2006 14030 What effect did the Crusades have upon 12th and 13th century Northern England?

Although England is far from the Holy Land, it was still affected by these events. Much of the affect was financial, but English society was affected more than just having to pay for the Crusades. The Crusades brought new organizations such as the Knights Templar and convinced many of the English people to put time, wealth, and effort into attempting to bring the Holy Land under Christian control. The Third Crusade took an enormous financial toll on England for King Richard needed to have a large war chest in order to sail all the way to the Holy Land and support an army there. King Richard heavily taxed his people and forced them to relinquish much of their wealth for his expedition. His forces departed from the coast on March 25, 1190 in 180 transports and 39 galleys for the Holy Land in the hope that it may put in Christian hands. Once Richard reached the Holy Land, he still needed vessels to supply his army throughout the siege of Acre and as he advanced down the coast. Richards crusader army was noted to be the richest and best equipped army ever seen according to Ambroise. Richard spent much of his wealth on maintaining 500 knights and 1,000 menat-arms. He also decided to construct to fortify and secure the territory that he had seized from his enemy. For example, Richard decided to improve Jaffa by building a castle and improving the city walls. Back in England, Richards brother, John looked after the kingdom and forced Richards Chancellor William of Longchamps into exile in Flanders. According to Ambroise, John mercilessly taxed the wealth of England from every secular building and thus only the churches maintained their riches. When Richard was captured and imprisoned in Austria, England was forced to pay a heavy ransom for his release. In order to pay for this ransom, he had to again tax his people and the churches for their

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2006 14030 valuables. The Third Crusade cost England her gold and silver, so that Richard could not only fight a Crusade, but he could lead it.1 However, ultimately Richard consolidated Latin rule on the Mediterranean coast that included fortified cities such as Jaffa and Acre, but not Jerusalem itself. One thing that it did give to the Plantagenet Dynasty was prestige and glory, which the successors of Richard would not spend the time, effort, and money to follow.2 For the people going on a crusade, they had to make sacrifices in order to afford to travel and fight in the Holy Land. In 1234, it was declared that all men, with the exception of monks, could join the crusade. Warrior monks, such as the military orders of the Knights Templar and the Hospitaller Knights of St. John were the exceptions. Women were allowed to go on crusade, such as Eleanor, the Countess of Leicester in 1240, although she did not reach the Holy Land. One successful example was Eleanor of Castile, who reached the Holy Land and gave birth to Joan of Acre there. Noble lords were encouraged to join, but commoners werent as much. Most English commoners who traveled to the Holy Land during the crusades went with their lords to assist them. However, English mariners fought the enemy and one such example was the AngloNorman and Flemish attack on the Muslim controlled city of Lisbon in 1147. In order to pay for the crusade, noblemen had to get money for the endeavor. Simon de Montfort gave his burgesses in Leicester the right to use his pasture and he decided to sell most of his forests in 1240 for a reported 1,000. Lord Edmund gave his vill of Little Kelke to the Priory and Convent of Bridlington, East Yorkshire so that he could raise 80 just before he left for the Holy Land. Although some nobles decided to sell their land in order
1

Marianne Ailes and Malcolm Barber, The History of the Holy War: Ambroises Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2003) p.7,114, 126-147, 169, 193
2

Simon Lloyd, English Society and the Crusade 1216-1307 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) p.203

