BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



pledge for keeping Magna Carta.** It served as a base 

 in the siege of Bedford in 1224.** Its pivot.,1 position 

 comes out most strikingly in the campaigns of 1264-6. 

 The Royalist forces mustered by Henry at Oxford, 

 at the end of Marcli 1264, marched against Noriiiamp- 

 ton, which was held by the younger Simon de Montfort 

 and ' a great multitude '*• of knights and squires. 

 In the Cow Meadow adjoining the town William 

 Marshall, keeper of the peace, and Walter Hyldeburn, 

 assembled the community of the county and addressed 

 them, on behalf of the Earl of Leicester, on the 

 iniquities of the King's party. *^-^ The Prior of St. 

 Andrew's, a Frenchman, whose priory occupied 

 the north-west angle of the town fortifications, 

 facilitated the entry of the King's troops through 

 a breach in the garden wall,'' and the town was 

 taken and sacked ruthlessly by the Royalists, who, 

 according to Wykes, reduced a most flourishing 

 town to a most wretched state. ^ Fifty-five kniglits, 

 including Sir Hugh Gobion and Sir Baldwin Wake, 

 were taken prisoners*' and sent to various castles 

 for safe keeping, and at a later date to have been against 

 the King at Northampton was the measure of a man's 

 disloyalty.'* The story of the King's threat to hang 

 the students of the ephemeral university of Northamp- 

 ton* for their resistance to him occurs only in a 14th 

 century chronicle.*"' The town was, however, deprived 

 of its mayor and committed to the keeping of a royal 

 (ujloi,*^ Ralph de Hotot, who was to keep in touch 

 with the constable of the castle. In the autumn 

 that followed Lewes, when the King's government 

 was controlled by Leicester, the levies were assembled 

 at Northampton,** and a tournament was planned here 

 by the younger de Montforts for Easter 1265, which 

 was cancelled because of Gilbert de Clare's refusal 

 to come.** Later, when the younger Simon was 

 marching from the south to join his father in the west, 

 he went out of his way to go through Northampton, 

 counting, it would seem, on the warm support of the 

 town.** Again, after Evesham, Henry and his son 

 made Northampton the rendezvous for the troops 

 going against the isle of Axholm,** and held a council 

 here at Christmas, at which the younger Simon 

 surrendered himself.*' Northampton was also the 

 King's headquarters from April to June 1266.*' 

 With the town held in turn by the rival parties, 

 it is not surprising that the Jews took refuge 

 in a body in the castle,** and that the priory 

 suffered both from want and from failure to maintain 

 order.** 



Eklward I made little use of Northampton as com- 

 pared with his father, though four parliaments 

 were held there by Edward II, and both parliaments 



and assemblies of merchants'* by Edward III. The 

 parliament of 1380, however, some of whose sessions 

 were held in St. Andrew's Priory," was the last 

 to meet here, and in the 15th century Northampton 

 ceases to be a centre of national importance. Its 

 strategic significance was illustrated again in 1460. 

 In June of that year Warwick had landed from France 

 and been welcomed enthusiastically by London. 

 The forces of Henry VI moved from Coventry and 

 took up a position at Northampton to cut off London 

 from the nortli. On July 10 they were routed by the 

 forces of Warwick and March, marching from London 

 through Towcester, in the meadows south-east of the 

 town, between the river and Delapre Abbey. Henry VI 

 was taken prisoner, and his queen fled to Scotland. 

 We are told that the flight was watched by the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury from the hill of the Headless 

 Cross, which indicates that the Eleanor Cross on the 

 London Road outside the abbey grounds had already 

 had its top broken oflt.^^ Not till 1642 was North- 

 ampton to be as prominent again in national 

 politics. 



