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Treason Trials under the Law of Arms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

M. H. Keen
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Extract

On 13 July 1405 Henry de Boynton, knight, was brought before the Court of Chivalry of England, sitting in Berwick at a place called ‘Waleisgreene’, and was there condemned to death for high treason. His crime had been that of levying war against the king in his own realm, in the company of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. The evidences of his guilt were a series of warlike acts against the king's lieges, committed ‘si notoirement et si publicement que par nulle tergiversacion nautre excusacion queconque purra estre concele ne denie’. He had ridden in arms, robbed, plundered and taken ransom in the lands of his liege lord, and he had surrendered the keys of Berwick into the hands of the king's enemies, the Scots. He had refused his sovereign entry into the town when the royal host lay before it, so that the king had been forced to fire his cannon at the walls of his own city. These acts amounted to notorious treason, and as such they were judged by John of Bedford, constable of England, presiding in the court, ‘par1 comandement mon tresredoute seigneur et pere le roy avantdit ton liege seigneur’. Boynton was therefore condemned to death, to be hanged, beheaded and quartered, and all his goods and chattels to be forfeit to the king.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 12 , December 1962 , pp. 85 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1962

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References

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page 95 note 3 See a letter of Philip the Good, after his retreat from before Calais in 1436, defending his honour by explaining that he had not officially commenced a siege: ‘nous ne nous y meismes que par maniere de logis, et non de siege comme dit est, ne y feismes asseoir ne tirer aucunes bombardes’ (Archives Dép. du Nord, B 18842, pièce 29521).

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page 98 note 7 13 Richard II, Stat. 1, c. 2.

page 98 note 8 E.g. Year Book 37 Henry VI, Pasch., pl. 8 (Black Letter edn., London, 1679).

page 99 note 1 Parl. Writs, II. ii, Appendix, p. 261a.

page 99 note 2 Ibid., plea held ‘coram Fulcone filio Warini Constabulario [et] Johanne de Western Marescallo’.

page 99 note 3 Ibid.John, Weston was at the time deputy marshal for Brotherton; see Calendar of Close Rolls, 1318–23, pp. 443, 447, 452, 462, 580.Google Scholar

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page 100 note 2 The Black Book of the Admiralty, ed. Twiss, , 1, p.454:Google Scholar ‘Item, pur nul debat darmes, prisons, loiges, ne de nulle autre chose queleconqe, qe nul face riote …, mes sil soi sente greve, monstre sa grevance au Conestable et Mareschall, et droit li serra fait’.

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page 100 note 4 Sir Nicolas, H., The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy (London, 1832), 1, pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

page 100 note 5 P., Lopez de Ayala in Crónicas de los Reyes de Castilla (Madrid, 1779), 1, pp. 459–60.Google Scholar It is worth noting that, as in the case of ordinary traitors, it was common practice to exhibit reversed the arms of those who were ‘traitors totheir faith’ because they had failed to pay their ransoms: e.g. Arch. Nat., X1 a 25, fo. 23r (Henry of Lancaster reversing the arms of Guillaume Blondel); Arch. Nat., X1 a 4798, fo. 376V (Thibaut des Termes reversing the arms of the lord of Châteauvilain); Arch. Nat., X1 a 4801, fo. 255V (La Hire reversing the arms of Robert de Commercy).

page 101 note 1 For the composition of this tribunal see Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ed. Stubbs, , 1, p. 317.Google Scholar

page 101 note 2 25 Edward III, Stat. 5, c. 2.

page 101 note 3 Bracton, , De Legibus Anglia, ed. Twiss, T. (R.S., 1878–83), 2, p. 258:Google Scholar ‘Ad accusationem vero hujus criminis admittitur quilibet de populo, liber homo et servus et minor infra aetatem constitutus’. I owe this reference to Kaye, Mr J. M., of Queen's College, Oxford.Google Scholar

page 101 note 4 Gerbergh was accused of having taken William, Bottlesford prisoner, ‘armatus cum plateis et aliis armaturis et de quadam tunica vocata cote armure de armis suis propriis modo guerrino manifeste vestitus’, and of having put him to ransom, thereby ‘usurpando sibi infra regnum regis regiam potestatem’ (P.R.O., MS. Index 17117, fo. 173v).Google Scholar

page 101 note 5 Rot. Pad., ii, p. 244b.

page 102 note 1 Ibid., ii, p. 5a.

page 102 note 2 Ibid.

page 102 note 3 Ibid.

page 102 note 4 Chronicles of the Reigns ofEdward1and Edward II, ed. Stubbs, , 2, p. 75.Google Scholar This suggests that the king's own banner had to be displayed before a state of war was deemed to exist. This would explain the Appellants’ anger at the display of the king's banner by de Vere at Radcot Bridge in 1387 (Rot. Part., iii, pp. 235–36); together with the statement of the civil lawyers that they could present no case against the Appellees (Rot. Pad., iii, p. 236b). If a state of war had existed, proceedings under the law of arms might have been instituted before Gloucester in the constable's court, but it was clearly not in the Appellants’ interest to suggest that there had been a state of open war.

page 103 note 1 One reason for this may have been that in some of these cases, e.g. that of Wallace, the accusation rested in part on ordinary common law offences; only certain of the charges were of an extraordinary nature.