LATER MEDIEVAL CHESTER 1230-1550
City and crown, 1237-1350
Although the Crown's annexation of the Norman
earldom of Chester in 1237 made no immediate
impact upon the city's institutions, it brought it into
direct contact with the king and royal officials for the
first time since 1066. Henry III was anxious to be seen
as the legitimate successor of the Norman earls, and
especially of Ranulph III. As early as 1232 he granted
£3 a year from the manor of Newcastle-under-Lyme
(Staffs.) to support a chaplain at Chester abbey to pray
for Earl Ranulph's soul, and in 1238 he ordered the
arrears to be paid. (fn. 1) Royal confirmations of Ranulph's
three charters to the citizens, guaranteeing their liberties, free customs, and guild merchant, were issued in
1237 and 1239. (fn. 2) Henry also took over the earls'
charitable responsibilities within the city. In 1239, for
example, he provided for three beds for the poor and
infirm in St. John's hospital without the Northgate, as
Ranulph III had done, (fn. 3) and in 1241 he ordered that
William of the chamber was to have his wages for
keeping the king's buildings and garden at Chester
castle, in the same manner as his ancestors under the
Norman earls. (fn. 4)
The farm of the city was fixed in 1237 at the very
high sum of £200 a year, besides £100 for the Dee
Mills; it was, however, reduced in the two succeeding
years, so that in 1239-40 it stood at £130. (fn. 5) An
allowance was also made to the city bailiffs or sheriffs
for keeping town and bridge in 1240. (fn. 6) Such generosity
was counterbalanced by a tallage of 50 marks assessed
on the city in the same year, and by loans totalling 300
marks which the king extracted from the citizens in
1244 and 1246. (fn. 7)
In 1241 Henry first visited Chester, on his way to
and from Rhuddlan (Flints.) to receive the submission
of the Welsh prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn. (fn. 8) Those visits
saw the inauguration of work on the castle and the
dispatch of building implements and military equipment from Chester to Rhuddlan. (fn. 9) The king was also in
Chester in 1245, at the head of a large army which
relieved Dyserth castle (Flints.) and established a new
fortress at Deganwy (Caern.). He again returned to
England by way of the city. (fn. 10) During such expeditions
men were mustered at Chester, and the city became a
major source of provisions, equipment, and weapons. (fn. 11)
The royal financial administration, the wardrobe, was
temporarily established there, and received from Ireland and elsewhere large sums of money which were
stored in the castle and the abbey. (fn. 12)
In 1257 in a rising against the officials of Henry III
and his son the Lord Edward, the Welsh apparently
penetrated as far as Chester. (fn. 13) In response Henry and
Edward organized a further expedition into Wales,
mustering men and equipment in the city. (fn. 14) Envoys
from Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd visited the king
there, (fn. 15) and the royal wardrobe and its staff were again
brought thither. (fn. 16) After a fortnight's stay Henry and
Edward set out on what was to be the king's last
invasion of Wales. They returned to Chester less than
a month later after a brief campaign. (fn. 17) Although plans
for further expeditions were frustrated by Henry's
difficulties in England, (fn. 18) in 1260 Edward raised substantial loans from the city. (fn. 19)
During the Barons' Wars Chester was held for the
Lord Edward by the justice, William la Zouche, who in
1263 took violent possession of St. Werburgh's and in
1264, apparently at the suggestion of one of the city
sheriffs, began a defensive ditch immediately north of
the city walls, destroying property belonging to the
abbey in the process. (fn. 1) Despite William's efforts, the city
and county were given to Simon de Montfort in 1264,
and in 1265 Simon's son Henry went there to receive
homage from the citizens and the men of the shire. (fn. 2)
After Edward's escape from baronial custody, however,
the royalists besieged Luke de Taney, Montfort's justice
of Chester, in Chester castle. Taney surrendered upon
news of Montfort's defeat at Evesham, (fn. 3) and Edward
himself occupied Chester, from where he sent out
instructions described as his 'first recorded act of
state' as a 'responsible adviser of the Crown'. (fn. 4) In
1270 he ordered that nothing except due prises (customs duties) were to be taken from the city's merchants. (fn. 5) In return he seems to have expected more
loans; in the early 1270s, for example, he was repaying
a debt of £400 owed to the mayor and citizens. (fn. 6)
After 1267 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's annual payments
in return for recognition as prince of Wales and other
concessions made in the treaty of Montgomery were
handed over to the king's envoys at St. Werburgh's
abbey. (fn. 7) By 1274, however, the prince was falling into
arrears, (fn. 8) and his failure to appear at Chester in 1275,
after Edward I had journeyed there to receive his
submission, (fn. 9) proved a turning point in his relations
with the king. (fn. 10) By then preparations were in train to
establish Chester as the base for a major expedition
against him. Already in 1274 the king had ordered that
the royal demesne in Chester be tilled and sown, and
dilapidated houses within the castle replaced, (fn. 11) and in
1275 his grant of the Dee Mills to the royal master
mason Richard the engineer was accompained by
provision for grinding corn free of toll in time of war. (fn. 12)
With the outbreak of Edward's first Welsh war in
1277, Chester was made one of the three military
commands from which Llywelyn's principality was
attacked; royal forces operating from the city under
the command of William de Beauchamp, earl of
Warwick, quickly brought northern Powys to submission. (fn. 13) As in previous campaigns, workmen, soldiers,
timber, ammunition, victuals, and boats were
assembled in the city. (fn. 14) The royal wardrobe was also
brought there in five carts. (fn. 15) With the city thus
established as the chief base for operations in northeastern Wales, in July Edward himself arrived to lead a
large force of infantry on the culminating campaign. (fn. 16)
He returned to the city in September when it was clear
that Llywelyn would be forced to surrender. (fn. 17)
Chester retained its pivotal role in the aftermath of
that campaign. It was there that Llywelyn was required
to pay annual instalments of the huge debt to the king
which he had incurred as the price of his disobedience.
