Original Documents: Edward I Parliaments, Vetus Codex, Introduction

Vetus Codex

THE ORIGINAL RECORDS

Chancery: Vetus Codex (C 153/1)

The Vetus Codex is a manuscript in book form, consisting of 157 numbered parchment folios, preceded by nine unnumbered paper folios and succeeded by thirty-three unnumbered folios also of paper, of which only the first has any writing and represents the beginning of a later index to the contents. The overall dimensions of the individual folios are 335x205 mm., with the ruled and written area covering around 270x135-140 mm. The volume contains partial transcripts (apparently carefully checked against the originals) of a number of parliament rolls of various dates between 1290 and 1307 plus one recording a single parliament of 1320. Maitland believed that the volume was probably copied at various dates and that parts of it may even have been copied as early as the reign of Edward I. (fn. pb-vc-foot-1) The transcripts taken from the records of the parliaments of Edward I are numbered in a single sequence of roman numerals, but the parliament of 1320 is not included in this sequence. (fn. pb-vc-foot-2) Maitland suggested that the Vetus Codex may have been the 'book of parliaments' delivered into the treasury by the treasurer in 1322, that it was the 'book of parliaments' borrowed by a chancery clerk from the treasury in 1357 and that it was also the 'book of parliaments' cited in a Patent Roll exemplification of 1382. (fn. pb-vc-foot-3) He also noted evidence suggesting that the volume had strayed out of official custody by the first half of the sixteenth century but that it had then passed into the ownership of successive keepers of the records at the Tower of London from 1599 onwards and had thereafter remained in official custody. (fn. pb-vc-foot-4) The volume was printed in its entirety in 1661 by William Ryley junior in his Placita Parliamentaria or Pleadings in Parliament .

The only sections of this manuscript reproduced here are those which preserve part or the whole of rolls of parliament which no longer survive or material from membranes now lost from rolls that do survive. The relevant sections are the following:

i) portions of ff. 102-116 belonging to the Lent parliament of 1305, 'parliamentum vii' in the Vetus Codex sequence, containing material no longer to be found in Roll 12 or in any other surviving MS. The material concerned is the ordinance of trailbastons; the enrolment relating to the services owed by the prior of Coldingham and a plea alleging the attempted rescue of Nicholas of Segrave by the barons of Dover. All are in Latin. The whole of this section of the Vetus Codex (including material that also survives in Roll 12 or in the stray membrane in the Bibliothèque Nationale and so is not reproduced here) was first printed by Ryley in Placita Parliamentaria at 266-88 and was again printed by the editors of RP , in vol. I at 172-81. (fn. pb-vc-foot-5)

ii) ff. 118-119, headed 'Memoranda of the king's parliament at Westminster at the octaves of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the end of the thirty-third year' with a continuation heading half-way through assigning what follows to the same date and belonging to the autumn parliament of 1305, 'parliamentum viii' in the Vetus Codex sequence. This section of the Vetus Codex only reproduces that section of the original roll which recorded the appointment of receivers of petitions and the proclamation for the delivery of petitions they had made (recorded in the French of the original petition); the Latin summaries of four petitions (one relating to Ireland) and the responses made to them; and the definition of conspirators agreed at the same parliament (also recorded in French). The two headings suggest that all the copyist of the Vetus Codex had before him was a single membrane from this parliament, perhaps the first membrane of a roll with a heading to both face and dorse. This section of the Vetus Codex was first printed by Ryley in Placita Parliamentaria at 289-92 and was again printed by the editors of RP , in vol. I at 182-3.

iii) ff. 119-121, headed 'Pleas at Westminster before the king and his council in parliament at the quindene of Michaelmas in his thirtieth regnal year' and belonging to the Michaelmas parliament of 1302, part of what the Vetus Codex designates as 'parliamentum vi'. The fact that this section of the Vetus Codex reproduces the record of only two pleas (one about the rights of the abbot of Westminster in relation to the fair held at Westminster; the other about the election of a new archbishop of Dublin without licence in 1299) may suggest that these were the only materials from this parliament available at the time the Vetus Codex was copied. The two pleas are both in Latin. This section of the Vetus Codex was first printed by Ryley in Placita Parliamentaria at 292-9 and was again printed by the editors of RP , in vol. I at 150-3.

iv) ff. 124-151 headed 'Memoranda of the king's parliament at Carlisle on the Friday of the octave of Hilary in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of king Edward the son of king Henry' and belonging to the Hilary parliament of 1307, 'parliamentum ix' in the Vetus Codex sequence, for which otherwise only a single membrane and a fragment from a second membrane of an original roll survive. (fn. pb-vc-foot-6) The roll from which this section of the Vetus Codex was copied appears to have consisted mainly of petitions and their responses, (fn. pb-vc-foot-7) but interspersed among them are statutes, (fn. pb-vc-foot-8) notes of responses to royal mandates, (fn. pb-vc-foot-9) the names of the justices assigned to the circuits for hearing trailbaston pleas, (fn. pb-vc-foot-10) the wording of the oath taken by members of the king's council and some related memoranda relating to the taking of the oath by particular individuals, (fn. pb-vc-foot-11) memoranda relating to attendance at parliament and the adjournment of its meeting, (fn. pb-vc-foot-12) and records of litigation initiated by petition before the council (fn. pb-vc-foot-13) . There is a draft version of a letter of protest to the Pope, (fn. pb-vc-foot-14) plus a pronouncement made on the king's behalf to the papal clerk, master William Testa, at Carlisle before the king's council on 31 March 1307, (fn. pb-vc-foot-15) and also a copy of the Scottish peace settlement of 1305, (fn. pb-vc-foot-16) and of the peace settlement made with John Comyn of Badenoch in Scotland in 1304. (fn. pb-vc-foot-17)

Most of the enrolments are entirely in Latin, but the French of the original is retained within entries otherwise in Latin for the transcription of privy seal writs; (fn. pb-vc-foot-18) for petitions where these are reproduced in full and in the context of proceedings connected with them rather than simple responses; (fn. pb-vc-foot-19) for the petitions of the community of the realm against master William Testa; (fn. pb-vc-foot-20) and for the information given against Anthony Bek, bishop of Durham, which was treated as a petition. (fn. pb-vc-foot-21) French is also the language used in giving the form of the council oath, (fn. pb-vc-foot-22) for the arrangements made about certifications of military service; (fn. pb-vc-foot-23) for the two earlier schemes for peace in Scotland here reproduced; (fn. pb-vc-foot-24) and in reproducing a statement made by the king about the franchise of return of writs, (fn. pb-vc-foot-25) and another statement made on the king's behalf to master William Testa. (fn. pb-vc-foot-26)

This section of the Vetus Codex was first printed by Ryley in Placita Parliamentaria at 292-9 and was again printed by the editors of RP , in vol. I at 150-3.