Chapter 8: The Middle Ages – ‘The Beauchamp Era’

Holt and Little Witley parishes were both mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Bentley was included with Holt and not distinguished from it. Urso the Sheriff of Worcestershire held Holt at the time of Domesday. His estate consisted of 5 hides (about 600acres) with two ploughs (probably 8 oxen per team). There were 12 villagers and 24 smallholders with an additional 10 ploughs. A 12acre meadow and a woodland half a league square (1440 acres) were also in the parish. A hedged enclosure was also noted; this would have been for the capture of game such as deer and wild boar. A fishery (on the Severn presumably) was worth 5s and a salt house in Droitwich 13d. The total value was £6.

Urso also held neighbouring Little Witley’s one hide (30 acres) in 1086. He let one plough to Walter Ponther. There was a resident priest, two smallholders and a second plough in the manor. The woodland was three by two furlongs (60 acres). Both before the conquest and in 1086 the taxable value was 10s(15s in another contemporary source).

Urso de Abitot was born in Abbetot, Seine-Maritime, France. After the Conquest he had manors in almost every part of England. As hereditary sheriff his job was to keep this part of the new-conquered kingdom in subjection; it was necessary, therefore, that he should be powerful in order to withstand any neighbouring prince inclined to rebel. Urso, along with Walter de Lacy and Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, succesfully prevented the passing of the Severn by the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk, who were trying to join together their forces. Urso’s brother, Robert le Despencer was William the Conqueror's steward. He built Elmley Castle upon an eminence under Bredon Hill, and dying without issue, his manor and castle descended to Urso’s heirs through the Beauchamp family.

For the malnourished and poorly equipped medieval peasants, tilling the land was exhausting work. The hardwood cutting edges of the early ploughs barely scratched the soil. The furrows had to be cross-ploughed to open up the ground fully. This process required a great deal of manual effort that brought only a modest return. The iron plough became more widespread during the 12th century. Mounted on wheels, its most important feature was an iron ploughshare - the "blade" of the plough - and a mould board that turned over the soil as it was brought up. The invention of the harness collar was also a notable advance. It enabled horses and other animals to pull heavier loads without being strangled.

Throughout Europe, from the 11th century, large areas of forest were cleared and new villages were established. The peasants were cramped on the feudal tenures rented from the lords and strove to enlarge the space they could cultivate. The lords supported this undertaking because it increased the extent of land subject to rent. Furthermore, the fields carved out of the forest were filled with decomposed organic matter and fertilised by the ashes of felled trees, making them more productive than other fields. Normal yields were very low, just four to five grains produced for each seed planted.
Famine was commonplace. Too much or too little rain could easily ruin crops. Over time however, the standard of living very slowly began to improve. Spring cereals, such as barley and oats, and vegetable crops were introduced to regenerate the soil. Iron tools gradually replaced wooden ones, and blacksmith's forges sprang up in every village. Peasants slowly found themselves better equipped to dominate the natural environment.

Serfs were peasants permanently attached to a feudal manor. They were inherited by each new lord of a manor, and had few legal rights. A lord's requirements of his serfs could vary greatly from region to region, even from one manor to another. Rent on lands used by peasants was paid in kind - agricultural produce - or in money. A direct tax was paid for the military protection provided by the lord and his knights. Other taxes were levied only on serfs - for example, a tax collected on marriages to serfs outside the manor, and death duties. The overseer was the most feared man on the manor. Acting on behalf of his master, he organised the work, collected rents and taxes, and often quashed peasant resistance with great cruelty.

The lord had many sources of revenue. His subjects had to pay for the use of the oven, mill, press, forge, and washhouse on the manor. The lord also received a percentage on sales at fairs and markets in his territory and was able to set up tollbooths on the roads of his manor. He was allowed to sell his wine at the best price before the peasants could sell their grape harvests. When his laws were disobeyed he imposed fines, thus further lining his coffers. Exercising justice was also the lord's prerogative. Small crimes - such as petty theft and public disorder - were punishable by fines paid to the lord. Serious crimes could result in expulsion from the manor, corporal punishment or the death penalty.

