The Fourteenth Century

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THE OXFORD HISTORY OF ENGLAND Edited by SIR

GEORGE CLARK

I. *ROMAN BRITAIN AND THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS By the late R. o. COLLINGWOOD and J· N. L. MYRES, Student of Christ Church, Oxford; Bodley's Librarian. Second edition, 1937.

II. *ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND. c. 55c>-1087. By

Second edition, 1947.

SIR :FRANK STENTON, P.D.A.

III. *FROM DOMESDAY BOOK TO MAGNA CARTA. 1087-1216 By AUSTIN

L, POOLE, P.B.A.

Second edition, 1955.

IV. *THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 1216-1307 By

THE

FOURTEENTH CENTURY

SIR MAURICE POWICK.E, F.B.A.

V. *THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 1307-1399 By J.IAY MCKISACK, Professor of History at Westfield College in the University of London.

VI.

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 139g-1485 By

E. P. JACOB, P.B.A.

VII. *THE EARLIER TUDORS. 1485-1558 By J. o. MACKIE, c.B.E., M.c., Emeritus Professor of Scottish History and Literature in the University of Glasgow.

VIII. *THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 1558-1603 By J.B. BLACK, Emeritus Professor of History in the University of Aberdeen. Second edition, 1959.

IX. *THE EARLY STUARTS. 1603-1660 By the late

Second edition, 1959.

GODFREY DAVI.ES.

X. *THE LATER STUARTS. 166c>-1714 By

SIR OEORGE CLARK, P.D.A.

BY

MAY McKISACK Professor of History at Westfield College in the University of London and Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford

Second edition, 1956.

XI. *THE WHIG SUPREMACY. 1714-1760 By the late

XII.

BASI.L WILLIAMS.

THE REIGN OF GEORGE III By J· STEVEN WATSON, Student of Christ Church, Oxford.

XIII. *THE AGE OF REFORM. 1815-1870 By SIR LLEWE LLYN WOODWARD, F.B.A. XIV. *ENGLAND. 187c>- 1914 By the late SIR ROBERT ENSOR. • Tluse voluma hat>t been published.

OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1959

4

PREFACE

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE W ELLINGTON

BOMBAY CALCUTIA MADRAS KARACHI KUALA LUMPUR CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROB I ACC!!A

© Oxford University Press z 959

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of my indebtedness to the many scholars whose labours have enriched our understanding of the fourteenth century is acknowledged below, in the footnotes and Bibliography. Among such scholars (though none of them is responsible for anything I have written amiss) I wish to thank especially Professor V. H. Galbraith, for his sustained interest in and enlivening criticism of my work; Dr. Rose Graham, for her kindness in reading and offering valuable comments on Chapter X; Professor Eleanora Cams-Wilson, for her unfailing readiness to offer guidance on problems of economic history; and three younger scholars-Dr. E. B. Fryde, Dr.J. R. L. Highfield, and Dr. G. A. Holmes-for their great generosity in allowing me to make use of some of their unpublished work. I also owe much to the learning and patience of the General Editor, Sir George Clark, and to the skill and courtesy of the staff of the Clarendon Press. The Constance Ann Lee Fellowship, awarded me by Somerville College for the academic year 1954-5, relieved me of most of my teaching responsibilities and has thereby enabled me to fulfil my contract at a much earlier date than would otherwise have been possible. I welcome this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to my college for its support and for countless benefits bestowed on me through many years, not least for the benefit of an incomparable tutor, the late Maude Clarke, whose book this should have been. M.McK. OMETHING

