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John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter

August 27, 2023

John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter (Fitzwalter[3] or Fitz Wauter;[4] c. 1315 – 18 October 1361)[5][note 1] was a prominent Essex landowner best known for his criminal activities, particularly around Colchester. His family was of a noble and ancient lineage, with connections to the powerful de Clare family, who had arrived in England at the time of the Norman conquest of England. The FitzWalters held estates across Essex, as well as properties in London and Norfolk. John FitzWalter played a prominent role during the early years of King Edward III's wars in France, and at some point, FitzWalter was married to Eleanor Percy, the daughter of Henry, Lord Percy.

The FitzWalter coat of arms: d'or ung fece entre deux cheverons de goules[1] ('Or, a fess gules between two chevrons of the last'). The arms are a differenced version of those of de Clare, the senior branch of the family.[2]

FitzWalter built a strong affinity around him, mainly from among leading members of the county's gentry, but also including men from elsewhere, such as a Norfolk parson. At their head, FitzWalter waged an armed campaign against the neighbouring town of Colchester, almost from the moment he reached adulthood. The townsmen seem to have exacerbated the dispute by illegally entering FitzWalter's park in Lexden; in return, FitzWalter banned them from one of their own watermills and then, in 1342, he besieged the town, preventing anyone entering or leaving for some weeks, as well as ransacking much property and destroying the market. One historian has described him, in his activities, as the medieval equivalent of a 20th-century American racketeer. Other victims of his Essex gang were local jurors, royal officials, a man forced to abjure the realm, and the prior of Little Dunmow Abbey.

FitzWalter intermittently returned to France and the war, but notwithstanding his royal service—he also served on the royal council and attended parliament regularly—he never held office in his county. Historians explain this as being due to his repeated defiance of the king's peace and his deliberate usurpation of the royal authority. FitzWalter was too powerful, and too aggressive in defence of his rights, for the local populace to confront him in court, and it was not until 1351 that he was finally brought to justice. The King despatched a royal commission to Chelmsford to investigate a broad range of social ills, among which was FitzWalter and his gang. Although most of his force received little or no punishment, FitzWalter himself was arrested and sent to London; he was immediately imprisoned in the Marshalsea. He then languished in the Tower of London for over a year until the King agreed to pardon him. FitzWalter was released and restored to his estates, but only on the condition that he buy the lands back from the King for the immense sum of over £800. FitzWalter died in 1361—still paying off his fine—leaving a son, Walter, as his heir. Lady FitzWalter had predeceased him; they were both buried in Dunmow Priory.

Historians have considered FitzWalter's criminality as illustrating how the disorder that pervaded the 15th century had its origins in the 14th. Although historians have generally considered his activities to demonstrate King Edward III's failure to maintain law and order, as FitzWalter's downfall demonstrates, royal justice could be firm when it chose, if not always swift.

Early life Edit

 
Map of the Hundreds of Essex. With Lexden highlighted, the approximate locations of principal FitzWalter manors are shown.

The FitzWalter family was a wealthy and long-established family in the north-Essex area.[3] Descended from the conquest-era Lords of Clare, the family held estates concentrated around the lordship of Dunmow.[6] They also held estates as distant as Woodham to the south east of the county,[7] Chigwell to the south west,[8] Diss in Norfolk,[9] and Castle Baynard in London.[6][note 2] John FitzWalter was the son (probably the only son) of Sir Robert FitzWalter and Joan, daughter of Thomas, Lord Moulton.[3] The family has been described as "warlike as well as rich" even before FitzWalter was born: his ancestor, also named Robert, had been a leading rebel against King John in the early 13th century.[10]

John FitzWalter was around 13 years old when his father died in 1328.[5] The medievalist Christopher Starr in his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on the FitzWalter family, suggests that John was raised by his widowed mother. This may have turned him into "a difficult and dangerous adult".[3] Although by law he could not receive his inheritance until he was 21, in the event, King Edward III allowed him to enter into his estates and titles slightly early, in 1335, when FitzWalter was about 20.[5]

FitzWalter received livery of two-thirds of his inheritance, the remainder being held by his mother as her dower.[note 3] This, says Starr, "represented a significant slice of the FitzWalter estate", and a wish to augment his wealth may have contributed to FitzWalter's later criminal behaviour.[3] He encountered financial difficulty in London over lands which his grandfather, Robert, had transferred as fine land in 1275 to help found Blackfriars Abbey. Robert had reserved his rights to certain other city properties. This reservation was successfully challenged by the city authorities, and both Robert and John repeatedly attempted to assert their claim. According to the Elizabethan antiquarian John Stow, the last time the latter attempted this in 1347, FitzWalter's demands were "peremptorily"[12] refused by the mayor and Common Council.[12] The FitzWalter family was also traditionally responsible for the defence of the city. In a time of war, the then-Baron FitzWalter was to attend St Paul's Cathedral with a force of 19 knights. There he would receive the city's banner under which London's soldier-citizens would march with him. Caroline Barron, a historian of Medieval London, says that while this may be a "fanciful tale", it paid FitzWalter £20 per annum for the privilege. By the 14th century, though, the city had an established militia and the city authorities no longer deemed the position relevant, and they revoked FitzWalter's privileges and payment.[13][14] Notwithstanding these financial troubles, as a prominent Essex estate holder,[15] the medievalist Gloria Harris suggests that "with youth, power and wealth, FitzWalter was the 'rich kid' of his day" in Essex society.[15]

Royal service and war in France Edit

Diplomatic relations between England and France had been tempestuous for some years, and in 1337 crisis broke out when the king of France, Philip VI, confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine, then a possession of English kings. In response, King Edward invaded France, thus beginning the Hundred Years' War.[16] Harris has described the young men of FitzWalter's class and generation as being "untapped pools of genteel manpower",[15] manpower which the King was determined to exploit. FitzWalter was summoned alongside 43 other Essex knights to muster in Ipswich in December 1338. Armed and ready to fight,[15] FitzWalter joined the retinue[5] of William de Bohun, who had recently been created Earl of Northampton.[17]

FitzWalter gained a reputation as a good soldier during Edward III's early campaigns,[7] and he periodically returned to fight in France over the course of his career.[3] In 1346, for example, no longer serving under Northampton, he served with the Prince of Wales,[5][note 4] with whom FitzWalter indentured to serve for six months at a wage of 100 marks. In return he brought the Prince 20 men-at-arms (himself, four other knights and 15 esquires) and 12 archers.[19] As part of the Black Prince's vanguard[18] FitzWalter fought at the siege of Calais[19] in 1346. He was by now an experienced soldier[20] and had been made a knight banneret.[18] He was still on campaign in France in 1348, by which time he had returned to Northampton's service.[21]

FitzWalter frequently returned to England to attend parliament.[3] He was first summoned as Johannes de fitz Wauter in 1340, and was to attend every session for the next 20 years.[22] He was also a royal councillor, having been appointed in 1341 and serving in that capacity until 1358.[22] In 1342 FitzWalter was one of 250 knights to take part in a great tournament held at Dustable,[23] alongside his later partner in crime, Sir Robert Marney.[24]

At some point in his career, FitzWalter married Eleanor, second[25] daughter of Henry Percy, Lord Percy.[22] They had at least two children, Walter, his heir, and a daughter Alice (d. 11 May 1400).[26] Alice married Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford,[27] although it is unknown whether this was during her father's lifetime.[26]

Criminal career Edit

 
National Archives, document SC 8/311/15549: Petition of John, Baron FitzWalter to the king, c. 1348.[4] Although faded, FitzWalter is complaining to the king and council that the law is unclear regarding whom one holds escheated lands that have been granted in fee simple, when they were previously held by a lord who has forfeited them. FitzWalter requests clarity on this point of law, and the king endorses it.[28]

The Historian Margaret Hastings described FitzWalter as being of "good family and great possessions, but nonetheless a familiar racketeer type".[29] Starr suggests that for many men of his generation, experience on the Scottish and then French fronts exacerbated a "natural appetite for aggression and intimidation".[15] Essex gentry and their affinities had been at the forefront of Edward I's Gascon campaigns of the late-13th century, and by the early 14th century Essex society was a highly militarized one.[30] These factors, says Starr, probably contributed to FitzWalter's increasingly violent behaviour,[3] and by 1340 he was launched on a career of crime during which he terrorised the county.[31][32] The medieval scholar Ian Mortimer, in what the Washington Post reviewer Aaron Leitko called a "Fodor's-style" book—The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England[33]—says of FitzWalter "nor do you want to come up against" him.[34] In 1340, FitzWalter took part in an incursion of John de Segrave's manor in Great Chesterford. FitzWalter was in a gang of more than thirty men led by the Earl of Oxford: Segrave later reported that FitzWalter and his associates "broke his park ... hunted therein, carried away his goods and his deer from the park, and assaulted his men and servants".[15][note 5]

FitzWalter gathered his own affinity for the prominent local gentry around him. They included such figures as Lionel Bradenham[note 6]—steward of FitzWalter's Lexden manor, and who held the manor of Langenhoe from FitzWalter for knight's service[38]—and Robert Marney.[3] Marney, like FitzWalter, was a seasoned soldier from the French wars and something of a gangster in his own right.[15][note 7] With the support of powerful and influential local men like these, FitzWalter earned himself "a considerable reputation ... as a thug of the first order",[15] and the most feared man in Essex, wrote Harris.[15]

