Edward I

by Michael Prestwich

  In economic terms it would be impossible to argue that Edward I’s wars benefited the country in the way that it has been suggested it profited from the Hundred Years War.[1028] There were no appreciable gains from ransoms or from captured territory, and both in subsidies paid to the foreign allies and in wages paid to English troops in Flanders and Gascony, the war with Philip IV witnessed a substantial drain on English monetary resources. Trade suffered from the requisitioning of ships for the campaigns, and between 1294 and 1298 was very adversely affected by the French war and the seizures and taxation of wool. The methods used to provide the armies with food must have had their effect, the harshness and unpredictability of purveyance upsetting many calculations and so disturbing the running of many estates. The recruitment of men for the army may have had similar effects on occasion, but probably more serious was the call for skilled workmen to build the great Welsh castles, which must have had its effect on the building industry. The economic effects of taxation cannot be calculated precisely, though an increased burden must have made it more difficult for landlords, especially ecclesiastics, to raise the funds needed for the improvement of their estates. And it cannot be argued that the government spent the money it collected in taxes in such a way as to promote economic activity.

  The later years of Edward I’s reign witnessed an increasing breakdown in the maintenance of law and order, and while this can be partially explained in terms of the purge of the judicial bench on Edward’s return from Gascony and of Burnell’s death, it is apparent that the government’s single-minded concentration on war after 1294 took all the impetus out of the drive to overhaul the legal system. The halting of the Quo Warranto enquiries was a direct result of the outbreak of war, and it is striking that after 1294 only two general eyres were held in the rest of the reign.[1029] The neglect of legal matters was not because earlier achievements had left little more to be done, as the evidence makes very clear.

  The situation in the first half of the reign had been far from perfect. The Statute of Winchester of 1285 had, according to the preamble, been prompted by the prevalence of violent crime and the difficulty of obtaining indictments.[1030] The workings of justice were wide open to the use of bribery, corruption and influence, as the trials of the justices that began in 1289 showed. A particular problem was maintenance and champerty, or the support of a claimant in the courts by an influential man in return for a share in the profits of litigation. In 1293 a writ of conspiracy was introduced to provide a remedy for those who suffered from the power that sworn confederacies could exercise in the courts. In the following year the justices at York were told that ‘there were so many and so influential maintainers of false plaints and champertors and conspirators leagued together to maintain any business whatsoever that justice and truth were completely choked’. In 1305 another set of justices in York wrote to say that no serious indictments had been brought before them, although they had private information to show that the truth was being deliberately concealed from them. Investigations revealed that a sworn confederacy had come to exercise a complete stranglehold over the city.[1031]

  Many scandalous stories are revealed by the records. In 1303 a group of men besieged and entered the town of Shrewsbury, assaulted the bailiffs and broke their staffs of office, installed men of their own choosing in their place, and intimidated the men of the town from trading. Two years later a private war was taking place between the Berkeleys and the burgesses of Bristol. The argument was over the question whether some of the burgesses owed suit of court to the Berkeleys, and in the course of the struggle it was alleged that the manor of Bedminster was sacked by the burgesses, that some of the burgesses were beaten up and thrown into a cesspit, and that the mayor of Bristol had had his legs broken by the Berkeleys’ men. There was another private war between Thomas of Lancaster and the prior of Tutbury at about the same time. In another incident one of Winchelsey’s houses was broken into, and the dean of Ospringe put on a horse, facing backwards and grasping its tail. He was paraded in this way through the township of Selling in Kent, and then cast into a filthy place. Many of the archbishop’s muniments were destroyed.[1032] Such evidence of disorder is not quantifiable, but the clear impression given by the records of a situation deteriorating rapidly in the years after the outbreak of war with France is confirmed by a royal ordinance of 1306 which spoke prophetically of the ‘riots and outrages which are like the beginning of civil war’.[1033]

