The Impact of the Anglo-Scottish Wars (1286–1347) upon Institutional Memories in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Monastic Chronicles and Cartularies of Furness and Byland

Abstract

The Anglo-Scottish Wars (1286–1347) had a significant impact on lay and monastic communities across the North of England physically and psychologically, as the pressures of war between England and Scotland divided people along increasingly hostile and “national” lines. Monastic chronicles, such as that of Lanercost, have often been used to make sense of the material effect of Scottish raids, and how identities came to possess an increasingly “national” sense. However, less attention has been paid to how the cartularies of Northern English monasteries contributed to how monastic communities affected by the Anglo-Scottish Wars came to make sense of them. This article will analyse and compare the Furness Chronicle and Anonimalle Chronicle, produced in the fourteenth century, with the early-fifteenth century cartularies produced by Furness Abbey and Byland Abbey. It will contribute towards recent scholarly assessments of how these sources, and the events they recounted, were selectively edited to inform how the monastic communities who engaged with them remembered the impact of the Anglo-Scottish Wars upon them. Chronicles and cartularies were used together to reinforce an institutional memory, or a collective sense of connection with the history of an institution that Furness and Byland were creating in the early fourteenth century.

Keywords:

• cartularies
• chronicles
• monastic
• memory
• identity
• national
• Anglo-Scottish Wars
• frontier

The Anglo-Scottish Wars of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (1286–1347), often referred to as the Scottish Wars of Independence,¹ made a profound impact upon monastic communities and their environment across northern England.² However, less emphasis has been placed upon how memories of the wars were mediated by monastic institutions. This article will investigate the cartulary record of Furness Abbey and Byland Abbey, two monasteries in northern England that were directly affected by military activity during the Anglo-Scottish Wars. In each case, this article will compare one chronicle produced during this period and associated with each monastery against its cartulary record. A detailed contextual discussion of each source will analyse how the Anglo-Scottish Wars were recounted in them, focusing on common themes of political polarisation and military destruction. This article will argue that monastic chronicles and cartularies complemented each other to mediate and incorporate memories of the Anglo-Scottish Wars for monasteries affected by the wars within their wider institutional memory.

Historians have often used monastic chronicles to understand how English and Scottish monasteries sustained, or even created, some of the central narratives underpinning the conflict between England and Scotland in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.³ However, even if similarities exist between medieval and modern interpretations of the Anglo-Scottish Wars, the narratives presented in medieval sources may not have held the same meaning to their original creators as they do today.⁴ In addition, the perils of using chronicles as accurate accounts of historical events have resulted in cartularies produced by these monasteries being considered as objective means to check the chronicle narratives.⁵ Nevertheless, recent research is revealing how monastic cartularies cannot be treated as objective records.⁶ Cartularies handled property records in a similar fashion to how chronicles handled their information on past events, to articulate their meaning to monastic communities within what can be described as an institutional memory.⁷

The term “institutional memory” refers both to a particular version of events recalled for the benefit of an institution, in this case a monastic community, and a sense of connection with the history of an institution held by its members.⁸ Cartularies helped to engender this wider historical sensibility, as well as articulating a particular version of events, by selecting and organising relevant documentary material to reflect what the institution that commissioned them wanted to present as its collective memory. This could involve a top-down imposition of a particular historical interpretation at a particular moment in time,⁹ or regular reinterpretation over an extended period of time by different scribes, as Joanna Tucker has demonstrated concerning the Lindores Cartulary.¹⁰ Identifying how an institutional memory of the Anglo-Scottish Wars was created in the Furness and Byland monastic cartularies could reveal new perspectives upon how their monastic communities articulated meaning for themselves in a changing environment.

A Border landscape defined in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the interconnectedness of aristocracies, societies and religious institutions between England and Scotland hardened under the pressure of war.¹¹ The process by which memories of raiding were mediated by monastic institutions may have consolidated this shift towards mutual hostility between the two kingdoms in the fourteenth century. In Scotland, an example of this can be seen in the Kelso Abbey Cartulary, which was most likely compiled in the early-mid 1320s, to remedy the loss of charters as a result of English raids.¹² This coincided with the efforts of Robert I to help Scottish monasteries to rebuild themselves whilst asserting his legitimacy to rule Scotland,¹³ not least on the basis of his ability to resist the English,¹⁴ and this impacted upon how Kelso Abbey interpreted its earlier history. In particular, the so-called foundation charter could be a fourteenth-century forgery, most likely drafted to emphasise the royal connection between Kelso and the Scottish Crown extending back to David I, although the charter may have been based on a now lost original.¹⁵ The Scottish raids inflicted upon northern England therefore retained a retaliatory significance for Scottish monasteries such as Kelso Abbey, and the consequences of renewed Scottish raiding on English monasteries such as Furness Abbey would be profound (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Map of Furness Abbey properties and its Rushen Abbey daughter-house mentioned in this article, images courtesy of Google Earth.

A contextual appreciation of the state of the Furness Abbey monastic community by c.1412 will now be considered in order to understand the priorities which influenced the creation of the cartulary and chronicle associated with the abbey. Furness Abbey, situated north of Morecambe Bay, was less directly exposed to military activity on the Border, but nonetheless felt the impact of the Wars.¹⁶ Furness experienced a particularly devastating raid in 1316,¹⁷ with the early-fourteenth century Lanercost Chronicle reporting that the Scots seized many goods, particularly the iron ore reserves, which were few and of poor quality in Scotland.¹⁸ Even the monastic community at Furness Abbey itself was forced to disperse for two years after the Scots sacked the abbey, as recounted in a late-fourteenth century Furness copy of the Polychronicon.¹⁹ A further raid followed in 1322, led by Robert the Bruce, and to deter against the threat of further Scottish raids, especially via the sea, Furness Abbey constructed a fortified customs post on Piel Island in 1325, now known as Piel Castle.²⁰ The Black Death of 1349 also hit Furness Abbey hard, with the Furness copy of the Polychronicon reporting that forty-two monks and fifteen lay brothers perished.²¹ This began a process, reflected in British monasteries elsewhere, of gradually leasing the property of the abbey to tenants, who became increasingly querulous in an age of rising prices, rising wages and increased social mobility.²² By 1408, Abbot William Dalton of Furness was therefore faced with a series of challenges for a monastic institution that had seen better days.²³ He ordered the compilation of the Furness Coucher Book, completed in c.1412 by a team of compilers operating under John Stell, to reinforce his abbatial authority over the core lands of the abbey.²⁴ The Coucher Book dates from beyond the period 1286–1347, but incorporates copied material referring to events relevant to the Anglo-Scottish Wars. Preservation of uncommon surviving written material and compilation of the remaining documents into a coherent and manageable format were typical motivations for compiling monastic cartularies.²⁵ The disruptive period of Anglo-Scottish raids may have resulted in an imperative to preserve what institutional memory of earlier times could have been lost. Part of that institutional memory could be found in a chronicle associated with Furness, dating from the very beginning of the Anglo-Scottish Wars.

