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XIV. The Social Status of Chaucer's Franklin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Gordon Hall Gerould
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Extract

An uncertainty as to the social position of franklins in general, and of Chaucer's Franklin in particular, has occasionally manifested itself since the early part of the nineteenth century. In 1810, Todd quoted an elaborate note from Waterhous's Commentary on Sir John Fortescue's De Laudibus Legum Angliae, which tended to show that franklins did not belong to the gentry. Todd was unable to square this with the fact that (Chaucer's Franklin was “at sessiouns,” since by a statute of Edward III, which he cited, justices were seigneurs, and that he was “ofte tyme” a knight of the shire, since by another statute members of parliament were “chivalers et serjantz des meulz vaues du paies.”) Todd was thus left in doubt as to the gentility of the Franklin. As a later examination of Fortescue's remarks will show, it is not he but his commentator who must be blamed for lowering the status of Chaucer's sanguine country gentleman. If Todd had been of firmer mind, or if he had studied the subject more deeply, he would not have left the matter in doubt—a trap for unwary feet in later times.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , June 1926 , pp. 262 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926

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References

1 H. J. Todd, Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer, pp. 247-9.

2 34 Edw. III, cap. 1.

3 46 Edw. III.

4 R. K. Root, The Poetry of Chaucer, 1906 (Rev. ed. 1922), pp. 271-2.

5 G. L. Kittredge, Chaucer and his Poetry, 1915, p. 204.

6 History of English Poetry, ed. 1840, II, 202.

7 A. 331.

8 A. 335-354.

9 A. 355.

10 A. 356.

11 A. 359.

12 Ibid.

13 A. 360.

14 F. 716-726.

15 Ed. W. de G. Birch, 1885, p. 34.

16 Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. H. Hall, 1896 (Rolls Ser. 99), I, 212. Quoted in DuCange from the Liber niger Scaccarii, concerning which see Hall's introduction.

17 Rotuli Chartarum, ed. T. D. Hardy, Record Com., 1837, p. 43, col. 1.

18 Op. cit., p. 82, col. 1.

19 See, for example, the Calendar of Patent Rolls and Calendar of Close Rolls, as well as the Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi, ed. C. Roberts, 1836, which cover the years 1216-1272. The use of settled surnames for people above the lower classes is a phenomenon of earlier date than is sometimes supposed.

20 Metrical Chronicle, ed. W. A. Wright, 1887 (Rolls Ser. 86), I, 61, vv. 821-2. Dated 1290-1300.

21 Cursor Mundi, dated 1300-1325, ed. R. Morris, 1874-1893 (E.E.T.S.), vv. 5373-4.

22 Unfortunately I have to quote this from Spelman, Glossarium Archaiologicum, 1664, sub “Francling,” since the chronicle has not yet been edited. It is said to have been written about 1334, which was four years before the death of Thomas.

23 The Story of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1887 (Rolls Ser. 87), I, 230, vv. 6545-8. Dated 1338.

24 Ed. as by Pierre de Langtoft by T. Hearne, 1725, p. 239. This part of Robert's work is not in Furnivall's edition. It was based on Pierre de Langtoft, which explains Hearne's error of ascription.

25 Ed. T. Wright, 1866-8 (Rolls Ser. 47), II, 174.

26 This phrase is illustrated by a writ analyzed in Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, ed. H. C. Maxwell Lyte, 1916, II, 56, No. 233. In this writ, dated 1 Sept. 9 Edward II (1315), Thomas de Polington is described as “lord of the whole town of Polington.” “Town” was doubtless used in the sense familiar to all New Englanders.

27 Ed. W. W. Skeat, 1886, C, Pass. vi, 63-7. The conjectural data assigned by Skeat to the C text is 1393.

28 C, Pass. xi, 240-1.

29 B, Pass. xix, 32-11. Dated 1377. In C, Pass. xxii, 32-41.

30 The Babees Book, ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1868 (E.E.T.S. 32).

31 Pp. 188-9.

32 Op. cit., p. 187.

33 Cap. 29. Ed. A. Amos, 1825, p. 237.

34 Op. cit., p. 104.

35 The meaning of these terms is well illustrated by a reference to sheriffs in Statutes of the Realm, 28 Edw. III, cap. 9 (1354) : “viscontes de diverses contees, par vertue des commissions et briefs generals.”

36 Works, 1726, III, 1027. Selden quotes the Mirror of Justices (“Chez le seigneur Coke en l'spist. du 9. livre”) : “Counters sont Serjeants, sachans la ley del royalm.”

37 Statutes of the Realm, 46 Edw. III (1372).

38 Langtoft's Chronicle, ed. T. Wright, 1866-8 (Rolls Ser. 47), II, 230.

39 See the case of John Giffard: VII, nos. 78, 180; IX, no. 686. This same Giffard may possibly be referred to elsewhere without specific designation.

40 A. 216.

41 Op. cit., pp. 170-1.

42 Worthies of England (1662), ed. P. A. Nuttall, 1840, I, 63.

43 Statutes of the Realm, 46 Edw. III.

44 Op. cit. 23 Hen. VI, cap. 14.

45 Worthies of England, ed. Nuttall, 1840, I, 61.

46 Ed. G. E. Woodbine, 1922, or T. Twiss, 1878 (Rolls Ser. 70).

47Op. cit., p. 231. Cap. 24.

48 Titles of Honour, Works, 1726, III, 660.

49 Op. cit., III, 661. See Fleta, sen Commentarius Juris Anglicani, 1685, p. 2.

50 Ibid.

51 Op. cit., III, 1027 (Note no. 248, to fol. 661).

52 Domesday Book and Beyond, 1897, p. 87.

53 2nd ed. 1899, I, 546, note 1.

54 De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, ed. Woodbine, p. 32, Twiss, I, 36-8.

55 Woodbine, p. 269, Twiss, II, 60.

56 See note 38.

57 Op. cit., II, 240.

58 Op. cit., II, 298.

59 The Story of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1887 (Rolls Ser. 87), p. 384.

60 Ed. S. J. Herrtage, 1879 (E.E.T.S. XXXIV), p. 16.

61 William Camden, Britannia, 1617, p. 86.

62 Op. cit., p. 92.

63 To Professor H. L. Gray of Bryn Mawr College I am indebted for a reference to franklins in Edmund Dudley's The Tree of Commonwealth (ed. 1859), which was written in 1509-10. The commons are said (p. 19) to include “merchantes, craftesmen and artificers, laborers, franklins, grasiers, farmers, tyllers, and other generallie the people of this realme.” This seems to imply that by the sixteenth century the term franklin had fallen in esteem, especially as Dudley lists (p. 20) “substanciall merchantes, the welthie grasiers and farmers” as “chief of theis folkes.” On the other hand, we find in The Interlude of Wealth and Health, ll. 512-3 (Malone Soc. Reprints, 1907) the following:

Merchauntes hath marchaundise and goods incomperable

Men of law and franklins is welthy which is laudable.

This interlude was written about 1557. It is interesting to notice that franklins are still classed with men of law and still accounted rich. Similarly, in the morality All for Money by Thomas Lupton, 1578, D iii (Tudor Facsimile Texts, 1910) Nichol-never-out-of-the-Law comes on the stage “like a riche frankeline.” I owe the last two references to Mr. W. Willard Thorp of Princeton University.