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Edward I

Page 15

by Michael Prestwich


  These men, Louth, Langton, Droxford and the others discussed, were the chief figures in the Wardrobe, and so played a major part in the administration of war. There was, however, no high degree of specialization in the Edwardian administration: officials were allocated as they became available to whatever tasks were of the greatest importance. A chamberlain of the Exchequer might find himself employed on wardrobe business, and a wardrobe clerk might find himself engaged on the task of assigning revenue to foreign merchants, normally a duty of exchequer officials.[540] It is dangerous to attempt to depict the bureaucracy in rigid departmental order.

  The Wardrobe had to account to the Exchequer for the funds it received, for it was in theory a subordinate department. But in practice, on campaigns when the Wardrobe and its staff were present, it was they who took over the whole administrative burden. The independence of the Wardrobe in the first two Welsh wars was very striking, and is best illustrated by the financial arrangements for the war of 1282. A special account for the war was kept, and of the receipts totalling £102,621 barely £6,400 was handed over to the Wardrobe by the Exchequer. The majority of the receipts — mostly deriving from the customs, from a tax of a thirtieth on moveables, and from an allegedly voluntary aid, much of it levied from the towns — were collected directly by the wardrobe officials. The ordinary wardrobe account for the two years from November 1282 shows receipts of £101,754, and of this only about £23,700 was received from the Exchequer.[541] This situation of formal wardrobe independence was not enduring. Policy was changed with the appointment of William March as Treasurer and Walter Langton as Keeper of the Wardrobe. From 1290 the Exchequer took control of all the main sources of crown revenue and entered them on its records of receipts and issues.[542] Whereas in the early 1280s only two-fifths of the wardrobe income was derived from the Exchequer, now the proportion was far greater. Tout has calculated it to have been eighty-four per cent during Langton’s keepership.[543] With this new policy, the Welsh war of 1294-5 was largely financed by means of funds sent to the paymasters by the Exchequer, totalling at least £54,453, with a further £1,000 sent by the Irish treasury.[544]

  The government succeeded in accumulating a huge quantity of cash in 1294-5, and this made it possible to finance the Welsh war by means of funds sent to Chester and other centres from Westminster.[545] But it was highly abnormal for the government to have such reserves available, and if it did not, then it was an unnecessarily slow and cumbersome process for the Exchequer to collect funds and transmit them to the Wardrobe. It was much more sensible to allow sheriffs and other collectors of revenue to pay funds directly to the Wardrobe, as long as some method could be found for the Exchequer to supervise the process. Tout saw the introduction of dated exchequer tallies in 1290 as the means of effecting this. Tallies were wooden sticks which were used as a form of receipt: the amount paid in would be entered on the tally by notching it, and it would then be split, half being retained by the Exchequer and the other half given to the man who paid in the money. He could then produce this before the barons of the Exchequer when he came to account for the revenues he had handled. Now Tout considered that these tallies were used after 1290 as a means of assigning revenue. The Exchequer would, in his opinion, hand a tally to the Wardrobe before the money had been paid in. The Wardrobe could then collect the funds specified on the tally from the sheriff or other official to whom it was made out, and give the tally over as a receipt. When accounting at the Exchequer, the sheriff could then produce it as evidence that payment had been made.[546] But Willard and Jenkinson have shown that this procedure was extremely rarely employed in Edward’s reign, there being only one definite reference to its use.[547] The system that was used gave far more scope to the Wardrobe, and less to the Exchequer. Instead of using tallies, the principal instrument was the written and sealed bill or receipt of the Wardrobe. The procedure was outlined in instructions issued to the collectors of the New Custom in 1304. The money they received was to be paid over to wardrobe officials in exchange for such receipts.[548] When the collectors went to the Exchequer, tallies were handed over in exchange for these documents, and they then proceeded to make their final account in the normal way.