The Furnesian provenance of the Furness Abbey Chronicle will now be investigated to demonstrate how the Furness chronicle, based on the thirteenth-century Stanley Abbey Chronicle, was adapted to convey a Furnesian perspective upon the Anglo-Scottish Wars. The Furness Abbey Chronicle is a continuation of the twelfth-century Historia Rerum Anglicarum of William of Newburgh up to 1298, and consists of a single manuscript.²⁶ The Furnesian origins of the manuscript have been called into question,²⁷ due to the significant crossover of material between the Furness chronicle and the thirteenth-century Stanley Abbey Chronicle.²⁸ Antonia Gransden explained this as a result of Stanley Abbey lending its chronicle to Furness Abbey, where its entries were expanded from 1270 to 1298.²⁹ Even if it was not ultimately produced at Furness Abbey, the “Furness Chronicle” may therefore have been used in Furness to assist in compiling a chronicle, perhaps even the late-fourteenth century copy of the Polychronicon produced at Furness Abbey.³⁰ The earlier part of this manuscript is a compilation from the Historia Regum Brittaniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, the middle portion is copied from William of Newburgh, and from 1198, extracts from the chronicle of Roger of Howden are taken as far as the year 1200.³¹ No events up to 1201 are recorded, but for the coverage from 1202 the Furness chronicler copied up almost to its finish the thirteenth-century Stanley Abbey Chronicle.³² Clearly, the Stanley Abbey Chronicle was taken as the exemplar from which the Furness Chronicle would be constructed.³³ Nonetheless, the Furness chronicler develops an independent voice in the narrative after 1241, and from 1260 the Furness chronicler includes material that is original and distinct from the Stanley Chronicle, particularly concerning localities near Furness.³⁴ The Stanley Chronicle itself finishes in 1271, and from this point the narrative is entirely that of the Furness chronicler, although there is a significant break in the narrative from 1275 to 1290.³⁵ This is probably accounted for by the loss of sheets of memoranda associated with the manuscript covering the missing period.³⁶ The consequent attribution of events from 1290 in the section for 1291, with no hint in the Furness Chronicle of the break in the narrative, may be explained by a desire not to mention the loss and continue on regardless.

In order to show how the Furness Chronicle shaped institutional memories of the Anglo-Scottish Wars at Furness Abbey, the motivations behind its production need to be determined. Insight into these motives can be provided by considering the historical context of chronicle exchange across the Irish Sea region, and how this changed with the outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish Wars. Richard Howlett claimed that, because Furness Abbey lacked a coherent tradition of chronicle writing, it relied on chronicles produced by other houses of the Cistercian Order.³⁷ Nevertheless, this does not mean that chronicle writing at Furness Abbey had become moribund, nor that it did not exchange chronicles before the creation of the Furness Chronicle. In addition to the Furness Chronicle itself there exists a copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, a twelfth-century chronicle that continued to exercise a widespread influence over monastic historical writing by the early fourteenth century,³⁸ which had been bought for Furness Abbey by the early fourteenth.³⁹ Eminent hagiographies of Irish and Scottish figures were produced at Furness Abbey, especially the Lives of St Patrick and St Kentigern produced by Jocelin of Furness in the late twelfth century.⁴⁰ Cistercian hagiographies of twelfth-century saints’ cults were known at Furness Abbey,⁴¹ including the Life of St Ninian by Abbot Ailred of Rievaulx that was known to Jocelin of Furness as he was composing his Life of St Kentigern.⁴² Hagiographies of Northumbrian saints, including St Cuthbert, may have made their way to the Furness Abbey archive by the time Jocelin was writing.⁴³ In addition, the Furness Chronicle showed great interest in Manx affairs, especially when they traversed developing national political boundaries.⁴⁴ Godfred Magnusson, son of Magnus Hakonarson of Norway, rebelled against Scottish authority on the island, granted by the Kingdom of Norway through the Treaty of Perth (1266), which led to Alexander III of Scotland sending a great fleet to reassert Scottish authority.⁴⁵ The defeat of the invasion at Ronaldsway in 1275, on land granted to Furness Abbey for processing and refining metal ore,⁴⁶ and the plundering of Rushen Abbey by the victorious Scottish army that followed, was followed with great interest in the Furness Chronicle.⁴⁷ Nevertheless, the Chronicle does not record the subsequent English invasion of 1290 that contested Scottish rule over the island,⁴⁸ perhaps because the political situation on the Isle of Man was so volatile and because claims of English sovereignty over Scotland were still being established at the time when the Chronicle was composed. Furness Abbey was therefore deeply embedded within a wider context of chronicle writing and circulation across the Irish Sea region, which would be increasingly affected by the growing national sensibilities between England and Scotland.⁴⁹

A more likely explanation for the emergence of the Furness Chronicle from this context was that the abbey was under pressure to produce a chronicle in the late thirteenth century. Edward I (1271–1307) dispatched documents to all abbeys in England detailing his right to the throne of Scotland, which he commanded to be copied into all monastic chronicles.⁵⁰ Given that the “annalistic impulse” lasted for only seven years after this incident, it seems that the chief incentive to produce the Furness Chronicle was to appease Edward I and remain in royal favour.⁵¹ This, however, also complements the tendency of Furness Abbey to promote their close and favoured relationship with English royalty.⁵² It is therefore quite notable to observe how nationalising trends in how the Anglo-Scottish Wars were to be remembered impacted the development of the Furness Chronicle, and they may have influenced the development of the Furness cartulary in turn. Although produced at a significant distance in time, the Furness Chronicle and Coucher Book can be compared to ascertain what the monastic community at Furness wished to remember concerning the Anglo-Scottish Wars, both as they were unfolding and after the period under discussion.

This section will illustrate the theme of political polarisation in the Furness Chronicle to demonstrate how this chronicle helped establish an increasingly “nationalised” institutional memory of the Anglo-Scottish Wars at Furness Abbey. Critical assessment will be undertaken of its inclusion of the Norham letters (1292), showcasing the legitimacy of Edward I to rule Scotland, in comparison with other contemporary chronicles and the Furness cartulary. A substantial part of the Chronicle covering the period of the Anglo-Scottish Wars reproduces in full the royal letters from Edward I extracted from rival claimants to the Scottish throne of his right to rule Scotland.⁵³ The letters emphasise that the ‘souerene seynurie’ of the Kingdom of Scotland belongs to Edward I, and that because the King of England could not execute his judgement, all of the lands and castles of Scotland had to be placed in his possession.⁵⁴ Edward I thereby assumed authority to determine the legitimacy of competing claims among candidates for the throne of Scotland, exercising full sovereign powers if they could not find a suitable candidate among themselves peacefully.⁵⁵ The Furness Chronicle prefaced its inclusion of the Norham letters with an emphasis upon how Edward I, in his journey to Scotland in 1292, ‘sedavit…belualem quandam gentis illlius barbariem’, justifying his intervention in the Scottish succession dispute because of their hostility as a people.⁵⁶ This “national” stereotype appears to have been deliberately encouraged here, either at the initiative of an abbey particularly vulnerable to Scottish incursions, or from Edward I himself as a matter of royal policy.

Prior to obtaining the right to the Kingdom of Scotland, Edward I ordered monasteries across England to research their archives for justification of the English kings to rule Scotland. The Bury Chronicle, for instance, explicitly stated that Edward I considered his right to rule being ‘fully vindicated by the evidence of the monastic chronicles’, indicating his intent to use these chronicles to justify English rule in Scotland.⁵⁷ Furness Abbey directly responded to Edward I’s request, copying the royal instructions for justification of English rule directly into the Furness Chronicle.⁵⁸ For example, in the aftermath of the submission at Norham, the Furness Chronicle and the Coucher Book relate how Edward I ordered all monasteries in England to incorporate the Norham letters of submission into their cartularies and chronicles.⁵⁹ In the Furness Chronicle, the letters are included after the funeral of Queen Eleanor in Westminster and before the investiture of John Balliol as King of Scotland.⁶⁰ Here they are portrayed as part of a conscious royal policy to subjugate Scotland and justify this subjugation with reference to the previously asserted trope of Scottish duplicity and mutual hostility earlier in the Chronicle narrative.⁶¹ By contrast, the Norham letters are included in the Coucher Book seemingly at random,⁶² immediately after an exemption by Richard II (1377–1399) for Furness Abbey from providing corrodies,⁶³ and before a grant of immunity from tolls by William, Count of Boulogne & Mortain, son of Stephen I (1135–1153).⁶⁴ The apparent chronological incongruity here may be explained by a desire on the part of the Coucher Book compilers to associate the claims of Edward I to sovereignty over Scotland within a wider narrative of English kings consistently supporting Furness Abbey since the early twelfth century.⁶⁵ It therefore appears as though the hostile “national” trope being adopted in the Furness Chronicle was more a product from outside the abbey than generated within it.

