Introduction - The Historiography of Centralisation and the Palatinate in the Fifteenth Century

Summary

[T]he seide comite [of Cheshire] is and hath ben a comite palatyne als well afore the conquest of Englond as sithen distincte & sep[ar]ate from youre coron of Englond[.]

Late medieval Cheshire was a palatinate, a strong and vital political entity based upon a potent local identity and community. In judicial, legislative, fiscal and administrative terms the county had considerable autonomy. In the fifteenth century the people of Cheshire were extremely proud and assertive of their privileges. They rejected the need for involvement with the central institutions of the English monarchy and demanded their exclusion from the shire. It was the palatinate, not Westminster, which was central to political life in late medieval Cheshire. The most striking evidence for this is the petitions which representatives of the county presented in defence of its privileges on at least three occasions in the middle of the fifteenth century, in 1441, 1450 and 1451, uniting as they do the cultural and theoretical foundations of the county’s autonomy with its practical implementation. It must be admitted immediately that these petitions will be – and where they have been discussed, have been – treated with great scepticism, for they appear to contradict some of the key tenets of English and British historiography. The reasons for this scepticism will be treated in the central section of this introduction; in the meantime, a suspension of disbelief, if only temporarily, will allow the reader to understand something of, at the very least, the potential power of particularist sentiment in late medieval England. It makes sense to take the petitions in turn, for each sets out and demonstrates a key aspect of the palatinate’s powers.

The events of 1441 demonstrated the independence and strength of the county’s fiscal position, as well as its ability to stand aside from legislative and other provisions common throughout the rest of England. During the fifteenth century, the county’s form of taxation, the mise, was voted, assessed and collected through local mechanisms; Westminster taxation was not effective in the shire. In 1441 the Cheshire mise was voted only following the redress of a set of grievances. County representatives made several requests associated with the confirmation of their charter.