A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Establishment of customs.

His restorative measures. 1278.

The first years of the King’s reign were employed in restoring order to the government and the finances. His first Parliament met at Westminster in 1275, where was passed a great restorative measure known by the name of the First Statute of Westminster. It was so wide and far-reaching that it might be called a code rather than an Act. Its object is said by a contemporary writer to have been to “awake those languid laws which had long been lulled asleep” by the abuses of the time. It secured the rights of the Church, improved the tardy processes of law, and re-established the charters, further limiting the sums which could be demanded for the three legal aids. At the same Parliament, an export duty on wool and leather, the origin of the customs, was granted to the King, the more readily, perhaps, as his firmness had lately re-established the wool-trade with Flanders. During the next three or four years other less popular measures were taken with a view to replenish the King’s treasury. Commissions were issued to inquire into the exact limits of the grants of the late King to the clergy, and to inquire into the tenure of property throughout England, with the twofold view of establishing the rights of property disturbed by the late war, and of clearly defining the revenue due to the Crown.

New coinage.

Statute of Mortmain. 1279.

It was not till the year 1278 that the effect of this commission was seen. Orders were then issued to the itinerant justices to make use of the evidence which had been obtained, and to issue writs of “quo warranto,” to oblige owners to make good their titles. This was the occasion of the well-known answer of Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, who presented his sword to the judge, saying, “This is my title-deed, with this my ancestors won my land, with this will I keep it.” The temper thus shown by one of his most faithful followers prevented Edward from pushing matters to extremity. During these years was set on foot also the practice of demanding that those who were wealthy enough should receive knighthood. The practice was kept up during the reign, but the property counted sufficient for the holder of that dignity varied from £20 to £100 a year. The King’s activity reached in all directions. Another commission was issued to inquire into the conduct of sheriffs. The coinage, much clipped and debased, was renewed; it was ordered that its shape should always be round, as the prevalent method of clipping had been to cut the pieces into four, so that the exact edge could not be known. At length, in 1279, Edward proceeded to regulate one of the great abuses of the Church. Not only had that body become exorbitantly rich, but the privileges which it claimed had begun to be detrimental to the Crown; and when, in the earlier part of the year, Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, produced and authorized, at a meeting at Reading, some canons tending to the independence of the Church, the King was determined to strike a blow in return. As corporations could not die, land which had passed into their possession was free from the fines and payments due from an incoming heir, which were thus lost to the feudal superior. Moreover, and this touched the Crown more nearly, it had become a habit to give property to the Church, and fraudulently to receive it back again as a Church fief, and thus free from feudal services. By the Statute of Mortmain, which was now passed, it was forbidden, without the King’s consent, to transfer property to the Church.

Wales. 1275.

Llewellyn’s suspicious conduct.

War breaks out. 1277.

Llewellyn submits.