The succession to the throne of Scotland is conspicuously absent as a running theme in the Coucher Book, which could suggest that the political polarisation of the Anglo-Scottish Wars played little part in shaping the Furness cartulary. However, new political concepts, including national stereotypes of Scots as characterised by deceit and guilt fostered in a time of conflict,⁶⁶ came to affect how the Coucher Book compilers interpreted the relationship of the abbey both to the Kings of England and its neighbours across the Irish Sea. In particular, the Coucher Book incorporated historical references to Manx foundations from Furness Abbey prior to the cartulary proper,⁶⁷ including upholding the right of the abbey to nominate the Bishop of Man and the Isles.⁶⁸ Because Furness Abbey was vulnerable to potential raiding activity from the Isle of Man in the context of Anglo-Scottish conflict over the island, the Furness Chronicle prioritised chronicling Manx developments for the benefit of the Furness monastic community.⁶⁹ This may have been particularly relevant in recounting the Battle of Ronaldsway (1275), since the Chronicle recalls how the Furness daughter-house of Rushen Abbey was plundered.⁷⁰ The next Scottish matter included in the Chronicle concerned the claims of Edward I to Scotland itself,⁷¹ which would prevent the possibility of further raids from the Isle of Man if English sovereignty could be effectively imposed. Both the chronicle and the cartulary interpreted these Furness connections to Man within a narrative of protection from the English kings, because of the renewed security risk that Scottish occupation of the island posed. This enabled the potential for more exclusive, even “national”, perspectives to be applied by associating the history of Furness Abbey even further within the Kingdom of England.

Building upon this sense of “national” exclusion of political identities, the theme of military destruction will be demonstrated in the Furness Chronicle, concentrating on the capture of Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1296.⁷² In recounting the aftermath of the siege of Dunbar (1296), the Furness Chronicle, describes how Berwick-upon-Tweed was ‘circumvallata est magno fossato, et inhabitata ab Anglicis, Scotis penitus exclusis’.⁷³ This sense of exclusion between English and Scottish communities was reinforced by desultory descriptions of Scottish military strategy, which was either highlighted for its uncivilised methods or satirised as unmanly, in contrast to the women who defended Carlisle against John Comyn.⁷⁴ The Furness Chronicle had just previously described, with apparent approval, how Edward I ‘villam de Berwike vi et armis cepit, et pluribus interfectis’,⁷⁵ justifying the subsequent strategy of exclusion of Scots from the town once it was under English administration. During a Scottish incursion into Northumberland in 1297, in particular, the Chronicle describes how ‘Scoti moverunt guerram, omnes Anglos de terra sua fugantes, et quos comprehendere potuerunt interficientes’.⁷⁶ Such a harrowing picture may have been intended to highlight the vulnerability of monasteries like Furness Abbey to such raids, reinforcing the need for royal protection that had been a consistent feature of the institutional memory of the abbey.

The dimension of military destruction will be further demonstrated in the Furness Coucher Book to showcase how the Anglo-Scottish Wars affected the monastic community. Its inclusion of the St Peter’s Pence valuations is particularly instructive in this regard, which preserve a record of the devastations inflicted by the Scots upon Furness in 1316.⁷⁷ Compiled towards the end of the cartulary, and prominent among its taxation records, the St Peter’s Pence valuation of spiritualities for 1292 is graphically contrasted with that of 1316.⁷⁸ For example, the church of Dalton, taxed at £8 in 1292, was valued at £2 in 1316, that of Ulverston fell from £35 6s 8d to £5, and that of Pennington from £5 6s 8d to nothing at all,⁷⁹ all due to the incursions of the Scots.⁸⁰ The preservation of the St Peter’s Pence valuations served a pragmatic purpose for the abbey of reducing rates of taxation for appropriated parish churches, especially when they had suffered materially during a period of hostile Scottish incursions.⁸¹ However, as was mentioned earlier, the Scottish raid of 1315 made a profound impact upon Furness Abbey, compelling the monastic community to disperse for two years.⁸² It therefore seems likely that the inclusion of these valuations was as much a product of this harrowing event in the history of Furness Abbey as a justification of abbatial control over the churches of Furness.

To distance Furness Abbey from association with the Scots who had sacked the monastery so thoroughly, the Coucher Book de-emphasised the Scottish dimension of the abbey’s development through selective preservation and organisation of its records. The Coucher Book compilers prioritised preserving documents that associated the abbey with the political interests of the Kings of England, as a consequence of exposure to the polarising nature of the conflict with Scotland. In this context, the preservation of the grant of the Kingdom of Scotland to Edward I in 1292 seems particularly noteworthy,⁸³ being situated amidst a series of royal grants of protection to the abbey.⁸⁴ By contrast, twelfth-century documents which showcased the original donor’s fealty to the Kingdom of Scotland were not rendered as important components of a coherent narrative of cross-Border landownership elsewhere in the cartulary.⁸⁵ Since Furness Abbey did not own property across the Border before 1286, no documents survive in the Coucher Book to indicate the interest of the abbey in cross-Border benefactors. One important exception, however, is the survival of the original grant of Alice de Rumeli to the abbey of Borrowdale in 1210.⁸⁶ Alice de Rumeli was the daughter of Alice de Rumeli of Skipton, who married William FitzDuncan, scion of the King of Scotland,⁸⁷ and this cross-Border association at a high political level may have informed the inclusion of her benefaction by the Coucher Book compilers. The copied Coucher Book version of her original grant survives relatively unaltered from the original.⁸⁸ In fact, the Coucher Book includes further confirmation by King John to seal the deal on one of the most lucrative transactions acknowledged within the cartulary.⁸⁹ This much can be inferred by the survival in the Coucher Book, unique among all other benefactions to the abbey, of receipts detailing the cost of acquisition.⁹⁰ This in itself could point to the importance of this benefaction being measured principally by the financial returns being realised in Borrowdale from sheep farming by c.1412, underwritten by the King of England to ensure that the title to the area was made good and prove that the abbey had fulfilled its side of the bargain.⁹¹ Yet, the cross-Border associations of Alice de Rumeli are only hinted at in the Coucher Book, almost as if “forgetting” her associations with Scotland was necessary to absorbing Borrowdale as a fully acceptable component of the territories of Furness Abbey. The complex historical legacy of Furness Abbey’s cross-Border relationships are therefore at the very least undervalued within the Coucher Book and at the most actively “forgotten” (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Map of Byland Abbey properties mentioned in this article and its geographical relationship to Furness Abbey, images courtesy of Google Earth.

Turning towards the Byland Abbey Cartulary, and how it was employed alongside the Anonimalle Chronicle to develop and institutional memory of the Anglo-Scottish Wars, the mid-fourteenth century historical context of the abbey and the motivations for compiling the cartulary will now be assessed. Located in the Yorkshire Dales on a principal route across the Pennines, Byland Abbey keenly felt the impact of Scottish raids as Furness had done, with a major battle occurring close to Byland Abbey in October 1322.⁹² On top of the damage inflicted upon the abbey estates in the aftermath of the battle,⁹³ the mid-fourteenth century agrarian crises resulting from the Black Death hit the grange economy of Byland Abbey especially hard.⁹⁴ Amidst these challenging circumstances, and faced with further diminution of the value of its property, by the late fourteenth century a cartulary was compiled for Byland Abbey. The Byland Abbey Cartulary, based upon the latest surviving documents copied into the cartulary, most likely dates to c.1399–c.1403,⁹⁵ placing it within a roughly contemporaneous period of production to the Anonimalle Chronicle. The Byland Cartulary does not contain any specific attribution of an abbatial authority for its production and its lone compiler is similarly anonymous.⁹⁶ The Byland Cartulary appears to have been intended as an exercise in maintaining and updating the archive of Byland Abbey.⁹⁷ However, by preserving and prioritising material emphasising recovery for an embattled monastery, the cartulary also served to connect the monastic community with its past, including reconciling the impact of the Anglo-Scottish Wars upon the abbey.

