i ‘Thomas Hoccleve as Poet and Clerk’ Helen Katherine Spencer Killick PhD University of York Medieval Studies December 2010 ii Abstract As part of an AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research project, ‘Identification of the Scribes Responsible for Copying Major Works of Middle English Literature’, this thesis re-examines the late medieval poet Thomas Hoccleve in the context of his career as a clerk of the Privy Seal and the history of the late medieval English government administration. Through identification of Hoccleve’s handwriting, it has been possible to search for all the extant documents produced by him for that office now in the National Archives. The evidence drawn from these documents is used to contribute towards a more complete chronology of the poet’s life, and the circumstances under which his poetry was written. Firstly, Hoccleve is used as a case study through which to examine the development of the late medieval English government administration and civil service, and the changing nature of its staff during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. Secondly, Hoccleve’s major work, the Regiment of Princes, is examined in the context of his role as a royal clerk, and the proliferation of Middle English political and didactic texts during this period. Finally, the impact of Hoccleve’s use of Anglo-French in official documents and Middle English in his poetry is considered in the context of the mutual culture of influence existing between the two languages. These different approaches to the documentary evidence are used to illustrate the impact of Hoccleve’s position at the Privy Seal on the form and content of his literary work. iii Contents Abbreviations iv Acknowledgments v Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The documents 1.1 Hoccleve’s hand in the literary manuscripts 17 1.2 The Privy Seal records in the National Archives 26 1.3 The new documents 35 Chapter 2: Hoccleve as Clerk 2.1 The Privy Seal 52 2.2 The clerks 62 2.3 Hoccleve at the Privy Seal 77 Chapter 3: The Regiment of Princes 3.1 Mirrors for Princes 101 3.2 Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes 115 3.3 The poem’s reception 127 Chapter 4: Hoccleve’s Languages 4.1 Hoccleve’s use of French 143 4.2 The influence of the language of the Privy Seal on Hoccleve’s poetry 163 4.3 Hoccleve’s English 172 Conclusion 182 Appendices I. Documents in Hoccleve’s hand written for the Privy Seal 187 II. Documents written for other government offices 231 III. Documents without positive identification 232 IV (i) Gender-marked possessive pronouns in Hoccleve’s formulary 235 (ii) Gender-marked possessive pronouns in warrants written by Hoccleve 237 (ii) Words derived from French in the Regiment 238 (iv) Their usage by other Middle English poets 240 (v) Hoccleve’s English and ‘Chancery Standard’ 242 Bibliography 243 iv Abbreviations ANTS Anglo-Norman Text Society BIHR Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Bain Joseph Bain (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1881-88. Carte Catalogue des Rolles Gascons, ormans et François conservés dans les archives de la Tour de Londres, compiled by Thomas Carte, London, 1743. CCR Calendar of Close Rolls CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls EETS Early English Text Society EHR English Historical Review METS Middle English Text Society PROME The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504, eds. C. Given- Wilson, P. Brand, S. Phillips, W. M. Ormrod, G. Martin, A. Curry and R. Horrox, 16 vols., Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2005. http://www.sd- editions.com/PROME/home.html SAC Studies in the Age of Chaucer TNA The National Archives, Kew, London VCH Victoria County Histories Conventions In this thesis, when referring to the government offices, capitals are used (the Privy Seal, the Chancery, the Signet), whereas references to the seals themselves are in lower case (the privy seal, the great seal, the signet). The titles of the heads of the offices are capitalized (the Keeper, the Chancellor, the Secretary). The term Mirrors for Princes has been capitalized to indicate its use as a genre. In the Appendices, all first names and place names have been modernized where possible. Unless otherwise stated, all documents cited are in TNA. v Acknowledgements Completion of this thesis would not have been possible without help from many people. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisors, Linne Mooney and Mark Ormrod, for their consistently helpful advice and support, the time and effort devoted to reading previous drafts, and for making the experience of doctoral research a very enjoyable one. I would also like to thank Jocelyn Wogan-Browne for introducing me to the mysteries of Anglo-Norman and pointing me in the direction of the linguistic studies used in Chapter 4. The support of the AHRC in providing me with funding is gratefully acknowledged. This thesis is dedicated to my parents, without whose unfailing encouragement I would not have attempted to undertake academic research. Author’s declaration I, Helen Katherine Spencer Killick, confirm that all work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 22 November 2010 1 Introduction The work of Thomas Hoccleve is not only some of the most original and influential poetry written in Middle English, but also constitutes an important source for historians of the later medieval period. Previous scholars have made extensive use of the autobiographical element in Hoccleve’s poetry in drawing conclusions regarding his life and work as a clerk of the office of the Privy Seal. However, it is only in recent years that the government records relating to his career have begun to be fully utilised. The aim of this thesis is to identify and explore the corpus of documents produced by Hoccleve on behalf of the Privy Seal, in order to contribute towards a more complete chronology of the poet’s life, and the context in which he wrote his major works. The introduction will provide a short biography of Hoccleve and description of his poetry, and an account of the previous scholarship, addressing some of the individual themes present in his work. It will then describe in more detail the aims and methods of the thesis, briefly summarising each chapter in turn. Little is known regarding Hoccleve’s origins and childhood. He is thought to have been born at some time in 1366 or 1367, based on his statement in the poem Dialogue with a Friend that he is fifty-three years old.1 Some have claimed that his name suggests he originally came from Hockliffe in Bedfordshire, but his adult life was spent living and working in London.2 He was employed as a clerk in the office of the Privy Seal, at this time one of the three main government offices, along with the Chancery and Exchequer. John Burrow, in his biography of the poet, suggests he entered the office around 1387, at the age of twenty; however, documents written by Hoccleve discovered by Linne Mooney and myself suggest that he may have been working as an apprentice clerk prior to this date.3 He remained a clerk at the Privy Seal until 1426, when records show that his death resulted in the transferral of his corrody in Southwick Priory to Alice Penfold.4 Hoccleve is known as the author of a substantial corpus of vernacular poetry, ranging from moral and devotional works to lengthy political texts. His earliest datable 1 The poem forms part of Hoccleve’s Series, which has been dated to between late 1419 and early 1421; see J. A. Burrow, Thomas Hoccleve (Aldershot, 1994), p. 2. 2 F. J. Furnivall (ed.) Hoccleve’s Works: The Minor Poems, EETS e. s. 61 (London, 1892), vii. 3 Burrow, Thomas Hoccleve, p. 2; L. R. Mooney, ‘Some new light on Thomas Hoccleve’, SAC 29 (2007) p. 310 n. 42; see my Appendix I, p. 187. 4 Burrow, Thomas Hoccleve, p. 29. 2 poem is the Letter of Cupid, written in 1402, and he continued to compose until very near the end of his life. The distinguishing feature of Hoccleve’s literary work is his strong tendency towards the autobiographical, and this means that we know more about his life than that of any other medieval poet.5 Poems such as the Male Regle contain a wealth of information regarding the author’s lifestyle and the type of people with whom he came into contact. Like much of Hoccleve’s work, this poem falls into the category of petitionary verse: verses written to noble patrons in order to request financial aid. These included powerful merchants and guild members, senior governmental and civic officials such as the Treasurer, Chancellor and town clerk, and the nobility and royal family, including people such as Joan Beaufort, countess of Westmorland, Humphrey of Gloucester, and the future Henry V. The latter was the addressee of Hoccleve’s most successful work, the Regiment of Princes, an advice manual for rulers composed in 1411. Apart from the Regiment, the poem for which Hoccleve is chiefly remembered today is his Series, written in the final years of his life. This work comprises the Complaint, which describe the circumstances of Hoccleve’s mental breakdown and recovery, the Dialogue with a Friend, in which Hoccleve discusses the former work with an unnamed companion, and three translations of moral poems. Rather than concentrating on the symptoms of the illness itself, the Complaint details the problems faced by the author as he attempts his rehabilitation into society and the reaction of his friends and colleagues.