Category: 14th Century - Meandering Through Time

The Treaties of Berwick

25/2/2018

The town of Berwick stands on the banks of the River Tweed in Northumberland. Historically, its position proved useful as it is situated on the border between England and Scotland, and because of this it has seen its share of both war and peace. Because of its situation, its governance has been the responsibility of both countries on numerous occasions.

In 1357 a treaty was signed here, the first of five Treaties of Berwick, this particular treaty, between King Edward III of England and David II of Scotland, brought to an end Scotland's second attempt at independence.

In 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, when Henry VI's wife Margaret of Anjou had fled to Scotland she negotiated a deal with the recently widowed Mary of Guelders over the town in return for help with her Lancastrian cause. When all the papers are signed Berwick upon Tweed became part of Scotland, and it was not until the August of 1482 that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III retook the town and returned it to England.

A second treaty, signed in 1526, was issued in order to keep the peace between warring factions on the English/Scottish border.

A third, signed on this day in 1560 saw the completion of yet another Treaty of Berwick. This treaty was Elizabeth I's efforts to give some protection to those who practiced Protestantism in Scotland. The document was signed for and on behalf of the queen by Thomas Howard the Duke of Norfolk. The agreement was in respect of an alliance with Scottish nobles who were opposed to the regency of Mary of Guise, the widow of James V of Scotland, who had retained a French army for her protection. The treaty allowed English forces to enter Scotland and expel these French troops and it would be the first time in history that the English and Scottish fought together against a common foe rather than against each another.

There would be two more signing of treaties at Berwick, one in 1586 following an agreement between Elizabeth I and Mary of Guise's grandson King James VI and another in 1639 that ended the First Bishops War.

St Scholastica’s Day riot.

9/2/2018

On the 10th February 1355 an argument over the quality of the beer in an Oxford tavern would descend into violence resulting in a two day street battle that cost the lives of over one hundred people.

John de Bereford, the landlord of the Swyndlestock Tavern and also Oxford's mayor, complained that three men (two students, Walter Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield and a priest) used “stubborn and saucy language” when voicing their complaint. The angry student threw a 'quart pot' at the landlord's head resulting in the three being evicted.

This altercation would be known as the St Scholastica’s Day riot.

Eventually there was quiet on Oxford's streets and following Edward III's investigation the case was settled in favour of the University. The rioters were punished, John de Bereford was made to walk bareheaded through the streets, attend a Mass for the souls of the dead and swear a oath once a year to 'observe the University's privileges' this included an annual fine of 63 pence.

What happened to the student's and the priest there is no mention.

Every mayor of Oxford for the following 470 years was forced to face this humiliating punishment until 1825, when the mayor refused to take part. And quite right too!

A bank now stands on the site of the tavern.

Marriage of Edward III to Philippa of Hainault

24/1/2018

On this day in 1328, King Edward III of England married Philippa of Hainault at York Minster, just eleven months after Edward had become king of England.

Edward's father, King Edward II had sent the Bishop of Exeter to Hainaut to check out the four daughters of William, Count of Hainaut. In a letter to the king the Bishop writes of his impression of the fourteen-year-old Philippa. In the letter, he describes her as a child but it has been argued that the description is of Philippa's older sister Margaret.

A description of Philippa can be found the register of the Bishop of Exeter which reads:

"The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is clean-shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than her forehead. Her eyes are blackish-brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that it is somewhat broad at the tip and also flattened, and yet it is no snub-nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full, and especially the lower lip. Her teeth which have fallen and grown again are white enough, but the rest are not so white. The lower teeth project a little beyond the upper, yet this is but little seen. Her ears and chin are comely enough. Her neck, shoulders, and all her body are well set and unmaimed; and nought is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father; and in all things, she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us. And the damsel will be of the age of nine years on St. John's day next to come, as her mother saith. She is neither too tall nor too short for such an age; she is of fair carriage, and well taught in all that becometh her rank, and highly esteemed and well beloved of her father and mother and of all her meinie, in so far as we could inquire and learn the truth."

Phillipa and Edward were married for forty years, she gave Edward thirteen children, three of them of her children died as a result of the Black Death in 1348.