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2006 14030 to pay for a crusade, some preferred to take a loan so that their families could continue to profit from their land. However, loans too had their risk if the owner was unable to pay them back, so by the 13th century a vifgage became popular. A vifgage was when the debtor repaid his loan through the income of the land. The Crusades also gave prestige and family tradition to those who participated from North England. One prominent crusader family in the North England was the Montfort family, who decided that they would go to the Holy Land. Note that Eleanor, Countess of Leicester was also the wife of Simon de Montfort and that she was the namesake of Eleanor of Castile. Earl Simon de Montfort of Leicester may have left to go on crusade in 1240, because the important role of his father had during the Albigensian Crusade and how many of his relatives also went on crusade. Earl Simon de Montforts crusade was with Englishmen and Frenchmen of his choosing and left with his bannerets from Brindisi. Launching his crusade would not go unrewarded, for Pope Innocent IV gave the Earl 4,000m in 1248. Although there were people of all social ranks and of both genders that went on crusade, it was mainly noblemen who were needed to fight in the Holy Land.3 The Roman Catholic Church decided that in order to improve its situation in the Holy Land, it needed more crusaders to defend the Holy Land and it decided to call upon the noblemen of North England to arms. Monks could not fight in the Crusades, but they assisted the movement in other ways. In 1234, Dominicans and Franciscans helped the movement by going from town to town and asked people for donations to the crusader movement. The Archbishop of York, John le Romeyn, started his campaign to promote the Crusades in 1291. Romeyn and three theologians worked with Dominicans and

Simon Lloyd, English Society and the Crusade 1216-1307 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), p. 18-19 p.77, 82-84, 101, 149-151, 172-184, 192

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2006 14030 Franciscans to promote the Crusades. The Nottingham Franciscans placed one monk who preached the crusade each of the towns of Nottingham, Newark, and Bingham. Of Romeyns three theologians, Thomas of Corbridge preached the crusade in Beverly, East Yorkshire, while John Clarel preached in Southwell and Thomas of Wakefield preached in Ripon. Archbishop Romeyn stayed in York and preached the crusade there. The other result of the Crusades economic impact on Northern England was the establishment of military orders. One such of these military orders was the Knights Templar, which was established in 1119 in order to protect pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. As the order developed, it needed ways to support itself and its military campaigns. One way it did this was through the establishment of preceptories. Generally historians believed that Hugh de Payens started the Templar movement in England when he visited the kingdom in 1128. It was by the 1130s that the Knights Templar began to spread its preceptories throughout England for the accumulation of wealth and the employment of that wealth in support of their order in the Holy Land, so that they may protect it and keep it in Christian hands. The Knights Templar received donations in the form of land, mills, churches, and rent payments. There was a growth from there being ten preceptories by the end of the reign of King Stephen to there being over thirty by AD 1200.4 There are more specific examples of people donating money and land to the crusader movement or to a particular order. For example, in Lincoln it was decided that every crusader was to receive one penny from every member of all guilds. Also, in Lincolnshire some crusaders received special privileges, such as Gerard de Grandson and
4

John Walker, Alms for the Holy Land, The English Templars and Their Patrons in Andrew Ayton and J. L. Price, The Medieval Military Revolution: State, Society, and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ( London: IB Tauris Publishers, 1998) p.63-65

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2006 14030 his crusaders were exempt from paying murages and other customs. When King John de Brienne of Jerusalem arrived in England, a poll tax was created so that King John might keep his kingdom. There was another tax for the Knights Templar called the Templars Mark, which tax revenues from every shire paid for. Wealthy landowners who wished to see the Holy Land under Christian control might donate to the Knights Templar. There were a few crusaders who were generous patrons of the order, such as Robert de Ros, who donated a manor to the order at Ribston. Rodger de Mowbray gave extensive amounts of land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. There was a patron who gave 240 acres of land on the Isle of Axholm in Lincolnshire. Hugh II of Malebisse gave two and one half carucates of land in Great Brougton and Scawton, Yorkshire. Lincolnshires de Caux family donated significant amounts of land to the order, but they also decided to give the advowson of the Church of Rowston and eventually to the town of Rowston itself to the Knights Templar. Robert de Harcout donated a mill at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire to the order. William de Vescy gave the advowson of two Lincolnshire churches at Normantont and Caythorpe, which means he gave the right to choose who the local vicar was to the Templars.5 These donations demonstrated that the landowners of the era would donate various types of wealth from land, to mills, to even a town itself to the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar developed a banking system, upon which people from Northern England could deposit their wealth. The English monarchy decided that it was first safe enough to deposit their wealth their in 1185. However, this banking system
5

Simon Lloyd, English Society and the Crusade 1216-1307 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) p.177, p.182 p.239 John Walker, Alms for the Holy Land, The English Templars and Their Patrons in Andrew Ayton and J. L. Price, The Medieval Military Revolution: State, Society, and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ( London: IB Tauris Publishers, 1998) p.66-72

