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King John of England: An Illustration of the Medieval Practice of Charity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Charles R. Young
Charles R. Young
Affiliation:
Duke University
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Extract

King John of England has one of the most unsavory reputations of any medieval English king, but it is some vindication of the principle “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones” to find that he made charitable contributions amounting to substantial sums. Moreover, in spite of the harsh criticism that has sometimes been directed toward the medieval practice of charity, there is something stimulating about a system which caused even such a man as John to pay regular alms from his revenues throughout England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 1960 , pp. 264 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1960

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References

1. Nigel, Richard fitz, The Course of the Exchequer (Dialogus de Scaccario), ed. by Johnson, Charles (London, 1950), p. 29.Google Scholar

2. These Pipe Rolls have been published by the Pipe Roll Society, n.s. X-XXX (London, 1933–54). Four rolls for the reign of John are not yet published. Pipe Rolls hereafter are cited with the abbreviation P. R. and the regnal year.

3. P. R. 2 John, p. 130.

4. The Cartulary of the Monastery of St. Frideswide at Oxford, ed. by Rev. Spencer R. Wigram (Oxford, 1895–1896), I, 42.Google Scholar See also Madox, Thomas, The History and Antiquities of the Exchequer (London, 2nd ed., 1769), I, 348Google Scholar; and Poole, Reginald L., The Exchequer in the Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1912), pp. 155–160.Google Scholar

5. The entries are too numerous to list, but an example of each type may be found in the following: Rotuli Chartarum, ed. by Hardy, Thomas D. (Record Commission: London, 1837), IGoogle Scholar, Pt. 1, 127b, 204b; Rotuli Litterarum Patentium, ed. by Hardy (Rec. Comm.: London, 1835), IGoogle Scholar, Pt. 1, 116a; Rotuli de Liberate ac de Misis et Praestitis, ed. by Hardy (Rec. Comm.: London, 1844), pp. 89, 95, 110;Google ScholarRotuli Litterarum Clausarum, ed by Hardy (Rec. Comm.: London, 1833), I, 125b;Google ScholarCuria Regis Rolls of the Reigns of Richard I and John (London, 1922–1935), II, 245 and III, 26Google Scholar; The Cartae Antiquae Rolls 1–10, ed. by Landon, Lionel (Pipe Roll Society, n.s. 17: London, 1939), p. 78;Google ScholarAnnales de Wigornia in Annales Monastici, ed. by Henry R. Luard (Rolls Series: London, 1864–1869), IV, 395.Google Scholar

6. The Memoranda Roll for the Tenth Year of the Reign of King John (12–07–8) (Pipe Roll Society, n.s. XXXI: London, 1957), p. 52.Google Scholar

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8. One of the two extant Misae Rolls on which this information is based is printed in Rot. de Lib., pp. 110 ff. For Pipe Roll entries of a similar nature, see P. R. 6 John, p. xxxvi. Johnstone, Hilda, “Poor-Relief in the Royal Households of Thirteenth-Century England,” Speculum, IV (1929), p. 153.Google Scholar

9. P. R. 6 John, p. xxxvii; P.R. 13 John, p. xxxvii; Rot. Litt. Cl., I, 81b;Google ScholarRot. de. Lib., pp. 95–96, 98; Rot. Litt. Pat., I. Pt. 1, 51b.Google Scholar See the comment upon these gifts by Painter, Sidney, The Reign of King John (Baltimore, 19–49), p. 153.Google Scholar

10. Rot. Chart., I, Pt. 1, 212bGoogle Scholar; Rot. de Lib., p. 70; Cartae Antiquae, p. 112; Rot. Litt. Cl., I, 2bGoogle Scholar, 32b, 87a, 148a, 185a.

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12. Rot. Chart., I, Pt. I, 15aGoogle Scholar; Mem. Roll 1 John, pp. xcvi, 11–12, 22.Google Scholar

13. These are found scattered throughout the Charter Rolls and the Close Rolls. Perhaps this is the basis for the statement made by Creighton, C. in Traill, H. D., Social England (New York and London, 1898), I, 368Google Scholar, that John was conspicuous as a patron of lepers, for which no other evidence was found.

