The Plantagenets: The Kings That Made Britain (25 page)

It was the refusal of ordinary people to submit to baronial terrorism and royal tyranny that built up a body of statute law, established the inns of court as schools where lawyers learned their craft and brought pressure to bear through parliament – and through revolution – on the men who controlled their destinies.

Ultimately, it was the sort of people who joined Jack Cade’s rebellion who shaped England as much as – perhaps more than – all the kings and councillors of the Plantagenet years.

REFERENCES

HENRY II

1
William of Newburgh,
Historia Rerum Anglicarum
, ed. H.C. Hamilton, 1856, I, pp. 105–6.

2
Materials for the History of Thomas Becket
, eds. J.C. Robertson and J.B. Sheppard, VII, pp. 572–3.

3
W. Stubbs,
Select Charters and other Illustrations of English Constitutional History
, 1921, pp. 175–6.

4
Roger of Howden,
Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi
, ed. W. Stubbs, 1867, I, pp. 191–4

5
Giraldi Cambrensis Opera
, eds. J.S. Brewer, J.F. Dimock and G.F. Warner, 1861–91, VIII, pp.178–9.

6
Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi
, p. 337.

7
The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury
, ed. W. Stubbs, 1879–80, I, p. 436.

RICHARD I and JOHN

1
William of Newburgh,
Historia Rerum Anglicarum
, ed. H.C. Hamilton, 1856, II, p.105.

2
Poésies complètes de Bertran de Born
, ed. A. Thomas, New York, 1971, p. 103.

3
Ibid., p. 190

HENRY III

1
Matthew Paris’s English History: From the Year 1235 to 1273
, tr. J.A. Giles, 1852–4, I, p. 240.

2
The Song of Lewes
, ed. C.L. Kingsford, Oxford, 1890, p. 33.

EDWARD II

1
Vita Edwardi Secundi
, ed. W.R. Childs, 2005, pp. 68–9.

2
Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II
, ed. W. Stubbs, Rolls series, 1882–3, II, p. 167.

3
Quoted in S. Phillips,
Edward II
, New Haven, 2010, p. 175.

4
Vita Edwardi Secundi
, pp. 30–31.

5
Ibid
., pp. 96–7.

6
Ibid
., p. 136.

7
Ibid
., No.10, p. 136.

EDWARD III

1
Froissart’s Chronicles
, ed. J. Jolliffe, 1967, p. 35.

2
Ibid., p. 134

3
B.W. Tuchman,
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
, 1978, pp. 87–8.

4
Froissart’s Chronicles
, p. 172.

5
Ibid
., p. 213.

RICHARD II

1
William Caxton,
The Chronicles of England
, 1520, ccxxxix, p. 264.

2
Rotuli Parliamentorum
, ed. J. Strachey
et al
., 1767–77, III, p. 90.

3
Froissart’s Chronicles
, p. 387.

4
Chronica Monasterii S. Albani, Thomae Walsingham … Historia Anglicana
, ed. H.T. Riley, I, p. 230.

HENRY IV

1
Chronicon Adae de Usk
, ed. E.M. Thompson, 1904, p. 29.

2
Statutes of the Realm
, 2:12S–28: 2 Henry IV.

3
A.W. Pollard,
Records of the English Bible
, Oxford, 1911, p. 79.

HENRY V

1
Chronicles of London
, ed. C.L. Kingsford, Oxford, 1905, p. 69.

2
Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London
, ed. J.G. Nichols, 1852, p. 12.

3
Chronique de France
, Enguerrand de Monstrelet,
c
.1450, in
www.deremilitari.org
Agincourt.

4
Ibid
.

5
Ibid
.

6
Ibid
.

7
Ibid
.

THE WARS OF THE ROSES

1
Robert Fabyan’s Concordance of Histories
, ed. H. Ellis, 1811, p. 594.

2
‘A Short English Chronicle: London under Henry VI (1422–7)’,
Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles: With historical memoranda by John Stowe
, ed. J. Gairdner, 1880, p. 59.

3
‘Historical Memoranda of John Stowe: On Cade’s Rebellion (1450)’,
Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles
pp. 94–5.

EDWARD IV, EDWARD V and RICHARD III

1
‘A Spanish account of the battle of Bosworth’, ed. E.M. Nokes and G. Wheeler,
The Ricardian
, No. 36, 1972.

POSTSCRIPT

1
William Caxton,
The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy
, Bruges, 1475.

2
The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
, ed. W.W. Skeat, Oxford, 1920, p. 422.

PICTURE CREDITS

1. Pope Alexander III. Art Archive/Kharbine-Tapabor/Cheuva.
   
2. Massacre of Muslim prisoners at Acre. Scala/White Images.
   
3. The nave vault at Westminster Abbey. Werner Forman Archive.
   
4. Stonemasons and builders. Art Archive/Kharbine-Tpabor/Coll. Jean Vigne.
   
5. Queen Isabella and Prince Edward reach Oxford. The Bridgeman Art Library/Collection of the Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall, Norfolk.
   
6. The Battle of Sluys. Art Archive/Bibliothèque Nationale Paris/Harper Collins Publishers.
   
7. Effigy of the Black Prince. Art Archive/Canterbury Cathedral/Eileen Tweedy.
   
8. Death’s grim harvest. Art Archive/Bibliothèque Nationale Paris/Harper Collins Publishers.
   
9. The death of Wat Tyler. British Library, London.
   
10. Richard II giving the crown to Henry Bolingbroke. Topfoto.
    
11. The Battle of Agincourt. Bridgeman Art Library/Lambeth Palace Library, London.
    
12. Edward IV and Earl Rivers. Bridgeman Art Library/Lambeth Palace Library, London.
    
13. Margaret of Anjou with Prince Edward. Topfoto.
    
14. The Chronicles of England
    . Art Archive/Museum of London.
    

The murder of Becket. Illustration from the French
Playfair Book of Hours
.

Massacre of Muslim prisoners at Acre. Illustration from a manuscript by Sebastien Mamerot (1490).

The nave vault at Westminster Abbey. The designs of Henry III’s master mason, Henry de Reyns, were closely followed when building was resumed in the mid-14th-century.

Stonemasons and builders. Image from a French translation of St Augustine’s
City of God
by Raoul de Presles (early 15th-century).

Queen Isabella and Prince Edward reach Oxford, October 1326. Illustration from
Chronicles of the Court of Flanders
by the Master of Mary of Burgundy (fl. 1469–83).

The Battle of Sluys, 24 June 1340. Illustration from
Froissart’s Chronicles
.

This effigy of the Black Prince was made soon after his death in 1376. It surmounts his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.