Saturday, 28 March 2020

Emnity against the king

Another snippet from my upcoming book on the Disinherited Montfortians in England.


In 1268, as part of the massive clearing-up operation after the end of the civil war, hundreds of men all over England were summoned to court to answer charges of rebellion against the king. These cases were recorded on a separate series of assize rolls, though unfortunately only those for the southern counties have survived.


One of the accused was a certain Robert Ode of Harbury in Warwickshire (see attached, above), who was accused of ‘emnity against the king’ by the jurors of the hundred of Wardon in Northamptonshire. Robert had been a member of the rebel garrison at Kenilworth, the massive stronghold in Warwickshire and chief headquarters of the Disinherited. He was accused by jurors of Northants, an entirely separate district, because Robert had led a small band of robbers out of the castle and roved all over the midlands, plundering and raiding lands belonging to the royalists. The details of what he actually got up to are recorded on yet another series of rolls: nobody could accuse the administration in England of a lack of thoroughness.

Link to the book below:







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