Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:11:55.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE PLEA ROLLS OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS: AN UNUSED SOURCE FOR THE ART AND HISTORY OF LATER MEDIEVAL ENGLAND, 1422–1509

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2015

Elizabeth A Danbury  and
Kathleen L Scott
Elizabeth A Danbury
Affiliation:
Institute of English Studies, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. Email: [email protected]
Kathleen L Scott
Affiliation:
9002 Candlewood Drive, Knoxville, TN 37923, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The court of Common Pleas was one of the most important courts in the English legal system for more than 600 years, until its abolition by Act of Parliament in 1873. The cases heard before this royal court were civil disputes between the king’s subjects, often relating to land, inheritance and debts. The purpose of this paper is to introduce readers to the ornament and imagery that appeared on the headings of the main records of the court of Common Pleas between 1422 and 1509 and to explore the origins and contemporary context of the images and representations employed by the clerk-artists who wrote and decorated these headings. The decoration they chose ranged from simple ornament to representations of plants, birds, animals and people. Great emphasis was placed on the role of the sovereign as the fount of justice, and this emphasis was reinforced by the incorporation of words and phrases, acclamations and verses from the Psalms chosen to underline the majesty and power of successive monarchs. The illustrations provide an important insight into the art, history and politics of late fifteenth-century England.

Résumé

La Court of Common Pleas (Cour des plaids-communs) demeura l’une des principales cours de justice anglaises pendant plus de 600 ans, jusqu’à son abolition par une loi votée par le Parlement en 1873. Les affaires portées devant ce tribunal royal concernaient les conflits opposant les sujets du roi, souvent dans les domaines de la propriété foncière, des successions et des dettes. Le présent article présente au lecteur l’ornementation et les images apparaissant sur les titres des principaux procès-verbaux de la Court of Common Pleas entre 1422 et 1509 et étudie les origines et le contexte contemporain des images et représentations employées par les clercs-artistes chargés d’inscrire et de décorer ces titres. La décoration choisie varie d’une simple ornementation à la représentation de végétaux, d’oiseaux, d’animaux et de personnes. Elle mett fortement l’accent sur le rôle du souverain en tant que source de la justice, accent renforcé par l’ajout de mots et d’expressions, d’acclamations et de versets tirés des Psaumes, choisis pour souligner la majesté et le pouvoir des monarques successifs. Ces illustrations fournissent un aperçu important de l’art, de l’histoire et de la politique de l’Angleterre à la fin du XVe siècle.

Zusammenfassung

Das Court of Common Pleas (Gericht für allgemeine Angelegenheiten) war bis zu seiner Aufhebung durch ein vom Parlament beschlossenes Gesetz im Jahre 1873 über mehr als 600 Jahre hin einer der wichtigsten Gerichtshöfe im englischen Rechtssystem. Bei den von diesem königlichen Gerichtshof behandelten Fällen handelte es sich um Zivilstreitigkeiten zwischen den königlichen Untertanen und zwar zumeist in Bezug auf Grundbesitz, Erbschaften und Schulden. Zweck dieser Abhandlung ist es, die Leser mit der Ornamentik und Bildsprache bekannt zu machen, die im Kopf wichtiger Gerichtsakten des Court of Common Pleas zwischen 1422 und 1509 zu sehen sind, sowie die Ursprünge und den zeitgenössischen Kontext der Bilder und Darstellungen zu untersuchen, die von den künstlerischen Gerichtsschreibern, die diese Überschriften schrieben und ausschmückten, verwendet wurden. Die von ihnen gewählten Dekorationen erstreckten sich von einfachen Ornamenten bis hin zu Darstellungen von Pflanzen, Vögeln, Tieren und Menschen.

Besondere Bedeutung wurde dabei der Rolle des Monarchen als Quelle allen Rechts beigemessen und diese Bedeutung wurde noch durch die Aufnahme von Wörtern und Phrasen, Akklamationen und Versen aus den Psalmen verstärkt, die gewählt wurden, um die Majestät und Macht des jeweiligen Monarchen zu unterstreichen. Die Illustrationen vermitteln einen wichtigen Einblick in die Kunst, Geschichte und Politik des ausgehenden 15. Jahrhunderts in England.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 95 , September 2015 , pp. 157 - 210
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Manuscript sources