The feudal system embodied a set of ideals. A feudal lord in exchange for obedience and service gave the vassal land. The lord in return ensured his protection and looked after his needs. Feudal institutions created bonds between those who held political power, the nobles, and those who had the military power, the knights.

After the conquest the new manorial lords quickly went about putting their physical mark on the landscape. This generally took the form of rebuilding the parish churches in the Norman style.

A Deer Park that was situated immediately to the south of Holt church may have predated the Norman Conquest. However deer parks came in to the own in the Middle Ages. They were the larders and training grounds of the Norman manorial lords. Urso's and his descendants would have utilised the park whenever they resided or held court in Holt. Hunting in the park supplied venison for the lord’s dinner table, and at the same time helped the nobility keep physically fit for future battles on horseback. In unenclosed forests hunting also rid the land of predators such as wolves that attacked livestock.

Holt Deer Park in the twelth century

The Plantagenet kings of England were powerful figures in European politics and warfare. The Plantagenet dynasty ruled England from 1154 to 1399. Its founder, Henry II (1133-89), was a major power in France - as Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, and Duke of Aquitaine - before he came to the English throne. He ruled England as only part of his domains, spending much of his time and energy on his possessions in continental Europe. Technically, Henry was a vassal of the French king for his domains in France, but he was too powerful to accept this position.

Warfare between the Plantagenets and the Capetian kings of France became common. The stage of this conflict that began in 1337 is known as the Hundred Years War. The Plantagenets spoke Norman French, rather than English, but their rule saw a growth in English national consciousness. This was partly a result of constant wars with France, which made both English and French people more aware of their separate identities.

The use of English gradually developed at court, as shown in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1345-1400) at the court of the last Plantagenet king, Richard II. The Plantagenet period also saw the beginning of a specifically English view of the rights of subjects against the king, enshrined in the Magna Carta of 1215. In 1265, it witnessed the first English Parliament to which knights of the shire and representatives of towns, as well as nobles and church dignitaries, were called.

Holt and Little Witley manors passed to the Beauchamp family when Emeline de Abitot, the daughter and heiress of Urso de Abitot, married Walter de Beauchamp then owner of Elmley Castle. Walter’s father Hugh (Hugue) de Beauchamp, had been the companion in arms of William the Conqueror and obtained large estates in Hertford, Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire. He was the founder of the house of Beauchamp. In 1287 Little Witley manor was appended to Great Witley manor, which was under the Cooksey family, as part of a marriage trust agreement. A Cooksey heiress was married to Sir William Russell of Strensham in 1499, and Great Witley manor remained in Russell hands for over a hundred and fifty years. Little Witley manor followed the descendancy of Great Witley manor until the twentieth century.

The hereditary office of sheriff descended to the Beauchamps with the marriage of Walter and Emeline. It remained with the family until 1471, when Richard Nevill, the Earl of Salisbury, husband of Ann who the sister and sole heiress of Henry Beauchamp, Duke and Earl of Warwick, being slain in Barnet Field fighting against the King Edward IV, lost his office. King Henry I invested Walter with that sheriffalty. He obtained a grant from the same monarch (to whom he was a steward) of all the lands belonging to Roger de Worcester, with a confirmation of certain lands given to him by Adelise, widow of his father-in-law, the said Urso de Abitot.

Holt was held by successive Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick; one of the most powerful earldoms in the country. William (b. c1105), son of Walter and Emeline, inherited the estates and the royal stewardship. He was Sheriff of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire from his seat in Elmley Castle. King Stephen dispossessed him of the castle of Worcester and all his other honours and estates for his zeal in the cause of the Empress Maud. King Henry II restored these. Upon the levy of the assessment towards the marriage portion of King Henry's daughters, this powerful feudal lord certified his knight's fees to the amount of fifteen pounds. He married Maud Braose, daughter of William de Braose, Lord Braose, of Gower, and was succeeded, on his death in 1170, by his son William (b c1130).

