Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461 0198228163

Citation preview

Shaping the Nation ENGLAND 1360-1461

GERALD HARRISS

CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 oDP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's ohjcctive of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford NewYork Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York r!)

Gerald Harriss 200 5

The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-822816-3 Typeset in Ehrhardt l'vIT by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Clays Ltd, St Ives pie

TO ANNE AND OUR FAMILY

General Editor's Preface

The first volume of Sir George Clark's Oxford History of Etz'{).and was published in 1934. Undertaking the General Editorship of a New Oxford History of Em;)and forlJl-five years later it was hard not to feel overshadowed by its powerful influence and well-deserved status. Some of Clark's volumes (his own among them) were brilliant individual achievements, hard to rival and impossible to match. Of course, he and his readers shared a broad sense of the purpose and direction of such books. His successor can no longer be sure of doing that. The buildingblocks of the story, its reasonable and meaningful demarcations and divisions, the continuities and discontinuities, the priorities of different varieties of history, the place of narrative-all these things are now much harder to agree upon. We now know much more about many things, and think about what we know in different ways. It is not surprising that historians now sometimes seem unsure about the audience to which their scholarship and writing are addressed. In the end, authors should be left to write their own books. None the less, the New Oxford History of En'{).and is intended to be more than a collection of discrete or idiosyncratic histories in chronological order. Its aim is to give an account of the development of our country in time. It is hard to treat that development as just the history which unfolds within the precise boundaries of England, and a mistake to suggest that this implies a neglect of the histories of the Scots, Irish, and Welsh. Yet the institutional core of the story which runs from Anglo-Saxon times to our own is the story of a state-structure built round the English monarchy and its effective successor, the Crown in Parliament, and that provides the only continuous articulation of the history of peoples we today call British. It follows that there must be uneven and sometimes discontinuous treatment of much of the history of those peoples. The state story remains, nevertheless, an intelligible thread and to me appears still to justi(v the title both of this series and that of its predecessor. If the attention given to the other kingdoms and the principali~y of Wales must reflect in this series their changing relationship to that central theme, this is not the only way in which the emphasis of individual volumes will be different. Each author has been asked to bring forward what he or she sees as the most important topics explaining the histoi:y under study, taking account of the present state of historical knowledge, drawing attention to areas of dispute and to matters on which final judgement is at present difficult (or, perhaps, impossible) and not merely recapitulating what has recently been the fashionable centre of professional debate. But each volume, allowing for its special approach and

Vlll

GENERAL EDITOR 's PREFACE

proportions, must also provide a comprehensive account, in which politics is always likely to be prominent. Volumes have to be demarcated chronologically but continuities must not be obscured; vestigially or not, copyhold survived into the 1920s and the Anglo-Saxon shires until the 1970s (some of which were to be resurrected in the 1990s, too). Any single volume should be an entry-point to the understanding of processes on~y slowly unfolding, sometimes across centuries. My hope is that in the end we shall have, as the outcome, a set of standard and authoritative histories, embodying the scholarship of a generation, and not mere compendia in which the determinants are lost to sight among the detail. J. M.

ROBERTS

Preface

The period treated in this volume has been the subject of half a century of scholar~y revision and debate. From being seen as one of disorder and decline, it has emerged as one of crucial transformation, in which English society and government acquired the shape it was to retain until the Civil War. I have tried, first, to reflect the research that has produced this reassessment; secondly, to provide a serviceable guide for the study of the period at university level; and thirdly, to convey my own understanding of it. I have summarized that in the Conclusion, which can also serve as an Introduction. Reading and writing history is always so enjoyable that this book has never seemed a burden, but had it been so I would have been sustained by the encouragement and helpfulness of many friends and colleagues. To the community of learning at Magdalen College, with which I have been connected at varying levels for over sixty years, I am deeply indebted in too many ways to speci(y here; but above all I wish to recall the inspiration of Bruce McFarlane, my teacher and friend for the first part of that time. I have profited, too, from the fresh intelligence which my own pupils, both undergraduate and postgraduate, have brought to the problems of medieval history. I recall in particular how Simon Walker's innovative thesis repeatedly yielded new insights, and my frequent citation of his work indicates how greatly he illuminated the study of late medieval England and how impoverished we are by his untimely death. I owe a specific debt to some colleagues for reading, and commenting critically on, particular chapters about which I felt unsure. In this respect Christine Carpenter, Jeremy Catto, Ian Doyle, and Simon Payling have all been most generous with their time and knowledge. Many others have unstintingly answered my appeals from deepest Dorset for factual and bibliographical references. Academic commitments while in post meant that most of the book had to be written in retirement, and I have constantly marvelled at the unreproachful patience with which the Oxford University Press has waited for it, matched by the unwavering encouragement and assistance of my General Editor, John Roberts, to whom I would dear~J' have wished to deliver the final typescript. Above all I am grateful for the support and understanding of my wife, Anne, in my continuing preoccupation with matters historical. GERALD HARRISS

Contents

xv

Li&t of Plates

List of Figures, Maps, Tables List of Abbreviations

xvi XVlll

PART I POLITICAL SOCIETY I. CONCEPTS OF GOVERNANCE

Theories of Authori~y

I.

