Catalogue description BUNDLE 8: LIBERTIES AND FRANCHISES

Writs, returns and inquisitions from five enquiries of 1317

Five separate but related enquiries were initiated as a result of a great council summoned, on 23 January 1317, to meet at Clarendon in Wiltshire on 9 February, and which seems to have ended on about 20 February, when the relevant instructions were all issued. Thirteen royal clerks and justices were summoned by name, and the council was intended to discuss the king's claim, through his wife Isabella, to part of France, 'and other great business' touching the king. The writs for all the enquiries were attested 'by king and council'.

Enquiry into the tenure of royal hundreds, bailiwicks and liberties: the writs were issued to the sheriffs of all the counties in England on 20 February 1317 at Clarendon, to hold enquiries into the usurpation of royal rights and liberties.

They were to summon local juries, who were to be asked about 'those who have any royal hundreds, bailiwicks and liberties, for what time they had held them, by what right (qualiter), and in what way', and 'what hundreds, bailiwicks, lands, tenements, rents or liberties have been usurped from the king since his accession, and what suits have been subtracted from him or concealed'.

The resulting inquisitions were to be returned into Chancery before 17 April. Returns to this enquiry have survived for Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Westmorland and Worcestershire; for Middlesex only the return, incorporating the substance of the writ survives (C 47/8/2, no 1).

Enquiry into the usurpation of royal rights: another initiative launched by the council on 20 February 1317 was an enquiry by sheriffs into royal rights in lands, rents, hundreds, liberties and suits withdrawn, usurped or occupied to the prejudice and disinheritance of the crown. These likewise were to be returned into Chancery before 17 April. Little apparently came of it in some counties. For example, the writ to the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk was returned endorsed to the effect that it had not been received in Norwich until 2 April, so there was insufficient time to make a return (C 47/8/2, no 3).

However, there are twelve Gloucestershire returns (C 47/8/1, nos 16-27) and seven for Herefordshire (C 47/8/1, nos 29-35), which in both cases follow the writs for their respective counties. The Berkshire and Oxfordshire returns to the enquiry first mentioned, in file 3, seem to have served also for this one. For Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire the writ alone survives.

Enquiry into illegal prises by royal ministers: on 20 February 1317 an enquiry into prises taken contrary to the articles of the statute of Westminster II, 1275 , was initiated throughout England. Commissioners were appointed to take inquests from local juries concerning ministers of the crown and others who had taken corn, victuals and other goods from clerics and laymen both in market towns and elsewhere, and who had commandeered horses, oxen, wagons, carts, ships or boats to transport them.

The inquests were to be returned without delay; subsequently an order of 14 March required them to be returned into Chancery by 17 April.

There are a number of returns to the enquiry from Norfolk and Suffolk, where the chief commissioner was the royal justice William of Ormesby, assisted by John de Thorpe and John de Fressingfield (C 47/8/2, nos 4-31, no 31 being the original commission and no 21 being the subsequent instruction to the commissioners, dated 14 March 1317 at Winchester). File 2 overwhelmingly consists of returns to this enquiry; none apparently survives for counties other than Norfolk and Suffolk.

Enquiry into resistance and disobedience to ministers: this was a series of enquiries to certify the king of the names of those who had resisted his ministers in levying debts due to him, and the nature of their resistance. The writs were issued to all the English sheriffs at Clarendon on 20 February 1317, with instructions that all the inquisitions were to be returned into Chancery before the following quindene of Easter (17 April 1317).

Writs and/or returns survive for Herefordshire (C 47/8/1, nos 36-39) (all negative), Norfolk and Suffolk (C 47/8/2, no 2), Berkshire (C 47/8/3, nos 4-6, 9-10, 15-16), Oxfordshire (3, nos 19, 25, 27-31), Rutland (3, nos 32-33), Westmoreland, Warwickshire and Leicestershire (3, at the end). The writ to the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk was returned endorsed to the effect that it had not been received in Norwich until 2 April, so there was insufficient time to make a return (C 47/8/2, no 2).

Resistance to the collectors and taxers of the sixteenth: two returns only survive for an enquiry also initiated by instructions issued at Clarendon on 20 February 1317 to taxers and collectors in each county of the sixteenth granted at the Lincoln parliament of 1316 concerning those making any resistance or impediment to them in their work.

They were to make returns concerning the matter by the quindene of Easter (17 April) at the latest, and were to receive assistance from sheriffs if necessary. There are a writ and return for Berkshire, in which the collectors mentioned no resistance but noted that they would not be able to keep to their payment terms 'propter generalem inopiam communitatis comitatui predicti' (C 47/8/3, nos 1-2), and a writ alone for Sussex (C 47/8/3, no 25), but endorsed briefly to the effect that no resistance had been encountered.

The subseries also includes three unrelated documents concerning Newcastle upon Tyne (C 47/8/2, nos 33-35)