THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Chapter 5, Pt 2 The family of the Beaumonts
In: ‘Loughborough Monitor’ 1 December 1864, pg 5
Pt 2 - The fourth Lord Beaumont and the Crusade against the Clementists - Joins John of Gaunt to recover Castile - Goes to the famous Tournament at St. Inglevere - Captain of Carlisle, &c. - Entertains Richard II at Beaumanor whilst the Court was at Nottingham and his Marshalsea at Loughborough - A Trial arising out of Court Etiquette - Second visit of Richard II to Beaumanor - His Hunting - Wickliffe, and William of Swynderby - Beaumont sent to France.
Henry, the third Lord Beaumont, has little or no history attached to his name, but his son John, by his marriage with Margaret, daughter of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was in every way a remarkable man. His father died when he was only nine years old, in 1370, and left him to struggle into notability by his own efforts. We first hear of him in one of those Papal wars which form so important a part of the history of earlier times. There was a schism in the Papacy. The election of the Archbishop of Bari to the Papal chair under the name of Urban VI, so incensed the Cardinals, that, after the first professions of fealty, they forsook the city, went through a form of excommunication against him, and elected Robert of Geneva as Clement XII. The pontifical war began in earnest. Anathemas and bulls were bandied about from one to the other like shuttlecocks.
England took the side of Urban, and in 1382-3, bulls were issued to all the Prelates in England, and the crusade was preached throughout every diocese. It was, no doubt, preached in St. Peter's Church [1], Loughborough, and some of the contributions of Lord Beaumont's tenants there helped to make up the 25,000 francs collected in England. Lord Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, a descendant of the Dispensers whose history has already been given, was made commander, and the youthful Lord John Beaumont was one of the Champions of the Church who joined him, and solemnly swore to make war on the Clementists and on them only.
They entered Flanders, and when about to attack the town of Dunkirk, a council of war was held, and Lord Beaumont and Sir Hugh Calverley took the side of mercy. The Flemings, they said, had done no positive wrong to them, were, in fact, Urbanists like themselves, and ought to be treated fairly and honourably. An English herald was sent to inquire what Pope they obeyed, and the man was murdered before their own eyes immediately he arrived, and before he could deliver his message. This insult aroused them like a young soldier's first wound, and they caught all the maddening passion of war. They attacked the place and soon captured it.
The Crusaders were, however, subsequently alarmed by a powerful army under the King of France which came against them, and they took refuge in Bourbourg. Here, the young Lord Beaumont, with one hundred men at arms and three hundred archers, commanded a part of the town. After a bloody defence the town capitulated, and the English returned home, and were somewhat indifferently received on their arrival. No doubt some of Lord Beaumont's own archers from Beaumanor and Loughborough accompanied him in this campaign, and fought by his side in this valiant but unsuccessful defence. We say no doubt, but we might put it stronger. There was not then any system of military recruiting like that now in vogue, and each officer of note collected his own men from his own retainers and tenantry, and frequently made express agreement with the King as we shall see further on in our history.
Early in 1386 a magnificent expedition sailed from the English shore under John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, also called King of Castille and Leon, to recover the Kingdom of Castille. Lord Beaumont joined the expedition previous to its departure from Plymouth, but his name does not figure much in the various sieges, although he is mentioned by Froissart [2] as one of the company who entertained the Duke of Portugal on his meeting Lancaster at the bridge of Pont de More, between Monccao [3] and Melgacco [4], the luscious description of which is in Froissart's best manner. When the army was disbanded on account of its general ill-health, Lord Beaumont returned home.
During his absence some individuals, jealous of his growing position and power, had begun to stir up an evil-feeling towards him in the King's mind, and he appears to have suffered a temporary banishment from the court upon his return, as a presumed evil counsellor to the King.
While the peace between England and France remained unbroken, three French knights, Sir Boucicaut the younger, Lord Reginald de Roye, and Lord de Saimpi, with the chivalry characteristic of their time, proclaimed that they would hold a tournament at St. Inglevere, near Calais, and engage to maintain themselves singly against all comers. The challenge created quite a sensation in England, and many knights accepted it. Lord Beaumont was one of them. He was the fourth knight who advanced to the lists on the opening day.
