CITY AND CROWN, 1350-1550
In 1351, as part of a more general investigation of his
earldom's franchises, the Black Prince instituted quo
warranto proceedings in Chester. For a ratification of
their charters and a declaration of the bounds of their
liberties, the citizens agreed to a fine of £300, which
because they were impoverished was to be paid by
instalments over five years. (fn. 11) Royal officials delayed the
matter until the prince himself went to Chester in
1353. (fn. 12) His visit, which lasted some two months,
involved a meeting in the city at which the men of
the shire paid a fine of 5,000 marks to maintain their
franchises. (fn. 13) Chester itself, in accordance with its
exempt status, did not contribute, (fn. 14) and in 1354
obtained a charter defining the boundaries of the
liberty, confirming its admiralty powers over the Dee,
and further excluding royal officials by annexing its
escheatorship to the mayoralty. (fn. 15) The payments promised in return for those privileges were extracted by the
prince only with considerable difficulty. (fn. 16)
The Black Prince again visited Chester briefly in
1358, but is not known otherwise to have gone
there. (fn. 17) The links of his son, Richard II (1377-99),
with the city and shire developed only in the later years
of his reign. The king visited Chester for the first time
in 1387 and granted the citizens a murage for the repair
of their ruined bridge. (fn. 18) His favourite, Robert de Vere,
earl of Oxford, whom he made justice of Chester,
established his household in the city and while based
there raised the army which was defeated at Radcot
Bridge (Oxon.) later in 1387. (fn. 1) The failure of Vere's
campaign was celebrated locally by his enemy Richard
FitzAlan, earl of Arundel, who from his base in Holt
(Denb.) caused a copy of the appeal against the royal
favourite to be nailed to the door of St. Peter's church. (fn. 2)
In 1389, after the king had reasserted his personal
authority, the men of the shire met at Chester and
granted a subsidy of 3,000 marks. (fn. 3)
In 1393 there was a mysterious rising in Cheshire,
apparently aimed primarily against Richard II's hated
enemy Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester,
then justice of Chester. The king proclaimed his
innocence of any involvement, but the fact that he
found it necessary to do so casts doubt upon his
protestation. At all events it provided him with a
pretext to remove Gloucester from the post of justice
and enabled him to consolidate his authority over city
and county. (fn. 4) The result of those manoeuvrings became
apparent in 1394, when Baldwin Radington, controller
of the royal household, at Chester to recruit for the
king's expedition to Ireland, broke into the abbot of St.
Werburgh's lodgings, detained two of his servants, and
raided the neighbouring houses. The mayor, John
Armourer, having intervened in the dispute, Radington
attacked the sheriffs; during the affray one of his own
men was killed and in retaliation he and his supporters
rode out 'in manner of war', terrorizing the city and its
environs, an outrage to which the king's only response
was to indict one of the sheriffs for the death of
Radington's follower. (fn. 5)
Royal involvement in the city's affairs brought
benefits as well as problems. In the 1390s royal
favour secured for the monks of St. Werburgh's the
long-sought licences to appropriate their livings. (fn. 6) The
resumption of building work at the crossing of the
abbey church may also be attributed to royal interest,
contact with a refined and sophisticated court being a
factor in the community's acquisition of such accomplished works as the late 14th-century choir stalls. (fn. 7) At
St. John's, too, royal patronage may have played a part
in the refoundation in 1393 of the fraternity of St.
Anne, the chaplains of which were to pray daily for the
king and his family. (fn. 8) In his last years Richard visited
the capital of his new principality with increasing
frequency, staying there at least six times in 1398-9. (fn. 9)
His growing fondness for the city was demonstrated in
1398 when he granted an exemplification of its charters
and extended its privileges by authorizing the outlawing of any foreign or unpropertied defendants
who failed to respond to summonses to appear in its
courts. (fn. 10)
Despite such favoured status, in 1399 the city surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke, duke of Lancaster,
without a fight. (fn. 11) Before the king's arrest the duke
stayed at Chester castle for 12 days, drinking the king's
wine, wasting fields, and pillaging houses. While there,
he also secured the arrest and execution of Sir Peter
Legh of Lyme, one of Richard's leading retainers in
Cheshire. (fn. 12) Richard himself, captured at Flint some two
weeks later, was taken to Chester and detained for a few
days in the castle, while Bolingbroke received a deputation from the city of London renouncing fealty to the
prisoner. (fn. 13)
Early in 1400 there was a revolt in Cheshire, linked
with the Earls' Rising. Those involved included prominent members of Richard's Cheshire retinue and a
large group of townsmen from Chester, who, dressed
in the livery of the deposed monarch, removed Legh's
head from the Eastgate and unsuccessfully besieged the
castle, then held by the chamberlain of Chester, the
sheriff of Cheshire, and the constable, William Venables of Kinderton. (fn. 14) Clearly there remained some
sympathy for Richard II among the civic élite. (fn. 15) The
Chester Carmelites, themselves well favoured by the
citizens, also apparently harboured Ricardian sympathies, and gave burial to Legh's mutilated body,
together with the head after its retrieval from the
Eastgate. (fn. 16)
The new dynasty exacted a price for such attitudes.
Some notable local offices changed hands in 1399-
1400, including the constableship of the castle and the
tenancy of the Dee Mills. (fn. 17) The Carmelites' complaint
of poverty in 1400 perhaps stemmed partly from
Bolingbroke's ravaging in 1399. (fn. 18) There was a reckoning, too, for St. Werburgh's: in 1400 Thomas Arundel,
archbishop of Canterbury, ordered a visitation to
investigate the monastery's financial administration.