A contextual appraisal of the circulation of monastic chronicles in Northern England can assist in understanding how Byland Abbey interacted with, and was influenced by, the narratives which they conveyed. The Anonimalle Chronicle was one of a corpus of increasingly patriotic English monastic chronicles that exercised a major influence upon how Northern monastic communities remembered the Anglo-Scottish Wars by the late fourteenth century.⁹⁸ Monastic chronicles were produced in the mid fourteenth century because the chroniclers were motivated by patriotism, especially in war-torn regions like the Border with Scotland, and less for the purpose of elucidating the history of the community itself.⁹⁹ The monastic chroniclers were also competing with a growing market for secular chronicles and they adapted their style to suit their audience. These patriotic monastic chronicles, such as the Anonimalle and Lanercost Chronicles, were used by monasteries to reinforce new ideas of patriotic alignment that was circulating in secular chronicle contexts, especially when presented in homiletic terms for creating a visual spectacle when recounting such events for a monastic audience.¹⁰⁰ The Anonimalle Chronicle, in particular, can be seen as a culmination of trends in monastic and secular historical writing, especially concerning the growing national consciousness of mutually hostile polities.¹⁰¹ These chronicles influenced how monastic communities which had suffered the effects of war between England and Scotland interpreted their history by situating it within a wider national paradigm. For Byland Abbey, in particular, this came to represent an essential component in constructing its institutional memory by the late fourteenth century.

In order to determine how far the Anonimalle Chronicle influenced the institutional memory of the Anglo-Scottish Wars being developed at Byland Abbey, this section will analyse in detail the composition of the Anonimalle Chronicle. The Anonimalle Chronicle is preserved in a single late-fourteenth century manuscript from St Mary’s Abbey, York.¹⁰² It was most likely the work of a secular clerk attached to the royal court but operating out of St Mary’s during the period when central government departments resided there.¹⁰³ The manuscript is composed of multiple elements, including a late-thirteenth century chronicle dependent on the twelfth-century Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth and other sources, a version of the short continuation of the French prose Brut (1307–1333), a further continuation from 1333 to 1369 with newsletters, and a continuation from 1369 to 1381 using London sources.¹⁰⁴ The continuation to 1369, which was written up by stages, continues the Franciscan interest by using as its principal source to 1346 the lost Franciscan chronicle which formed the basis of the Lanercost Chronicle.¹⁰⁵ A small section of this lost Franciscan chronicle, preserved in a different compilation, survives as a copy in the Dean & Chapter Library at Durham covering the period 1338–1347.¹⁰⁶ After 1346 the compiler may also have used a continuation of the Polychronicon as well as a number of newsletters.¹⁰⁷ This section appears to be the work of a York author, since after 1333 the script is identical with that of the preceding section.¹⁰⁸ Specific York references can be found in the Anonimalle Chronicle that substantiate a York provenance for the manuscript, such as the miraculous recovery of a girl drowned in the River Ouse.¹⁰⁹ However, there is no conclusive proof that the Anonimalle Chronicle was composed in York, or that it was even composed by a monastic scribe, and the composite nature of the manuscript presents further problems in identifying a firm provenance.¹¹⁰

The case for part of the Anonimalle Chronicle being composed at Byland Abbey will be demonstrated here by investigating how St Mary’s Abbey, York, made use of existing Northern chronicle traditions in composing the extant manuscript and how these chronicles were used by communities such as Byland Abbey. The ubiquity of the lost Franciscan source in informing historical accounts of the Anglo-Scottish Wars enabled a range of different chronicles, such as the Bridlington and Lanercost Chronicles, to use its credibility as an account created on the Border itself to sustain or manipulate memories of this period of conflict to serve particular purposes.¹¹¹ In this respect, John Taylor argues that the earliest sections of the Anonimalle Chronicle, covering the period up to 1307, were produced at Byland Abbey and compiled at St Mary’s.¹¹² This claim is substantiated by a passage relating to a dispute in c.1291 between William de Mowbray, descendent of the original Mowbray benefactors of Byland Abbey, and William de Stainsby over the church of Old Byland in Nidderdale, which held particular relevance in the institutional memory of Byland Abbey and would be unlikely to be included if the chronicler had no interest in Byland Abbey.¹¹³ The French prose Brut survives in two separate manuscripts produced in Northern monastic contexts, British Library, MS Royal 20 A. XVIII and British Library, MS Add. 10622.¹¹⁴ The latter manuscript was most likely composed at Byland Abbey, testifying to the modest popularity of the Brut in the north of England.¹¹⁵ Although the Brut in the Anonimalle Chronicle is to a large extent a record of national events it contains sufficient Northern material, derived from sources such as the twelfth-century Northern chronicles of William of Newburgh and Roger Howden, as well as extensive use of Langtoft’s chronicle in recounting the Anglo-Scottish Wars, to justify the view that its origins lie in the North.¹¹⁶ It appears, therefore, that the earliest sections of the Anonimalle Chronicle were indeed produced in Byland Abbey. While the post-1333 sections of the Anonimalle Chronicle may not have been produced at Byland Abbey, the monastic community nonetheless partook in a shared Northern monastic chronicle tradition, reflected in the multiple component parts that make up the Anonimalle Chronicle. Even in chronicling the later stages of the Anglo-Scottish Wars, closer to when the Byland Abbey Cartulary was compiled, the Anonimalle Chronicle therefore remained of relevance to Byland Abbey and influenced how its cartulary would treat the Anglo-Scottish Wars within its narrative.

To illustrate how the Anonimalle Chronicle influenced monastic memories of the Anglo-Scottish Wars, this section will analyse how political polarisation precipitated by the wars affected its coverage of the Battle of Old Byland (October 1322). The account of the battle is distinguished in the Anonimalle Chronicle by its brevity, perhaps because it exposed the vulnerability of monasteries such as Byland to further Scottish raids when English leadership had been shown to be divided. The Chronicle emphasised not only the absence of Edward II but how ‘noz gentz en les parties Descoz rien ne gaignerent pur defaute de grace’.¹¹⁷ Furthermore, Sir Andrew Harcla, Earl of Carlisle, is accused of ‘conferacions ove les Escoz…a destruire le north paiis’.¹¹⁸ Sir Andrew Harcla was created Earl of Carlisle by Edward II for defeating the rebel forces of Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, at Boroughbridge (March 1322), but failed to reinforce the king at Old Byland (October 1322).¹¹⁹ This was explained in the Lanercost Chronicle by the ravaging of his lands and dispersal of his men in the wake of the great Scottish raid.¹²⁰ Recognising the incapacity of the region to resist further Scottish raids, Harcla opened independent negotiations with the Scots, overreaching an authority to negotiate on behalf of the English Crown, that recognised both kingdoms as sovereign and independent.¹²¹ The execution of Harcla that succeeds the account of the Battle of Old Byland is presented as the just outcome of a traitor against the English Crown, ‘de les aver amene en Engleterre’ and thereby encourage further raids.¹²² Negotiating independent deals with the Scots was adopted by English Border communities such as Holm Cultram, who paid ransom money to the Scots from 1315 to 1317 using a monk of Durham as their intermediary,¹²³ and repeated truces were independently negotiated between the Scots and the Bishopric of Durham from 1311–1322 to prevent further spoliation of their lands.¹²⁴ However, the presentation of the overtures of Sir Andrew Harcla in the Anonimalle Chronicle spoke to an increasing sense of political polarisation that coloured memories of these negotiations, especially among monasteries such as Byland that had suffered as a result of the Scottish incursion of 1322.

The Anonimalle Chronicle narrative appears preoccupied with presenting a more positive memory of the consequences of the Battle of Old Byland, as one of execution of justice upon the enemies of England. The French prose Brut, from which the Anonimalle chronicler was copying verbatim, unequivocally associated Edward II directly with the execution of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1322. As the French prose Brut section of the Chronicle was being compiled during the reign of Edward II,¹²⁵ the cult of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster was being established as a means of translating his treasonous acts into sacrifice for the realm of England and consequently criticising the leadership of Edward II.¹²⁶ Nevertheless, the Anonimalle chronicler was reluctant to openly question the leadership abilities of Edward II, instead justifying the execution of Harcla by his capture of the Earl of Lancaster, who ‘murust en droit querele pur lestat du roialme maintenire’.¹²⁷ By attributing the death of the Earl of Lancaster to Harcla, the political martyr status of the late earl could be enhanced,¹²⁸ the leadership abilities of the king could be covertly criticised. The defeat at Old Byland could be also be de-emphasised in favour of more favourable military encounters for the English, such as the Battle of Neville’s Cross (1346).

