Bishop
John Kirkby of Carlisle and 1338 wool tax
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
In 1338 the English
Parliament meeting at Westminster granted a subsidy to King Edward III on the
wool revenues of the Kingdom to help fight the French wars.[1] The
ordinary revenue of the kingdom was about £30,000 a year and borrowing was the
norm to acquire the extra money needed to keep the government operating. The wars
against Scotland and France added greatly to the cost of government. Edward III
borrowed heavily from Italian and Dutch financiers. In addition frequent
parliaments in the 1330s granted subsidies from the gentry and the Church of
England.[2]
The
government need for extra revenues
But much more was
needed. By the end of 1337 loan repayments of £124,000 was due to Dutch
financiers and the cost of the French war was unknown. An increase in the wool
tax offered some income. An assembly of merchants at Nottingham in 1336 granted
a subsidy of 20s and a loan of 20s on each sack of wool. This would raise about
£70,000.[3]
But Edward III wanted
more money and in February 1337 he attempted to control the wool trade in
Dordrecht. For four months he was successful but then the Dutch financiers and
English wool merchants diverge on how to maintain the wool trade and supply the
king with the much needed money.
Westminster
Parliament
The Westminster
Parliament of 1338 offered a solution. The king was allowed to collect the
profit on 20,000 sacks of wool (half the amount in the kingdom). The other
20,000 sacks were for the free disposals of the merchants and people. On this
agreement Edward III secured substantial loans from the Italian bankers. After the Parliament, Chancery
and the Exchequer proceeded to secure the wool due to the king and sent writs
to the county sheriffs, borough towns and diocesan bishops.
The
first writs to Carlisle to collect the wool grant
On 8th
December 1338 a royal writ of Edward III was sent to Bishop John Kirkby, which
he received on 20th December, ordering him to tell Chancery what
quantity of wool he had collected pursuant to the grant by the prelates and
religious at the Westminster Parliament. Bishop John Kirkby replied that no
wool was levied in the Diocese and that he was not aware of any grant by the
prelates and religious at any Parliament or at a council meeting at Northampton.[4]
Bishop Kirkby had attended this council meeting at Northampton (26th
July 1338) as he wrote a letter of excommunication from there upon Adam le
Husher of Cumwhinton.[5]
Bishop Kirkby tries to dodge the tax with innocence
This sounded grand and
a valid excuse. Carlisle was and is so far from Westminster that a person could
deny any knowledge of what happened at the Westminster Parliament and possibly get
away with it. Even local events can sudden come upon people unaware. On 3rd
October 1322 Archbishop Melton of York wrote to the abbeys of Jervaulx,
Coverham and St. Agatha’s at Easby that he intended to visit them on the 7th,
8th and 9th of October, respectively to collect
procurations. But then on 5th October 1322 Archbishop Melton again
wrote to the three abbeys to cancel the visit as a Scottish army was advancing
on Yorkshire.[6]
Clearly Archbishop Melton had no knowledge of any Scottish advance on 3rd
October.
Carlisle Cathedral
Bishop John Kirkby could
have continued to play the innocent cleric but instead he went on to shoot himself
in the foot. This happened when he went on to tell Chancery that in a recent
convocation of all the clergy in the Archdiocese of York, held at York in the
presence of the Archbishop, that they had refused to accept the grant of wool.
On returning home to Carlisle Bishop Kirkby says that he tried “as diligently
as he could” to persuade the clergy of the Diocese of Carlisle to accept the
grant of wool but he failed. The main reason for this was the destruction
caused by the Scottish invasion and people just didn't have wool available to
aid the king.[7]
The Chancery was
naturally suspect at Bishop Kirkby’s reply and again told him to collect the
wool grant. Bishop Kirkby was not the only person playing around the bush when
it came to paying the wool tax. When Edward III arrived in Antwerp in July 1338
only 2,500 sacks of wool were shipped for his profit out of the 20,000 due.[8]
Bishop Kirkby offers a new excuse for not paying
Bishop John Kirkby
replied to the royal officials that he could not collect any wool from the
religious houses in his Diocese because he didn't know the names of the houses
that had attended Parliament and there agreed to pay the wool dues. Again
Bishop Kirkby contradicted his earlier letter in which he denied any knowledge
of what happened in Parliament.
On 16th
January 1339 a new writ of Edward III was sent to Bishop John Kirkby giving the
names of those abbots, priors and other clergy who attended Parliament and were
bound to pay the levy. Although St. Mary’s Abbey in York appeared in the list
no religious house from the Diocese of Carlisle was named.[9] This
reply that no religious house in Carlisle attended the 1338 Parliament at
Westminster was good news for Bishop Kirkby to avoid collect the wool grant.
Bishop Kirkby would also have difficulty collecting from the parish clergy as a
report in February 1339 said that many incumbents had left their churches for
months, even years, without any licence from the bishop.[10]
Edward III still needed the money
Still Edward III needed
the money to fight against Scotland and France and Bishop Kirkby would have
been aware of this. A Parliament was called for 5th February 1339
but Bishop Kirkby didn't wish to go and answer questions about the wool grant.