S

Westfield College, London II March 1959

PR I NTED I N GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UN I VERS ITY PRESS, OXFORD BY VIVIAN R I DLER

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CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS AND GENEALOGICAL TABLES INTRODUCTION

xv xvii

I. EDWARD II AND THE ORDAINERS (1307-13) Edward of Carnarvon A new policy Coronation of Edward II Banishment of Gaveston Recall of Gaveston Appointment of the Ordainers Edward II in the north L The Ordinances ~ ~Significance of the Ordinances Royalist counter-moves Civil War Capture and execution of Gaveston Peace negotiations II. FROM BANNOCKBURN TO BOROUGHBRIDGE (1314-22) Successes of Robert Bruce 32 The muster of 1314 34 The battle of Bannockburn 36 Significance of the English defeat 39 The Bruce invasion of Ireland 41 Thomas of Lancaster in power 5 Political stalemate 49 Fainine and unrest Emergence of the Middle Party The treaty of Leake The parliament of 1318 The battle of Myton 56 · ·The York parliament of 1320 Ambitions of the Despensers Defeat of the Despensers 61 Lancaster's northern assemblies 62 Banishment of the Despensers 64 The Despensers recalled 65 Borough bridge 66 Execution of Lancaster 67 Character and policy of Lancaster 68

~ ~

viii

CONTENTS

III. REACTION AND REVOLUTION (1322-30) The Statute of York The Despensers in power Truce with Scotland Administrative reforms Avarice of the Despensers Queen Isabella The queen in France Prince Edward does homage to Charles IV Isabella and Mortimer invade England Murder of Stapledon Judgement on the Despensers The parliament of 1327 Preliminaries of the deposition Deputations to Edward II at Kenilworth Deposition of Edward II State of public opinion Murder of Edward II Character of Edward II Mortimer in power The treaty of Northampton Execution of Edmund of Kent •Fall of Mortimer . ,Significance of the period

71 3

75 76 78 7g 81 82 83 84 8

88 8g go gr

g3 g4 g5 g6 g8 IOI

102

127

128

ix

12g 130 131 1 33 1 34 1 37 138 13g 140 141 142 1 44 145 146 147

VI. EDWARD III AND ARCHBISHOP STRATFORD

I

100

,IV.) THE ORIGINS OF THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR •The Gascon dilemma 105 The war of Saint-Sardos 10g The dynastic issue rrr r 13 Diplomatic negotiations Confiscation of Gascony by Philip VI r 15 The Disinherited in Scotland r 16 Halidon Hill r r7 Philip VI and the Scots r r8 The Low Countries 1 rg The embassy to Valenciennes 12 I \ Edward III created imperial vicar-general 122 Crusading schemes 123 Benedict XII I 24 Martial tastes of Edward III I 25 V. THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR TO 13g6 . The campaign in the Thierache •Edward III assumes the title of France

CONTENTS Sluys The truce of Esple~hin The war in Brittany Invasion of Normandy Crecy The siege and fall of Calais -T The Black Prince in Gascony Poi tiers The campaign of 135g ., The treaty of Calais English reverses Najera Renewal of war with France • Effects of the papal schism The truce of 13g6 "Aims and strategy of Edward III Effects of the war

I

~ i I

\

( 1330-43) " Personal rule of Edward III • Financial problems Affair of the 'Dordrecht bonds' The Walton Ordinances Stratford the principal councillor The grant of the ninth The statutes of 1340 Failure to deliver supplies Hostility to Stratford Edward III purges the administration The libellus famosus Battle of words The parliament of 1341 Reconciliation of Edw~rd and Stratford Significance of the crisis of 1340-1 VIL PARLIAMENT, LAW, AND JUSTICE • Nature of parliament The Modus Tenendi Parliamentum Lords spiritual and temporal Curiales Knights and burgesses ~ Parliamentary procedure 0 Parliamentary functions: deliberation

@

w 157 158 160 162 163 165 167 168 170 171

Q1 177

(~ 182

@-3) 184 187 188 1go rgr

Taxation · Justice \ Legislation Development of statute law ' The courts of justice The justices of the peace 1 Disorder and crime Corruptibility of officials 1 \ The Forest

1

VIII. EDINGTON AND WYKEHAM (1344-71) Lay and clerical ministers of state Edington as chancellor The privy seal Supremacy of the exchequer The king's chamber The king's wardrobe The great and privy wardrobes Parliament and the war The wool tax Credit operation~ of Edward III Rise of Wykeham Wykeham as chancellor Ireland under Edward III Lionel of Clarence in Ireland The Statutes of Kilkenny r

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

x

w

AR AND CHIV ALR y Paid troops Military contracts Commissions of array Arms and armour The longbow Naval developments The court of Admiralty The profits of war The allurements of war The Order of the Garter Edward III and the baronage The Statute of Treasons Baronial estates Jointures and uses Retainers Heralds • Edward III and his family • Character and achievement of Edward III

IX.