He "came forward," says Froissart, who calls him both Sir John and Sir Henry, and Lord both, with a carelessness peculiar to him, and which later historians have copied, "and sent to have the target of Sir (Lord) Boucicaut touched, who was instantly ready to reply to the call, having not dismounted from the tilt with Lord Clifford. The Lord Beaumont did not manage his lance well, and hit Boucicaut on the side; but Sir Boucicaut struck him so full in the middle of his shield that it drove him to the ground, and continued his course. Lord Beaumont was raised up by his attendants and remounted. The Lord de Saimpi then presented himself, and they tilted two courses without hurt to either.”
In the year 1389, Lord Beaumont was made Admiral of the Northern Fleet and Warden of the Border Marches, or as he is styled, Captain of Carlisle. In the latter capacity he displayed his usual boldness. He made a raid forty miles into Scotland, engaging in alternate extravagances of devotion and hostility. He captured the town of Fowyke, and brought home much booty and many captives.
Circumstances of some importance in the history of the town happened about this time. Richard II was making one of his royal progresses from London to York, in 1387, and established his court at Nottingham Castle. During this time his Marshalsea was held in the town of Loughborough; that is, his Marshall sat in judgment there upon all suits between members of the King's household and others, and such crimes as might be committed within the verge of the Court for the time being. Meanwhile the King himself [was] with his distinguished subject and Counsellor, Lord Beaumont, at his house at Beaumanor. The King hunted in Charnwood Forest, and probably in the Loughborough Parks, as yet unstocked with anything but game by needy and parsimonious graziers.
Upon one of these six days a street affray occurred in Leicester, and as it became a question of court etiquette to know whether Leicester might be considered within the limits of the King's Court, a jury from the neighbouring towns was empanelled to ascertain the fact. From Loughborough itself, John Church, Peter Toone, and Richard Cartwright, "men of most repute and substance," were chosen; from Hathern, Randolph Squirs, John Digby, and Richard Weston; from Cotes, John Russell, and Richard Cotes; and from Wymeswold, Simon Joyce, Richard Peale, and Edward Blount. The trial was held at Loughborough, and the witnesses came thither from Leicester before them. The crime of killing anyone within the precincts of a King's Court was usually a very heinous one, the punishment of which was more than ordinarily severe. There appears to have been in this case some doubt as to whether Leicester was really within the limits of the Court, and under the circumstances the jury, we believe, came to a very merciful conclusion in the matter.
Richard II appears to have been so well pleased with his visit to Beaumanor and the pleasantnesses of a forest probably new to him, that he paid a second visit to Lord Beaumont in two years afterwards, in 1390. This progress appears to have been one of enjoyment entirely. The Duke of Lancaster proclaimed a royal hunt at Leicester, and there was a large gathering of the "magnates of the King," says Knighton, writing from Leicester Abbey. These were the Archbishop of York, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Arundell, Lord John Holland, Earl of Huntington, with many other lords. That they must have hunted in Charnwood, Beaumanor, Loughborough Parks, and elsewhere, is very clear from the terms Knighton uses. The hunting was to be at Leicester, in the Forest, and the preserved enclosures or parks (defensa), and in all the lands thereabouts. It does not require much stretch of imagination either to conceive the fact or the wonderment it would create amongst the country people.
On the Thursday following the King moved towards Nottingham, and passed the night with Lord Beaumont at Beaumanor. It is singular that Knighton does not give the name of this place, but simply says, "He passed the night with the Lord of Beaumonde, near Lowteborowe." Unfortunately, there are no accounts of Royal progresses extant of so early a date, or we might have been able to have given more details concerning Richard II’s two visits to our neighbourhood, and his progresses through the town [5].
We have now to pass to a little episode in the religious history of the town. In his various perambulations through this country, the great Wickliffe [sic] had several times visited Loughborough, and preached here, and his bold yet reverent mien had won for him the good estimation of his hearers, if it had not secured their conviction. The church was like all others then; it had many images of the Saints for the people to pray to, but as yet there was no open Bible that they could read. The people were religious enough in their way, and do not seem to have been much moved by his exhortations. He found an able follower in William of Swynderby, or the Hermit, a man of unknown birth and origin, who lived in a cell in the woods outside the walls of Leicester, and issued thence to the neighbouring towns, reproving the fair sex for their gaieties, and the priests for their vices and place and money-hunting
He visited Loughborough several times, preaching from the market cross with all the fervour of an apostle. We do not know whether the fair sex here was as giddy and as finely dressed as in their county town, but if they were, they would most assuredly receive from him the same stern and stinging reproof. With his remarks upon the place and money-hunting vices of the clergy they could well agree, for although now without a recognised pastor, they had recently been familiar with two instances of pluralism in their midst.
