Abstract
The Introduction explains how commercial and financial ties between the Plantagenet kingdom of England and the duchy of Aquitaine in the Late Middle Ages originated in a political union. This was formed by the marriage of the future King Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, and it continued to the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453. Yet the ambiguous status of Anglo-Gascon Aquitaine as neither English nor French has suited the national historical narratives of neither modern Britain nor France, and so it has been generally ignored by historians of both. Nevertheless, extensive evidence survives that can be used to reconstruct a case study showing how certain markets and institutions evolved during this period when rulers increasingly sought to financially exploit trade.
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Notes
- 1.
T. K. Keefe, ‘Henry II (1133–1189), king of England, duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and count of Anjou’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (hereafter ODNB) (Oxford, 2004) <http://www.oxforddnb.com/>; J. Martindale, ‘Eleanor [Eleanor of Aquitaine], suo jure duchess of Aquitaine (c.1122–1204), queen of France, consort of Louis VII, and queen of England, consort of Henry II’, in ODNB.
- 2.
Archives Historiques du Département de la Gironde, lvi (Paris, 1925–6), 34–42, at 35.
- 3.
J. Gillingham, ‘John (1167–1216), king of England, and lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and count of Anjou’, in ODNB.
- 4.
H. W. Ridgeway, ‘Henry III (1207–1272), king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine’, in ODNB.
- 5.
R. de Roover, ‘The Commercial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century’, Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, 16 (1942), 34–39.
- 6.
See F. Boutoulle, ‘La vigne et le négoce du vin en Bordelais et Bazadais (fin XIe–début XIIIe siècle)’, Annales du Midi: revue archéologique, historique et philologique de la France méridionale, 112:231 (2000), 275–98.
- 7.
M. M. Postan, Essays on Medieval Agriculture and General Problems of the Medieval Economy (Cambridge, 1973), 18.
- 8.
R. W. Unger, ‘Trade, Taxation and Government Policy in the High Middle Ages’, Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 46:3 (2015), 195–217, at 200, 210.
- 9.
Ibid., 214–7.
- 10.
For the commerce from the High to Late Middle Ages, see E. S. Hunt, J. M. Murray, A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200–1550 (Cambridge, 1999). Perhaps the most influential work on the political economy of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe is S. R. Epstein, Freedom and Growth: The Rise of States and Markets in Europe (New York, 2000).
- 11.
S. Broadberry, B. Campbell, A. Klein, M. Overton, B. Van Leeuwen, British Economic Growth, 1270–1870 (Cambridge, 2015), 20.
- 12.
The rural population estimate by Yves Renouard was 600,000 to 650,000 in 1315–6 (‘Conjectures sur la population du duché d’Aquitaine en 1316’, Le Moyen Age. Livre jubilaire, lxix [1963], 471–8), with the estimated population for Bordeaux and other towns added (Bordeaux sous les rois d’Angleterre, sous la direction de Y. Renouard, avec la collaboration de J. Bernard, P. Capra, J. Gardelles, B. Guillemain, J. P. Trabut-Cussac, Histoire de Bordeaux, 3, sous la direction de C. Higounet [Bordeaux, 1965], 224), I would suggest the higher figure is more likely; for the 1414 estimate of 150,000, see M. Vale, English Gascony 1399–1453: A Study of War, Government and Politics During the Later Stages of the Hundred Years’ War (Oxford, 1970), 9–10.
- 13.
M. Vale, The Angevin Legacy and the Hundred Years War 1250–1340 (Cambridge, 1990), 4, 6.
- 14.
P. Chaplais (ed.), The War of Saint-Sardos 1323–1325: Gascon Correspondence and Diplomatic Documents, Camden 3rd Series, 87 (London, 1954), ix–xiii; also see Vale, Angevin Legacy, 183, 232–42; J. R. S. Phillips, ‘Edward II [Edward of Caernarfon] (1284–1327), king of England and lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine’, in ODNB.
- 15.
Vale, Angevin Legacy, 257, 260.
- 16.
Ibid., 6.
- 17.
For further information on these definitions, see G. Pépin, ‘Does a Common Language Mean a Shared Allegiance? Language, Identity, Geography and their Links with Polities: The Cases of Gascony and Brittany’, in H. Skoda, P. Lantschner, R. L. J. Shaw (eds.), Contact and Exchange in Later Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Malcolm Vale (Woodbridge, 2012), 79–102; and also see: G. Pépin, ‘Les cris de guerre “Guyenne!” et “Saint Georges!”: L’expression d’une identité politique du duché d’Aquitaine anglo-gascon’, Le Moyen Âge, 112 (2006), 263–81.
- 18.