192 193 194 196 198 200 203 205 207 210

213 214 215 216 217 218 219 222 223 225 227 228

231 232 234 235 237 238

240 242 245 246 249 251 r- 25

..257 258 261 262

264 265 269

X. TH~ CHURCH, THE POPE, AND THE KING Anti-papal protests Papal provisions Pluralism and non-residence Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire Papal taxation • Royal taxation of the clergy Anti-clericalism Dissolution of the Order of the Templars The alien priories Fourteenth-century bishops Rectors and vicars Chantry priests Monks Friars A religious age XI. RURAL SOCIETY Colonization of England Population estimates Communications A pattern of change High farming Administrative arrangements Agricultural improvements Sheep farming Profits from rents Stratification of the villeinage Thefamuli 1 Decline of high farming - The Black Death Growth of leaseholds Rising wages The Statute of Labourers Social disturbances The Rising of l 38 l - Decay of villeinage Demesne leasings - Condition of the peasantry _ A mobile society Prosperity of the nineties XI I. TRADE, INDUSTRY, AND TOWNS Exports The wool trade

ix

272 273 279 280

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2861 28~

291 293 295 302 304 305

~ 312 313 314 315 316 317 320 322 323 324 325 ~2§/

331 333 334 335 336 338

~) 349 350

CONTENTS

xii

./

The staple The cloth trade Conflicts with the Banse The wine trade The woollen industry Flemish weavers in England The domestic cloth market Mining The building industry Fraternities, misteries, and gilds The London gilds Expansion of London Fluctuations in urban development Civic oligarchies

( I \

\

XIII. THE GOOD PARLIAMENT ;).ND THE PEASANTS' REVOLT (1371-81) , Decline of Edward III ,~8 385 ~ Poli ti cal unrest 386 Trouble in Ireland The Good Parliament ~ 394 Judgement on Wykeham 395 ...._'The last parliament of Edward III 397 _,Peath of Edward III 398 - t Gaunt and the Londoners 399 • Coronation of Richard II 400 • Policy of Gaunt 403 The Hawley-Shakell case 405 Criticism of the government '-' The poll-tax of 1380 The Rising in Essex and Kent The march on London 41 l • · Richard II at Mile End 412 • The assault on the Tower 4 13 Richard II at Smithfield 414 St. Albans 415 The Rising in Suffolk 416 Cambridge 417 The Rising in Norfolk 418 Suppression of the Revolt 419 Causes and significance of the Revolt XIV. RICHARD II, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS ENEMIES

(1381-8) (

\

Childhood of Richard II

42 4

CONTENTS Anne of Bohemia Gaunt's ambitions in Castile The Norwich Crusade The affair of the Carmelite friar John of Northampton Unpopularity of the court The Scottish expedition of 1385 Lancaster leaves for Spain The parliament of 1386 Richard !I's 'gyration' The questions to the judges The lords appellant Radcot Bridge .f The Merciless Parliament

I XV.

xiii

427 428 431 434 435 437 439 440

442 447 448

451 453 454

THE RULE AND FALL OF RICHARD II (1388-99)

I The rule of the appellants

Richard II declares himself of age Return of Lancaster Conciliar government Portents of trouble Insurrection in the north Richard II in Ireland The royalist group Haxey's bill Arrest of Warwick, Arundel, and Gloucester The parliament of 1397 The Shrewsbury session The lists at Coventry Tyranny of Richard II Death of John of Gaunt The second expedition to Ireland Invasion of Henry of Lancaster The fall of Richard II Character and policy of Richard II XVI. LEARNING, LOLLARDY, AND LITERATURE Schools Universities Oxford Cambridge Colleges and halls Mathematicians, astronomers, and philosophers John Wyclif

499 501 502 505 506

~

xiv

The lollards The lollard Bible Vernacular literature Piers Plowman Gower \ Chaucer

CONTENTS

r53 522 524 526 527 529

BIBLIOGRAPHY

533

INDEX

567

LIST OF MAPS Fm.