This section will explore how the theme of military destruction was demonstrated in the Anonimalle Chronicle by its informed description of the impact of Scottish raids across Cumberland in 1346, prior to the battle of Neville’s Cross in the same year.¹²⁹ This is intended to illustrate how monasteries such as Byland Abbey derived shared empathy with the devastations inflicted by the Scots to inform their institutional memories of the Anglo-Scottish Wars. The Chronicle began its account with the execution of Sir Walter de Selby, ‘chyvaler hardy et vaillaunt’, after the siege of the Peel of Liddell, north of Carlisle, for refusing to surrender the fortification,¹³⁰ followed by Hexham Priory being subjected to three days of ‘graunt mal et destructioun’.¹³¹ The use of blackmail was remarked upon at length in the Chronicle, with the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Copeland paying 300 marks to the Scots in return for them refraining from plundering their lands.¹³² The woods of Durham Priory in Bear Park were plundered, with David II ordering ‘ses mynystres et tormentours’ to seize all their beasts, burn the houses and slay the men and women they could find.¹³³ The devastation which the Scots were prepared to level upon monastic land would have struck a chord among the monastic community at Byland Abbey, and perhaps explains why this particular portrayal of violence was used to frame the forthcoming account of the Battle of Neville’s Cross.¹³⁴

Although the account of the battle of Neville’s Cross draws heavily upon the same Franciscan source used in the contemporary Lanercost Chronicle,¹³⁵ there are a number of instances where the Anonimalle Chronicle contains information otherwise not disclosed in the Lanercost Chronicle.¹³⁶ For instance, it includes the full list of casualties and details of the aftermath of the battle,¹³⁷ which could be attributed to the relative proximity of the Anonimalle chronicler to the central government in York, where much of the negotiations of prisoner exchanges, not least that of King David II himself, were taking place.¹³⁸ However, unlike in the Lanercost Chronicle, the Anonimalle Chronicle does not include extensive passages denouncing the Scots, including concerning the death of Sir Walter de Selby or the confident bearing of the King of Scotland prior to the battle of Neville’s Cross. This could be explained by the proximity of the Anonimalle chronicler to a version of the Franciscan chronicle that was less interpolated than that used by the Lanercost chronicler.¹³⁹ A consequent mediation of the same chronicle tradition through interaction with a central English governmental context, which was not as present in the case of the Lanercost Chronicle, ¹⁴⁰ likely enabled an increasingly hostile and “national” treatment of military activities of the Scots to be filtered through. Since Byland Abbey shared in this chronicle tradition, explaining and mediating military destruction would have been especially valuable as it was counting the costs of earlier Scottish incursions and making those costs meaningful within their institutional memories.

As examples of rationalising and recovering from the military destruction inflicted upon the abbey in the early fourteenth century, the appropriations of the moieties of the churches of Bubwith and Rillington, preserved in the Byland Abbey Cartulary, will be now be analysed. It will show how they were presented in the context of the cartulary, how their appropriations were justified and the relationship of these parish churches with important Byland Abbey benefactors from the pre-war period. The appropriations were intended to reduce rates of taxation for these churches so that the resources of Byland Abbey would not be further stretched.¹⁴¹ However, their preservation in the cartulary served to connect with benefactors who successfully resisted Scottish invasions and mitigate memories of suffering associated with the 1322 Great Raid.

Concerning Bubwith Church, the Byland Cartulary preserves the full text of a grant, dated 3 September 1349, of a moiety of Bubwith Church by John de Mowbray, ‘pro anime mee et Joanne uxoris mee et pro animabus antecessorum et successorum’.¹⁴² John de Mowbray’s father had fought against Edward II at Boroughbridge and, after his father’s execution, was imprisoned in the Tower of London.¹⁴³ After the accession of Edward III in 1327, John married Joan de Mowbray, the third daughter of Henry, 3^rd Earl of Lancaster, ¹⁴⁴ and John himself fought with distinction at the Battle of Neville’s Cross (1346).¹⁴⁵ His dynastic connection with Edward III and successful record of resistance to Scottish invasions therefore increased his value as a benefactor to Byland Abbey in helping it recover from the effects of the Scottish raids. The burial of Joan de Mowbray before the high altar at Byland Abbey in 1349 underscored the importance of maintaining this connection with John de Mowbray for Byland Abbey,¹⁴⁶ and may have motivated the monastic community to appeal to him to advocate for the appropriation of Bubwith church. A licence from Edward III authorising the granting of the moiety predates the Mowbray grant but it only survives in rubric.¹⁴⁷ This suggests that the Byland Cartulary compiler wanted to prioritise the Mowbray benefactor relationship, which pre-existed the Anglo-Scottish Wars, and attribute greater agency to John de Mowbray within the institutional memory of the acquisition of the moiety of Bubwith church. A papal bull of Pope Urban V, dated 18 October 1363,¹⁴⁸ referred to only in rubric in the cartulary but whose contents were acted upon in a notification to Thomas, Abbot of St Albans that does survive.¹⁴⁹ The appropriation of Bubwith church to Byland Abbey was justified in their petition to the pope on account of their lost possession and rents during the ‘wars and recent pestilence’.¹⁵⁰ The impact of the Scottish raids had clearly intermingled with more recent memories of plague at Byland Abbey within by this time, but this petition of suffering was not made conspicuous in the cartulary. Instead, the cartulary compiler preferred to focus on the role of the Mowbrays in soliciting external support for Byland Abbey to appropriate Bubwith church, by reconnecting with the institutional memory of benefactors who had resisted the Scots with distinction.

The material impact of the Scottish raids is further demonstrated in the appropriation of the moiety of Rillington church, yet the cartulary sought to mitigate memories of their impact in recounting how the appropriation was justified. Byland Abbey petitioned for a bull of appropriation from Pope Clement VI on 23 January 1344, claiming that whereas under the 1291 Taxatio it was valued at 30 marks is now valued at 15 marks.¹⁵¹ John de Mowbray, in a petition not included in the cartulary, described how the abbey had ‘suffered from the hostile and horrible incursions of the Scots, being denuded of its church ornaments and loaded with debts’.¹⁵² This could refer to the associated damage of raiding parties before and after the Battle of Old Byland,¹⁵³ yet the adverse economic situation of Byland Abbey had taken shape long before the Scottish raids.¹⁵⁴ Presenting the relative poverty of the monastery as being the result of the Scottish raids formed an important part of the case for appropriation outside of the cartulary narrative. However, within the cartulary, the emphasis is more on the relative strength which Byland Abbey possessed in enabling the appropriation to proceed. The notification to appropriate the moiety of Rillington church survives in full, whereas the papal bull is only referred to in rubric.¹⁵⁵ The absence of the Mowbray petition and papal bull could be attributed to the damage which the Byland Cartulary has experienced.¹⁵⁶ However, if these documents were originally present in the cartulary, this could show how the compiler prioritised the process of acquiring the moiety from the pre-war period. The importance of the poverty of the abbey as a factor justifying the appropriation was correspondingly reduced in the cartulary. The moiety had been claimed by Byland Abbey since at least 1282, when the Manor of Rillington had been granted to the abbey,¹⁵⁷ and letters to appropriate the church had been sent to the pope by Edward II in 1316.¹⁵⁸ Nevertheless, whilst the royal letters appear in full in the Liberties section of the cartulary, they are only included in rubric among the Rillington documents.¹⁵⁹ Since Edward II had effectively abandoned Byland Abbey to its fate in 1322,¹⁶⁰ the cartulary compiler may have sought to reduce his part in the narrative portrayed of how the moiety of Rillington church was appropriated. Memories of the 1322 Great Raid at Byland Abbey thus influenced the decision of the compiler to prioritise the pre-war period, and the relative strength of the abbey in negotiating the terms of appropriating Rillington church, over the dire circumstances that propelled the involvement of their Mowbray benefactors. In doing so, the memory of suffering inflicted on the abbey by the Scots could be mitigated.

