Edward I: Easter 1277

1277 Easter

Introduction Easter 1277

Westminster

Easter parliament (April-May)

Despite the preparations being made for a Welsh campaign later in the year the king and his advisers went ahead with their plans for one of the regular twice yearly parliaments at Westminster after Easter. (fn. e1277-foot-1) In early February it was apparently planned that it would be in session by three weeks after Easter (the week beginning 25 April). (fn. e1277-foot-2) It may indeed have been about then that the session actually opened for the king reached Westminster on 24 April. The only securely dated evidence relating to this parliament is the record of the submission of the bishop of Exeter and the abbot of Forde to the award of mediators made in parliament at Westminster on the Saturday before the Invention of the Cross (1 May). (fn. e1277-foot-3) The award made by those mediators at Westminster on 5 May was presumably also made during the course of the session. (fn. e1277-foot-4) It seems likely that the king's arbitration award of 8 May between the barons of the Cinque Ports and the men of Great Yarmouth was also pronounced in parliament. (fn. e1277-foot-5) Parliament was presumably over by 18 May when the king left Westminster. This chronology would also fit the cluster of royal charters issued between 28 April and 14 May. (fn. e1277-foot-6)

There is no surviving official record of the business done at this parliament. It was probably at this session, however, that an ordinance was made arranging for the suspension of litigation during the summer while the Welsh expedition was taking place and authorising the transfer of the Westminster-based institutions to Shrewsbury as from Michaelmas term 1277. (fn. e1277-foot-7) The measures against Flemish merchants issued on 23 May may also have been determined on at this session. (fn. e1277-foot-8) A definitive ruling was given by the king's council at this parliament as to the interpretation of chapter 4 of the statute of Merton in the context of the legal difficulties raised by a specific Cumberland assize of novel disseisin. (fn. e1277-foot-9) It was probably also at this parliament that the prior of Monks Kirkby made a complaint to the king about the judgment which had just been given against him in his suit against the abbot of Pipewell in the Common Bench at the quindene of Easter 1277 and the king called all the justices of the court before himself and his council and master Roger of Seaton, the court's chief justice, gave a verbal report on the process which had led to the judgment which led to a reconsideration of that judgment the following term. (fn. e1277-foot-10)