Introduction

A- INTRODUCTION. The Manuscripts.—The Accounts printed in the present volume are preserved among the rich stores of the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, now in the Public Record Office, where they form part of the " Ministers' Accounts" of the Duchy, and are known as of Class xxvnr, 1st bundle, Nos. 6 and 7. No. 6 is a folio (12 in. long by8| wide) of eight quires of parchment, containing sixty leaves (a few only are blank), written in a regular neat official hand, ruled and bracketed, with titles and some marginal notes written large, according to the mariner of early accounts. The old soft leather cover, into which the quires were stitched, remains; the two writs (pp. 1, 2) authorising the special Treasurer and the audit of his accounts being attached by their ends to the edge of one side, while the outside is inscribed with the title of the book, the inscription being on a piece of parchment stitched on to the leather. The book has seen much use, and the cover is coming to pieces, but the interior is in good condition. This contains the receipts and expenditure of Henry, Earl of Derby, eldest son of John of Gaunt (Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster), over his journeys and his household abroad from the 6th May, 1390, to April 30, 1391, about nine years before he became king.. No. 7, containing forty-four leaves of rather larger size (15| in. long by 11-J- in. wide), is also in its original parchment cover, having likewise two documents (see pp. 147, 148) attached to one side; the form of the account for the most part resembles that of No. 6, and the cursive handwriting is generally clear, but it contains some evident errors, showing that the clerk employed by the treasurer on the second occasion was Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 01 Oct 2021 at 08:52:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200002485 X INTRODUCTION. more careless, or perhaps had greater difficulties to contend with among his vouchers and originals than the clerk of the first account (they do not appear to have been written by the same, the hands differ). No. 7 contains Henry's receipts and expenditure over his journeys and household'abroad for the year 16 July, 1392, to 16 July, 1393, In both cases a few weeks of life in England are included, but on the whole they are records of nearly two years of foreign travel and sojourn. Both manuscripts are well preserved and in good condition as far as the interior is concerned ; they are, there is no doubt, the official accounts presented by Derby's Treasurer, Richard Kyngston, before the auditors of the Council of the Duchy, and passed by them, to be laid up in the private archives of the Duchy along with other accounts of the like nature." [The books were evidently made up after the return of the earl from a number of memoranda and jottings on slips or small rolls of parchment and paper set down by those concerned in the receipt and issue of the money as their bills of account.b These were arranged by the treasurer and copied out under the heads] which are given in the table of contents, [the monies accounted for on each page being invariably summed up at the bottom of the page]. If the scribe were not extremely careful inaccuracies would be sure to arise in small matters, and this is indeed found to be the case, especially with regard to dates and the names of unfamiliar places ; occasionally also with prices and sums of money. The figures, as usual at the period, are written according to Roman numeration, and in trying to rectify them this must be taken into consideration. Both books with their numerous items of constant recurrence are written in close contractions, a fact which has occasioned doubt in some words of obscurity or unknown gender. For the present * For the purpose of illustrating this work, and of resolving doubtful or explain- ing obscure words, I haye had frequent recourse to other accounts of Henry, or of his father, still in the same collection. These are referred to by the abbreviations D. of L., cl., bdle., for Duchy of Lancaster, class, bundle. b See after, p. xc. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 01 Oct 2021 at 08:52:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200002485 INTRODUCTION. XI volume it was determined to print the text extended, as more generally readable, and for greater certainty the • extensions are indicated in italic type till near the end of Part I., except in a few doubtful cases where the contraction is retained.11 The old spelling has been carefully adhered to, but the promiscuous use of capital initials is reduced to modern us-age, and punctuation introduced. The total sum of each original page has been usually set in the margin to allow the full page more clearly to appear, every small original annotation being carefully inserted as helping to under- stand the document. Two only of this class are not constantly printed, the sign pr. = probatur, occurring at the bottom of each page, after the total (see pp. 9, 113) ; the other, being the invariable repetition of the sum total written very small at the edge of the lower margin, was of course unnecessary ; but both deserve mention as connected with the system of checking the accounts. Both books have been collated throughout on the MS. twice, besides frequent reference again to correct doubtful points. The Teutonic Order and its relati'ms to England.— The Order of Teutonic knights had its origin in a hospital founded by citizens of Bremen and Lubeck at Jerusalem in 1128. On the capture of Jerusalem by the Saracens in 1187 the hospital disappeared, to be revived at Acre in 1190 under a new military monastic brotherhood, following the Augustinian rule, with vows to tend sick pilgrims and fight the pagans. Henry Walpot was the first grand master, 1190. Attaining power and influence in 1230 they undertook a crusade against the heathen Prussians, and in 1237 absorbed the u Brothers of the sword," who possessed Courland, Semgallen, and Livonia, On the fall of Acre in 1291 they removed their chief seat to Venice, and finally, in 1309, established it at Marienburg on the Vistula, being then also a The italic indications were abandoned at this point on account of the needless further expense, the -contractions being of the same character throughout. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 01 Oct 2021 at 08:52:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042170200002485 XU INTRODUCTION. masters of Prussia and Pomerelia. Pomerania was to follow later. The grand master of the Order with the treasurer and the grand commander lived at Marienburg, the marshal at Konigsberg, the grand hospitaller at Elbing, and the trappier at Christburg, the four latter being respectively " commanders" or preceptors of the towns. Other towns had also their commanders, as Ragnit, Insterburg, and many others.a Unlike the Templars and the knights of St. John the Teutonic knights had no property in England, but almost from the beginning of their entry into Prussia the English kings granted them an annual subsidy (40 marks or 80 gold nobles) in lieu of land, which was continued nearly two hundred years, not without some breaks. Henry III., after having granted, presently annulled the grant ; but it was restored by Edward I., who twice confirmed it. Under Edward III. the payment, which then seems to have been due at the house of the Order at. Coblentz, having lapsed, during three years, Grand Master Kniporode wrote to thit king reminding him of the subsidy and its arrears, whereupon Edward issued a charter reciting previous grants and assuring the money in future. In it he acknowledges the hospitality which the masters and brethren of the order had shown " nostratibus per dictum hospitale transeuntibus sepius gratanter et benevole," but does not particularize Coblentz.b During the fourteenth century, but especially in the second half, V • For descriptions of the officers of the Order and their functions, with chrono- logical lists of names, see Voigt's " Namen-Codex der Deutschen Ordens beamten," Konigsberg, 1843. b Six documents making and confirming this annual grant are printed from the Charter, Liberate, and Patent Rolls (English Record Office) in " Archives de l'Orient Latin," vol. i., pp. 416-422. They are of the dates Henry III., 1235 ; Edward I., 1279 and 1286 ; Edward III., 1359 ; Richard II., 1389 ; and Henry IV., 1401. The letter from Kniperode is printed from the archives of Konigsberg, by J. Voigfc, " Codex Diplomaticus Prussicus," Konigsberg, 1848, vol. iii., p. 117, who also give.) Edward III.'s charter (under date 1360). M. Perlbach (Alt-preussische " Monatsschrift, xviii., 1880, p. 226) gives notes from the Liberate Rolls of the payment orders made in thirteen years of Henry III., viz., from 1239 to 1261. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.14, on 01 Oct 2021 at 08:52:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.

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