Dispute between Darnhall and Vale Royal Abbey facts for kids
In the early 1300s, people living in the villages of Darnhall and Over, Cheshire had a big argument. They were fighting with their powerful landlord, the Abbot of Vale Royal Abbey. The villagers felt they were being treated unfairly, almost like servants or bondmen, and they wanted more freedom.
The abbey was built by King Edward I in 1274. It was meant to be a grand place, but it wasn't popular with the local people. The abbey was given special rights over the land, like control over forests. The villagers felt these rights belonged to them. The abbots, who were in charge of the abbey, were very strict about these rules. This made the villagers even angrier.
The villagers tried many ways to get their freedom. They asked the abbot, the King's judge, and even the King and Queen for help. But they were always told no. The abbots might have been strict because the abbey needed money. King Edward I had used a lot of the abbey's funds for his wars. This meant the abbey had less money and fewer builders. So, the abbots might have pushed hard to get money from their tenants.
The fight became more violent from 1326 onwards. The people of Darnhall led the protests, working with their neighbors from Over. When their requests failed, the abbot often had them put in jail and fined.
Once, the villagers of Darnhall and Over followed the fifth abbot, Peter, across England. Abbot Peter was going to meet the King to ask for help against his difficult tenants. The villagers met Peter on his way back. A fight broke out, and someone from the abbot's group was badly hurt. The villagers even captured the abbot and his companions! The King quickly stepped in and freed the abbot. Abbot Peter then had the villagers put in jail again. Abbot Peter also had problems with other local important people. This led to his death in 1339 during the ongoing conflict.
Contents
Why the Fight Started
The Cistercian Abbey of Vale Royal was founded by King Edward I in 1274. He built it to thank God for keeping him safe during a storm at sea. The King had planned for it to be a huge abbey with 100 monks. But his wars in Wales meant that money and builders were taken away from the abbey. This made it hard for the abbey to grow and even to keep going.
The new abbey was not liked by the local people. They felt that the land given to the abbey took away their old rights. For example, the abbey was given control over forests and hunting in Darnhall. Because of this, relations between the abbey and its tenants were difficult from the start.
In 1275, just one year after the abbey was founded, the people of Darnhall tried to stop paying the abbot their usual fees and services. They kept trying to do this for the next fifty years. They even complained directly to King Edward I. But the King told them, "You came as servants, and as servants you shall return." They complained again in 1307, but a judge confirmed they were still bound to the abbey. In 1320, during the time of Abbot Richard of Evesham, one of his monks was attacked while collecting church taxes in Darnhall.
Abbots were not just religious leaders; they were also powerful landlords. When tenants went to the abbot's court, they were facing a judge, and the rules of the law applied. The dispute also spread to the nearby village of Middlewich. People there wanted relief from the abbot's special rights, which they felt were unfair.
Even though the villagers on Vale Royal's land didn't have to do labor service, they were still angry about their situation. They felt trapped by the abbey's ownership. This wasn't the only fight like this. Villagers from Middlewich also complained that the abbey owed them money for two salt pits they had lost. Similar arguments happened between other abbeys and their tenants. For example, in southern England, there was a long and violent fight between people in Tooting and Bec Abbey. Another revolt happened in 1309 against Bec Abbey's tenants in Ogbourne St George. In the east, there was a similar uprising against the Abbot of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1327. These smaller revolts happened before the much larger Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
The Big Argument
"The Darnhall custumal reveals a harshness of exploitation unparalleled even on the old-established Benedictine houses of the south."
In 1327, the abbot wrote down a list of rules for Darnhall and Over. He wanted to make sure his old claims over the villagers were clear, even if they hadn't been strictly followed before. The next year, a fierce fight broke out in Darnhall. The village was controlled by the Cistercian Abbey at Vale Royal. The relationship between the abbot and his tenants had completely broken down.
After King Edward II gave the village to the abbey, the villagers felt their social standing was getting worse. Some historians think the abbey might have been very poor, which could explain why the monks were such strict landlords. It's hard to know for sure if the abbey was as unfair as the villagers claimed. It's possible that earlier lords of Chester had been relaxed about their control, and the villages had gotten used to more freedom. Or maybe the monks had been too relaxed, and the villagers saw a chance to gain more.
Interestingly, the abbey did free some people from their service without payment between 1329 and 1340. But these acts weren't enough to calm the villagers' anger. It seems the monks were very keen on their duties as landlords.
The two villages of Darnhall and Over worked together. They shared their money and resources because their fight was expensive. Traveling and going to court cost a lot, from paying clerks to write petitions to getting advice from lawyers. As one historian said, there was "no such thing...as cheap litigation."
