There is associated evidence for murage, dated 16/11/1449, concerning Act of Resumption (a complaint by Commons).
Wording
May 1450. Leicester. Parliament {Act of Resumption back dated to November 16. 1449.}
53. An act of resumption. The commons assembled in this your present parliament pray you to consider: whereas your chancellor of your realm of England, your treasurer of England, and many other lords of your council, by your high command, showed and declared the state of this your realm to your said commons at your parliament last held at Westminster; which was, that you were in debt for £372,000, which is a great and grievous sum, and that your annual income was only £5,000; and considering that this £5,000 is insufficient for your high and noble estate to be maintained and to pay your said debts, that your high estate might be therefore granted relief. And it was further declared that your necessary expenses of your household, without all other ordinary charges, come to £24,000 a year, which necessary expenses exceed your income by £19,000 every year. May it also please your highness to consider that the commons of your said realm have been as well-disposed to their own limited ability to relieve your highness as ever were people to any king of your progenitors who ever reigned in your said realm of England; but your said commons are so impoverished, what with the taking of victuals for your household and other things in your said realm which are not paid for, and the fifteenths frequently granted by your said commons in the past, and by the grant of tonnage and poundage, and by the grant of the subsidy on wool, and other grants to your highness, and for the lack of execution of justice, that your poor commons have been almost completely destroyed, and if such a great burden should continue any longer it could not be supported or borne in any way.
Wherefore may it please your highness graciously to consider the foregoing, and that, by the advice and assent of your lords spiritual and temporal, and by the authority of this your present parliament, for the maintenance of your high estate, and in support and help of your poor commons, you will take, resume, seize and retain in your hands and possession all honours, castles, lordships, towns, townships, manors, lands, tenements, wastes, rents, reversions, fees, fee-farms and services with all their appurtenances in England, Wales and in its marches, Ireland, Guînes, Calais and in its marches which you have granted by your letters patent or otherwise since the first day of your reign. And all the honours, castles, lordships, towns, townships, manors, lands, tenements, wastes, rents, reversions, fees, fee-farms and services with all their appurtenances which were of the duchy of Lancaster, and passed from you by your grant or grants: and you to have, hold and receive all the foregoing in and of such estate as you held them at the time of such grants of them made by you. And that all letters patent or grants made of the foregoing to any person or persons by you or by any other person or persons at your request or will, in what has been mentioned above, shall be made void and invalid. And in addition ...
Provided also that this act shall not extend to any manner of grant of murage made by you to any mayor and community, or bailiff or bailiffs and community, or citizens or burgesses of any city, town or port of this your realm of England.
Granted by Henry VI. Granted at Leicester.
Primary Sources
Curry, A. (ed), 2005, 'Henry VI, 1449 November, Text/Translation', in
The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, ed. C. Given-Wilson et al., item 53. Internet version, at
online copy, accessed on 24/04/2009. (Scholarly Digital Editions, Leicester)
Comments
The exclusion of grants of murage from the Act of Resumption was part of the commons petition which had a relatively short list of such exemptions, this being the only urban one. The kings list of exemptions, which includes many boroughs, is very long and effectively negates the Act. The point here is the value given to murage, by the commons, above all other 'improvement' tolls.
Included in the king's exemptions are two mentions of town defences–Melcombe Regis and Beaumaris.
According to the petition, the declaration had placed the king's accumulated debt at £372,000, and his annual income at only £5,000. The household itself was deemed to cost £24,000 per annum, thereby leaving a shortfall of £19,000 every year to add to the debt. These figures were taken from a statement of royal finances which had been submitted originally by the chancellor, treasurer and lords of the council to the parliament of February 1449 in a hope of persuading the commons to vote more taxes.(William Smith, 'Royal Finance and Politics in England 1450-55', unpub. PhD thesis, University of Manchester 1998, 22.) The preamble of the resumption petition in the November parliament goes on to say how the commons were not hostile to assisting the king but that they were so impoverished by the lay subsidy, by trade taxes and by the effects of purveyance, that they could take no more. Mention was also made of the lack of execution of justice, implying that corruption and fraud had been a factor in the commons' plight. They therefore petitioned for the resumption of royal lands and rights which had been alienated since the beginning of the reign, as well as for the termination of annuities, corrodies and pensions. Those who held office were to receive only their due fee, and those who held royal perquisites were to render their true value. There is no reference on the roll to the king's assent, but the petition is followed by a large number of exceptions, 186 in all. These begin with the queen, whose dower rights were not to be damaged by the act, and the king's two foundations at Eton and Cambridge, and included many areas where the commons presumably agreed that royal patronage was justified. But arguably, the large number of exemptions made the act 'almost powerless'. (I. Harvey, Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450 (Oxford, 1991), 71.) Moreover, a copy of the act did not reach the exchequer till October and there were further delays in directing the sheriffs to enquire into royal lands. None the less, the commons had forced the crown to accept an important point. (Curry, 'Henry VI, 1449 November, Introduction')
Record created by Philip Davis. This record created 24/04/2009. Last updated on 20/01/2013. First published online 9/01/2013.