2. The Literary Model of Governance 2.

THE KING AND THE COURT

3 3 6 14

The Court as the King's Domestic Environment

14

2. The Court as a Centre of Patronage and Service 3. The Court as a Religious and Cultural Centre

22 31

I.

3·

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT I.

The Secretariat

2. Law and Justice 3· State Fin an ce 4- Parliament

4·

47 58 66

5. Council 6. Diplomacy

74 81

7· Defence

85

THE NOBILITY I.

The Peerage

2. The Inheritance 3. Domestic Culture 4. Religion 5. Chivali:v and War 5.

41 41

THE GENTRY 1.

Status, Economy, and Inheritance

93 94 98 107 II9 125 136 136

6.

PART III MEN AND EVENTS

2. Domestic Culture and Religion

149

3. Magistracy 4. War and Chivahy

163 175

I.

THE LOCAL POLITY

187

2. Losing the War, 1369-1389

411

187

3. The Search for a Settlement, 1374-1396 4. Schism, Secession, and Crusade

424

5. Enemies and Allies, 1399-1413

426

I.

Coun~y Communi~y or Magnate Affini~)'?

2. The Affinity in the Local Community

195

3. Dispute and Disorder in Gentry Society 4. Central Politics and the Local Polity

197 202

II. ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND CHRISTENDOM,

12.

PART II WORK AND WORSHIP 7. AGRARIAN SOCIETY I.

RULING ENGLAND,

209

1360-1413

Peace and Plenty, 1360-1369

405 405 419

433 433

2. The Court and the Commons, 1369-1377

437

3. Uneasy Consensus, 1377-1383 4. The Assertion of Regality, 1384-1386

444

5. The Magnate Backlash, 1387-1389 6. Uneasy Equilibrium, 1389-1396

461 477

451

2. Agrarian Structures before the Black Death

214

3. Population Decline and Economic Change 4. Lords and Peasants, 1360-1381

218

5. A New Agrarian Order, 1381-1461 6. The Village Community and Culture

234

7· King Richard's Rule, 1397-1399 8. Legitimation and Consent, 1399-1406

242

9. The King and the Prince, 1407-1413

501

TRADE, INDUSTRY, AND TOWNS

256

ENGLAND AND HER NEIGHBOURS

507

225

13.

468 491

508

Ireland

256

I.

2. Internal Trade and Indust1y

271

2. Wales

517

3. Urban Society

281

3· The Anglo-Scottish Border

528

THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

310

I.

9·

The Agricultural Framework

209

1360-1413

Losing the Peace, 1360-1369

I.

8.

:nu

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Xll

Overseas Trade

14· THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE, 1413-1453 I. The Lancastrian Conquest in France, 1413-1429

The Bishops in Church and State

311

2. Cathedrals and Religious Houses

326

2. Lancastrian Rule in France, 1417-1435

3· Perpendicular Rebuilding, 1360-1461 4. The Universities

340

3. The Defence of Normandy, 1435-1444 4. The Loss of Normandy, 1445-1450

I.

344 15.

RULING ENGLAND,

1413-1461

IO. RELIGION, DEVOTION, AND DISSENT

352

Parochial Structures and Religion

353 362

2. The Minority of Henry VI, 1422-1435

3. Private Devotion 4· Wyclif and Wvcliffism

368

3. King and Council, 1435-1443 4. Suffolk's Rule, 1444-1449

5. The Persecution of Lollardy

395

I.

2. Public Worship

376

I.

Henry V, the Model King

5. Rebellion, Popular and Political, 1449-1453

540 540 554 568 577 588 588 595 604 6II 617

CONTENTS

XIV

6. The Rule of York, 1453-1456

Plates

7. Queen Margaret's Rule, 1456-1459

8. York versus Lancaster, 1459-1461 16.

CONCLUSION

Genealogical table: The royal house of PlantagenetLancaster, 1360-1461

Chronology Bibliography Index

I.

Court of King's Bench, c. 1460 Inner Temple Library, Inner Temple Misc. MS 188 By permission ofThe Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple

2. Warkworth Castle, Northumberland 3. Nunney Castle, Somerset 4. Silver collar of esses from first half of the fifteenth century Museum of London By permission of the Museum of London

5. Effigy of Robert, Lord Hungerford, Salisbm:)' Cathedral Courtesy and permission of Stephen Friar

6. John, duke of Bedford before St George British Library, Add. MS. 18850 (The Bedford Hours) By permission of the British Library

7. Portrait of a Cardinal (presumed to be Henry Beaufort) by Jan Van Eyck Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna By permission ofKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

8. Font, Blickling church, Norfolk 9. The Erpingham Gateway, Norwich Etching, J. Le Keux, in Britton, Picturesque Antiquities of English Cities ( r 830) By permission of Norfolk County Council Library and Information Services IO.