  One way in which the king’s wars caused a worsening in the domestic situation is suggested by the frequency with which malcontents took advantage of the absence of lords on campaign to break down enclosures, trample crops, and drive off livestock. Earl Warenne, Humphrey de Bohun, William la Zouche and Walter Huntercombe, to name only a few, all suffered in this way in 1304.[1034] But the main effect of the wars was that they diverted the government’s attention from this problem. Under pressure from the opposition the Articuli provided that actions for conspiracy could be initiated by direct plaint before the justices as well as by writ, and the same document also contained a clause directed against maintenance by royal ministers. However, it was not until the war in Scotland appeared to be over that the crown really began to try to deal with the problem of law and order. In November 1304 special commissions were set up to restore order. They were known as Trailbaston enquiries, after the popular name for the gangs of men armed with staves who terrorized the countryside. The records of these commissioners are a sorry tale of murders and robbery, intimidation and violence.[1035]

  A popular song of the time tells of an ex-soldier, who had served the king loyally in Flanders, Gascony and Scotland; persecuted by justices of Trailbaston, he was compelled to take refuge from the law in the greenwood.[1036] It is very likely that returned soldiers did try to better themselves by the use of arms, and that in this way, too, Edward’s wars encouraged domestic disorder. In addition, the technique adopted after 1294 of recruiting for the army by pardoning criminals assisted in the breakdown of law and order.[1037]

  In the early 1290s Edward I was in a position of great strength. He appeared to be controlling the internal tensions of the country skilfully, and to be confidently directing the expansive energies of a vigorous society. The great series of legislative statutes, the methods by which the aristocracy was manipulated, the victories in Wales and the king’s triumph as the arbiter between the rival claimants to the throne of Scotland are impressive testimony. Governments better equipped than Edward’s to calculate the costs and consequences of war have made worse mistakes, but in the later years of the reign the country suffered considerably as a result of the king’s military involvements. In 1297 Edward’s subjects represented themselves as oppressed, and the country as impoverished as a result of the way in which men, money and supplies had been raised for war. Ten years later, at the time of his death, Edward I left to the son he distrusted a government weakened by debt and a country threatened by disorder, with the problem of Scotland unresolved. Though it would be foolish to attribute all the gains and losses of Edward’s reign to the consequences of war, they played a very large part in shaping the precarious fortunes of English society and government in a particularly formative period.

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  Abbreviations

  B.I.H.R. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research

  B.M. British Museum

  Cal. Docs. Scot. Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain (Edinburgh, 1881-8)

  C.C.R. Calendar of Close Rolls

  C.Ch.R. Calendar of Charter Rolls

  C.F.R. Calendar of Fine Rolls

  C.I.P.M. Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem

  C.P.R. Calendar of Patent Rolls

  C. V. C. R. Calendar
of Various Chancery Rolls

  Ec.H.R. Economic History Review

  E.H.R. English Historical Review

  M.I.Ö.G Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichischen Geschichtsforschung

  Parl. Writs Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons, ed. F. Palgrave (London, 1827)

  Rot. Parl. Rotuli Parliamentorum

  T.R.H.S. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

  Unless otherwise specified, all manuscripts cited are in the Public Record Office, London.

  List Of Sources

  A. MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

  (i) Public Record Office

  Chancery

  C. 47 (Chancery Miscellanea)

  C. 62 (Liberate Rolls)

  C. 67 (Supplementary Patent Rolls)

  C. 81 (Chancery Warrants)

  Duchy of Lancaster

  D.L. 29/1/2 (Account of the estates and household of Henry Lacy, earl of Lincoln, 1305)

  Exchequer of Pleas

  E. 13 (Plea Rolls)

  Exchequer, King’s Remembrancer

  E. 101 (Accounts Various)

  E. 122 (Customs Accounts)

  E. 143 (Extents and Inquisitions)

  E. 159 (Memoranda Rolls)

  E. 163 (Miscellanea)

  E. 179 (Subsidy Rolls)

  Exchequer, Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer

  E. 356 (Enrolled Customs Accounts)

  E. 359 (Accounts of subsidies, aids, etc.)

  E. 363 (Exannual Rolls)

  E. 368 (Memoranda Rolls)

  E. 372 (Pipe Rolls)

  Exchequer of Receipt

  E. 401 (Receipt Rolls)

  E. 403 (Issue Rolls)

  E. 404 (Warrants for Issue)

  E. 405/1 (Jornalia Rolls)

  Justices Itinerant

  J.I. 1 (Assize Rolls)