" " " " "

1.

2.

Suggested sites for the battle of Bannockburn South Wales and the March Gascony and Poitou Southern Scotland and northern England The Low Countries in the fourteenth century

3· 4· 5· 6. Four teenth-century Ireland

37 60 113 116 121 230

GENEALOGICAL TABLES The Houses of Capet and Valois The House of Plantagenet

106

(at end)

INTRODUCTION entered into a rich inheritance. England at the opening of the fourteenth century was a prosperous land, a land of expanding population, flourishing agriculture, fair cities, fine churches, rising universities and schools. The great King Edward I who had ruled this country for over thirty years had played his role magnificently, offending none of the conventions of his age. Immensely vigorous, both physically and mentally, he enjoyed the hawking, hunting, and mock fighting which were the approved relaxations of monarchy; and was himself a soldier of distinction. He accepted the medieval ideal of a united Christendom and made his influence felt in Europe, while energetically maintaining what he conceived to be the rights and prerogatives of the English Crown. By the end of his reign he had conquered the principality of Wales and added the earldom of Cornwall to the royal demesnes. The great earldom of Gloucester was in the hands of his grandson, Gilbert de Clare, the earl of Hereford and Essex was his son-in-law, the earl of Surrey was his granddaughter's husband. The king's nephew, John of Brittany, was hereditary earl of Richmond; another nephew, Thomas of Lancaster, son of his brother Edmund, was earl of Lancaster and Leicester and had inherited a claim to the Ferrers earldom of Derby and, through his wife Alice, daughter and heiress of the king's friend, Henry de Lacy, to the reversion of the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. Although Edward had run into serious difficulties in 1297, when he had been forced to make formal confirmation of the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest, he had felt strong enough by 1305 to repudiate these concessions and to seek and obtain papal absolution from his oath. His most determined ecclesiastical opponents, Robert Winchelsey, archbishop of Canterbury, and Antony Bek, bishop of Durham, soon found themselves in exile; the king seemed to have insured himself against any renewal of the crisis of 1297, let alone of another Runnymede or Lewes. Meanwhile, a series of great statutes had amended and clarified the law of the land; the council in parliament was omnicompetent and the speed and equity of its judgements were attracting an increasing number of suitors; by ING EDWARD 11

K

xviii

INTRODUCTION

summoning representatives of shires, cities, and boroughs, of cathedral and parochial clergy to his parliaments, Edward had enlarged the scope of the feudal assembly and laid the foundations of a system of parliamentary taxation. Much of his success must be ascribed to the efficiency of his ministers and of the administrative system which they controlled. Despite their inevitable unpopularity, both Robert Burnell, chancellor from 1274 to 1292, and Walter Langton, treasurer from 1295 until the end of the reign, served the monarchy well. In chancery and exchequer and in the household departments of wardrobe and cham?er, Edward I had been able to rely on the loyalty and expenence of a small army of well-trained clerks and officials who drafte~ his letters and directed the details of his policy. But, at least until the last years of his reign, he had been wise enough not to allow such men to usurp, or (what was more important) to appear to usurp the advisory functions proper to the hereditary aristocracy. For Edward I possessed in generous measure the po~itical good sense in which both his predecessor, Henry III, and his successor, Edward II, were conspicuously deficient. High-handed, overbearing, and often unscrupulous, he might provoke men's resentment, even their hatred, but seldom their contempt. If there were some who suspected him of too great d~pen~ence on t~e of?cers of state and household, none charged him with subordmatJ.ng the public interest to his private affections. The pattern of skilful ruling .which he bequeathed to his heir might have been turned to good account by a wiser man than Edward of Carnarvon. The cloud on the horizon was Scotland. For in 1307 England and Scotland were at war and the new king's most damaging liability was the inflexible hostility of the Scots whose struggle for independence had already persisted through a decade. By 1306 Robert Bruce of Annandale was conspiring secretly with certain of the Scottish magnates to have himself accepted as king. When his principal Scottish rival, John Comyn the Red, was murdered at Dumfries in February, Bruce, who was suspected of complicity in the crime, was forced to take to the hills· but he declared himself the champion of national independence' renewed his claim to the Crown, and a few weeks later secured his own coronation at Scone. Though subsequently driven into exile, he reappeared in Scotland early in the following year. Edward I spent the last winter of his life at the priory of