Battle of Radcot Bridge

18/12/2017

Radcot Bridge is the first bridge over the River Thames as it enters the county of Oxfordshire, it is also reputed to be the oldest bridge on the river. The Patent Rolls in the reign of King John state

'Sciatis nos recepisse in custodiam et protectionem nostram fratrem Aylwin qui reperacionem pontis de Redeot
suscepit et homines et res suas'.'

"Know that we have received in the custody and protection for our brother Aylwin, who took Redeot
reperacions (?) the bridge of the people and their property"

In the history of medieval warfare, this ancient crossing of the Thames has been mentioned twice.

One incident that took place in 1645 was a civil war skirmish, the Royalist vanguard of Lord George Goring, who was on an order to join Charles I's troops at Oxford, came across a small parliamentary force scouting the area for a place to cross the Thames which resulted in the bridge coming under the control of the Royalist party. The first and not dissimilar skirmish took place in the December of 1387 when the Royalist forces of the Earl of Oxford were defeated by the army under the command of the Lords Appellant.

The crisis that had come to a head at Radcot Bridge had really begun ten years previous when ten year old Richard of Bordeaux had become King Richard II. At the centre of the troubles was Richard's reliance on favourites - a group of young nobles of his own age, two of which would find themselves on opposing sides, they were Robert de Vere, who would lead the royalist forces at Radcot Bridge and Thomas Mowbray who would be one of the five members of the Lords Appellant. Mowbray, of course, would eventually feel the wrath of the king years later, however, Richard would stay loyal to Robert de Vere.

Robert de Vere, the 9th Earl of Oxford had received the Earldom when he was nine years old, and it is easy to see why the two boys formed a friendship, their fates were linked by the loss of their fathers and the sudden 'gift' of money and power- all the things that can lead the young astray. In the year of Richard's ascension to the throne, Robert de Vere was knighted along with the king, Henry, the Earl of Derby, the future Henry IV and Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock. As the days of Richard's minority turned into years, resentment and anger in court was building, Richard resented his ambitious uncle John of Gaunt, and his favourites envied Gaunt's power and status - it has been suggested that Robert de Vere was the ringleader of a plot to murder Gaunt. Robert de Vere benefited greatly from his friendship with the king he was given his own rooms in Richard's castles, granted estates, gifts and other nobles' inheritances. He was also given the title Marquess of Dublin, yet he never set foot in Ireland.

At the royal table, favourite Robert de Vere can be seen sitting on the right of Richard II

By the end of 1387 the Lords Appellant had Robert de Vere at the top of their list of traitors, however, it was not just the king's younger friends who were targeted, Richard's Chancellor, Micheal de la Pole, was second on that list.

Pole owed his place in Richard's court to his father William, who had supplied ships and lent money to Richard's grandfather Edward III. William de la Pole didn't benefit greatly from the association with the royal family but Michael did, he was placed in Richard's court to advise but was really manipulated by the charismatic young king. He too was rewarded by, but found himself on the wrong side at the wrong time - a family trait it seems.

By December, the Lord Appellant numbered five their case against Richard's favourites ended in a charge of treason. Michael de la Pole was impeached, but despite Richard's involvement he was forced to flee to France, however, Robert De Vere, with more bravado than military experience, stood his ground.

Fosse Way heading away from Stow on the Wolds

Robert de Vere raised an army of about five thousand men, they headed for Northampton but their way was blocked, he was forced to take another route along the Fosse Way to Stow on the Wold. In the third week of December he had reached Radcot Bridge, but at this crossing over the Thames he was intercepted by the small force of Henry Bolingbroke, who in order to impede de Vere's progress broke the central navigation arch - a grant of pontage (a toll raised for repair to buildings and bridges) was issued in 1393 to repair the damage. At this point suggested 14th century chronicler Thomas Walsingham, de Vere nearly turned tail and ran but was 'encouraged' to continue with the fight by his men. It was Walsingham who also suggested that de Vere was homosexual. Robert de Vere's force was encircled and after a short clash of weapons he was quick to realise the danger of his position, he soon abandoned his men, leaving many of them to the mercy of their enemy and made his cowardly escape by crossing the river, supposedly in disguise, and headed to the Netherlands.