Between the record of Domesday Book and the 

 first royal grant to the borough, almost exactly a 

 hundred years elapsed. In 11 85 the burgesses of 

 Northampton made a fine of 200 marks to hold their 

 town in chief,** and it is probably to this grant by 

 Henry II that John's charter refers.'* The consti- 

 tutional history of the intervening period is largely 

 conjectural, but for some of the time, at least, it must 

 have been bound up with that of the earls of North- 

 ampton.'' No earl is mentioned in Domesday ; it 

 is supposed that Simon de Senlis became earl after 

 his marriage with Waltheof's daughter Maud about 

 1089, and died on his return from the Holy Land 

 some time between nil and 1 113." He was the 

 founder of the Cluniac priory of St. Andrew's, the 

 builder of the first castle, the Norman churches of the 

 Holy Sepulchre and All Saints, and, according to 

 tradition, of the town wall. In 1 1 13 his widow married 

 David of Scotland,'''' who probably acted as guardian 

 to his stepson, the second Simon, the founder of 

 Delapre Abbey. By August 1138 Simon II had been 

 rewarded with the earldom for his loyalty to Stephen, 

 whom David was opposing.'* In 1153, when 

 Simon II died, his son, Simon III, the builder of 

 St. Peter's Church, was under age, and he only held 

 the earldom from 1 159 to 1183 or 1 184, when he died 

 without heirs.'* Various charters of the Senlis earls 

 are preserved in the cartulary of St. Andrew's priory. 

 One of the charters of Simon I is addressed to ' his 

 reeve of Northampton,' and those of Simon II are 

 addressed to ' his reeves and burgesses of Northampton 



" Matthew Parii, Cbron. Maj. (Rolls 

 Str.), ii, 603. It JCtmi likely that it never 

 wai handed over in fact. A royal garrison 

 was holding it in October 1215. Mem. 

 Iii!lt. ie Covtniria fRolls Ser.), ii, 226. 



" y.C.f/. Bidt. iii, 10. 



» C.C.C.C. MS. 281 (2) s.a. 1264. 



"• Hunter, Rol. Seltcti, 194. 



" Anncl. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 229-30. 



•• Ibid, iv, 145. 



•' W. Rishanger. Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 

 p. 21. 



•' Cat. Pat. 1258-66, pp. 311, 314, 316, 

 3'8,3»3>472, 555; 1266-72, pp. 66, 248. 



•• I'.C.H. fiprthanls. ii, 15-17. 



" Walter of Hcmingburgh, Ctroniccn 

 Eng. Hist. Soc), i, 311. 



•' Cal. Pat. 1258-66, p. 315 (26 April 

 1264). 



" Annal. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 234. 



" Ibid, iv, 162. 



" Ibid. 170. 



*' Cal. Pat. 1258-66, pp. 520, 549. 



" Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. MS. 

 2?i (2) t.a. 1265. 



*' Cal Pal. 1258-66, pp. 581, 595, 664. 



•* Ibid. p. 330-1. 



*• Ibid. p. 403. 



» Cal. Clase. 1333-37, P- ^77 i P- 5'7- 



5' Pari. R. iii, 88. 



*' Sorthanti. Nat. Hist. Soc. March 

 19C7; R. M. Serjeantson, The Battle of 

 Northampton. 



'• Pipe R 31 Hen. II. 



" Rot. Carl. (Rec. Com.), p. 45-6. 

 The grant to the burgesses of Lancaster 

 in 1199 refers to all llie liberties which 

 the burgesses of Northampton had on the 

 day that King Henry died. Rot. Cart. 

 (Rec. Com-.), p. 26. 



*' R. ]M. Serjeantson, Origin and //is- 

 lory of the de Senlis Family [Assoc. Arch. 

 Soc. Rep. xxxi, 504 8.) 



*• \Vm. Tarrer, //onors and Knights* 

 Fees^ ii, 296. 



" Diet. .\ai. Biog. This is probably 

 the date at which the castle became 

 royal. 



" Dugdale,.'/Bg/. A/on. v, 3^6; Round, 

 Geoff, de MandevilU, 28 ?. 



" Diet. Sat. Biog. 



