Edward I's Second Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid

Summary: King Edward I's second letter Aug. 14, 1303, on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid tasked appointed justices to "be more certain about the truth."

Edward I dispatched his second Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid letter, dated Aug. 14, 1303, from Brechin, northern Angus Council, east central Scotland, where Edward's 20-day siege of Brechin Castle, begun in July, ended Aug. 9, with the death of the Scots' garrison leader, Sir Thomas Maule: BattleofBannockburn ‏@BattleofBannock via Twitter Aug. 9, 2017

A king announced "Non Placet Nobis!" ("It doesn't please us!") to answers June 16-Aug. 6, 1303, about the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid April 30-May 3, and authored a writ Aug. 14.

A messenger bore answers amassed Aug. 7 into a report by Aug. 14, or before if brought by Port of London ship, to Brechin, central-eastern Scotland. John de Drokensford (1260-May 9, 1329) contacted his king May 27, 1303, after confirming London city chatter concerning criminal carry-outs from Westminster Abbey's Chapter House Crypt. King Edward I's (June 17, 1239-July 7, 1307) writ June 6, 1303, demanded assistants, counselors, helpers, knowers, "malefactors" and recipients and itemized, retrieved, valued diverted treasures.

Edward expected all Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid burglars, beneficiaries and booty respectively "safe and secure in our prison" and "in a safe and secure place."

Edward's second writ fit Drokensford and Walter of Gloucester and Ralph de Sandwich, not John Bakewell and Roger de Southcote, back into the first writ's functions.

And yet the first writ guided the five commissioners into getting Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid surviving treasures audited and relocated to the Tower of London. It headed "a great part of our treasure" back from Abbey monastic chambers, London- and Westminster-area ditches, fields and meadows, St. Margaret's cemetery and the Thames. It inventoried back into the relocated Royal Treasury in the Tower stolen treasure in Chertsey-, Dowgate-, St. Giles Hospital- and Southwark-area homes and Kentish Town fields.

Handovers at the Guildhall June 16-July 5, 1303, by goldsmiths and merchants of 100-some stolen royal gems, jewelry and plate-ware joined royal treasures at the Tower.

Norman French equivalents that "they did not know it was a crime" or "it was a felony" kept goldsmiths and merchants prison-free or released on bail.

Bakewell, Gloucester, Tower Constable Sandwich and Essex Sheriff Southcote leveled two Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid indictments against John de Lenton, Westminster landowner in Long Ditch. They managed two against Abbey servant John le Riche (also surnamed Ramage), three against sub-prior Alexander de Pershore and six against stonemason John of St. Albans. They netted 10 indictments against goldsmith John of Newmarket, 18 against sacristan Adam de Warfield and 32 against merchant Richard de Puddlicott by Aug. 7, 1303.

The four appointees obtained 32 Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid indictments against William Palmer, deputy Keeper of Westminster Palace and Keeper of Fleet Prison in London.

Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid indictments put Newmarket in Newgate Prison with Puddlicott acquaintances broker Walter Russell, Peter the Server, Nicholas the Taverner and Gilbert Wayte. They queued six of the above-mentioned indictees into the Tower with Abbey monks Roger de Bures, John de Butterley, Robert de Cherring and Thomas de Dene.

The Tower retained monks Thomas de Lichfield, Ralph de Morton, John de Noteley and John de Prescot and indicted messenger Giles, linen draper from St. Giles. It likewise sequestered Abbey sacristy page boys John de Caumpes, Walter de Ecclesford, Hugh de Eye, Adam the Skinner, Hamo de Wenlok and Roger de Wenlok.

What about indicted prisoners and recovered treasures in his Tower told Edward that his justices needed "to be more certain about the truth in this matter?"

Edward I's four investigative appointees issued two Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid indictments against Westminster landowner John de Lenton, whose actions included sowing hemp on Abbey grounds to obscure raiders' activities and scattering dirt over the raiders' footprints; Westminster landowner John de Lenton received his Long Ditch land in 1295 (Domesday Cartulary, folio 515); John Norden's Plan of Westminster, Speculum Britanniae (1593); Long Ditch (inserted green circle); Westminster Abbey (inserted blue circle); Westminster Hall (inserted purple circle), where appointees met with Fleet and Westminster aldermen July 5: CC BY SA 4.0, via LUNA (Folger Digital Image Collection)

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Edward I dispatched his second Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid letter, dated Aug. 14, 1303, from Brechin, northern Angus Council, east central Scotland, where Edward's 20-day siege of Brechin Castle, begun in July, ended Aug. 9, with the death of the Scots' garrison leader, Sir Thomas Maule: BattleofBannockburn ‏@BattleofBannock via Twitter Aug. 9, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/BattleofBannock/status/895216370647957504

Edward I's four investigative appointees issued two Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid indictments against Westminster landowner John de Lenton, whose actions included sowing hemp on Abbey grounds to obscure raiders' activities and scattering dirt over the raiders' footprints; Westminster landowner John de Lenton received his Long Ditch land in 1295 (Domesday Cartulary, folio 515); John Norden's Plan of Westminster, Speculum Britanniae (1593); Long Ditch (inserted green circle); Westminster Abbey (inserted blue circle); Westminster Hall (inserted purple circle), where appointees met with Fleet and Westminster alderman July 5: CC BY SA 4.0, via LUNA (Folger Digital Image Collection) @ https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~837446~154588:-Speculum-Britanniae--Part-1--Specu

For further information:

BattleofBannockburn ‏@BattleofBannock. 9 August 2017. "#OTD in 1303 Brechin Castle surrendered to Edward I. For the siege, the English had taken £17 18s 4d of lead from Brechin Cathedral's roof!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/BattleofBannock/status/895216370647957504

Doherty, Paul. 2005. The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303. New York NY: Carroll & Graf Publisher.

Gough, Henry. 1900. Itinerary of King Edward the First Throughout His Reign, A.D. 1272-1307, Exhibiting His Movements From Time to Time, So Far as They Are Recorded. Vol. II: 1286-1307. Paisley, Scotland: Alexander Gardner.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/itineraryofkinge02gouguoft

Keay, Anna. 2011. The Crown Jewels. London UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 April 2018. "Richard Puddlicott and the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/richard-puddlicott-and-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 May 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid in April and May 1303 in England." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 May 2018. "Mysteries of the April-May 1303 Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/mysteries-of-april-may-1303-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 June 2018. "King Edward I's Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/king-edward-is-letter-on-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Royal Proclamation June 15, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_8.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Palmer Confession June 17, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Arrests June 18-19, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_22.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Indenture June 22, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_29.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Palmer Confession July 6, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Goldsmiths Talk July 4, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_13.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Aldermen Interviews July 29, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_27.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 August 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Westminster Jurors Aug. 6, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Norden, John. 1593. Speculum Britanniae. The first Parte an Historicall, & Chorographicall Discription of Middlesex. London, England: Eliot's Court Press.
Available via University of Michigan's EEBO-TCP II (Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership Phase II) @ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A08306.0001.001?view=toc

Palgrave, Sir Francis, ed. 1836. "Appendix: Records Relating to the Robbery at the Treasury, 31 Edw. I." The Antient Kalendars and Inventories of His Majesty's Exchequer Together with Other Documents Illustrating the History of That Repository. Vol. I: 251-299. London England: Commissioners of the Public Records of The Kingdom.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/antientkalendars01grea_0#page/251/mode/1up