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The Coronation Oath of 1308: The Background of ‘Les leys et les custumes’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Robert S. Hoyt
Robert S. Hoyt*
Affiliation:
The University of Minnesota
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Extract

Few problems in medieval constitutional history, and perhaps none in English constitutional history, have occasioned more irreconcilably different interpretations than the problem of the meaning and significance of the coronation oath of 1308. Divergent interpretations began in the seventeenth century, and they have continued to provide the substance of an interesting historiographical problem ever since. It is doubtful whether complete agreement on all of the specific questions raised by the oath will ever be reached, but at the present stage of debate there are still questions which have neither been raised nor answered. The purpose of this paper is to raise one of these questions and, by providing an answer, to narrow further the limits within which there is still disagreement concerning the oath which Edward II swore at his coronation.

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Traditio , Volume 11 , 1955 , pp. 235 - 257
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Discussion of the coronation oath began a new phase with Wilkinson, B., ‘The Coronation Oath of Edward II,’ in Historical Essays in Honour of James Tait (edd. Edwards, J. G., Galbraith, V. H., and Jacob, E. F., Manchester 1933) 405–16, and the remarks by McIlwain, C. H. in The Growth of Political Thought in the West (New York 1932) 196, 371, 374, 379. Contributions concerned primarily with the interpretation of the oath are Wilkinson, , ‘The Coronation Oath of Edward II and the Statute of York,’ Speculum 19 (1944) 445-69, and Constitutional History of Medieval England 1216-1399, II (London 1952) 11f., 85-111; Richardson, H. G., ‘The English Coronation Oath,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 4th ser. 23 (1941) 129-58, ‘The Annales Paulini,’ Speculum 23 (1948) 630-40, ‘The English Coronation Oath,’ Speculum 24 (1949) 44-75; Kantorowicz, E. H., ‘Inalienability: A Note on Canonical Practice and the English Coronation Oath in the Thirteenth Century,’ Speculum 29 (1954) 488-502. See also Stubbs, William, The Constitutional History of England (3rd ed. Oxford 1887) II 109 n. 2, 258, 331-3; Richardson, and Sayles, G. O., ‘Early Coronation Records,’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research [BIHR] 13 (1935-36) 129-45, and 14 (1936-37) 1-9, 145-8; Richardson, , ‘The Coronation of Edward I,’ BIHR 15 (1937-38) 94-9, and ‘Early Coronation Records: The Coronation of Edward II,’ BIHR 16 (1938-39) 1-11; Schramm, P. E., A History of the English Coronation (tr. Wickham Legg, L. G., Oxford 1937) 74-9, 179-211; Ward, P. L., ‘The Coronation Ceremony in Mediaeval England,’ Speculum 14 (1939) 160-78; Lapsley, G. T., ‘The Interpretation of the Statute of York,’ English Historical Review [EHR] 56 (1941) 22-49, 411-46, reprinted in Lapsley, , Crown, Community and Parliament (edd. Cam, H. M. and Barraclough, G., Oxford 1951) 153-230; Strayer, J. R., ‘The Statute of York and the Community of the Realm,’ American Historical Review 47 (1941) 1-22.Google Scholar

2 Foedera (Record Commission ed. London 1816-69) II 1.33–6.Google Scholar

3 The Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons (ed. Palgrave, Francis, n.p. 1827-34) II 2 Appendix, p. 10.Google Scholar

4 Bracton's version (fol. 107) and the oath of the Anselm ordo are printed together in Schulz, Fritz, ‘Bracton on Kingship,’ EHR 60 (1945) 137. Cf. Legg, , English Coronation Records (London 1901) 30f.Google Scholar

5 Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath,’ Speculum 24.49f., 56.Google Scholar

6 The oath of 1308 is as follows: Google Scholar

Sire, volez vous graunter e garder, et par vostre serment confermer au poeple d'Engleterre, les leys et les custumes a eux grauntees par les aunciens rois d'Engleterre, voz predecessors droiturus et devotz a Dieu, et nomement les lois, les custumes et les fraunchises grauntez au clerge et au poeple par le glorieus roi seint Edward, vostre predecessour? Google Scholar

Respons: Jeo les grante et promette.Google Scholar

Sire, garderez vous a Dieu et seint eglise et au clerge et au poeple paes et acord en Dieu entierment, solonc vostre poer? Google Scholar

Respons: Jeo les garderai.Google Scholar

Sire, freez vous faire, en touz voz jugementz, ouele et droite justice et discrecion en misericorde et verite, a vostre poer? Google Scholar

Respons: Jeo le frai.Google Scholar

Sire, grauntez vous a tenir et garder les leys et les custumes droitureles les quiels la communaute de vostre roiaume aura eslu, et les defendrez et afforcerez al honour de Dieu, a vostre poer? Google Scholar

