Friends in high places: Chaucer at the Exchequer

The task

During my placement at The National Archives, I was tasked with searching through a small selection of the Issue Rolls. This would enable me to learn more about who Chaucer may have seen or met while collecting his annuity at the Exchequer.

Mostly, Chaucer visited the office to collect both his and Philippa’s annuities ‘by his own hand’ (in person). As part of my research, I looked at the names listed alongside these entries. From here, I began to take note of who else was collecting their money on the same days as Chaucer.

At first glance, the rolls read as long, formulaic lists with little to offer beyond repetitive financial information. But after a closer look at these records, I found that a whole cast of historical characters began to leap off the page. The list includes:

• Men working on political missions
• Nobility returning from foreign adventures
• Royal tradesmen
• A favourite court minstrel (entertainer)
• The lion keeper at the Tower of London
• The King’s (Richard II) cradle-rocker

This overview shows that the Issue Rolls can provide an unrivalled look into the Exchequer of Receipt and the people who visited it.

Of course, it is impossible to tell if Chaucer actually met or struck up any conversations with other recipients while he was waiting for his own payments. Regardless, knowing who else was present on the same day as Chaucer helps us to imagine a typical day at the Exchequer. From this, we can paint a picture of the types of people he may have encountered.

To Geoffrey Chaucer, whom the current lord King has granted by his letters patent 20 pounds annually at the Exchequer for his whole life, to be received at the terms of Saint Michael and Easter by equal portions, for good services rendered and to be rendered by him to the same lord King. In money delivered to him by his own hands as an advance against this, his fixed allowance…6s 8d. [The clerk] will respond.

Prominent figures

Chaucer often appears in Issue Roll records close to prominent figures from the 14th century political scene.

In May 1376, his Issue Roll entry is directly above that of Henry Lord Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland. At the time, Lord Percy was playing an active role in the Good Parliament. This was a famous parliamentary sitting which railed against government corruption and successfully impeached royal ministers. He went to the Exchequer to collect over £333 (worth around £267,000 today) he was owed in wages for his men-at-arms and archers from an expedition in France.

Chaucer was likely to also have encountered other important personnel who were collecting their payments for military campaigns abroad. For example, in May 1376, the Gascon Knight Geoffrey Bargenton was collecting compensation for a journey to Brittany. Later, in 1395, squire Laurence Dru was there for payment concerning the King’s campaigns in Ireland.

Senior judicial officials would sometimes go in person to the Exchequer. In 1376 and 1395 respectively, Chaucer is listed alongside John de Blockley and Master Ralph Selby. These men were both Barons of the Exchequer, who acted as auditors of the Crown’s accounts. These were highly trusted men in powerful positions.

Tradespeople

Many of those receiving money at the Exchequer were tradespeople, employed by the Crown to work on a range of building and infrastructure projects. Some were very prominent in their field.

In May 1376, John Orchard, a brassworker of London, received a payment of £5 (worth around £4,000 today) for his creation of ‘diverse images in the likeness of angels for the tomb of former Queen Philippa of England.’

In June 1395, Chaucer was in the Exchequer on the same day as Hugo Herland, Master Carpenter of the King, most famous for installing the hammer-beam roof at Westminster Hall during this decade. Other lesser-known tradesmen show us the range of characters coming to the Exchequer on a daily basis.

On one day in 1399 for example, Chaucer would have been in the same space as a lead worker of the King named William Robert and an armour maker from the Tower of London named William Morris.

Minstrels and lion keepers

Some of the more colourful positions appointed by the Crown are also listed in the Issue Rolls. Following Chaucer’s annuity entry on 31 July 1398, I found two intriguing characters.

The first is William Harpour, described as the King’s minstrel and probably a harp player. William is praised in descriptive language for the greatness with which he performed his daily services for the king:

This could explain why he was rewarded with the unusually large amount of 100 shillings, or around £4,000 today.

Directly following William is an entry for John Evesham, keeper of the King’s Lions and Leopards in the Tower of London. He received a more modest 6 pence (worth around £288 today) every day for his wages and ‘the care of 10 beasts’.

The Tower of London had been home to the royal menagerie since the days of Henry III, housing lions since 1235. The entry does not identify the other beasts in John’s care. It is possible, however, that they included the camel and pelican Richard II and his wife Isabella had been given by the citizens of London in 1392.

Tales from the kingdom

The Issue Rolls contain plenty of other diverse occupations from all corners of the Crown’s administration. The clerks, men-at-arms, religious individuals, guards, valets of the chamber and countless others reflect the army of personnel required to run the King’s court and country.

In 1375, Edmund Chesthunt, falconer of the King, came to collect his payment. From further away in Lincoln, John Blith, a parchment maker, was collecting money for parchment and skins in 1398.

The Issue Rolls normally contain limited detail on these exchanges, but sometimes extra snippets of information bring the tumultuous histroy of the late 14th century to life.

For example, in October 1398, Simon Blakebourn, the King’s sergeant-at-arms, had come to collect his money for helping to arrest the wrongdoers (labelled as ‘malefactors’) employed by Thomas of Woodstock, the former Duke of Gloucester.

In the next entry on the same roll, Henry Messanger received money for travelling to the newly appointed Earl of Gloucester, Thomas le Despenser. He carried an order approved at the highest level, granted by the King’s Great Seal itself, to tell Thomas not to cross the sea. Paranoid about the security of his crown, the King was perhaps keen to keep his retinue around him and away from Henry Bolingbroke, the man who would overthrow him in 1399.

Women in the issue rolls

Not unexpectedly for the time, women make significantly fewer appearances than men in the Issue Rolls. There are a few exceptions, however. Some, like Katerina Swetenham, are named because their husbands collected annuities on their wive’s behalf.

Others, conversely, collected money owed to their husbands, such as a certain Margaret who came for the annuity of chief embroiderer Stephen de Vyne. Most intriguingly, an Eliona de France appears in 1398 to collect her annuity for her services as ‘cunabularie regis’, or ‘cradle-rocker of the King.’ She was Richard II’s childhood nurse who, around 30 years later, was still financially rewarded for her care for the young king.

What can we learn from the Issue Rolls?

The names above represent the tip of the iceberg of characters we can find in the Issue Rolls. They highlight the complicated financial bureaucracy of the 14th century and the diverse types of services given to support the Crown. More than this, they give names and identities to the people who made this happen. This includes those who are well-known today and others who could have otherwise been lost to history.

For Geoffrey Chaucer, the Issue Rolls shine a light on his role as one of thousands of people working in and alongside medieval royal administration. We can only guess who he spoke to during his visits to the Exchequer and what they discussed. Despite this, entries within the Rolls tell us that Chaucer was at the centre of 14th century history and the people who were making it.