Commons 1386-1421

No fortification in the British Isles has a longer recorded history than Dover castle, and the town on its doorstep shares its antiquity. Dover’s prosperity was firmly based on its position as the main port of embarkation for travellers to the continent. It suffered for a time in Edward III’s early French wars, owing to the absence of a secure port of landing on the other side of the Channel, but the capture of Calais remedied this lack, though it also provided a rival for control of the crossing.

Since the 13th century the confederation of the Cinque Ports had been made up of the five ’head ports’ of Dover, Hastings, Hythe, New Romney and Sandwich, and the two ’ancient towns’ of Rye and Winchelsea. They had originally come to be linked together for the performance of a common duty, namely, to supply ships for the service of the Crown both in defence against invasion and in the protection of cross-Channel traffic. The provision of 57 ships for 15 days’ service to the King every year was treated as a corporate duty, each Port being assigned a proportion of the whole.

From its days as the capital of Britannia Inferior in Roman times, York ranked as the second city of the kingdom, a position which its importance as an ecclesiastical, administrative, military and economic centre clearly justified. It commanded an impressive network of communications, some of which had been constructed by the Romans during their three centuries of occupation.

Scarborough owed its early and lasting strategic importance to a combination of geographical features, which not only gave it a fine natural habour but also provided an imposing hill site for fortifications and a signal station. Long before the Romans established a base there for defence against the Saxon invaders, Scarborough played a vital part in protecting the north Yorkshire coast.

Originally known as Wyke-upon-Hull, the port of Kingston-upon-Hull did not assume its second name until well after 1293, the date of its acquisition by Edward I from its previous owner, the abbot of Meaux. Wyke had been developed as a ‘new town’ by the monks for the export of their wool crop, and flourished so rapidly that by the late 13th century it ranked among the top four ports in England which dealt in that commodity. Its success was largely due to its geographical position at the confluence of the river Humber and a tributary, the river Hull, some 20 miles or so from the North Sea.

Returns for Yorkshire are extant for all but four of the 32 Parliaments which met between 1386 and 1421, those for 1410, 1413 (Feb.), 1416 (Oct.) and 1417 now being lost. Unfortunately, the identity of Sir Alexander Lound’s colleague in the second Parliament of 1414 is not known either, although the names of 29 shire knights in all have survived.

Worcester’s population in 1377 has been estimated at 2,336, a figure comparable with other cathedral cities such as Exeter and Winchester. The city appears to have been fairly prosperous at this time, thanks to its importance as a distributing centre for the west midlands, which depended largely upon its bridge. At the beginning of the 14th century there had been no other place to cross the Severn between Gloucester and Bridgnorth, and by then Worcester was already the converging point of many roads, including the direct route from London to mid Wales.

Returns for Worcestershire have survived for 28 of the 32 Parliaments of the period, leaving gaps for the three consecutive assemblies of 1410, 1411 and 1413 (Feb.), as well as for that of 1416 (Oct.). In all, 27 men are known to have represented the shire between 1386 and 1421. Although over a third (11) were elected just once for this constituency (ten of them only ever being returned on that one occasion), the rest were elected two or more times and some of them appeared quite frequently.

Wilton is situated in south Wiltshire, in a fertile triangle of land near the confluence of the rivers Nadder and Wylye. A local route centre, it also stood on the main road from London to Exeter. During the period under construction it was the second largest of the Wiltshire boroughs, its taxable population of 639 in 1377 being considerably greater than that of Marlborough or Malmesbury and more than twice that of Devizes or Chippenham. Wilton itself, however, was quite overshadowed by the city of Salisbury, only three miles away and five times as large.VCH Wilts. iv.

The city of Salisbury (often called New Salisbury to distinguish it from the much older settlement three miles away at Old Sarum), is situated in south Wiltshire, near the Avon and its confluence with the rivers Bourne, Nadder and Chalke. During the period under consideration it was an important route centre, and among the many roads passing through it were those from London to Exeter and from Southampton to the Midlands. Its taxable population of 3,226 in 1377 made it the seventh largest town in England.W.C. Hoskins, Local Hist. 238-9; VCH Wilts. iv.