The names of many of FitzWalter's gangsters are known to historians by the survival of their later indictments. They include Walter Althewelde, William Baltrip, John Brekespere, John Burlee, John Clerke, Thomas Garderober, William Saykin, Roger Scheep, John Stacey and William de Wyborne.[39] Another, known only as Roger, was the parson of Osemondiston.[39][40][note 8] In return for furthering FitzWalter's causes, his retainers could expect his full protection: on at least one occasion he broke one of his men, Wymarcus Heirde, out of Colchester gaol before he could be brought before the justices.[44] Heirde had been attached and imprisoned at the berestake by the bailiffs of Colchester, but before they could begin proceedings FitzWalter despatched "Simon Spryng' and others" to free Heirde with force of arms.[41]

Lord Fitzwalter's bailiffs ... distrain[ed] all the animals of the prior, and to impark and retain the said distress until the £30 were fully paid. As a result, the prior did not dare to keep his ploughs and carts on his land to cultivate the land or carry the corn, whereupon the ripening corn withered and the prior lost all the profit from his land, to such great damage to the house that the king, feeling for the destruction of Holy Church, took the said house under his protection.[45][46]

National Archives manuscript JUST 1/266

The later indictments list FitzWalter's litany of crimes. He took illegal distraints. He behaved as he liked, it was reported, "to his poor neighbours, because no sheriff or bailiff dared to free any distraint which he had taken, be it ever so unjust".[47] He also indulged in extortion. On one occasion he extorted 100 shillings from two men in Southminster.[47] On another, FitzWalter persuaded one Walter of Mucking to transfer lands worth £40 a year to FitzWalter, for which FitzWalter was to pay Walter an annual rent of £22. FitzWalter also pledged to provide Walter with luxurious robes and tunics in kind. In the event, FitzWalter not only paid hardly any rent but refused to hand over the clothes he had promised. Walter of Mucking dared not take legal action against FitzWalter.[41] Few men did. For example, Richard de Plescys,[48] Prior of Dunmow Priory, was intimidated into storing and looking after a cart and horses of FitzWalter's, at the prior's own expense. The prior did not report FitzWalter,[49] despite the fact that his house, at least in theory, enjoyed the king's personal protection.[50][note 9] FitzWalter later despatched his henchman Baltrip to forcibly and illegally amerce and distrain the prior.[53]

Cattle rustling was an important pastime of the FitzWalter gang as it was a major source of revenue. They seized cattle from Colchester's main monastic house, the Priory of St. John, for which the prior later denounced FitzWalter as "a common destroyer of men of religion".[47] In this particular case, FitzWalter treated the priory's cattle extremely poorly: they were either worked to death or left to starve.[54] For two years, he also illegally pastured his own sheep and cattle on common land used by the town's burgess, which abutted his own Lexden Park estate.[41][note 10]

FitzWalter's gang were also responsible for killings. In 1345, one Roger Byndethese was sentenced at Waltham to abjuration of the realm. As part of his sentence, he was to carry a large cross from Waltham to Dover, where he was to sail from. He never reached the port: intercepted by FitzWalter's men outside Waltham, they—claiming to act "under the banner of God and of Holy Church", but actually at the command of their lord[41]—summarily beheaded Byndethese by the roadside.[41][note 11]

Larceny was also much favoured by the gang.[47] One method was to force men to enfeoff FitzWalter and his band with their possessions, who would then have to be paid off before returning the goods.[59] Similarly, FitzWalter confiscated sacks of wool from a Burnham-on-Crouch merchant which they refused to return until he paid them a substantial sum. FitzWalter and his men regularly looted all the fish, meat and victuals they required from Colchester doing so "at their will, to the oppression of the whole market".[41] They repeatedly violated the town's rules of trade, both inside and outside the marketplace.[60] Such was the fear FitzWalter was held in, that when he refused to pay what he had been assessed for a royal tax[41]—even though he had intimidated the tax assessor into rating him for the lowest amount possible[41]—the "men of the villages paid for him to their great impoverishment".[41] He had, after all, threatened to break the legs and arms ("tibia et bracchia")[41] and leave to die anyone who refused to do so.[41]

Siege of Colchester Edit

 
A portion of Lexden Park, seen in 2016. The small portion that remains of FitzWalter's estate is now a nature reserve.

The FitzWalter family had long had turbulent relations with their Colchester neighbours.[note 12] In 1312, townsmen and merchants had broken into Lexden Park and hunted Robert FitzWalter's deer. The principal source of antagonism between the two parties was over disputed pasture rights in Lexden, and the area was the scene of many confrontations and assaults from both sides. FitzWalter, in turn, denied the jurisdiction of Colchester burgesses there and prevented the town from taxing his tenantry on the estate.[61] There was also repeated friction over a watermill adjacent to FitzWalter's Lexden Park. Although owned by Colchester men, FitzWalter objected to the presence of any men from the town near his property and refused them entry to their own mill for over six months. The townspeople later complained that, although FitzWalter had, at some point, offered to buy it from them, "Lord John has not paid for it and still keeps it".[41] Further, to ensure a constant supply of water for his mill, FitzWalter evicted the owner of another watermill in nearby West Bergholt to use it as a backup for his own; the mill's owner was also a townsman of Colchester.[62]

FitzWalter's grievances against the men of Colchester may not have been without foundation. In 1342, claimed FitzWalter, Colchester men had invaded Lexden Park,[3] in an attempt to assert their own rights[63] of pasturing, hunting and fishing there. The medievalist Richard Britnell has highlighted how "on this issue feelings ran sufficiently high for large numbers of burgesses to take the law into their own hands; pasture riots are more in evidence than any other form of civil disturbance" in Essex at this time.[60] Britnell also notes, though, that it is unlikely that anyone held rights to common pasture on the Lexden estate.[64] FitzWalter petitioned the king that about a hundred Colchester men had, in the course of their trespass, "broke [FitzWalter's] park at Lexden, hunted therein, felled his trees, fished in his stews, carried away the trees and fish as well as deer from the park and assaulted his servant John Osekyn there, whereby he lost his service for a great time".[65] Lexden Park was one of FitzWalter's most valuable possessions, consisting of over 150 acres (61 hectares) of pasture,[66] which in 1334 had been valued for tax purposes at over £1,300.[67] In July a commission of oyer and terminer was sent to Essex to investigate FitzWalter's complaints.[65]

A crisis point was reached when one of FitzWalter's men was killed during another attack on Lexden Park.[68] An inquest was held in Colchester, but FitzWalter disputed its findings. Instead—and in breach of the borough's liberties which allowed it to administer its own internal affairs—FitzWalter brought in the county coroner[61] (probably one of his own retainers)[53] to perform another inquest. Neither inquest appears to have satisfied the parties involved.[61] FitzWalter attempted to have a bailiff of Colchester, John Fordham, indicted for the death, but to no avail.[68]

FitzWalter reacted violently to the death of his man, doubtless encouraged by previous attacks on Lexden and the injuries to Osekyn.[66] Now he began to hunt down members of both inquest juries and beat them up. The first victim was Henry Fernerd of Copford, a juryman who had publicly expressed his faith in Fordham's innocence. FitzWalter's men beat him nearly to death.[10] FitzWalter soon widened his attacks to Colchester tenantry more generally, seeking them out as far afield as Maldon and Southminster. FitzWalter then escalated his attacks on individuals to the town itself, and on 20 May 1342 placed Colchester under an armed siege.[61] He ambushed anyone caught entering or leaving the town, "until no man [could] go to a market or fair from Easter until Whitsuntide".[47] FitzWalter and his men barricaded the roads with wood from the broken doors and roof beams of houses they had destroyed.[15] His physical campaign against the townsmen was accompanied by legal attacks, in which he attempted to fix juries against them.[53] FitzWalter's siege lasted until 22 July, when the burghers paid FitzWalter £40 compensation. This did not bring peace between them: FitzWalter again besieged the town from 7 April to 1 June the following year. This may have been provoked by continuing incursions by the town onto his Lexden estate. He was paid another £40 to lift this siege,[61] and those who attempted to sue for the damage he and his men had caused found that local juries were too afraid to bring verdicts against FitzWalter and his gang.[68] Not only did the gang fully support their lord, its members often carried out their own operations in the knowledge of his protection. For example, Bradenham himself besieged Colchester for three months[61] in autumn 1350.[69] The country had been ravaged by the Black Death in 1348, and Partington suggests that this was the catalyst for the King to take action against FitzWalter. Society had been unsettled by the disease, and Edward "was determined that lords should be made to look to their responsibilities to the realm".[70]

