by Penny Lawne
Thomas and Joan initially inherited John’s council, and they would not necessarily have made any immediate changes. Continuity was obviously important and replacements may have been in short supply. Some of these knights and clerks can be identified. When John signed the lease renewal shortly before he died his witnesses were Gerard Braybrooke, Thomas Aspale, Henry Loxley (all knights), Thomas Brembre and James Beaufort (both clerks).50 Gerard Braybrooke and James Beaufort were also his executors.51 These men were almost certainly on John’s council. Gerard Braybrooke, a justice of the peace in Kent, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, was particularly close to Joan’s family, a distant relation (through Margaret’s grandmother Lora Wake, who married Gerard’s ancestor Gerard Braybrooke) who had originally served Edmund with his brother Henry and then continued to act for Margaret, before serving John.52 Thomas Aspale’s family similarly had a long association with Joan’s family, Robert and John Aspale having both served Edmund (John had been in France with Edmund in 1329), while Thomas and John had acted for Margaret; John, like Gerard Braybrooke, was a justice of the peace (in Norfolk and Suffolk).53 Thomas already knew Thomas Aspale as they had served together in 1346.54 Thomas Brembre had probably also served the family for a long time, as in November 1349 he had been presented to the church at Cottingham (one of the Yorkshire estates John inherited on his mother’s death), presumably as a reward for his services.55 Brembre also acted as a clerk for the king and by 1351 Brembre held prebendaries at Chichester, Southwell and Westminster; in 1352 he was presented to the church in Iver in Buckinghamshire.56 These men had considerable experience with a history of loyalty to the family, and they would have been well aware of the troubles Joan had experienced in her marriage to Thomas. James Beaufort may have known more than most, as he had been one of the Earl of Salisbury’s executors when he died in 1344.57 It would have been natural for these men to be happy to serve Joan, and Thomas would have had little reason to replace them. However, their age meant that in time replacements would need to be found. Thomas Aspale died within a year of John’s death, and a year after Thomas appointed Gerard Braybrooke as one of his attorneys Gerard’s son John was murdered and Gerard seems to have stepped back from affairs; possibly he was simply too old to manage any more.58
Given Thomas’ willingness to take risks in his career it is perhaps surprising that he proved to be conservative in his approach towards the estates. The huge geographical diversity of the many manors made the inheritance unwieldy to manage, and the sheer inconvenience of this coupled with the disadvantage of the lack of concentration in any one area, made a rationalisation of the estates an obvious and logical ambition. Neither Joan’s father nor her brother had enjoyed control for sufficient time to attempt this. Thomas had the opportunity, but he gave no indication that he had any inclination to do so, unlike some of his contemporaries. William Bohun, whom Thomas served with in France, became Earl of Northampton and bought considerable amounts of land in the 1350s to increase his Bohun inheritance.59 Thomas could have reduced the geographical spread of Joan’s inheritance and achieved a more concentrated mass of estates by actively pursuing a policy of buying and selling or even exchanging land. But he did not do so, and instead simply chose to preserve what Joan inherited, no doubt with his son in mind. Just as John had benefitted from his mother’s careful stewardship of the estates, so Thomas did, as there do not seem to have been any major disputes over any of the manors, while minor disputes appear to have resolved largely without resort to the courts. The official records reveal only two individual instances: in June 1355 Thomas and Joan agreed to pay Sir Thomas Dale 300 marks to release his claim to Leyham manor in Suffolk, and in February 1360 Thomas and Joan petitioned Edward III to recognise Joan’s claim to property in Cottingham in Yorkshire which Thomas Wake had given to Robert and Alice Cottingham.60
Apart from the actual management of the lands, Thomas now headed a huge household. In addition to the receivers, stewards and other officials such as lawyers required to run the estates, there were a host of other retainers; Thomas had his own retinue of knights, squires and heralds, clerks to handle his papers and records, a chaplain, confessor and almoner, grooms and valets for his horses, domestic servants to staff his residences, minstrels to entertain. It is difficult to estimate how many people now comprised Thomas and Joan’s household, as their household records have not survived, but an idea of the numbers can be surmised from their contemporaries. In 1343, with a smaller income and fewer estates, Joan’s widowed cousin Elizabeth de Burgh (Elizabeth was the daughter of Edmund’s half-sister Joan of Acre) maintained a household of around 250, including fifteen knights, ninety-three esquires, thirty-nine clerks and four goldsmiths to take care of her jewellery and plate, seven ladies of her chamber each with their own maidservant plus a laundress and chambermaids.61 Elizabeth was famously hospitable, enjoying her visitors and notably generous in dispensing alms; her accounts show that in one five-month period 5,090 people received alms from her.62 In 1384 the Earl of Devon is known to have had a similar number in his household. Thomas and Joan may have inherited a more modest household due to the depredations of the plague, but they would have added to it with Thomas’ knights and esquires. This meant a significant change of lifestyle for Joan, as she was now head of an extremely large household and was expected to take an interest in their affairs.