  A more detailed illustration of the working of the system may help to elucidate it further. In a book of wardrobe receipts it is noted that on 22 November 1303 Henry de Cobham, recently sheriff of Kent, paid £12 to Richard of Montpellier, who was receiving money for the Great Wardrobe. Cobham took the receipt he was given by Montpellier to the Exchequer and exchanged it for a tally, the normal form of exchequer receipt, on 16 January 1304. In the entry on the receipt roll it was noted that this sum of £12 was charged to the Wardrobe.[549] This method did not allow the Exchequer the same degree of control over determining who was to be paid that the later system of using tallies as a means of assignment provided. So although in the later years of the reign the greater part of wardrobe revenue appears in the accounts as being allocated to that department by the Exchequer, in practice the degree of exchequer control was negligible.

  The allocation of funds to the Wardrobe by the Exchequer was in theory controlled by writs of liberate issued by the Chancery. But whereas the practice had been for such writs to be issued for quite small sums, it became usual under Edward I for block grants of huge sums to be made: in 1275-6 the whole of the exchequer contribution to the Wardrobe was authorized in a single writ for £3,000.[550] By the last years of the reign such writs were being issued long after the expenditure they were meant to cover had been incurred. Thus a writ of £11,405 dated 1 October 1304, and enrolled under that date, was in fact only made out after Walter Bedwin, a wardrobe official, brought a wardrobe bill requesting such a writ to the Chancery in 1307.[551] This situation illustrates very clearly the independence of the Wardrobe.

  The question of how revenue was raised, and the political effects of the Wardrobe’s independence will be returned to later. For the present, the question is how the funds collected by the Wardrobe were then disbursed. The official mainly responsible for making payments was the cofferer, and he or his clerks normally paid the infantry troops of the main army in Wales or Scotland at intervals of a week or more. The infantry constables would receive 1s. a day, the vintenars, or men in charge of a platoon of twenty, 4d., and the ordinary footsoldiers 2d. When money was short, as was all too often the case, payment might well take place some time after the period of service to which it related. On 21 March 1304 wages were paid at St. Andrews for the period from 9 September until 23 September 1303. Payment for the next period, up to 20 October 1303, was made on 24 April 1304. Sometimes wages would be paid in kind, in the form of food, in which case responsibility for payment would devolve on a victualling officer. Issues of food in lieu of wages were made by Richard de Bromsgrove, receiver of victuals at Berwick, in June and August 1304.[552] Subsidiary paymasters were appointed to pay the wages of forces detached from the main armies. In 1294-5 the English troops were split up into several different forces. The Wardrobe remained with the king, while John Sandale paid out wages to Warwick’s army. Roger de l’Isle paid some troops at Chester, as did Hugh de Cressingham. Nicholas de Ockham was allocated as paymaster to Valence’s army in the south, and Hugh de Leominster performed the same function for the earl of Lincoln at Rhuddlan.[553] These paymasters were not ordinary wardrobe clerks, detached from headquarters to meet the needs of the campaign. Roger de l’Isle was Keeper of the Great Wardrobe,[554] and Sandale probably a subordinate of his at this time.[555] Cressingham, fat and unpopular, was a royal justice and had been steward of the queen’s estates.[556] Nicholas de Ockham was a Treasurer’s clerk, an exchequer official whose main responsibility was the writing of tallies.[557] Hugh de Leominster was certainly not a wardrobe clerk. After the end of the Welsh war he was appointed chamberlain of North Wales, where he already had connections, for he had earlier received a living at Caernarvon.[558] But all of these men were responsible to the Wardrobe, even though they were not permanent wardrobe cl
erks, and their accounts were incorporated in the general account for the department.

  The system of paying cavalry their wages was rather different. The leader of each contingent was naturally responsible for the distribution of pay to his men. The standard rates were as follows: a banneret received 4s. a day, a knight 2s. and squires and sergeants 1s. Whereas the royal paymasters issued wages to the infantry at regular intervals, it was only in the first two Welsh wars that the cavalry, or at least much of it, was paid on a basis of forty-day periods of service.[559] Later it was usual for accounts with the cavalry to be drawn up at or after the end of their period of service with the army. But the men were not expected to finance themselves until then. Advances of money, known as prests, could be made and then subtracted from the total due to them as wages in the final reckoning. Any other sums due to them, notably payments in recompense for horses lost on campaign, were also taken into consideration. In 1300 John Botetourt served in the campaign in Scotland with a troop varying in number from six to eight. His knight Robert Bavent made account with the Wardrobe at Holme on 12 September for the period from 4 July. Wages due totalled £61 14s. 0d. Offsetting this was a letter assigning him £30 out of the farm of St. Briavels, and in addition he had been issued with wine and victuals to a value of £13 4s. 8d. He was therefore still owed £18 9s. 4d., which was carried over to the next account Botetourt made. This was for wages up to 3 November, totalling £26. In addition, he claimed £134 13s. 4d. outstanding to him for losses of horses on the Falkirk campaign, and £30, 5s. 1d. for arrears of the fees he was owed as a banneret of the household. Against these debts were set prests he had received, totalling £98, so in all he was owed £111 7s. 9d. For this sum he was given a wardrobe bill, or acknowledgement of debt, which he could try to exchange for cash with any receiver of crown revenue.[560]

