Church, Crown and Complaint: Petitions from Bishops to the English Crown in the Fourteenth Century
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CHURCH, CROWN AND COMPLAINT: PETITIONS FROM BISHOPS TO THE ENGLISH CROWN IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY MATTHEW PHILLIPS Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy DECEMBER 2013 Abstract This thesis explores the interaction of bishops with both the English crown and members of late medieval society more generally by focusing on petitions and the supplicatory strategies adopted by bishops in their endeavours to secure legal remedy. Aside from revealing that bishops were often indistinguishable from lay petitioners in terms of the content of their petitions, with many of their complaints arising from their role as great landlords and tenants-in-chief rather than relating to the exercise of episcopal office, this research has also demonstrated that distinct supplicatory cultures separated the clergy from the laity. Notably, whereas petitions from lay supplicants often incorporated crown-alignment rhetoric into their petitions, thereby mirroring the language of ‘common profit’ found in common petitions, petitions from bishops reflected the supplicatory character of the clerical gravamina and presented requests for the exclusive interest of the church. As such, petitions from bishops, alongside the clerical gravamina, encapsulated a set of values, manifest through the use of language and rhetoric, which sought to assert the institutional independence of the church. Yet, despite being part of a supplicatory culture which sought to defend church autonomy and ecclesiastical jurisdictional integrity, the petitionary system in England sapped the supplicatory strength of the clergy and reduced their ability to defend their autonomy in the face of royal demands. Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to the AHRC for providing three years of doctoral funding, without which this project would not have been possible. I am also grateful to the University of Nottingham History Department for various small research grants. Above all, I would like to thank my supervisor Gwilym Dodd for his tireless support and encouragement throughout the course of my doctoral research, for the insight and feedback provided in our supervisions, and for offering invaluable comments on various drafts. A great many ideas that underpin this thesis have resulted from these supervisions, and for all of the reasons mentioned above I owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. I would also like to thank my second supervisor Rob Lutton, who provided crucial guidance during the embryonic stages of my research and I am indebted to Julia Barrow for providing invaluable feedback, insight and guidance as part of my doctoral annual review process. I am also indebted to Diane Wren who has patiently read and heard so much about bishops and petitions over the past few years and has provided invaluable and continual support. I would also like to offer a special thanks to Alan Kissane, Thomas Smith and Faye Taylor who have offered suggestions on various drafts of the present work, and I am greatly indebted to Marianne Wilson for useful insight on Cathedral Chapters and to Maroula Perisanidi for help with various Latin queries. I would also like to thank various friends and members of the Ph.D. community at Nottingham who have offered support and companionship over the past four years, including Emily Buchnea, John Cronin, Katie McDade, Warren Dockter, Gemma Evans, Neil Howe, Lydia Kitchener, Alan Li, Lucy Lynch, Sean Octigan, Dan O’Neill, Steven Parfitt, Teresa Phipps, Laura Ramsay, David Rank, Robbie Rudge, James Tuck, Dan Walsh, Matt Ward and Simon Wright. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Shane and Jeanette Phillips for their steadfast support and financial assistance, as well as Ashley and Kieran Phillips for their fraternal support. Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.The Laity ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Overview ........................................................................................................................................................... 16 1.3 The Bishop of Durham and the King of Scotland, 1333 .............................................. 20 1.4 The Bishop of Durham, Walter Selby and Forfeitures of War, 1318- 1346 ............................................................................................................................................................................... 30 1.5 Petitions and Urban Conflict ............................................................................................................. 40 1.6 The Bishop of Norwich and the Burgesses of Bishop’s Lynn, 1346- 1350 ............................................................................................................................................................................... 43 1.6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 43 1.6.2 Overview .......................................................................................................... 44 1.6.3 Background ..................................................................................................... 48 1.6.4 The Petitions ................................................................................................... 55 1.6.5 Supplicatory Tone and the Use of Rhetoric ................................................ 71 1.6.6 Parallels with other conflicts in episcopal boroughs .................................. 77 1.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 79 2. The Clergy .................................................................................................................... 80 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 80 2.2 Intra-episcopal Conflict ......................................................................................................................... 81 2.3 Cooperation .................................................................................................................................................... 95 2.4 The bishop of Exeter and the dean of St Buryan .............................................................109 2.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 109 2.4.2 Overview ........................................................................................................ 110 2.4.3 The Petitions ................................................................................................. 112 2.5 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................123 3. The Crown ................................................................................................................. 126 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................126 3.2 Royal Officers .............................................................................................................................................127 3.2.1 Central Government .................................................................................... 130 3.2.2 Local Government ....................................................................................... 133 3.2.3 The Escheator ............................................................................................... 140 3.3 The Crown ....................................................................................................................................................151 3.3.1 The ‘king’ and ‘crown’ .................................................................................. 152 3.3.2 The Application of Royal Grace ................................................................. 155 3.3.3 Proceedings against the Crown ................................................................... 163 3.3.4 Bishop of Ely and Knights’ Fees in Cambridgeshire, 1305-1327 ........... 169 3.3.5 The bishop of Ely and the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381-1383 ......................... 181 3.4 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................188 4. The Clerical Gravamina and Collective Petitions ................................................... 192 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................192 4.2 The Clerical Gravamina and ‘Private’ Petitions from the Collective Clergy .........................................................................................................................................................................194 4.3 The Articuli Cleri of 1316 .....................................................................................................................203