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The Ecclesia Anglicana goes to War: Prayers, Propaganda, and Conquest during the Reign of Edward I of England, 1272–1307

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

David S. Bachrach
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Extract

It is widely accepted by scholars that the Hundred Years' War, in general, and the reign of King Edward III of England (1327–1377), in particular, witnessed a crucial stage in the development of state sponsored propaganda efforts to mobilize the nation for war. Edward III's government made particularly skillful use of the church to disseminate the justifications for the king's wars in France and against the Scots. The royal government also used church leaders on a regular and continuing basis to organize a spectrum of religious rites and ceremonies encompassing the largest possible sections of the English population, including the laity and clergy, to seek divine intervention on behalf of English troops serving in the field. These religious rites included prayers, penitential and thanksgiving processions, intercessory masses, vigils, almsgiving, and fasting.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , Fall 2004 , pp. 393 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 2004

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References

1 See, in this regard, Hewitt, H. J., The Organization of War under Edward III (Manchester, 1966), pp. 160–65Google Scholar; Jones, W. R., “The English Church and Royal Propaganda during the Hundred Years' War,” Journal of British Studies 19 (1979): 18–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McHardy, A. K., “Liturgy and Propaganda in the Diocese of Lincoln during the Hundred Years' War,” Studies in Church History 18 (1982): 215–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Religious Ritual and Political Persuasion: The Case of England in the Hundred Years' War,” International Journal of Moral and Social Studies 3 (1988): 41–52Google Scholar; Doig, James A., “Propaganda, Public Opinion and the Siege of Calais in 1436,” in Crown, Government and People in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Archer, Rowena E. (New York, 1995), pp. 83–88Google Scholar, and a recent summary of the topic by McHardy, A. K., “Some Reflections on Edward III's use of Propaganda,” in The Age of Edward III, ed. Bothwell, J. S. (Woodbridge, 2001), pp. 171–92Google Scholar. For a list of requests for prayers by the English government in the period 1305-1334, see Wright, J. Robert, The Church and the English Crown 1305-1334: A Study Based on the Register of Archbishop Walter Reynolds (Toronto, 1980), pp. 348–60Google Scholar.

2 Regarding these rites, see the previous note, and especially McHardy, , “Some Reflections,” pp. 176–83Google Scholar.

3 McHardy, , “Some Reflections,” p. 174Google Scholar, aptly describes the bishops of England as “those obliging, all-purpose workhorses of the realm, who had such a crucial role as the links between the crown and the localities.”

4 Hewitt, , Organization of War, pp. 160–65Google Scholar; and McHardy, “Some Reflections.”

5 Scholars investigating the reign of Edward III tend either to ignore or deal only superficially with earlier government efforts. This is certainly the case with Hewitt, Organization of War. Jones, , “English Church,” p. 24Google ScholarPubMed, and McHardy, , “Some Reflections,” p. 173Google Scholar note that Edward I's reign served as a model for his successors in the mobilization of religious rites on behalf of soldiers, if not in the active dissemination of propaganda. Neither, however, discusses these practices during Edward I's reign in any depth. Moreover, both Jones and McHardy treat the Hundred Years' War as a period of new intensity in these royal efforts, without, however, quantifying this new intensity. Finally, none of the studies, discussed above, which consider the dissemination of royal propaganda and the organization of public prayers by the English government focus on the administrative system required to assure the implementation of royal policy in the period before Edward III's reign. This lacuna in the historiography certainly permits the inference that scholars do not believe that there was an administrative system in place for the mobilization of prayers and the dissemination of propaganda before Edward III's reign.

6 I do not believe that Henry III, Edward I's father had such a system in place. After reading all of the surviving administrative documents from Henry III's reign, I have found only a few references to public prayers of any sort, and none for the army. This is not surprising, given the different military histories of the two reigns. Whereas Edward I undertook major campaigns in which tens of thousands of men were mobilized over several years for service in Wales, Scotland, Gascony, and Flanders, most of Henry III's campaigns were small affairs lasting a few months. As a consequence, it is easy to see that Henry III's government did not see the need to undertake the same type of religious and popular mobilization that seemed so important to Edward I and his advisors.

