Archaeologia http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH Additional services for Archaeologia: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here VI.—The Loss of King John's Baggage Train in the Wellstream in October, 1216 W. H. St. John Hope Archaeologia / Volume 60 / Issue 01 / January 1906, pp 93 - 111 DOI: 10.1017/S026134090000936X, Published online: 15 November 2011 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S026134090000936X How to cite this article: W. H. St. John Hope (1906). VI.—The Loss of King John's Baggage Train in the Wellstream in October, 1216. Archaeologia, 60, pp 93-111 doi:10.1017/S026134090000936X Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH, IP address: 144.82.108.120 on 22 Aug 2016 VI.—The Loss of King John's Baggage Train in the Wellstream in October, 1216. By W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, Esq., M.A., Assistant Secretary. Read 15th February, 1906. THE subject of this paper has been suggested by a well-known story, to be found in one form or another in many a popular History of England, that the young King Henry the Third was crowned at Gloucester in 1216 with a golden circlet, because the crown of King John his father had been lost with all his other treasures in the waves of the "Wash. That a circlet was so used we have the authority of Matthew Paris,a but whether by reason of the loss of the royal crown, or the more probable difficulty of obtaining1 the crown itself in the nine days that intervened between the king's accession and his coronation,1' the historian does not say. The coronation of the young King Henry is not, however, a matter that concerns us now, nor need we inquire whether the crown was otherwise than in safe keeping at Westminster, but I should like to submit to the Society for con- sideration certain points arising from that part of the story which relates to the loss of King John's treasures in the waters of the Wash. That a catastrophe of an unusual character actually befell the king there can be no doubt, and it is a matter of legitimate inquiry where and how it occurred, and whether it can have any possible interest for us to-day. a Matthew Paris has, as the heading of the account of King Henry's coronation: " De prima regis Henrici Tertii coronatione, quse per quendam circulum aureum facta fuit, a qua coronatione oomputantur anni coronationis ejus." Chronica Majora (Rolls Series 57), iii. 1. b John died on 19th October, and Henry was crowned on the 28th of the same month. VOL. LX. Q 94 The Loss of King John's Baggage Train in the Wellstream in October, 1216. Before entering upon such inquiry it is desirable to review the king's acts for some little time before his death. It will be remembered that no sooner had the Great Charter been wrung from the reluctant king on 15th June, 1215, than John began to plot how he might avenge himself on the barons. Instead of sending away his mercenaries, as he had promised in the Charter, he set to work to collect additional forces from abroad. He also procured from the pope the excommunication of the barons and a release from his oath to observe the Charter itself. The revolt of the barons followed, and though some of the more patriotic continued to side with John, the rest sought help from France, and invited Lewis, the son of King Philip, to come and be their king. Lewis landed in Kent in May, 1216, and soon found himself master of great part of the kingdom, including most of its strongholds. But the castles of Dover and Windsor held out for the king, and to them Lewis laid siege. John's movements day by day can be laid down with the greatest exactness from the evidence of the Patent and Close Rolls/ and from them we learn that he had retreated on the landing of Lewis, first to Winchester, and then by way of Ludgershall, Devizes, Wilton, Sturminster, and Wareham to Corfe Castle, where he remained from 23rd June to 17th July. Here he seems to have occupied himself in collecting a considerable army, drawn chiefly from the garrisons of his castles, with which, according to Roger of Wendover, he proceeded to ravage during harvest time the lands of the earls and barons, burning their houses and destroying their crops. The king's itinerary shows that he set out on this intent from Corfe on 18th July through Sherborne, Bristol, Gloucester, and Hereford, and so on to Shrewsbury and Whitchurch and the Marches of Wales, where he stayed for about a fortnight, finally returning to Corfe, by