"What strikes one about this account, is not the lawlessness of the abbey's tenants but their touching faith in the legal process."
The villagers showed their resistance in many ways. They refused to grind their flour at the abbot's mill. They rejected being treated as bound servants. They also tried to stop the abbot from limiting how they could rent out their land. In 1328, this resistance led to fines, jail time, and eventually, they had to give in.
The abbey's records show that in 1329, the rebellious tenants "plotted maliciously" against the abbey's rights. The Darnhall villagers went to the Cheshire judge, claiming they had been given their freedom by an old royal document. We don't know the exact legal outcome, but it probably wasn't successful. When they returned to the village, they were put in jail until they promised to stop complaining. They probably made this promise under pressure, because they were released. But then they immediately sent a group to the King to complain again. It's not known if they reached the King, but they ended up in a Nottingham prison. They almost got executed as thieves!
After this, they sent a petition to the King in parliament in Westminster. This led to a new judge being sent to Cheshire to hear their case. But before he listened, he read the abbey's royal documents and was convinced by them. So, the villagers were sent back to the abbey for punishment.
The abbey's writer recorded similar complaints in 1337. Again, the tenants of Darnhall and Over "conspired against their lords" and tried to "gain their liberty." The writer noted how the people first complained to the Chester judge, then asked parliament, and finally sent a group to the King at Windsor. The writer thought they were acting "like mad dogs." This was because even though the abbey had won in court many times, the villagers of Darnhall refused to accept their situation. They stopped paying their usual fees and started the argument again. When Abbot Peter tried to collect the money by taking their belongings, the villagers simply moved their goods away.
In 1336, the abbot refused to let the people of Over have certain rights in the new town. This made the Over villagers join with Darnhall against the abbey. They tried to use the law to their advantage. As historian Richard Hilton said, "They bothered the judge of Cheshire, the King himself, and even Queen Philippa in their search for legal help." It seems Queen Philippa might have even supported them. The peasants often planned their actions at night. The villagers were willing to travel very far to confront the abbot, showing how much they blamed him personally. They even went all the way to Rutland to find and ambush him.
Attack on Abbot Peter
"In the same year began [Abbot Peter's] severe struggle with the bondmen of Darnhall, which lasted a long time and compelled him to make many journeys, in one of which he was assaulted and carried off, ignominiously enough, by "the bestial men of Rutland" to Stamford."
In June 1336, Abbot Peter visited King Edward III at his royal hunting lodge at King's Cliffe. He asked the King for help against his rebellious tenants. As he passed the village of Exton, he was attacked by what the abbey's writer called a "great crowd of the country people" from Darnhall. The abbot's own helper rushed forward to defend him. But it seems the men from Cheshire were joined by some local people, and Abbot Peter was "ignominiously taken." During the struggle, someone from the abbot's group died.
However, the King quickly ordered Abbot Peter's release and the arrest of his captors the very next day. Peter was freed, and his captors were put in chains in Stamford. Strangely, even though someone died in the fight, the King soon released the villagers from their chains. Even more surprisingly, the King later wrote to Abbot Peter, asking him to return the property he had taken from his tenants. The abbot ignored this order. He did, however, lower their fine from £10 to £4.
The abbot had strong political connections and influence with the government. This allowed him to stop the villagers' legal cases. The early encouragement the villagers had received from various royal officials didn't lead to much. However, the abbot's legal victories didn't stop his authority from being seriously weakened. In the Middle Ages, when someone of lower social standing questioned a lord's power, the law almost always sided with the lord. But this didn't always mean it was fair. It's likely the abbey used some legal tricks to keep winning.
The villages turned to more violence. In 1339, probably while raiding the abbey's crops or buildings, Abbot Peter and his helper died during the conflict.
What Happened Next
Even after all this, the abbey was never fully able to control its land or prove itself as the main lord in the region. The abbots of Vale Royal continued to face problems from the local people almost until the abbey was closed down by King Henry VIII in 1536.
In 1351, the abbots complained that they were "wrongfully annoyed and harassed in many other ways." Later, in the late 1300s, Edward the Black Prince wrote to the judge of Chester. He believed the abbots were being "wrongfully annoyed and harassed in many...ways by the people of these parts." He ordered the judge to stop anyone who was bothering them. As late as 1442, the abbot complained that he was always at risk of attack when he traveled.
Images for kids
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This is a petition from the people of Darnhall to King Edward I in 1277. They are complaining that the Abbey's forest officials are stopping them from using their rights in the forest. These rights included taking wood and letting their animals graze. They also complained that the Abbey had fenced off common land and blocked a public road near Over.