Thomas and Joan were now in a position to reward members of their entourage, and to exercise patronage in accordance with their taste and wishes. Some of their contemporaries, like Elizabeth de Burgh and her friend Marie, Countess of Pembroke, were notably generous benefactors, while Joan’s uncle Thomas Wake had been a keen patron of religious orders and founded a house of Augustinian canons near Cottingham at Haltemprice and supported the Augustinian priory of Bourne. However, there is little evidence to suggest that Thomas and Joan followed their example. In March 1354 they were described as patrons of a religious house at Wothorpe in Lincolnshire, a very small house of nuns who requested their aid in order to unite with the larger Benedictine priory of St Michael at Stamford, having lost most of their incumbents to the plague in 1349.63 This was no more than might be expected from people in their position, just as they obtained permission for the weekly market at Buttercrambe manor in Yorkshire with the annual fair on St Botolph’s Day.64 The only records of any notable gifts made by Thomas were to his brother and nephew. In July 1355 Thomas and Joan granted Otto the Derbyshire manors of Ashford and Chesterfield with the advowson of the hospital of St Leonard, and subsequently they also granted Otto the manors of Tolworth in Surrey and Kersey in Suffolk.65 Thomas also passed his Yoxall manor to Otto.66 In November 1360 they granted Thomas’ nephew John Holand the manors of Northweald in Essex and Whissendine in Rutland.67 Even these gifts were lifetime interests only, reverting to Joan or her heir on their respective deaths.
The great landed wealth Thomas now enjoyed gave him an independent importance in national politics which he had not previously had. To put it simply, the king needed his support, because of the resources in terms of money and men which he now commanded. This gave Thomas the potential for power and influence, and he could now expect to find the king courting him, rather than having to sue for favours himself. Thomas had amply demonstrated his ambition in engineering his secret marriage to Joan and in his subsequent behaviour, and his newfound status gave him a position he could never have dreamed of attaining. His marriage had also proved to be a considerable success on a personal level, with Joan comfortably adapting to her new roles as his wife and mother to their children, and assisting in the management of their newfound wealth. With her experience of the court, Joan would also be a valuable ally to Thomas in pursuing any political ambitions he cherished.
7
A Soldier’s Wife
1352–1360
Un gentil chevalier …
Froissart
In spite of their newfound wealth and responsibilities as a result of John’s death, it was not long before Joan discovered that
Thomas’ energy and enthusiasm remained focussed on his military career. He showed no interest in politics, and there is no record of him even attending Parliament on a single occasion, although he was summoned there in his new capacity. Far from showing ambitions at home, for the next eight years, from 1352 up to his death in 1360, Thomas spent long periods of time away from England on military duties in France. He was by no means the only committed career soldier among the nobility, and, like other similarly placed noblewomen, Joan’s place in her husband’s absence should have been to run the estates with the assistance of their council. She could have used their increased wealth, and Thomas’ absences, to extend her personal influence, exert her own control over her family estates and enhance their status by re-establishing her position within the royal circle. Instead, the records show that Joan accompanied Thomas to France on at least four occasions between 1354 and 1359, each for months at a time. The war in France would set the agenda for the remainder of Joan’s marriage to Thomas. Away from England for extended periods, she could have had little involvement in court circles, or local affairs. Joan was extremely unusual among her peers in choosing to accompany her husband, and it is not clear why she did so. To gain some insight into what happened to her during these years it is necessary to examine Thomas’ career in more detail.