'John Wyclif': initial at opening of De Veritate Sacre Scripture Prague National Library, MS VIII C.3 fo. 2 recto. By courtesy of A. Hudson and permission of Prague National Library

11. New College, Oxford, c.1461 New Coll. MS. 288 fo. 3 verso. By permission of the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford

12. Sherborne Abbey, choir Lithograph 1843 By courtesy and permission of Canon E. Wood, Sherborne Abbey

Figures, Maps, Tables

FIGURES, MAPS, AND TABLES

xvu

7.1 Changes in the proportion of arable and pasture in the West Midlands, 1345-1520

223

By permission of Cambridge University Press

8. l Towns with recorded taxpaying population of over l ,ooo, 1377 FIGURES

3. l Plan of the Palace of Westminster

49

By permission of HMSO

4. l (a) Plan of Kenilworth Castle By permission of A. Emery and Cambridge University Press

(b) Plan of Old Wardour Castle :£;) English Heritage

8.1 Exports of English wool and cloth, 1350-1450

257

MAPS

7. l Distribution of rural population per square mile, 1377

210

7 .2 Distribution of lay wealth, 1334

211

8. l English overseas trade l l. l

Lands ceded to Edward III by the Treaty of Brerigny, 1360

13.1 Ireland: the Anglo-Irish and Gaelic lordships, c.1390

512

13.2 Wales: the principality and marcher lordships, c.1390

520

By permission of R. R. Davies and Oxford University Press

13.3 Estates of the Neville and Percy families in the north of England (a) Neville of Middleham estates

536

(b) Percy estates

537

By permission of A.J. Pollard and Oxford University Press

14.1 Northern France, 1415-1450

547

By permission ofC. T. Allmand and Oxford University Press

TABLES

5. l The gentry in 1436: social grade, number, and income 5.2 Distribution of landholding by income grade, 1412 By permission of Cambridge University Press

274

ABBREVIATIONS

Complete Peerage

Abbreviations

AHR Anon. Chron. Arch. J nl. Bekynton, Correspondence

Benet'sChron.

BIRR BJR/U]L BL BRUO

Brut CCR CFR

CHB

Cffl.vIEL Chron. Angliae

Chron. Lond. Chron. Rev.

Agricultural History Review E. Miller (ed.), The Agrarian History of England and Wales, iii: 1348-1500 (Cambridge, 1991) American Historical Review The Anonimalle Chronicle, l 333-138 l, ed. V. H. Galbraith (Manchester, 1927) Archaeological} ournal The Official Correspondence of ThomasBe~ynton, ed. G. Williams, 2 vols., Rolls ser. (London, 1872) John Benet's Chronicle, ed. G. L. Harriss and M. A. Harriss, in Camden Miscellany, XXIV, Camden Society, 4th ser. 9 (London, 1972) Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Bulletin of John Rylands [University] Library British Librai:y A. B. Emden (ed.), Biographical Register of the Universi~y of Oxford to 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1957) The Brut, or, Chronicles of England, pt. 2, ed. F. W Brie, 2 vols. EETS, old ser., 136 (1908) Calendar of the Close Rolls Calendar of the Fine Rolls L. Hellinga and J. B. Trapp (eds.), The Cambridge Hi&tory of the Book, iii (Cambridge, 1997) D. Wallace (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval EnglishLitera ture(Cambridge, 1999) Chronicon Angliae, ed. E. M. Thompson, Rolls ser., 64 (1874) C. L. Kingsford (ed.), Chronicles of London (Oxford, 1905) Chronicles of the Revolution, 1397-1400, ed. C. Given-Wilson (Manchester, 1993)

G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, ed.

V. Gibbs etal., 13 vols. (London, 1910-59) CPR CUR

Agr. Hist. Rev. AHEW

.\'ix

Davies (ed.), Eng. Chron. Davis (ed.), Paston Letters

Econ. HR EETS

EHD EHR Eulog. Hist.

Gairdner (ed.), Paston Letters Gesta Gregory, Chron.

Hardyng, Chronicle Hist. J 111. Hist. Res. House of Corrnnons

]BAA ]EH J nl. Brit. Stud. Jnl. Hist. Soc J nl. Legal Hist. J nl. Med. Hist. J nl. Relig. Hist. Kail (ed.), Political Poems Knighton, Chron.

Calendar of the Pa tent Rolls D. Palliser (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History ofBritain, i (Cambridge, 2000) An English Chronicle, ed. J. S. Davies, Camden Society, 64 (1855) N. Davis (ed.), Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1971, 1976) Economic Hist01:y Review Ear~}' English Text Socie~v A. R. Myers (ed.), English Historical Documents, 1327-1485 (London, 1969) English Historical Review Eulogium Historiarum sive Temporis, ed. F. S. Haydon, 3 vols., Rolls ser., 9, vol. iii (London, 1863) J. Gairdner (ed.), The Paston Letters (Gloucester, 1986) Gesta Henrici Quinti, ed. F. Taylor and J. S. Roskell (Oxford, 1975) Gregory's Chronicle, ed. J. Gairdner, Camden Society, new ser., 17 (1876) John Hardyng, Chronicle, ed. H. Ellis (London, 1812) Historical Journal Historical Research J. S. Roskell, L. Clark, and C. Rawcliffe (eds.), The History of Parliament: The House of Corrnnons, 1386-1421, 4 vols. (Stroud, 1992) Journal of the British Archite