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Feeding the Poor to Commemorate the Dead: The Pro Anima Almsgiving of Henry III of England, 1227-72 Sally Angharad Dixon-Smith University College London Ph D Thesis ProQuest Number: 10010404 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10010404 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 T h e sis A bstr a c t Henry III regularly fed thousands of poor for the souls of the dead to commemorate a whole range of individuals: holy ancestors, immediate family, Savoyard and Lusignan in­ laws and fallen yeoman soldiers. My research investigates the vast wealth of English chancery records, and the details it gives of pro anima practices, in the light of German writing on the phenomenon of memoria. (liturgical commemoration of the dead). Caring for and honouring the dead was a continuation of the bonds of loyalty, reward and gift-exchange which bound individuals in life. Good kingship was epitomised by the virtue of largesse, and almsgiving was an extension of this culture of generosity and reciprocity. The primary aim ofpro anima acts was to reunite the living and the dead, making them once again present to each other as members of one spiritual community in Christ. Henry III used both masses and the feeding of the poor to achieve this mystical link across the grave. Christ was believed to be present in the poor, just as in the hagiography of the saint-king Edward the Confessor, St John appeared to him as a poor pilgrim seeking alms. In feeding the poor, the rich nourished the body of Christ: hence almsgiving can be seen as an extension of Henry’s eucharistie devotion. Almsgiving also ‘harvested’ prayers for the dead individual, as the poor were expected to pray in exchange for their meal. This thesis discusses the theology behind pro anima feeding, how it was organised (for instance when Henry IE fed 102,000 poor for the soul of his sister), and an analysis of who was remembered in this way. Henry HI used a combination of liturgical rite and extended domestic hospitality to strengthen and re-afflrm kinship ties and social bonds with the dead who were important to him. Supervisor: Professor David d’Avray (UCL) Submitted: 29 July 2002 Examiners: Professor David Carpenter (KCL) and Dr. Eamon Duffy (Cambridge) T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s Title Page 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Illustrations 8 Acknowledgements 9 Abbreviations 12 Introduction 13 C h a p t e r 1 : The Chancery Sources and the Financial 18 A dministration o f R o y a l A l m s g iv in g I. The Royal Writ 18 II. The Liberate Rolls 19 a) writs of liberate 19 b) writs of computate/allocate 24 c) faux amis in the printed Calendar of Liberate Rolls: contrabreve and dating clauses 26 III. The Close Rolls 28 IV. The Patent Rolls 28 V. The almoner and almoner’s rolls 31 C h a pter 2 : K in g s, M onks and M em o r ial F eeding 42 I. Largess and Chivalry 43 a) Kingship and Ring-Giving 43 b) Chivalry as a code of honour and largesse as gift-exchange 46 c) The example of Edward the Confessor: ring-giving as alms 56 II. Almsgiving: definitions and practice 68 a) the theology of alms and Christ’s presence in the poor 68 b) fixed alms and daily distributions to the poor 78 c) Alms and the liturgical year 92 III. Memorial alms 102 a) Early Christian agapes 103 b) Monastic practices: 105 i. Pittances 106 ii. Corrody meals and corrodians 107 iii. Anniversaries 109 iv. Prayer unions 112 IV. Reasons for feeding the ordinary poor for the dead 114 V. Conclusion 116 C h a pter 3: T he L o g istics of feeding th e po o r 118 I. The Physical sites used for feeding the poor 118 a) Royal castles and Palaces 118 i. Westminster 119 ii. Windsor 149 iii. Other castles and palaces used for feeding the poor 154 b) Towns with a concentration of population and caritative institutions: London, Oxford and Cambridge 155 c) Religious houses under royal patronage used for feeding the poor: Ospring Hospital, Ankerwyke nunnery, Bromholm Priory and St. John’ Hospital, Oxford. 159 II. Who were the poor and how were they gathered together? 164 III. The cost of feeding the poor 175 C h a pter 4: W h o w as r em em b er ed ? 