Boulogne agreement
Encyclopedia
The Boulogne agreement was a document signed by a group of English
magnate
s in 1308, concerning the government of Edward II
. After the death of Edward I
in 1307, discontent soon developed against the new king. This was partly due to lingering problems from the previous reign, but also related to issues with Edward II himself. Particularly his abandonment of the Scottish Wars
and his patronage of the unpopular Piers Gaveston
caused discontent. Drawn up in Boulogne-sur-Mer
during the king's nuptials, the document vaguely asserted the signatories' duty to guard the rights of the Crown. Three months later, the agreement was the basis for another document, justifying opposition to the king. This latter document, the so-called Declaration of 1308, is notable for its use of the "doctrine of capacities
": the distinction between the person of the King
and the institution of the Crown.
The document today exists only in a 17th-century transcript by the antiquarian
William Dugdale
. The Boulogne agreement was largely unknown to modern historians up until the 1960s, but it is now considered significant because it is the first documented expression of the conflict between king and nobility, which was to dominate so much of the reign of Edward II. Though historians agree on the document's importance, there is still disagreement over its interpretation, particularly whether the signatories should be seen as oppositional or loyal to the king.
succeeded as king of England
on 7 July 1307, on the death of his father Edward I
. The expectations of the new king were high, and he initially enjoyed a good relationship with the leading magnates of the realm. There were, however, some issues of contention remaining from the reign of his father. Edward I's incessant wars had put a great fiscal burden
on the country, and his confrontational style had led to conflict with some of the leading lay and ecclesiastical lords. This had culminated in the drafting of the so-called Remonstrances
in 1297, a set of complaints about royal government. By Edward I's death in 1307, most of these issued had been resolved. It was nevertheless in the interest of the leading men of the country to make sure that the new king did not act the way his father had, and ignored the opinions of his councillors.
There were also certain personal issues regarding the new king that caused concern. Shortly before his death, Edward I had exiled Prince Edward's favourite
and possible lover Piers Gaveston
, whom the king believed had too much influence over the prince. At his deathbed he had supposedly exhorted some of his closest followers Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln
, Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick
, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke
and Robert Clifford
to keep watch over his son, and particularly to make sure that Gaveston did not return. One of Edward II's first actions as king was nevertheless to recall Gaveston from exile. He also gave him the title of Earl of Cornwall a title normally reserved for members of the royal family thereby furthering the aggravation against the favourite. Another source of discontent was Edward II abandoning the Scottish Wars
pursued by his father. This left the way open for Robert the Bruce
to regain land the English had conquered, to the detriment of many English magnates.
On 22 January 1308, Edward II left England for France, leaving Gaveston behind as Regent
. By the Treaty of Montreuil in 1299, it had been agreed that Edward should marry Isabella
, the daughter of Philippe IV of France. Accompanying the king were several great nobles, including Lincoln, Pembroke, Clifford, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey
and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford
. On 25 January Edward and Isabella were married at Boulogne-sur-Mer
, and on 31 January Edward performed homage
for the Duchy of Aquitaine, which the English king held of the French king. On that same day, the nobles mentioned above, with others, gathered to sign the document that has become known to history as the Boulogne agreement.
, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem
. He was followed by the four earls Lincoln, Pembroke, Surrey and Hereford, and five men of baronial families: Clifford, Payn Tybetot, Henry de Gray, John de Botetourt and John de Berwick. The document today exists in the Bodleian Library
in Oxford, as a transcript made by the 17th-century antiquarian
William Dugdale
. Dugdale's transcript is believed to be based on an older document, which was probably lost in the Cotton library
fire of 1731.
The text of the document is rather vague and noncommittal. The signatories were concerned with guarding the king's honour and the rights of the Crown (garder son honeur et les dreits de sa Corounne). There was also a promise to address and correct both the things that had been done against that honour and those rights, as well as the past and present oppression of the people (les choses que sont feites avant ces houres countre soen honour et le droit de sa Coronne, et les oppressiouns que ount estre feit et uncore se fount de jour en jour a soen people). Nothing is said about what specifically these things were, but it must be assumed that the target was Gaveston. Bek was given the authority to excommunicate whoever broke the terms of the agreement.
