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III. Loans to the Lancastrian Kings: the Problem of Inducement1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

K. B. McFarlane
K. B. McFarlane
Affiliation:
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
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Extract

The problem that I am going to discuss this afternoon is one which must surely have exercised the minds of all those who have given a moment's thought to the financing of the Hundred Years' War. What conclusions have been reached it would be hard to say. For apart from two or three illuminating though hardly conclusive pages by Mr A. B. Steel, to whom my indebtedness should soon be obvious, nothing seems to have been printed on this subject in recent times. Yet unless we have some idea why men lent large sums of ready money to the English kings of the later Middle Ages, we must approach the political history of the period at a considerable disadvantage. To an increasing extent as the fourteenth century advanced and preponderantly throughout the course of its successor these lenders were natives and drawn from all sections of the propertied classes. The king's treatment of his creditors was therefore bound to affect his relations with his most powerful subjects. It would be surprising if his success or failure in meeting his obligations did not markedly influence their attitude towards his rule.

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Research Article
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 1947 , pp. 51 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1947

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References

2 English Historical Review, LI (1936), 45–7Google Scholar.

3 Cal. Close Rolls, 1339-41, p. 176.

4 ‘Extracts from the Liberate Rolls relative to Loans’ (ed. Bond, E. A.), Archaeologia, 1st series, XXVIII, 225–30Google Scholar; Rhodes, W. E., ‘The Italian Bankers in England and their loans to Edward I and Edward II’, Historical Essays by Members of Owen's College, Manchester (ed. Tout, T. F. and Tait, J.), pp. 140 and 166Google Scholar; Russell, E., ‘The Societies of the Bardi and the Peruzzi and their dealings with Edward III, 1327-45’, Finance and Trade under Edward III (ed. Unwin, G.), pp. 101 and 114–17Google Scholar. On 28 June 1339 Edward III granted the Bardi £30,000 and the Peruzzi £20,000 ‘in remembrance of their timely subsidies for the king's service and their losses, labours and expenses endured for him’ (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1338-40, p. 388; and cf. ibid. pp. 391 and 392). For his relations with them see A. Sapori, La Crisi delle Compagnie dei Bardi e dei Peruzzi and Beardwood, A., Alien Merchants in England 1350 to 1377, PP. 4–9 and 122-33Google Scholar; and compare Renouard, Y., Les Rélations des Popes d'Avignon et des Compagnies commerciales et bancaires de 1316 à 1378, pp. 512–47Google Scholar.

5 Edward Ill's numerous grants to him are conveniently summarized by Napier, H. A., Historical Notices of Swyncombe and Ewelme, pp. 276–80Google Scholar. On 27 November 1338 he was given £4000 ‘pro dampnis que sustinuit pro diuersis cheuanciis denariorum per ipsum factum’ to Edward III abroad, and a few weeks later another 20,000 marks for the same reason (Exchequer, Treasury of Receipt, Misc. Books, E. 36/203, fols. 102 and 102v. This is William Norwell's ‘Liber de particulis compoti garderobe regis’, 11 July 1338 to 28 May 1340).

6 Constitutional History of England, III (5th ed. 1903), 144Google Scholar.

7 Ed. 1908, 11, 47b.

8 For a recent exposition of these views see Jolliffe, J. E. A., Constitutional History of Medieval England, pp. 409 et seqGoogle Scholar.

9 Haward, W. I., ‘The financial transactions between the Lancastrian government and the merchants of the Staple from 1449 to 1461’. Studies in English Trade in the Fifteenth Century, pp. £300–1Google Scholar.

10 One such case occurred in 1435 when on 2 December three well-connected merchants, William Estfield, Hamon Sutton and Hugh Dyke, in return for a loan of 8000 marks received in addition to repayment a concession that they should ‘in selling of their wools at the town of Calais be preferred before all. other merchants there to the value of the aforesaid sum [i.e. 8000 marks] and that they… should be able freely to sell their wools… to the value aforesaid… to whatever person and in whatever manner that they wished before the other merchants… and to keep the same proceeding therefrom to themselves without any restriction or partition to be made of them in the Staple of Calais between the merchants thereof, any statute or ordinance made to the contrary notwithstanding’ (Early Chancery Proceedings, C. 1/11/389). There is no mention of this additional reward in the patent which they had confirmed in parliament (Rotuli Parliamentorum, IV, 484–6Google Scholar and Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1429-36, p. 498).

11 J. de Trokelowe et Anon. Chronica et Annales (ed. Riley, H. T.), p. 199Google Scholar. MrGalbraith, V. H. (The St Albans Chronicle, 1406-1420, pp. xxvii–lxxi)Google Scholar has given convincing reasons for regarding Walsingham as the author of these annals.

