Leo Santifaller: Ergänzungsband 2/1. Festschrift zur Feier des 200 jährigen Bestandes des HHStA 2 Bände (1949)
IV. Quellen und Quellenkunde - 31. R. B. Pugh (London): Fragment of an account of Isabel of Lancester, nun of Amesbury, 13331334
488 Pugh, of Martinmas in ‘the seventh year’ and the following 16th February, which is described as ‘the first day of the account’. Does this mean the seventh year of Edward III which begam on 25th January 1333 ? There are reasons for supposing that it does. First the section called ‘alms and oblations’ records a payment made on the anniversary of Mary, the king’s daughter. This must be Mary, the daughter of Edward I, a lifelong inmate of the convent and in Isabel’s youth her patroness1). At the time of her death she was properly the king’s aunt, but she was no doubt remembered best by the addition that she had borne at the time of her profession. Mary died on 29th May 13322); so the earliest possible date for the account must be the day after her first anniversary, namely 30th May 1333. Secondly in the foreign expenses section Peter Colswein is reimbursed his expenses in going to London to buy a cup and a ewer against the marriage of Mary, Isabel’s sister. Mary of Lancaster is known to have married Henry subsequently third Lord Percy ‘in or before’ September 13343). Admittedly this is not an exact date but it gives a rough terminus ad quern. Thirdly in the same section there is a note that letters were taken to the Bishop of Salisbury on his first coming from France. It is known that the Bishop was about to set out for foreign parts on 8th April 13334). It is, to say the least of it, unlikely that he would have returned before Mary’s first anniversary and perhaps it is legitimate to suppose that it would not have been before the autumn. These considerations combine to suggest that the account covers a period of time which includes the latter part of 1333 and a fair slice of 1334. To such a conclusion, however, there is one objection. The foreign expenses section refers to a livery made on Monday 26th October; but in neither of the two years did 26th October fall on a Monday. One is very reluctant to impute such errors, but in face of the other evidence there seems no escaping the inference that the accountant mistook either the day of the month or the day of the week. Medieval household accounts were of at least two sorts: a journal of expenses made up daily by the clerks of households from details supplied by household officers and an annual statement of receipts and issues analysed under the several branches of each5). The present account is of the latter sort, but the accountant presumably made it up from a specimen of the former no longer extant. In recasting the account he is hardly likely to have altered the chronological order of his source. Each section of our account may therefore be taken to correspond approximately with the actual order of the issues. This supposition is supported by a study of the section devoted to greyhounds. At the beginning of it there is dated expenditure incurred in early October and towards its end payments up to the gule of August. Early expenses under the ‘chamber’, ‘gifts’ and ‘foreign’ sections were also incurred in October and late ones in the ‘wages of grooms’ section ran to the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, 22nd July. The medieval financial year usually extended from Michaelmas to Michaelmas and we should expect from the arrangement of the items that the period of account in the present document would be from Michaelmas 1333 to Michaelmas 1334. Unfortunately, however, the accountant has designated 16th February as the first day of the account. The head of the roll, if we had it, might show why this was. Lacking it we can only guess that the accountant took over from his predecessor in the course of a year. Possibly the previous accountant had died or been ejected from office. The scribe’s Latin is a little shaky. There is a high proportion of unexpected abbreviations, suggesting that the writer was doubtful of the proper terminations. Some care has, *) M. A. E. Green; Lives of the Princesses of England, II, 433-35. 2) Calendar of Close Rolls, 1330-3, 511. 3) The Complete Peerage, X, 463. 4) Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1330-4, 421. 6) The two types may be studied side by side in The Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene edited by Miss M. K. Dale and V. B. Redstone for the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology (Ipswich 1931). Instructions for keeping a journal may be found in Thomas Sampson’s treatise on accounting in British Museum MS. Harl. 4971, pp. 26-7.
