VOL. XX. (2) 
ANCIENT CIRENCESTER 
93 
expensive Charters, and the right to have Wills proven in its 
Guildhall before the Master and the Abbot’s Steward jointly. 
There would have been disputes over criminal jurisdiction 
as causing damage to the Abbot or to the Township ; or else, 
as to markets and fairs, and the dues upon these. The Abbot 
would have had his choice of the Master from among the 
members of the Guild presented to him. He would also 
have had his say as to the election of Burgesses ; and half 
the fines would have been his. Also he would have had the 
appointing of the Keeper of the Seal for sealing the town cloth. 
But Cirencester (as we shall see), becoming sold by Richard I. 
to the local Abbot, remained incorporate and was effectually cut 
off all hope of true liberty. That is to say, there was only one 
tantalising, but very brief, flash of it when under Henry IV. (1401) 
a dramatic event enabled it to escape with that King’s aid from 
its feudal owner’s hands, like a bird from the net. The con- 
spiracy of the Earls of Salisbury and Kent (his kinsman) 
in favour of the deposed Richard II., with whom was associated 
Lord Despencer of Tewkesbury, against Henry, having been 
betrayed to the latter, the Earls fled to Cirencester from Oxford, 
accompanied by a chaplain, called Maudelen, where they are 
reported to have lodged at an inn ; their followers remained 
outside the town. The Bailiff of Cirencester, becoming 
aware that a national crisis was actually concentrating in the 
midst of his quiet town, quietly took measures in favour of 
the King, and at midnight, together with some bowmen and 
a crowd of eager, if ignorant, citizens, who made fast the gates, 
secured the persons of the lords 1 and their minions, after a 
serious struggle involving the burning of some houses, and took 
them to the Abbey prison. Their just entreaties to be sent to 
the King being refused, they were led forth at sundown to the 
Market-place and beheaded without trial. Despencer, who had 
escaped, was taken at Bristol. The King being well-pleased, 
therefore, with the people of Cirencester, granted them, besides 
bucks from Braydon forest and wine from Bristol, a Guild- 
merchant and Master thereof. But no sooner did his son, 
Henry V., succeed him than the Abbot applied for a cancellation 
1 The Earl of Kent then owned and hunted at Miserden Manor. 