Indictment Edit

Essex, Jennifer Ward has written, "suffered severely" from the FitzWalter gang's activities throughout the 1340s. It was difficult for justice to be done, though, and was to take nearly ten years.[71] During that time he effectively usurped the king's writ in the north of the county. This forced the role of keeping the king's peace upon him,[72] with what has been described as a "rival system of justice"[73] to that of the crown.[73] FitzWalter's expeditions to France—which periodically removed him from the theatre of conflict—were deliberate attempts by King Edward at solving the problem without a need for taking legal action.[40][note 13] This was an impermanent solution. Eventually, in response to FitzWalter's continuing outrages,[3] a commission of the peace, probably under the authority of William Shareshull, was despatched to Chelmsford early in 1351.[76][note 14] As a result, writes the scholar Elizabeth C. Furber, "justice, of a sort, finally caught up"[41] with FitzWalter.[78] Shareshull's commission indicted FitzWalter for failing to appear to answer accusations of felony.[5]

Thus the great man, with most of his confederates, got off with fines; one 'little' man was hanged. 'As it is seide in olde proverbe—"Pore be hangid bi the necke; a riche man bi the purs".'[41][note 15]

Elizabeth C. Furber

Thus outlawed, FitzWalter was judged guilty of multiple serious crimes, such as extortion and refusal to pay taxes.[80] His fundamental offence, says Ward, was "encroaching on the royal power".[80] FitzWalter's indictment roll, notes Margaret Hastings, listed so many offences that it "read like an index to the record of indictment for a whole county".[29][note 16] On 31 January 1351, the King summoned FitzWalter by a writ of capias and he appeared before the King's Bench at Westminster Palace. Found guilty, he was cast into Marshalsea Prison[78] and his estates confiscated.[5] In November, FitzWalter was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was allocated ten shillings a day from his estates for his subsistence.[78] FitzWalter, says the historian Mark Ormrod, had been "publicly discredited".[83] The King not only wanted Essex to return to a state of peace, he also intended to make an example of FitzWalter to the nobility generally. The King, he argues, "expected his beneficiaries to observe standards of behaviour more acceptable to him and to the political community".[83] Likewise, argues the medievalist Richard Partington, "Edward's anger was especially terrifying in cases where he believed nobles were abusing their position to oppress others".[70] The King also did not, it seems, take FitzWalter's earlier loyal service in France into account when weighing up FitzWalter's punishment.[70]

Some, although not all, of FitzWalter's associates were also convicted. Marney and Bradenham were imprisoned and fined (and later released) with their lord.[80] The parson was forced to give up his benefice. Others were either pardoned—in at least one case following military service in Brittany—or exigented.[39] Some were exonerated outright.[40] Only one minor member of the gang, William de Wyborne,[39] was hanged for his crimes; his chattels—worth 40d—were confiscated.[39]

FitzWalter was imprisoned for a year,[40] and following his release in June 1352, the King pardoned him. The pardon was a substantial document, and covered murder, robbery, rape, arson, kidnapping, trespass, extortion and incitement, and ranged from thefbote[note 17] and illegally carrying off other's rabbits to the usurpation of royal justice.[78]

 
St Mary the Virgin Church, Little Dunmow, all that remains in 2009 of the medieval priory, whose prior FitzWalter terrorised and where he and his wife were buried.

FitzWalter was also bound to pay Edward the "colossal"[3] amount of (at least) £847 2s 4d;[39][note 18] this he paid off incrementally.[3] In doing so, FitzWalter effectively bought his estates back from the King.[40] Indeed, the size of the fine—which he spent the last decade of his life paying—is probably the only reason his estates were returned to him in the first place.[29] For ten years, comments Barbara Hanawalt, the pipe rolls "benignly enter payments to the king from his 'dear and faithful' John FitzWalter".[86]

Later life Edit

Probably as a direct consequence of his violent behaviour in Essex, and although he sat in parliament and on the king's council, he never held royal office in the county, and nor was he appointed to any of its commissions.[3]

FitzWalter died on 18 October 1361, and was buried alongside his wife and ancestors in Dunmow Priory.[22] Eleanor had predeceased him,[22] although not, apparently, by long.[3] His mother survived him, still controlling a third of his estate.[3] On the day of FitzWalter's death, one farthing remained owing to the crown from his fine a decade earlier.[3] He was succeeded in his estates and titles by his son Walter, who had been born in 1345 ("at the height", says Starr, "of his father's criminal activities").[3] Walter, unlike his father, was to be a loyal servant of the crown and helped to suppress the Peasants' Revolt in Essex for King Richard II in 1381.[87] Walter was also to be a close ally of his brother-in-law the Earl of Oxford in the politically turbulent years towards the end of Richard's reign.[26]

The criminal activities and disregard for the law demonstrated by men such as John FitzWalter, says Elisabeth Kimball, suggests that "the lack of governance associated with fifteenth-century England seems to have had its roots in the fourteenth".[76] FitzWalter, argues the historian G. L. Harriss, was fundamentally "flawed in character" and from his youth had been on a "downward spiral of violence which brought the withdrawal of lordly and neighbourhood protection" both by the crown and by the rest of the local gentry.[32] Characters such as FitzWalter have traditionally been seen by historians as demonstrating Edward III's poor record with law and order; on the other hand, suggests Ormrod, although royal justice may have been delayed, it was still sure, and when it came, harsh.[83]

Notes Edit

  1. ^ Cokayne is not specific about FitzWalter's precise date of birth, merely stating that he was "aged 13 and more at his father's death".[5]
  2. ^ The FitzWalter family held 14 manors in Essex: Ashdon, Burnham-on-Crouch, Caidge, Chigwell, Creeksea, Little Dunmow, Henham, Lexden, Maldon, Sheering, Great Tey, Ulting, Wimbish and Woodham Walter.[8][9]
  3. ^ The legal concept of dower had existed since the late twelfth century as a means of protecting a woman from being left landless if her husband died first. He would, when they married, assign certain estates to her—a dos nominata, or dower—usually a third of everything of which he was seised.[11]
  4. ^ FitzWalter's transfer to the Prince of Wales' army, says, the historian Andrew Ayton, "removed a sizeable group from the pool of manpower" available to the Earl of Northampton for his own force.[18]
  5. ^ Regardless of one's other criminal activities, park raiding was a favoured pastime, explains Gloria Harris, because it was "a way of securing luxury food, such as venison, making a profit on the value of the animals poached, or taking revenge on the owner—or it may have just been for the thrill of the chase".[15] FitzWalter was not alone in his behaviour: gang-warfare was common in the early fourteenth century, and his generation has been described as "a roll-call of colourful, gentry criminals".[35] Andrew Ayton has noted that, summoned alongside FitzWalter in 1338, were equally infamous men, including members of both the Folville and Coterel gangs, who had been active in the East Midlands the previous decade.[35]
  6. ^ Bradenham has been described as "no common criminal [being] a successful and innovative farmer, a lawyer legal adviser" who—unlike FitzWalter—had sat on royal commissions in Essex.[36] Although described by Furber as a "doubtful character" on account of his association with FitzWalter, he was not indicted in 1351.[37]
  7. ^ Marney had taken part in a major operation—possibly over the course of several days—against the Earl of Northampton's Essex estates in 1342. During this attack, he and about ten others had systematically raided, damaged, and stole from seven of the earl's parks in diverse parts of the county.[15]
  8. ^ Osemondiston, later called Osmondston, was a village in FitzWalter's manor of Diss, on the River Waveney.[41] It was also known as Scole, by which name it is known today. [42][43]
  9. ^ The protection was reiterated in November 1451 as a result of what the Calendar of Patent Rolls describes as the "wretched depression to which the priory of Dunmow is subjected through the willful injuries and damages of men of those parts scheming to destroy the said priory".[51][52]
  10. ^ A remnant of FitzWalter's Lexden Park is still extant today (51°53′20.7″N 0°51′53.9″E / 51.889083°N 0.864972°E / 51.889083; 0.864972). Covering slightly over 8 hectares (80,000 m2), it lies to the south of Lexden Road, between Church Lane and Fitzwalter (sic) Road.[55] The vast majority of the Park in Fitzwalter's day was to the north of the road.[56]
  11. ^ It is unknown why FitzWalter had commanded his men to kill Byndethese, but it was not an uncommon fate for those who abjured the realm in the 13th and 14th centuries. In many cases, the victim swore to take a certain route to the coast, it being subsequently recorded that the abjurer "strayed off", "deviated from" or was "fleeing from his path" and that it was explicitly for this that local vigilantes beheaded him. Generally, too, this was not seen as an unlawful killing by the courts. The scholar Kenneth Duggan has argued that this allowed the men responsible, such as FitzWalter, to "bypass ... formal justice and formal jurisdictional lines".[57] The principle behind such vigilantism was that, to contemporaries, the abjurer who departed from the king's highway rejected "the warrant of Holy Church, to wit, the cross", and thus put himself beyond the protection of the church.[58]
  12. ^ W. R. Powell has explained this historical tension by the transformation of Colchester, by the 14th century, into "one of the most important towns in eastern England. Under a series of royal charters, from 1189 onwards, the burgesses had secured a degree of self-government, including the right to hold a hundred court for the town and its liberty (or suburbs), certain hunting rights in the liberty, and a monopoly of fishing in the River Colne. But the earlier charters had been loosely drafted, and disputes often arose concerning the burgesses' jurisdiction over the manors within the liberty, and over the river."[10] The dispute between the burgesses and the FitzWalters, he suggests, specifically arose because the borough had claimed Lexden since Saxon times, but their claims had been put aside after the conquest.[10]
  13. ^ Recruiting offenders for military service was a common strategy of Edward III, as he both gained a soldier and at the same time removed a troublemaker.[74] The men would often be pardoned on their return, and as such the practice was unpopular with contemporaries: petitions against it had been submitted to parliament in 1328, 1330, 1336 and 1340.[75]
  14. ^ This was necessary because of endemic corruption within the King's Bench then sitting at Chelmsford.[77] Shareshull's commission was to remain there until 1361, and particularly focussed on the enforcement of labour laws.[76] As a result of its lengthy tenure, it raised fines from 7,500 individuals, which amounted to more than one in ten of the adult Essex populace.[29]
  15. ^ This proverb is found in the 15th-century British Library Add. MS 41321, folio 86.[79]
  16. ^ FitzWalter's indictment roll is held at the National Archives in Kew, classified as JUST 1/266.[46][81] The FitzWalter gang's portion of the indictments consists of three membranes, probably the raw notes taken contemporaneously—"the clerk probably had no time to recopy them"[81]—and written in French. They are marked on the dorse as having been taken at Chelmsford in 1351 and forwarded Coram Rege the same year.[82]
  17. ^ Merriam-Webster defines thefbote, in middle English and Scots law as "the offense of agreeing to receive stolen goods or a compensation from a thief whether by the owner by way of composition or by a judge as an inducement for conniving at the escape of the thief from punishment".[84]
  18. ^ Furber points out that it is difficult to establish the precise amount demanded by the crown, "as there are numerous small amounts on the Pipe Rolls" which may or may not be connected to FitzWalter. The figure provided is the sum of all the major payments he is certain to have paid and is thus a minimum.[85]

