'The Veray Registre of All Trouthe': The Content, Function. and Character of the Civic Registers of London and York c.1274-c.1482 Deborah Jean Steele O'Brien A Thesis Submitted for the Qualification of D.Phil. at the Centre for Medieval Studies, the University of York May. 1999 2 Abstract This thesis offers a characterisation of the medieval civic register, based on a study of the content, structure, presentation and function of manuscript registers held by the administrations of London and York between c. 1274 and c. 1482. Previous scholarly discussions of administrative writing produced in medieval English towns have tended to treat this material simply as an unproblematic source of historical data, or either to focus on single records, or provide a survey of urban, or even national, documentation in general. This study argues that the civic register functioned as a distinct genre in the medieval city, and that treatment of it in its own right as an element of urban culture provides significant evidence of both literate practice and a sense of citizenship in this period. Chapter One discusses the context of the production and reception of writing in the medieval English city in which these civic registers were compiled. Chapters Two and Three constitute detailed studies of the content, structure, and the circumstances surrounding the production of civic registers from London and York respectively. Chapter Two focuses on four of the manuscripts categorised as custumals in London's Corporation of London Record Office, comparing them with other administrative and privately held manuscripts from the city. Chapter Three engages in a process of reconstructing the likely medieval state of both one of York's medieval registers, and the collection of registers in its archive as a whole, based on surviving manuscript evidence. Chapter Four examines the evidence for the symbolic function of these registers, including a description of their decoration. Chapter Five considers the influence of individual compilers on the registers they worked with, incorporating a discussion of the role of the common clerk in medieval York and London, and of statements attached to registers by their compilers of what they perceived their purpose to be. 3 Table of Contents Page Abstract 2 List of Illustrations 5 Acknowledgements 6 Notes on the Text 8 Abbreviations 9 Introduction 11 Previous Scholarly Treatments of Medieval Administrative Records 12 The Methodology Employed in this Thesis 19 Chapter One - Writing and Reading in the City 27 Introduction 28 Writing in the City 29 Writers in the City 44 Urban Readers 50 Writing in Medieval Florence 54 Problems and Definitions of Literacy 60 Chapter Two - Defining Civic Writing: the London Custumals 65 Introduction 66 The Thirteenth Century: the Liber de Antiquis Legibus 71 The Fourteenth Century: the Liber Legum Regum Antiquorum 86 The Liber Horn 100 The Relationship of Andrew Horn's Custumals with Other Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century 104 The Fifteenth Century: the Liber Albus 114 Conclusion 124 Chapter Three - Reconstructing the Civic Archive: The Civic Registers of Medieval York 127 Introduction 128 The Documentary Context for the Production of York's Civic Registers 132 The Freemen's Register 137 Defining the Civic Register in Medieval York: the Memorandum Books, the House Books, and the Liber Miscellanea 161 York's Civic Archive: the 'Calendar' of Thomas Mynskip 171 Conclusion 185 Chapter Four - The 'Public' Book: the Symbolic Presentation of the Civic Registers 188 Introduction 189 Civic Writing and Its Public: Two Scholarly Views 191 Civic Writing and Its Public: the Evidence of the Records of London and York 194 The Symbolic Presentation of the Registers 201 The Decoration of the Civic Registers 211 The Civic Register as a Symbol of Urban Integrity: the Historical Context 227 Conclusion 237 Chapter Five - Clerks and Compilers 238 Introduction 239 The Position of the Common Clerk 240 The Self-Presentation of Common Clerks, and their Relationship with the Civic Archive 256 4 The Example of Roger Burton 262 The Example of John Carpenter 263 The Memorial Purpose of the Registers 269 Conclusion 281 Conclusion 283 Appendices 290 Appendix One: A Catalogue of the Contents of York, YCA, MS D1 291 Appendix Two: Transcription of the Contents of the 'Calendar' of Civic Ordinances Bound into York, YCA. MS NY 313 Appendix Three: Reorganisation of the 'calendar' into Civic Registers 331 Bibliography 347 Illustrations 362 5 List of Illustrations Figure 1 - London, CLRO, Custumal 2, the Liber Horn, fol. 35v., the beginning of the First Statute of Westminster 363 Figure 2- London, CLRO, Custumal 12, the Liber Albus, fol. lr., the Prologue 364 Figure 3 - London, CLRO, Custumal 12, the Liber Albus, fol. 264r., the Prologue to Book Four 365 Figure 4 - London, CLRO, Custumal 10, the Liber Dunthorn, fol. lr. 366 Figure 5 - London, CLRO, Custumal 2, the Liber Horn, fol. 35r., close up of the historiated initial of a king seated in discussion with another man, holding a book