A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Montfort was besieging Rochester, left Nottingham and marched south, but 

 De Montfort, hearing of his coming, raised the siege and retreated to London 

 to prepare his forces before the fateful battle of Lewes. 1 With the com- 

 pletion of peace, after the battle of Evesham in 1265, an order was sent to 

 John de Grey, governor of Nottingham Castle, bidding him see that the 

 king's peace was observed, on pain of loss of lands and estates, and that the 

 prisoners remaining in the castle were sent to London. * 



The regime of law and order under the strong rule of Edward I resulted, 

 in Nottinghamshire, as elsewhere, in a repression of the strength of local 

 jurisdiction and privilege. Hence, under the commission of 1275, the returns 

 known as the Hundred Rolls were made, to search out and recover royal rights 

 and jurisdiction. Edward saw that supreme influence in the state must ulti- 

 mately belong to the power which controlled the law courts, and thus he 

 determined to limit the jurisdiction of manorial lords and define the causes they 

 might and might not try. The returns show how needful from the royal point 

 of view such a policy was in Nottinghamshire as elsewhere. Suits had been 

 withdrawn from the hundred courts ; thus the honour of Tickhill and the fee 

 of Peverel were accustomed to send six suitors to the hundred court of Rush- 

 cliffe, but now two of the suitors had withdrawn, one of them paid suit 

 instead to the court of Tickhill, the other to that of William Peverel. 8 The 

 lords of the county claimed power of life and death and right to exclude the 

 sheriff from their demesne ; thus the bishop of Lincoln claimed the right of 

 namium -vetitum, and the right to have gallows, pillory, tumbrel, and assize of 

 bread and ale within half the wapentake of Newark* ; the bailiffs of the 

 honour of Leicester refused to allow the king's ministers to fulfil their duties 

 in their bailiwicks, and at the same time refused to put the king's mandates 

 into execution themselves. 5 Again the Hundred Rolls show a state of 

 oppression and extortion in every grade. In the wapentakes of Thurgarton 

 and Lye, the sheriffs after the battle of Evesham had given up their baili- 

 wicks to extortioners who forced all the free tenants to pay suit at the hundred 

 court, or pay a fine on refusal. 6 An assize of 1287 shows the same system of 

 oppression at work among small manorial lords. Henry de Pierrepoint and 

 Alice his wife were called to answer concerning services other than customary 

 exacted from their men of the manor of Sneynton. The tenants claimed that 

 their services were defined by the Domesday entry concerning ' Notinton,' 

 which was identical with Sneynton, but a complaisant jury was found to say 

 that the ' Notinton ' of Domesday was not Sneynton but a part of Notting- 

 ham, so that the case against Henry and Alice fell through. 7 



The reign of Edward I brought more than a regime of law and order 

 to Nottinghamshire, for it brought the beginning of its parliamentary history. 

 The first extant return of knights of the shire is for the Parliament of 1295,* 

 for although writs were issued for those of 1282, 1283, 1290, and 1294, the 

 returns are missing.' Writs were also issued to the burgesses of Nottingham 

 for the Parliament of I283, 10 but again there is no extant return until 1295." 

 Two members for the county and two members for the borough represented 



1 Matthew of Westminster, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 488. ' Rymer, Foed. i, pt. 2, 88. 



' Rot. HunJ. (Rec. Com.), ii, 28. 4 Ibid. 29. Ibid. 28. 



' Ibid. 29. ' Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 209. 



8 Par/. Writt (Rec. Com.), i, 40. Ibid, i, 10, 16, 21, 26. 

 10 Ibid, i, 1 6. "Ibid. 1,40. 



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