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, ms 79Google Scholar
Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, Calligraphy Book 1, fragment 56Google Scholar
Cambridge, Trinity College, ms B.11.7Google Scholar
Cambridge, University Library, ms Dd.3.52Google Scholar
Dublin, Trinity College, ms 170Google Scholar
Eton, Eton College Library, ms 213Google Scholar
Kew, The National Archives: CP40/647, 649, 652, 653, 654, 657, 660, 661, 680, 685, 689, 691, 692, 693, 695, 699, 703, 706, 707, 710, 713, 734, 735, 738, 739, 740, 742, 743, 757, 758, 762, 764, 767, 769, 770, 771, 774, 776, 778, 781, 782, 783, 784, 785, 786, 787, 788, 789, 790, 792, 793, 795, 796, 797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 811, 812, 813, 817, 818, 819, 820, 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829, 830, 831, 832, 834, 835, 836, 837, 839, 841, 843, 844, 845, 849, 852, 853, 855, 856, 857, 858, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865, 867, 868, 869, 870, 871, 872, 873, 874, 875, 876, 877, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 883, 884, 885A, 885B, 886, 888, 890, 892, 893, 894, 895, 896, 897, 898, 900, 901, 901/1, 904, 905, 913, 914, 917, 925, 926, 928, 929, 931, 935, 936, 937, 941, 943, 947, 949, 952, 966, 967, 968, 969, 972 and 973KB27/796, 798, 902/2, 963 and 997Křivoklát, Castle Library, ms I.b.23Google Scholar
London, British Library: Add mss 10019, 17358, 22720, 29704–29705, 40009, 40742, 44892, 57534, 62534, 88887mss Egerton 2899, 3307mss Harley 210, 2278, 3244, 7184mss Sloane 346, 1448AGoogle Scholar
London, British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, woodcuts 1947,0724.8, B10.15Google Scholar
London, Inner Temple Library, ms Selby-Lowndes 188Google Scholar
London, National Art Library, MSL/1937/2090Google Scholar
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, ms Reid 42Google Scholar
London, Worshipful Company of Skinners, Fraternity Book of Our Lady’s Assumption, fol 32vGoogle Scholar
Manchester, Rylands / University Library, ms Lat. 24Google Scholar
New York, Pierpont-Morgan Library, mss 775, Glazier 9Google Scholar
Oxford, Bodleian Library, mss Bodley 361, Douce 159Google Scholar
Oxford, Corpus Christi College, ms 161Google Scholar
Oxford, Magdalen College, ms Lat. 103Google Scholar