12 Rot. Parl. III, 55–6Google Scholar. Note particularly: ‘touz les Seignurs illoeqes esteantz appresterent voluntrisment a nostre Sir le Roi diverses grandes sommes de deniers’. For those lending see Foedera (ed. Rymer, T.), VII (ed. 1709), 210–3Google Scholar and Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1377-81, pp. 635-8.

13 Rot. Parl. III, 123Google Scholar.

14 Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden (ed. Lumby, J. R.), IX, 270 (‘Monk of Westminster’)Google Scholar.

15 J. de Trokelowe, etc., p. 200.

16 Mr Steel's total of ‘genuine loans’ for the year 1396-7 is £30,355 (Eng. Hist. Rev. LI, 49). This is the highest for the reign, but it is less than £2000 more than the next highest, that for the year 1385-6. The totals for 1397-9 are below the average for the reign.

17 Rot. Parl. in, 419 (§ 31).

18 Op. cit. in, 283, n. Stubbs may be right in wishing to date later than 1461 the two sets of Instructions assigned by N, H. Nicolas (Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, IV, 1536–e and v, 418–21)Google Scholar to 1436 and 1442 respectively. But it is very unusual to find Nicolas out in his dating of these conciliar documents. If he is right then the credit for inventing the benevolence must be awarded to the government of Henry VI.

19 ‘Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio’ (ed. Fulman, W. in Rerwn Anglicarum Scriptores, I, 558)Google Scholar; Great Chronicle of London (ed. Thomas, A. H. and Thornley, I. D.), p. 223.Google Scholar

20 In June 1404 the council told Henry IV that the Treasurer had borrowed 500 marks from Lord Lovell, £100 each fro m the bishop of Bath and Sir Hugh Waterton (all councillors) and various other sums from individual Londoners (Proceedings and Ordinances, I, 267–8)Google Scholar.

21 Ibid. IV, 316-29.

22 In 1435, for instance, the me n of Beverley were invited, politely enough it is true, to lend 200 marks (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep., Corporation of Beverley, pp. 22-3), while in the following year the citizens of Salisbury were asked for £200 (ibid.Various Collections, IV, 198).

23 Proceedings and Ordinances, II, 72–6 (21 October)Google Scholar.

24 Cal. Fine Rolls, XII, 317–19Google Scholar; Foedera, VIII, 412–14 (4 September 1405)Google Scholar.

25 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1416-22, pp. 249-52; Foedera, IX, 814–15 (26 November 1419)Google Scholar, etc. In the Calendar, although they are generally indexed under ‘loans’, there are some omissions; for example that of 26 February 1434 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1429-36, pp. 353-5). There is also an isolated earlier example, 14 June 1410 (ibid. 1408-13, pp. 204-5).

26 Proceedings and Ordinances, V, 187–9 (1 4 May 1442)Google Scholar; 414-1 8 (a March 1443); VI, 322-5 (? late 1444); 46-9 (20 July 1446); 234-44 (14 May 1455).

27 Proceedings and Ordinances, VI, 47–9Google Scholar. The Latin form was ‘littere cum albis caudis’ (ibid. p. 235).

28 Rot. Part, v, 69.

29 For the meaning of ‘mutuum per talliam’ entries on the Receipt Rolls see Steel, A. B., ‘Mutua per talliam, 1377-1413’, Bull. Inst. Hist. Res. XIII (1936), 73–84Google Scholar. A list of worthless tallies to th e nominal value of £30,000, cut between 1422 and 1433, is preserved in Exchequer of Receipt Misc., E.407/6/126.

30 Proceedings and Ordinances, I, 343–4Google Scholar.

31 Eng. Hist. Rev. XXIX (1914), 511–12Google Scholar.

32 Proceedings and Ordinances, II, 165–6Google Scholar.

33 Chronicon Adae de Usk (ed. Thompson, E. M.), p. 133Google Scholar.

34 Monstrelet, E. de, Chronique (ed. d'Arcq, L. Douët), IV, 25Google Scholar. On this tour see Wylie, J. H. and Waugh, W. T., Reign of Henry the Fifth, III, 270–3Google Scholar.

35 English Chronicle of the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI (ed. Davies, J. S.), p. 90Google Scholar.

36 ‘La seurete de la Chevance a faire a Roy’ (Rot. Part. IV, 95–6)Google Scholar.

37 Ibid. pp. 117-18.

38 Ibid. p. 130.

39 Ibid. pp. 210-11. It was £20,000 in 1425, £40,000 in 1426, £24,000 in 1427, £50,000 in 1429 and 1430-1, 100,000 marks in 1433, £100,000 in 1435, 1437, 1439-40, 1442, 1447 and 1449 (ibid. iv, 277, 300, 317-18, 339-40, 374-5, 426-7, 482-3, 504; v, 6-7, 39-40, 135-6 and 143-4).