Vale, English Gascony, 1–8, quotation at 2.
- 19.
P. Chaplais, ‘The Feudal Status of Aquitaine in the Fourteenth Century’, Historical Research, 21:64 (1948), 203–13.
- 20.
G. Pépin, ‘Introduction’, in G. Pépin (ed.), Anglo-Gascon Aquitaine: Problems and Perspectives (Woodbridge, 2017), 1–12, at 12.
- 21.
F. Michel, Histoire du commerce et de la navigation à Bordeaux, principalement sous l’administration Anglaise, 1 (Bordeaux, 1867); T. Malvezin, Histoire du commerce de Bordeaux depuis les origines jusqu’a nos jours, i–ii (Bordeaux, 1892); D. Brissaud, Les Anglais en Guyenne: L’Administration Anglaise et le mouvement communal dans le Bordelais (Paris, 1875), particularly, 153–94.
- 22.
H. Pirenne, ‘Un grand commerce d’exportation au moyen age: les vins de France’, Annales d’Histoire Economique et Sociale, v (1933), 225–43, at 225; E. M. Carus-Wilson, ‘The Effects of the Acquisition and of the Loss of Gascony on the English Wine Trade’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 21:63 (1947), 145–54, at 145.
- 23.
F. Sargeant, ‘The Wine Trade with Gascony’, in G. Unwin (ed.), Finance and Trade Under Edward III (Manchester, 1918, repr. 1962), 257–311.
- 24.
M. K. James, ‘The fluctuations of the Anglo-Gascon wine trade during the 14th century’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, 4:2 (1951), 170–196; idem, ‘Les activités commerciales des négociants en vins gascons en Angleterre durant la fin du Moyen Âge’, Annales du Midi, 65 (1953), 35–48; idem, ‘A London merchant of the 14th century’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, 8:3 (1956), 364–76; idem, ‘The medieval wine dealer’, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, 10:2 (1957), 45–53. These were then collated into a single highly influential volume after her death, idem, Studies in the Medieval Wine Trade, (ed.) E. M. Veale (Oxford, 1971).
- 25.
Ibid., 15, 26–28, 28–40.
- 26.
Y. Renouard, ‘Les conséquences de la conquête de la Guienne par le roi de France pour le commerce des vins de Gascogne’, Annales du Midi, 61:1 (1948), 15–31; idem, ‘Les relations de Bordeaux et de Bristol au moyen âge’, Revue historique de Bordeaux et du Département de la Gironde, 7 (1957), 97–112; idem, ‘Le grand commerce des vins de gascogne au moyen age’, Revue Historique, 221:2 (1959), 261–304; J.-P. Trabut-Cussac, ‘Les coutumes ou droits de douane perçus à Bordeaux sur les vins et les marchandises par l’administration anglaise de 1252 à 1307’, Annales du Midi, 62:1 (1950), 135–50; J.-C. Cassard, ‘Les flottes de vin de Bordeaux au début du XIVe siècle’, Annales du Midi, 95 (1983), 119–33; idem, ‘Vins et marchands de vins gascons au début du XIVe siècle’, Annales du Midi, 90 (1978), 121–40.
- 27.
R. Dion, Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France des origins au xix siècle (Paris, 1959); idem, ‘Viticulture ecclésiastique et viticulture princière au Moyen âge’, Revue Historique, 212:1 (1954), 1–22.
- 28.
S. Rose, The Wine Trade in Medieval Europe 1000–1500 (London, 2011); S. Lavaud, Bordeaux et le vin au Moyen Âge: Essor d’une civilisation (Bordeaux, 2003).
- 29.
G. Des Aubineaux, ‘Vins, prix et monnaies du Moyen âge en pays bordelais’, Revue Historique de Bordeaux et du Département de la Gironde, 7 (1958), 171–5; P. Capra, ‘Le Léopard et le Guyennois d’or, monnaies d’Aquitaine: Essai sur la chronologie de leurs émissions’, Annales du Midi, 72:52 (1960), 393–409; M. Bompaire, ‘Les monnayages d’or d’Aquitaine anglo-gasconne, le témoignage des livres de changeur’, Revue numismatique, 6:155 (2000), 261–79; M. C. Rechenbach, ‘The Gascon Money of Edward III: A Study in Monetary History’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Maryland (1955); B. J. Cook, ‘English Monetary Policy in Aquitaine’, in M. Allen, N. Mayhew (eds.), Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe Three Decades On: Essays in Honour of Professor Peter Spufford, Royal Numismatic Society Special Publication, 52 (London, 2017), 19–30, at 22.
- 30.