Published sources

Alexander, J J G 1978. ‘Scribes as artists: the arabesque initial in twelfth-century English manuscripts’, in M B Parkes and A G Watson (eds), Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries: essays presented to N R Ker, 87–116, Scolar Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Alexander, J J G 1992. Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work, Yale University Press, New Haven and LondonGoogle Scholar
Auerbach, E 1954. Tudor Artists: a study of painters in the royal service and of portraiture on illuminated documents from the accession of Henry VIII to the death of Elizabeth, Athlone Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Backhouse, J 1975. ‘An illuminator’s sketchbook’, British Library J, 1, 3–14Google Scholar
Baker, J H 1985. English Legal Manuscripts in the United States of America: a descriptive list. Part I: Medieval and Renaissance Period (to 1558), Selden Society, LondonGoogle Scholar
Baker, J H 2002. An Introduction to English Legal History, 4th edn, Butterworths, LondonGoogle Scholar
Baker, J H 2004. ‘Bryan, Sir Thomas (d. 1500)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition, <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49667> (20 June 2015)+(20+June+2015)>Google Scholar
Baker, J H 2012. The Men of Court 1440 to 1550: a prosopography of the Inns of Court and Chancery and the Courts of Law, 2 vols, Selden Society, LondonGoogle Scholar
Baker, J H and Ringrose, J S 1996. Catalogue of English Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library, Boydell, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Bale, A 2010. The Jew in the Medieval Book. English Antisemitisms 1350–1500, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Beadle, R 2008. ‘Sir John Fastolf’s French Books’, in G D Caie and D Renevey (eds), Medieval Texts in Context, 96–112, Routledge, Abingdon and New YorkGoogle Scholar
Binski, P and Zutshi, P 2011. Western Illuminated Manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Bodleian 1970. Duke Humfrey and English Humanism in the Fifteenth Century, Bodleian Library, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Bovey, A 2002. Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts, University of Toronto Press and the British Library, Toronto and LondonGoogle Scholar
Brand, P 1992a. The Origins of the English Legal Profession, Blackwell, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Brand, P 1992b. The Making of the Common Law, Hambledon Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brooke-Little, J P 1985. An Heraldic Alphabet, rev edn, Robson Books, LondonGoogle Scholar
Camille, M 1989. The Gothic Idol: ideology and image-making in medieval art, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Chevalier, J and Gheerbrant, A 1996. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, trans J Buchanan-Brown, Penguin Books, LondonGoogle Scholar
Christianson, C P 1990. A Directory of London Stationers and Book Artisans 1300–1500, Bibliographical Society of America, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Connor, W 2008. ‘The Esholt Priory charter of 1485 and its decoration’, Yorkshire Archaeol J, 80, 121–152Google Scholar
Danbury, E 1989. ‘The decoration and illumination of royal charters in England, 1250–1509: an introduction’, in M Jones and M Vale (eds), England and Her Neighbours, 1066–1453: essays in honour of Pierre Chaplais, 157–179, Hambledon Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Danbury, E 1994. ‘The decoration of the Doncaster borough charters’, in B J Barber (ed), Doncaster: a borough and its charters, 26–45, Waterdale, DoncasterGoogle Scholar
Danbury, E 2011. ‘Domine salvum fac regem: the origin of “God save the King” in the reign of Henry VI’, in H Kleineke (ed), The Fifteenth Century X. Parliament, Personalities and Power. Papers presented to Linda S Clark, 121–142, Boydell & Brewer, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Danbury, E 2013. ‘Décoration et enluminure des chartes royales anglaises au Moyen Âge’, in G Brunel and M Smith (eds), Les Chartes Ornées dans l’Europe Romane et Gothique, Tome 169, fascicule 1, 79–107, Bibliothèque de L’Ecole des Chartes, ParisGoogle Scholar
Dennison, L 2009. ‘The significance of ornamental penwork in illuminated and decorated manuscripts of the second half of the fourteenth century’, in Hennessy 2009, 31–64Google Scholar
Dodgson, C 1899. Grotesque Alphabet of 1464 Reproduced in Facsimile from the Original Woodcuts in the British Museum, British Museum and Longmans, LondonGoogle Scholar
Doe, N 2004. ‘Danby, Sir Robert (d. 1474)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Edition, <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7091> (20 June 2015)+(20+June+2015)>Google Scholar
Edwards, A S G 2004. The Life of St Edmund King and Martyr: John Lydgate’s illustrated verse life presented to Henry VI: a facsimile of British Library MS Harley 2278, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Evans, J D 1988. ‘The dragon’, in M South (ed), Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: a sourcebook and research guide, 27–58, Peter Bedrick Books, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Glassman, B 1975. Anti-Semitic Stereotypes without Jews: images of the Jews in England, 1290–1700, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MIGoogle Scholar
Goff, J le 1980. ‘Ecclesiastical culture and folklore in the Middle Ages: Saint Marcellus of Paris and the dragon’, in A Goldhammer (trans), Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages, 159–188, University of Chicago, Chicago and LondonGoogle Scholar
Hamel, C de 2001. The British Library Guide to Manuscript Illumination: history and techniques, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hamel, C de 2009. ‘Friar Baldry’s pattern book’, in Hennessy 2009, 21–30Google Scholar
Hamel, C de and Lovett, P 2010. The Macclesfield Alphabet Book BL Additional MS 88887A: a facsimile, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Harding, A 1966. A Social History of English Law, Pelican Books, SheffieldGoogle Scholar
Hastings, M 1947. The Court of Common Pleas in Fifteenth Century England: a study of legal administration and procedure, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Hennessy, M V (ed) 2009. Tributes to Kathleen L Scott. English Medieval Manuscripts: readers, makers and illuminators, Harvey Miller, London and TurnhoutGoogle Scholar