Although Abbot Sutton survived, he was subjected to
humiliating restrictions, and soon afterwards the
appropriations of livings which Richard II had approved were revoked. (fn. 1)
The civic authorities appear nevertheless to have
reached a somewhat uneasy modus vivendi with the
new dynasty. The leading citizens were pardoned for
their role in the rising, (fn. 2) and in 1401 Henry, prince of
Wales, confirmed the charters. (fn. 3) Late in 1400 the mayor
and sheriffs were required to supply provisions protected by an armed guard for an expedition planned by
the king and prince, (fn. 4) and the portmote was suspended
while they fulfilled their commitments. (fn. 5) In 1402 the
city evidently agreed to provide and man a barge and
three small ships in the king's service, and later it was
required to furnish all the richer citizens with equipment necessary for its defence. (fn. 6) Despite Chester's cooperation, the new dynasty continued to be distrustful,
taking sureties to ensure that supplies sold in the city
were used to provision royal troops rather than the
rebels. (fn. 7)
In 1403 Sir Henry Percy ('Hotspur'), lately justice of
Chester, stayed in the city and raised the standard of
revolt there before the battle of Shrewsbury. (fn. 8) The
citizens were far less involved with the rebels than in
1400, and indeed the mayor and the constable of the
castle were present at Shrewsbury in the king's retinue. (fn. 9)
After Percy's defeat one of the quarters of his body was
sent to Chester, together with the heads of Sir Richard
Venables and Sir Richard Vernon. (fn. 10) The continuing
insecurity of both the new dynasty and the city
authorities was demonstrated in the instructions
issued by Prince Henry in response to defections in
north Wales in the weeks after the battle. The corporation was required to impose a curfew upon all Welshmen visiting Chester, and to ensure that they left their
arms at the city gates and did not gather in groups of
more than three; all Welsh residents were expelled and
any who stayed overnight were threatened with execution. Such measures against the Welsh were the most
extreme to be proclaimed in any English city during
Owain Glyn Dwr's revolt. (fn. 11) Shortly after their issue the
mayor and citizens were pardoned for their role in
Hotspur's rebellion, in return for a payment of 300
marks or for supplying shipping for men going to the
relief of Beaumaris castle (Ang.). (fn. 12)
In 1404 the government still found it necessary to
order the citizens not to sell arms or merchandise to
the rebels and to commission keepers of roads out of
Chester. (fn. 13) In 1405 Prince Henry visited the city, (fn. 14) and
by 1407, when grants of murages were resumed,
relations had probably been restored to some semblance of normality. (fn. 15) As the Welsh revolt crumbled,
Chester witnessed a steady stream of prominent local
Welshmen making their way to the castle to submit to
the English authorities. (fn. 16) Even so, in 1409 the Crown
nominated a governor temporarily to replace the
Welsh mayor, and in 1412 intervened again when
some citizens banded together to prevent a free election. (fn. 17) After the Welsh threat receded, no royal visits of
note were recorded, a sign perhaps that relations with
the Crown remained distant.
In 1442 Chester castle was chosen for the imprisonment of Eleanor Cobham, whose husband, Henry VI's
uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, had been justice
of Chester 1427-40. (fn. 18) The king himself visited Chester
in 1445 and reduced the annual farm from £100 to
£50, on the grounds that trade had suffered from the
silting of the port and that 'restrictions and charges'
had been imposed by the Welsh rebellion. (fn. 19) His visit
marked a period of warmer relations between the city
and the Crown. The king's son Edward was created
prince of Wales and earl of Chester in 1454, and in
1455 Queen Margaret apparently visited the city to
seek support. The queen and the prince and very
probably Henry himself were all again in Chester in
1456. After the battle of Blore Heath (Staffs.) in 1459,
two of the Yorkist leaders, the earl of Salisbury's sons
Thomas and John Neville, were imprisoned in Chester
castle. (fn. 20)
Despite such links between Chester and the house of
Lancaster, in 1460 Richard, duke of York, granted the
city's mayor, John Southworth, an annual pension of
£10 for past services. (fn. 21) In 1461 Edward IV renewed the
reduction of the farm, but his anxieties about the city
were reflected in a proclamation requiring the mayor
and sheriffs of Chester to arrest all within the shire who
supported the king's Lancastrian enemies. (fn. 22) In 1472
Edward again renewed the reduction of the farm, and
in 1484 Richard III cut it further to £30. (fn. 1) Even so, by
1485 the citizens' sympathies seem to have been with
the Tudors. Their mayor from 1484 to 1486, Sir John
Savage (d. 1495), had close links with the Stanleys, and
his son, also Sir John (d. 1492), led the left wing of
Henry Tudor's forces at Bosworth and was afterwards
well rewarded. (fn. 2) The serjeant of the Bridgegate, Sir
William Troutbeck, also fought for Henry at that
battle. (fn. 3)
The citizens received their reward in 1486 when
Henry VII reduced the annual farm to £20 in perpetuity. (fn. 4) The king visited Chester with his queen and
his mother in 1493 or 1495, and in 1498 or 1499 his
son Prince Arthur attended a performance of an
Assumption Day play and presented a silver badge to
the Smiths, Cutlers, and Plumbers' company. (fn. 5) The
main mark of the king's favour was his grant in 1506
of the Great Charter, which constituted the city a
county in its own right. (fn. 6)
Henry VIII had few dealings with Chester. In 1522
the city was called upon to supply forces to defend
the Scottish borders, and the mayor mustered a force
of sixty soldiers to serve with Thomas Howard, earl of
Surrey. (fn. 7) The Dissolution passed largely without incident, although in 1536 one of the city's merchants was
imprisoned together with the abbot of Norton and
Randle Brereton in Chester castle. (fn. 8) In 1543 the city
acquired parliamentary representation at Westminster; henceforth it was to return two M.P.s, selected
by the aldermen and presented to the freemen for
election. (fn. 9)