Edward III was a shrewd judge of character and realised that despite his changed circumstances Thomas’ priorities remained his military career. He did not even make Thomas a justice of the peace, a quite extraordinary omission for a man of his position. It was the king, rather than Thomas, who took advantage of his change of circumstances. With the continuing conflict with France there would be ample opportunity to pursue military ambitions. On 18 March 1354 Edward III formally appointed Thomas as his royal lieutenant in Brittany and Poitou. This was a significant career advancement for Thomas, now aged about thirty-eight, and the command put him in charge of an entire region rather than a single castle garrison, and gave him administrative as well as military duties. He was to be paid by the exchequer for the first quarter and thereafter to receive all the profits and rents from Brittany from Easter 1354.1 The intention was that he would be financially independent from the English Treasury, relying on Brittany to fund his costs, and he would be expected to make up any shortfall from his own money. The king would not have contemplated Thomas for this appointment before John’s death, for the simple reason that Thomas had lacked the private wealth to support the position. This promotion meant that Thomas was back serving in Brittany within a few months; once again he would be leaving Joan behind.2
Thomas’ new appointment was important because of the significance of Brittany for Edward III. Since the fall of Calais in 1347 there had been an uneasy peace between England and France, broken by intermittent skirmishes, raids and sieges in northern and north-eastern France, with the only major engagement being the sea battle off Winchelsea in 1350. The devastating effect of the Black Death in both countries was to a large extent responsible for the inability and unwillingness of both sides to engage in active campaigning, but the basic elements of the conflict remained unresolved. In August 1350, just weeks after Winchelsea, Philip VI died and was succeeded by his son, John. Faced with English supremacy in the field and the unreliability of some of his more senior nobles, such as his son-in-law, Charles of Navarre, the new King of France, John II (known as John the Good), showed more willingness than his father to reach an agreement with Edward III in order to end the war. Renewed negotiations resulted in a draft treaty concluded at Guines in April 1354, although as it was not due to be made public until October the provisions were kept secret for several months. The terms of the draft treaty were distinctly favourable to Edward III. In exchange for giving up his claim to the French throne, he was to be given full sovereignty of the duchy of Aquitaine, with significant territorial concessions, including Calais and its environs. Until the treaty was ratified and published there was to be a truce suspending hostile activities.
With the alluring prospect of achieving his ambitions in France within his grasp, Edward III naturally ordered his supporters to observe the truce. However, this did not prove to be a simple matter. There were many soldiers still in France, including several of the king’s captains and other commanders, and not all of them were prepared to obey. Some saw it as their right to take advantage of the weakness of France and seize goods and lands for profit. The duchy of Brittany was an area of particular difficulty. Succession to the dukedom had been in dispute since Duke John III died in 1341, and although Edward III had both claimants in his hands (Charles of Blois, who was supported by France, had been his captive since 1347, and he was guardian to Charles’ rival, Duke John’s heir), exercising control in the duchy proved difficult. With support from France, Charles of Blois’ wife Jeanne retained control of large parts of the duchy including the towns of Rennes and Nantes, despite the valiant efforts made by the Countess of Montfort on her son’s behalf. Edward III’s influence in the duchy depended on a loose alliance of local lords and English captains in command of individual garrisons whose tendency to look after their own interests blurred their allegiance to the English Crown. As the peace negotiations advanced throughout 1353 Edward III was increasingly conscious that his lieutenant in Brittany, Sir John Avenel, was failing to keep control of the duchy. By November 1353 the king had decided he needed to replace Avenel, and chose Thomas as his replacement.