References Edit

  1. ^ Henderson 1978, p. 33.
  2. ^ Coss 1995, p. 79.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Starr 2004.
  4. ^ a b National Archives 1348.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cokayne 1926, p. 476.
  6. ^ a b Furber 1953, p. 61.
  7. ^ a b Starr 2007, p. 19.
  8. ^ a b Furber 1953, p. 20 n.2.
  9. ^ a b Moore 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d Powell 1991, p. 68.
  11. ^ Kenny 2003, pp. 59–60.
  12. ^ a b Stow 1908, p. 279.
  13. ^ Barron 2002, p. 226.
  14. ^ Vincent 2017, pp. 25–26.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harris 2017, pp. 65–77.
  16. ^ Curry 2003, pp. 2–3.
  17. ^ Ormrod 2004.
  18. ^ a b c Ayton 2007, p. 242.
  19. ^ a b Furber 1953, p. 61 n.3.
  20. ^ Ayton 2007, p. 214.
  21. ^ Ayton 2007, p. 210.
  22. ^ a b c d e Cokayne 1926, p. 477.
  23. ^ Ayton 1999, p. 33.
  24. ^ Ayton 1999, p. 33 n.43.
  25. ^ Hutchinson 1778, p. 218.
  26. ^ a b c Goodman 2004.
  27. ^ Leese 1996, p. 218.
  28. ^ Sayles 1988, p. 453.
  29. ^ a b c d Hastings 1955, p. 347.
  30. ^ Thornton & Ward 2017, pp. 1–26.
  31. ^ Ward 1991, p. 18.
  32. ^ a b Harriss 2005, p. 201.
  33. ^ Leitko 2010.
  34. ^ Mortimer 2009, p. 240.
  35. ^ a b Ayton 1998, pp. 173–206.
  36. ^ Phillips 2004, p. 36.
  37. ^ Furber 1953, p. 181 n.2.
  38. ^ Round 1913, p. 86.
  39. ^ a b c d e f Furber 1953, p. 65.
  40. ^ a b c d e Hanawalt 1975, p. 9.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Furber 1953, p. 63.
  42. ^ Furber 1953, p. 83 n.1.
  43. ^ Blomefield 1805, p. 130.
  44. ^ Hanawalt 1975, p. 7.
  45. ^ Furber 1953, p. 83.
  46. ^ a b National Archives 1351.
  47. ^ a b c d e Furber 1953, p. 62.
  48. ^ Furber 1953, p. 82 n.6.
  49. ^ Furber 1953, p. 44.
  50. ^ Furber 1953, p. 45.
  51. ^ C. P. R. 1907, p. 136.
  52. ^ Furber 1953, p. 83 n.2.
  53. ^ a b c Furber 1953, p. 46.
  54. ^ Furber 1953, p. 43.
  55. ^ TL92SE - A (Map). 1:10,560. Ordnance Survey. 1968.
  56. ^ Cromwell 1826, p. 238.
  57. ^ Duggan 2018, pp. 208–212.
  58. ^ Barrett & Harrison 1999, p. 25.
  59. ^ Hanawalt 1975, p. 14 n.32.
  60. ^ a b Britnell 1986, p. 31.
  61. ^ a b c d e f V. C. H. 1994, p. 22.
  62. ^ V. C. H. 1994, pp. 259–264.
  63. ^ Cohn & Aiton 2013, p. 195.
  64. ^ Britnell 1988, p. 161.
  65. ^ a b Furber 1953, p. 88 n.1.
  66. ^ a b Britnell 1988, p. 164.
  67. ^ Ward 1998, p. 119.
  68. ^ a b c Powell 1991, p. 69.
  69. ^ Round 1913, p. 89.
  70. ^ a b c Partington 2015, p. 90.
  71. ^ Ward 1991, p. 16.
  72. ^ Hanawalt 1975, p. 14.
  73. ^ a b Scattergood 2004, p. 152.
  74. ^ Bellamy 1964, pp. 712–713.
  75. ^ Aberth 1992, p. 297.
  76. ^ a b c Kimball 1955, p. 279.
  77. ^ Putnam 2013, p. 73.
  78. ^ a b c d Furber 1953, p. 64.
  79. ^ Owst 1933, p. 43.
  80. ^ a b c Ward 1991, p. 23.
  81. ^ a b Furber 1953, pp. 11–12.
  82. ^ Furber 1953, p. 12.
  83. ^ a b c Ormrod 2000, p. 107.
  84. ^ Merriam-Webster 2018.
  85. ^ Furber 1953, p. 65 n.1.
  86. ^ Hanawalt 1975, p. 10.
  87. ^ Furber 1953, p. 10.

