Pardon Rolls of Edward IV, 1462-1467

2005

The fundamental contention of this study is that the royal prerogative of mercy played a pivotal role in later medieval society, both in influencing the day-today application of the law in the royal courts, and in shaping relations within the political community. In light of the recent neglect by historians of the role of the royal pardon, this study suggests that medieval notions of mercy and grace deserve a more thorough and nuanced appraisal than they have so far received. This thesis deals with several different facets of the royal pardon: its place in the legal system as a safeguard against inequitable judgements at common law; its role in reconciling the polity with the crown at moments of political crisis; and the discussion it provoked among legal theorists, literary authors, jurors and supplicants for mercy. Furthermore, it seeks to develop the study of medieval political culture by examining the role of the royal pardon across a whole range of institutions and models of political thought. Medieval perceptions of pardoning were influenced by legal theory, but also by the dictates of an evolving common law and by the role of patronage and affinity. The aim of this thesis is to examine the whole variety of political principles and practical constraints which shaped attitudes towards prerogative rights such as the royal pardon. This approach not only allows the full importance of this prerogative to be realised, but also, in a broader sense, demonstrates that 'new constitutional history' can usefully be taken forward and adapted for future scholarship. This thesis establishes the central role played by the royal pardon in the life of the medieval English populace, and, in so doing, demonstrates the value of new methodological approaches in pushing forward the boundaries of research into medieval political culture.

2009

The letter of pardon was a document familiar to the king's subjects in the middle ages; imbued with symbolic resonance as the judgement of the monarch, it also served a practical purpose, offering a last hope of reprieve from the death sentence or life as an outlaw. The fourteenth century in particular was a pivotal time of change for the system of English justice, and saw the evolution of a legal structure still recognisable today, yet the role of the royal pardon adapted and endured. This book offers the first comprehensive study of the royal pardon in fourteenth-century England, using evidence drawn from legal and literary texts, parliamentary records, yearbooks, and plea rolls to examine the full influence of royal mercy. Its implications go well beyond legal history, encompassing the major political and constitutional debates of the period, the theological underpinnings of royal mercy, and the social context of the law. Chapters analyse the procedures of pardoning, the role...

Reading Medieval Studies, vol. 40 (Special Issue: Law's Dominion: Medieval Studies for Paul Hyams), 2014

This paper examines the workings of the English royal courts in the thirteenth century through one of their practices—pardoning—and argues that the king and his officials could see courts not just as venues for justice, but also as institutions through which the king could see to the health of his own soul. The royal courts and royal administration of the thirteenth century used the power to pardon to relieve people of many legal penalties, from amercements (what we would today call fines) to the death penalty in felony cases. Scholars who have studied these pardons have tended to use the medieval sources to try to find the rules of pardoning. They have assumed that pardoning followed some kind of legal logic, and that pardons were given to the worthy. Amercement pardons were given to those who could not afford to pay and felony pardons were given to those who were not culpable. This paper looks at pardons that cannot be explained according to this legal logic. It looks at the many pardons “for the sake of the king’s soul,” many of which have nothing to do with the killer’s culpability or the amerced party’s ability to pay and argues that they operated according to a different logic: the logic of alms. Pardons were granted or denied based on their ability to salve the king’s soul, leading to results that appear to be anomalous to us today—such as a blanket pardon for most felons that excludes Jews—but which would have appeared to be logical to people who were accustomed to view the courts not solely as agents of justice, but as extensions of the king’s person.

Medieval Londoners: essays to mark the eightieth birthday of Caroline M. Barron, 2019

In the summer of 1521 a woman named Agnes Cockerel was expelled from her home in the London parish of St. Sepulchre without Newgate.1 Agnes was not the kind of woman that respectable Londoners wanted living on their street. She was described as a prostitute ‘a brothel of her taylle’ (fo. 101) and ‘a crafty dame’ (fo. 100).2 In response, she launched a defamation case at the London Consistory Court. The case provides a rare perspective on the workings of expulsion as a punishment and the wider relationship between reputation and mobility at the end of the middle ages.

