[489] Berkeleys, i. 159.
[490] Lives of the Berkeleys, i. 130. A charter given by Baldwin of Redvers to Plympton, 1285, grants the same rights as the citizens of Exeter had from the King, except that Baldwin’s serfs, if they lived in the borough, might not be granted its liberties without his leave. (Madox, Firma Burgi, 42.) The King could grant a number of privileges which were beyond the power of any other lord—such as freedom from tolls throughout the kingdom, exemption from the sheriff’s jurisdiction, freedom from interference of royal officers, and so on; and the matter of tolls was so important that towns on private estates were practically obliged to get a royal charter as well as a charter from their lord. Compare the charters given in Stubbs’ Charters, 105; and Gross, ii, 136; with royal charters such as those in Stubbs’ Charters, 103; and Nott. Rec., i. 1. See also Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 273.
[491] Berkeleys, i. 341.
[492] Berkeleys, i. 226, 228.
[493] Ibid. i. 183-185.
[494] Ibid. i. 227.
[495] Plumpton’s Correspondence, 1-li.
[496] Berkeleys, i. 233-236, 272, 280. Compare the story of Sir William Plumpton, who fought at Towton on the losing side. He was brought before the chief justice in York and gave a bond for the payment of £2,000 before next Pentecost, and failing to procure it had to give himself up a prisoner at the Tower. He obtained a pardon, was released from his bond in 1462, and had new letters of pardon in 1463, but was still unable to return home till 1464, after he had been through a new trial and been acquitted. (Plumpton’s Corres. lxvii-ix. 30.)
[497] Freeman’s Exeter, 166-7.
[498] Berkeleys, ii. 95. Compare the expenses of Fastolf in a lawsuit of ten years, the costs of which were recorded in a roll of seven skins. (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 461.)