The Nativity, BL Arundel MS 157 f.3v (England, first quarter of the 13th century)

The King's decision to spend Christmas at Nottingham must already have raised concerns amongst the northern rebels. The last King to have spent Christmas in Nottingham had been Henry II, in 1176. John himself had generally spent Christmas south of the Trent, save for 1210 when he had been briefly at York. Moreover, the Christmas of 1215 was unlike any other such feast. As the Crowland chronicler puts it, having travelled via the Midlands, seizing back the castles and defensive positions of his enemies, 'the King by his presence strengthened the hearts of his wavering people .... and spent Christmas at Nottingham not as usual but as if in warlike expedition'.1 We have already found him at Iver, undertaking reprisals against the manor's lord, John fitz Robert, one of the baronial twenty-five. A similar pattern was repeated in the present week, with the King travelling via Dunstable and Newport Pagnell (both of them home to substantial religious communities, in the latter case with a castle and honour in the hands of William Longuespée, earl of Salisbury, as guardian of the young Ralph de Somery), then northwards via Northampton and Rockingham (restored on the field of Runnymede to William Mauduit, son of the rebel Robert Mauduit).2 At Melton Mowbray, a manor belonging (presumably as dower) to the mother of William de Mowbray, another of the twenty-five, the men of the manor were obliged to offer the King a punitive fine of 100 marks in 'tenseria', payable by the end of the first week in January.3 On Christmas Day, William of Stokes offered the King 100s. to have the land of Maurice d'Andely at Middleton near Nottingham, 'and so that Maurice's houses there be not burned': the first of several such orders that were to refer to the deliberate burning of rebel property.4 At Runnymede, the King had ordered that the manor of Buckingham be taken from its alien Angevin custodian, Ivo de la Jaille, and granted to the rebel leader, earl Richard de Clare.5 On 20 December, from Dunstable, the King rescinded this command, restoring Ivo to possession.6 Another Frenchman, Ralph Martel, companion of the Norman William de Préaux, was restored to possession of his lands in Tattenhoe (Buckinghamshire) and Lillingstone (Oxfordshire) seized from him as a result of his staying in Normandy after 1204: clear evidence that the King's war was beginning to draw Normans as well as southern Frenchmen into service in England.7 Besides the by now routine reassignments of rebel property, there were several significant orders this week relating to rebel estates, including the transfer to the Poitevins Hugh de Vivonne (Vienne, arr. Poitiers) and Savaric de Mauléon of the entire estates of William Malet and Geoffrey de Mandeville, excluding Geoffrey's honour of Gloucester and the lands of Geoffrey's brother, William de Mandeville.8  On Christmas eve, commanding part of the army that the King had left behind in the south, Savaric de Mauléon set siege to Geoffrey de Mandeville's castle at Pleshey north of Chelmsford, pillaging the surrounding countryside.9 On Christmas day itself, Philip Marc, the King's Tourangeau constable of Nottingham, was promised custody of the entire Midlands barony of Oliver d'Aincourt.10 Philip himself had been amongst those aliens supposedly banished under the terms of Magna Carta c.50. So too had Geoffrey de Martigny, constable of Northampton, who, alone amongst the prohibited aliens, had been obliged to depart England, in September 1215.11 Since then, Geoffrey's brother, Matthew de Martigny (himself included in the ban of Magna Carta c.50), had acquired custody of the lands of the rebel, Henry of Braybrooke.12 In the present week, this command was reiterated for six counties, whilst Matthew was also promised possession of Henry of Braybrooke's manor of Crawley in Northumberland: a rare instance of the King continuing to send commands to the most northerly shires, but one of at least two dispatched this week.13 Adam de Yeland, constable of Lancaster, was promised the service of 41 serjeants, to be paid from his local resources, and in Nottinghamshire, the lands of Ralph de Grelley were taken into the King's hands, both for rebellion and for non-payment of debt.14 Negotiations with the rebels continued, with the grant of safe conducts to the Lincolnshire barons Simon of Kyme and Lambert of Moulton coming to the King to negotiate the release of his father, Thomas of Moulton, captured at Rochester.15 William fitz Hamo fined 50 marks to have back his lands in Buckinghamshire, and Hugh Rufus fined the same sum for the King's benevolence and to have back his lands and the Northamptonshire hundred of Fawsley, henceforth to be held at its customary farm together with fifty shilling annual increment.16 Elsewhere, in Ireland, the justiciar was instructed to restore William Marshal to possession of the castle of Dunamase (co.Laois'), regardless of any pass word ('intersignus') that might have been agreed, and in the far south west, Robert de Courtenay was commanded to grant Robert de Cardinan the dies of the Cornwall stannaries.17