The Journal of British Studies, 2010

Applied Economics, 1996

To Þ ne or to punish in the late Middle Ages: a time-series analysis of justice administration in Nivelles, 1424Ð 1536

The present paper will investigate judicial pardons granted to soldiers by the Valois dukes of Burgundy from 1386 to 1477. These powerful princes, who during the first part of the fifteenth century stated their independence vis-à-vis the king of France and unified a vast amount of territories under their authority, also imported the French model of the pardoning procedure. From 1386 to 1477, the chancery records contain more than 700 “remission letters” by which the prince granted his pardon to individuals who committed a crime and petitioned for mercy. This large amount of documents includes almost 15 percent of pardons granted to petitioners who served or had served the dukes in their armies and insisted on their military pasts in their requests. Considering the fact that late medieval military demography never reached such a rate among the global population, it appears that soldiers were largely overrepresented in remission letters. Were they more confrontational and quicker for violence than ordinary people or, as military servants, were they more prompt to seek pardon before the prince? Following the works of Christopher Allmand and Claude Gauvard according to which fifteenth-century leaders undertook to transform their soldiers into professional State agents, it will be argued that military pardons were used by the dukes of Burgundy as a tool of social disciplining. By focusing on the narrative parts of the remission letters, which contained the argumentations of the pardon petitioners used to motive their requests and crimes, this paper will underline the soldiers’ self-identification processes that, together with the coherent pardoning policy of the dukes, led to the shaping of a new military ethos at the end of the Middle Ages. Keywords: Burgundian State; military identity; remission letters; social disciplining; soldiers

1970

This research project was begun seven years ago and, inevitably perhaps, it comes to an end heavily in debt. Such debts as these are never repaid but it is my hope that, like all generous benefactors, its patrons may be satisfied with the author's grateful acknowledgment of their help. I am indebted to three institutions for their support. SomervilLe College which nursed me to a B.A. and encouraged me with the LV. Clarke postgraduate award, Westfield College which gave me a postgraduate scholarship and Bedford College which, by giving me successively a tutorial studentship and fellowship, provided me with the incentive to venture into new fields from which this thesis has greatly benefited. Moreover throughout these years the Institute of Historical Research, with its kind and efficient staff, has always provided a haven where books, tea nd good companionship could be enjoyed together. I learnt much at the seminars held there by Professor Wortnald, Professor Du Boulay and Professor Reddaway, not only of the tools of the historian's craft, but also of the means of di.scussing problems in Common. Without devoted and learned archivists a work such as this would have been impossible. In this respect my greatest debt is to the archivists at Guildhall: Mr. Philip Jones and his assistants Mr. Michael Chandler and Miss Betty Masters in the Record Office, and Dr. Albert Hollaender in the Library. They have all helped me to find material which I might otherwise have missed and to interpret passages which were obscure. To work in their repositories has been one of the greatest pleasures of my researching years, and I value their friendship as highly as their archives. Elsewhere I have also been well served, but my demands have been less wearing and continuous than at Guildball. I abknowledge with gratitude the help given to me by Mr. W. O'Sullivan in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, Mr.