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2006 14030 became defunct once King Edward I and Edward II realized that they could openly exploit the Templars banking system. Edward I needed to pay his soldiers from his Welsh campaign, so he, Sir Robert Waleran, and an armed entourage pretended to see the Queen Mothers jewels, when they broke into the Templars vaults and seized 10,000. His son, Edward II decided to do the same when he seized 50,000 of the Bishop of Chesters silver, gold, and precious stones from a Templar vault.6 Some of the land that the Templars had gained was in need of development in order to make revenue. William Asby de la Launde had donated barren wasteland to the Templars before 1169 at Temple Bruer in Lincolnshire. At Bruer, the Templars built an extensive preceptory there that could accommodate their monastic lifestyle. They built their own hall and a church with two square towers and one round tower. Temple Bruer may have been the most important preceptory in the bailiwick of Lincolnshire. A bailiwick was an administrative district that formed a bureaucracy for each shire that the Templars had land in. Temple Bruer also was the home of people who had worked for the Templars much of their lives and were given a corrodary by the Templars. Corrdary was a sort of pension, which was paid through allowing the pensioner to reside within the Temple compound. There were instances of pensioners actually being paid an allowance for their years of service. There were thirteen corrodaries in Temple Bruer and it is likely that the people living there were not just from Bruer, but the surrounding area. One such man was William Revel, who owned twenty-four acres in South Witham and in 1312 was judged to receive 3d a day for his services. There may have been trouble for the
6

Addison, Charles, The History of the Knights Templars, (Kempton :Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997) p.196 Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 80-5

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2006 14030 Templars in the last years of their existence, because in 1306, the Templars were allowed to fortify their gatehouse at Bruer. Also, the Templars had begun to let their possessions fall into decline, such is the case in Stamford, where a tenants house collapsed and was not rebuilt.7 There was another Templar preceptory at South Witham, Lincolnshire, which was different from Temple Bruer in that it was a functioning before it was given or sold to the Templars at sometime between 1128 and 1185. Before the Templars had possession of this land, it had a watermill and was given by Robert, son of Achard, Ralph de Freivel, Oger de Sproxton, and Geoffrey de Claypole. The latter two of the group gave the advowson of the local church in South Witham. By the time of the 1185 inquest, the Templars had control of sixteen bovates and four acres of land in South Witham. The Templars collected rent from people using their lands in South Witham, which added up to a total of 65s. The normal rent tenants paid was 4s a bovate, which in comparison to other areas in the region was quite expensive. There was revenue also collected from the surrounding area and in total there were forty-six tenants who paid 8 18s 11d and in total earned 10 18s 11d from this bailiwick of South Witham. The Templars also had the right to charge a heriot or what they called an obit, which was upon the death of a villein; his best animal was to be given to the Templars. However, working for the

John Walker, Alms for the Holy Land, The English Templars and Their Patrons in Andrew Ayton and J. L. Price, The Medieval Military Revolution: State, Society, and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, (London: IB Tauris Publishers, 1998) p.70 W. H. St. John Hope, The Round Church of the Knights Templars at Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire, Archaeologia, lxi (1908), p. 177-98 Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 85

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2006 14030 Templars did have some advantages, such as villeins did not have to do weekwork nor boon-work at South Witham.8 The Templars controlled half of the South Witham church rectory by 1308 and the advowson, or the right to determine who the clerk is that received the other half. The Templars were paid 13s 4d a year, but had to pay the archdeacon 7s 6d a year for his annual visit. From their half of their rectory, the Templars received an annual 6 13s 4d from this church and 16 6s 8d from about ten months from churches in Thistleton and Rutland. The preceptory at South Witham included a limestone watermill on the River Witham and included several other buildings. In the early 13th century, a Great Hall was constructed and was 7.32 m wide, but it was later expanded be 10.37 meters and 15.25 meters long. Furthermore, there were stairs within the structure, which suggests that it was a two storey building. One usual aspect of this structure was that there was no chimney to allow smoke to escape from the Great Hall. At one point, there was a cistern added or built with the structure to provide fresh water for the inhabitants. The preceptory needed a chapel and this chapel was a relatively simple two storey building constructed circa 1240 with a ceramic and stone style roof. The walls were plastered and painted black, red, yellow, and pink, which suggests that there was decoration within the chapel. The chapel in South Witham was certainly smaller and simpler than the one at Temple Bruer, which had two square three storey towers. The tower at Temple Bruer also was to act as the treasury and since Temple Bruer is estimated to be at seven times wealthier that South Witham and they could afford to make a larger chapel. There was one addition added on that was significant and that was the construction of what was
8

Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 80-3

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2006 14030 believed to be a two storey porch at South Witham. This vaulted porch connected the chapel to the great hall, but it is unknown as to the purpose of the second storey. A smaller hall was also constructed to the size of 17.6 meters long and 6.7 meters wide and had only one storey in the center of the hall. However, there may have been a second storey to the north end of the hall. There was also a kitchen in the compound with had five ovens. South Witham preceptory also had some industrial and agricultural buildings such as a workshop, a blacksmiths forge, granary, and multiple barns. The compound was enclosed with a gatehouse as an entrance way. There were fulltime workers at the preceptory such as a wood ward, a granger, a cowherd, a swineherd, a dairyman-cumcook, twelve plowmen, three shepherds, a miller, a bailiff, and a chaplain according the 1308 Kings Keepers records.9 The building within the preceptory complex played important roles towards the maintaining of the estate and helping the order of the Knights Templar. The granary was a rectangular structure that was divided by a spine wall into two rooms on the ground floor with the entrance to the east. The structure had a second floor and may have been used for storing grain in bins. This structure had a stairway with a stone base attached to the west wall and the structure also had a tiled roof. A garderobe was attached to the Great Hall and may have been a two storey tall structure as well. The workshop, which was constructed after the granary, was also a two storey rectangular structure. Some artifacts that were discovered within the workshop were nails, three knives, horseshoe nails, a socketed arrowhead, and a spur. Another industrial building was the blacksmiths forge, which constructed of limestone and may have caught on fire at one point. One
9

Ibid. p.4-49, 84 J. T. Smith, The South Witham Building, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 55-79

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2006 14030 posthole was filled with stones, which suggests that it was a base for the blacksmiths anvil. This is confirmed by 1309 inquest which listed a small anvil, a large anvil, three pairs of tongs, and three small hammers inside the forge. Large quantities of coal, iron slag, and ash confirmed this. The blacksmith would charge the Templars for his services and materials, for he was not a full-time worker at South Witham by 1307 and rather just came into do some work from time to time. Records indicate that in 1307, he had repaired carts and ploughs, as well as shoed the horses at a cost of 36s 2d.10 The keeper of South Witham towards the end of Templar ownership named William de Spanneby decided by 1308 to sell off much of the Templar livestock and wood. South Witham had about seven hundred sheep for the three shepherds to look after and care for them. The fleeces of which were to be given to the Society of the Ballardi, who were Italian merchants that King Edward II was indebted to. The keeper had begun to sell off much of the livestock, which included selling two of nine of the Templars cows and fifteen of the fifty oxen. He also sold two of the boars and four of the sows, as well as other livestock. In total William de Spanneby sold a total of 13 16s 7d of livestock.11 The Templar manor at South Witham collected grains and vegetables from the local area. There were 198 quarters of grain that had been harvested and of that about sixty quarters were wheat. There were eighty-eight quarters of oats, twenty quarters of barley, and thirty quarters of peas and beans. In total of both vegetables and grain there
10

Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p.34-37 Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 86
11