7 Concerning Edward's Welsh campaigns, see Morris, John Edward, The Welsh Wars of Edward I: A Contribution to Medieval Military History Based on Original Documents (1901, repr. New York, 1969)Google Scholar, and Prestwich, Michael, War, Politics and Finance under Edward I (Totowa, 1972)Google Scholar. For an overview of Edward I's Scottish campaigns, see Prestwich, , Edward I (London, 1988, repr. New Haven, 1996), pp. 469-511, and pp. 381–86Google Scholar for Edward's defense of Gascony. Prestwich has refined his views in Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience (New Haven, 1996)Google Scholar.

8 For particular aspects of Edward's military organization, see Freeman, Alvin Z., “Wall-breakers and River-bridgers: Military Engineers in the Scottish Wars of Edward I,” Journal of British Studies 10 (1971): 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Strayer, Joseph, “The Costs and Profits of War: The Anglo-French Conflict of 1294-1303,” in The Medieval City, ed. Miskimin, Harry A., Herlihy, David, and Udovitch, A. L. (New Haven, 1977), pp. 269–91Google Scholar; and Avril, Thomas, “Interconnections between the Lands of Edward I: A Welsh-English Mercenary Force in Ireland 1285-1304,” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 40 (1993): 135–47Google Scholar.

9 Burton, D. W., “Requests for Prayers and Royal Propaganda under Edward I,” in Thirteenth Century England 3 (1989): 25–35Google Scholar, does not deal with the spectrum of administrative questions arising from King Edward's efforts to disseminate royal propaganda and mobilize public prayers, as well as other religious rites, which are the focus of this investigation. Another aspect of Edward I's military-religious policy that has attracted some attention is the continuing effort by the royal government to provide pastoral care to the various elements of the royal army, including the king's household, garrison troops, the military households of royal retainers, and the shire levies. See Bachrach, David S., “The Organisation of Military Religion in the Armies of King Edward I of England (1272-1307),” Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003): 265–286CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 The entries from episcopal registers and collegiate chapter books are cited individually below.

11 Calendar of Chancery Warrants A.D. 1244-1526 (London, 1927)Google Scholar.

12 Rymer, Thomas, Foedera, conventiones, literae, et cujuscunque generis acta publica, 20 vols. (London, 1726-1735), 2: 781–82Google Scholar.

13 Ibid.: “amicosque ac confeoderatos nostros invadit hostiliter impugnai.”

14 Ibid.: “Paternitatem vestram affectuose requirimus et rogamus, quatenus preces devotas apud Altissimum efundatis et in vestra cathedrali, ac omnibus aliis eclesiis vestrae jurisdictione subjectis illud idem fieri faciatis.”

15 Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed. Wilkins, David, 4 vols. (London, 1737, repr. Brussels, 1964), 2: 240–42Google Scholar.

16 The nature of the fragmentum is evident from Bishop Robert's comment that he was quoting from a letter sent by the archbishop (literas reverendi patri domini R. Dei gratia Cantuar' quae sequitur conlinentes). See Concilia Magnae Britanniae, 1: 241Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 241: “Thus, during the aforementioned assembly, the king requested through his messengers that prayers and other rites be celebrated for him and his men as they engage in their current expedition which they recently began against the enemies of the king and kingdom” (ac etiam dominus rex nuper in ultima congregatione praedicta per nuncios suos rogavit, ut pro eo et suis in expeditione praesenti, quam contra hostes ipsius et regni nuper assumpsit, orationes et suffragia hujusmodi fieri).

18 Ibid., p. 242: “Thus, we order and command that you undertake the aforementioned processions, prayers, and rites on behalf of the Holy Land, for the peace of the kingdom, for the English church, and especially for the king and his supporters engaged in the present campaign. Furthermore, you are to see that these rites are carried out throughout your entire diocese every day and in every place, and that information about the excommunication is passed on as well” (vobis ut supra mandamus et injungimus quatenus dictas processiones, et orationum suffragia, tarn pro statu terrae sanctae et pace regni et ecclesiae Anglicanae, quam etiam pro domino rege et sibi adhaerantibus in sua expeditione praesenti specialiter; necnon denunciationes excommunicationum praedictas per totam vestram diocesim singulis diebus et locis quibis id expediri videritis).

19 Ibid.: “Both the Scots and their supporters who presumed and still presume to attack violently the churches of England and other church properties, and to burn and despoil with sacrilegious audacity the property of the church and to infringe upon and disturb the peace of the kingdom and the church” (necnon Scotos, et eorum complices, qui ecclesias regni Angliae et loca ecclesiastica violenter invadere, comburere, ac bonis ecclesiasticis ausu sacrilegio spoliare, pacemque regni et ecclesiae patenter infringere ac perturbare praesumpserunt et praesumunt).