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August 27, 2023
john, fitzwalter, baron, fitzwalter, fitzwalter, fitz, wauter, 1315, october, 1361, note, prominent, essex, landowner, best, known, criminal, activities, particularly, around, colchester, family, noble, ancient, lineage, with, connections, powerful, clare, fam. John FitzWalter 2nd Baron FitzWalter Fitzwalter 3 or Fitz Wauter 4 c 1315 18 October 1361 5 note 1 was a prominent Essex landowner best known for his criminal activities particularly around Colchester His family was of a noble and ancient lineage with connections to the powerful de Clare family who had arrived in England at the time of the Norman conquest of England The FitzWalters held estates across Essex as well as properties in London and Norfolk John FitzWalter played a prominent role during the early years of King Edward III s wars in France and at some point FitzWalter was married to Eleanor Percy the daughter of Henry Lord Percy The FitzWalter coat of arms d or ung fece entre deux cheverons de goules 1 Or a fess gules between two chevrons of the last The arms are a differenced version of those of de Clare the senior branch of the family 2 FitzWalter built a strong affinity around him mainly from among leading members of the county s gentry but also including men from elsewhere such as a Norfolk parson At their head FitzWalter waged an armed campaign against the neighbouring town of Colchester almost from the moment he reached adulthood The townsmen seem to have exacerbated the dispute by illegally entering FitzWalter s park in Lexden in return FitzWalter banned them from one of their own watermills and then in 1342 he besieged the town preventing anyone entering or leaving for some weeks as well as ransacking much property and destroying the market One historian has described him in his activities as the medieval equivalent of a 20th century American racketeer Other victims of his Essex gang were local jurors royal officials a man forced to abjure the realm and the prior of Little Dunmow Abbey FitzWalter intermittently returned to France and the war but notwithstanding his royal service he also served on the royal council and attended parliament regularly he never held office in his county Historians explain this as being due to his repeated defiance of the king s peace and his deliberate usurpation of the royal authority FitzWalter was too powerful and too aggressive in defence of his rights for the local populace to confront him in court and it was not until 1351 that he was finally brought to justice The King despatched a royal commission to Chelmsford to investigate a broad range of social ills among which was FitzWalter and his gang Although most of his force received little or no punishment FitzWalter himself was arrested and sent to London he was immediately imprisoned in the Marshalsea He then languished in the Tower of London for over a year until the King agreed to pardon him FitzWalter was released and restored to his estates but only on the condition that he buy the lands back from the King for the immense sum of over 800 FitzWalter died in 1361 still paying off his fine leaving a son Walter as his heir Lady FitzWalter had predeceased him they were both buried in Dunmow Priory Historians have considered FitzWalter s criminality as illustrating how the disorder that pervaded the 15th century had its origins in the 14th Although historians have generally considered his activities to demonstrate King Edward III s failure to maintain law and order as FitzWalter s downfall demonstrates royal justice could be firm when it chose if not always swift Contents 1 Early life 2 Royal service and war in France 3 Criminal career 3 1 Siege of Colchester 3 2 Indictment 4 Later life 5 Notes 6 References 6 1 BibliographyEarly life Edit Map of the Hundreds of Essex With Lexden highlighted the approximate locations of principal FitzWalter manors are shown The FitzWalter family was a wealthy and long established family in the north Essex area 3 Descended from the conquest era Lords of Clare the family held estates concentrated around the lordship of Dunmow 6 They also held estates as distant as Woodham to the south east of the county 7 Chigwell to the south west 8 Diss in Norfolk 9 and Castle Baynard in London 6 note 2 John FitzWalter was the son probably the only son of Sir Robert FitzWalter and Joan daughter of Thomas Lord Moulton 3 The family has been described as warlike as well as rich even before FitzWalter was born his ancestor also named Robert had been a leading rebel against King John in the early 13th century 10 John FitzWalter was around 13 years old when his father died in 1328 5 The medievalist Christopher Starr in his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on the FitzWalter family suggests that John was raised by his widowed mother This may have turned him into a difficult and dangerous adult 3 Although by law he could not receive his inheritance until he was 21 in the event King Edward III allowed him to enter into his estates and titles slightly early in 1335 when FitzWalter was about 20 5 FitzWalter received livery of two thirds of his inheritance the remainder being held by his mother as her dower note 3 This says Starr represented a significant slice of the FitzWalter estate and a wish to augment his wealth may have contributed to FitzWalter s later criminal behaviour 3 He encountered financial difficulty in London over lands which his grandfather Robert had transferred as fine land in 1275 to help found Blackfriars Abbey Robert had reserved his rights to certain other city properties This reservation was successfully challenged by the city authorities and both Robert and John repeatedly attempted to assert their claim According to the Elizabethan antiquarian John Stow the last time the latter attempted this in 1347 FitzWalter s demands were peremptorily 12 refused by the mayor and Common Council 12 The FitzWalter family was also traditionally responsible for the defence of the city In a time of war the then Baron FitzWalter was to attend St Paul s Cathedral with a force of 19 knights There he would receive the city s banner under which London s soldier citizens would march with him Caroline Barron a historian of Medieval London says that while this may be a fanciful tale it paid FitzWalter 20 per annum for the privilege By the 14th century though the city had an established militia and the city authorities no longer deemed the position relevant and they revoked FitzWalter s privileges and payment 13 14 Notwithstanding these financial troubles as a prominent Essex estate holder 15 the medievalist Gloria Harris suggests that with youth power and wealth FitzWalter was the rich kid of his day in Essex society 15 Royal service and war in France EditDiplomatic relations between England and France had been tempestuous for some years and in 1337 crisis broke out when the king of France Philip VI confiscated the Duchy of Aquitaine then a possession of English kings In response King Edward invaded France thus beginning the Hundred Years War 16 Harris has described the young men of FitzWalter s class and generation as being untapped pools of genteel manpower 15 manpower which the King was determined to exploit FitzWalter was summoned alongside 43 other Essex knights to muster in Ipswich in December 1338 Armed and ready to fight 15 FitzWalter joined the retinue 5 of William de Bohun who had recently been created Earl of Northampton 17 FitzWalter gained a reputation as a good soldier during Edward III s early campaigns 7 and he periodically returned to fight in France over the course of his career 3 In 1346 for example no longer serving under Northampton he served with the Prince of Wales 5 note 4 with whom FitzWalter indentured to serve for six months at a wage of 100 marks In return he brought the Prince 20 men at arms himself four other knights and 15 esquires and 12 archers 19 As part of the Black Prince s vanguard 18 FitzWalter fought at the siege of Calais 19 in 1346 He was by now an experienced soldier 20 and had been made a knight banneret 18 He was still on campaign in France in 1348 by which time he had returned to Northampton s service 21 FitzWalter frequently returned to England to attend parliament 3 He was first summoned as Johannes de fitz Wauter in 1340 and was to attend every session for the next 20 years 22 He was also a royal councillor having been appointed in 1341 and serving in that capacity until 1358 22 In 1342 FitzWalter was one of 250 knights to take part in a great tournament held at Dustable 23 alongside his later partner in crime Sir Robert Marney 24 At some point in his career FitzWalter married Eleanor second 25 daughter of Henry Percy Lord Percy 22 They had at least two children Walter his heir and a daughter Alice d 11 May 1400 26 Alice married Aubrey de Vere 10th Earl of Oxford 27 although it is unknown whether this was during her father s lifetime 26 Criminal career Edit National Archives document SC 8 311 15549 Petition of John Baron FitzWalter to the king c 1348 4 Although faded FitzWalter is complaining to the king and council that the law is unclear regarding whom one holds escheated lands that have been granted in fee simple when they were previously held by a lord who has forfeited them FitzWalter requests clarity on this point of law and the king endorses it 28 The Historian Margaret Hastings described FitzWalter as being of good family and great possessions but nonetheless a familiar racketeer type 29 Starr suggests that for many men of his generation experience on the Scottish and then French fronts exacerbated a natural appetite for aggression and intimidation 15 Essex gentry and their affinities had been at the forefront of Edward I s Gascon campaigns of the late 13th century and by the early 14th century Essex society was a highly militarized one 30 These factors says Starr probably contributed to FitzWalter s increasingly violent behaviour 3 and by 1340 he was launched on a career of crime during which he terrorised the county 31 32 The medieval scholar Ian Mortimer in what the Washington Post reviewer Aaron Leitko called a Fodor s style book The Time Traveller s Guide to Medieval England 33 says of FitzWalter nor do you want to come up against him 34 In 1340 FitzWalter took part in an incursion of John de Segrave s manor in Great Chesterford FitzWalter was in a gang of more than thirty men led by the Earl of Oxford Segrave later reported that FitzWalter and his associates broke his park hunted therein carried away his goods and his deer from the park and assaulted his men and servants 15 note 5 FitzWalter gathered his own affinity for the prominent local gentry around him They included such figures as Lionel Bradenham note 6 steward of FitzWalter s Lexden manor and who held the manor of Langenhoe from FitzWalter for knight s service 38 and Robert Marney 3 Marney like FitzWalter was a seasoned soldier from the French wars and something of a gangster in his own right 15 note 7 With the support of powerful and influential local