It was there too, in St. John's church, that 10 hostages
from the leading men of Gwynedd were released after
swearing loyalty on the Holy Cross of Chester. (fn. 18)
Chester's functions as an administrative and financial
centre were enhanced by the activity generated by
Edward's new castles in north-east Wales, placed
under the supervision of an officer of the palatinate,
the justice of Chester. (fn. 19) In 1276 the citizens were
formally granted the farm of the city, together with
the fishery at the Dee Bridge, for an annual payment of
£150. (fn. 20) In 1280 the justice was ordered to establish an
exchange in the city for trafficking in precious metals,
and £1,000 was sent from London for the purpose. (fn. 21)
Two local merchants were placed in charge, and in
1281 were ordered to deliver £1,250 to the keeper of
the wardrobe for the expenses of the royal household. (fn. 22)
In 1281 further payments were made into the wardrobe
at Chester, and the city provided one of the locations
for an inquiry into the laws and customs of the
Welsh. (fn. 23)
The Welsh rebellion in 1282 greatly enhanced
Chester's military and administrative importance. As
in 1277, the city formed the base of one of three
military commands, and was put in the charge of the
trusted Reynold de Grey, aided by the sheriffs of
Lancashire and Shropshire. (fn. 24) Reynold was quickly
placed in control of a cavalry force, and provisions
from all over the king's dominions, but especially
Ireland, Ponthieu, and the bishopric of Winchester,
flowed into Chester. (fn. 25) Weapons, in particular quarrels
for crossbowmen, were sent to the city, (fn. 26) and workmen
gathered there, including a muster of 1,010 diggers and
345 carpenters from all parts of England. (fn. 1) A special
wardrobe account was kept for the campaign, and the
royal wardrobe was once more moved to Chester. (fn. 2)
Chester, c. 1500
Edward himself arrived in the midst of that activity,
and took command of the cavalry already mustered
there. (fn. 3) With him came the royal court and chancery,
and during 1282 and 1283 chancery enrolments were
made at Chester. (fn. 4) Edward moved on into north Wales
after staying in the city for over three weeks and leaving
orders for 1,000 woodcutters to be assembled there and
sent on to Rhuddlan to help clear pathways for his
men. (fn. 5) The city remained a major centre for provisioning the army; late in 1282, for example, the justice of
Chester and the sheriffs of some 15 counties were
ordered to ensure that it was continuously supplied
with victuals and other merchandise. (fn. 6)
Edward returned to Chester after his victory in
summer 1283. (fn. 7) He was there again in 1284, en route
to north Wales, (fn. 8) but made no further visits until after
the launch of his third campaign against the Welsh in
1294. (fn. 9) In response to the rebellion of that year Edward
established three commands, the northernmost at
Chester under Reynold de Grey and John de Warenne,
earl of Surrey. (fn. 10) By the end of the year, when the king
himself arrived in Chester, 16,000 infantrymen had
been mustered. (fn. 11) Edward proceeded swiftly to Conwy
(Caern.), (fn. 12) arranging for supplies to be transmitted
from Chester, in particular large quantities of wood to
make crossbows and hurdles. (fn. 13) As before, the city
formed an administrative base, and in 1295, while
the king was at Conwy, the chancellor, John Langton,
stayed there. (fn. 14) With the restoration of peace the city
was the scene of the recruitment of 100 masons to
work on Caernarfon castle. (fn. 15)
Edward's decisive victory over the rebels in 1294-5
ended resistance to his rule in Wales, and he seems to
have paid only one further visit to Chester, in 1301. (fn. 16)
The Welsh campaigns, however, left their impact on
the city. By 1295, for example, the portmote had
evolved the custom that in time of war it did not
meet except to hear pleas of novel disseisin, darrein
presentment, and dower. (fn. 17) The city, moreover,
retained its role as a supply centre, albeit on a much
reduced scale, when Edward turned his attentions to
Scotland. In 1300, for example, Henry de Lacy, earl of
Lincoln, sent envoys to Chester to obtain provisions for
his mission to Scotland on the king's behalf, and in
1306 ten ships were gathered in the port to carry corn
to the North. (fn. 18)
In 1300, perhaps in recognition of the city's special
role in his Welsh campaigns, Edward granted Chester a