A year later, in what has come to be known as the Merciless Parliament he was found guilty of treason and a death sentence was passed in his absence.

Robert de Vere spent the rest of his life in exile, thus avoiding the executioner's blade. He died in 1392, leaving Richard II bereft.

Death of John of Eltham

12/9/2017

This magnificent tomb of John of Elham stands in Westminster Abbey.

You can see parts of the tomb in detail in the drawing below, also in the second image you can see John's armour and his a sword, and on his shield you can see his coat of arms. The lion at his feet symbolises strength and loyalty and John was certainly loyal to his brother King Edward III and Edward, who was greatly impressed by John's many of actions, returned the favour by creating this magnificent tomb in his honour.

John of Eltham, the second son of Edward II and Isabella of France was named after the place he was born, that is the original 'palace' of Eltham in Greenwich. In 1328 John was given the title of Earl of Cornwall by Edward and a year later was considered competent enough to act as regent while the king was in France.

John was made Warden of March of Scotland in 1335, it was while he was in Scotland that he died on this day in 1336, he was just twenty years old.

John of Etham's body was not interred at Westminster Abbey until the second week of January the following year.

Blanche of Lancaster

12/9/2017

Blanche of Lancaster was just twenty-three when she died this day in 1368. She was the first wife of John of Gaunt the son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault.

Blanche is said to have died of the plague that had ravaged the country that year. This was the plague's third appearance since it first arrived on English shores twenty years earlier. The previous outbreak in 1361, according to Henry Knighton an Augustinian canon of the abbey of St Mary of the Meadows in Leicester, had

'a general mortality oppressed the people. It was called the second pestilence and both rich
and poor died, but especially young people and children.'

The Leicestershire outbreak cost Blanche's parents their lives. In Lincolnshire that year there was an outbreak in Louth, a town just fifteen miles north of Bolingbroke Castle, where Blanche had given birth to Henry, the future Henry IV.

By 1368 Blanche was weakened by childbirth and susceptible to infection, she was therefore 'ripe for the picking' so to speak.

Blanche had given birth to a daughter in 1368 who died as an infant, it is plausible that Blanche may have died in childbirth her poor body weakened from the years of constant pregnancy. She was married at twelve/thirteen, had her first baby nine months later and was pregnant with another child before her body had chance to recover from the last until the aforementioned daughter born in 1368. Blanche died in Staffordshire where there was a recorded outbreak in 1369 which may have taken the life of her last child, it is not unreasonable to suppose the 'black death' took poor Blanche too.

French author Jean Froissart wrote that Blanche was 'young and pretty' even Geoffrey Chaucer was so inspired by her beauty that he wrote of her in his work The Book of the Duchess.

Blanche's body was laid to rest in Old St Paul's Cathedral in London, where Gaunt later joined her. Their tomb was destroyed by fire when the cathedral burnt down in 1666.

Note: Blanche's maternal aunt was Eleanor of Lancaster. Eleanor's first husband, John de Beaumont was also Blanche's paternal uncle.
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/eleanor-of-lancaster

Note: What is interesting is that both Blanche and Eleanor dates of death are one day off being exactly fifty years apart.

Eleanor of Lancaster

11/9/2017

The 11th of September 1318 saw the birth of Eleanor of Lancaster at Grosmont Castle in Wales. Eleanor was the wife of Richard Fitzalan, the daughter of Henry of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth, great granddaughter of Henry III, and my 20th great grandmother.

Eleanor was in the service of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault. She may have accompanied Philippa to Scotland and in the first years of her marriage she was with the queen in Europe in her capacity as Philippa's lady in waiting. It was while she was with the queen in Ghent that Eleanor gave birth to her first child, Henry. Her marriage to Henry's father, John de Beaumont, had ended with his death in a tournament in the spring of 1342, leaving her with Henry who was just two years old.

Eleanor second marriage, two years later, was to my direct ancestor Richard Fitzalan, which was a love match I believe. With Fitzalan she gave birth to seven children, the second, John, being the next in my family line.