Ibid. p.85-86

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2006 14030 were 262 quarters harvested, but much of that went to the harvesters for their livery. The livery was a sort of payment that the harvester received, upon which they ate two-thirds of the wheat that had been baked into bread. The Knights Templar were not immune to taxes and the keeper had to keep track of what the manor had spent and received. He was to pay a profit to the Exchequer and this amount totaled 31 10s for the year of 1308. Also, much of the income came from selling wood, which totaled 17 10s 8d and from rents which made 16 5s.12 There were other places throughout Yorkshire that collected rent from the local tenants, but wealth did not always mean receiving money. The Templars could receive services, fishing rights, hens, and even eggs. For example, in Faxfleet, Yorkshire a man named Serlo rented a mill for 15s, as well as two acres for 20 d and paid for aforesaid services. One man named Stephen paid the Templars 5s for fishing rights. The Temple of Hurst with its appurtenances was around the town of York. The generous Roger of Mowbray gave the Knights Templar a mill very close to one of the castles at York, which one may reasonably presume was a watermill. The Templars in turn, rented out the mill to Henry of Fishergate who paid 15.5 marks in total to the order. Adam Swane of Kellington gave the order a total of one carucate, while Richard used one bovate for 4s, four hens, and forty eggs. If someone wished to graze their pastures with swine, then for every 5 pigs that graze, they gave one to the order. A widow named Botilda paid 4s for one bovate and had to render aforesaid services to the order. In total, the appurtenances of Temple Hurst and of Temple Hurst of York received 7 marks 10s and 7d.13 This demonstrated that money owed to the Knights Templar by the people of North England.
12 13

Ibid. p.87 Of the rents of the whole of the Baillia of Yorkshire, Knights Templar Inquest of 1185 p.60

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2006 14030 There were other preceptories similar to Temple Bruer and South Witham throughout Lincolnshire. The Templars had preceptories at Eagle, Malteby, Mere, and Wilketon. There were also some preceptories in Yorkshire, besides Temple Hurst and Flaxfleet, such as North Feriby, Ribstone, Pafflete, and Temple Newsom. However, the Templars had more than just preceptories and rent to earn money. They possessed manors in Roston and Kirkeby, and received revenue from churches in Asheby and Akele.14 At Kirkeby, there were two carucates of land given to the order and in return, the chaplain of the chapel of South Witham would give a daily mass for the donor, Andrew Kirkbeys, his descendants, and ancestors souls.15 The Templar preceptory of South Witham was also in decline towards the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century. The preceptory at South Witham acted as just a place where the Templars received income, rather than a residence or a place of worship. This is clear, because there is no evidence that suggests it was in use a preceptory, because it is believed that the knights no longer resided within this complex at sometime between 1296 and 1308. Rather, it seems to be a transit point for which the Templars could mover their wealth from one estate to another. Evidence for this was suggested that there were three carts in the barns of South Witham. Furthermore, the Templars neglected the estate at South Witham, for the windmill constructed by the Templars there needed replacement sails and the watermill was abandoned completely.

14

Addison, Charles, The History of the Knights Templars, (Kempton :Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997) p.93-95
15

Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 87

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2006 14030 Only a lock was bought to keep out people from seizing whatever they could take. Eventually, the landowners decided that it was better to just sell the windmill for 20s.16 This was becoming the case for the Knights Templar by the beginning of the 14th century and the order throughout England was in decline. In 1307, there were 138 Knights Templar in England, who were mentioned in their trials documents. Another estimate, perhaps of those who survived death of natural causes, of 96 and thirty-nine were of these men were either unfit or too old for duty. Templar lands were in no better shape either and mills from all over the kingdom fell into disrepair. With the fall of Acre in 1291 and the last vestige of the Holy Land lost to Christendom, there was really no need for the Templars.17 The north of England was affected by events in the Holy Land during the 12th and 13th centuries and mainly by economic means. Noblemen paid large sums of money and land to help put the Holy Land in Christian hands. However, commoners were also affected in that they would have to pay their rents to organizations, such as the Knights Templar. Upon which, some commoners even benefited from the Knights Templar, who took care of their loyal tenants.

16

Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p.50 Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 85, 86, 88
17

Eileen Gooder, South Witham and the Templars. The Documentary Evidence, in Philip Mayes, Excavations at a Templar Preceptory. South Witham, Lincolnshire 1965-67 (Leeds: English Heritage, 2002), p. 90-91

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