new charter, for the most part a confirmation of
developments which had occurred informally over
the previous century. (fn. 19) By that means the king recognized the existence of the mayoralty (never the subject
of a formal grant), officially recorded for the first time
that the farm was in the hands of the citizens, and fixed
that farm at £100, the figure customarily paid throughout his reign. (fn. 20) There was, however, one important
innovation: the exceptional, indeed at that time unique
grant to the mayor and sheriffs of the right to hold the
pleas of the Crown. The implications of the concession
were considerable, and the charter may justly be
regarded as a landmark in the city's history. (fn. 21) Its
issue was preceded by Chester's addition a few weeks
earlier to the select group of towns with exchanges, that
established in 1280 presumably having lapsed after the
conquest of Wales. (fn. 22)
In 1301 Edward I's son, Edward of Caernarfon, was
made prince of Wales and earl of Chester. He was not
seen at Chester until 1309, when as Edward II he made
his first and apparently only visit, in order to meet his
favourite, Piers Gaveston, returning from Ireland. (fn. 23)
During his reign Chester remained a base from which
supplies could be obtained for royal enterprises in
Scotland and elsewhere. In 1309, for example, William
(III) of Doncaster, the most prominent of the Chester
merchants, supplied the king with 5,000 horseshoes,
8,000 large nails, and 60,000 small nails. (fn. 24) In 1310 the
justice of Chester was requested to find victuals for the
king's intended war against Robert Bruce, and in 1311
the mayor and citizens were asked to supply two ships. (fn. 1)
Further requests were made after the king's defeat at
Bannockburn had opened the way for Scottish raiding
throughout the North. Thus in 1316 payments were
made for 1,000 footmen sent from Glamorgan to
Chester and thence to Scotland, and safe-conducts
were issued to merchants of Chester to buy corn in
Ireland for the king's needs. (fn. 2)
Edward's political difficulties had their repercussions
in the North-West, and in 1318 disorder broke out in
Chester. A great multitude of armed men came there
on a day when the county court was due to be held,
besieged the city, wounded and killed some of its
defenders, and burned suburban houses. Thereafter
they maintained a guard on the river Dee to prevent
merchants from entering or leaving, and attacked those
who tried to do so. Sir Roger Mortimer, justice of
Wales, John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, Sir John Grey,
and the sheriffs of Lancashire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire were commissioned to repress the disorder. (fn. 3)
Though its cause is not known, it was clearly related to
Edward's quarrel with his cousin Thomas, earl of
Lancaster. The attackers apparently included Thomas's
men, and the earl intervened to ensure that those
imprisoned in Chester castle were delivered to his
own officials. (fn. 4)
Chester was evidently a centre of disaffection after
Edward II's deposition in 1327. Among the very many
included in the general pardon of that year were
William of Basingwerk and Richard of the Peak, both
local men. (fn. 5) Later, just as an invasion was planned by
the Scots, the justice of Chester received an order to
arrest a group of malefactors in the city and adjacent
ports. (fn. 6) Within a month, the former mayor Richard le
Bruyn had also been arrested and accused of adherence
to Donald, earl of Mar (d. 1332), one of the Scottish
leaders. (fn. 7) Thereafter, fines ranging from £30 to £200
were extracted from several leading citizens, including
William of Doncaster the elder, presumably William
(III), (fn. 8) and 18 of their sons were briefly imprisoned in
Chester castle as sureties. (fn. 9)
By the end of 1327 relations between city and Crown
had improved, and four Chester merchants were given
letters of protection and safe conduct for a year. (fn. 10) In
1329 the mayor and citizens were granted a murage (a
tax for repairing the walls) for four years. (fn. 11) Despite the
appointment of a commission in 1330 to inquire into
their alleged misappropriation of large sums collected
under an earlier grant of murage, (fn. 12) relations thereafter
with the new regime seem to have been unexceptionable. In 1333 Edward III's young son, Edward of
Woodstock, later known as the Black Prince, was
created earl of Chester; he did not, however, visit the
city until 1353. (fn. 13)