Gift or Levy: The Expenditure of the Urban Community of Medieval Faversham

Abstract

Although small in medieval times, Faversham was a prosperous town, benefiting from trade with London and its position as a member of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports — an association of ports in south-east England. Economic success enabled its inhabitants to create a viable urban community, which in the mid-thirteenth century began its struggle for autonomy and independence from the town’s monastic lord, the Abbey of Faversham. The article examines the expenditure of the town community on the maintenance and development of its powers, using data from the financial accounts of town officials. Although there were several outbreaks of violence, especially at the beginning, the townspeople mostly challenged their lord in court, filed claims, wrote petitions and sought support from the Confederation and some influential people. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the urban community was in a deep crisis and so they used all available methods to defend their interests, i.e. they recruited competent people as counsellors, gave gifts to local officials (the Sheriff of Kent, the Warden of the Cinque Ports), gave gifts to employees of central institutions such as the Exchequer, the Chancellery, the King’s Bench, sometimes creating a precedent for future extortion, as happened with fish for the Warden of the Cinque Ports. The paucity of sources does not allow us to determine with certainty whether this system was later maintained and whether the town needed and could afford it. In the sixteenth century, when Faversham’s fortunes took another turn for the worse with the dissolution of the monastery, the townspeople resorted to the old strategy.

Keywords

• средневековая англия
• конфедерация пяти портов
• средневековый город
• городские финансы
• городская община
• поборы
• взятки