Because of the vague language of the document, there has been much scholarly debate over how it should be interpreted. John Maddicott
saw the wording as a hostile warning to the new king to avoid the mistakes of his father, or face the consequences. J. R. S. Phillips
, on the other hand, took the signatories to be positively inclined towards Edward II. There were others who were more intrinsic in their opposition to the king and Gaveston, primarily the Earl of Warwick. The purpose of the document, in Phillips view, was to present the king with a warning, and hopefully protect him against the more antagonistic members of the nobility.
. The king obliged himself to abide by the law, but this exact meaning of this promise was ambiguous. The clause referred to laws the people "shall have chosen" (aura eslu), which left it unclear whether it also included future enactments. At the coronation ceremony that followed, Gaveston acted with such presumption and arrogance as to further alienate the leading magnates.
The document from the April parliament, today referred to as the Declaration of 1308, contained three articles and was presented by the Earl of Lincoln. The first article invoked the so-called "doctrine of capacities
": that the subjects of the realm owed allegiance to the institution of the Crown, not to the person of the King. If the King abused his position, it was his subject's duty to correct this, thereby upholding the pledge of the Boulogne agreement to protect the rights of the Crown. The second article was an attack on Gaveston though he was not mentioned by name implicitly demanding his renewed exile. The third article referred to the additional clause from the coronation oath. It was here taken to mean that the king had obliged himself to abide by any decisions made by his subjects; past, present or future. The king initially held out against the opposition, but the earls also received support from Philippe IV, who was offended by Edward's apparent preference of Gaveston over Isabella. On 18 May Edward agreed to once again send Gaveston into exile.
Dugdale both transcribed the Boulogne agreement and made a reference to it, in a footnote in his 1675 Baronage of England. After this the document was absent from history writing for almost three centuries. Dugdale's footnote was mentioned by certain historians, but it was not until 1965 that the document itself was again used as a source, when Nöel Denholm-Young quoted a few lines from it in his History and Heraldry: 1254–1310. In 1972, J. R. S. Phillips printed a complete transcription of the Boulogne agreement in his book Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke 1307–1324.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
s in 1308, concerning the government of Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
. After the death of Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
in 1307, discontent soon developed against the new king. This was partly due to lingering problems from the previous reign, but also related to issues with Edward II himself. Particularly his abandonment of the Scottish Wars
First War of Scottish Independence
The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the de jure restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328...
and his patronage of the unpopular Piers Gaveston
Piers Gaveston
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall was an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favourite of King Edward II of England. At a young age he made a good impression on King Edward I of England, and was assigned to the household of the King's son, Edward of Carnarvon...
caused discontent. Drawn up in Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
during the king's nuptials, the document vaguely asserted the signatories' duty to guard the rights of the Crown. Three months later, the agreement was the basis for another document, justifying opposition to the king. This latter document, the so-called Declaration of 1308, is notable for its use of the "doctrine of capacities
Doctrine of capacities
The doctrine of capacities is a concept in the political theory of medieval England, making a distinction between the person of the King and the institution of the Crown. The roots of this political theory can be traced back to the years shortly after the Norman Conquest. Here the distinction was...
": the distinction between the person of the King
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
and the institution of the Crown.
The document today exists only in a 17th-century transcript by the antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
William Dugdale
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...
. The Boulogne agreement was largely unknown to modern historians up until the 1960s, but it is now considered significant because it is the first documented expression of the conflict between king and nobility, which was to dominate so much of the reign of Edward II. Though historians agree on the document's importance, there is still disagreement over its interpretation, particularly whether the signatories should be seen as oppositional or loyal to the king.
