Access to Electronic Thesis Author: Keith Fildes Thesis title: The Baronage in the reign of Richard II, 1377-1399 Qualification: PhD This electronic thesis is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No reproduction is permitted without consent of the author. It is also protected by the Creative Commons Licence allowing Attributions-Non-commercial-No derivatives. If this electronic thesis has been edited by the author it will be indicated as such on the title page and in the text. THE BARONAGE IN THE REIGN OF RICHARD II, 1377–1399 by Keith E. Fildes Dissertation submitted in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of History, University of Sheffield March 2009 ABSTRACT This thesis is a prosopographical study of the English baronage during the reign of Richard II. It considers the role of barons within the political community and attempts to characterise them, both in terms of their engagement with institutions and by exploring private power relations. In the tradition of the political culture framework within which the study is situated, it seeks ultimately to determine the group’s motives. The first section explores structures, defining the baronage and tracing the historical development of the class. The stresses and concepts that moulded and distinguished the political culture are also set out. Three broad themes – politics, land and lordship - are then discussed in the second section. These endeavour to quantify and qualify the power and authority that were exercised by the 66 baronial families from the reign. In the political arena barons’ engagement with the apparatus of royal government, administration and justice are investigated, along with political favour and its rewards. The size and distribution of their landholding is then assessed and the strategies they employed for putting their estates together determined. The service they performed and received is afterwards discussed and the reasons for and benefits of it analysed. These broader themes are then enriched by a demonstration of the differences on the ground. In this third section two case studies, of the Gloucestershire and Sussex barons, revisit the same themes, but look in more detail at just the handful of resident barons in those counties. Finally, the different situations in the two sample localities are reconciled by deciphering the barons’ motives. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: STRUCTURES CHAPTER 1 – POLITICAL CULTURE 8 i) Historiographical Traditions 8 ii) Sources of Change 16 iii) Political Structures 20 iv) The Baronage and Late Medieval Politics 29 CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND TOWARDS A DEFINITION 38 i) Historical Development of the Baronage 38 ii) Towards a Definition of the Baronage 46 iii) A Definition 54 PART II: THEMES CHAPTER 3 – POLITICS, FAVOUR AND PATRONAGE 55 i) Parliament 55 ii) Council 64 iii) Administration 70 iv) Judiciary 73 v) Careers and Characteristics 76 vi) Favour and Patronage 78 vii) Political Narrative 81 viii) Useful Partners in Government? 83 CHAPTER 4 – LAND, INHERITANCE AND ECONOMICS 85 i) Land 86 ii) Inheritance 101 iii) Economics 110 iv) Successes and Failures 119 CHAPTER 5 – LORDSHIP, RETAINING AND MILITARY SERVICE 120 i) Lordship 122 ii) Retaining 131 iii) Military Service 146 iv) The Baronage as a Service Aristocracy 162 i PART III: CASE STUDIES CHAPTER 6 – GLOUCESTERSHIRE BARONS (THE BERKELEYS, DESPENSERS AND TALBOTS) 163 i) Introduction to the Tenurial Geography and the Resident Barons 163 ii) Politics, Favour and Patronage 166 iii) Land, Inheritance and Economics 181 iv) Lordship, Retaining and Military Service 196 v) Motives 205 CHAPTER 7 – SUSSEX BARONS (THE POYNINGS, CAMOYS, DE LA WARRS AND SAYS) 209 i) Introduction to the Tenurial Geography and the Resident Barons 209 ii) Politics, Favour and Patronage 213 iii) Land, Inheritance and Economics 221 iv) Lordship, Retaining and Military Service 230 v) Motives 245 CONCLUSION 249 APPENDIX 1 – Parliamentary Summonses 255 APPENDIX 2 – Biographies 265 APPENDIX 3 – Landholding 294 APPENDIX 4 – Landholding Maps 303 APPENDIX 5 – Royal and Titled Noble Retaining of the Baronage 313 APPENDIX 6 – Baronial Connections with MPs 315 APPENDIX 7 – Barons on Major Military Expeditions, 1377-1399 327 APPENDIX 8 – Baronial Retinues on Military Campaigns 340 BIBLIOGRAPHY 352 FIGURES Fig. 1 - Margaret Lisle, Lady Berkeley and Thomas, Lord Berkeley 207 Fig. 2 - Thomas, Lord Berkeley’s livery collar showing four mermaids, an emblem of the Berkeley family 208 Fig. 3 - Elizabeth Mortimer, Lady Camoys and Thomas, Lord Camoys 247 Fig. 4 - Thomas, Lord Camoys wearing a Lancastrian Collar of Essess 248 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was conceived with and begun under the supervision of the late Dr Simon Walker. Like late medieval history in general, this work is much the poorer for that loss. My biggest debt of gratitude is to my supervisor Professor Mark