  Special Collections

  S.C. 1 (Ancient Correspondence)

  (ii) British Museum

  Additional MSS

  7965 (Wardrobe account, 1297)

  7966a (Wardrobe account, 1301)

  8835 (Wardrobe account, 1304)

  17360 (Victualler’s account at Berwick, 1303)

  35292 (Wardrobe journal, 1303-5)

  35292 (Wardrobe prests, 1304)

  Cottonian MSS

  Vesp. B. vii

  Vesp. B. xi (The Hagnaby chronicle)

  Nero D. vi

  Harleian MSS

  152 (Wardrobe prests, 1306)

  626 (Victualler’s account at Berwick, 1303)

  (iii) Bodleian Library, Oxford

  Dodsworth M.S, 70

  Queen’s College MSS, Rolls, 181 (Account of the manor of Heckley, Hants, 1296)

  B. PRINTED SOURCES

  (i) Chronicles

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  The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds, 1212-1301, ed. A. Gransden (London, 1964)

  The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. T. Wright, ii (Rolls Series, 1868)

  The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. H. Rothwell (Camden Society, 3rd series, lxxxix, 1957)

  Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ed. W. Stubbs, i (Rolls Series, 1882)

  Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis, ed. W. D. Macray (Rolls Series, 1886)

  Chronicon de Lanercost, ed. J. Stevenson (Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1839)

  Flores Historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard, iii (Rolls Series, 1890)

  Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem, ed. R. Twysden (London, 1652)

  Matthaei Parisiensis, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, v (Rolls Series, 1880)

  Nicholai Triveti Annales, ed. T. Hog (London, 1845)

  The Siege of Carlaverock, ed. N. H. Nicolas (London, 1828)

  The Song of Lewes, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1890)

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  Acta Sanctorum, Octobris, ed. J. Bollandus, i (Paris, Rome, 1866)

  Ancient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of the Exchequer, ed. F. Palgrave (London, 1836)

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  Anglo-Scottish Relations, 1174-1328: Some Selected Documents, ed. E. L. G. Stones (London, 1965)

  E.A. Bond, ‘Extracts from the Liberate Rolls relative to Loans supplied by Italian Merchants in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’, Archaeologia, xxviii (184.0), pp. 207-326

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  Calendar of Chancery Warrants, 1244-1326

  Calendar of Charter Rolls

  Calendar of Close Rolls

  Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, ii (Edinburgh, 1884)

  Calendar of Fine Rolls

  Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem

  Calendar of Patent Rolls

  Calendar of Various Chancery Rolls

  Close Rolls, 1259-61

  Councils and Synods with other Documents relating to the English Church, ii, ed. F. M. Powicke and C. R. Cheney (Oxford, 1964)

  Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, 1286-1306, ed. J. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1870)

  ‘Extracts from the Memoranda Rolls (L.T.R.) of the Exchequer: — I. The Negotiations preceding the Confirmatio Cartarum (1297 a.d.)’, T.R.H.S., new series, iii (1886)

  Fleta, ed. H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, ii (Selden Soc., lxxii, 1955)

  Formula Book of Legal Records, ed. H. Hall (Cambridge, 1909)

  F. Funck-Brentano, ‘Document pour servir à l’histoire des relations de la France avec l’Angleterre et 1’Alle-magne sous le règne de Philippe le Bel’, Revue Historique, xxxix (1889)

  Halmota Prioratus Dunelmensis, ed. W. H. Longstaffe and J. Booth (Surtees Society, lxxxii, 1889)

  Historical Manuscripts Commission, Sixth Report (London, 1877)

  Historical Papers and Letters from the Northern Registers, ed. J. Raine (Rolls Series, 1873)

  Liber Quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Garderobiae, ed. J. Nichols, introduction by J. Topham (Society of Antiquaries, 1787)

  A Lincolnshire Assize Roll for 1298, ed. W. S. Thomson (Lincoln Record Society, xxxvi, 1944)

  Les livres des comptes des Gallerani, ed. G. Bigwood and A. Grunzweig (Academie Royale de Belgique, Commission royale d’histoire, 1961-2).

