Earth and Space News: Edward I's Third Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid

Summary: King Edward I's third letter Oct. 10, 1303, on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid concerned Abbot Wenlok's suspecting and sequestering monks.

Sir Roger Brabazon (ca. 1247-1317), Chief Justice of the King's Bench (1296-1316), became one of three justices designated after Edward I's second Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid letter August 1303; Bohemian etcher Wenceslaus Hollar's (July 13, 1607-March 25, 1677) print of Roger Brabazon's tomb slab in William Dugdale's The History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London (1658), page 76: via Internet Archive

King Edward I's third letter Oct. 10, 1303, on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid April 30-May 3, 1303, asked his five justices to act upon an appeal from the Abbey community.

The appeal broached 49 monks and 32 auxiliaries and servants being in the Tower for breaking into the Royal Treasury in Westminster Abbey's Chapter House Crypt. Edward called upon Ralph de Sandwich (1235-1308), Constable of the Tower Sept. 10, 1285-March 24, 1308, and Walter of Gloucester, both commissioned since June 6, 1303. He likewise drew upon William de Bereford (1272-1326), Roger Brabazon (died 1317) and Roger de Hegham, designated justices since Edward's second letter Aug. 14, 1303.

Edward ended John Bakewell's and Essex Sheriff Roger de Southcote's appointments as justices after the first Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid enquiry June 6-Aug. 7, 1303.

All monastic community members perhaps found themselves in the Tower of London together with Westminster Abbey Royal treasury raid recovered booty and suspected burglars and beneficiaries.

Paul Doherty, in The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303 for Carroll & Graf Publishers Sept. 26, 2005, goes to Edward's second letter Aug. 14, 1303. Justices Bakewell, Gloucester, Sandwich and Southcote harvested imprisonments and indictments while appointed investigator John de Drokensford (1260-May 9, 1329) herded burgled treasures into the Tower's storehouses. Edward's second letter indicated, "We, wishing to be more certain about the truth in this matter, order you [justices]" to inquire deeper, further, harder, longer, wider.

Doherty judges that the second commission, Aug. 14-Oct. 9, 1303, juggled monks with their auxiliaries and servants into the Tower of London sometime during the fall.

Perhaps the second commission kept everyone, from abbot through servant, in the Tower to kick-start searches to know everything in Abbey buildings and on Abbey grounds.

Doherty lists two previous launchings of unsuccessful Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raids, in 1296 by John the Cook of Lechtesman and in 1300 by Abbey monks. Edward made Cook a traitor even though he mobilized nobody and nothing against the monks, whose Abbot Walter de Wenlok (died Dec. 25, 1307) mastered bribery. And yet the third Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid netted the subprior, treasurer, fabric restorer, three cellarers and three monks that nurtured the failed second raid.

Alexander de Pershore, Thomas de Dene and John de Butterley outsourced for personal operations £100 in silver for repose of Queen Eleanor's (1241-Nov. 28, 1290) soul.

Roger de Bures, Ralph de Morton, John de Noteley, Robert de Cherring, Thomas de Lichfield and John de Prescot participated in purloining the royal widower's payment.

Abbot Wenlok queued the nine among 81 Abbey auxiliaries, monks and servants "falsely indicted of the breaking of the Treasury at Westminster" April 30-May 3, 1303. He remonstrated against his, the nine's and 71 others' relegation to the Tower prison for "carrying away treasure to the value of a hundred thousand pounds." His accounts showed sums "pro deliveracione Fratrum" ("for the deliverance of the brothers [in the Tower]") and to Edward's commissioners Bereford, Brabazon, Drokensford, Hegham and Southcote.

Queen Margaret (1279-Feb. 14, 1318) took suspects Alice and Castanea Barber from Newgate Prison and perhaps talked Edward into turning monks loose by early April 1304.

Abbot Walter de Wenlok professed monks' disinvolvement with the 1303 Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid and its predecessor, the 1300 theft; Walter de Wenlok's presumed effigy on sedilia (priests' bench) canopy at Westminster Abbey; photo by D. Weller, E.H. Pearce's Walter de Wenlock (1920), frontispiece: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

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

Dugdale, William. 1658. The History of St. Pauls Cathedral in London, From Its Foundation Until These Times. London, England: Tho. Warren, MDCLVIII.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/historyofstpauls01dugd

Harvey, Barbara F., ed. 1965. Documents Illustrating the Rule of Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster 1283-1307. Vol. II. Camden Fourth Series. London, England: Offices of the Royal Historical Society.

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

Lethaby, W.R. (William Richard). 1906. Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen. London, England: Duckworth & Co., MCMVI.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/westminsterabbey00lethuoft

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 16, 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

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 August 2018. "Edward I's Second Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/edward-is-second-letter-on-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 September 2018. "Westminster Abbey Refectory Raid and London Sheriff Hugh Pourte." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/westminster-abbey-refectory-raid-and.html

Palgrave, Sir Francis. (Ed.). 1836. The Antient Calendars and Inventories of His Majesty's Exchequer Together with Other Documents Illustrating the History of That Repository. London England: Commissioners of the Public Records of That Kingdom.

Pearce, Ernest Harold. 1920. Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster. Ecclesiastical Biographies. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York NY: The Macmillan Co.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/walterdewenlock00pearuoft

Earth and Space News

Friday, October 5, 2018

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

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