men like these FitzWalter earned himself a considerable reputation as a thug of the first order 15 and the most feared man in Essex wrote Harris 15 The names of many of FitzWalter s gangsters are known to historians by the survival of their later indictments They include Walter Althewelde William Baltrip John Brekespere John Burlee John Clerke Thomas Garderober William Saykin Roger Scheep John Stacey and William de Wyborne 39 Another known only as Roger was the parson of Osemondiston 39 40 note 8 In return for furthering FitzWalter s causes his retainers could expect his full protection on at least one occasion he broke one of his men Wymarcus Heirde out of Colchester gaol before he could be brought before the justices 44 Heirde had been attached and imprisoned at the berestake by the bailiffs of Colchester but before they could begin proceedings FitzWalter despatched Simon Spryng and others to free Heirde with force of arms 41 Lord Fitzwalter s bailiffs distrain ed all the animals of the prior and to impark and retain the said distress until the 30 were fully paid As a result the prior did not dare to keep his ploughs and carts on his land to cultivate the land or carry the corn whereupon the ripening corn withered and the prior lost all the profit from his land to such great damage to the house that the king feeling for the destruction of Holy Church took the said house under his protection 45 46 National Archives manuscript JUST 1 266 The later indictments list FitzWalter s litany of crimes He took illegal distraints He behaved as he liked it was reported to his poor neighbours because no sheriff or bailiff dared to free any distraint which he had taken be it ever so unjust 47 He also indulged in extortion On one occasion he extorted 100 shillings from two men in Southminster 47 On another FitzWalter persuaded one Walter of Mucking to transfer lands worth 40 a year to FitzWalter for which FitzWalter was to pay Walter an annual rent of 22 FitzWalter also pledged to provide Walter with luxurious robes and tunics in kind In the event FitzWalter not only paid hardly any rent but refused to hand over the clothes he had promised Walter of Mucking dared not take legal action against FitzWalter 41 Few men did For example Richard de Plescys 48 Prior of Dunmow Priory was intimidated into storing and looking after a cart and horses of FitzWalter s at the prior s own expense The prior did not report FitzWalter 49 despite the fact that his house at least in theory enjoyed the king s personal protection 50 note 9 FitzWalter later despatched his henchman Baltrip to forcibly and illegally amerce and distrain the prior 53 Cattle rustling was an important pastime of the FitzWalter gang as it was a major source of revenue They seized cattle from Colchester s main monastic house the Priory of St John for which the prior later denounced FitzWalter as a common destroyer of men of religion 47 In this particular case FitzWalter treated the priory s cattle extremely poorly they were either worked to death or left to starve 54 For two years he also illegally pastured his own sheep and cattle on common land used by the town s burgess which abutted his own Lexden Park estate 41 note 10 FitzWalter s gang were also responsible for killings In 1345 one Roger Byndethese was sentenced at Waltham to abjuration of the realm As part of his sentence he was to carry a large cross from Waltham to Dover where he was to sail from He never reached the port intercepted by FitzWalter s men outside Waltham they claiming to act under the banner of God and of Holy Church but actually at the command of their lord 41 summarily beheaded Byndethese by the roadside 41 note 11 Larceny was also much favoured by the gang 47 One method was to force men to enfeoff FitzWalter and his band with their possessions who would then have to be paid off before returning the goods 59 Similarly FitzWalter confiscated sacks of wool from a Burnham on Crouch merchant which they refused to return until he paid them a substantial sum FitzWalter and his men regularly looted all the fish meat and victuals they required from Colchester doing so at their will to the oppression of the whole market 41 They repeatedly violated the town s rules of trade both inside and outside the marketplace 60 Such was the fear FitzWalter was held in that when he refused to pay what he had been assessed for a royal tax 41 even though he had intimidated the tax assessor into rating him for the lowest amount possible 41 the men of the villages paid for him to their great impoverishment 41 He had after all threatened to break the legs and arms tibia et bracchia 41 and leave to die anyone who refused to do so 41 Siege of Colchester Edit A portion of Lexden Park seen in 2016 The small portion that remains of FitzWalter s estate is now a nature reserve The FitzWalter family had long had turbulent relations with their Colchester neighbours note 12 In 1312 townsmen and merchants had broken into Lexden Park and hunted Robert FitzWalter s deer The principal source of antagonism between the two parties was over disputed pasture rights in Lexden and the area was the scene of many confrontations and assaults from both sides FitzWalter in turn denied the jurisdiction of Colchester burgesses there and prevented the town from taxing his tenantry on the estate 61 There was also repeated friction over a watermill adjacent to FitzWalter s Lexden Park Although owned by Colchester men FitzWalter objected to the presence of any men from the town near his property and refused them entry to their own mill for over six months The townspeople later complained that although FitzWalter had at some point offered to buy it from them Lord John has not paid for it and still keeps it 41 Further to ensure a constant supply of water for his mill FitzWalter evicted the owner of another watermill in nearby West Bergholt to use it as a backup for his own the mill s owner was also a townsman of Colchester 62 FitzWalter s grievances against the men of Colchester may not have been without foundation In 1342 claimed FitzWalter Colchester men had invaded Lexden Park 3 in an attempt to assert their own rights 63 of pasturing hunting and fishing there The medievalist Richard Britnell has highlighted how on this issue feelings ran sufficiently high for large numbers of burgesses to take the law into their own hands pasture riots are more in evidence than any other form of civil disturbance in Essex at this time 60 Britnell also notes though that it is unlikely that anyone held rights to common pasture on the Lexden estate 64 FitzWalter petitioned the king that about a hundred Colchester men had in the course of their trespass broke FitzWalter s park at Lexden hunted therein felled his trees fished in his stews carried away the trees and fish as well as deer from the park and assaulted his servant John Osekyn there whereby he lost his service for a great time 65 Lexden Park was one of FitzWalter s most valuable possessions consisting of over 150 acres 61 hectares of pasture 66 which in 1334 had been valued for tax purposes at over 1 300 67 In July a commission of oyer and terminer was sent to Essex to investigate FitzWalter s complaints 65 A crisis point was reached when one of FitzWalter s men was killed during another attack on Lexden Park 68 An inquest was held in Colchester but FitzWalter disputed its findings Instead and in breach of the borough s liberties which allowed it to administer its own internal affairs FitzWalter brought in the county coroner 61 probably one of his own retainers 53 to perform another inquest Neither inquest appears to have satisfied the parties involved 61 FitzWalter attempted to have a bailiff of Colchester John Fordham indicted for the death but to no avail 68 FitzWalter reacted violently to the death of his man doubtless encouraged by previous attacks on Lexden and the injuries to Osekyn 66 Now he began to hunt down members of both inquest juries and beat them up The first victim was Henry Fernerd of Copford a juryman who had publicly expressed his faith in Fordham s innocence FitzWalter s men beat him nearly to death 10 FitzWalter soon widened his attacks to Colchester tenantry more generally seeking them out as far afield as Maldon and Southminster FitzWalter then escalated his attacks on individuals to the town itself and on 20 May 1342 placed Colchester under an armed siege 61 He ambushed anyone caught entering or leaving the town until no man could go to a market or fair from Easter until Whitsuntide 47 FitzWalter and his men barricaded the roads with wood from the broken doors and roof beams of houses they had destroyed 15 His physical campaign against the townsmen was accompanied by legal attacks in which he attempted to fix juries against them 53 FitzWalter s siege lasted until 22 July when the burghers paid FitzWalter 40 compensation This did not bring peace between them FitzWalter again besieged the town from 7 April to 1 June the following year This may have been provoked by continuing incursions by the town onto his Lexden estate He was paid another 40 to lift this siege 61 and those who attempted to sue for the damage he and his men had caused found that local juries were too afraid to bring verdicts against FitzWalter and his gang 68 Not only did the gang fully support their lord its members often carried out their own operations in the knowledge of his protection For example Bradenham himself besieged Colchester for three months 61 in autumn 1350 69 The country had been ravaged by the Black Death in 1348 and Partington suggests that this was the catalyst for the King to take action against FitzWalter Society had been unsettled by the disease and Edward was determined that lords should be made to look to their responsibilities to the realm 70 Indictment Edit Essex Jennifer Ward has written suffered severely from the FitzWalter gang s activities throughout the 1340s It was difficult for justice to be done though and was to take nearly ten years 71 During that time he effectively usurped the king s writ in the north of the county This forced the role of keeping the king s peace upon him 72 with what has been described as a rival system of justice 73 to that of the crown 73 FitzWalter s expeditions to France which periodically removed him from the theatre of conflict were deliberate attempts by King Edward at solving the problem without a need for taking legal action 40 note 13 This was an impermanent solution Eventually in response to FitzWalter s continuing outrages 3 a commission of the peace probably under the authority of William Shareshull was despatched to Chelmsford early in 1351 76 note 14 As a result writes the scholar Elizabeth C Furber justice of a sort finally caught up 41 with FitzWalter 78 Shareshull s commission indicted FitzWalter for failing to appear to answer accusations of felony 5 Thus the great man with most of his confederates got off with fines one little man was hanged As it is seide in olde proverbe Pore be hangid bi the necke a riche man bi the purs 41 note 15 Elizabeth C Furber Thus