Those of you who are tired of reading about battles and war will be glad to know that the 14th century was generally a more peaceful one for medieval Derbyshire than its predecessors. I say ‘generally’ because the 14th century did see the overthrowing of a king, a loss of law and order and the beginning of The Hundred Years War but luckily for the people of Derbyshire, the county was minimally affected by these events. As the century continued, the Earldom of Lancaster (of which parts of northern Derbyshire had become a part of the previous century) upgraded to a Dukedom with one of the most powerful magnates of the medieval period, John of Gaunt, bringing the Dukedom to prominence at the end of the century.
The century began under the rule of Edward I, a strong king under whom England grew militarily and in areas such as trade and commerce. Edward had links to Derbyshire before he became king with his father, Henry III, granting Derbyshire lands and the castles of Peveril, Bolsover and Horston to Edward and his wife Eleanor, who held them as dower lands. This affinity to the county continued as the stonework now still partially visible in the ruins of Peveril castle was completed by 1300 by Edward. At this time Peveril Castle was part of the royal lands and still held key administrative power in northern Derbyshire and the Royal Forest of the Peak. It is also likely that Edward has this old Norman castle rebuilt in stone to strengthen England’s northern defences for his war with Scotland.
Castles were not the only things being rebuilt in the early 14th century. The Church of Hope was the only church in the Peak Forest mentioned in the Domesday book, with its parish steadily growing throughout the medieval period as settlements and the population grew. Whilst the church was being rebuilt, the parish was divided with Fairfield Church becoming a chapelry, covering the more northern parishes; the separate township of Buxton belonged to Bakewell Parish. Although Fairfield is now a district of Buxton, in the medieval period the village was home to monastic granges run by Cistercian monks and Benedictine nuns and was an outlying area of the Royal Forest of the Peak, all centred around the church and nearby Fairfield Common.
Whilst Edward I was a strong king, his son Edward II was a weak one. He was the king of a fractious court and overly indulgent of a close circle of favourites, the most notable being Piers Galveston. In 1308, as well as being given the royal Duchy of Cornwall, Gaveston was given other lands under royal control, such as Peveril Caste and the surrounding estate. Not only was this area a rich hunting ground but it was close to his northern powerbase of Chester which Gaveston needed to protect himself from other jealous nobles, although he was ultimately unsuccessful. Eventually both Gaveston and Edward II were removed from power with Edward’s crown being usurped in 1327 by his wife, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer, and passed to his son Edward III. This period of weak kingship at the end of Edward II’s reign and the political upheaval caused by his usurpation and subsequent death a few months later allowed for law and order to begin to break down. Whilst the legend of Robin Hood is more closely linked to the reign of Edward II’s great-grandfather King John, this idea of a member of the gentry galivanting around the woods of northern Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire derived from the 14th century and Derbyshire’s Cottrel gang.
The Cottrel gang existed from the late 1320s until the mid-1330s. The gang consisted primarily of James, Nicholas and John Cottrel, minor members of the Derbyshire gentry who were meant to help enforce local law and order. Based in Derbyshire and the woods of northern Nottinghamshire, they were not romantically ‘robbing the rich to feed the poor’ but running extortion, kidnap and protection rackets with the help of people employed locally in Derbyshire. Like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, they were popular with the local population and the local secular and ecclesiastical authorities who helped to provide them with supplies and logistical support for their various enterprises. They overplayed their hand in 1332 when they kidnapped Richard de Willoughby, a royal justice sent by Edward III to stop the Cottrel’s activities. Not only did they kidnap a royal justice, but they also ransomed him to the king, resulting in Edward III launching a royal commission into Derbyshire to root them out. It was successful, with many gang members being arraigned and all but 1 were ultimately acquitted. James, Nicholas and John Cottrel did not bother attending their own arraignment. The gang was ultimately disbanded when the Second War of Scottish Independence began and Edward III offered the gang members royal pardons in return for them fighting in the war, as Edward needed seasoned men to fight for him. Whilst many readers will read the story of the Cottrels and more reminded of the Peaky Blinders than Robin Hood, their popular support amongst the local population, their actions against the King and his law enforcers and their presence in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, have served as a basis for many of the Robin Hood myths.