J. H. Munro, ‘Bullionism and the Bill of Exchange in England, 1273–1663: A Study of Monetary Management and Popular Prejudice’, in The Dawn of Modern Banking (London, 1979), 169–215; idem, Wool, Cloth and Gold: The Struggle for Bullion in Anglo-Burgundian Trade, 1340–1478 (Toronto, 1973); H. A. Miskimin, Money, Prices and Foreign Exchange in Fourteenth Century France (London, 1963); idem, Money and Power in Fifteenth-century France (New Haven, 1984); J. Day, The Medieval Market Economy (Oxford, 1987); P. Spufford, Money and its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988).
- 31.
E. C. Lodge, Gascony under English rule (London, 1926); ibid., ‘The Barony of Castelnau, in the Médoc, during the Middle Ages’, The English Historical Review, 22:85 (1907), 93–101; idem, ‘The Estates of the Archbishop’, in P. Vinogradoff (ed.), Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, iii (Oxford, 1912), 56; idem, ‘The Constables of Bordeaux in the Reign of Edward III’, The English Historical Review, 50:198 (1935), 225–241.
- 32.
For example, see idem, Gascony under English rule, 153–4, 158–9.
- 33.
R. Boutruche, La crise d’une société: seigneurs et paysans du Bordelais pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans (Paris, 1947, repr. 1963); also idem, ‘La crise d’une société: seigneurs et paysans du Bordelais pendant la guerre de Cent Ans’, Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations, 2:3 (1947), 336–48; idem, ‘The Devastation of Rural Areas During the Hundred Years War and the Agricultural Recovery of France’, in P. S. Lewis (ed.), G. F. Martin (trns.), The Recovery of France in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1971), 23–59.
- 34.
Bordeaux sous les rois d’Angleterre, sous la direction de Y. Renouard, avec la collaboration de J. Bernard, P. Capra, J. Gardelles, B. Guillemain, J. P. Trabut-Cussac, Histoire de Bordeaux, 3, sous la direction de C. Higounet (Bordeaux, 1965).
- 35.
Vale, The Angevin Legacy, 266.
- 36.
M. Vale, ‘The Last Years of English Gascony, 1451–1453: The Alexander Prize Essay’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 19 (1969), 119–38, at 128–31.
- 37.
Vale, English Gascony, 217.
- 38.
Boutruche, La crise d’une société, 351; Vale, English Gascony, 218–9.
- 39.
R. Harris, Valois Guyenne: A Study of Politics, Government and Society in Late Medieval France (Woodbridge, 1994), preface ix; G. Pépin, ‘Patis et souffertes en Bordelais et Bazadais (1391–1439): le prix de la paix pendant la guerre de Cent Ans’, Revue Historique de Bordeaux et du département de la Gironde, 20 (2014), 13–39; idem, ‘Petitions from Gascony: Testimonies of a Special Relationship’, in W. M. Ormrod, G. Dodd, A. Musson (eds.), Medieval Petitions: Grace and Grievance (York, 2009), 120–34; idem, ‘Les Soudans de Preissac ou de la Trau: de Clément V à l’ordre de la Jarretière’, Les cahiers du Bazadais, 187 (2014), 5–72; idem, ‘The Parlament of Anglo-Gascon Aquitaine: the Three Estates of Aquitaine (Guyenne)’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 52 (2008), 131–64; idem, ‘The relationship between the kings of England and their role as dukes of Aquitaine and their Gascon subjects: forms, processes and substance of a dialogue (1275–1453)’, unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford (2007); idem, ‘Towards a New Assessment of the Black Prince’s Principality of Aquitaine: A Study of the Last Years (1369–1372)’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 50 (2006), 59–114.
- 40.
M. W. Labarge, Gascony, England’s First Colony 1204–1453 (London, 1980), quotation at 237.
- 41.
D. Green, ‘Lordship and Principality: Colonial Policy in Ireland and Aquitaine in the 1360s’, Journal of British Studies, 47:1 (2008), 3–29; P. Crooks, ‘State of the Union: Perspectives on English Imperialism in the Late Middle Ages’, Past & Present, 212:1 (2011), 3–42.
- 42.
Vale, Angevin Legacy, 6; The National Archives (hereafter TNA), E 101/184/12, fol. 1r.
- 43.
J. Davis, Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500 (Cambridge, 2014), 29.
- 44.
D. Wood, Medieval Economic Thought (Cambridge, 2002), 132–158.
- 45.
C. Given-Wilson, P. Brand, S. Phillips, M. Ormrod, G. Martin, A. Curry, R. Horrox (eds.), Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (hereafter PROME) (Woodbridge, 2005), British History Online (hereafter BHO) <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval>.
- 46.