  There were occasions when the Wardrobe was not available to perform the function of organizing the financial aspects of war. When Rhys ap Maredudd rose in revolt in 1287 the king was abroad in Gascony, and naturally the Wardrobe was with him. The regent, Edmund of Cornwall, had to use different means of organizing the campaign, and in July 1287 the Riccardi, who were the main Italian bankers used by the government in the first half of the reign, were ordered to pay all the king’s money in their hands, and any future receipts, to Robert Tiptoft, Alan Plukenet, John de Mohaut and five paymasters.[561] The account of the Riccardi made subsequently with the Exchequer reveals that they did indeed perform the function that in more normal circumstances would have been the responsibility of the Wardrobe. The bankers were in a much better position than was the Exchequer to raise money quickly, and they possessed the same advantages of adaptability and elasticity as did the Wardrobe.[562]

  The Wardrobe could not be present to organize and finance the war in Gascony between 1294 and 1298, for it was occupied with the campaigns in Wales, Scotland and Flanders. Special paymasters were appointed who, because of the problems of communication, were acting in virtual isolation. Peter of Aylesford, who had not previously held important office under the crown, was appointed paymaster, with Thomas of Cambridge as his controller. They were instructed not to make any payments without the advice of the veteran of the Welsh wars, Robert Tiptoft.[563] With Edmund of Lancaster in 1296 sailed John Sandale. Having proved his administrative ability in Wales, Sandale took the place of Aylesford who had died. Subsidiary officials were appointed to pay the men in the garrisons of Bourg and Blaye. These clerks in Gascony received the great majority of their funds from the Exchequer: £120,000 as against nearly £8,000 from the Wardrobe.[564] Sandale and Cambridge accounted directly with the Exchequer for the money they spent, no supervision was exercised by the wardrobe staff. Of the clerks employed in Gascony, only Sandale appears to have had any form of wardrobe training.

  The successful campaign in Scotland in 1296 was financed and organized by the Wardrobe, but on its completion a separate administration was set up there. Earl Warenne was made royal lieutenant, Hugh Cressingham Treasurer and Walter of Amersham,[565] a chancery clerk of considerable seniority and much judicial experience, Chancellor. However, this administration had little success. By the summer of 1297 Cressingham considered that only the shires of Roxburgh and Berwick were under proper control,[566] and on 12 July arrangements were made to strengthen the English position. Ralph FitzWilliam, Robert Clifford and Brian FitzAlan were given command of the border counties. The forces operating from Northumberland were to be financed by Walter of Amersham with Robert Heron as his controller, while in Cumberland equivalent positions were given to Richard of Abingdon and Robert de Barton.[567] Like the others, Abingdon had no wardrobe connection: he had been employed as chamberlain of Wales, and in 1299 was to become a baron of the Exchequer.[568] It was these men who shouldered the burden of organizing the English effort in the winter of 1297-8, when an attempt was made to revenge the disaster of Stirling Bridge. There was little activity in the west, so Abingdon had little to do. His receipts only totalled £909, whereas Amersham had £10,828 to dispose of.[569] As already shown, at its peak the army paid by Amersham numbered some 18,500 men, an immensely impressive number for a winter campaign. But despite this fine administrative achievement, little was accomplished. Warenne, the commander, arrived late and led the army no further than Roxburgh, while in the west Clifford only won a minor success with a raid into Annandale.[570]

