Edward I: Michaelmas 1297

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

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'Edward I: Michaelmas 1297', in Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, (Woodbridge, 2005) pp. . British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/michaelmas-1297 [accessed 25 March 2024]

In this section

1297 Michaelmas

Introduction Michaelmas 1297

Westminster

Michaelmas parliament (September-October)

Edward I had left England for Flanders on 22 August despite the real danger of civil war over royal claims to raise taxation without adequate consent, royal attempts to extend the scope of military obligation and royal schemes to seize the property of the king's subjects. During his absence a parliament was summoned in the name of his son to meet at 'London' (the sequel indicates that Westminster was probably meant). The initial summonses which went out on 5 September to five bishops, four earls and barons, two archdeacons, eight clerks of the council, six royal justices and two friars (probably all members of the king's council) were for a colloquium that was to meet on the morrow of Michaelmas (on or perhaps a little after 30 September); (fn. foot-1297m-1) and on 9 September a further seven bishops, seventeen abbots, four priors, the two heads of the military orders, eight barons and two further earls were summoned for the same purpose on the same date. (fn. foot-1297m-2) The meeting is specifically described, however, as a 'parliament' in a follow-up mandate of 16 September which referred to a military summons to London a week later. (fn. foot-1297m-3) On 15 September each sheriff was ordered to ensure the election of two knights from their counties to appear at 'London' at the octaves of Michaelmas (the week beginning 6 October) to receive copies of the king's confirmation of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest and agreement that the king's levying of an eighth be not prejudicial to his subjects and further to 'do and receive' what the king's council decided. (fn. foot-1297m-4) Returns survive from thirty-two counties: one county (Sussex) refused to elect and another (Surrey) in effect only elected one knight, while Cumberland sent an excuse for the non-appearance of their representatives. (fn. foot-1297m-5)

The demands of the king's political opponents at this parliament seem to have been expressed in the undated document De Tallagio Non Concedendo . (fn. foot-1297m-6) Discussion of this document seems to have led to the issue of a separate document known (somewhat misleadingly) as the Confimatio Cartarum conceding many of the demands of the opposition on 10 October, (fn. foot-1297m-7) to a promise issued in the name of the Prince Edward on the same day to use his best efforts to get the king to remit his anger against the earls of Norfolk and Hereford (the leaders of the opposition) and their followers plus John de Ferrers and a similar promise of the same date on behalf of all the members of the king's council in England. (fn. foot-1297m-8) On 12 October there followed the promised reissue of Magna Carta and the Forest Charter. (fn. foot-1297m-9) One further concession (made on 16 October) was for the making of a perambulation of the forests. (fn. foot-1297m-10) In return consent was now given (on 14 October) for the levying of a subsidy of a ninth (which replaced the eighth that the king had been attempting to levy since the summer). (fn. foot-1297m-11) Parliament probably ended soon after 16 October.

This parliament also saw some more routine business: conciliar authorisation of the release of an Welshman who had been arrested, for Agnes de Valence to go abroad with her household and for a monk of Whalley to take a sealed box out of the country (on 7 October); (fn. foot-1297m-12) instructions issued on 12 October to the men of Yarmouth to seal the terms of an agreement with the men of the Cinque Ports provided by the king's council and to return it to the council by a month after Michaelmas; (fn. foot-1297m-13) the submission of a petition and its forwarding to the exchequer; (fn. foot-1297m-14) the issuing of an order on 20 October to enquire into the seizure of a tenement held of the archbishop of York by a tenant who had died at the battle of Dunbar on the Scottish side as a preliminary to a request for it to be granted to the archbishop. (fn. foot-1297m-15)

There is no surviving official record of the business done at this parliament.