A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Clergy outlawed.

Freed from danger on the side of Scotland, Edward was now at liberty to turn his attention towards France. But his late exertions had caused great expenditure, to which had been added the subsidies by which he had been compelled to purchase the alliance of the Princes on the north-east of France. To meet this necessity, a Parliament was summoned at Bury St. Edmunds, at which the Barons and Commons gave fresh grants. But the clergy, driven to extremity by the King’s late demands upon them, found themselves in a position to refuse. Benedict of Gaita had lately been elected Pope, under the title of Boniface VIII., and had at once entered upon a policy resembling that of the great Popes of the twelfth century. He had issued a Bull known by the name of “Clericis Laicos,” in which he had forbidden the clergy to pay taxes to their temporal sovereign. Backed by this authority, Archbishop Winchelsea refused in the name of the clergy to make any grant to Edward. The clergy, it was said, owed allegiance to two sovereigns—the one temporal, the other spiritual. Their obedience was due first to their spiritual chief. An exemption from taxation of the Church, which had rapidly been growing enormously wealthy, would have crippled Edward’s resources. He had already accepted the principle, that all should be consulted and all pay in matters touching the advantage of all. He proceeded at once, therefore, to meet the claim in his usual legal fashion. If the clergy would not help him, he would not protect the clergy. The Chief Justice was ordered to announce publicly from the bench in Westminster Hall, that no justice would be done the clergy in the King’s Court, but would nevertheless be done to all manner of persons who had any complaint against them. Nor was this sentence of outlawry a vain one; the tenants began at once to refuse to pay their rents, the Church property was seized, and the owners could get no redress. This severe treatment induced many of the clergy to make their submission, but the Archbishop still held out.

Barons too refuse to help Edward.

Compromise with the clergy.

Edward secures an illegal grant.

Matters thus remained till another Parliament met at Salisbury in February 1297, when, the Barons only being summoned, the King explained his plan for the war with France. He was under pledge to pay subsidies, and to bring an army to his allies in Flanders. This army he would personally command. He wished his Constable and Marshall, the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk, to take charge of a second army destined for Guienne. These two noblemen positively refused. They had learnt law from their King, and alleged as their excuse, which was evidently only a technical one, that they were only bound to follow the King in person. They then withdrew from the Assembly, which broke up, with nothing done. The King, in want of money, gave free vent to his arbitrary temper, seized the wool of his merchants, and ordered large requisitions of provisions to be made in the counties, for which, however, he promised future payment. In the following March, Winchelsea had a personal interview with the King, in which he appears to have arranged some sort of temporary compromise; for immediately afterwards a meeting of the clergy was held, in which he recommended them to act each for himself as best he could. Determined to proceed in spite of all opposition, the King summoned the whole military force of the kingdom to meet him at London on the 7th of July. There the Earls still refused to do their duty, and fresh officers were appointed in their place. The King reconciled himself with the clergy, and appointed the Archbishop one of the counsellors who were to act as advisers to his young son Edward, in whose hands he left the government. He also induced those nobles and Commons who were with him, though in no sense a Parliament, to make him a money grant. They gave him an eighth of the moveables of the barons and knights, a fifth of the cities and boroughs. This grant was given expressly for a promised confirmation of the charters. This seems to show what the real point at issue was. The King’s excessive arbitrary taxation had aroused the old feeling which had produced the baronial wars of the preceding reign. The clergy were also asked for a grant in a convocation held upon the 10th of August. It was there decided that there was good hope that leave would be given them to make a grant. On this the King acted, and ordered a levy of what amounted to a fifth on all their revenue, both temporal and spiritual.

The Earls demand the confirmation of the charters.

It is granted with reservations.

Shortly after this, he received the demands of the refractory Earls, complaining of the non-observance of the charters, of the tallages, aids and requisitions, and of the tax on wool. Declining to give an answer at present, on the 22nd of August he set sail for Flanders. On the very next day the Earls appeared in the Exchequer Chamber, and peremptorily forbad the collection of the irregularly granted eighth, until the charters had been signed which had been the express condition of the grant. The necessity for concession had become obvious, and in a Parliament summoned on the 6th of October, the promised confirmation was given by the Prince. The Earls, who appeared in arms, with troops, insisted upon the addition of some supplementary clauses, which have since been known as the statute “De tallagio non concedendo.” They further demanded that the late grant should be considered illegal; it was therefore cancelled, and a new constitutional grant of a ninth was made in its place. Prince Edward’s confirmation was renewed by the King in person at Ghent. It was again renewed, in 1299, with an unsatisfactory clause “saving the rights of the Crown,” which the King was obliged subsequently to remove, and finally, in 1301, at the Parliament of Lincoln. The charters thus confirmed were the amended charter of Henry III., the additions to it were contained in the supplementary articles of the two Earls, which forbid what had hitherto been undoubtedly constitutional, the arbitrary tallaging of towns and taxing of wool. They contained however a clause “saving the old rights of the King,” and Edward took advantage of this afterwards, in 1304, to continue the old wool-tax and to tallage the towns in his own domain.[50]

Appearance of Wallace.