Background
Edward IIEdward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
succeeded as king of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
on 7 July 1307, on the death of his father Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
. The expectations of the new king were high, and he initially enjoyed a good relationship with the leading magnates of the realm. There were, however, some issues of contention remaining from the reign of his father. Edward I's incessant wars had put a great fiscal burden
Government spending
Government spending includes all government consumption, investment but excludes transfer payments made by a state. Government acquisition of goods and services for current use to directly satisfy individual or collective needs of the members of the community is classed as government final...
on the country, and his confrontational style had led to conflict with some of the leading lay and ecclesiastical lords. This had culminated in the drafting of the so-called Remonstrances
Remonstrances
The Remonstrances were a set of complaints presented by a group of nobles in 1297, against the government of King Edward I of England...
in 1297, a set of complaints about royal government. By Edward I's death in 1307, most of these issued had been resolved. It was nevertheless in the interest of the leading men of the country to make sure that the new king did not act the way his father had, and ignored the opinions of his councillors.
There were also certain personal issues regarding the new king that caused concern. Shortly before his death, Edward I had exiled Prince Edward's favourite
Favourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
and possible lover Piers Gaveston
Piers Gaveston
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall was an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favourite of King Edward II of England. At a young age he made a good impression on King Edward I of England, and was assigned to the household of the King's son, Edward of Carnarvon...
, whom the king believed had too much influence over the prince. At his deathbed he had supposedly exhorted some of his closest followers Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln was a confidant of Edward I of England.In 1272 on reaching the age of majority he became Earl of Lincoln...
, Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick
Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick
Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick was an English magnate, and one of the principal opponents of King Edward II and his favourite Piers Gaveston. Guy de Beauchamp was the son of William de Beauchamp, the first Beauchamp earl of Warwick, and succeeded his father in 1298...
, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke
Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was a Franco-English nobleman. Though primarily active in England, he also had strong connections with the French royal house. One of the wealthiest and most powerful men of his age, he was a central player in the conflicts between Edward II of England and...
and Robert Clifford
Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford
Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, also 1st Lord of Skipton , was an English soldier who became first Lord Warden of the Marches, defending the English border with Scotland. He was born in Clifford Castle, Herefordshire, and was married there in 1295 to Maud de Clare, eldest daughter of...
to keep watch over his son, and particularly to make sure that Gaveston did not return. One of Edward II's first actions as king was nevertheless to recall Gaveston from exile. He also gave him the title of Earl of Cornwall a title normally reserved for members of the royal family thereby furthering the aggravation against the favourite. Another source of discontent was Edward II abandoning the Scottish Wars
First War of Scottish Independence
The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the de jure restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328...
pursued by his father. This left the way open for Robert the Bruce
Robert I of Scotland
Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...
to regain land the English had conquered, to the detriment of many English magnates.
On 22 January 1308, Edward II left England for France, leaving Gaveston behind as Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
. By the Treaty of Montreuil in 1299, it had been agreed that Edward should marry Isabella
Isabella of France
Isabella of France , sometimes described as the She-wolf of France, was Queen consort of England as the wife of Edward II of England. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre...
, the daughter of Philippe IV of France. Accompanying the king were several great nobles, including Lincoln, Pembroke, Clifford, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey
John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey
John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey was a prominent English nobleman and military commander during the reigns of Henry III of England and Edward I of England. During the Second Barons' War he switched sides twice, ending up in support of the king, for whose capture he was present at Lewes in 1264...
and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford
Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford
Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford was a member of a powerful Anglo-Norman family of the Welsh Marches and was one of the Ordainers who opposed Edward II's excesses.-Family background :...
. On 25 January Edward and Isabella were married at Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
, and on 31 January Edward performed homage
Homage (medieval)
Homage in the Middle Ages was the ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position . It was a symbolic acknowledgment to the lord that the vassal was, literally, his man . The oath known as...
for the Duchy of Aquitaine, which the English king held of the French king. On that same day, the nobles mentioned above, with others, gathered to sign the document that has become known to history as the Boulogne agreement.
Document and interpretation
The document was signed and dated at Boulogne on the 31 January 1308. At the top of the list of signatories was Antony BekAntony Bek
Antony Bek was a medieval Prince Bishop of Durham.-Early life:Bek and his elder brother Thomas Bek were members of a family of knights. Their father was Walter Bek, who held lands at Ersby in Lincolnshire. Another brother was John Beke, who held the family lands in Ersby...
, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is the title possessed by the Latin Rite Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem. The Archdiocese of Jerusalem has jurisdiction for all Latin Rite Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus...