40 Ibid. IV, 340, etc.

41 Exchr. of Receipt, Receipt Rolls, E.401/690 and 693; Newhall, R. A., ‘The War Finances of Henry V and the Duke of Bedford’, Eng. Hist. Rev. XXXVI (1921), 173 and 175CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Proceedings and Ordinances, iv, 214Google Scholar.

43 Foedera, IX, 499–500Google Scholar. Rymer misplaces these documents. The reference to the last parliament at Leicester proves that they belong to 4 Henry VI. In any case Whethamstede did not become abbot of St Albans until 1419 (Dugdale, W., Monasticon, ed. 1846, I, 425)Google Scholar.

44 The commissioners in 1542 were told that ‘if anyone shows himself stiff in condescending to the same, upon allegation of poverty or other pretence which seems insufficient, they shall use what persuasion they can, and if all will not draw him to some reason and honest consideration of his duty they shall charge him to keep secret what they have said, note his name and command him to return to his house, and so pass him over in such silence as he be no em-peachment or evil example to the rest’. (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, XVII, no. 194Google Scholar, quoted by Pickthorn, K., Early Tudor Government, Henry VIII, pp. 390–1)Google Scholar. The term ‘forced loan’ seems to be of nineteenth-century coinage.

45 Cal. Pat. Rolls. 1436-41, p. 249. The example is typical.

46 Proceedings and Ordinances, vi, 143–4Google Scholar.

47 Fortescue, J., Governance of England (ed. Plummer, C.), p. 12, n. 6Google Scholar.

48 Proceedings and Ordinances, vi, 48Google Scholar.

49 Ibid, II, 280-2 and VI, 330-1; Wars of the English in France (ed. Stevenson, J.), II, ii, 481–2, 486-7, 491-2Google Scholar; and in other collections.

50 Proceedings and Ordinances, 11, 72–3Google Scholar; vi, 175-6, etc.; Original Letters illustrative of English History (ed. Ellis, H., 3rd ser.), I, 75–81Google Scholar; Foedera, VIII, 245Google Scholar.

51 Davis, E. J. and Peake, M. I., ‘Loans from the City of London to Henry VI, 1431-1449’, Bull. Inst. Hist. Res. IV (1927), 165–72Google Scholar.

52 Proceedings and Ordinances, IV, 233–6Google Scholar.

53 Ibid. V, 279-80.

54 Commentaries on the Laws of England (ed. 1844), III, 433–4Google Scholar.

55 Ashley, W. J., Introduction to English Economic History and Theory, I, ii, § 65Google Scholar.

56 Ross, W., Lectures on the Law of Scotland (1793), I, 4Google Scholar.

57 Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London, 1413-47 (ed. Thomas, A. H.), pp. 95–109 and 285-7Google Scholar.

58 See below, p. 65, n. 77.

59 Eng. Hist. Rev. LI (1936), 45Google Scholar.

60 Magdalen College, Oxford, Fastolf Papers, 9 (John Kirtling's Account, Mic. 12 Henry VI to Mic. 13 Henry VI).

61 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1429-36, pp. 7 8 and 214; Calendar of London Letter Book K (ed. Sharpe, R. R.), pp. 123–4Google Scholar.

62 He had lent £500 t o William Cavendish, £100 to William Trumpington, £150 to John Fastolf of Olton and £100 to Richard Ellis. Of these Cavendish and Trumpington were citizens and mercers of London (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1422-9, pp. 305, etc.), Richard Ellis was a burgess of Great Yarmouth, being one of its bailiffs in 1423, 1427, 1430-1 (Blomefield, F., History of Norfolk, 8vo ed., XI, 324–5)Google Scholar and Fastolf was Sir John's cousin and man of business.

63 A list of Fastolf's recent loans was drawn up in 1455. It consists of £1000 in September 1436, 1000 marks in February 1437, £100 in 1449, 400 marks in 1450 and £400 in 1452 (Paston Letters, ed. J. Gairdner, 1904 ed., in, 60 and 63-4). Wells made a loan in 1426 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1422–9, p. 318), It appears that all Fastolf's loans were unpaid in 1455.

64 For his connection with William Estfield, Hamon Sutton and Hugh Dyke see Rot. Part. iv, 484-6; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1429-36, p. 498 and Early Chancery Proceedings, C.1/11/289. The account of this business given by E. Power (English Trade in the Fifteenth Century, ed. E. Power and M. M. Postan, pp. 86-7) is in several respects erroneous. On 8 November 1435 Beaufort made over 1000 marks a year from his temporalities to Walsingham, Thomas and Dyke, Hugh (Cal. Close Rolls, Henry VI, III, 38–9Google Scholar and Exch. Treasury of Receipt, Council and Privy Seal, E. 28/57; the Calendar obscures the special position of the two London merchants).

