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In 1402 July 23, the good men were granted, by Henry IV, (In year 3 of his reign) a Royal licence to crenellate Leomynstre (Leominster Town Defences)
Licence for the good men of the town of Leomynstre, which is situated on the frontiers of the marches of Wales, to fortify the town with walls, pales and ditches, for defence against the Welsh rebels, and to compel all the men of the town to contribute to the expense according to their means. By K. (CPR)

Granted at Lilleshull. Grant by King.

Comments

No apparent action taken on this licence.

Murage may have been a more usual for the funding of the work, although the licence may have produced more immediate access to finances. However, the impression is of a distant community misunderstanding the function of licences to crenellate responding in haste to an immediate crises.

Original source is;

(In fact, the original source given is usually a transcription/translation of what are precious medieval documents not readily availably. It should be noted that these transcription/translations often date to the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries and that unwitting bias of transcribers may affect the translation. Care should also be taken to avoid giving modern meaning to the medieval use of certain stock words and terms. Licentia is best translated as 'freedom to' not 'permission'.)

Significant later sources are;

More information about licences to crenellate can be found here.

Please do inform Gatehouse if you see any errors, can add information or can otherwise help to improve this resource. Please contact Gatehouse.

Record created by Philip Davis. This record last updated on Sunday, October 4, 2015.


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