Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

by John Horace Round

[1034] Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 124: "Circa idem tempus, scilicet Pentecosten (1270), ad instantiam domini Edwardi concessit Dominus Rex civibus ad habendum de se ipsis duos Vicecomites, qui tenerent Vicecomitatum Civitatis et Midelsexiæ ad firmam sicut ante solebant: Ita, tamen, cum temporibus transactis solvissent inde tantummodo per annum ccc libras sterlingorum blancorum, quod de cetero solvent annuatim cccc libras sterlingorum computatorum.... Et tunc tradite sunt civibus omnes antique carte eorum de libertatibus suis que fuerunt in manu Domini Regis, et concessum est eis per Dominum Regem et per Dominum Edwardum ut eis plenarie utantur, excepto quod pro firma Civitatis et Comitatus solvent per annum cccc libras, sicut præscriptum est.

"Tunc temporis dederunt Cives Domino Regi centum marcas sterlingorum.... Dederunt etiam Domino Edwardo Vᶜ. marcas ad expensas suas in itinere versus Terram Sanctam." This passage is quoted in full because, important though the transaction is, not a trace of it is to be found in The Historical Charters and Constitutional Documents of the City of London (1884), the latest work on the subject. So, in 1284, when Edward I., who had "taken into his hands" the town of Nottingham for some years, restored the burgesses their liberties, it was at the price of their firma being raised from £52 to £60 a year.

[1035] History of London, ii. 208, 209.

[1036] A curious illustration of the fact that this firma arose out of the city and county alike is afforded by Henry III.'s charter (1253): "quod vii libre sterlingorum per annum allocarentur Vicecomitibus in firma eorum pro libertate ecclesiæ sancti Pauli."

[1037] This is illustrated by the subsequent prohibition of the sheriffs themselves underletting the county at "farm" (Liber Custumarum, p. 91; Liber Albus, p. 46).

[1038] Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I., p. 2.

[1039] Ibid., p. 122.

[1040] Ibid., p. 100.

[1041] Ibid., p. 52.

[1042] "William de Einesford, vicecomes de Londoniâ," heads the list of witnesses to a London agreement assigned to 1114-1130 (Ramsey Cartulary, i. 139).