INTRODUCTION

xix

Lanercost, near Carlisle, and died as he was moving towards the Border to renew the attack on Bruce. English determination to maintain the vassal status of Scotland was thus still at grips with the Scottish will to resistance; a Scottish war with all its implications, military, financial, and political, was the unenviable legacy of Edward II. Militarily-though the lesson had not been digested-experience had shown that the Scots could be defeated in battle and their country temporarily overrun, but that to hold them in permanent subjection was a task beyond England's resources. The Scottish campaigns of Edward I had strained these resources severely; and, though his credit operations look trifling if measured against those of Edward III at the opening of the Hundred Years War, debts amounting to over £60,000 remained unpaid at his death and exchequer accounts were in cbaos. The customs were mortgaged to the Italian banking-house of Frescobaldi and money was owing to magnates, troops, courtiers, tradesmen, and clerks. Politically, the Scottish rapprochement with France during the Anglo-French conflict of I 294-7 had been among the most sinister developments of the war of independence. At the end of the reign, England and France were at peace. But the vital question outstanding between them, the question of the precise status of the king of England in his capacity of duke of Aquitaine, remained unresolved to threaten the peace of western Europe.

I

EDWARD II AND THE ORDAINERS (1307-13) in July 1307, the great Edward I lay dying at the Cumberland village of Burgh-upon-the-Sands, it may well have seemed to some of his principal subjects that he had lived too long. Around the formidable old king, whose last campaign' was undertaken in his sixty-eighth year, there had been growing up a circle of much younger barons, many of them linked to the royal house by ties of blood or marriage. Even Henry de Lacy of Lincoln, veteran among the earls, was Edward's junior by twelve years; and, of the rest, only John of Brittany, earl of Richmond, and the earls of Oxford and Ulster were over forty. Aymer de Valence, shortly to assume the title of Pembroke, may have been thirty-seven; 1 but Humphrey Bahun of Hereford and Essex, Thomas of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, Guy Beauchamp of Warwick, Edmund Fitzalan of Arundel, andJohn de Warenne of Surrey were all young men in their twenties or early thirties; while the new king's nephew, Gilbert de Clare of Gloucester, was a boy of sixteen. There were grounds for rejoicing in the accession of a prince in his twentyfourth year, 'fair of body and great of strength', whose education had been such as befitted his rank. 2 If his household was unruly and his habits extravagant there was little in such youthful excesses to call for comment. 3 For many years he had been suitably betrothed to a French princess, Isabella, daughter of Philip IV; he was duke of Aquitaine and lord of PonthieuMontreuil; he had played his part unremarkably in four Scottish campaigns, had acted as regent for his father during his absences

W

HEN,

1 He was born p robably c. 1270 and assumed the title on the death of his mother in April I 308. Complete Peerage, x. 382-4. 2 According to Robert of Reading (Flores, iii. 137), Edward II was acclaimed cum ingenti lattitia. The author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi (ed. N. Denholm-Young, 1957, p. 40) also refers to the popular favour he enjoyed at the beginning of the reign. 3 Edward's household as prince of Wales is the first of its kind of which we have detailed knowledge. See T. F. Tout, Chapters in Medieval Admi11istrative History, ii. 165-87. His early life is the subject of a monograph by Hilda Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon (I 946) .

8720 .5

B

2

EDWARD II AND THE ORDAINERS (1307-13)

abroad and had attended him in parliament and on other state occasio~s. Long sojourns at his Buckinghamshire ma:ior of Langley may have developed his taste country ~um~its and there is evidence that he was already addicted to swimmmg and boating; but he was by no means a boor. He enj?yed pl