POLITICAL HISTORY 



they discovered his addition to the Charter of Forests 'saving the rights 

 of the crown.' 88 



There is nothing of interest to record in the history of Middlesex 

 during the early part of the fourteenth century. The burden of the 

 Scottish and Welsh wars fell on the county, although it was beyond the 

 region of actual warfare. Orders for the distraint of knighthood and 

 summonses for the county's quota to appear on either border form the 

 chief records during this period. Those specially summoned to serve 

 against the Scots in 1301 were Richard de Windsor, who had already 

 represented Middlesex in the Parliaments of 12979, Henry de Enfield, 

 who had attended the Parliament at Salisbury amongst other justices of 

 the peace in 1 277, John de Bello Campo, and Adam Badyk. 87 



The Mandeville estates were at this time held by the Bohuns, earls 

 of Hereford, a Humphrey de Bohun having married Maud, the Mande- 

 ville heiress. The Humphrey de Bohun of the reign of Edward III, who 

 had succeeded to the title and lands of the earls of Essex and of Hereford 

 in I335, 88 served the king in France in the expedition for the relief of 

 Aiguillon. On his return to England he obtained a licence to fortify 

 and embattle his manor-house at Enfield. 89 



Middlesex was the scene of the climax of the Peasant Revolt in 

 1381. The Commons of Essex entered the county on the Festival of 

 Corpus Christi (13 June). 90 On that morning they went to Highbury, 

 led by Jack Straw, and there set fire to the hospital of St. John of Clerken- 

 well, causing much damage and loss to the Hospitallers." Some of the 

 Commons then returned to London, but the greater number remained on 

 the scene of the outrage, surrounding the ruined house which had lately 

 been built for the hospital by Sir Robert Hales,'* and the remains of 

 which came to be known as 'Jack Straw's Castle.' 93 On the following 

 morning (Friday), the peasants of St. Albans and Barnet, marching into 

 London, found the Essex insurgents still gathered round the burning 

 ruins. 94 Jack Straw, as leader, received the new comers, and immediately 

 exacted from them an oath of fealty to King Richard and the Commons 

 of England. 95 Meanwhile the peasants of Kent and Surrey had entered 

 London, and after committing many outrages in the City and in West- 

 minster, they finally passed through Holborn and burnt the hospital of 

 St. John at Clerkenwell. 98 That night, the insurgents were in three 

 bodies : those who were still burning and wrecking in Highbury and 

 Clerkenwell ; and those who were encamped at Mile End, and on 

 Tower Hill respectively. 



The Mile End insurgents demanded that the king should come to 

 them in person, immediately and unarmed. 97 Accordingly he rode out at 



M W. Hemingburgh, Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 183. 



' Palgrave, Par/. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 270. Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 62. 



* Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. Camlet moat in Trent Park is supposed to mark the site of the 

 Bohun manor-house. 



" ' Anominalle Cronicle,' printed in Engl. Hist. Rev. July, 1898. 

 " Stow, Annals, 285. " Lingard, Hist, of Engl. iii, 290. 



1 Lewis, Hist, of Islington, 4. M Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 458. 



" Ibid, i, 468. * 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. " Stow, Annals, 286. 



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