This article has explored how monastic cartularies can be employed alongside monastic chronicles to demonstrate how the former were used as agents for mediating memories of the Anglo-Scottish Wars for monastic communities. The cartularies of Furness and Byland crafted a particular way of remembering the military destruction wreaked by the Scots to suit the needs of their monastic communities beyond the time of their raids. Furness Abbey used its cartulary to appeal to its longstanding relationship with the Kings of England to reinforce abbatial power and authority over the Furness territories affected by the Scottish raids. Byland Abbey sought to explain the military destruction wrought upon a fragile monastic community, and its cartulary was designed to reconnect this community with its past and cope with an uncertain future. In conclusion, the Anglo-Scottish Wars made a decisive impact upon the institutional memories of Furness Abbey and Byland Abbey, who used their written record, both literary and bureaucratic, to render the impact of these wars relevant and palatable to present and future generations of their monastic houses.

Medieval monastic cartularies were literary devices as much as bureaucratic records, and were actively employed alongside narrative sources to create and mediate collective memories to serve particular purposes at particular times. Therefore, future studies could enquire further into how such memories could be distinguished, at a collective and individual level, within the cartulary record, as well as how institutional memories, such as has been elaborated here, could be compared across different cartulary contexts, both monastic and secular. Dimensions of suffering could also be further refined, and approached afresh with these cartulary sources in mind, to uncover more complex layers of comprehending the impact of military destruction beyond the Anglo-Scottish theatre of war that has been explored here. In short, monastic cartularies should be conceived as instruments for constructing memories, both for their institutions and in relation to wider historical developments, and how those memories were constructed deserve further investigation.

Notes

1 Alexander Grant, ‘Independence and Nationhood: Scotland, 1306–1469’, in The New History of Scotland, ed. by Jenny Wormald (London: Edward Arnold Publishers Ltd., 1984), pp. 3–5; David Green, ‘National Identities and the Hundred Years War’, in Fourteenth Century England, Volume VI, ed. by Chris Given-Wilson, (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010), pp. 115–117.

2 Anthony Goodman, ‘Introduction’, in War and Border Societies in the Middle Ages, ed. by Anthony Goodman and Anthony Tuck (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 9, pp. 23–24; Cynthia J. Neville, ‘Local Sentiment and the “National” Enemy in Northern England in the Later Middle Ages’, Journal of British Studies, vol.35, no.4 (1996), pp. 419–437, pp. 420–421.

3 Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume II: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London: Kegan Paul Limited, 1982) pp. 116–117, pp. 457–458.

4 Chris Given-Wilson, Chronicles: The Writing of History in Medieval England (London: Hambledon & London, 2004), pp. 65–67, p. 69, pp. 167–168; Jackson W. Armstrong, England’s Northern Frontier: Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 4–10, pp. 44–46.

5 Given-Wilson, Chronicles, pp. 2–4; Antonia Gransden, Legends, Traditions and History in Medieval England (London: The Hambledon Press, 1992), pp. 200–201, pp. 219–220.

6 Joanna Tucker, ‘Understanding Scotland’s medieval cartularies’, Innes Review, 70.2 (2019), pp. 142–144; See also, Christopher Tinmouth, ‘Stella Parens Solis, John Stell rege, munere prolis: The Construction of Institutional Memory and Identity in the Furness Abbey Coucher Book’, PhD Thesis (Lancaster: University of Lancaster, 2023), pp. 221–222.

7 Bert Roest, ‘Later Medieval Institutional History’, in Historiography in the Middle Ages, ed. by Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis (Brill: Leiden, 2003) pp. 280–282; Ruth Morse, Truth and Convention in the Middle Ages: Rhetoric, Representation, and Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 89–90.

8 Patrick J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 19–20; Chris Wickham, ‘Remembering’, in Social Memory, ed. by Chris Wickham and J. Fentress (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 5–6, p. 24.

9 John Pocock, ‘The Origins of the Study of the Past’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 4 (1962), p. 217.

10 Joanna Tucker, Reading and Shaping Medieval Cartularies: Multi–Scribe Manuscripts and their Patterns of Growth (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2020), pp. 196–197.

11 Keith Stringer, ‘Introduction: “Middle Britain” in Context, c.900–c.1300’, pp. 11–13, pp. 20–24, in Northern England and Southern Scotland in the Central Middle Ages, ed. by Keith J. Stringer and Angus J.L. Winchester (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017), pp. 216–218.

12 Andrew Smith, ‘The Kelso Abbey cartulary: context, production and forgery’, unpublished PhD Thesis (Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2011), pp. 122–124, pp. 200–201.

13 Smith, The Kelso Abbey cartulary, pp. 22–25, pp. 81–85.

14 Grant, ‘Independence and Nationhood’, p. 27.

15 Smith, The Kelso Abbey cartulary, pp. 196–197, p. 227.

16 Thomas Alcock Beck, Annales Furnesienses: History and Antiquities of the Abbey of Furness (London: Payne and Moss, 1844), pp. 252–256.

17 Colm McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces: Scotland, England and Ireland, 1306–1328 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), pp. 174–175.

18 The Lanercost Chronicle (1272–1346), trans. & ed. by Sir Herbert Maxwell (Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press, 1913), p. 131; Fred Barnes, Barrow and District (Barrow-in-Furness:Barrow-in-Furness Corporation, 1968), pp. 31–32.

19 University of Illinois Library, Urbana, MS 132, Polychronicon (c.1350), fol. 158v, cited in Michael Carter, ‘An Unexplored 14th-century Source for the History of Furness Abbey’, Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 22, ser.3 (2022), p. 100.

20 Barnes, Barrow and District, pp. 32–33.

21 Polychronicon (c.1350), fol. 161v, cited in Carter, ‘An Unexplored 14th-century Source for the History of Furness Abbey’, p. 100.

22 Barnes, Barrow and District, pp. 38–39; Maurice Keen, England in the Later Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 142–146, pp. 150–154.

23 Barnes, Barrow and District, p. 35.

24 Beck, Annales Furnesienses, p. 283; Alice Leach, A History of Furness Abbey (Ulverston: Furness Heritage Press, 1987), p. 68.

25 David Walker, ‘The Organization of Material in Medieval Cartularies’, in The Study of Medieval Records: Essays in honour of Kathleen Major, ed. by D.A. Bullough and R.L. Storey (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 134.

26 British Library, London, Cotton MS Cleopatra A I, Chronicle of Furness Abbey: Brutus to AD 1298 (c.1400), fols.47–208r; ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Richard Howlett, Rolls Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1885), pp. lxxxvii–lxxxviii.

27 Carter, ‘An Unexplored 14th-century Source for the History of Furness Abbey’, fn. 3, p. 101.

28 Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 89.

29 Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume I: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974) pp. 116–117, pp. 457–458.

30 Ibid., pp. 96–97.

31 Ibid., pp. lxxvii–lxxxviii.

32 Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Digby 11, Part 3, Chronicle of England to 1270 (c.1300), fols. 149–189; Howlett, ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, p. lxxxviii.

33 Ibid., p. lxxxviii.

34 Ibid., p. lxxxix.

35 Ibid., pp. lxxxviii–lxxxix.

36 Ibid., p. lxxxviii.

37 ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I’, ed. by Richard Howlett, p. lxxxviii.

38 Gransden, Legends, Traditions and History in Medieval England, p. xiii, p.55; Given-Wilson, Chronicles, pp. 3–5, p. 157, pp. 164–165.

