Edward II: September 1314

1314 September

Introduction September 1314

York

9 September - 27/28 September

For the writs of summons see PW, II, ii, 126-35; C 219/3/4

(There is no surviving roll for this parliament)

By dint of persistence and the skilful use of both domestic and external political support, Edward II had achieved a satisfactory settlement between himself and his baronial opponents in the autumn of 1313. Although he had pardoned Lancaster and Warwick and their followers for the death of Gaveston, the Ordinances were not mentioned in the settlement, nor was the removal of any royal ministers required; and Gaveston and his supporters were not described as enemies of the king and the kingdom. With these problems at last removed from political debate, at least in public, the king had regained some of the freedom of action within his own kingdom for which he had been striving since the death of Gaveston in June 1312. Nonetheless, the peace between Edward and the barons was an uneasy one. It was unlikely for example that the last had been heard of the Ordinances. The mutual distrust was expressed by the authors of the Flores Historiarum and of the Lanercost chronicle who remarked that "the king always kept his distance from the earls, as before, led on by false counsel" and that "the king promised many things to them, which afterwards he did not fulfil". (fn. f1314Sint-1)

Edward's attendance at the enthronement of his old friend Walter Reynolds as archbishop of Canterbury on 17 January 1314 was to be the last indication of the political success he had gained in the previous year. The event was quickly followed by news from Scotland of the fall of Roxburgh and Edinburgh castles. When the constable of Stirling agreed to surrender to Robert Bruce if not relieved by 24 June, Edward took up the challenge eagerly, hoping to defeat Bruce in a pitched battle. The parliament that had been due to meet at Westminster on 21 April was cancelled on 24 March (see previous Introduction), and replaced by a military summons to be at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 28 April. Also in March Queen Isabella was sent to Paris to make sure that Edward would not be distracted from the coming campaign by any problems in Anglo-French relations. The earls of Lancaster, Warwick, Arundel and Surrey refused to join the army in person, fearing the political consequences of a royal victory: it was even rumoured that if the king had been victorious he would have attempted to capture the earl of Lancaster at his castle at Pontefract in Yorkshire. Nonetheless the army which advanced into Scotland in early June was a large one of about fifteen thousand infantry and two to three thousand cavalry, with many experienced commanders. Properly handled and with the necessary element of luck, the army should have been capable of defeating the much smaller Scottish army. Instead the English army, plagued by rivalries and differences of opinion among its leaders, suffered a humiliating defeat at Bannockburn near Stirling on 24 June. Edward's nephew the earl of Gloucester was among those killed. The earl of Hereford and other leading nobles were captured. Edward II fought bravely and had a horse killed under him, but eventually had to be led away to safety by the earl of Pembroke, lest his capture should turn disastrous defeat into a catastrophe. Edward reached Dunbar, sailed from there to Berwick and then moved to York, where on 29 July he summoned a parliament to meet at York on 9 September to discuss the Scottish threat. (fn. f1314Sint-2)

The writs of summons were issued at York on 29 July for a parliament to meet at York on 9 September. The writs state that the king has proposed the holding of a parliament to have a 'colloquium and tractatum' with those present. A marginal note on the Close Roll also describes the meeting as a parliament.

Writs of summons were sent to the archbishops of Canterbury (the newly elected archbishop was Edward's II's friend and ally, Walter Reynolds, previously bishop of Worcester) and York, eighteen bishops (including three Welsh bishops), forty-five abbots, and four priors; to nine earls (Lancaster, Norfolk, Surrey, Pembroke, Richmond, Hereford, Warwick, Arundel, Oxford (the earl of Gloucester had been killed at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314) ) and 101 barons, royal judges and clerks (a single intermingled list, about ten of whom were judges and clerks); and for the election of representatives of the knights of the shire and burgesses, and of the lower clergy. This is the first occasion on which both Hugh Despenser the Elder and his son Hugh Despenser the Younger appeared in the list of barons summoned. Their names appear at the top of the list, immediately following Henry Percy.

The writs of summons issued on 29 July gave the purpose of the parliament as 'various arduous affairs touching the king and the state of the kingdom, and especially 'our land' of Scotland.'

The defeat at Bannockburn entirely destroyed the favourable conditions created for the king by the 1313 settlement. On 7 September the earl of Pembroke, the bishop of Exeter and Henry de Beaumont were authorised to open the parliament on 9 September and to continue its business in the king's name, since for 'arduous and special affairs touching' the king he could not be present at the beginning. The king had good reason to absent himself. Ostensibly called to consider the threat from the Scots, the king's former opponents saw their opportunity and, at Lancaster's insistence, the king was forced to confirm the Ordinances, which by this time had been in abeyance for over two years. There then followed a wholesale removal of royal officers and their replacement by men appointed in the manner stipulated in the Ordinances. John Sandal was appointed as chancellor in place of Walter Reynolds the new archbishop of Canterbury, and was replaced as treasurer by Walter of Norwich. The sheriffs of thirty counties were also replaced between 8 October and 16 January. For the first time appointments in the royal household became subject to baronial approval. These changes were assisted by the death of Edmund Mauley, the steward of the household, at Bannockburn, and by the capture there of Roger of Northburgh, the keeper of the privy seal. Ingelard Warley, whose removal as keeper of the wardrobe had been demanded by the barons three years earlier, was succeeded by William Melton, the former controller and a royal household clerk who had not attracted any baronial criticism in the past. But the new appointments were not in reality to the king's disadvantage. John Sandal, for example, was a royal clerk of long standing and had, as acting treasurer, been very active in royal affairs in 1312 and 1313. William Melton was a trusted royal supporter who was to become archbishop of York in 1317. Nor is their any obvious sign among the other appointments of men who might be objectionable to the king. The king was even able to resist the removal of some of his closest advisers, Hugh Despenser the Elder, and Henry de Beaumont. What was most offensive to the king was not the character of the new officials but rather the mode and circumstances of their appointment. The York Parliament was, however, only the beginning of the political upheavals which the defeat at Bannockburn brought in its train and the stage was now set for a return to political influence by the most prominent of the former opposition magnates, the earls of Lancaster and Warwick. (fn. f1314Sint-3)

As in the case of the three parliaments held in 1313, it is not clear what else, if anything, had been done during the parliament. If petitions were received and answered, there is no evidence to show this. The absence of a Parliament Roll may again indicate that, despite the great political importance of the decisions made, so far as the king was concerned, there had been nothing to record. No taxation was granted by this parliament, but on 28 November 1314 or earlier the king attempted to collect scutages for the campaigns of 1305 and 1306, but with little success. (fn. f1314Sint-4)