In 1366, John de Leek not only held the living of St. Peter's [6], then taxed at 44 marks, but the prebend of Somerleye, in the Church of Chichester, taxed at twelve marks, and another in the free chapel of Windsor, taxed at 40 shillings. In the same year, also, John de Worshopp was complained of on the same ground, he holding the church of Loughborough, a canonary at Lincoln, and the Prebendary of Lowth taxed at 70 marks. Swynderby soon aroused an opposition strong enough to test the strength of his own mind and principle. He was cited, in 1389, to appear at Lincoln, and went, many of his friends going with him "some of whom were the most considerable of the inhabitants of Leicester." Three Friars were his accusers. Swynderby could not deny what he had done, but he showed the white feather and promised to do penance and recant. Our admiration of the man ceases from that moment, and we can only pity him and be as charitable with him as possible. Stephen de Syresham, vicar of Barrow, was to accompany him on his barefooted tour to the places at which he had preached. They came to Loughborough, and there, where he had taught so differently before, the poor crushed man stood up and read that memorable recantation of his:
"I, William Swinderby, priest, although unworthy of the Diocese of Lincoln, acknowledging one true Catholic and Apostolic faith of the holy church of Rome, do abjure all heresy and error repugning to the determination of the holy mother church, whereof I have hitherto been defamed; namely, the conclusions and articles above prefixed, and every one of them, to me judicially objected, by the commissary of the reverend father in Christ and Lord John, by the Grace of God, Bishop of Lincoln; and do revoke the same, and every one of them, some as heretical, some as erroneous and false; and do affirm and believe them to be so, and hereafter, will never teach, preach, or affirm publicly or privily the same. Neither will I make any sermon within the diocese of Lincoln, but asking first and obtaining the license of the aforesaid reverend father and lord, the Bishop of Lincoln. Contrary to the which, if I shall presume hereafter to say or do, to hold or preach, I shall be content to abide by the severity of the canon, as I have judicially, by the necessity of the law, sworn, and do swear, &c."
This appears to have been his last public act, and he who might have shone for ever as a lesser light beside the bright Morning Star of the Reformation, came crashing down to dull earth a charred and smouldering meteoroid, without even one bright streak across the heavens in his descent to make us think more kindly of him, and forgive him his traitorous humiliation.
In 1391, Richard II evinced the confidence he reposed in Lord Beaumont by selecting him as one of the ambassadors he sent to Paris to negotiate concerning his marriage with Isabella, the daughter of Charles of France. She had been previously betrothed to the son of the Duke of Brittain, and it required no little discrimination on the part of the ambassadors so to open their message as not to incense the King, her father, at the outset, and so frustrate the whole scheme. They were, however, treated everywhere with the greatest honour and respect.
They were lodged at the Croix du Tiroir in Paris, and their horses, six hundred in number, with the customary attendants on foot, amounting (according to the monk of St. Denis) to 1,200 persons, occupied the whole of that and part of another street. Three hundred crowns had been voted by the French to defray the expenses of this multitude during their stay in the city. A treaty was eventually signed agreeing to the marriage of Isabella to King Richard. Her dower was fixed at 80,000 crowns, and she was to be allowed when she had reached her twelfth year to dissent from the arrangement if she chose.
The Earl
Marshall of England espoused her as proxy for the King, and from that time she
became in name at least Queen of England. Although only in her eighth year,
"it was a goodly sight to see her behaviour," says Froissart,
"for all that she was but young, right pleasantly she bore the part of a
queen." The real marriage which took place some years afterwards, it is no
part of our story to give an account of; suffice it to say, that in Froissart
as much as will satisfy any curious member of the sex so fond of such scenes
and themes may be found for the seeking, and is very readable. This negotiation
was Lord Beaumont's last public act, and he died in 1397.
 |
| All Saints with Holy Trinity |
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NOTES
[1] St Peter’s is the church we now refer to as All Saints with Holy Trinity
[2] A French-speaking poet and historian from the Low Countries
[3] Modern day known as Monção
[4] Modern day known as Melgaço
[5] More information would be useful, as if the King were heading to Nottingham from Loughborough, Beaumanor is hardly on the way.
[6] All
Saints with Holy Trinity
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Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
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Posted by
lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
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