Edward II: October 1307

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Originally published by Boydell, Woodbridge, 2005.

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'Edward II: October 1307', in Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, (Woodbridge, 2005) pp. . British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/october-1307 [accessed 24 March 2024]

In this section

1307 October

Introduction 1307

Northampton

13 October - 16 October

For the writs of summons see PW, II, ii, 1-14.

(There is no surviving roll for this parliament.) (fn. f1307int-1)

Edward I died at Burgh-on-Sands on 7 July 1307, as he was about to commence his latest attempt to bring an end to the Scottish war which had been in progress since 1296. He left behind him an enormous debt, amounting to about £200,000, and an administrative system that was creaking under the strain of financing and organising the war effort. His subjects were also increasingly reluctant to pay for the war and feeling a growing sense of oppression both from the royal government's demands on their resources through taxation and from the government's frequent delays in paying its debts. There were also signs of a breakdown in law and order. (fn. f1307int-2) Edward I's son and successor, Edward II, inherited all these problems but added others of his own making. He combined a lack of practical experience of and inclination for government with a rigid and uncompromising insistence on the rights of the crown and his authority as king. His close attachment to the Gascon knight, Piers Gaveston, who had been sent into exile by Edward I in 1306, was to be a cause of deep resentment among the leaders of the English nobility and ensured that demands for the reform of Edward II's government would become inextricably involved with the most intense of the king's personal relationships.

One of Edward II's first acts as king was to recall Gaveston to England. On 6 August he granted Gaveston the earldom of Cornwall. Although this action may initially have been accepted by the other earls, since the charter was witnessed by seven earls (Lincoln, Richmond, Pembroke, Surrey, Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel), Gaveston's arrogant behaviour and his influence over the king were soon to lead to a political crisis. The absence of the earl of Warwick from the witness list may have been an early indication of his future hostility towards Gaveston. Edward II balanced the promotion of Gaveston by arresting his father's rapacious treasurer, Walter Langton, the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, on 7 August and seizing his property, but this did not win him popularity. It was widely, though wrongly, believed that Gaveston received much of Langton's treasure. (fn. f1307int-3)

The writs of summons were issued at Cumnock on 26 August for a parliament to meet at Northampton on 13 October. The writs do not use the word 'parliament' to describe the intended assembly; the king expressed his wish to have a 'colloquium' and 'tractatum' with those present. But a marginal note on the Close Roll describes the meeting as a parliament. The list of knights and burgesses elected also says that they were elected to 'the king's parliament at Northampton'.

Writs of summons were sent to the archbishop of York, (fn. f1307int-4) eighteen bishops (including the four Welsh bishops whose dioceses formed part of the province of Canterbury), fifty-four abbots, two priors and the master of the Templars; (fn. f1307int-5) eight earls (Lincoln, Lancaster, Hereford, Surrey, Arundel, Richmond, Warwick, Oxford, and the earl of Angus from Scotland, who was an English ally, but not including Edward II's favourite, Piers Gaveston the newly created earl of Cornwall), seventy-one barons; thirty royal judges and clerks; and for the election of representatives of the knights of the shire and burgesses, and of the lower clergy.

The parliament was summoned to deal with business arising from Edward II's recent succession to the throne, notably to make arrangements for the burial of Edward I, for Edward II's marriage to Isabella of France and for his coronation. The parliament was also summoned for other important but unspecified matters concerning the state of the realm, but which certainly included the pressing need for a grant of taxation.

On 13 October the parliament made Edward II a grant of a twentieth and a fifteenth of the value of moveable goods in the counties and towns respectively, 'ostensibly to meet the expenses of the burial of Edward I and the coronation of the new king, but in actual fact to finance the war with Scotland'. This fact and Edward II's generosity towards Gaveston gave rise to a widespread belief that this taxation was misappropriated. (fn. f1307int-6) The clergy also made a grant of a fifteenth, possibly following an agreement by the king that the exiled archbishop of Canterbury could return to England. (fn. f1307int-7) On 18 October the earl of Hereford and fifteen other magnates were ordered to go to Scotland to resume the war against Robert Bruce and his supporters. (fn. f1307int-8) The body of Edward I, arrived in London on about 18 October, just after the conclusion of the parliament, and was buried with great solemnity in Westminster abbey on 27 October. Four days later, on 1 November, Gaveston's exalted place in English magnate society was confirmed when he married Margaret of Clare, sister of Edward II's nephew, Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester. On 6 November the earls of Lincoln and Pembroke, and the bishops of Durham and Norwich, were appointed to go to France to negotiate the final details of Edward II's contract to marry Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV of France, to whom Edward had been betrothed since 1303. (fn. f1307int-9)

Footnotes

  • f1307int-1. On the Parliament Rolls for the reign of Edward II see Richardson & Sayles, 'The early records of the English Parliaments: II, The English Parliaments of Edward II', BIHR , 6, 1928-29, 85-88.; for a discussion of the surviving rolls of parliament. in the Exchequer series (SC 9) see R & S, 'The early records of the English Parliaments: III, The Exchequer Parliament Rolls and other Documents ', BIHR , 6, 1928-29, 129, 134-144, and Appendix III A, The 'Exchequer series of Parliament Rolls', 146-152 (describes the extant rolls as well as the Vetus Codex), and Appendix III B, Parliament Rolls no longer extant, 153.
  • f1307int-2. Prestwich, War, Politics and Finance under Edward I 221-3; Kaeuper, War, Justice and Public Order , 139-40, 174-6. .
  • f1307int-3. Hamilton, Piers Gaveston , 37-8; Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster , 71-2.
  • f1307int-4. The archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Winchelsey, had been suspended from office by pope Clement V in February 1306 and was still in exile in France: Denton, Robert Winchelsey, 231-6, 244-6.
  • f1307int-5. Walter Langton's treasure had been stored in Temple in London until early October 1307: Hamilton, Piers Gaveston, 38.
  • f1307int-6. Jurkowski, Smith & Crook, Lay Taxes, 29; PW, II, ii, 15-16; Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, 71-2.
  • f1307int-7. Denton, Winchelsey, 245-6, 300.
  • f1307int-8. CCR 1307-13, 43.
  • f1307int-9. Hamilton, Piers Gaveston , 38; Prestwich, Edward I , 558; Phillips, Aymer de Valence , 25.