the same way that he had set out, on 25th August. The king started off again the next day with the evident intention of relieving the Castle of Windsor, which had now been besieged for nearly two months. The castles of Old Sarum and Marlborough, which were directly in the line for Windsor, had been surrendered to Lewis by their castellans, the king was therefore obliged to follow a roundabout way through Sherborne, Wells, Bath, Bradford, Chippenham, Cirencester, Oxford, and Wallingford to Reading, where he arrived on 6th September. John stayed in the neighbourhood of Reading from the 8th to 13th, when finding apparently that his forces were a See the Itinerary for his reign in Botuli Litteraruni Patentium, vol. i. part i., edited for the Commissioners of the Public Records by Sir T. D. Hardy, and published in 1835. The Loss of King John's Baggage Tram in the Wellstream in October, 1216. 95 not strong enough to relieve Windsor Castle he marched northwards to intercept, if possible, the King of Scots, who had come south to do homage to Lewis at Dover.* John reached Bedford on 15th September, and went on about thirty miles the next day to Cambridge, so as to put part of his forces athwart Alexander's way homewards; the rest seems to have gone on to ravage the lands of the Earl of Arundel, Roger Bigot, William of Huntingfeld, Roger of Cressy, and other barons in Norfolk and Suffolk.b John was still at Cambridge on 17th September, but on the next day, Sunday? he was twenty-five miles away at Robert de Vere's castle of Hedingham in Essex, which he had captured earlier in the year,c and also at Clare in Suffolk, not far from Hedingham, where there was the strong castle of Richard Earl of Hertford, another of the rebel barons. On tidings of John's misdoings coming to the ears of the barons who were investing Windsor Castle, they at once raised the siege, and having burned their engines of war/ hurried after the king in the hope of taking him prisoner. John seems to have heard of their pursuit of him while at Hedingham or Clare, for Monday the 19th is blank in the itinerary, a fact strongly suggestive of a hurried retreat and forced marches, with no leisure to think of anything save escape from his foes. Roger of Wendover says that John betook himself to Stamford.6 This would have entailed a journey of about twenty-six miles from Clare to Cambridge and over forty miles more on to Stamford. Roger's statement is, however, probably correct, for on the Tuesday John was at King's Cliffe, a few miles south of Stamford, and later in the day at William of Aumale's castle of Rockingham, hard by. He was still at Rockingham the next day, but on Thursday, 22nd September, he had reached Lincoln, over fifty miles further north, in order to a So the Barnwell Chronicler in Memoriale Walteri de Coventria (Rolls Series 58), ii. 231; and Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarwm (Rolls Series 84), ii. 193. b Flores Ilisloriarmn, ii. 192, 193. Roger of Wendover transposes the raid on the Welsh border and the ravaging of East Anglia, or rather interposes the ravaging between two raids, but John's itinerary shows that so far as the king's movements are concerned the chronicler is not quite accurate. c On 25th or 26th March. ll R. de Coggcshall, Chronicon Anglicanum (Rolls Series 66), 183. e R. de Wendover, Flores Historiarum, (Rolls Series 84), ii. 193. Q2 96 The Loss of King John's Baggage Train in the Wellstream in October, 1216. relieve the castle, which was being besieged by Gilbert de Gant and others, who fled on his approach. The barons in pursuit of John followed him as far as Cambridge and then returned to London .a John having relieved Lincoln wasted with fire and sword the Isle of Axholme, while a portion of his forces was detached, under the leadership of Savaric de Malleone, to devastate the lands of Croyland Abbey, which were miserably despoiled and even the sacred vessels of the church carried off.b The king meanwhile passed through the parts of Lindsey and Holland, and whenever he found lands belonging to his enemies gave them to pillage and to such burning as was never seen before.0 John's own movements can be readily followed from the Patent and Close Rolls. On 1st and 2nd October he was at Lincoln; on the 3rd and 4th at Grimsby. By the evening of the 4th he had reached Louth, and on the 5th he was at Boston. Thursday the 6th is blank in the itinerary, perhaps because the king was spending the day at Swineshead Abbey, hard by.