20 Ibid., pp. 241-42: “We order that these excommunicated men be denounced throughout our province.” (ut dicitur excommunicantes publice per nostram denunciare provinciam facaeremus).

21 Ibid.: “[we order that these matters] be publicized by you and by your subordinates in the prebends and churches subject to your jurisdiction” (in praebendis et ecclesiis vestrae jurisdictione subjectis…per vos quam per vestros subditos publicari).

22 It is likely, even if the lack of direct evidence requires circumspection, that the bishops used the archidiaconal structure to inform their parish priests about what sermons and religious rites were required. Concerning the organization of the English dioceses into effective archidiaconal districts, see Scammel, Jean, “The Rural Chapter in England from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century,” English Historical Review 91 (1971): 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that the archbishop's own letter may have included a fragmentum of the original royal writ, now lost, in which the king demanded that religious rites, including sermons, be organized on behalf of the troops. The writ sent by the king in August of 1297 to Archbishop Winchelsey, noted above, certainly contained many of the same themes that we see in the fragmentum of the archbishop's letter as it survives in the letter sent by Bishop Richard of London to the chapter and dean of St. Paul's cathedral.

24 Maier, Christoph T., Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1994, repr. 1998), p. 117CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Concilia Magnae Britanniae, 2:242–43Google Scholar.

26 Ibid., p. 243: “illud per omnes civitates vestras et diocesas diligentius fieri facientes.”

27 Historical Papers and Letters from the Northern Registers, ed. Raine, James, Series, Rolls 61 (London, 1873), pp. 149–50Google Scholar. See also The Register of Thomas Corbridge 1300-1304, part I (London, 1925), p. 6Google Scholar. The question of immune ecclesiastical jurisdictions is discussed below.

28 Historical Papers and Letters, pp. 149-50.

29 Ibid. The king acted, “with his army for the peace and security of the kingdom of England to suppress the attacks and rabid presumption of the Scots” (cum suo exercitu pro tranquilitate et securitate regni Angliae, ad compescendum impetum ac praesumptsuosam rabiem Scottorum). Once again, it does not seem unlikely that the themes enunciated by the archbishop were either a paraphrase or a direct quotation from the original royal writ issued to him.

30 Historical Papers and Letters, pp. 149-50: “who, unmindful of their own salvation, after their oath of loyalty to our lord king, given as to their prince and lord, cruelly attacked the churches and sacred places of the kingdom of England and not without considerable killing. They burned and stole church property and carried it off, setting aside their fear of God. As a result, they have incurred a sentence of excommunication” (qui, post fldelitatis juramentum eidem domino nostro regi, ut principi suo et domino…salutis suae immemores, ecclesias et loca sacra regni Angliae non sine multiplici homicidio crudeliter invaserunt, combusserunt et bona ecclesiastica rapiendo, Dei timore postposito, asportarunt, propter quod in excommunicationis sententiam inciderunt).

31 Historical Papers and Letters, pp. 149-50: “so that the vigorous prince might direct his path to Scotland, and since we believe that his actions will greatly prosper if they are supported by the devoted prayers of the faithful….” (ut princeps strenuus ad partes Scotiae jam dirigat gressus suos, cujus actus et opera magis credimus prosperari, si orationibus devotis fidelium infulciatur, nos in Dei adjutorio).

32 Ibid, pp. 149-50: “spem firmam ponentes, vobis mandamus quatenus in nostra cathedrali et omnibus aliis ecclesiis nostrae civitatis et dioecesis et provinciae, exemptis et non exemptis, tarn col-legiatis quam parochialibus, omni die in missis presbyterorum, sive pro defunctis sive pro vivis celebrantium, ipsius domini regis, et omnium ipsum et illustrem filium suum dominum Edwardum comitantium, memoriam fieri specialem.”

33 Ibid., p. 150.

34 Ibid.: “so that our Lord, who rules everything, might guide and direct his steps and acts through his own piety and thus protect and defend the king and his army from their enemies” (ut Dominus noster, rerum omnium dispositer providus, pro sua pietate gressus suos et actus dirigat et disponat, ipsumque regem cum exercitu ab adversis protegat et defendat).

35 Memorials of Beverley Minster: The Chapter Act Book of the Collegiate Church of St. John of Beverley A.D. 1286-1347, ed. Leach, Arthur Francis, 2 vols. (Durham, 1898-1803), 1: 10–11Google Scholar.