. He was followed by the four earls Lincoln, Pembroke, Surrey and Hereford, and five men of baronial families: Clifford, Payn Tybetot, Henry de Gray, John de Botetourt and John de Berwick. The document today exists in the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
in Oxford, as a transcript made by the 17th-century antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
William Dugdale
William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...
. Dugdale's transcript is believed to be based on an older document, which was probably lost in the Cotton library
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...
fire of 1731.
The text of the document is rather vague and noncommittal. The signatories were concerned with guarding the king's honour and the rights of the Crown (garder son honeur et les dreits de sa Corounne). There was also a promise to address and correct both the things that had been done against that honour and those rights, as well as the past and present oppression of the people (les choses que sont feites avant ces houres countre soen honour et le droit de sa Coronne, et les oppressiouns que ount estre feit et uncore se fount de jour en jour a soen people). Nothing is said about what specifically these things were, but it must be assumed that the target was Gaveston. Bek was given the authority to excommunicate whoever broke the terms of the agreement.
Because of the vague language of the document, there has been much scholarly debate over how it should be interpreted. John Maddicott
John Maddicott
Dr John Maddicott has published works on the political and social history of England in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has also written a number of leading articles on the Anglo-Saxon economy, his second area of interest. Born in Exeter, Devon, he was educated at Worcester College, Oxford...
saw the wording as a hostile warning to the new king to avoid the mistakes of his father, or face the consequences. J. R. S. Phillips
J. R. S. Phillips
John Roland Seymour Phillips is a British historian. He did a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of London in 1967, on the subject of the 14th-century Earl of Pembroke, Aymer de Valence Later he published a book on the same subject. Phillips was head of the department of medieval...
, on the other hand, took the signatories to be positively inclined towards Edward II. There were others who were more intrinsic in their opposition to the king and Gaveston, primarily the Earl of Warwick. The purpose of the document, in Phillips view, was to present the king with a warning, and hopefully protect him against the more antagonistic members of the nobility.
Aftermath and transmission
The Boulogne agreement had little immediate impact, and is notable mostly for its influence on a later document presented in parliament in April that year. In the meanwhile, on 25 February, the king had been crowned. Before the coronation, the king had been forced to include an additional clause in his coronation oathOath of office
An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before undertaking the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations...
. The king obliged himself to abide by the law, but this exact meaning of this promise was ambiguous. The clause referred to laws the people "shall have chosen" (aura eslu), which left it unclear whether it also included future enactments. At the coronation ceremony that followed, Gaveston acted with such presumption and arrogance as to further alienate the leading magnates.
The document from the April parliament, today referred to as the Declaration of 1308, contained three articles and was presented by the Earl of Lincoln. The first article invoked the so-called "doctrine of capacities
Doctrine of capacities
The doctrine of capacities is a concept in the political theory of medieval England, making a distinction between the person of the King and the institution of the Crown. The roots of this political theory can be traced back to the years shortly after the Norman Conquest. Here the distinction was...
": that the subjects of the realm owed allegiance to the institution of the Crown, not to the person of the King. If the King abused his position, it was his subject's duty to correct this, thereby upholding the pledge of the Boulogne agreement to protect the rights of the Crown. The second article was an attack on Gaveston though he was not mentioned by name implicitly demanding his renewed exile. The third article referred to the additional clause from the coronation oath. It was here taken to mean that the king had obliged himself to abide by any decisions made by his subjects; past, present or future. The king initially held out against the opposition, but the earls also received support from Philippe IV, who was offended by Edward's apparent preference of Gaveston over Isabella. On 18 May Edward agreed to once again send Gaveston into exile.
Dugdale both transcribed the Boulogne agreement and made a reference to it, in a footnote in his 1675 Baronage of England. After this the document was absent from history writing for almost three centuries. Dugdale's footnote was mentioned by certain historians, but it was not until 1965 that the document itself was again used as a source, when Nöel Denholm-Young quoted a few lines from it in his History and Heraldry: 1254–1310. In 1972, J. R. S. Phillips printed a complete transcription of the Boulogne agreement in his book Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke 1307–1324.