Vi et Armis: Londoners and Violent Trespass Before the Common Pleas in the Fifteenth Century Lindsey McNellis Civil litigation in early fifteenth-century England encompassed a variety of actions, but only one writ covered acts of violence: trespass vi et armis. These writs, all before the central Court of Common Pleas, detail a variety of violent torts, or wrongs, such as housebreaking, theft, imprisonment, abduction, and assault. The Londoners who entered pleadings in this court between 1405 and 1415 have left a fascinating glimpse into both interpersonal violence and the world of savvy litigators. Through a close examination of eighty-two cases, I demonstrate that Londoners were knowledgeable litigants who used the Court of Common Pleas and its procedures to pursue their agendas. However, two facts about the cases before the Court of Common Pleas indicate that plaintiffs had ulterior motives in going to law: cases rarely went to trial, and damages were hardly ever assessed. The narratives crafted by plaintiffs and defendants suggest complex motives which might include establishing property ownership, enforcing arbitration, as well as negotiating concepts of licit and illicit violence. Defendants might argue that certain acts, like violence in self-defense, were considered licit as the violence recreated order from the initial attack. These negotiations occurred not only between people and the crown, through the courts, but also among the people themselves, for example, during arbitration or during jury deliberations. Various layers of negotiations are perhaps best evidenced in the differences between using self-defense in a criminal proceeding and in a civil proceeding. Of particular importance in deciding something like the amount of money to request in damages was the status, occupation, and gender of the defendants. Knowing this information helped litigants assess the economic feasibility of obtaining damages that might have been awarded to them. Violence committed by or against women was, on average, assigned a monetary value that was less than violence by men against men. Similarly, litigants with an occupation or status listed in the records, resulted in damage requests that were twenty percent more than when litigants did not include occupation or status. In the last chapter, I place these eighty-two cases in the broader context of the fifteenth century. I examine a larger set of cases, including these eighty-two cases, statistically over a span of thirty-eight years in the fifteenth century and my findings reinforce the data from the smaller sample set; namely, that gender, occupation, and status influenced the amount of damages requested. This long-term data does hint at a change over time in what society and the courts felt was violence allowed by private parties against each other. As savvy litigants, Londoners would wield narratives of violence that might help their agenda, either as plaintiff or defendant, and they would also know when those narratives needed to match the changing societal concepts of violence. How does one even begin to acknowledge the types of debt incurred while writing a dissertation? Just thinking about all the people who have touched this project and my life over the last seven years doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all the people who have influenced my life; because life doesn't begin when you enter graduate school and it certainly doesn't stop while you're in it. Contemplating what to put here gives me a new appreciation for those award winners (pick one, Tonys, Oscars, Emmys) who get their speeches cut off by the music. Thankfully, I had to give my orchestra the sack during grad school budget cuts-bad for them, good for my long thank you speech. It may seem unorthodox, but I'm going to start with my family and friends. I would not have been able to continue this long journey without the support of my mother, Diane, and my sister, Byrony. We don't say it enough: I love you both. Their faith in my abilities far surpass my own confidence and sometimes I needed that blind faith. Sometimes you also need to be reminded that grad school is only a part of your life. P.S., mom, the movie you're thinking of is Goonies. My father, Michael, continually supported my educational endeavors, and indeed first introduced me to how fascinating history can be. It is sad he didn't live to see this moment. I'm going to single out my dear friend, Jake Ivey, without whom I would never have found my way to West Virginia University. Even though he moved away soon after I arrived, he never stopped supporting my efforts and cheering me on. Along the way, I also gained additional family, both Ph.D. and personal. While I'm still not sure whether to thank Megan for introducing me to her brother, even before I married him, she was a sister to me. Matt, my love, you are a gem among humanity, not only for putting up with me (and because you love me), but also for reminding me that sometimes good things happen in life, sometimes. For the many hours commiserating with me over writing, teaching, researching, and life, and even more the hours of laughter, I want to thank Megan, Cassie, Jennifer, Christine, Lacey, Shanequa, and Nilanjana. My work with the Graduate and Professional Student Senate brought me into contact with great people across the university, who shared in my triumphs and listened to my complaints; I appreciate every one of you, but especially I want to thank Will and v Justin. Constinia Charbonette was not only an unflagging supporter who constantly promoted my endeavors and skills, but also taught me how to be my own championthank you. For the hours working alongside me and cheering me on from around the world, I want to thank my Thrive peeps: Katy, Janet, Emily, Jackie, My-Linh, and Carla. Katy and Michelle, especially, helped me navigate this last year of grad school with solid support and guidance. Even with all of these awesome people guiding and supporting my journey, the dissertation itself would not have happened without the help of WVU's history department and my committee. First, in terms of the department, I want to thank Becky and Martha for always having an answer when I needed it. I would also like to thank Dr. Tamba M'bayo for his gentle guidance and support for my writing and teaching. Additionally, I greatly appreciate Dr. Kim Welch's help during the early stages of this study.

THE REGULAR DELIVERY of the county gaols of Newcastle~pon Tyne, Carlisle and Appleby during the mid-fifteenth century was hindered by a number of factors. The effect of the Wars of the Roses on disorder in late medieval England has long constituted a lively topic of debate, but most historians agree that the period witnessed a general collapse in the maintenance of law and order. 1