A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



land and Cartmel were wasted, and Furness was 

 only saved from a second disaster by the per- 

 suasions of the abbot, who went out to meet the 

 invader, and entertained him at the abbey." 

 Next year the abbot was ordered to deliver the 

 peel of Fouldrey to the sheriff of Lancaster, 

 when required, and to cause it to be garrisoned 

 and guarded." After this we hear of no more 

 troubles of this sort. The fort was maintained 

 in repair until the days of Abbot John of Bolton, 

 who caused it to be thrown down. Local 

 opinion held that its maintenance was necessary 

 in virtue of Stephen's grant of Walney, and a 

 protest resulted in the seizure of the island by 

 the royal escheator. The officer was removed 

 by Henry IV after an inquiry, but the peel was 

 restored.*" 



It is in casual official references and commands 

 that the part played by the abbot of Furness best 

 appears. As a member of the Cistercian order 

 he is of course found at the general chapters, and 

 as a visitor at daughter abbeys.** He assisted in 

 negotiation with the king upon financial matters.*' 

 He received special protection from the pope 

 against tht- infringement of Cistercian liberties,*' 

 and was entrusted with commissions by pope and 

 archbishop.** The situation of his house made it a 

 fit prison for offending monks. In i533Gawync 

 Boradalle, a monk of Holm Cultram, accused of 

 poisoning his abbot, was sent to Furness while it 



" Chron. de Lanercoit, 246. His followers did some 

 d.image. 



" Close, 16 Edw. II, m. 14 ; cf. Pat. I Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 3, m. 21, permission to crenellate house on 

 ' P'oulney.' 



'" Pal. of Lane. Chan. Misc. bdle. I, file 9, m. 7 

 (4 Hen. IV^) ; Coucher, 215. Its repair and upkeep 

 were considered important after the Dissolution ; 

 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (2), 12 16. The surveyors 

 of 29 Hen. V'lII say j^300 would be needed for its 

 repair ; Rentals and Surv. R. 376. 



*' Close, 10 Edw. II, m. zi d. ; 6 Edw. Ill, 

 m. 20 a'.; Cont. (Til/. Newt, ii, 565 ; Ca/. 0/ P.:/: 

 Lf tiers, V, 346. 



" Cont. If^ill. Netvb. ii. 571, a. 1275. 



" The papal privile^a define extent of freedom 

 from tithes {Coucher, 540, 549, 597) ; grant exemp- 

 tion from procurations and provisions (ibid. 585, 602, 

 669) ; forbid excommunication of benefactors and 

 servants, and allow brethren of the house to bear 

 witness in all causes to which the abbey is party (614). 

 Honorius III ordered the archbishop of York to 

 allow the monks a private chapel in the chapel at 

 Hawkshead, and protected their vicars in Furness 

 from crossing the sands in winter time to attend 

 unnecessary chapters. In 1256 Alex. IV released 

 the abbey from the attempts of Peter d'Aigueblanche 

 to saddle it with the king's debts (545). This cannot 

 refer to 1161, as Mr. Atkinson concludes; see 

 Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 72. 



" e.g. In 1254 Innocent IV appointed the abbot 

 conservator of the order of Scmpringham ; Cal. Pap. 

 Letters, i, 301 ; see also iii, 93, 280 ; iv, 73. For 

 abbot in diocese of York cf Testamenia Eboracensia 

 (ed. Raine), iii, 314. 



was decided how to proceed against him. He 

 was a masterful man and caused the abbot some 

 trouble. Roger asks Cromwell how he shall 

 keep him ; at present he is put in the prison at 

 night, and in church during the day, where he 

 ' melleth with no person ' except the prior.*' 

 The abbot was an important person at court 

 when the king came north.*' He collected 

 subsidies,*' assisted the royal officers and judges,*' 

 and acted as arbitrator.*' He appears in the judicial 

 records as the creditor of royal clerks and distant 

 merchants.'" From early days his wool was sent 

 from the fells of Lancashire and Yorkshire to the 

 markets of the East Riding." King Edward III 

 used the ships in his harbour." 



The power of Furness outside prepares us for 

 the fulness of monastic authority within its 

 borders. From the first it was privileged as a 

 tenant of the honour of Lancaster. Stephen's 

 foundation charter had granted the usual powers 

 of jurisdiction ; Count John protected the abbey 

 from defending its demesne lands elsewhere than 

 in the court of the honour ; Earl William had 

 granted freedom from tolls and customs in the 

 port of Wissant ; this was extended by Henry II, 

 and King Richard ' de rebus ad usos proprios ' 

 to freedom in the whole kingdom, by land and 

 sea. Henry III confirmed all the grants of his 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, vi, 1557 ; cf. ibid. 287. 



" When Edw. I in 1 307 sent the great seal to the 

 new chancellor from Carlisle, the abbot of Furness 

 attached his seal to the purse in which it was 

 inclosed ; Madox, Hist, of Exch. i, 74. In 1306 he 

 was called to the Parliament of Carlisle ; Rot. Pari. 

 i, 189. 



"e.g. clerical moiety, 1294 (Pat. 22 Edw. I, 

 m. 8); tenth of 1295 (Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. 22). 

 In 1294-5 the abbot's arrears as collector amounted 

 to ^788 11/. o\d.; perhaps this is the debt referred 

 to above. In 13 13 he was ordered to pay most of 

 this to the executors of Isabella of Forz ; this he 

 seems to have done, but, owing to a mistake in the 

 allocation of the debt, he could not get a receipt. 

 If his claim is correct, the episode is a curious 

 instance of red tape ; Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 15; 



10 Edw. II, m. 21 ; 10 Edw. Ill, m. 27. 



" In 1272 the abbot was appointed first justice in 

 eyre at Lancaster, but was excused. The others, 

 however, ' omnia faciebant cum consilio dicti abbatis' ; 

 Cont. fVill. Neuib. ii, 561. In 1357 he was appointed 

 with three laymen to lay the decisions of the Common 

 Council before the men of Lancaster at Wigan ; Pat. 



1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 3. As a baron he took oaths 

 of fealty for the king (Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 5), 

 and made arrest of found treasure ; L. and P. 

 Hen. Fill, vii, 432. 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. pt. iv, 228. 



" e.g. Close, 3 Edw. 1, m. 5 d. ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Assize R. Class xxv, 3, Nos. 57, 238, 347. 



" Close, 9 Hen. Ill, m. 18. In 1390 a commission 

 of inquiry was issued into wools shipped beyond the 

 sea from Furness without licence and payment of 

 customs and subsidies ; Pat. 14 Ric. II, pt. 2, 

 m. 44 d. 



" Close, 7 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. \6d. 



II! 



