet's Holme, St. Edmunds, Sherborne, Tewkesbury, Whitby.

¹ Abbota Walter, who succeeded in 1202, is said to have died in 1214 (Ann. mon., i. 61: Winchcomb annals in Cotton MS. Faustina B. i supply the abbot's name at this point). An entry on Rot, lit. claus., i. 206, confirms this. The entry of Abbot Walter's death under 1203 in the Winchcomb annals is therefore probably an error; it has produced an unintelligible note on Abbot Walter in the Tewkesbury annals under 1203 (Ann. mon., i. 57).

² P.R. 13 John rot. 17, m. Id.

³ Ibid., rot. 13, m. 2d.

⁴ Cal. Charter Rolls, i. 25, and Monasticon angl., iii. 247b; cf. P.R. 13 John rot. 17, m. 2.

⁵ P.R. 14 John rot. 16, m. 1 and 2.

⁶ Supra, p. 137. P.R. 14 John rot. 10, m. 2, records the payment of the remainder of the monks' fine: ‘Monachi de Bello, R. de Cornhull’ pro eis feddit compotum de 1000 marcis sicut supra continetur'. I am unable to suggest why Reginald de Cornhill was responsible for this debt. He was not custos in tie preceding year.

⁷ Hist, of the mitred parliamentary abbies (1718), i. 35.

⁸ Rot. lit. claus., i. 150b.

⁹ M. D. Knowles, Monastic Order in England, pp. 435 ff.

¹ Pipe Roll 27 Henry II (Pipe Roll Society, xxx, 1909), p. 93. Cf. Pipe Roll 8 John, p. 190 (Malmesbury).

² Chancellor's Roll 8 Ric. I (Pipe Roll Soc, N.S., vii, 1930), p. 175 (St. Mary's, York).

³ At Whitby and Glastonbury the accountants in 1194 and 1195 made a further deduction: ‘preter victum monachorum et necessarias expensas et operationes factas in abbatia’ (Pipe Roll 6 Ric. I, p. 10; Pipe Roll 7 Ric. I, pp. 28, 48).

⁴ Pipe Roll 8 John, p. 46 (Hyde).

⁵ Pipe Roll 7 Ric. I, p. 57 and Chanc. Roll 8 Ric. I, p. 207 (Winchcomb).

⁶ Pipe Roll 1 Ric. I (Rec. Comm.), p. 6 (Sherborne).

⁷ True, the expenditure on food and clothing is sometimes so small as to preclude the possibility that it covers the whole cost of the monks' maintenance. The account for Eynsham on P.R. 12 John rot. 1, m. 1, points to an explanation: ‘Et in victu et vestitu monachorum preter blada horreorum £2.0 2s. 4d.’

⁸ Pipe Roll 10 John, p. 189. The preceding roll gives details of receipts (totalling £586 16s. 8d.) and specifies the manors from which the monks draw their portion.

⁹ P.R. 13 John rot. 13, m. id. A copy is printed in Cartularium mon. de Rameseia (Rolls Series), iii. 215–17. From June 1208 to December 1209 John of Brancaster answered to the king in his camera, and on P.R. 12 John rot. 19, m. id, Robert de Braibroc answered for nine months, to Michaelmas 1210.

¹ In the preceding nine months this item was £226 9s. In the year ending Michaelmas 1212 it was £183 6s. 7d. That the cellarer continued to administer the convent's estates and simply paid the profits to the custodian is suggested by the fact that the sum for farms, rents of assize, and sale of works does not rise very steeply between 1207 and 1212.

² Rot. lit. claus., i. 1480b; Cart. mon. de Rameseia, ii. 195–6.

³ After John's submission, the older procedure significantly reappears; cf. P.R. 16 John rot. 9, m. 2d: ‘ Ricardus de Mariscis (episcopus donolmensis on erasure) reddit compotum de £20 9s. 5½d. de exitu abbatie de Scireburne de tribus partibus anni preter victum et vestitum monacorum preter necessarias expensas. Et de £33 os. ½d. de exitu abbatie de Abbodesbir’ preter victum et vestitum monacorum et necessarias expensas de dimidio anno …' This reversion to earlier practice suggests that the change involved more, than the method of accounting.

