85

XIV.

1327

THE petition of the elder Spenfer to parliament, CHA P. complaining of the devaftation committed on his lands by the barons, contains feveral particulars, which are curious, and discover the manners of the age ". He affirms, that they had ravaged fixty-three manors belonging to him, and he makes his loffes amount to 46,000 pounds; that is, to 138,000 of our prefent money. Among other particulars, he enumerates 28,000 fheep, 1000 oxen and heifers, 1200 cows with their breed for two years, 560 cart-horses, 2000 hogs, together with 600 bacons, 80 carcaffes of beef, and 600 muttons in the larder; ten tuns of cyder, arms for 200 men, and other warlike engines and provifions. The plain inference is, that the greater part of Spenfer's vaft eftate, as well as the eftates of the other nobility, was farmed by the landlord himself, managed by his ftewards or bailiffs, and cultivated by his villains. Little or none of it was let on leafe to hufbandmen: Its produce was confumed in ruftic hofpitality by the baron or his officers: A great number of idle retainers, ready for any disorder or mischief, were maintained by him: All who lived upon his estate were absolutely at his difpofal: Instead of applying to courts of justice, he usually fought redrefs by open force and violence: The great nobility were a kind of independent potentates, who, if they fubmitted to any regulations at all, were lefs governed by

85 Brady's hift. vol. ii. p. 143, from Clauf. 15 Edw. II. M. 14. Dors. in cedulâ,

1327.

CHAP. the municipal law, than by a rude fpecies of the XIV. law of nations. The method, in which we find they treated the king's favorites and minifters, is a proof of their ufual way of dealing with each other. A party, which complains of the arbitrary conduct of minifters, ought naturally to affect a great regard for 'the laws and conftitution, and maintain at least the appearance of justice in their proceedings: Yet thofe barons, when difcontented, came to parliament with an armed force, conftrained the king to affent to their measures, and without any trial or witness or conviction, paffed, from the pretended notoriety of facts, an act of banishment or attainder against the minifter, which, on the first revolution of fortune, was reversed by like expedients. The parliament, during factious times, was nothing but the organ of prefent power. Though the perfons, of whom it was chiefly compofed, feemed to enjoy great independence, they really poffeffed no true liberty; and the fecurity of each individual among them, was not fo much derived from the general protection of law, as from his own private power and that of his confederates. The authority of the monarch, though far from abfolute, was irregular, and might often reach him: The current of a faction might overwhelm him: A hundred confiderations, of benefits and injuries, friendships and animofities, hopes and fears, were able to influence his conduct; and amidst thefe motives a regard to equity and law and juftice was commonly, in thofe rude ages, of little moment.

XIV.

1327.

Nor did any man entertain thoughts of oppofing CHA P. prefent power, who did not deem himself ftrong enough to dispute the field with it by force, and was not prepared to give battle to the fovereign or the ruling party.

BEFORE I Conclude this reign, I cannot forbear making another remark, drawn from the detail of loffes given in by the elder Spenfer; particularly, the great quantity of falted meat which he had in his larder, 600 bacons, 80 carcaffes of beef, 600 muttous. We We may obferve that the outrage, of which he complained, began after the third of May, or the eleventh new ftyle, as we learn from the fame paper. It is eafy therefore to conjecture what a vast store of the fame kind he muft have laid up at the beginning of winter; and we may draw a new conclufion with regard to the wretched state of ancient husbandry, which could not provide fubfiftence for the cattle during winter, even in fuch a temperate climate as the fouth of England: For Spenfer had but one manor fo far north as Yorkshire. There being few or no inclofures, except perhaps for deer, no fown grafs, little hay, and no other refource for feeding cattle; the barons, as well as the people, were obliged to kill and falt their oxen and fheep in the beginning of winter, before they became lean upon the common pasture: A precaution ftill practifed with regard to oxen in the leaft culti vated parts of this ifland. The falting of mutton is a miferable expedient, which has every where been long difufed. From this circumstance,

CHAP. however trivial in appearance, may be drawn important inferences, with regard to the domestic œconomy and manner of life in thofe ages.

XIV. 1327.

THE diforders of the times, from foreign wars and inteftine diffenfions, but above all, the cruel famine, which obliged the nobility to difmifs many of their retainers, increased the number of robbers in the kingdom; and no place was fecure from their incurfions". They met in troops like armies, and over-ran the country. Two cardinals, themselves, the pope's legates, notwithstanding the numerous train, which attended them, were robbed, and defpoiled of their goods and equipage, when they travelled on the high-way

87

AMONG the other wild fancies of the age, it was imagined, that the perfons affected with leprofy, a disease at that time very common, probably from bad diet, had confpired with the Saracens to poifon all the springs and fountains; and men being glad of any pretence to get rid of those who were a burthen to them, many of thofe unhappy people were burnt alive on this chimerical imputation. Several Jews alfo were punished in their perfons, and their goods were confifcated on the fame account ".

STOWE, in his furvey of London, gives us a curious inftance of the hofpitality of the ancient nobility in this period: It is taken from the ac

36

Malf. p. 107. Ypod. Neuft. p. 502.

37 Ibid. p. 503. T. de la More, p. 594. Trivet, cont. p. 22. Murimuth, p. 51.

Ypod. Neuft. p. 504.

XIV.

1327.

counts of the cofferer or fteward of Thomas earl CHA P. of Lancaster, and contains the expences of that earl during the year 1313, which was not a year of famine. For the pantry, buttery, and kitchen, 3405 pounds. For 369 pipes of red wine, and two of white, 104 pounds, &c. The whole 7309 pounds; that is, near 22,000 pounds of our present money; and making allowance for the cheapness of commodities, near a hundred thousand pounds. I HAVE feen a French manufcript, containing accounts of fome private disbursements of this king. There is an article, among others, of a crown paid to one for making the king laugh. To judge by the events of the reign, this ought not to have been an eafy undertaking.

THIS king left four children, two fons and two daughters: Edward, his eldeft fon and fucceffor; John, created afterwards earl of Cornwal, who died young at Perth; Jane, afterwards married to David Bruce, king of Scotland; and Eleanor, married to Reginald, count of Gueldres.