Hershey, A H 2002. Drawings and Sketches in the Plea Rolls of the English Royal Courts: c. 1200–1300, Special Series 31, List and Index Society, KewGoogle Scholar
Janson, H W 1952. Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Warburg Institute, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, L (ed) 2003. Wardens’ Accounts and Court Minute Books of the Goldsmiths’ Mistery of London, 1334–1446, Boydell & Brewer, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, L 2009. The Medieval Account Books of the Mercers of London: an edition and translation, 2 vols, Ashgate Publishing, FarnhamGoogle Scholar
Kleineke, H 2009. Edward IV, Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar
Legg, J W 1900. Three Coronation Orders, Henry Bradshaw Society 19, LondonGoogle Scholar
L’Engle, S and Gibbs, R 2001. Illuminating the Law: legal manuscripts in Cambridge collections, Harvey Miller, London and TurnhoutGoogle Scholar
Lipton, S 2014. Dark Mirror: the medieval origins of anti-Jewish iconography, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt & Co., New YorkGoogle Scholar
Loades, D 1990. The Tudor Chronicles: the kings, Grove Weidenfeld, New YorkGoogle Scholar
McGerr, R 2011. A Lancastrian Mirror for Princes: the Yale Law School New Statutes of England, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, INGoogle Scholar
Massin, R 1970. Letter and Image, trans C Hillier and V Menkes, Studio Vista, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mellinkoff, R 1970. The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and LondonGoogle Scholar
Mellinkoff, R 1985. ‘Demonic winged headgear’, Viator, 16, 367–381Google Scholar
Mellinkoff, R 1993. Outcasts: signs of otherness in northern European art of the late Middle Ages, 2 vols, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and OxfordGoogle Scholar
Mooney, L R and Stubbs, E 2013. London Guildhall Clerks and the Dissemination of Middle English Literature, 1375–1425, York Medieval Press in association with Boydell & Brewer, York and WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Morgan, N 1988. Early Gothic Manuscripts. 2: 1250–1285, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 4, Harvey Miller, LondonGoogle Scholar
Pächt, O and Alexander, J J G 1973. Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford. 3: British, Irish and Icelandic Schools, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Palmer, R C 2012. ‘The construction of an online digital archive: the Anglo-American legal tradition website project’, in S Jenks, J Rose and C Whittick (eds), Law, Lawyers and Texts: studies in medieval legal history in honour of Paul Brand, 361–378, Brill, LeidenGoogle Scholar
Planché, J R 1852. The Pursuivant of Arms, or Heraldry Founded upon Facts, W N Wright, LondonGoogle Scholar
Prescott, A 2012. ‘Administrative records and the scribal achievement of medieval England’, in A S G Edwards and O da Rold (eds), English Manuscript Studies 17, 173–199, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Procter, F and Wordsworth, C (eds) 1882. Breviarium ad usum insignis Ecclesiae Sarum, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Rawcliffe, C 2013. Urban Bodies: communal health in late medieval English towns and cities, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Rickert, M 1952. The Reconstructed Carmelite Missal: an English manuscript of the late XIV century in the British Museum, Faber & Faber, LondonGoogle Scholar
Ross, C 1974. Edward IV, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CAGoogle Scholar
Rowland, B 1973. Animals with Human Faces: a guide to animal symbolism, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TNGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 1986. Gothic Manuscripts 1285–1385, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 5, Harvey Miller, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 1996. Omne Bonum. A Fourteenth-century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge, 2 vols, Harvey Miller, LondonGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, J-C 1991. ‘The rationale of gestures in the West: third to thirteenth centuries’, in J Bremmer and H Roodenburg (eds), A Cultural History of Gesture, 59–70, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NYGoogle Scholar
Scott, K L 1990. ‘The illustrations of Piers Plowman in Bodleian Library MS Douce 104’, Yearbook of Langland Studies, 4, 1–86Google Scholar
Scott, K L 1996. Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390–1490, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 6, Harvey Miller, LondonGoogle Scholar
Scott, K L 2002. ‘Four early fifteenth-century English manuscripts of the Speculum humanae salvationis and a fourteenth-century exemplar’, in A S G Edwards (ed), English Manuscript Studies 1100–1700. Volume 10: Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, 177–203, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Siddons, M P 2009. Heraldic Badges in England and Wales, 3 vols in 4, Boydell for the Society of Antiquaries, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Siddons, M P 2014. A Dictionary of Mottoes in England and Wales, Harleian Society new ser 20, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sutton, A F 2008. ‘An unfinished celebration of the Yorkist accession by a clerk of the Merchant Staplers of Calais’, in L Clark (ed), Rule, Redemption and Representations in Late Medieval England and France, The Fifteenth Century 8, 135–163, Boydell, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Trapp, J B 1982. ‘Pieter Meghen 1466/7–1540, scribe and courier’, in Erasmus in English 11, 28–35, Toronto University Press, TorontoGoogle Scholar
Tudor-Craig, P 1973. Richard II, National Portrait Gallery, LondonGoogle Scholar
Voigts, L E and Payne, A forthcoming. ‘Medicine for a great household (c 1500): Berkeley Castle Muniments Select Book 89’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser, 12Google Scholar
Watson, R 2011. Western Illuminated Manuscripts: a catalogue of works in the National Art Library from the eleventh to the early twentieth century, with a complete account of the George Reid collection, 3 vols, V&A Publishing, LondonGoogle Scholar
Williams, T 2014. ‘The Ellesmere dragons’, Word & Image, 30, 444–454Google Scholar