Now that Thomas had become sufficiently wealthy to support the position, he was a logical choice. He was one of the king’s more senior captains, and had a proven track record as a strong and forceful commander. He had previous experience of service in Brittany, having served in the 1343 summer expedition to the duchy led by the Earl of Northampton with Robert d’Artois. At Calais Thomas had been an outstanding captain, proving that in addition to his worth as a fighting knight and his leadership abilities on campaign he was also capable of using his abilities to secure long-term strategic aims. During his command Calais’ defences had been consolidated, and the surrounding regions secured, with the nearby local forts strengthened and an efficient supply line secured, thus preparing the port for its use as a long-term base.3 Thomas’ new position would put him in overall command of one of the main theatres of the conflict with France. Although the appointment in Brittany was not formalised until the spring, Thomas immediately threw his energies into planning for his new command, and by December 1353 had assembled a small force at Plymouth of 160 men – 60 men-at-arms and 100 archers – including Otto as his lieutenant, his brother Robert, and his nephews John Holand and his sister Margaret’s son, John de la Warr.4 Adverse sailing conditions delayed their departure until March 1354, incurring expenses for Thomas of £200, a sum which only two years earlier would have equated to the whole of his income from his estates.
In Thomas’ absence, the obvious role for Joan was to manage their affairs at home and to be involved in running the great estates they now owned. Shortly before he departed Thomas appointed attorneys to act on his behalf in his absence. Conscious of his newly enhanced status, he chose carefully: Roger Mortimer, Earl of March; the knights Sir Richard Pembridge, Sir Edward Bereford, Sir John Wingfield and Sir Henry Green; and clerks Gervase Wilford, John Winwick, David Wollore, Randolf Saleby and John Raynford.5 Most of these were men he had either served with or knew because of his royal service. Roger Mortimer, like Thomas, had distinguished himself during the Crécy campaign, and had only recently been granted his grandfather’s title. Sir Richard Pembridge was a fellow household knight whom Thomas had known for many years, having served together under Robert d’Artois in 1338.6 Sir Henry Green was a member of Prince Edward’s council and Sir John Wingfield was one of the prince’s household knights, Thomas would have known both men well from their joint military service under the prince’s command during the Crécy campaign. Sir John Wingfield had also been a close friend of the Earl of Salisbury and served as one of the earl’s executors; subsequently he became William Montague�
��s guardian and in 1351 had been William’s attorney.7 It is remarkable that Thomas chose Wingfield given the latter’s close ties to the Montagues. Gervase Wilford, John Winwick and David Wollore were all senior royal clerks, Wollore the keeper of the chancery rolls, Winwick the keeper of the privy seal and Wilford having acted as Queen Philippa’s attorney but also bearing a family connection as he had acted for Thomas’ mother, Maud, in 1335.8 Although Thomas had appointed ten attorneys, the only ones who would actually have been expected to have much to do with the day-to-day running of the estates were his own clerks. Randolf Saleby and John Raynford were almost certainly members of Thomas and Joan’s household. In July 1353 John Raynford had become parson of Tinwell church in Rutland on an exchange of benefices from St Clement’s church in Hastings, an arrangement made by Edward III presumably at Thomas and Joan’s behest.9 Otto Holand also appointed John Raynford as his attorney.10
It is curious that Thomas did not choose to appoint Joan as one of his attorneys. He could easily have done so, as it was certainly not uncommon for women in her position to be appointed by their husbands. Indeed, bearing in mind that the estates were Joan’s, it would have been natural to do so. He was leaving her in charge of their great household and the supervision of their children’s care. Even though Joan was not his attorney, she would still be involved in overseeing their estates. Her role in running them would be important, as she would be consulted regularly by the stewards about their management and would assist in important decisions. Possibly Thomas expected Joan to further their interests by strengthening her relationships with her aunt Blanche, and her sister-in-law Elizabeth (with their dower interests), and re-establish her place within the royal circle. Yet it seems that Thomas was uneasy about leaving Joan behind. Pope Clement VI, who had issued the papal bull confirming their marriage, had died in December 1352. Shortly before his departure in the spring of 1354 Thomas petitioned the new pope, Innocent VI, requesting confirmation of Clement VI’s 1349 papal bull.11 In July 1354 Thomas received his reassurance when Innocent VI duly reaffirmed the 1349 judgment. Although there is no evidence to suggest that William Montague ever considered doing so, Thomas was evidently alert to the possibility that his erstwhile rival, now Earl of Salisbury, might take advantage of his absence and press the Pope to review the decision confirming the validity of their marriage. His brother-in-law’s death had made Joan a more desirable prize than ever before. Thomas may have been prudent to do so, as it was not unknown for a new pope to revoke his predecessor’s decision.