outlawed FitzWalter was judged guilty of multiple serious crimes such as extortion and refusal to pay taxes 80 His fundamental offence says Ward was encroaching on the royal power 80 FitzWalter s indictment roll notes Margaret Hastings listed so many offences that it read like an index to the record of indictment for a whole county 29 note 16 On 31 January 1351 the King summoned FitzWalter by a writ of capias and he appeared before the King s Bench at Westminster Palace Found guilty he was cast into Marshalsea Prison 78 and his estates confiscated 5 In November FitzWalter was transferred to the Tower of London where he was allocated ten shillings a day from his estates for his subsistence 78 FitzWalter says the historian Mark Ormrod had been publicly discredited 83 The King not only wanted Essex to return to a state of peace he also intended to make an example of FitzWalter to the nobility generally The King he argues expected his beneficiaries to observe standards of behaviour more acceptable to him and to the political community 83 Likewise argues the medievalist Richard Partington Edward s anger was especially terrifying in cases where he believed nobles were abusing their position to oppress others 70 The King also did not it seems take FitzWalter s earlier loyal service in France into account when weighing up FitzWalter s punishment 70 Some although not all of FitzWalter s associates were also convicted Marney and Bradenham were imprisoned and fined and later released with their lord 80 The parson was forced to give up his benefice Others were either pardoned in at least one case following military service in Brittany or exigented 39 Some were exonerated outright 40 Only one minor member of the gang William de Wyborne 39 was hanged for his crimes his chattels worth 40d were confiscated 39 FitzWalter was imprisoned for a year 40 and following his release in June 1352 the King pardoned him The pardon was a substantial document and covered murder robbery rape arson kidnapping trespass extortion and incitement and ranged from thefbote note 17 and illegally carrying off other s rabbits to the usurpation of royal justice 78 St Mary the Virgin Church Little Dunmow all that remains in 2009 of the medieval priory whose prior FitzWalter terrorised and where he and his wife were buried FitzWalter was also bound to pay Edward the colossal 3 amount of at least 847 2s 4d 39 note 18 this he paid off incrementally 3 In doing so FitzWalter effectively bought his estates back from the King 40 Indeed the size of the fine which he spent the last decade of his life paying is probably the only reason his estates were returned to him in the first place 29 For ten years comments Barbara Hanawalt the pipe rolls benignly enter payments to the king from his dear and faithful John FitzWalter 86 Later life EditProbably as a direct consequence of his violent behaviour in Essex and although he sat in parliament and on the king s council he never held royal office in the county and nor was he appointed to any of its commissions 3 FitzWalter died on 18 October 1361 and was buried alongside his wife and ancestors in Dunmow Priory 22 Eleanor had predeceased him 22 although not apparently by long 3 His mother survived him still controlling a third of his estate 3 On the day of FitzWalter s death one farthing remained owing to the crown from his fine a decade earlier 3 He was succeeded in his estates and titles by his son Walter who had been born in 1345 at the height says Starr of his father s criminal activities 3 Walter unlike his father was to be a loyal servant of the crown and helped to suppress the Peasants Revolt in Essex for King Richard II in 1381 87 Walter was also to be a close ally of his brother in law the Earl of Oxford in the politically turbulent years towards the end of Richard s reign 26 The criminal activities and disregard for the law demonstrated by men such as John FitzWalter says Elisabeth Kimball suggests that the lack of governance associated with fifteenth century England seems to have had its roots in the fourteenth 76 FitzWalter argues the historian G L Harriss was fundamentally flawed in character and from his youth had been on a downward spiral of violence which brought the withdrawal of lordly and neighbourhood protection both by the crown and by the rest of the local gentry 32 Characters such as FitzWalter have traditionally been seen by historians as demonstrating Edward III s poor record with law and order on the other hand suggests Ormrod although royal justice may have been delayed it was still sure and when it came harsh 83 Notes Edit Cokayne is not specific about FitzWalter s precise date of birth merely stating that he was aged 13 and more at his father s death 5 The FitzWalter family held 14 manors in Essex Ashdon Burnham on Crouch Caidge Chigwell Creeksea Little Dunmow Henham Lexden Maldon Sheering Great Tey Ulting Wimbish and Woodham Walter 8 9 The legal concept of dower had existed since the late twelfth century as a means of protecting a woman from being left landless if her husband died first He would when they married assign certain estates to her a dos nominata or dower usually a third of everything of which he was seised 11 FitzWalter s transfer to the Prince of Wales army says the historian Andrew Ayton removed a sizeable group from the pool of manpower available to the Earl of Northampton for his own force 18 Regardless of one s other criminal activities park raiding was a favoured pastime explains Gloria Harris because it was a way of securing luxury food such as venison making a profit on the value of the animals poached or taking revenge on the owner or it may have just been for the thrill of the chase 15 FitzWalter was not alone in his behaviour gang warfare was common in the early fourteenth century and his generation has been described as a roll call of colourful gentry criminals 35 Andrew Ayton has noted that summoned alongside FitzWalter in 1338 were equally infamous men including members of both the Folville and Coterel gangs who had been active in the East Midlands the previous decade 35 Bradenham has been described as no common criminal being a successful and innovative farmer a lawyer legal adviser who unlike FitzWalter had sat on royal commissions in Essex 36 Although described by Furber as a doubtful character on account of his association with FitzWalter he was not indicted in 1351 37 Marney had taken part in a major operation possibly over the course of several days against the Earl of Northampton s Essex estates in 1342 During this attack he and about ten others had systematically raided damaged and stole from seven of the earl s parks in diverse parts of the county 15 Osemondiston later called Osmondston was a village in FitzWalter s manor of Diss on the River Waveney 41 It was also known as Scole by which name it is known today 42 43 The protection was reiterated in November 1451 as a result of what the Calendar of Patent Rolls describes as the wretched depression to which the priory of Dunmow is subjected through the willful injuries and damages of men of those parts scheming to destroy the said priory 51 52 A remnant of FitzWalter s Lexden Park is still extant today 51 53 20 7 N 0 51 53 9 E 51 889083 N 0 864972 E 51 889083 0 864972 Covering slightly over 8 hectares 80 000 m2 it lies to the south of Lexden Road between Church Lane and Fitzwalter sic Road 55 The vast majority of the Park in Fitzwalter s day was to the north of the road 56 It is unknown why FitzWalter had commanded his men to kill Byndethese but it was not an uncommon fate for those who abjured the realm in the 13th and 14th centuries In many cases the victim swore to take a certain route to the coast it being subsequently recorded that the abjurer strayed off deviated from or was fleeing from his path and that it was explicitly for this that local vigilantes beheaded him Generally too this was not seen as an unlawful killing by the courts The scholar Kenneth Duggan has argued that this allowed the men responsible such as FitzWalter to bypass formal justice and formal jurisdictional lines 57 The principle behind such vigilantism was that to contemporaries the abjurer who departed from the king s highway rejected the warrant of Holy Church to wit the cross and thus put himself beyond the protection of the church 58 W R Powell has explained this historical tension by the transformation of Colchester by the 14th century into one of the most important towns in eastern England Under a series of royal charters from 1189 onwards the burgesses had secured a degree of self government including the right to hold a hundred court for the town and its liberty or suburbs certain hunting rights in the liberty and a monopoly of fishing in the River Colne But the earlier charters had been loosely drafted and disputes often arose concerning the burgesses jurisdiction over the manors within the liberty and over the river 10 The dispute between the burgesses and the FitzWalters he suggests specifically arose because the borough had claimed Lexden since Saxon times but their claims had been put aside after the conquest 10 Recruiting offenders for military service was a common strategy of Edward III as he both gained a soldier and at the same time removed a troublemaker 74 The men would often be pardoned on their return and as such the practice was unpopular with contemporaries petitions against it had been submitted to parliament in 1328 1330 1336 and 1340 75 This was necessary because of endemic corruption within the King s Bench then sitting at Chelmsford 77 Shareshull s commission was to remain there until 1361 and particularly focussed on the enforcement of labour laws 76 As a result of its lengthy tenure it raised fines from 7 500 individuals which amounted to more than one in ten of the adult Essex populace 29 This proverb is found in the 15th century British Library Add MS 41321 folio 86 79 FitzWalter s indictment roll is held at the National Archives in Kew classified as JUST 1 266 46 81 The FitzWalter gang s portion of the indictments consists of three membranes probably the raw notes taken contemporaneously the clerk probably had no time to recopy them 81 and written in French They are marked on the dorse as having been taken at Chelmsford in 1351 and forwarded Coram Rege the same year 82 Merriam Webster defines thefbote in middle English and Scots law as the offense of agreeing to receive stolen goods or a compensation from a thief whether by the owner by way of composition or by a judge as an inducement for conniving at the escape of the thief from punishment 84 Furber points out that it is difficult to establish the precise amount demanded by the crown as there are numerous small amounts on the Pipe Rolls which may or may not be connected to FitzWalter The figure provided is the sum of all the major payments he is certain to have paid and is thus a minimum 85 References Edit Henderson 1978 p 33 Coss 1995 p 79 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Starr 2004 a b National Archives 1348 a b c d e f g h Cokayne 