Confirmation
of borough charters by Henry VIII in 1510
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
Sometime before the 17
April 1510 David Savage, merchant of Kilkenny, travelled to Bristol on behalf
of Robert Rothe the elected sovereign of Kilkenny and the council. David Savage
brought with him the royal charters previously granted to Kilkenny by various
sovereigns of England as lords of Ireland.[1]
Henry VIII had just succeeded the throne (April 1509) and desired the various
boroughs of England and Ireland to seek confirmation of their previously
received royal charters. When Henry VII took the crown of England from the dead
King Richard III much of Ireland was reluctant to acknowledge the new king.
Instead many temporal lords and towns had supported rival claimants like Lambert
Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. In fact on 24th May 1487 Lambert Simnel
was crowned king at Dublin as Edward VI. Only the archbishop of Armagh,
Waterford city and the Butler lordship, which included Kilkenny, held out for
Henry VII.[2]
On 17th
April 1510 David Savage entered the Guildhall at Bristol where before John
Caple, the mayor, and John Williams and John Wilkyns, town sheriffs, he had the
king’s great seal affixed in green wax placed on the charters to ratify their
liberties and confirm such for their heirs and successors. The transaction was
then entered in the Red Book of
Bristol, on folio209, by Philip Ricart, the town clerk.[3]
The journey to Bristol for ratification of the Kilkenny borough charters had
two reasons. First the road to Dublin was blocked by Irish controlled territory
and although Henry VIII renewed the Lord Deputyship in the hands of Garret Mór
Fitzgerald, the Kilkenny delegation would not hope for a favourable reception
from an enemy of the Butlers, Earls of Ormond.[4] Also,
in 1510, Dublin Corporation was not wholly approved by London. In 1489 Henry
VII had issued a pardon to the citizens of Dublin along with the mayor and
council with a confirmation all their royal charters. But in 1510 Henry VIII
only issued a general pardon to the mayor and council while not mentioning the
citizens or giving any confirmation of all previous royal charters.[5]
Henry VIII circa 1509
The second reason for using
Bristol was ratification was economic. Having the charters confirmed by the
mayor of Bristol, using the king’s seal, would ratify Kilkenny’s charters with
a royal seal but also show the mayor and council of Bristol that Kilkenny was a
loyal town in Ireland and the both towns could freely trade with each other
without fear of trouble. Merchants coming from Kilkenny to Bristol for trade
would have a letter of introduction in the Red Book of Bristol.
On 2nd May
1510 Bristol town and council also received a royal confirmation from Henry
VIII of all previous royal grants with especial mention of a previous charter
of confirmation given by Henry VII in February 1488 and the major charter of
Henry VII given on 17th December 1499.[6]
Other towns also had
their charters confirmed by Henry VIII in 1510. In 1483 Richard III issued a
reconfirmation of previous royal charters given to the town of Gloucester and
then added a lengthy charter of his own including a remission of £45 from the
fee-farm rent payable by the town. The charter of Richard III was rectified and
confirmed by Henry VII in 1489 but omitting the remission of £45 from the
fee-farm rent. On 26th March 1510 Henry VIII rectified and confirmed
his father’s charter while again omitting the remission of the £45.[7]
On 10th
October 1510 Henry VIII issued a letter patent confirming his father’s grant of
March 1487 which in turn was a ratification and confirmation of letters patent
issued in July 1461 by Edward IV allowing a remission of £5 due from Oxford
University while allowing the chancellor powers to clean the streets and banish
any unwanted people beyond 10 miles around Oxford.[8]
Yet, interestingly,
after all these borough and university confirmations issued by Henry VIII in
1510, the confirmation written into the Red
Book of Bristol in favour of Kilkenny, seems to have disappeared between
1510 and 1950 when E.W. Veale edited the relevant section of the Great Red Book for the Bristol Record
Society.[9] Folio
209 of the Great Red Book deals with
regulation of linen cloth coming into Bristol and no outsiders can sell wares
in the town without first presenting them for sale in the Common Hall.[10] Of
course it could have been the Little Red
Book of Bristol which Philip Ricart used.[11]
This book started in 1344 and continued until the mid-fifteenth century but
could have included later items not directly connected with Bristol.[12]
The Great White Book has entries
ranging in date from 1491 to 1598 but has no reference to the Kilkenny charters
of 1510.[13]
The absence of the
Kilkenny charters in the Bristol records is one thing but the personalities
involved also raises questions. The Liber
Primus Kilkenniensis gives the people involved in 1510 as John Caple,
mayor, along with John Williams and John Wilkyns as the sheriffs. Bristol
records for 1509-10 record the town officials as Master John Cabell (alias
Caple), mayor, with John Williams and John Chapman as sheriffs.[14] John
Cabull was sheriff of Bristol in 1501-1502.[15] In
1510-11 the town officials were Master Popeley as mayor with Raff Apprice and
Robert Hutton as sheriffs.[16]
In 1519-20 John Williams was mayor of Bristol while John Wilkyns was mayor in
1523-24.[17]
Philip Ricart, the common clerk, is a more elusive character to find. Robert
Ricart was town clerk from the late 1470s until 1508.[18]
Philip Ricart appears to have succeeded Robert Ricart and was mentioned as
common clerk in 4th and 5th year of Henry VIII (1512-13
& 1513-14) and later years.[19]
In October 1484 Philip Ricart was made deputy of the ports of Bristol and
Briggwater.[20]
The odd man out, John Chapman, was possibly sick on the day and sent John
Williams to act in his place. David Savage, perhaps unfamiliar with Bristol
politics, assumed that John Williams was the sheriff and not a stand-in.