Richard's, Eleanor's eldest child and heir to the earldom of Arundel, claim to fame, apart from carrying the crown of England at the coronation of Richard II, was his membership of the Lords Appellant, a group of men who disagreed with Richard's rule and his reliance on favorites - Fitzalan would lose his head over it. Thankfully Eleanor was long gone by that time as was Richard.

The proof of the love between Eleanor and her husband defies time and lies in the request Richard Fitzalan made in his will -

"near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no
men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches...
as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed."

Battle of Crecy

25/8/2017

Today in 1346, at Crecy-en-Ponthieu in northern France, a battle was fought that historians argue was the most important battle of the Hundred Years war.

Dr Ian Mortimer wrote of Crecy:

"In July 1346 Edward landed at St Vaast-la-Hogue with about twelve thousand men and proceeded to fight his way across Normandy. He knew that a French army, when it gathered, was bound to outnumber him; but he knew that if he could force the French men-at-arms to charge uphill within range of his carefully arranged archers, he would be able to destroy them with the minimum of actual hand-to-hand fighting. Edward’s victory over the French at Crécy on 26 August 1346 astounded all of Christendom. It was doubly astonishing, for it was not just unexpected, it had obviously been carefully planned. Edward had achieved a military superiority over all his enemies. In later campaigns in France and Scotland in the 1350s he sought to repeat his success; he was never defeated."

An account of the Battle of Crecy, was written by a Colins de Beaumont, who may have been a witness to the battle. The poem is in the form of a dream where soldiers mourn the deaths of the fallen and recall their heroic deeds.

There I saw cast in the middle of the floor
Many a ragged standard
And many a defouled coat,
And many a shield so shattered and so scratched
That no colour nor hue appeared upon them
Ah, Lord! I was so anguished
That I was seeing so many insignia there
And none that I could recognize,
Whether it were a little pennant or a standard,
A shield, a surcoat, or a pommel ornament:
All were dismantled and all were broken.

Colins de Beaumont “On the Crecy Dead”

The Peasants Revolt Begins

13/6/2017

It was on the 12/13th June in 1381 that over 100,000 peasants marched to London, headed by one Wat Tyler, in the hope that government and their king would listen to their grievances.

Between the years 1348 and 1350 thousands of men, women and children had died due to what we now call the Black Death. Just over thirty years later in 1381, England had still not recovered, workers were few, jobs were many, the treasury was empty and in an effort to counter this taxation was increased.

This new tax angered the poor, for they had come to enjoy their 'freedom' and to a certain extent they had gained the ability to control their own lives.

In 1380, to rectify the situation, a poll tax to raise money to help England financial situation was introduced that would initially result in the nonpayment of taxes but escalate into violence and death.

The seeds of this revolt were set just a month previous, you can read about that here

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/john-bampton-and-the-events-of-may-1381

Sir John Wingfield

4/6/2017

The county of Suffolk lies on the east coast of England and only has minor A and B roads but no motorway system, therefore the small village of Wingfield can only be found by ambling along the counties high hedged, long windy thoroughfares that cut between Halesworth and Eye, two of Suffolk's bigger villages.

Wingfield, in its prime, was the home of one of the most powerful families in late medieval England, the De La Poles, Earls and Dukes of Suffolk. It was the De La Poles, who in 1384 applied for a royal permit, to castellate Wingfield Castle. This 'castle' actually isn't a castle at all, its rather a cross between a 'feudal fortress and the ordinary moated manor house.' Wingfield owes its name to Sir John Wingfield who was responsible for the founding of two other building in the village, Wingfield College founded in 1362 and its church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew. It is within this church that the tomb of Sir John Wingfield can be found.

In 1351 Sir John Wingfield was in the pay of Edward the Black Prince as his chief administrator, he was also directly responsible for the princes private affairs. He and his brothers had fought at Crecy, they also fought in Normandy between 1347 and 1348. At Poitiers Wingfield had captured a French knight name D'Aubigny who was the French kings body guard, Edward III quickly purchased him from Wingfield for over eight hundred pounds, using D'Aubigny it as political leverage.

Sir John Wingfield died of the black death in 1361. His only child was a daughter named Catherine, she had married Micheal de la Pole 1st Earl of Suffolk. It was Catherine's descendants who went on to become key players in the political life of the next two centuries.