36 Ibid.: “Nos in Deo [necnon eo], qui lacrimosis devotorum precibus vult pulsari, spem firmam ponentes.”

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid., p. 11: “May he protect and defend the king and his army from their enemies, restore the tranquility of desired peace, and grant victory over his enemies, for his own honor, for the salvation of the kingdom, and for the sake of the English church” (ipsumque Regem cum exercitu ab adversis protegat et defendat, necnon pads optatae tranquilitatem et de inimicis triumphum habere concedet, ad ipsius honorem, regni salvationem, et totius utilitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae).

40 This method of transmitting royal orders to the church as a whole remained the primary mode during the reign of Edward III. On this point, see McHardy, , “Religious Rituals,” p. 48Google Scholar.

41 Rymer, , Foedera, 2: 639Google Scholar.

42 Ibid.: “There is no aid in man, but rather weakness and defects. Because of this, it is fitting that the hand of the divine support our weakness with its strength, so we ask and affectionately command your pious affection so that your hearts rise up to the Lord and you pray devotedly to Him” (Cumque in homine not sit auxilium sed inflrmitas et defectus, et propter hoc oporteat imbecillitatem nostram Divinae manus sustentari praesidiis, pias affectiones vestras a affectuose requirimus et rogamus, quatenus corda vestra sursum habentes ad Dominum devotis apud Eum supplicantibus insistatis).

43 Rymer, , Foedera, 2: 639Google Scholar: “In this manner, we will be able to take up this business and defend our just cause without fearing for our body since God has granted glorious triumph and praise to us and to you” (ita possumus assumptum negotium prosequi, et justitiam nostram defendere pro qua corpus nostrum exponere non timemus quod Deo cedat ad gloriam nobis et vobis ad triumphum et laudem).

44 Annates Prioratus de Wigornia, ed. Luard, Henry R., Annates Monastici IV, Rolls Series 36, 4 (London, 1869), p. 516Google Scholar. For a discussion of the Worcester chronicle and the corpus of “monastic chronicles” in general, see Gransden, Antonia, Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 7307 (Ithaca, 1974), pp. 318-20, 333Google Scholar.

45 Wigornia, p. 516: “The king of England, knowing that victory is derived from heaven, sought through letters to have everyone pray so that the King of kings would take up this business and God would grant glory and fitting honor to the kingdom of England” (Rex Angliae sciens quod victoria de caelo est, per literas petiit quatinus ab ommibus sic oretur, ut Regis regum dextera assumptum negotium sic disponat, quatinus Deo cedat ad gloriam, et ad regni Angliae commodum et honorem).

46 Historical Papers and Letters, p. 120.

47 Calendar of Chancery Warrants, p. 127. No copies of this writ have been identified so the exact words used by the royal clerks remains unknown.

48 de Rishanger, William, Chronica et Annates, ed. Riley, Henry Thomas, Rolls Series 28, 2 (London, 1865), pp. 193–94Google Scholar. William, who wrote at the monastery of St. Albans, appears to have been something of a specialist in military history. One of his major works was an account of the mid-thirteenth century Barons' War, a baronial revolt against King Henry III. William was therefore likely to have been even more than others sensitive to the important role that religion played in the mobilization of public support for war. It is likely his military history interest led him to discuss the organization of public prayers by the king, a topic largely ignored by his fellow writers. Concerning William's career, see Gransden, Antonia, Historical Writing in England II c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (Ithaca, 1982), pp. 4–5Google Scholar.

49 de Rishanger, William, Chronica et Annales, p. 194Google Scholar, “omnis populus sponte et cum gaudio pro Rege fecit orationes.”

50 On the use of indulgences by the papacy, see Brundage, James A., Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (Madison, 1969)Google Scholar.

51 Historical Letters and Papers, p. 149: “And so that they might pray devotedly for the army, as is noted above, we mercifully rescind 40 days of penances assigned to them to propitiate God” (et suo exercitu devote oraverint, ut superius est expressum, xl. dies de injuncta sibi penitentia Deo propitio misericorditer relaxamus).

52 Ibid.: “quam indulgentiam aperte et sollemniter ad excitandam devotionem fidelium per vos volu-mus publicari.”

53 Memorials of Beverley Minster, p. 11.

54 Concilia Magnae Britanniae, 2: 213Google Scholar: “ad devotionem fidelium excitandum favorabiliter.”