Respons: Jeo les graunte et promette.Google Scholar

The oath of the Anselm ordo is printed below, p. 245f.Google Scholar

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13 Flor. Wig. I 224; followed by Simeon II 179, and Howden I 111.Google Scholar

14 The similarity between Florence's account of Harold and of William's oath is especially apparent if his words ‘ab Aldredo Eboracensi archiepiscopo in regem est honorifice consecratus’ (p. 224) are compared with the first nine words quoted in the text above. Cf. Ordericus Vitalis’ description of William's rule in Normandy: ‘Justas leges et recta judicia ex consultu sapientum divitibus et pauperibus aeque sanxit, optimosque judices et rectores per provincias Neustriae constituit. Sacra coenobia … ab injustis exactionibus liberavit.’ Orderici Vitalis historiae ecclesiasticae (ed. Le Prévost, A., Soc. de l'Hist. de France; Paris 1838-55) II 177.Google Scholar

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17 The oath which Eadmer reports Lanfranc as having exacted was preliminary to being crowned, not a part of the coronation service, and it was a specific engagement to the archbishop rather than a general promise. Eadmeri historia novorum in Anglia (ed. Rule, M., RS; London 1884) 25.Google Scholar

18 See above, n. 11.Google Scholar

19 Simeon, , Historia regum II 215. Howden and Hemingburgh both copy Simeon independently and they preserve the sense of the passage. Howden I 141; Chronicon domini Walleri de Hemingburgh I (ed. Hamilton, H. C., Eng. Hist. Soc.; London 1848-49) 21. Brompton's account was derived from Hemingburgh, but gives Rufus’ promise an interesting twist: ‘meliores leges quas sibi vellent eligere, sanciret.’ Chronicon Johannis Bromton abbatis Jornalensis, in Twysden, Roger, Historiae Anglicanae scriptores X (London 1652) 984.Google Scholar

20 Cf. cc. 1.2 and 13 (Liebermann, , Gesetze I 521f.).Google Scholar

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22 E.g., the so-called Tractatus Eboracenses by the so-called Norman Anonymous include an interesting and able treatise entitled De consecratione pontificum et regum and also a short tract, De potestate sacerdotali et regia, both of which make extensive use of the Edgar ordo but ignore the coronation oath. MGH, Libelli de lite 3 (ed. Böhmer, H., Hannover 1897) 662–79; Williams, G. H., The Norman Anonymous of 1100 A.D. (Harvard Theological Studies 18; Cambridge, Mass. 1951) 162, 223f.Google Scholar

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31 Wm. Malm. Gesta regum II 470.Google Scholar

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35 Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (edd. Robertson, J. C. and Sheppard, J. B., RS; London 1875-85) VII 452. For angelis the correct (or at least usual) reading is evangeliis. Gerald of Wales tells a story about how a certain knight was impelled by miraculous voices to warn Henry II that he must obey seven certain commands. His story ends with a statement of these commands: ‘Haec autem sunt septem mandata: tria quae juravit in coronatione sua de ecclesia Dei manutenenda; II. De legibus regni justis tenendis; III. Ne aliquem sine judicio licet reus fuerit, morte damnaret…’ Since Gerald enumerates all seven commands, by number, he cannot be understood as meaning that all three mandata which the king swore at his coronation were concerned with maintaining the Church. Hence, , de ecclesia Dei manutenenda is the first of three promises of the coronation oath, according to Gerald's story, the other two being to maintain just laws and, essentially, do justice. De principis instruction liber, in Giraldi Cambrensis opera VIII (ed. Warner, G. F., RS; London 1891) 452.Google Scholar

36 Stubbs, , Select Charters (9th ed. by Davis, H. W. C., Oxford 1929) 142.Google Scholar

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38 Ibid. 158.Google Scholar

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40 Most recently by Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath,’ Speculum 24.47f.Google Scholar

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43 Lady Stenton has recently demonstrated that ‘the narrative known as Benedict is the first draft of Howden's Chronicle.’ ‘Roger of Howden and Benedict,’ EHR 68 (1953) 574-82. The Gesta Henrici and Gesta Ricardi are the works once ascribed to Benedict.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 See Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath’ 53; Schramm, , Hist. Eng. Coronation 195f. Mr. Richardson has argued that the king took his oath in French, for which provision was made by translating the Latin tria precepta into the vernacular, and that the record in Howden is an elegant Latin rendering of a loose translation.Google Scholar