181 I. Commemoration of Henry III s ancestors and forebears 184 a. Plantagenet ancestors commemorated at Fontevrault 185 i. Richard I, d. 1199 185 ii. King John, d. 1216 188 iii. Those buried at Fontevrault: Henry II (d. 1189), Richard I (d. 1199), Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204) and Isabella of Angouleme (d.1246) 191 iv. The importance of commemorating a dynasty: past, present and future 194 b. Those buried at Westminster Abbey 198 i. The three queens: Aethelgotha, the Empress Matilda and Queen Edith 198 ii. Hugolin, chamberlain to Edward the Confessor 200 iii. St. Edward the Confessor, died 1066 201 II. Henry I ll’s immediate family 203 a. Joan, queen of Scotland, d. 1238, Henry’s sister 203 b. Eleanor of Brittany, d. August 1241, Henry’s first cousin 208 c. Empress Isabella, d. December 1241, Henry’s sister 212 d. Isabella of Angouleme, Henry’s mother, d. 31 May 1246 214 e. Katharine, Henry’s daughter, d. 3 May 1257 218 f. Katharine and Joan, daughters of the Lord Edward, d. 1264 and 1265 220 III. The king’s Lusignan and Poitevin relatives 222 a. Fulk de Castro Novo, the king’s cousin, died 1247 222 b. Hugh XI le Brun de Lusignan, count of La Marche and Angouleme, half brother of Henry III, died 1250 223 c. Aymer de Valence, Bishop of Winchester, d. 1260, Henry’s half-brother 224 IV. The queen’s relatives: Provencals, Savoyards and Flemish 227 a. William of Savoy, bishop-elect of Valence, bishop-elect of Liege, d. 1239, Eleanor’s maternal uncle 227 b. Joan of Constantinople, countess of Flanders-Hainault, and wife of Thomas of Savoy, the queen’s maternal uncle, died 1244 229 c. Raymond Berengar V, count of Provence, the queen’s father, died 1245 231 d. Sanchia of Provence, the queen’s sister, died 1261 235 V. Friends and enemies who died unfortunate deaths 237 a. Raymond de Burgh, died 1230 238 b. Richard Marshal, died 1234 239 0 . Gruffydd, son of Llywelyn, died 1244 242 d. John de Salinis and others who died during the Welsh campaign in 1245 244 e. Hugh Giffard, died 1246 245 VI. Members of Henry’sfamilia 247 C o n c lu sio n 252 A ppen d ic es 255 I:Contemporary beliefs about death and aims in Wendover and Matthew Paris255 2: Tapers in the commemoration of the dead 265 3: List of almoners expanded from Tanner’s list 270 4: Daily feeding in ElOl/349/27 Household Roll 44 Henry HI. 273 5: ^Maundy’ distributions to the poor 284 B ibliography o f cited w o r k s 293-306 I llustrations Plates: 1. Stothard’s drawing of the Virtue Largesce in the Painted Chamber 53 2. Stothard’s drawing of St. Edward and St. John in the Painted Chamber 60 Family trees: 1. The joining of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman lines 65 2. Abbreviated family tree showing relatives commemorated by Henry HI 184 Plans: 1. Plan of Westminster Palace 121 2. Plan of the Painted Chamber at Westminster 140 A cknowledgements My first debt of gratitude is to Prof. David d’Avray. I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor so well versed in the spiritual alms: ‘instructing the ignorant, giving advice to those in doubt, consoling the sorrowful, reproving sinners, forgiving offences, putting up with people who are burdensome and hard to get on with and finally, praying for all.’ I can certainly vouch for the fact that he has practised the first six on me, (although he clearly favoured forgiveness over reprobation, deserved as it would have been). I have learnt a great deal from him both academically and personally. It was through his lectures as an undergraduate at UCL that I first encountered memoria^ and the idea that commemorative acts were an expression of the community between the living and the dead, a key concept in this thesis. He also organised the History Dept.’s undergraduate ERASMUS exchange to Paris, where I was welcomed by his great friend Prof. Nicole Bériou. With David she shares a great gift for teaching (it seems that studying medieval preaching is the best teacher training you can get), and her classes that year showed me how utterly fascinating medieval history can be, convincing me that this was what I wanted to study. Not only did she teach me and guide me through the workings of the Sorbonne, but she and Pierre Boz, through their organization, le grain d ’espoir, provided me with vital accommodation, and even more importantly, offered me their friendship, support and learning throughout that year, and have done ever since.

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