39 Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Jones 48, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1300); an early-14^th century Latin transcription on the manuscript reads ‘istum librum emit frater Willelmus de Dalton abbas huius monasterii’ (‘Brother William of Dalton, abbot of this monastery, bought this book’), fol.7v.

40 See esp. Helen Birkett, The Saints’ Lives of Jocelin of Furness: Hagiography, Patronage and Ecclesiastical Politics (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2010), pp. 25–58, pp. 85–114.

41 Keith J. Stringer, The Reformed Church in Medieval Galloway and Cumbria: Contrasts, Connections and Continuities (Whithorn: Friends of the Whithorn Trust, 2003), pp. 14–15.

42 Birkett, The Saints’ Lives of Jocelin of Furness, p. 159.

43 Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the 11^th and 12^th Centuries (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2003), p. 215.

44 Chronicle of Furness Abbey: Brutus to AD 1298 (c.1400), in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Richard Howlett, Rolls Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1885), pp. 569–571.

45 R.A. McDonald, ‘The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland’s Western Seaboard, c. 1100–c. 1336’, Scottish Historical Monographs, vol.4 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1997), pp. 120–123, pp. 136–137.

46 Peter Davey, After the Vikings: Medieval Archaeology of the Isle of Man, AD1100–1550 (Douglas: Manx National Heritage, 2013), pp. 120–122, p. 129.

47 Chronicle of Furness Abbey: Brutus to AD 1298 (c.1400), in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Richard Howlett, Rolls Series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1885), pp. 569–571; McDonald, ‘The Kingdom of the Isles’, p. 137.

48 Geoffrey W.S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), pp. 41–42.

49 Benjamin Hudson, Viking Pirates and Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 9–10.

50 Ibid., p. lxxxviii; Given-Wilson, Chronicles, pp. 65–67.

51 Howlett, ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, p. lxxxviii.

52 Tinmouth, ‘The Construction of Institutional Memory and Identity in the Furness Abbey Coucher Book’, pp. 70–73.

53 Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, pp. 576–578.

54 ‘Sovereign lordship’, ibid., pp. 576–577.

55 Archie Duncan, ‘Revisiting Norham, May-June 1291’, in Government and Aristocracy in the British Isles, c.1150–1500: Essays in Honour of Michael Prestwich, ed. by Chris-Given Wilson, Ann Kettles and Len Scales (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), pp. 82–83.

56 ‘Calmed…the savage barbarism of that nation’, Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, p. 575.

57 The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds (1212–1301), ed. by Antonia Gransden (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1964), pp.100–103, cited in Given-Wilson, Chronicles, p. 67.

58 R.A. Griffiths, ‘Edward I, Scotland and the Chronicles of English Religious Houses’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 6 (1978–81), p .194.

59 Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, p. 576; Transcript of a Missive from Edward I conveying copy of the Grant to Him of the Scottish Kingdom (1292), in The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey: Printed from the Original Preserved in The Record Office, London, Volume I, Part I, ed. by John Christopher Atkinson and John Brownbill (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1886), fols. 68–69., pp. 177–180.

60 Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, pp. 574–575.

61 Ibid., p. 575.

62 London, The National Archives (TNA), The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fols. 68–69; the text is available in Transcript of Edward I Grant to Him of the Scottish Kingdom (1292), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fols. 68–69, pp. 177–180.

63 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 69v; the text is available in The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fol. 69v, pp. 180–181.

64 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 68r; the text is available in The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fol. 68r, p. 177.

65 Tinmouth, ‘The Construction of Institutional Memory and Identity in the Furness Abbey Coucher Book’, pp. 52–53, pp. 70–73.

66 Neville, ‘Local Sentiment and the “National” Enemy in Northern England in the Later Middle Ages’, pp. 435–436.

67 List of Foundations originating from, or depending on Furness (1412), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fols. 1–2, pp. 11–13.

68 Celestine III, Confirmation to the Abbey of the Election of the Bishops of Mann and the Isles (1194), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey: Printed from the Original Preserved in The Record Office, London, Volume I, Part III, ed. by John Christopher Atkinson and John Brownbill (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1888), fol. 269v, pp. 642–644.

69 Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, pp. 569–571; Davey, After the Vikings, pp. 29–34, p. 53.

70 Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, pp. 570–571.

71 Ibid., pp. 574–575.

72 McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, pp. 174–175, pp. 197–198.

73 ‘Encircled by a great ditch, and inhabited by Englishmen, Scotsmen completely excluded’, Chronicle of Furness Abbey, in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, Volume 2’, ed. by Howlett, Rolls Series, p. 581.

74 Ibid., p. 581.

75 ‘Taken the town of Berwick by force and arms, and with many killed’, ibid., p. 581.

76 ‘The Scots made war, driving all the English from their land, and killing those whom they could capture’, ibid., p. 582.

77 McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, pp. 174–175.

78 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 269; the text is available in Valuation of the Spiritualities belonging to the Abbey (1292), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part III, fol. 269, pp. 636–637.

79 Ibid., pp. 636–637, pp. 636–637.

80 New Valuation made after the Ravages of the Scots in 1316 (1316), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part III, fol. 269r, p. 637.

81 Maureen Jurkowski, ‘The History of Clerical Taxation in England and Wales, 1173–1663: The Findings of the E 179 Project’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 67.1 (2016), pp. 56–57, p. 63.

82 University of Illinois Library, Urbana, MS 132, Polychronicon (c.1350), fol. 158v, cited in Carter, ‘An Unexplored 14th-century Source for the History of Furness Abbey’, p. 100.

83 Transcript of Edward I Grant to Him of the Scottish Kingdom (1292), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fols. 68–69, pp. 177–180.

84 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 70; the texts are available in Richard I Concession of his Special Protection to Furness Abbey, The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume I, Part I, fol. 70, p. 181, and Henry III concession of his special protection to Furness Abbey, The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey: Printed from the Original Preserved in The Record Office, London, Volume I, Part II, ed. by John Christopher Atkinson and John Brownbill (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1887), fol. 70, p. 181.

85 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 89r; the text is available in Confirmation by Richard de Morevill, Constable of the King of Scotland, and his wife Avice, of the Grant of Newby (c.1177), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey: Printed from the Original Preserved in The Record Office, London, Volume II, Part II, ed. by John Brownbill (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1916), fol. 89r, pp. 301–302.

86 TNA, Grant from Aliz de Rumeli to Furness Abbey of all Borrowdale (1210), DL27/132.

87 Judith Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 122–123, pp. 366–367; Ivor John Sanders, English Baronies: A Study of Their Origin and Descent 1086–1327 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), pp. 142–143.

88 Grant by Alice de Rumeli to Furness Abbey of the whole of Borrowdale (c.1209), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume II, Part II, fols. 201–202, pp. 569–571.

89 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 202r; the text is available in King John Confirmation to Furness Abbey of the Grant by Alice de Rumeli of all of Borrowdale (1215), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume II, Part II, fol. 202r., pp. 572–573.

90 TNA, The Furness Abbey Coucher Book (1412), DL42/3, fol. 203; the text is available in Acknowledgment by Alice de Rumeli of the Receipt of Payment from Furness Abbey for Borrowdale (1209), The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Volume II, Part II, fol. 203, pp. 577–578.

91 Anne Cottam, ‘The Granges of Furness Abbey, with Special Reference to Winterburn-in-Craven’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire & Cheshire, 80 (1928), p. 84.

92 A.D.H. Leadman, ‘The Battle of Bylands Abbey’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 8 (1884), pp. 475–477; McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, pp. 200-203.

93 Steve Boardman, ‘Highland Scots and Anglo-Scottish Warfare’, in England and Scotland at War; c.1296 – c.1513, ed. by Andy King and David Simpkin, pp. 239–240.

94 Ibid., p. xxv; Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume I, Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 269–270.

95 Janet Burton, ‘Introduction’, in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, ed. by Janet Burton (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2004), p. xxvii.

96 Ibid., p. xxvii.

97 Ibid., p. xxxii.

98 Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume II: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1982), pp. 110–113; John Taylor, English Historical Literature in the Fourteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), pp. 150–153.

