A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



20 librates of land and upwards, on Thursday in the octaves of the Nativity of 

 the Blessed Virgin Mary next. Letters were sent on the same day to the sheriff 

 of Cambridge and Huntingdon to bring a jury of twenty-four knights and 

 free tenants having the same qualifications. Four days later (lo September) 

 the king, still at Bury St. Edmunds, sent letters patent to the bailiffs, burgesses, 

 and commonalty of Yarmouth, stating that, as from trustworthy information 

 he learned that certain contentions and discords might easily arise in their town, 

 he sent Walter de Burges (the marshal of his household) to arrest and hold 

 certain suspected persons, whose names the said Walter was to let them know ; 

 they were also to choose twenty-four faithful and discreet burgesses to be 

 present at Norwich on the Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.^ 



The king entered the city on 14 September — the interdict being with- 

 drawn for his convenience — and on 23 September ordered Ralph de Bakepuz 

 and Geoffrey de Percy to give over the city to Hugh Pecche and Hervey de 

 Stanhou, to whose charge he committed it, Hervey accounting for the issues 

 of the city to the Exchequer.^ 



However dissatisfied the king was with the citizens it was evident he was 

 equally so with the monks, for on the same day he took possession of the priory 

 and its possessions and entrusted it to Robert de Waucham, prior of Dunham, 

 who was to answer to him for all the profits, except reasonable sustenance to 

 the sub-prior and convent.^ The punishment meted out to the citizens was 

 severe. Twenty-nine of them were dragged to the gallows and hung, their 

 bodies being afterwards burned. The day after the king left Norwich, 

 William de Brunham, the prior, resigned the priory into his bishop's hands.* 



On 16 November, 1272, the king, whose end was not improbablv 

 hastened by this strain upon him, died at Westminster, and on 4 December 

 Edward I sent his letters patent to the sheriff confirmatory of the appointment 

 of Pecche and Stanhou, and also ordered him to summon a jury of true and 

 free men, by whom the truth as to certain inquiries they were to make 

 might be best ascertained.^ According to the Liber de Antiquis Legibus this 

 resulted in an inquisition of forty knights living near the city, finding : (i) That 

 the church was burnt by accident through the smiths employed in the priory ; 

 (2) that the prior proposed to burn the whole city, placing fire to it in three 

 places ; (3) that the prior was guilty of homicide, robbery, and other crimes. 

 Cotton, who is a partisan of the monks, admits the finding,^ but asserts that the 

 rich citizens bribed the justices and the most influential of the jury of forty- 

 eight belted knights — a most improbable story. The London chronicler goes 

 on to say that the king caused the prior to be taken into custody and delivered 

 to his bishop to be tried, but that the latter, being unduly favourable to him, 

 allowed him to purge himself after the manner of ecclesiastics. 



In 1272'' a papal letter directed against the citizens of Norwich was sent 

 to the bishop of London. In 1 274,* the case being referred to Rome, the 

 citizens' proctors asked for a dies amoris, and proposed to refer the case to 

 Edward, which was agreed upon. In 1275,' the monks claiming 4,000 marks 

 damages and the citizens offering 2,000 marks, the king ordered that the 



' Norf. Antlq. Miscdl. ii, 39. Earth, de Cotton, op. cit. (Rolls Series), 148. 



• Norf. Antiq. Miscdl. ii, 40. 



' Ibid. 41. B.irth. de Cotton, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 149. 



* Ibid. ' Pat. I Edw. I, m. 20. * Barth. de Cotton, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), 148, 149. 

 'IbiJ. 150. 'Ibid. 151. 'Ibid. 15a. 



476 