  B. D. Lyon, ‘Un compte de l’échiquier relatif aux relations d’Edouard Ier d’Angleterre avec le duc Jean II de Brabant’, Bulletin de la commission royale d’histoire, cxx (1955), pp. 67-93

  Memoranda de Parliamento, 1305, ed. F. W. Maitland (Rolls Series, 1893)

  Ministers’ Accounts of the Earldom of Cornwall, 1296-1297, ed. L. Margaret Midgley (Camden Society, 3rd series, lxvi, 1942; lxvii, 1945)

  The Mirror of Justices, ed. W. J. Whittaker, introduction by F. W. Maitland (Selden Society, vii, 1895)

  Monumenta Germaniae Historica — Legum sectio iv. Constitutiones et Acta Publica Imperatorum et Regum, iii, 1273-1298, ed. J. Schwalm (Hanover, 1904)

  Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons, ed. F. Palgrave, i (London, 1827)

  Political Songs of England, from the reign of John to that of Edward II, ed. T. Wright (Camden Society, 1839)

  Records of the Trial of Walter Langeton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1307-1312, ed. A. Beardwood (Camden Society, 4th series, vi, 1969)

  The Register of William Greenfield, Lord Archbishop of York, 1306-1315, ed. A. H. Thompson and W. Brown (Surtees Society, cxlv, 1931)

  The Registers of John de Sandale and Rigaud de Asserio,

  Bishops of Winchester, 1316-1323, ed. F. J. Baigent (Hants Record Society, 1897)

  Registrum Epistolarum Fratri
s Johannis Peckham, Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, ed. C. T. Martin, ii (Rolls Series, 1884)

  Registrum Ricardi de Swinfield, Episcopi Herefordensis, 1283-1317, ed. W. W. Capes (Canterbury and York Society, 1909)

  Registrum Roberti de Winchelsey, Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, 1294-1308, ed. R. Graham (Canterbury and York Society, 1952-56)

  Registrum Simonis de Gandavo, Diocesis Saresbiriensis, A.D. 1297-1315, ed. C. T. Flower and M. C. B. Dawes (Canterbury and York Society, 1934)

  Rôles Gascons, iii, ed. C. Bémont (Paris, 1906)

  The Rolls and Registers of Bishop Oliver Sutton, 1280-1299, ed. Rosalind M. T. Hill (Lincoln Record Society, 1965)

  Rotuli Parliamentorum, i (London, 1783)

  T. Rymer, Foedera, I, ii (Rec. Comm. edn., 1816)

  Scotland in 1298, ed. H. Gough (Paisley, 1888)

  Select Cases before the King’s Council 1243-1482, ed. I. S. Leadam and J. F. Baldwin (Selden Society, xxxv, 1918)

  Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench under Edward I, ed. G. O. Sayles (Selden Society, lv, 1936; lvii, 1938; lviii, 1939)

  Select Cases in the Exchequer of Pleas, ed. H. Jenkinson and Beryl E. R. Formoy (Selden Society, xlviii, 1932)

  Select Charters, ed. W. Stubbs (9th ed., Oxford, 1913, reprinted 1962)

  Select Pleas, Starrs and other Records, ed. J. M. Rigg (Selden Society, xv, 1902)

  State Trials of the Reign of Edward the First, 1289-1293, ed. T. F. Tout and H. Johnstone (Camden Society, 3rd series, ix, 1906)

  Statutes of the Realm, i (London, 1810)

  Treaty Rolls, i, ed. P. Chaplais (London, 1955)

  J. de Sturler, ‘Deux comptes enrôlés de Robert de Segre, receveur et agent payeur d’Edouard Ier, roi d’Angleterre, aux Pays-Bas (1294-1296)’, Bulletin de la commission royale d’histoire, cxxv (1959)

  Two ‘Compoti’ of the Lancashire and Cheshire manors of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, ed. P. A. Lyons (Chetham Society, cxii, 1884)

  The Welsh Assize Roll, 1277-1284, ed. J. Conway Davies (Cardiff, 1940)

  Year Books, 3 Edward II, 1309-10, ed. F. W. Maitland (Selden Society, xx, 1905)