Edward I: Summer 1297

1297 Summer

Introduction Summer 1297

Westminster

Summer parliament (?June-July)

In March 1297 it was being planned to hold a parliament at Westminster some time after Easter (14 April). (fn. foot-1297s-1) These plans were evidently later revised. By 16 May the revised plan was that parliament would open around 16 June (the octaves of Trinity). (fn. foot-1297s-2) Although there is at least one reference to the parliament as having been held at Westminster at the quindene of St John the Baptist (on or soon after 8 July), (fn. foot-1297s-3) other evidence suggests that parliament may have been in session before that, from at least 18 June onwards. (fn. foot-1297s-4) This would also fit with the known movements of the king, who was at Westminster from 17 or 18 June. The difficulty cannot be resolved from the writs of summons for none survive from this parliament and perhaps none were issued. (fn. foot-1297s-5) If parliament really did not open until 7 July it would have coincided with the date appointed in the summonses of tenants-in-chief and all twenty-pound landowners for their appearance at London ready for service abroad, and this seems implausible. (fn. foot-1297s-6) Nor is it clear how long this parliament lasted. Parliament was certainly still in session on 22 July when king and council agreed that all who had performed service in the Welsh campaigns of 1277 and 1282 but from whom scutage was being claimed in respect of fees other than those for which the service had been performed were to have a postponement of the demand until the king ordained otherwise. (fn. foot-1297s-7) It may have continued in session till the end of July, when the king left Westminster. It was certainly on 30 July that the assessors and collectors of the lay subsidy supposedly granted the king by barons and knights, burgesses and others were appointed; (fn. foot-1297s-8) and that commissioners were appointed to carry out the scheme apparently devised at this parliament for the pre-emption of wool. (fn. foot-1297s-9)

The main business of the parliament was probably the grant of a subsidy to the king, which was only granted in return for a confirmation of the charters (Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest). (fn. foot-1297s-10) The king's financial needs also gave rise to a scheme probably drawn up here for the pre-emption of wool by the king. (fn. foot-1297s-11) There was probably also some discussion of arrangements for the king's planned absence from the kingdom in Flanders (he left on 23 August following): this may have included a decision that the assembled prelates and magnates should swear fealty to the king's son, Edward, who was to act as regent in his absence, as they did on 14 July at Westminster. (fn. foot-1297s-12) There may also have been some discussion of military matters: the scheme for the release of prisoners awaiting trial for military service in Gascony to be run by the senior royal justices, Roger Brabazon and William de Bereford, for which they were commissioned on 1 July; (fn. foot-1297s-13) the arrangements announced on 12 July for ships from the north of England to be brought to Winchelsea at mid-summer; (fn. foot-1297s-14) the arrangements announced on 30 July for the conditional release of major Scottish captives willing to serve in France. (fn. foot-1297s-15) Parliament seems also to have dealt with more routine matters that required royal attention: the reganting to a son of land his father had lost by default to the king in the 1293-4 Yorkshire eyre; (fn. foot-1297s-16) various matters requiring royal licence; (fn. foot-1297s-17) the petitions and complaints against Henry of Cobham, late warden of the Channel Isles, subsequently referred to master Robert de Leyset. (fn. foot-1297s-18)

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