65 Wars of the English in France, II, ii, 440–51Google Scholar.

66 Hall, E., Chronicle (ed. Ellis, H.), pp. 310–11Google Scholar; Shakespeare, W., Henry VI, pt. I, ill, iGoogle Scholar.

67 For example Robert Worsley, mercer of London, took two royal tallies for a total of £500 in settlement of a debt of £400 owed him by John, Duke of Bedford. The latter's death made them worthless and they were returned to his executors (Exchr. K.R. Accounts E.101/411/7).

68 ‘Adonqes le seignur de Loncastre dist qe tiel case et tiel necessite purroit avenire qe le roy serroit bien lee de doner la somme de x mille marcz pur chevauns avoir de xx mille marcz’ (Anonimalle Chronicle, ed. Galbraith, V. H., p. 86)Google Scholar. See also Rot. Parl. 11, 333-4.

69 ‘Item, par la ou ordinance feust faite au darrein parlement pur la ville de Gant, qe dys M marcz deussent estre cheviz, et pur celle chevance deussent estre perduz iii M marcz, la en defaut et negligence du ditnadgairs chanceller [i.e. Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk] la dite ville feust perduz: et nientmeyns les x M marcz paiez, et les ditz iii M marcz pur la chevance perduz, comme desuis est dit’ (Rot. Pearl, in, 216). Lewis, N. B. (Eng. Hist. Rev. XLII (1927), 402–7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar makes unnecessary difficulties about the sense of this passage.

70 They were present together in the Star Chamber on 3 May 1443 etc. (Proceedings and Ordinances, v, 266, 268 and 269).

71 Op. cit. p. 118.

72 Rot. Parl. IV, 436-8.

73 Ibid. v, 183.

74 Eng. Hist. Rev. LI (1936), 47Google Scholar.

75 Exchr. of Receipt, Receipt Rolls, E. 401/733 and 737; Issue Roll, E. 403/715; Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty's Exchequer (ed. Palgrave, F.), II, 154Google Scholar. The entries are quite specific and there are the usual full cross-references.

76 It is unfortunate that neither the Patent Roll nor the records of the Council have any reference to this transaction. The warrant to the Treasurer and Chamberlains does not seem to have been preserved.

77 Postan, M. M., ‘Private financial instruments in Medieval England’, Vierteljahrschrift für Social- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, XXIII (1930), 26–75Google Scholar; ‘Credit in Medieval Trade’, Eton. Hist. Rev. I (1928), 234–61Google Scholar.

78 Rot. Parl. in, 280 (1390).

79 Ibid. ill, 541 (1404).

80 3 Hen. VII, c. 6.

81 Selected English Works of John Wyclif (ed. Arnold, T.), III, 88Google Scholar.

82 History of the Reign of King Henry VII (ed. Lumby, J. R.), p. 64Google Scholar.

83 Op. cit. v, 211.

84 S.v. ‘chevisance’.

85 See above, p. 58.

86 Proceedings and Ordinances, V, 201Google Scholar.

87 Ibid. V, 16.

88 Receipt Roll, E.401/752.

89 Wars of the English in France, 11, ii, 495; cf. ibid. 505-6.

90 For example, the loans which Cardinal Beaufort had made to the king's government in France were entered on the Receipt Roll on 15 July 1432, some time after his return to England (E. 401/731).

91 E. 401/514 (23 August 1374). The rumour that John Pyall was. associated with Lyons in making this loan, though denied by Pyall, (Anonimalle Chronicle, pp. 89–90)Google Scholar and disbelieved, is shown by the Roll to be true.

92 D.L. 28/5/1. This is the ‘certificacio compoti Johannis Leuenthorp junioris Receptoris Generalis domini Henrici Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi et aliorum secum coniunctim Feoffa-torum Regis Henrici Quinti Ducatus sui Lancastrie de anno regni Regis Henrici sexti decimo’ (1431-2). It records two loans, one of £1333. 6s. %d., the other of £2133. 6s. 8d. These will be found on the corresponding Receipt Rolls, E. 401/725 and 729 (£1000, 16 May 1431; £333. 6s. Sd., 30 May 1431; £333. 6s. 8d., 18 June 1431; £1000, 30 November 1431; and £800, 17 January 1432).

93 This would seem to be the case with the city of London (Davis, E. J. and Peake, M. I., ‘Loans from the city of London to Henry VI, 1431-49’, Bull. Inst. Hist. Res. IV (1927), 165–72)Google Scholar, but the evidence is by no means clear.