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King John, the Braoses, and the Celtic Fringe, 1207–1216

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2017

Brock W. Holden
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Extract

In 1210, King John led to Ireland an army that consisted of the feudal levy of England, mercenary knights from Flanders, and a large force of Serjeants and crossbowmen, supported in the course of the campaign by some seven hundred ships. Money paid out for the ships totalled over £3,800, while wages for the crossbowmen and Serjeants topped £2,380. The 1210 Irish expedition was an impressive operation and showed Angevin government at its most effective. Modern historians, needless to say, have been impressed by the organisation and scale of the undertaking. What makes John’s Irish campaign not only impressive but terrifying was that, in one sense, it was all done to hunt down one man and his family.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , Spring 2001 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 2001

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Footnotes

*

This article was first read as a paper to the Medieval Seminar in Oxford, the NACBS Conference in Colorado Springs, and the Late Medieval Seminar in the Institute for Historical Research in London. The author would like to thank Professor R. R. Davies, Professor Ralph Turner, Dr. David Carpenter, Dr. Paul Brand, and especially Dr. Nicholas Vincent for their comments.

References

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24 Although J. C. Holt notes that Wendover’s account of a general demand for hostages seems muddled’ and is supported by little evidence (Holt, Magna Carta, 2nd ed. [Cambridge, 1992], p. 82 n.35).

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55 I owe this observation to Dr. Paul Brand.

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57 Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, p. 168.

58 Rot. Litt. Claus., 1: 189b, an order to all sheriffs to take up sufficient pledges to cover Giles’ fine.

59 Rot. Litt. Pat., p. 141.

60 Ibid., p. 151. Writs were sent to William Marshal concerning Swansea Castle in Gower, Henry de Tracy for Barnstaple Castle and Henry fitz Count for Totnes Castle, the latter two being the centers of the Braose estates in the West Country.

61 For a discussion of the casus regis, see Holt, J. C., “The Casus Regis: The Law and Politics of Succession in the Plantagenet Dominions, 1185–1247,” in Law in Mediaeval Life and Thought, ed. King, Edward B. and Ridyard, Susan J. (Sewanee, Tennessee, 1990), pp. 21–42.Google Scholar

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64 Ibid., pp. 102, 108b.

65 Nicholas Vincent commented to this author that had William the younger been demanded as a hostage after having taken the homage of his men, such a demand would have effectively been an order for his arrest. This does not fit with the pattern of John’s hostage-taking, but the Braose quarrel was in many respects sui generis.

66 Brut y Tywysogyon (Peniarth MS. 20 version), ed. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1941), p. 83, s.a. 1210 (hereafter cited as Brut).

67 Rot. Litt. Pat., p. 80.

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70 Holt, The Northerners, p. 225.

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77 Rot. Litt. Pat., p. 88. Salisbury was himself recovering from a period of royal suspicion and disfavor which coincided with the first moves against Braose, see Holden, “Balance of Patronage,” p. 85.

78 For Builth, erected by Engelard de Cigogne, see Brut, p. 84; Aberystwyth, Margam annals, p. 31.

79 For the treatment of hostages in Ireland, see above p. 7 and n. 36.

80 Henry II and hostages, Brut, pp. 64–65; for John and Welsh hostages, see the discussion in Rowlands, “King John and Wales,” pp. 280–81. The hanging of the young Welsh boy at Shrewsbury is in Brut, p. 86.

81 Rot. Litt. Pat., p. 86b (royal ratification of the agreement dated 21 Sept.). Although witnessed by Peter des Roches bishop of Winchester, in the presence of the bishop of Bath and William Briwerre rather than the king, John had been in the area recently. He had been at Hereford on 26 June, was at Worcester 1–3 July, and was at Tewkesbury on 3 October followed by Shrewsbury 8–9 October. Although his servants carried on the negotiations with the Braose tenants, John made visits to the region numerous times in 1208, eleven times from March to October 1208, for a total of 23 days.

82 Walter de Clifford junior (4 fees), William de Waldeboef (3), William de Gamages (1), Ralph Torel (1), Richard de Pauncefoot (1), William des Furches (1), Pain de Burghill (1), Walter Devereux (1/2) and Roger de la Zouche (1/2), 13 out of 32 fees listed in 1211, RBE, 2: 601; Rotuli de Liberate ac de Misi et Praestitis Regnante Johanne, ed. T. D. Hardy (Record Commission, 1844), pp. 177–225 passim.

83 Pipe Roll 12 John, p. 147.

84 For the splitting of the Marshal affinity, see Crouch, David, William Marshal: Court, Career and Chivalry in the Angevin Empire 1147–1219 (London, 1990), p. 98.Google Scholar

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88 RBE, 2: 601.

89 Holt, The Northerners, p. 81 and n. 1.

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92 Rot. Litt. Claus., p. 147.

93 Walter in France, Rot. Litt. Pat., pp. 112, 113b.

94 Ibid., pp. 191, 132b.

95 Rot. Litt. Pat., p. 199b.