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1. The reforming council takes control of fines of gold, 1258-59

This month we are glad to welcome another contribution from Richard Cassidy who here demonstrates how the reforming council sought to bring Henry to account by bringing his gold fines into the Exchequer.

⁋1In the 1250s, Henry III accumulated a gold treasure, which he intended to use for two of his pet projects, the Sicilian venture and the gold coinage, both of which failed miserably. He built up this treasure by having fines of gold paid directly into the Wardrobe, which managed his household finances, without notifying the Exchequer. When the baronial reformers took over the administration in 1258, they not only chased up the unpaid fines, but also ensured that they should be paid into the Exchequer, thus removing them from Henry’s control.

⁋2A notable feature of the fine rolls of the 1250s is the number of fines which are to be paid into the Wardrobe, often denominated in gold marks. The fine roll for 1255-56 includes some 420 fines to be paid into the Wardrobe. The bulk of these are fines of a half mark or one mark of gold from individuals for having charters for warrens, markets or fairs, for respite from distraint of knighthood or for quittance from assizes. There are some fines from boroughs to have their charters, and from newly-apointed sheriffs: several sheriffs pay a mark of gold when they are appointed; the gold is to be paid into the Wardrobe, while the profit of the county, which is set at the same time, is to be paid into the Exchequer as usual. ¹ The consortium which farmed the dies at the London mint paid 8 marks of gold to have the dies, in addition to the usual farm of 100s. a year for each die. ² In some cases, these fines are said to have been paid in gold, in others in silver, at an exchange rate of ten silver marks for one gold mark. Similarly, there were some 315 fines of gold on the 1256-57 fine roll.

⁋3To put this into context: a gold mark, or ten silver marks, was equivalent to £6 13s. 4d. – 1,600 silver pennies, the only currency in circulation until Henry tried to launch his gold penny. This would be several years’ income for a labourer, and a large sum for a potential knight. In April 1256, all the sheriffs were instructed to distrain those who held land worth £15 a year to become knights. ³ Such landowners could either accept the obligations of knighthood, or pay a gold mark to be let off.

⁋4Henry’s accumulation of gold and its coining and disposal have been described by David Carpenter. ⁴ The key point about these fines is that they were to be paid into the Wardrobe. They were noted in the fine rolls, but were not copied onto the originalia rolls, so no information about their existence was passed to the Exchequer. The fine rolls record many of these fines as having been paid, but there is no way of knowing how many more were paid later, because there are no Wardrobe accounts for the period from April 1256 to July 1258.

⁋5The gold coinage was launched in August 1257, and within a few months its failure was evident. In November 1257, the mayor and citizens of London were summoned to the Exchequer to give the king their opinions on the utility of these coins. They made it plain that Henry’s gold pennies were too large a denomination for everyday use, and unpopular with the goldsmiths. ⁵ Henry seems to have stopped collecting gold at this point, either because he saw that his gold coinage was not going to be accepted, or because he had run out of potential knights to distrain and customers for charters. There were only eighteen fines marked as ‘fine of gold’ in the year 1257-58, the last of them in June 1258. ⁶ In other words, the imposition of such fines stopped at just the time when a reforming council of magnates took control of the government, and issued the Provisions of Oxford.

⁋6One of the key proposals of the Provisions of Oxford was to stop the king having private sources of income, outside the control of the new government. The reformers were to take over the Exchequer, appoint a treasurer who would account at the end of his year in office, and ensure that all the revenues of the land should come to the Exchequer, and nowhere else. ⁷ For a few years, they had some success in maintaining Exchequer control of government finance.

⁋7During 1258-59, there were only five new fines in gold, four of which were stated as being paid into the Wardrobe. There were a few more in 1259-60: nine new fines, most of which were also recorded on the originalia roll, including six to be paid into the Wardrobe, showing that the Exchequer was still being kept informed. There was also one fine stated to be for the king’s use, and one, interestingly, to be paid to Hugh Bigod, the Justiciar. ⁸ In addition, the fine rolls include several entries confirming that fines of gold had been paid into the Wardrobe in past years, before the reform period, some payments going back as far as 1252. ⁹

⁋8These confirmations of past payments may be related to an initiative taken by the reformers in 1258. The originalia roll for 1257-58 includes a long list headed ‘Concerning fines of gold and silver’, and ending: ‘Memorandum that, by chance, certain of the aforesaid [were?] paid in the king’s Wardrobe and certain at the Exchequer, as is said. It is important, however, that these extracts are sent in the summons.’ ¹⁰ It is a list of unpaid fines, grouped by county, which is being transmitted to the Exchequer so that the fines can be included in the summonses sent to the sheriffs of the counties. The sheriffs had presumably been unaware of these fines, as they had originally been intended for payment into the Wardrobe, by-passing the Exchequer system. The list was received by the reformers’ new treasurer, John Crakehall, on 9 December 1258. ¹¹

⁋9There are 104 gold and silver fines on this list. I have taken a sample of 29 – all the fines for Yorkshire, Hampshire, Worcestershire, London and Herefordshire. Most of them can be traced back to their first appearance in the fine rolls: 22 of these fines were originally recorded in the fine rolls for 1255-56, 1256-57 and 1257-58. They were not recorded in the originalia rolls for those years, and in nearly all cases it was explicitly stated that they were to be paid into the Wardrobe. The total value of this sample is £251, with fines ranging from £1 to £67, but mostly half a gold mark or one gold mark, equivalent to £3.33 or £6.67. The exceptionally large fine of 10 gold marks, or £67, came from Cok son of Aaron, a Jew of London, and was said to be a fine that he and his family should be quit of suspicion concerning Aaron’s chattels. ¹²

⁋10This list was included in the 1257-58 originalia, but as it was received at the Exchequer at the end of 1258, the summonses must have been sent out during 1258-59, and the results appear in the 1258-59 pipe roll. Of the sample of 29 fines, 24 can be found in that pipe roll (and some of the exceptions may simply have been missed because of the extremely variable approach adopted to the spelling of names). They are mostly grouped together in their respective county accounts, having clearly been entered onto the pipe roll as a block. ¹³ The pipe roll shows that there was one payment into the Wardrobe, and six into the Treasury. Six fines are recorded as debts, and the rest are left with a gap in the entry, or with no indication of their status. In all, the Wardrobe collected one gold mark, the Treasury 45 silver marks and £10. In total, therefore, payments came to nearly £47. ¹⁴

⁋11This exercise of listing outstanding Wardrobe fines was thus a success for the reformers in two ways: it recovered nearly a fifth of the money that had been outstanding for two or three years; and it demonstrated that payments should be handled through the mechanism of the Exchequer and the sheriffs, and thus subject to audit and record in the pipe roll. The early years of the reform period were more successful than is sometimes realised in establishing greater efficiency in financial affairs. The treatment of the fines of gold shows the contrast between Henry’s regime, which by-passed the Exchequer in order to pursue the king’s impractical schemes, and the reformers who used the mechanisms of the fine and originalia rolls to keep control of revenues and ensure that debts were collected.