Ormrod. Mark has been a constant friend, an accessible and wise counsellor and a patient teacher. I would also like to thank Professors Mike Braddick, Edmund King and Dan Power who admirably stepped into the breach and provided invaluable assistance and guidance during the difficult interlude. Chris Marks has long been a source of inspiration and played a large part in nurturing my early enthusiasm in the subject. Professor Nigel Saul gave me crucial encouragement and advice at the darkest time. Dr David Simpkin and the other researchers on the Soldier in Later Medieval England project were kind enough to convey to me some of their practices and data. Rob Kinsey has been a valued colleague and I would like to thank him for the information and ideas on the Thorpes that he has shared with me. On a personal note my strongest supporters have always been my family, particularly my parents Ray and Carol and my siblings David and Christine. Even my continual insistence on dragging them round visiting castles has not caused their abetment to wane. My nan and my extended family have also been very supportive. Close friends, from both Sheffield and Horsham, have sustained me throughout the journey. In particular I would like to thank Tully Monk, Lorna Pietras, Martha Riddiford and Steph Thomas; Fraser Bayes and Richie Berry; Matt Bevan and Leon Burton. The other postgraduates in the Department of History have been a constant source of stimulation and encouragement, especially Morn Capper, Vicky Chadderton, Geoff Little, Oli Pengelley, Matt Phillpott, Lou Radford, Gary Rivett, Simona Spedale-Latimer and Felicity Stout. I would also like to thank my colleagues at ASET and SES who have been good friends and welcome distraction over the years. These include Sarah Flynn, Amanda Monteiro, Tamsin Pyne, David Tattersall and John Wilson; Malcolm Brewer, Mary Harris and Alison Riggott. Others who I’ve neglected to individually name know who they are and know I’m grateful. iii INTRODUCTION The usurpation of Richard II by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke in 1399 was one of the most significant events in later medieval history. It brought to an end almost two hundred and fifty years of Plantagenet rule and would prove to be the genesis of the War of the Roses, which subsequently tore the country apart for much of the proceeding century. The events of the ‘Lancastrian Revolution’ have been well documented and traditional interpretation shows Richard II’s government being so unpopular that Bolingbroke was able to sweep to power on a wave of popular fervour.1 Although attempts have more recently been made to debunk some of the Lancastrian propaganda upon which many of these narratives are based, the transfer of loyalty by the political community was indisputably decisive.2 One aspect of the campaign which helps explain what tipped the political and military balance in favour of the pretender is the participation of members of the baronage. In the chronicles it is reported that when Bolingbroke landed in England in July 1399 he arrived with approximately 60-100 men.3 By the time he reached Bristol three weeks later his army is said to have swelled to about 6000 soldiers, as ‘wherever he went the number of people joining him kept on increasing’.4 This was not though a populist movement. Bolingbroke’s army, like Richard II’s, was made up of his personal retinue, and those of the nobles and upper gentry aligned to him. Although the Lancastrian affinity was itself the greatest of any lord in the kingdom at the time, the only other members of the titled nobility to ally with Bolingbroke at this point were the young earl of Arundel, who had joined him in exile, and the heads of the two great northern families, the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, who joined him at Doncaster. Many of Richard II’s long-standing opponents among the titled nobility had been destroyed during his 1 C. Barron, ‘The Tyranny of Richard II’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xli (1968), pp.1- 18; M. Bennett, Richard II and the Revolution of 1399 (Stroud, 1999), pp.109-69; B. Wilkinson, ‘The Deposition of Richard II and the Accession of Henry IV’, English Historical Review, liv (1939), pp.215-39; C. Given-Wilson (ed.), Chronicles of the Revolution, 1397-1400 (Manchester, 1993). 2 C. Barron, ‘The Deposition of Richard II’, in J. Taylor and W. Childs (eds.), Politics and Crisis in Fourteenth Century England, (Gloucester, 1990), pp.132-49. 3 Monk of Evesham, Historia Vitae et Regni Ricardi Secundi, ed. G. B. Stow (Pennsylvania, 1977), p.153; J. Taylor (ed.), The Kirkstall Abbey Chronicles (Leeds, 1952), p.77. 4 Taylor (ed.), The Kirkstall Abbey, p.78; T. Walsingham, The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham, 1376-1422, ed. D. Preest and J. G. Clark (Woodbridge, 2005), p.308. 1 ‘tyranny’ from 1397 and replaced by his own supporters, who remained loyal until close to the end.