between them 367 Figure 6 - London, CLRO, Custumal 12, the Liber Albus, fol. 16r., Book One, Part II, the Procedure for Holding Pleas of the Crown, close up of the historiated initial at the start of this section 368 6 Acknowledgements The completion of this D.Phil. has been assisted by a bursary received from the English Department, and an award from the Elizabeth Salter Memorial Fund at the Centre for Medieval Studies, both of the University of York. During the course of my research, the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research also agreed to purchase microfilms which have been invaluable to me. I am extremely grateful for all this practical support. The greatest financial burden of this project has been borne by my parents, and I owe them a huge debt of thanks for this alone. However, I know that they will prefer to be thanked for the many years of love, support, and confidence in me and the project which they, and my brother Robbie, have provided, and for which I could never repay them. I can make use of this opportunity, however, to record for them my thanks and my admiration for them and the way that they have always encouraged me to learn. Similarly, Peter O'Brien has offered great encouragement as well as practical assistance, and provided the moral support to enable me to continue through the last four years, which has always been gratefully received and appreciated. My supervisors Sarah Rees Jones and Nick Havely have been unfailingly encouraging, patient, and generous with their time and suggestions for this project: I could not have wished for better supervisors. Felicity Riddy as advisor on the thesis has been similarly assiduous in her interest and advice. The Centre for Medieval Studies has proven to be a constantly stimulating, friendly, and supportive working environment, and I have been fortunate to spend the last four years working here. In particular the Urban Studies Research Group has provided valuable, thought-provoking discussion. In the process of my research I have visited the British Library and the Guildhall Library and the Mercers' Company Archive in London, the Bodleian Library, the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research and the Minster Library and Archive in York, and the John Rylands Library in Manchester, and I would like to offer my thanks to the staff of all of these repositories for their friendly assistance. My work has mainly been done, however, in the Corporation of London Record Office, and in particular in York City Archives: in both the staff have been constantly friendly and keen to offer help and their considerable knowledge. I owe thanks to the Corporation of London Record Office for their permission to photograph manuscripts for the thesis, and to their Conservation Department for their assistance with this, and to the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research for permission to reproduce photocopies taken from their microfilms. I would especially like to thank Rita, Anna, Christine and Philip in York City Archives for the friendly conversation (and cakes) which they always offered during long 7 working days. I am grateful also to Professor David Smith of the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research for his advice on the production of Appendix One, to Dr Jim Binns for his suggestions on Latin translation, and to Anne Rycraft for her ever-ready and abundant advice on matters relating to manuscripts. I owe thanks to Professor Christopher Norton for art historical advice. Matthew Holford, Stacey Gee, and Cordelia Beattie generously undertook the proof-reading of the thesis, for which I am extremely grateful. A number of friends in particular have provided both support and laughter in appropriate measures during the past four years, and I cannot waste this opportunity to say thank you to them. For making sure that I remained sane and social, I owe a considerable debt of thanks to Adam and Julia Nelson, Cordelia Beattie, Meg Gay, Antonia Ward, Esther Harper, Lindsay MacIndoe, and last, but most certainly not least, to Steve Cannon. 8 Notes On the Text. The translations which appear in this thesis are my own except where I have stated otherwise. Translations appear in the text, to facilitate reading, while the original quotations, in Latin, French, or Italian, have been placed in foot-notes. In the transcriptions of Middle English texts, the letters 'thorn and 'yogh' have been rendered as 'th' and 'y', and I have altered the use, or absence of capital letters, to match modern procedure. In referencing and in the bibliography I have followed the procedures recommended in the MHRA Style Book, 4th edn (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1991), except when referring to manuscripts, when I have preferred to list the city where the manuscript is held, followed by the name of the repository, the holding reference of the manuscript, and finally the folio number in the first instance, and the name of the repository, followed by the holding reference in subsequent instances.