The rule of John of Northwold is of particular importance in the abbey’s history because it coincided with the period of Edward I’s greatest reforming and legislative activity. Edward’s reforms and legislation posed a challenge to the privileges enjoyed by franchise holders. The responsibility for defending the liberties of St Edmunds, one of the most highly privileged franchises in the land, fell to Abbot John. His consequent struggle reached a crisis, as will be seen, in the parliament of 1290. Abbot John’s register is lost, but what information survives about its contents shows both that it was a very substantial volume, and that its main concern was the maintenance of the abbey’s privileges and titles to various estates. When John of Northwold went to Rome in 1279 for the confirmation of his election, he also obtained Pope Nicholas III’s confirmation, dated 20 September, of all the ‘liberties and immunities’ granted to the abbey by previous popes. On 22 September Nicholas also granted that any ‘privileges and indulgences’ which the abbot and convent had not used should nevertheless remain in force, and he issued two further bulls strengthening the authority of the abbot and convent to enforce their rights against those who usurped or opposed them. Like his predecessors, Abbot John also obtained royal confirmation of St Edmunds’ liberties early in his abbacy. Edward confirmed them on 16 November 1281. It should be noted that on the same day, at the instance of the prior and convent, Edward confirmed the division of conventual property from the abbot’s barony. Only thus armed with these papal and royal confirmations could Abbot John hope to resist royal encroachments on St Edmunds’ liberties successfully.

Edward’s aggressive policy towards private franchises was, as is well known, a result of both the need for money and the desire for reform. It brought him into conflict with St Edmunds, as it did with many other liberty holders. Whether he was ignorant of the exact nature of St Edmunds’ privileges or merely high-handed (or both) is hard to say. Abbot John’s disputes with the crown began well before the 1290 crisis. During Edward’s recoinage of 1279/80, a dispute had stemmed from the abbot’s and sacrist’s insistence that the mint remained operative, with one of their motives undoubtedly being the desire to maintain Bury St Edmunds’ importance as a centre of trade.