He cited many reasons why he couldn't attend, in particular, bodily infirmity. Instead
he sent Master John de Brekhill and Master John de Stokton.[11]
The bishop’s absence
and lack of progress at collecting the wool grant didn't go unnoticed and
Edward III was not giving p yet on getting money out of the Diocese of
Carlisle. On 18th April 1339 another royal writ was sent to Bishop
John Kirkby to certify in Chancery by 15th June of the quantity of
wool due to the King. Furthermore Bishop Kirkby was to report on how much wool
had been collected and was held by him and how much wool was uncollected.[12]
On 4th May
1339 Bishop John Kirkby received the royal writ and on 21st May 1339
returned his reply. Bishop John Kirkby said that both in convocations held by
Archbishop William Melton with the clergy of York province and by John Kirkby
in the Diocese of Carlisle, the clergy and religious houses were urged by all
means to collect the wool due to the King. After a period of time the clergy replied
that they could not grant the wool dues because they didn't have any wool.
The clergy said that
they were “well night” ruined by the fury of the Scottish raids and had no
wool. Bishop John Kirkby also said that he had suffered from these Scottish raids
and that his own few sheep were almost totally wiped out. Bishop Kirkby stated
clearly that he had collected no wool nor could he and that there was nobody
holding any wool as there was no wool available to collect.[13]
A quite revolt against the wool tax
Bishop Kirkby and the
clergy of Carlisle were not the only people in 1339 not paying the wool tax. With
the king away in the Netherlands the machinery of government grew less
effective. Gentry across the country were slow at paying the regular taxes and an
attempt to cut the wages of the civil service was greeted with threats of mass
resignation. In this climate the wool tax only generating a very small revenue.
What wool that did arrive at Antwerp was damaged and of poor quality – people were
keeping the best wool for their own profit. By September 1339 the king was
driven to more reckless borrowing.[14]
On 13th
October 1339 Bishop John Kirkby was sufficiently healthy to attend a Parliament
at Westminster and was summoned to attend another Westminster Parliament on 20th
January 1340.[15]
At the January Parliament the gentry agreed to give a tenth part of each sheaf,
fleece and lamb to the king but the commons objected. Instead they proposed a
grant of 30,000 sacks of wool subject to certain conditions with 2,500 as an
unconditional first instalment as the king was desperate for the money to equip
the fleet against a threatened French invasion.[16]
The Bishop as war leader
Meanwhile on 28th
October 1339 a royal writ was sent to Bishop Kirkby to report to Chancery on
the names of alien incumbents and benefices in the presentation of alien abbeys
and priories but no more talk of collecting the wool grant.[17] Instead
the royal government contented itself with collecting the biennial tenth from
the diocese.[18]
For his part Bishop Kirkby assembled an army unit to fight the Scottish and
commanded the force. In May 1340 Bishop Kirkby had 4 knights, 52 men-at-arms,
40 hobelars and 40 mounted archers defending the border.[19]
Parliament debates a new wool tax
In February 1340 King
Edward returned to England and called a Parliament for 29th March. After
a few days debate the lords and commons agreed to a grant of a ninth part of
each sheaf, lamb and fleece along with a ninth part of the goods of town
dwellers for 1340 and 1341.[20]
In July 1340 the
government renewed its efforts to collect the wool grant to fight the war
against France. Edward, Duke of Cornwall, wrote to Bishop Kirkby to assist the
royal commissioners by reporting on the value of the corn, wool and lambs in
each parish.[21]
End game
It is not known if the royal government was ever successful at collecting the
wool grant in the Diocese of Carlisle. Across the country the government
struggled to collect the wool tax and King Edward was forced to make a treaty
with the French for want of funds even though he had won the naval battle of
Sluys against all expectations.[22] Bishop John Kirkby and the rest of the clergy and the ordinary people showed their opposition to more taxation without better conditions in their own lives. The ongoing battle of wills between the people and the government over taxation would repeat itself time and again over the following centuries - Peasants Revolt 1381 - Charles the First and Parliament - Margaret Thatcher and the 'poll tax'. Meanwhile John
Kirkby continued as Bishop of Carlisle until his death in December 1352 when he
was succeeded by John Horncastle.
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End of post
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[1]
R.L. Storey (ed.), The Register of John
Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352 and the Register of John Ross Bishop of
Carlisle, 1325-32 (2 vols. Canterbury & York Society, 1993), Vol. 1, no.
499
[2]
May MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399
(Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 154, 155
[3] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
pp. 155, 156
[4]
R.L. Storey (ed.), The Register of John
Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 456
[5] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 447
[6] Rosalind
MT. Hill (ed.), The Register of William
Melton, Archbishop of York, 1317-1340, Volume 1 (Canterbury & York
Society, Vol. LXX, 1977), Nos. 58-61
[7] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 456
[8] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
p. 157
[9]
R.L. Storey (ed.), The Register of John
Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 480
[10] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 481
[11] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 487
[12]
R.L. Storey (ed.), The Register of John
Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 499
[13]
R.L. Storey (ed.), The Register of John
Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 500
[14] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
p. 160
[15] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, nos. 515, 519
[16] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
p. 162
[17] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 516
[18] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 543
[19] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 550
[20] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
p. 162
[21] R.L.
Storey (ed.), The Register of John Kirkby
Bishop of Carlisle 1332-1352, Vol. 1, no. 547
[22] May
MacKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-1399,
p. 165
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