14. Rot. Litt. Cl., I, 196a; P. R. 1 John, 86, 87, 103; P. R. 2 John, p. 7; Cartae Antiquae, p. 68; Rot. Litt. Pat., I, Pt. 1, 3b, 4b, 20bGoogle Scholar; Rot. Chart., pp. 85a, 87b, 136a, 176b, 215b.

15. Johnstone, p. 152.

16. Rot. de Lib., pp. 196, 234, 242, 244, 245.

17. Benedict, of Peterborough, , Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi, ed. by Stubbs, William (Rolls Series: London, 1867), I, 169.Google Scholar

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19. Fleta (Selden Society, LXXII: London, 1955), II, 130.Google Scholar Johnstone gives Professor Fredrick Tout as authority for dating this treatise 1290–93.

20. Johnstone p. 158.

21. SirRamsay, J. H., A History of the Revenues of the Kings of England 1066–1399 (Oxford, 1925), I, 236Google Scholar; to convert payments expressed as blanched to payments by tale, the system used was that of Turner, G. J., “The Sheriff's Farm.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, n. s. XII (1898), p. 119.Google Scholar

22. These figures are based upon the published rolls for the first fourteen years of John's reign; the four Pipe Rolls that remain unpublished for the last years of his reign are not likely to contain new grants.

23. Rot. Chart., I, Pt, 1, 13b.

24. Cambrensis, Giraldus, “De Rebus a Se Gestis,” in Opera, ed. by Brewer, J. S. (Rolls Series: London, 1861–1891), I, 310.Google Scholar

25. William, Stubbs, ed., The Historical Collections of Walter of Coventry (Rolls Series: London, 1872–1873), II, xiv–xv.Google Scholar

26. Poole, Austin L., From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087–1216 (Oxford, 1955), p. 428.Google Scholar

27. Jarrett, Bede, Social Theories of the Middle Ages 1208–1500 (London, 1926), pp. 128, 145.Google Scholar

28. Tierney, pp. 32–38.

29. P. R. 3 John, p. 192 (Bishopric of Lincoln); P. R. 11 John, p. 26 (lands of S. de Montfort).

30. Roger, of Hovedon, , Chronica, ed. by Stubbs, William (Rolls Series: London, 1868), IV, 124.Google Scholar

31. Morris, R., ed., Old English Homilies of the Twelfth Century. Second Series (Early English Text Society: London, 1873), p. 156.Google Scholar

32. Richard, Morris, ed., Old English Homilies and Homiletic Treatises. First Series (Early English Text Society: London, 1868), p. 37.Google Scholar

33. Ibid., p. 43.

34. Ibid., p. 23.

35. Ibid., pp. 105, 107, 109.

36. Cartae Antiquae, p. 109.

37. Ibid., p. 110.

38. Comparison of the entries for fixed alms extracted from the Pipe Rolls of John's reign with P. R. 33 Hen. II shows that nearly all the allowances were already established in 1186–87. Henry II's will as given by Giraldus Cambrensis also contains a list of donations; see “De Principis Instructione Liber” in Opera, VIII, 191- 192. John's order for confirmation is entered in Curia Regis, I, 331.

39. Cheney, C. R., “King John's Reaction to the Interdict on England,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser., XXXI (1949), pp. 142–144.Google Scholar

40. Poole, p. 447.

41. Ibid., p. 449; Norgate, Kate. John Lackland (London, 1902), p. 160.Google Scholar

42. P. R. 14 John, p. 87. The identification of Cistercian houses comes from David Knowles and Hadcock, R. Neville, Medieval Religious Houses England and Wales (London, 1953).Google Scholar

43. Moorman, John R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1946), p. 357.Google Scholar

44. Knowles, Dom David, The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 482–484.Google Scholar

45. “Annales de Bermundeseia,” in Annales Monastici, III, 452.Google Scholar

46. Jocelin, of Brakelond, , Chronicle, trans. by Butler, H. E. (London, 1949), p. 47Google Scholar; The Kalendar of Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edmunds and Related Documents, ed. by B. H. C. Davis (Camden Society, 3rd ser. LXXXIV: London, 1954), pp. 88–89.Google Scholar

47. The important points in this controversy are discussed in Tierney, pp. 89ff.

48. Moorman, pp. 138–139, 357–359; Snape, R. H., English Monastic Finances in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1926), pp. 113–118Google Scholar; Tierney pp. 97ff.

49. Knowles, p. 479.

50. Tierney, p. 109.