SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



Grindecobbe, to all men of the county to come armed ' to reinforce them in 

 the maintenance of the rights of the king and the commons.' "' 



About dawn on Sunday the news reached St. Albans that Wat Tyler 

 was dead and the king's letters had been annulled."* A troop of the king's 

 knights rode in early in the morning to proclaim his peace and to give 

 letters of protection to the abbot. °^ Nevertheless the townsmen came at 

 the due time to seek for the charter. The ' greater villeins ' were admitted 

 to the abbot's chamber,"' where their demeanour was more conciliatory than 

 it had been on Saturday.'' The abbot then sealed the charter, dated 

 1 6 June, granting to the burgesses of the borough of St. Albans the liberties 

 which had been claimed at Bow Church. 



The villeins had won their cause and had obtained pardon for the 

 means they had used. They went round the town in procession with 

 cart-loads of bread and ale, which they consumed at the bounds."^ Stopping 

 at the Cross, they proclaimed the new charter, the Mile End conditional 

 pardon and the royal protection to the abbey.'" 



The abbot inspected the general charter of freedom granted by the 

 king.^"" Then the various ' representatives ' of the outlying vills had to be 

 dealt with. To the people of Rickmansworth the abbot granted that all 

 tenements within certain bounds in the vill should be free, and that the 

 tenants should be able to give, sell or assign them freely, paying the annual 

 rent then paid for all services. The tenants should have free fishing and 

 free common of pasture in certain places, paying ^d. a head yearly. But on 

 the same day the villeins ' extorted ' a new charter, enlarging the boundaries 

 of their liberties and commuting suit of court.* The tenants of Barnet and 

 South Mimms were granted all their liberties and free customs, as in the 

 charter of King Richard, and the right to sell their lands freely by charter 

 without licence.^ The men of Redbourn demanded a charter like that of 

 Rickmansworth and freedom from all servile dues to the manor. The abbot 

 promised the charter of manumission, but for the rest they were to return on 

 the following Thursday.^ The charter of Tring merely freed the tenants 

 from all tolls within the liberty.* The men of Abbot's Walden, Norton, 

 Northaw, Abbot's Langley, Sandridge, Tyttenhanger, Codicote, Cassio, 

 Watford, Westwick and Newnham also received charters.^ 



In the country the rebels, especially those on the demesnes of the 

 monastery, were evidently closely connected with the men of St. Albans. 

 These latter boasted that they had compacts with thirty-two vills," and 

 2,000 country people are said to have been in the town on the Saturday 

 morning. The demesne seems only to have risen after the town. The 

 men of Watford probably began to riot on Friday. They attempted to get 

 the justices' files of warrants, evidently with the intention of burning them.' 

 Many men at Barnet went off to St. Albans. Those who remained 

 demanded the Court RoUs,^ no doubt with the intention of destroying 



'' Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 294 et seq. ^ Froissart, op. cit. 128-30. 



'^ Walsingham, Hist. Angl. \, 479. ^^ Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 318. 



^' Walsingham, Hist. Angl. i, 481. '^ Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 320. 



89 Walsingham, Hist. Angl. i, 482-3. i"" Ibid. 484. 



' Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 326. ^ Dugdale, Mm. ii, 240. 



5 Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 328-30. * Ibid. 317. ' Ibid. 317, 325, 330. 



' Ibid. 330. ' Coram Rege R. 485, m. 33. ^ Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 328. 



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