The job of an English king
An English king in the Middle Ages was expected to do several things at once. He was war leader, chief judge, protector of the Church, and the head of a landholding system in which almost everyone held land from someone above. The crown was both a person and an institution, and its practical business changed between the Norman conquest of 1066 and the end of the fifteenth century. This article looks at the working duties of the English crown. The ideas behind royal authority generally are covered in the wider discussion of kingship, and the machinery of officials in the article on royal administration.
Keeping the peace and giving justice
The ruler’s first duty, according to his coronation oath, was to maintain peace and justice. Over time this made the king the center of the legal system. Disputes could be brought to royal courts. Serious crimes were treated as breaches of the king’s peace. Royal judges traveled the counties to hear cases, and the king remained a final source of appeal and mercy. Pardons were an important royal power and a way to reward loyalty or end disputes.
Justice also earned money. Fines, fees and the sale of writs brought revenue into the treasury, which gave kings a financial reason to expand royal jurisdiction as well as a political one.
Raising money and taxes
Kings were expected to “live of their own,” meaning to meet ordinary costs from the income of royal lands and customary dues. This was rarely enough, especially in wartime. Rulers drew on:
- Feudal dues, such as payments when a tenant’s heir took over land, and the right to guardianship of underage heirs.
- Scutage, a payment in place of military service.
- Customs duties on exports like wool, which became an important source in the later Middle Ages.
- Taxes on movable goods, approved by assemblies, which grew into a regular part of government.
- Loans from merchants and Italian banking firms, which were risky for lenders when kings defaulted.
- Income from the Jewish community, which was heavily taxed until the expulsion from England in 1290.
By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a custom took hold that extraordinary taxes needed the consent of Parliament, which met more regularly as kings sought funds for foreign wars. This tied the growth of Parliament closely to royal finance. When taxes were too heavy or poorly explained, resentment could explode. The poll tax of 1380 and the rising of 1381 are the best-known example.
War leadership
A king was expected to lead his army, or at least to command it. Several English kings fought in person, and defeat or capture could be disastrous. Warfare involved wars in France, in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and civil conflict at home. The long Hundred Years War shaped royal policy for generations, affecting taxation, the relationship with Parliament and the position of nobles who gained from campaigns.
The king also had to maintain order by controlling castles and holding the loyalty of the great magnates. Military service was owed by tenants in return for their lands, though by the later Middle Ages kings increasingly paid soldiers under contract.
A court on the move
Medieval English kings were itinerant. Rather than ruling from a single capital, they traveled around the kingdom with their household. Reasons included the practical need to consume food from royal estates, the pleasure of hunting, the chance to show royal presence to subjects and the need to visit places where trouble might arise. Roads were often poor, and a royal party could be large, so the journey was slow and the logistics demanding. The ordinary condition of road travel affected government itself.
Kings stayed in royal manors and castles, in hunting lodges, and as guests at monasteries and in the houses of nobles, which could be costly for hosts. Over time, government offices became more fixed. Westminster, beside London, developed as a center for the Exchequer and law courts, and London grew in importance. Even so, the king himself continued to travel, and a royal castle household remained part of the fabric of government.
Patronage and the nobility
Rewarding supporters was a key task. Kings granted land, offices, wardships and marriages to maintain loyalty. Favoritism could cause bitterness, and kings who seemed to hand too much to a few favorites faced criticism. The balance was delicate, since a king needed to reward loyal service but also to keep any single noble from becoming too powerful.
Limits on the crown
The English crown was never absolute. Several limits stand out.
- Custom and the coronation oath, which set expectations for how a king would rule.
- Magna Carta and its reissues, which stated that the king must follow the law and respect certain rights, at least for free men.
- Parliament and councils, which grew as places to grant taxes and present petitions. In 1258 a group of barons imposed a scheme of reform on Henry III, the Provisions of Oxford, which tried to put the king under the supervision of a council. It did not last, but it shows the ambition of the baronial opposition.
- The threat of deposition. Edward II was removed in 1327 and Richard II in 1399. These events showed that a king who lost the confidence of the magnates and the Church could lose his throne, though there was no clear legal procedure for it.
Later, the dynastic struggles known as the Wars of the Roses revealed how fragile royal authority could be when a king was weak and noble factions competed.
A shared project
Historians stress that the English crown worked best when it cooperated with the political community. The king had unusual resources and prestige, and the realm had a relatively small, centralized territory, but he still needed the cooperation of nobles, bishops, sheriffs and townspeople. The relationship was one of negotiation as much as command, and the balance shifted from reign to reign depending on the personality and success of the ruler.