A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450

Archaeologia http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH Additional services for Archaeologia: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here IV.—A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450 Henry Dawes Harrod Archaeologia / Volume 57 / Issue 01 / January 1900, pp 71 86 DOI: 10.1017/S0261340900011383, Published online: 15 November 2011 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0261340900011383 How to cite this article: Henry Dawes Harrod (1900). IV.—A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450. Archaeologia, 57, pp 7186 doi:10.1017/ S0261340900011383 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH, IP address: 128.250.144.144 on 26 Mar 2013 IV.—A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450. By HEKRY DAWES HAEBOD, Esq., F.8.A. Read 15th February, 1900. THE defence of the liberties of Chester, which I am introducing to your notice to-night, is a defence by what we should call to-day constitutional methods. Herein it is exceptional for those times, which were used rather to the rough-and- ready defensive operations of the sword. For when William the Conqueror granted the earldom of Chester to his nephew Hugh Lupus, he granted it to him " to hold by the sword as freely as he held all England by the crown." And if there is in this grant an allusion to the right of the Earl of Chester to carry the curtana (or sword of justice) at the Eoyal Coronation, there is most assuredly a further and fuller reference to the unceasing vigilance and activity which the earls had to exercise in the defence of their city against the depredations of the Welsh and the protection of the West of England from the incursions of those turbulent people. The constitution of the County Palatine, and those rights of which the inhabitants were so tenacious, were based on the important defensive services afforded by the earl and his county to the kingdom at large. The constant vigilance demanded of the earl and his people forbade their attendance on the king in parliament. Hence the earl held his own parliament at Chester, and neither the city nor county sent representatives to the king's parliament. The earl summoned to his Chester parliament eight barons and a corresponding 72 A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450. number of bishops and abbots, his parliament exceptionally consisting of two estates, the nobility and clergy being always equally balanced, and the commonalty unrepresented. In accordance with that fundamental basis of our Constitution, that there should be no taxation without representation, the county and city of Chester sending no representatives to the king's parliament were exempt from the king's taxes. Similar considerations would lead to their having their own courts of law wherein indictments ran contra dignitatem gladii Gestrise, instead of contra coronam et dignitatem., and to their general organisation on a basis suitable to men of action, liable to a sudden and frequent call to arms. Such rights, privileges, and immunities were in no wise interfered with when the earldom was seized by Henry III. to prevent its passing to female hands. "When Edward I. conferred the principality of Wales upon his son, he united with it the earldom of Chester, and the union of these two titles seemed to offer a guarantee for the cessation of hostilities. The new era, however, did not establish that peace which was hoped for, nor consequently did it end the struggles of Chester. The Princes of Wales constantly confirmed and reiterated the privileges of the Palatinate, and it was not until the year 1450 that they were in any way seriously threatened. At that time the reigning sovereign, Henry VI., had from his infancy been King of England and Earl of Chester, and if his reign had been an unfortunate one to the country it was fatal to the prosperity of the County Palatine. The war in France had been prolonged in a series of disastrous campaigns, all the fruits of the victories of Henry V. had been lost, even the older possessions of the king were gradually slipping away, and the cost to the country in men and treasure was enormous. At home, during the minority of the king, the great barons were again becoming powerful, were quarrelling amongst themselves, and increasing the troubles of the country already overburdened by the charges of the French war. To culminate the troubles of the kingdom, in 1450 Jack Cade was menacing London, and parliament was held at Leicester. But if the affairs of the country were in a bad way, the Palatinate was still worse off. Chester had been one of the most important cities of the kingdom. It was independent of the king's parliament; it had its own parliament, courts of law, and constitution. It had an important trade with Ireland and the West, and was alike the defence of England from Wales and the starting point of expeditions both peaceful and warlike to Ireland. A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450. 73 Yet, in the disastrous times preceding 1450, the sands at the mouth of the Dee had choked up its harbour and spoiled its Irish trade, and Owen Glen dower and the Welsh had ravaged its lands and brought the city to a ruinous condition, "When, in 1444, Henry VI. visited the city, the inhabitants presented a petition to him, setting out their disastrous state, whereupon the king remitted £50 (out of the annual rent of £100 which they paid for their privileges) for fifty years to come. In 1449 a further petition was presented, and a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter, the result of which was that in 1450 £10 of rent was remitted. When Chester became a royal appanage the royal earls were seldom present in their county, and in their absence the most important position in the county was occupied by the Abbot of St. Werburg's Abbey. This abbey belonged to the Benedictine Order, an order of world-wide fame for learning and ability, to which we owe to-day many of our greatest cathedral and other churches, and the basis of our modern university and public school system. Founded by the great St. Anselm, at the cost of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and constantly endowed by successive earls and their barons, it owned a quarter of the town of Chester, besides great possessions in the county and elsewhere. It being one of the first rules of St. Benedict that his monks should exercise liberal hospitality, the poor could always get a meal here, and kings, archbishops, nobles, and all the notable men of the day, were sumptuously entertained. Large revenues were assigned to the kitchen to support this profuse hospitality. The Abbot of Chester, the head of this great establishment, the courteous entertainer of the great in the land, who had for his civil officers all the best names of the county, who ranked in the Church with a bishop and in the State with a baron, was the central figure of the county, and the leader and head of all that moved and stirred in it. It is a curious circumstance that in those feudal days this great position was open to the humblest in the land. As a matter of fact in the long line of abbots there is but one of what we should call good family, and he, William de Albo Monasterio (or Whitchurch), was conspicuous for his ability and services to the monastery. The elections were made by the community itself in the best interests of the monastery, and the qualifications were piety and administrative ability. In 1450 this proud position was held by John Salghall. Salghall was a manor held by the priory of Birkenhead, itself a cell or branch house of Chester, and John was no doubt a commoner of that township, and consequently a representa- VOL. LVII. L 74 A Defence of the Liberties of Chester, 1450. tive of the commonalty of the county. Raised from his lowly position to the loftiest in the county, he was suddenly struck down by a terrible reverse. Summoned personally to attend the king in the convocation of 1450, he did not obey the summons and was excommunicated. It is difficult for us to conceive the severity of such a blow. In days when religion formed so great a part of the life of the people, ecclesiastical censures were very real and actual penalties; the loss of citizenship was a personal detriment of acute hardship, and the superadded inconveniences of a rigorous boycott placed the excommunicated person in a position for which we can offer no match at the present day. "Whilst this was a sufficiently cruel infliction on the unhappy abbot, it seems to have been no less an attack on the liberties of Chester, if, as is probable, the abbot was exempt from attendance at convocation on the same grounds on which the county sent no representatives to parliament. The hearts of the people of Chester must have been doubly stirred in sympathy with the excommunicated abbot and as suffering in their own liberty in his person. The abbot set out in sorrow to make his submission and claim his exemption, and was received with enthusiasm on his return, having vindicated his right, proved his exemption, and had the ban of excommunication removed and himself restored to his beloved abbey. But the troubles of Chester in this remarkable year were not ended. Indeed, there wanted yet a final and crushing attack on its liberties.

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