45 Legg, , Coronation Records 30f.; Radulfi de Diceto decani Londoniensis opera historica (ed. Stubbs, , RS; London 1876) II 68f.; Gesta regis Ricardi, in The Chronicles of the Reigns of Henry II and Richard I (ed. Stubbs, RS; London 1867) II 82; Howden III 10. Italicized words correspond with words in the adjoining column.Google Scholar

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47 Gesta II 80–83; Howden III 9-12; also in Legg, , Coronation Records 47-50. Although Richard undoubtedly spoke French, it is nonetheless true (as Professor McIlwain has pointed out privately on more than one occasion) that a man intelligent enough to be king was capable of memorizing and giving utterance to the oath in Latin. This is not a question of the ‘literacy’ of kings.Google Scholar

48 Gesta II 82; Howden III 10. Italics are employed to show differences in the wording between the texts, while words and phrases in parentheses indicate differences in the order.Google Scholar

49 Gesta I 33.Google Scholar

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57 This point has a bearing on the date of the interpolation (with which we need not be concerned here), for the earliest terminus a quo that has been suggested (1190) rests on the possibility that the interpolation may have been derived from the record which Howden used.Google Scholar

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59 E.g., ‘quod honorem, pacem ac reverentiam portabit Deo et sanctae ecclesiae et ejus ordinatis, omnibus diebus vitae suae; quod in populo sibi commisso rectam justitiam tenebit; quodque leges malas et iniquas consuetudines, si quae sint in regno, delebit et bonas observabit et ab omnibus faciet observari.’ Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora III 1, quoted by Stubbs, , Const. Hist. II 18 n. 1. Also, ‘quod ecclesiam Dei tueretur, pacemque tam cleri quam populi, et bonas regni leges custodiret illaesas.’ Walter of Coventry, quoted ibid. II 3f. n. 3.Google Scholar

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62 The only evidence of a record of the coronation oath preserved at Canterbury points to the oath of the Anselm ordo. Google Scholar

63 Howden II 234f.Google Scholar

64 Eadmer, , Historia 9.Google Scholar

65 Ibid. 131.Google Scholar

66 Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccl. III 228.Google Scholar

67 Ibid. IV 402.Google Scholar

68 Ibid. IV 92.Google Scholar

69 Simeon, , Gesta regum II 80.Google Scholar

70 Edward expresses the idea in several different ways, but we are not here concerned with possible differences in the meaning of different phrases.Google Scholar

71 S. Anselmi Cantuariensis archiepiscopi opera omnia (ed. Schmitt, F. S., Edinburgh 1946-51) IV 114; also in Foedera I 1.8.Google Scholar

72 The references are collected in Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath,’ Speculum 24.49f.Google Scholar

73 ‘Respectu et amore Dei sanctam ecclesiam liberam esse concedo et debitam reverentiam illi confirmo.’ Select Charters 143.Google Scholar

74 Brooke, Z. N., The English Church and the Papacy (Cambridge 1931) 176f.Google Scholar

75 Anselmi opera V 247. See also ibid. 261, 263.Google Scholar

76 Select Charters 144.Google Scholar

77 Ibid. 163.Google Scholar

78 Materials V 282; Howden I 235.Google Scholar

79 Materials V 206.Google Scholar

80 Howden II 36.Google Scholar

81 The evidence is discussed in Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath’ 53f.Google Scholar

82 Kantorowicz, , ‘Inalienability,’ Speculum 29.498f. The episcopal non-alienation oath ‘is clearly an ad hoc addition quite loosely connected with the standard oath of the decretals.’ Ibid. 496.Google Scholar

83 Parl. Writs (above, n. 3) I 381f.Google Scholar

84 Above, nn. 60, 61.Google Scholar

85 Johannis de Trokelowe, et Henrici de Blaneforde, monachorum S. Albani … Chronica et Annales (ed. Riley, H. T., RS; London 1886) 109.Google Scholar

86 Walsingham provides some confirmation of this when he specifically says that Edward referred to the oath ad quod astrictus fuerat in sua coronatione, in his account of the incident. Thomae Walsingham historia Anglicana (ed. Riley, RS; London 1863-64) I 161.Google Scholar

87 Richardson, , ‘Coronation Oath’ 60–4, where he has shown that the promise to maintain the rights of the crown is implicit in the promise to maintain the laws of St. Edward.Google Scholar

88 Above, n. 56.Google Scholar

89 If the interpolation is a source on which later theory drew, as in 1308, it should not be forgotten that the interpolation itself is a product of earlier theory. The stage in the theoretical development of the idea of the crown, which it represents, is already capable The University of Minnesota. of a ‘broad construction’ of the coronation oath. Since the king and his crown are under the law, an engagement to maintain the law is by an elementary inference an engagement to maintain the king's rights and the rights of the crown under the law.Google Scholar