99 Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume II, p. 102.

100 Ibid., pp. 101–102, pp. 116–117.

101 Ibid., pp. 111–113.

102 Leeds, Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, BC MS 29, The Anonimalle Chronicle (c.1350–c.1400).

103 Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume II, p.60; Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 144.

104 Andy King, ‘Anonimalle Chronicle’, in The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, ed. by Sian Echard and Robert Rouse (London: John Wiley & Sons Limited, 2017), p. 1; Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 136.

105 Ibid., p. 140.

106 Durham University and Cathedral Library, Durham, MS B.II.35: Bede and other historical texts (c.1350), fols.1r–35v; Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 140; H.S. Offler, ‘A Note on the Northern Franciscan Chronicle’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 28 (1984), pp. 45–59.

107 Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 140.

108 Ibid., p. 140.

109 The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381: From a MS written at St. Mary’s Abbey, York, ed. by V.H. Galbraith (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1927), p. 30, p. 63.

110 Gransden, Historical Writing in England, Volume II, p. 110.

111 Galbraith, ‘Introduction’, pp. xxviii–xxix; Childs, ‘Historical Value of the Anonimalle Narrative’, p. 10.

112 John Taylor, ‘The Origins of the Anonimalle Chronicle’, Northern History, 31.1 (1995), p. 59.

113 Ibid., pp. 58–59; Janet Burton, ‘The Foundation History of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx’, Borthwick Texts and Studies, 35 (2006), pp. xxvii–xxxii.

114 London, British Library (BL), BL MS Royal 20 A. XVIII: Chronicle of England, in French, from Brutus to A.D. 1329 (c.1350); London, British Library (BL), BL MS Add. 10622: Chronique de Brut (c.1400); Taylor, ‘The Origins of the Anonimalle Chronicle’, pp. 56–57.

115 King, ‘Anonimalle Chronicle’, p. 1.

116 Taylor, ‘The Origins of the Anonimalle Chronicle’, p. 57.

117 ‘Our people in Scotland gained nothing through lack of divine grace’, The Anonimalle Chronicle (c.1350–c.1400), in ‘The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1307–1334’, ed. by Wendy R. Childs and John Taylor, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series (1991), fol. 256v, p. 113.

118 ‘Conspiracies with the Scots…to destroy the north country’, ibid., fol. 256v, p. 113.

119 McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, p. 295.

120 Ibid., pp. 200–201; The Lanercost Chronicle, p. 239.

121 Geoffrey Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1965), p. 351.

122 ‘To bring them into England’, The Anonimalle Chronicle, in ‘The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1307–1334’, ed. by Childs and Taylor, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, fol. 256v, p. 113; Maurice Keen, Nobles, Knights and Men-at-Arms in the Middle Ages (London: Hambledon Press, 1996), p. 161.

123 McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, pp. 266–267.

124 Ibid., pp.264–266.

125 Taylor, ‘The Origins of the Anonimalle Chronicle’, pp. 48–50.

126 John Edwards, ‘The Cult of “St.” Thomas of Lancaster and its Iconography’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 64 (1992), pp. 106–109.

127 ‘Had died in a just cause to uphold the estate of the realm’, The Anonimalle Chronicle, in ‘The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1307–1334’, ed. by Childs and Taylor, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, fol. 256v, p. 113.

128 Edwards, ‘The Cult of “St.” Thomas of Lancaster’, pp. 106–107.

129 Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 140.

130 ‘A hardy and valiant knight’, The Anonimalle Chronicle (c.1350–c.1400), in The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381: From a MS written at St. Mary’s Abbey, York, ed. by V.H. Galbraith (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970), fol. 284, p. 24; Andy King, ‘“According to the Custom used in French and Scottish wars”: Prisoners and casualties on the Scottish Marches in the fourteenth century’, Journal of Medieval History, 28.3 (2002), pp. 281–282.

131 ‘Great evil and destruction’, The Anonimalle Chronicle (c.1350–c.1400), in The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381, ed. by Galbraith, fol. 284v, p. 24.

132 Ibid, fol. 284v, p. 24; McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces, pp. 77–78.

133 ‘His ministers and tormentors’, in The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381, ed. by Galbraith, fol. 284v. p. 24.

134 Ibid., fols. 286–287, pp. 26–30.

135 Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 140; Galbraith, ‘Introduction’, p. xxviii.

136 Galbraith, ‘Introduction’, p. xxv.

137 The Anonimalle Chronicle (c.1350–c.1400), in The Anonimalle Chronicle, 1333 to 1381, ed. by Galbraith, fol. 286v, pp. 27–28.

138 Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 144; King, ‘Prisoners and casualties on the Scottish Marches in the fourteenth century’, pp. 269–270, p. 272, pp. 281–283.

139 Galbraith, ‘Introduction’, pp. xxiv–xxv; King, ‘Anonimalle Chronicle’, p. 2.

140 Taylor, English Historical Literature, p. 146.

141 Maureen Jurkowski, ‘The History of Clerical Taxation in England and Wales, 1173–1663: The Findings of the E 179 Project’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 67.1 (2016), pp. 56–57, pp. 63–64.

142 ‘For the salvation of my soul and that of my wife Joan and for the souls of my ancestors and successors’, The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 106, fol. 15v, p. 40.

143 The Complete Peerage, or a History of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times, ed. by H.A. Doubleday and Lord Howard de Wald, vol. IX (London: St. Catherine’s Press, 1936), pp. 380–383.

144 Ibid., pp. 380–383; Janet Burton, The Foundation History of the Abbeys of Byland and Jervaulx (York: Borthwick Institute for Archives, 2006), pp. xxvii–xxix.

145 Rowena E. Archer, (2004). ‘Mowbray, John (II), third Lord Mowbray (1310–1361)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-19451, accessed 22/10/2023.

146 Ibid., no. 106, fol. 15v, p. 40; The Complete Peerage, vol. IX, p. 383.

147 London, British Library (BL), MS Egerton 2823, The Cartulary of Byland Abbey (c.1399–c.1403), fol. 15v; the text is available in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 109, fol. 15v, p. 41.

148 The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 110, fol. 15v, p. 41.

149 BL, MS Egerton 2823, The Cartulary of Byland Abbey (c.1399–c.1403), fol. 15v; the text is available in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 112, fol. 15v, pp. 41–42.

150 ‘Regesta Vol. LII’, Avignon, 1 Urban V (18 October 1363), fol. 129d., in Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol.IV, 1362–1404, ed. by W.H. Bliss and J.A. Twemlow (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1902), p. 32.

151 The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 976, fol. 100r, p. 332; ‘Regesta Vol. CLIX’, Avignon, 2 Clement VI, (23 January 1344), fol. 308., in Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol.III, 1342–1362, ed. by W.H. Bliss and J.A. Twemlow (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1897), p. 32.

152 ‘Petitions Vol.III’, Avignon, 2 Clement VI, (23 January 1344), fol. 151d., in Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope, Vol.I, 1342–1419, ed. by W.H. Bliss (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1896), p. 18.

153 Burton, ‘Introduction’, in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, p.xxv; Leadman, ‘The Battle of Bylands Abbey’, pp. 485–488.

154 David H. Williams, The Cistercians in the Early Middle Ages, 1098–1348 (Leominster: Gracewing, 1998), p. 58, p. 83; Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Volume I, Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 269–270.

155 London, British Library (BL), MS Egerton 2823, The Cartulary of Byland Abbey (c.1399–c.1403), fol.100; the text is available in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 978, fol. 100, pp. 332–333.

156 Burton, ‘Introduction’, in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, p. xxvi.

157 The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 960, fol. 99r, p. 328.

158 Ibid., no. 534, fol. 58r, p. 328.

159 London, British Library (BL), MS Egerton 2823, The Cartulary of Byland Abbey (c.1399–c.1403), fol. 104; the text is available in The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, no. 971, fol. 104, p. 331.

160 Leadman, ‘The Battle of Bylands Abbey’, pp. 487–488.