Eastern England, 1377-1413
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THE NEVILLES AND THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT IN NORTH- EASTERN ENGLAND, 1377-1413 Mark Edward Arvanigian The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author an information derived from it should be acknowledged. 1 7 JAN 2000 Submitted for the degree of Ph.D., University of Durham, 1998. Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to uncover the nature of landed society in the North- East, and the creation of a new political matrix there from c.1377-1413. It will trace the development of a Lancastrian North-East, and the role played by the Neville family and other members of the region's elite in it. The Nevilles were instrumental in Henry IV's rise to power, and became the focal point of his subsequent efforts to stabilise the North. Much of their influence in later generations was the result of the political successes of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland, and his rise to prominence in this period was the direct result of his Lancastrian associations. His career will therefore be closely considered. However, other members of the North-east's political community also rose to prominence in this period. Most notable among these was Sir Ralph Eure, a Durham knight of considerable ability who became perhaps the most important political figure below comital rank in the region. In overseeing the running of the palatinate of Durham, and holding the office of sheriff and numerous other commissions in the counties of Yorkshire and Northumberland, Eure ensured great continuity and competence in the northern administration, and eased the transition from Ricardian to Lancastrian regimes in this most unstable of regions. The thesis will therefore investigate the careers of many members of the north- eastern gentry, and place them within the local and national political framework. This was a diverse and dynamic group, with a range of interests and abilities; this is reflected in their office holding and financial choices. By studying especially the most important of these figures, and by using the excellent records of the palatinate of Durham - one of the finest sets of surviving medieval provincial records in the country - the thesis will thereby illustrate the nature of secular political society in Durham ad the North-East, in the context of the national political scene. Acknowledgements It is my pleasure to be able to acknowledge with thanks those who have assisted me in the preparation of this thesis. I am grateful to Dr. Richard Lomas, Dr. Chris Given-Wilson, and Professor John Hatcher, who have all been kind enough to read, and comment on, portions of this work in draft. The staff at the Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections, at 5 The College, have been enormously helpful at every stage of my research. However, for their poise in dealing with the palaeographical problems with which I presented them, especially in my first year, I would like to thank Mr. Alan Piper and Mrs. Linda Drury, whose knowledge of the archives of the Dean and Chapter and Bishopric has proved invaluable. For his constant guidance of my research, I would like especially to thank Professor Richard Britnell. His insights into so many aspects of medieval English society have been a constant help to me, but have even occasionally, I think, been outshone by his skill and enthusiasm as a supervisor, reader, and editor. Always with patience and good humour, he has helped me to smooth out much that was rough. Whatever merits this work displays are largely the result of his involvement. For their assistance, both financial and otherwise, I wish to thank the History Department of the University of Durham, without whose support - and that of the British Council and the Royal Historical Society - this work certainly would not have been possible. For tolerating what must seem the endless training of a no-longer young student, I wish to acknowledge my parents; for this same toleration, and for her loving and unfailing support, I thank Kimberly. THE NEVILLES AND THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT IN NORTH-EASTERN ENGLAND, 1377-1413 Contents ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I The Rise of the Nevilles 22 CHAPTER II Ralph Neville and the Creation of a 63 Lancastrian North-East, 1403-1413 CHAPTER III The Neville Affinity 93 CHAPTER IV The North-East's Political Community 132 CHAPTER V The Bishop of Durham's Administration 185 CHAPTER VI Landed Society and the North-East Coal 216 Industry CONCLUSIONS 245 APPENDIX I Office Holders in Durham, c.1375-1435) 265 APPENDIX II The Palatinate of Durham, and the Crisis 279 of the Late-1430's BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke, eldest son of John of Gaunt and disenfranchised Lancastrian heir, landed with a small force at Ravenspur, on the North Yorkshire coast, ostensibly to reclaim his rightful inheritance and take his place at the head of the great family. 1 Although armed, and a sworn enemy of King Richard II, Bolingbroke met with little resistance, and two months later he was himself King of England. Few disagree about the degree to which circumstance played its hand in this affair: at the time of Henry's return, Richard was in Ireland, with the bulk of his supporters. Ironically, he was there engaged in what had been, by most accounts, a relatively successful campaign. In addition, the king had made a poor choice of protectors for his realm, leaving his uncle, Edmund Langley, duke of York, in command of the country. Whether Langley was treacherous or simply ineffectual matters little: in a short time he had made common cause with Henry, who, in Richard's absence, rode largely unmolested through the country.2 There is something of a unanimity of opinion regarding the means by which Henry undertook his campaign. Most treatments of this subject have in common a general agreement that the military might of the Percies made passable his road to the 1 For details of Bolingbroke's early career, see J.L. Kirby, Henry IV of England (1970), Chapter 1; O.B. Gregory, Henry IV (1977). 2Douglas Biggs, 'A Wrong Whom Conscience and Kindred Bid me to Right": A Reassessment of Edmund Langley, Duke of York, and the Usurpation of Henry IV', Albion, xxvi, 2 (1994), 253-72. 2 throne, and that they were also instrumental in his success as king, 3 before declaring their own treasonous intentions in 1403.4 The broad outline of events, chronicled in so many historical writings that even their referencing is unnecessary, is not in dispute. Henry did come to power in this way; he did use the Percies, first to outfit him in his regalia, and then to secure his reign in its earliest years (particularly in the Scottish marches and North Wales); and they did turn on him four years after his coronation, in an attempt to secure his overthrow. However, this is clearly only a sketching of events, albeit one which has gone largely unchallenged in recent decades. Much research has focused on Bolingbroke's motives: C. Given-Wilson has argued that Richard II nursed a strong hatred throughout his life of not only Henry, but of the house of Lancaster generally, for its role in the deposition of Edward II, and in so doing, has argued for a new understanding of Richard's view of kingship, centred around a greatly-heightened sense of the royal prerogative.5 Nonetheless, the central motives behind Richard's treatment of Henry remain largely mysterious. J.M.W. Bean's influential article on Henry IV and the Percies, 6 and the important article by J.A. Tuck on Richard II and the northern nobility, along with his Richard II and the English Nobility, have been central treatments of Richard's relationship with the aristocracy, and his eventual fall from, and Henry's rise to, the 3 E.F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century, 1399-1485 (Oxford, 1961), 9-10; J.M.W. Bean, 'Henry IV and the Percies', History, xliv (1959), 212-14; and it is certainly implied in C. Given-Wilson, Chronicles of the Revolution, 1397-1400 (Manchester, 1993), 35-40. 4P. McNiven, 'The Scottish Policy of the Percies and the Strategy of the Rebellion of 1403', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 62(1979-80), 375-96. 5C. Given-Wilson, 'Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance', EHR, 109 (1994), 553-71. 6Bean, 'Henry IV and the Percies', 212-27. 3 throne - as well as the means used by Henry to gain it. 7 However, the general outline of events proffered above, and that offered by Bean, Tuck and others, tends to overemphasise the role of the Percies, and has stunted investigation into the real political situation in the North-East in this period. 8 This dissertation will rectify that oversight. For example, virtually no attention has been paid to the role of the North- East's other magnates, and members of its gentry, in Henry's rise to power and in the critical period thereafter, when he struggled to establish order. The most glaring omission has been the lack of attention paid to the rise of the Neville family, from regionally significant north-eastern barons to pre-eminent national political figures, a transformation that largely took place in this period. By the end of Henry's reign, Ralph Neville, first the earl of Westmorland, was not only the most powerful magnate in the all the North, he may well have been the greatest baron of his day, inferior perhaps only to those of closest royal blood.