Kilkenny castle
Yet even with this
absence from the published Bristol records, the ratification of the Kilkenny
charters at Bristol ensured that merchants and apprentices from Kilkenny could
show that they came from a loyal town in Ireland. As early as 1439 the guild of
hoopers in Bristol enacted that no apprentice from Ireland would be accepted
except if they came from a loyal town or territory.[21]
Even after 1510 Kilkenny apprentices at Bristol had to still show that they
came from a loyal town.[22]
It is said that the 1510 ratification at Bristol allowed Kilkenny merchants to
have borough freedom at the great Bristol fair in August every year but this is
not what the entry in the Liber Primus
Kilkenniensis says.[23]
This freedom was implied by specially referring to folio 209 of the Great Red
Book. This folio, as mentioned above, was concerned with the exclusion of
traders from outside Bristol selling linen and wares in the town. The exclusion
order was made on 12th November 1466 when William Canynges was
mayor.[24]
By linking the liberties of Kilkenny to these exclusion orders it implied that
Kilkenny merchants were included among those allowed to trade in linen and
wares at Bristol.
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End of post
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[1]
McNeill, C. (ed.), Liber Primus
Kilkenniensis (Dublin, 1931), p. 118;
Otway-Ruthven, A.J., Liber Primus
Kilkenniensis (Kilkenny, 1961), p. 18
[2]
Otway-Ruthven, A.J., A history of
Medieval Ireland (London, 1980), pp. 403, 406
[3]
McNeill, C. (ed.), Liber Primus
Kilkenniensis (Dublin, 1931), p. 118;
Otway-Ruthven, A.J., Liber Primus
Kilkenniensis (Kilkenny, 1961), p. 18
[4]
Lennon, C., Sixteenth Century Ireland:
The Incomplete Conquest (Dublin, 2005), p. 79
[5]
Gilbert, J.T. (ed.), Calendar of Ancient
Records of Dublin (19 vols. Dublin, 1889), vol. 1, p. 33
[6]
Seyer, Rev. S., (ed.), The Charters and
Letters Patent granted by the Kings and Queens of England to the town ad city
of Bristol (Bristol, 1812), pp. 121, 123, 165
[7]
Stevenson, W.H. (ed.), Calendar of the
Records of the Corporation of Gloucester (Gloucester, 1893), pp. 16, 19
[8]
Salter, Rev. H.E. (ed.), Mediaeval
Archives of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1920), pp. 247, 254
[9] Veale,
E.W.W. (ed.), The Great Red Book of
Bristol, text, part III (Bristol, 1950), pp. 80, 81, 82
[10]
Veale, E.W.W. (ed.), The Great Red Book
of Bristol, text, part III (Bristol, 1950), pp. 80, 81, 82
[11] Bickley, F.B. (ed.), Little Red Book of Bristol (Bristol,
1900)
[12]
Stanford, M. (ed.), The Ordinances of
Bristol, 1506-1598 (Bristol, 1990), p. xviii
[13]
Ralph, E. (ed.), The Great White Book of
Bristol (Bristol, 1979), pp. 2, 148
[14]
Burgess, C. (ed.), The Pre-Reformation
records of All Saints’ Church, Bristol, part 2: The churchwardens’ accounts
(Bristol, 2000), p.197.
[15]
Burgess, C. (ed.), The Pre-Reformation
records of All Saints’ Church, Bristol, part 2: The churchwardens’ accounts
(Bristol, 2000), p. 166
[16]
Burgess, C. (ed.), The Pre-Reformation
records of All Saints’ Church, Bristol, part 2: The churchwardens’ accounts
(Bristol, 2000), p. 204
[17]
Burgess, C. (ed.), The Pre-Reformation
records of All Saints’ Church, Bristol, part 2: The churchwardens’ accounts
(Bristol, 2000), pp. 250, 288
[18]
Veale, E.W.W. (ed.), The Great Red Book
of Bristol, text, part III (Bristol, 1950), pp. 63, 64, 98; Hollis, D.
(ed.), Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice
Book, 1532-1565, Part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol, 1949), p. 4
[19]
Rich, E.E. (ed.), The Staple Court Book
of Bristol (Bristol, 1934), pp. 103, 149
[20] Seventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of
Public Records (1846), p. 99
[21]
Hollis, D. (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol
Apprentice Book, 1532-1565, Part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol, 1949), p. 9
[22]
Hollis, D. (ed.), Calendar of the Bristol
Apprentice Book, 1532-1565, Part 1, 1532-1542 (Bristol, 1949), Ms. pp. 74, 100, 151
[23]
Edwards, D., The Ormond Lordship in
County Kilkenny 1515-1642: The Rise and Fall of Butler Feudal Power (Dublin,
2003), p. 43
[24]
Veale, E.W.W. (ed.), The Great Red Book
of Bristol, text, part III (Bristol, 1950), p. 80
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