Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
8 February 1782. This day being appointed as a Fast on the present Troubles and Wars abroad, I went to Weston church this morning at 11 O’clock and there read Prayers proper on the occasion—but there was no sermon after.
8 March 1789. I read prayers and preached this afternoon at Weston Church. Also read with the greatest pleasure a Prayer composed on the occasion on the restoration of his Majesty’s Health, which I received this morning.
In offering special prayers upon occasions of national importance Parson Woodforde was following an old tradition. One earlier phase of this tradition which is worth close scrutiny is the Hundred Years War, which affected all sections of the English population, civilian as well as military, clerical as well as lay.
1 Woodforde, James, The Diary of a Country Parson 1738-1802 selected and edited Beresford, John (Oxford 1978) pp 179, 344Google Scholar.
2 Allmand, C.T., ‘The War and the Non-combatant’, The Hundred Years War, ed Fowler, Kenneth (London 1971)Google Scholar; Barnie, John, War in Medieval Society (London 1974)Google Scholar.
3 (Manchester 1966) pp 160-5.
5 LAO Reg 5 (Burghersh, Memoranda) fol 548v.
6 Thomas Bek 1342-7; John Gynewell 1347-62; John Buckingham 1363-98; Philip Repingdon 1405-19; Richard Fleming 1420-31; William Gray 1431-6; William Alnwick 1437-49.
7 16 June 1385, peace and the English church, LAO Reg 12 (Buckingham, Memoranda) fol 305v.
8 The Prince of Wales’s soul and the king’s recovery in 1376, ibid fol 133.
9 Mandate to pray for Henry duke of Lancaster going abroad to fight Otto duke of Brunswick, his enemy in 1352, LAO Reg 8 (Gynewell, Memoranda) fol 21v; undated mandate to pray for Richard, bishop of Lincoln, going abroad as an ambassador of the king, LAO Reg 16 (Fleming) fol 247v.
10 See appendix.
11 LAO Reg 7 (Bek, Memoranda) fols 3v-4; Perroy, E., The Hundred Years War (London 1959) p 115 Google Scholar.
12 LAO Reg 8 fol 76; Fowler, (Kenneth], The King’s Lieutenant (London 1969) pp 148-9Google Scholar.
13 Ibid p 151; LAO Reg 8 fols 65r/v.
14 Writ, 8 May, CalCR 1374-7 p 224; episcopal mandate 25 May, LAO Reg 12 fol 128.
15 Writ of 24 June, CalCR 1377-81 p 469; LAO Reg 12B (Buckingham, Royal Writs) fols 30v-1.
16 LAO Reg 12 fols 253v, 259v-6o.
17 23 July 1386, ibid fol 330.
18 Writ, 20 March 1387, CalCR 1385-9 p 309; episcopal mandate 2 April, LAO Reg 12B fol 50. 20 June 1388, ibid fol 53v.
19 LAO Reg 12 fol 437v. The visit to France took place in October-November, Oman, C., The Political History of England 1377-1485 (London 1906) p 130 Google Scholar.
20 See Aston, M.E., ‘The Impeachment of Bishop Despenser’, BIHR 38 (1965) pp 127-48Google Scholar for a full account with references.
21 Ibid p 134 and n 2.
22 LAO Reg 12 fol 253v.
23 Ibid fol 259v.
24 Ibid fol 260; Chronicon Henrici Knighton, ed J .R. Lumby RS 92 (1895) 2 p 198.
25 LAO Reg 15 (Repingdon, Memoranda) fol 172v.
26 Handbook of British Chronology, ed Powicke, F.M and Fryde, E.B. (2 ed London 1961)p 37 Google Scholar.
27 LAO Reg 15 fols 189t/v, 200v, 207t/v.
28 LAO Reg 16 fols 211r/v.
29 LAO Reg 17 (Gray) fols 106r/v; DNB (compact edition) 1 p 1084.
30 LAO Reg 17 fols 180r/v; E. Perroy, The Hundred Years War, pp 290-6.
31 LAO Reg 8 fols 65r/V; Reg 12 fol 96v; Reg 16 fols 211r/v.
32 LAO Reg 5 fol 503.
33 ODCC p 500.
34 LAO Reg 15 fols 189r/v; Reg 16 fols 211r/v.
35 LAO Reg 12 fol 96v.
36 LAO Reg 16 fol 211r/v.
37 Reg 12 fol 96v.
38 H. J. Hewitt, The Organisation of War, p 163.
39 LAO Reg 12 fols 240v-1; The Sarum Missal, ed Legg, J.Wickham (Oxford 1916) pp 404-5Google Scholar.
40 Ibid pp 410-1; LAO Reg 15 fol 172v.
41 Ibid fols 189r/v; Saram Missal p 397.
42 LAO Reg 16 fol 211v.
43 LAO Reg 12 fol 133; Sarum Missal pp 409, 410 nn 1,5. Ibid p 404; LAO Reg 15 fols 124r/V.
44 LAO Reg 12 fol 260.
45 LAO Reg 15 fols 173v-174.
46 LAO Reg 16 fols 211r/v.
47 For example, 20 August 1374, CalCR 1374-7 p 96; 8 May 1375, ibid p 224.
48 Mandate of archbishop Courtenay to pray for peace, 30 May 1382; mandate of Robert Braybrooke, bishop of London, ordering execution, 5 June 1382, LAO Reg 12 fols 240v-1; mandate of archbishop John Stafford to pray for peace, 3 January 1447; mandate of Robert Gilbert, bishop of London, ordering execution, 4 February 1447, LAO Reg 18 (Alnwick) fols 71v-2.
49 Compare mandates to pray in The Register of Henry Chichele, ed Jacob, E.F, 3 CYS 46 (1945)Google Scholar with those in LAO Registers 15-18.
50 LAO Reg 8 fols 21v 28r/v (1352); for Lancaster’s quarrel with Otto duke of Brunswick see Fowler, The King’s Lieutenant, pp 106-9: Gynewell had served Lancaster as steward (1343-5) and treasurer (1344-6), ibid pp 177, 185.
51 LAO Reg 12 fol 82v; for Buckingham’s connection with Warwick, see Nottingham Mediaeval Studies 19 (1975)Google Scholar.
52 LAO Reg 16 fol 247v (undated).
53 LAO Reg 15 fols 189r/v, 200v.
53 LAO Reg 15 fols 189r/v, 200v.