Beyond Gaveston and the Cottrels, the county was relatively peaceful. In 1331, Edward III married and gave to his queen ,Phillipa of Hainault, the same Derbyshire lands of Peveril and Horston that had belonged to his grandmother Eleanor of Castille with the control over the Royal Forest of the Peak that came with Peveril Castle. Peveril continued the same administrative and royal function that it had held since the Norman Conquest until the death of Phillipa of Hainault in 1372. She gave her Derbyshire lands to her third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster who returned these areas to his duchy, which he had inherited from his father-in-law in 1361. Gaunt was one of the richest men of his era and a stalwart of late 14th century European politics. As the third son of Edward III and the oldest son living in the final years of his father’s reign, he assumed control of many government functions as his father’s health failed, was a key commander in the Hundred Years War in his lifetime and also attempted to claim the Crown of Castille through his second marriage to Constance of Castille in 1371. In the later years of his life, he was a key figure in the regency of his nephew, King Richard II.
As Gaunt held large parcels of lands throughout England, and particularly in the north, he had to divide his limited resources. In order to do this, Gaunt reduced the once royal hunting lodge of his ancestors at Peveril Castle to a mere jail for those caught poaching in the surrounding royal forest. He stripped some of the stone and other materials from the castle to build up his castle at Pontefract, Yorkshire. These actions marked the beginning of Peveril’s decline, although it continued to host local courts and act as a jail until 1600. Even though he had hastened the decline of one of Derbyshire’s oldest and most used castles, John of Gaunt rebuilt Tutbury Castle, now on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border, after it had been nearly destroyed by his grandfather a century earlier. This Derbyshire castle would become the favourite home of Gaunt’s wife Constance, equated to be similar to Windsor in the position and wealth of the court Constance held there until her death in 1394.
Despite Gaunt’s Duchy of Lancaster holding that that had previously been held by the Earls of Derby, the Earldom of Derby was still a separate entity and title that maintained a great deal of importance in Derbyshire. In the later decades of the 14th century, this title was held by Henry Bolingbroke, the eldest son of Gaunt and his first wife Phillipa of Hainault. In his capacity as Earl of Derby and due to the location of his stepmother’s luxurious court at Tutbury, Bolingbroke visited the county on numerous occasions. During one visit in 1384, the 18-year-old Bolingbroke visited the village of Tideswell, where he purchased a greyhound, a dog breed that would have complimented the pastimes Bolingbroke would have had as a medieval earl, such as hunting.
The last year on the 14th century, 1399, flipped England on its head. John of Gaunt died in February, but rather than his lands passing to his son Bolingbroke as intended, Bolingbroke’s cousin Richard II blocked the claim. Bolingbroke did not have a good relationship with his cousin having joined in a revolt against Richard and his advisors in 1387 and then being exiled by Richard II in 1398 following an agreement to duel with the Earl of Mowbray. Following the death of Gaunt, Richard II had the legal documents of Bolingbroke’s inheritance cancelled, which would have put the large and powerful duchy back under Richard’s direct royal control. In retaliation, Bolingbroke joined forces with other members of the English nobility who felt slighted by Richard II and his favourites, including Thomas Arundel who was the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Together they launched a military campaign against Richard II, destroying much of the county of Cheshire in the process. As the Earl of Derby and rightful inheritor of the Duchy of Lancaster with some of his key victories occurring nearby, Bolingbroke definitely had Derbyshire men in his ranks as he worked to take the throne from his corrupt and unjust cousin. At his coronation on 13th October 1399, Henry IV was the first monarch since the Norman Conquest to make his coronation address in English rather than French.
The accession of Bolingbroke absorbed the Earldom of Derby into Crown lands, and the Duchy of Lancaster still remains a private title held by the monarch. Bolingbroke’s actions shaped the final century of the medieval period as his usurpation of his cousin Richard and his taking the crown had passed over the heir presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, and had sown the seeds of a period now known to us as ‘The Wars of the Roses’. However, the 14th century had been one of relative prosperity and growth for Derbyshire as its population continued to expand, its parishes grew, and it formed part of the cultural and political centre of the north in the latter half of the century. To read the final instalment of the ‘Medieval Derbyshire’ series, keep your eyes peeled for updates on Buxton Museum’s website and social media!
Featured Image: DERSB_9679 Medieval lead tokens found at Taddington. Nicknamed ‘Abbot’s Money’ as tokens like these were issued by monasteries to pay local workers.
Buxton Museum and Art Gallery 
Isn’t history great! Is so interesting to hear of how the national events effected Derbyshire. Spotted a typo Edward I’ s father Henry III not II. Love the posts.
LikeLike