  Much has been made of these paymasters appointed in 1297 by A. Z. Freeman, who sees in them an important stage in the development of military administration, an advance on the ad hoc methods previously used. He considers that ‘the Wardrobe expanded and split to accommodate the expanded nature of warfare in Scotland’.[571] In fact, the situation was quite different. The Wardrobe was fully occupied in 1297 with the preparations for the campaign in Flanders. The administration that had been set up in Scotland was incapable of dealing with the rapidly deteriorating situation, so, as a purely temporary expedient, military commands with appropriate pay departments were set up on the borders. Amersham and Abingdon had no connection with the Wardrobe, although the latter did eventually make his account with that department. Amersham, however, accounted directly with the Exchequer.[572]

  Once the king had returned from Flanders a major attempt to avenge Stirling Bridge was possible. The Exchequer was moved to York, an act symbolizing the new seriousness with which Edward I was regarding the conquest of Scotland.[573] There was no need for the temporary administration that had been set up in the previous year, for the Wardrobe could now take on the burden of the war in Scotland. It was this, and not the difficulty of keeping Amersham and Abingdon supplied with cash, as Freeman suggests, which caused the abandonment of the system of local paymasters on the borders. Amersham retired from the scene, and Abingdon’s rôle was changed into that of a receiver of victuals. From 1298 until 1304 the Wardrobe and its officials controlled the business of paying and feeding troops in Scotland.

  The main armies that were sent north were paid by the Wardrobe in the way already described. In 1301 when two armies took the field, the wardrobe of the prince of Wales under its keeper Walter Reynolds took on the task of paying the western army. A permanent administration was needed to deal with the difficulties of supplying the garrison forces throughout the year, and officials were appointed at Berwick and Carlisle. In 1298 John de Weston, a clerk who had not previously been in crown employment, was in charge of paying the Berwick garrison, and by 1301 he was also paying wages direct to the men in Edinburgh, Roxburgh and Jedburgh. In 1303 Kirkintilloch and Linlithgow were added to the list. Weston was responsible to the Wardrobe and accounted with that department, although he received hardly any funds directly from it. His income was largely derived from the sheriffs of the northern counties, and from the revenues that the English managed to collect in Scotland. In 1298-9 his receipts, all at this stage from England, came to £5,979, and payments out to only £4,711. Such a satisfactory balance was not long maintained, and by 1303 he was incurring expenditure of £10,3
68, with receipts of merely £2,040.[574] For the most part all Weston could do in 1303 and 1304 was to give the soldiers bills, stating the amount that they were owed, which, if they were lucky, they might be able to exchange for cash at some later date. It is hardly surprising to find the garrisons of Kirkintilloch and Linlithgow presenting petitions for the payment of arrears of wages in the parliament of 1305.[575] Weston was the only man employed purely as a paymaster in Scotland between 1298 and 1304.[576] The English military investment in the south-west of Scotland was not large enough to warrant such a man in Carlisle, and there the roles of receiver of victuals and paymaster were combined by Abingdon until 1300, when he was replaced by James de Dalilegh. Sales of victuals ensured an adequate supply of cash for these men, even though very little was raised from lands in Scotland.[577]

  With the fall of Stirling and the surrender of the major Scotch nobles in 1304 Edward I was in a position to set up a puppet administration, as he had done in 1296. John of Brittany, the king’s nephew, was appointed royal lieutenant, and William of Bevercotes Chancellor. Justices were nominated, and the financial administration put in the charge of John Sandale, who was made Chamberlain of Scotland.[578] One of the ablest of the officials who served Edward in his later years, Sandale was a Yorkshireman, like so many other clerks in the royal service.[579] After his experience as a paymaster in Wales and Gascony he was put in charge of the royal mints from 1298 until 1303. His success story did not end in 1307, for Edward II continued to favour him, and he ended his days as bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England.[580] It was clearly intended that Sandale should finance the occupation of Scotland out of the revenues of that country, and be independent of the Wardrobe and Exchequer. But Bruce’s revolt dashed any such plans, and in the last two years of the reign Sandale continued to hold the office of Chamberlain, while being in practice little more than the most important of the English paymasters. Although his accounts were never incorporated in the main wardrobe account books, effectively he was part of the wardrobe organization.

 

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