⁴ Rot. lit. pat., p. 149a.

⁵ Rot. lit. claus., i. 649; cf. Patent Rolls 1216–25, p. 474.

¹ Rot. lit. claus., i. 113a. The abbey came into the king's hand again in 1213 when Abbot Richard died (Ann. mon., ii. 273; cf.Rot. lit. claus., i. 146b) and was returned to the new abbot, Alexander Neckam, in May 1214 (ibid., i. 204b). Another disseisin by Gerard de Aties (of property of the lepers of St. Lawrence of Bristol) is reported in August 1215 (ibid., i. 227a).

² Ibid., i. 148b, 150a, 155b.

³ P.R. 14 John rot. 10, m. 2.

⁴ Ibid., rot. 1, m. id. Cf. a small sum of 2s. ‘de exitu terre Iohannis archidiaconi capte pro eodem’ in P.R. 13 John rot. 9, m. 2.

⁵ P.R. 12 John rot. 12, m. id. The record was not completed.

⁶ P.R. 14 John rot. 1, m. 1.

⁷ Ibid., rot. 1, m. Id.

⁸ P.R. 13 John rot. 22, m. 1.

⁹ Ibid., rot. 22, m. 2.

¹⁰ P.R. 14 John rot. 5, m. 1.

¹¹ Ibid., rot. 13, m. Id. In 1214 there is an account of 9 marks ‘de blado ecclesie de Kingewaldestowe vendjto’ (P.R. 16 John rot. 6, m. 2d).

¹ Brit. Mus., Royal MS. 13 A. xii, fo. 89r: ‘Bladum clericorum iterum a regis satellitibus diripitur, et venum in mercatis exponitur, ipsis quoque clericis sub certo precio venundatur.’

² Some mitigation of it is implied in an undated memorandum on the dorse of the Close Roll for 1207–8: ‘Mandatum est omnibus vicecomitibus Anglie quod permittant archiepiscopos, episcopos, abbates, priores, et omnes viros religiosos et omnes clericos vendere blada sua per summas usque ad festum S. Katerine [25 Nov.]’ (Rot. lit. claus., i. 114b). But I am unable to relate this to the evidence already cited about the custodians of barns in 1209.

³ Ann. mon., ii. 266; cf. Rad. de Coggeshall, Chron. anglie. (Rolls Series), p. 164. The chancery rolls for this year are all missing. In this year, the Waverley annalist says, the king ordered all the woods of the archbishopric of Canterbury to be sold and granted away and rooted up, so that not a tree remained (Ann. mon., ii. 265). According to Coggeshall (loc. cit.) the lands of the bishop-executors of the interdict had suffered in 1209. Ralph Niger's continuator refers to the destruction of the bishop of London's castle at Stortford in 1211 (Brit. Mus., Royal MS. 13 A. xii, fo. 89r).

⁴ Rot. lit. claus., i. 130b

⁵ Cf. B.J.R.L., xxxi. 310–12.

¹ Book of fees, i. 70, 81, 141, 149, 197 (Surrey, Somerset, Worcs., Notts, and Derbyshire, Lines.).

² Rot. lit. claus., i. 126a, 128b.

³ Rot. lit. pat., p. 99bs, 101a.

⁴ Supra, pp. 145–6.

⁵ Rot. lit. claus., i. 146a, 150a (the reason for Master Henry's disseisin is not stated).

¹ No letters close between 10 January and 5 March 1213, no letters patent between 27 June and 17 July 1213.

² Cf. Hilary Jenkinson, ‘Financial records of the reign of King John’, Magna Carta commemoration essays, ed. H. E. Malden, pp. 290, 297–8.

³ Pipe Roll 10 John, p. xii.

⁴ Of the vacant sees, Lichfield is the least recorded (supra, p. 141).