G. Eyre, A. Strahan (eds.), Statutes of the Realm, vols. 1–2 (London, 1810).
- 47.
H. Nicholas (ed.), Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 1–6 (1834–37).
- 48.
TNA, C 61; also calendared in Y. Renouard (ed.), Gascon rolls, 1307–1317 preserved in the Public Record Office (London, 1962–4); and as part of the Gascon Rolls Project, <http://www.gasconrolls.org/> (hereafter GSR); Calendar of the Close Rolls (London, 1909–41); Calendar of the Patent Rolls (London, 1901–13).
- 49.
TNA, SC 8 (Ancient Petitions) and SC 1 (Ancient Correspondence).
- 50.
Archives Historiques du Département de la Gironde (hereafter AHG) (Bordeaux, 1859–1933).
- 51.
H. Barckhausen (ed.), Livre des coutumes, Archives municipales de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1890); Livre des bouillons, Archives municipales de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1867); M. E. Piganeau (ed.), Chronique et coutumes de Bazas, Archives Historiques du Département de la Gironde, xv (Bordeaux, 1875).
- 52.
TNA, E 101 (King’s Remembrancer: Accounts Various), stored in a variety of subclasses; also some exist in print, see J. Delpit (ed.), Collection générale des documents Français qui se trouvent en Angleterre, i (Paris, 1847), 132–76 (accounts covering the years 1363–1370); TNA, E 364/51; E 364/55; E 364/59; E 364/63; E 364/67; E 364/70; E 364/75; E 364/84; E 364/91; E 364/92; T. Runyan, ‘The Constabulary of Bordeaux: the Accounts of John Ludham (1372–73) and Robert de Wykford (1373–75). Part I’, Mediaeval Studies, 36 (1974), 215–258; T. Runyan, ‘The Constabulary of Bordeaux: the Accounts of John Ludham (1372–73) and Robert de Wykford (1373–75). Part II’, Mediaeval Studies, 37 (1975), 42–84; J. R. Wright, ‘The Accounts of John Stratton and John Gedeney, Constables of Bordeaux, 1381–1390’, Mediaeval Studies, 42 (1980), 238–307.
- 53.
These are mainly in the National Archives under, for examples, TNA, E 101/158/2; E 101/161/3; E 101/167/16; E 101/170/17; E 101/173/4; E 101/602/3; E 101/180/2; E 101/182/6; E 101/182/6; E 101/183/11; E 101/184/19; E 101/185/9; E 101/188/14; E 101/190/6; E 101/191/3; E 101/192/1; E 101/194/3; E 101/195/19.
- 54.
Archives départementales de la Gironde (hereafter ADG), E 236–241; also edited by Leo Drouyn and published in Archives Historiques du Département de la Gironde, xxi–xxii (1881–2); H. Barckhausen (ed.), Registres de la jurade: délibérations de 1406 à 1409 (hereafter RJ, i), Archives municipales de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1873); H. Barckhausen (ed.), Registres de la jurade: délibérations de 1414 à 1416 et de 1420 à 1422 (hereafter RJ, ii), Archives municipales de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1883); ADG, G 2302.
- 55.
Gilbert Maghfeld’s ledgers are stored under TNA, E 101/509/19. The Cely’s documents are preserved under various categories and extensively published, see H. E. Malden (ed.), The Cely papers: selections from the correspondence and memoranda of the Cely family, merchants of the staple (London, 1900), 185–8.
- 56.
James, Studies, xvi; Y. Renouard, ‘La capacité du tonneau Bordelais au Moyen Âge’, Annales du Midi, 65:23 (1953), 395–403.
- 57.
Statutes of the Realm, vol. 1, 350 (31 Edw. III, st. 2, c. 5); Statutes of the Realm, vol. 2, 222 (2 Hen. VI, c. 14); 313 (15 Hen. VI, c. 17).
- 58.
TNA, SC 8/199/9901.
- 59.
S. Lavaud, ‘Futailles et mesures du vin de Bordeaux au Moyen Âge’, Revue archéologique de Bordeaux, civ (2013), 29–42.
- 60.
E. M. Carus-Wilson, O. Coleman, England’s Export Trade, 1275–1547 (Oxford, 1963), 13–16; Dyer states there were 12,000 herring per last (C. Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850–1520 [Yale, 2002], 205) as per the Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris in Statutes of the Realm, vol. 1, 204. Yet the last used in Yarmouth by tradition consisted of 13,200 herring, see ‘Herring Fishery’, The London reader of literature, science, art and general information, 14:357 (1870), 423–4.
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Blackmore, R. (2020). Introduction. In: Government and Merchant Finance in Anglo-Gascon Trade, 1300–1500. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34536-5_1
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