1926 p 476 a b Furber 1953 p 61 a b Starr 2007 p 19 a b Furber 1953 p 20 n 2 a b Moore 2018 a b c d Powell 1991 p 68 Kenny 2003 pp 59 60 a b Stow 1908 p 279 Barron 2002 p 226 Vincent 2017 pp 25 26 a b c d e f g h i j k l Harris 2017 pp 65 77 Curry 2003 pp 2 3 Ormrod 2004 a b c Ayton 2007 p 242 a b Furber 1953 p 61 n 3 Ayton 2007 p 214 Ayton 2007 p 210 a b c d e Cokayne 1926 p 477 Ayton 1999 p 33 Ayton 1999 p 33 n 43 Hutchinson 1778 p 218 a b c Goodman 2004 Leese 1996 p 218 Sayles 1988 p 453 a b c d Hastings 1955 p 347 Thornton amp Ward 2017 pp 1 26 Ward 1991 p 18 a b Harriss 2005 p 201 Leitko 2010 Mortimer 2009 p 240 a b Ayton 1998 pp 173 206 Phillips 2004 p 36 Furber 1953 p 181 n 2 Round 1913 p 86 a b c d e f Furber 1953 p 65 a b c d e Hanawalt 1975 p 9 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Furber 1953 p 63 Furber 1953 p 83 n 1 Blomefield 1805 p 130 Hanawalt 1975 p 7 Furber 1953 p 83 a b National Archives 1351 a b c d e Furber 1953 p 62 Furber 1953 p 82 n 6 Furber 1953 p 44 Furber 1953 p 45 C P R 1907 p 136 Furber 1953 p 83 n 2 a b c Furber 1953 p 46 Furber 1953 p 43 TL92SE A Map 1 10 560 Ordnance Survey 1968 Cromwell 1826 p 238 Duggan 2018 pp 208 212 Barrett amp Harrison 1999 p 25 Hanawalt 1975 p 14 n 32 a b Britnell 1986 p 31 a b c d e f V C H 1994 p 22 V C H 1994 pp 259 264 Cohn amp Aiton 2013 p 195 Britnell 1988 p 161 a b Furber 1953 p 88 n 1 a b Britnell 1988 p 164 Ward 1998 p 119 a b c Powell 1991 p 69 Round 1913 p 89 a b c Partington 2015 p 90 Ward 1991 p 16 Hanawalt 1975 p 14 a b Scattergood 2004 p 152 Bellamy 1964 pp 712 713 Aberth 1992 p 297 a b c Kimball 1955 p 279 Putnam 2013 p 73 a b c d Furber 1953 p 64 Owst 1933 p 43 a b c Ward 1991 p 23 a b Furber 1953 pp 11 12 Furber 1953 p 12 a b c Ormrod 2000 p 107 Merriam Webster 2018 Furber 1953 p 65 n 1 Hanawalt 1975 p 10 Furber 1953 p 10 Bibliography Edit Aberth J 1992 Crime and Justice under Edward III The Case of Thomas De Lisle The English Historical Review 107 423 283 301 doi 10 1093 ehr CVII 423 283 OCLC 2207424 Ayton A 1998 Edward III and the English Aristocracy at the Beginning of the Hundred Years War In Strickland M ed Armies Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval Britain and France Harlaxton Medieval Studies Vol VII Stamford Paul Watkins pp 173 206 ISBN 9 781 87161 589 0 Ayton A 1999 Knights and Warhorses Military Service and the English Aristocracy Under Edward III Woodbridge Boydell amp Brewer ISBN 978 0 85115 739 9 Ayton A 2007 The English Army at Crecy In Ayton A amp Preston P eds The Battle of Crecy 1346 Warfare in History repr ed Woodbridge Boydell Press pp 159 251 ISBN 978 184383 115 0 Barrett A amp Harrison C eds 1999 Crime and Punishment in England A Sourcebook London Routledge ISBN 978 1 13535 863 1 Barron C M 2002 Chivalry Pageantry and Merchant Culture in Medieval London In Coss P R amp Keen M eds Heraldry Pageantry and Social Display in Medieval England Woodbridge Boydell Press pp 219 242 ISBN 978 1 84383 036 8 Bellamy J G 1964 The Coterel Gang An Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth Century Criminals The English Historical Review 79 698 717 doi 10 1093 ehr LXXIX CCCXIII 698 OCLC 754650998 Blomefield F 1805 Hundred of Diss Osmundeston or Scolce An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk Vol I London W Miller pp 130 136 OCLC 59116555 Britnell R H 1986 Growth and Decline in Colchester 1300 1525 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 52130 572 3 Britnell R H 1988 The Fields and Pastures of Colchester 1280 1350 Transactions of the Essex Archaeological and History Society 3rd series 19 OCLC 863427366 Cokayne G E 1926 Gibb V Doubleday H A White G H amp de Walden H eds The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom Extant Extinct or Dormant Vol v 14 volumes 1910 1959 2nd ed London St Catherine Press OCLC 163409569 Cohn S K amp Aiton D 2013 Popular Protest in Late Medieval English Towns Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 10702 780 0 Coss P R 1995 The Knight in Medieval England 1000 1400 Gloucester Alan Sutton ISBN 978 0 75090 996 9 C P R 1907 Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office Edward III 1350 1354 Vol IX 1st ed London H M S O OCLC 715308987 Cromwell T 1826 History and Description of the Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in Essex Vol II London W Simpkin amp R Masshall OCLC 680415281 Curry A 2003 The Hundred Years War British History in Perspective 2nd ed London Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 0 23062 969 1 Duggan K 2018 The Ritualistic Importance of Gallows in Thirteenth Century England In Butler S M amp Keselring K J eds Crossing Borders Boundaries and Margins in Medieval and Early Modern Britain Essays in Honour of Cynthia J Neville Leiden Brill pp 195 215 ISBN 978 9 00436 495 0 Furber E C 1953 Essex Sessions of the Peace 1351 1377 1379 Colchester Essex Archaeological Society OCLC 560727542 Goodman A 2004 Vere Aubrey de 10th Earl of Oxford 1338x40 1400 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 28205 Retrieved 27 September 2018 Subscription or UK public library membership required Google 7 October 2018 Lexden Park Colchester Map Google Maps Google Retrieved 7 October 2018 Hanawalt B A 1975 Fur Collar Crime The Pattern of Crime among the Fourteenth Century English Nobility Journal of Social History 8 4 1 17 doi 10 1353 jsh 8 4 1 OCLC 67192747 Harris G 2017 Organised Crime in Fourteenth Century Essex Hugh de Badewe Essex Soldier and Gang Member In Thornton C amp Ward J eds Fighting Essex Soldier Recruitment War and Society in the Fourteenth Century Hatfield University of Hertfordshire Press pp 65 77 ISBN 978 1 90929 194 2 Harriss G L 2005 Shaping the Nation England 1360 1461 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 921119 7 Hastings M 1955 Review Essex Sessions of the Peace 1351 1377 1379 by Elizabeth Chapin Furber The American Historical Review 60 346 348 doi 10 2307 1843199 JSTOR 1843199 OCLC 472353503 Henderson G 1978 Romance and Politics on Some Medieval English Seals Art History 1 26 42 doi 10 1111 j 1467 8365 1978 tb00003 x OCLC 50743314 Hutchinson W 1778 A View of Northumberland With an Excursion to the Abbey of Mailross in Scotland Vol II Newcastle T Saint OCLC 644255556 Kenny G 2003 The Power of Dower The Importance of Dower in the Lives of Medieval Women in Ireland In Meek C amp Lawless C eds Studies on Medieval and Early Modern Women Pawns Or Players Dublin Four Courts pp 59 74 ISBN 978 1 85182 775 6 Kimball E G 1955 Review Essex Sessions of the Peace 1351 1377 1379 by Elizabeth Chapin Furber Speculum 30 278 280 doi 10 2307 2848488 JSTOR 2848488 OCLC 709976972 Leese T A 1996 Blood Royal Issue of the Kings and Queens of Medieval England 1066 1399 The Normans and Plantagenets Bowie MD Heritage Books ISBN 978 0 78840 525 9 Leitko Aaron 14 February 2010 Book review The Time Traveler s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer The Washington Post OCLC 960428092 Archived from the original on 3 February 2020 Retrieved 25 November 2018 Merriam Webster 2018 Thefbote Merriam Webster Archived from the original on 7 October 2018 Retrieved 22 September 2018 Moore T 2018 Walter Fifth Lord Fitzwalter of Little Dunmow Essex The Soldier in Later Medieval England Henley Business School Universities of Reading and Southampton Archived from the original on 7 October 2018 Retrieved 19 September 2018 Mortimer I 2009 The Time Traveller s Guide to Medieval England A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century London Random House ISBN 978 1 44810 378 2 National Archives SC 8 311 15549 1348 manuscript Special Collections Ancient Petitions Series SC 8 p Petitioners John Fitz Wauter FitzWalter Kew The National Archives National Archives JUST 1 266 1351 manuscript Justices in Eyre of Assize of Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace etc Rolls and Files Series JUST p Essex peace roll Kew The National Archives Ormrod W M 2000 The Reign of Edward III Stroud Tempus ISBN 978 0 75241 773 8 Ormrod W M 2004 Bohun William de 1st Earl of Northampton c 1312 1360 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 2778 Retrieved 14 September 2018 Subscription or UK public library membership required Owst G R 1933 Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England A Neglected Chapter in the History of English Letters amp of the English People 1st ed Cambridge The University Press OCLC 54217345 Partington R 2015 The Nature of Noble Service to Edward III In Thompson B amp Watts J eds Political Society in Later Medieval England A Festschrift for Christine Carpenter Woodbridge Boydell amp Brewer pp 74 92 ISBN 978 1 78327 030 9 Phillips A 2004 Colchester A History Stroud The History Press ISBN 978 1 86077 304 4 Powell W R 1991 Lionel de Bradenham and his Siege of Colchester in 1350 Transactions of the Essex Archaeological and History Society 3rd series 22 OCLC 863427366 Putnam B H 2013 1950 The Place in Legal History of Sir William Shareshull Chief Justice of the King s Bench 1350 1361 repr ed Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 10763 450 3 Round J H 1913 Lionel de Bradenham and Colchester Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society New 13 86 92 OCLC 863427366 Sayles G O 1988 The Functions of the Medieval Parliament of England London Hambledon Press ISBN 978 0 90762 892 7 Scattergood V J 2004 The Lost Tradition Essays on Middle English Alliterative Poetry Dublin Four Courts Press ISBN 978 1 85182 565 3 Starr C 2004 Fitzwalter Family per c 1200 c 1500 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 54522 Retrieved 14 September 2018 Subscription or UK public library membership required Starr C 2007 Medieval Mercenary Sir John Hawkwood of Essex Chelmsford Essex Record Office ISBN 978 1 89852 927 9 Stow J 1908 Kingsford C L ed A Survey of London Reprinted from the Text of 1603 Oxford Oxford OCLC 906156391 Thornton C amp Ward J C 2017 Introduction Crown County and Locality Fighting Essex Soldier Recruitment War and Society in the Fourteenth Century Hatfield University of Hertfordshire Press pp 1 26 ISBN 978 1 90929 194 2 V C H 1994 A History of the County of Essex Vol IX The Borough of Colchester London Victoria County History ISBN 9780197227848 Vincent N 2017 A Queen in Rebel London 1214 17 In Clark L amp Danbury E eds A Verray Parfit Praktisour Essays Presented to Carole Rawcliffe Woodbridge Boydell Press pp 23 50 ISBN 978 1 78327 180 1 Ward J C 1991 Essex Gentry and the County Community in the Fourteenth Century Chelmsford Essex Record Office The Local History Centre Essex University ISBN 978 0 90036 086 2 Ward J C 1998 Peasants in Essex c 1200 c 1340 The Influence of Landscape and Lordship Transactions of the Essex Archaeological and History Society 3rd series 22 OCLC 863427366 Peerage of EnglandPreceded byRobert FitzWalter Baron FitzWalter1326 1361 Succeeded byWalter FitzWalter Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title John FitzWalter 2nd Baron FitzWalter amp oldid 1172405698, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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