POLITICAL HISTORY 



Nottinghamshire until 1572, when East Retford was made a parliamentary 

 borough and sent two members. It was not until 1672-3 that Newark upon 

 Trent was incorporated and entitled to send two members. 



In the natural course of events Nottinghamshire played its part in the 

 Welsh and Scotch wars of Edward I, both in contributing its share in money 

 and victuals and in furnishing its quota of men. Thus in 1282, on the 

 occasion of the second rising in Wales, the bailiffs of Nottingham were ordered 

 to obey the commands of William Wyther, commissioner of array for the 

 county, who was empowered to raise 300 foot soldiers in Nottinghamshire 

 and Derbyshire. 1 Fresh disturbances in Wales during Edward's absence in 

 1287 brought a fresh demand for seventeen-score foot soldiers from the two 

 counties. 3 The strained relations between Scotland and England, coincident 

 with the attack of Philip IV on Gascony and a fresh insurrection in Wales, 

 made warlike preparations an immediate necessity in 1 294. Hence the com- 

 mission in that year to Nottinghamshire, among the other counties north of 

 the Trent, to provide its quota of footmen and send them to meet the king at 

 Chester and march against the Welsh. 3 Footmen were also summoned from 

 the county for each of the Scotch expeditions. For example, in 1299 a quota 

 of 500 foot soldiers was ordered from Nottinghamshire, 4 and a writ was 

 addressed to the commissioner of array for the county, with a command that 

 if the men were unwilling to march to Newcastle because of the bad money 

 current in the kingdom or the inclemency of the weather, they should be 

 induced by promise of a bounty from the king beyond their regular pay. 6 

 In the next year a commission was issued to John Byron and Richard de 

 Havering to make inquiry concerning and punish the bailiffs, bedels and 

 others who lately took reward from the footmen of the county of Nottingham, 

 when they came to Blyth, and gave them licence to return home. 6 In the 

 June of the same year Richard Bingham and Robert Joyce, the commissioners 

 appointed to select 1,500 footmen from Nottinghamshire for the Scotch war, 

 were ordered also to select a proportionate number of constables in the 

 county, well equipped with horses and arms, to come with the footmen to 

 Carlisle. 7 A similar mandate in the next year, 1301, shows the quota required 

 that year as 1,000 footmen. 8 Evidently the constant service was found to be 

 very irksome, and thus there is another mandate for the punishment of the 

 bailiffs and bedels who had received bribes from the 1,000 footmen selected 

 in the county of Nottingham. All those who had stayed at home were 

 to come without delay to the army at their own expense, and the bribed 

 ministers were to be imprisoned and kept in gaol until further orders. 9 



But, in Nottinghamshire, as in most of the counties, the chief burden of 

 the wars fell on the gentry of the county. In 1276, all who held in chief 

 and were able to bear arms were ordered to muster at Worcester or provide 

 substitutes. 10 A comparison of the names of those who held knights' fees in 

 the county at the time of the Testa de Nevill, 11 and of those summoned at 

 various times by parliamentary writs to perform military service, 19 shows how 

 thoroughly the system was worked, and how every baronial lord was forced 



1 Part. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 245. s Ibid. * Ibid. 



4 Ibid, i, 326. * Ibid. 6 Cal. efPat. 1292-1301, 489. 



7 Ibid. 519. ' Ibid. 596. Ibid. 60 1. 



10 Par/. Writs. (Rec. Com.), i, 196. " Testa de Nevitt (Rec. Com.). 



" Par!. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, under ' Writs for Military Service.' 



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