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
Account of Isabel of Lancaster. 491 with them at Kenilworth *). In the present year of account she is declared to have visited her father twice. The chronology of these visits is not entirely clear. It would seem, however, that during the late summer of 1333 she was at Tutbury castle, went thence to Kenilworth and returned to Amesbury some time after the feast of St. Denis, 9th October* 2). She was accompanied on her return by Lady Wake, her sister, by her father’s cook, Nicholas, and by a retainer of her father’s called John de Skelton3). On another occasion she is found setting out under the charge of the Bishop of Salisbury’s grooms. The party went from Standen to Ramsbury, an episcopal manor in Wiltshire, and from Ramsbury to the priory manor of Kintbury, Berkshire. There a courier took charge and carried the lady to Higham Ferrers. On arriving at Amesbury in the autumn of 1333 Lady Wake stayed there until after the following Easter, paying part of the costs of her entertainment. She then returned to Wakes Colne. An esquire, a yeoman, two clerks of the chapel and five grooms were in her retinue and perhaps also a clerk called Thomas Cole. During the visit the two sisters went together to Salisbury, Winchester and Somborne. With characteristic kindness Isabel gave her guest half a porpoise and a gold tablet depicting a vision (tabletta aurea de quadam apparitione) and sundry presents of cash and gloves to the retinue. ‘Lady Blount’ also seems to have stayed at Amesbury this year. She may have been Margery wife of Sir William de Blount of Sodington, Worcestershire, styled Lord Blount; he was an associate of the Earl of Lancaster4). More probably, however, she was the wife of William le Blount, ‘le neveu’, a co-trustee of Berwick manor with Isabel5). Isabel received many letters, presents or visits. Two letters from her father and one from her sisters Eleanor and Mary are alluded to. Letters also came from W. Blount, uncle or nephew, and from Master Henry de la Dale. The second of these, subsequently a canon of Lincoln, had been instituted parson of Wolstanton, Staffordshire, on 29th April 1332 and on 8th May then next was granted three years’ leave of absence in the Earl of Lancaster’s service. These pieces of evidence show him to have been in the confidence of the Lancaster family6). John de Holt sent her rabbits; the forester of Clarendon two cart-loads of rods for her herb-garden at Amesbury; a monk of St. Swithin’s Winchester half a porpoise; Longstock four score pomegranates; the men of Standen 18 pigs and four oxen at All Saints. Isabel’s most prominent acquaintance, however, after her kindred, was Sir Hugh de Audley, who sent on different occasions three oxen and two and six lampreys and exchanged some greyhounds with her at the hunting season. Sir Hugh, who had fought beside Thomas, Isabel’s grandfather, at Boroughbridge, was a friend of the Lancasters. Isabel must have known him quite well. On one occasion she sent a groom as far as Tonbridge, Kent, with a letter for him. She wrote also to his steward at Heytesbury, Wiltshire, and made presents to the marshal of his hall and to that marshal’s messenger. Several women have already been mentioned as Isabel’s associates either in her service or as her guests. Lady K. Swallowfield, perhaps the sister of Lady A. Swallowfield, does not however fall clearly into either category. We find her twice on horse-back, once in Isabel’s *) D. L. 40/1/11 f. 46 v. In Sept. 1336 she had spent 9 V2 day in travelling with her sister Eleanor from York to Leicester (P. R. O. Duchy of Lancaster, Miscellanea (D. L. 41), 10/34/40). 2) The Earl was at Tutbury on 6 and 23 September and at Kenilworth on 28 September 1333 (P. R. O. (D. L. 41), 9/4 m. 44 Duchy of Lancaster, and Miscellaneous Books (D. L. 42), 1 f. 24 v. No. 35 and f. 101 v. No. 48). It is very possible that Isabel moved with him. 3) In 1332-3 the Earl paid Skelton 20ä. (D. L. 40/1/11 f. 53 v). 4) William le Blount accompanied the Earl to a joust in 1331-2. In the same year allowance was made for Margery’s expenses, (ibid. f. 46 v.) 5) Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1327-40, 474. 8) R. Le Neve: Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, II, 144 (Lincoln canonry); Reg. Roger Northburgh Ep. Cov. et Lichf., f. 150 v (Wolstanton) and 8 v (absence). In 1337 Master Henry was a trustee of Isabel’s life interest in East Garston (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1334-8, 553). In the same year he was admitted Rector of Higham Ferrers (Reg. Burghersh Ep. Line., IV, f. 219 v).