Holt manor passed to his son William (b. c1130). William de Beauchamp married Joan Walerie, daughter of Thomas Walerie. He died before 1211, and was succeeded by his son, Walter (a minor, whose wardship and marriage Roger de Mortimer and Isabel, his wife, obtained for 3,000 marks).

Walter de Beauchamp (b. c1150, d. c1235) was appointed Governor of Hanley Castle in 1216-7, and entrusted with the custody of the same shire in that turbulent year. Walter married Bertha Braose daughter of William de Braose, Lord Braose, by whom he had two sons Walcheline and James. His younger son, James, was a given up as hostage to the King in order to prove his father’s faithfulness to the crown at a time when many barons were revolting.

Walcheline Walter (b. c1194, d.1236/1250) succeeded his father. He married Joane Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer, Lord Mortimer, but died in the same year as his father, being succeeded by his only son, William. William (b. 1215, Elmley Castle, d. 1269) had a number of children including sons, Walter, John and William. He was 5th Baron Beauchamp of Elmley Castle. In 1252-3 he attended King Henry III into Gascoigne, and in two years afterwards marched under the banner of Robert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, against the Scots. In 1256 he had summons with other illustrious persons to meet the king at Chester on the feast day of St. Peter de Vincula, well fitted with horse ands arms to oppose the incursions of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales. Lord Beauchamp married Isabel Mauduit, daughter of William Mauduit, of Hanslape, co. Bucks, heritable chamberlain of the exchequer, and sister and heiress of William Mauduit, Earl of Warwick (who inherited that dignity from his cousin, Margery de Newburgh, Countess of Warwick, in the year 1263). Lord Beauchamp made his will in 1268.

Walter (b. c1243 at Elmley Castle, d. c1302/3) was to posses Beauchamp's Court, in Alcester, Warwickshire, and Powick, Worcestershire, and become Steward of the Household of King Edward I and constable of Gloucester Castle. William jun. was to become Earl of Warwick. The first Earl of Warwick was created early in the reign of King William II and was Henry de Newburgh (d. 1123), a baron of the Norman exchequer who spent most of his time in Normandy. His grant as earl brought him the large estates of the Saxon leader Thurkill of Arden in Warwickshire.

William 5th Baron Beauchamp had already given Holt to his son John (b. c1245, d. c1298), in the mid-thirteenth century. Richard succeeded his father John. His son John, who was only eight years old when he received the manor on his father’s death in 1327, followed Richard. John served as the Member of Parliament for Worcestershire on six occasions between 1352 and 1380. At that time the county returned two members or shire knights. The county had less than thirty electors, but each of these represented the views of a larger number of landowners and yeoman. Parliament met irregularly and not always in London, to discuss affairs of state.

Knights on horseback were the elite troops of medieval European warfare. At a time when peasants travelled on foot and merchants on the backs of mules, owning a horse made a knight a person of higher social standing. Accompanied by equerries, attendants who carried shields and took care of the animals, knights had expensive equipment: a sword and lance, a helmet, and a coat of mail. The mounted knights formed the elite of medieval armies. At that time, 100 knights were considered to be worth 1,000 infantrymen. The lives of mounted knights were often spared in battle. They were captured and held to ransom. This fulfilled one of the main purposes of medieval warfare - making money.

A Medieval military camp

Shire knights earned the favours of the crown by serving as knights in the king’s army. Thus John Beauchamp took part in several battles associated with Edward III's campaigns in France during the Hundred Years War. He fought in all Edward III's campaigns in France. Battles he fought in included Sluys in 1340, Crecy in 1346 where the French mounted knights were routed by English archers, and the siege of Calais in 1347. He fought alongside the Black Prince when the French king was taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers in 1356. He served as Captain of Calais in 1348 and 1349, and then later in the latter year as Admiral of the fleet to protect Calais approaches.

The war campaigns did not all go favourably for Beauchamp for in 1351 the king had to pay a ransom to have him released from captivity in France. That Sir John was captured for ransom reflects his status in the eyes of his French adversaries on the battlefield. That the king paid his ransom reflects his status in the eyes of the English royal household. For his services the king granted Beauchamp the income from various estates, priories (including Astley) and customs (taxes). Throughout the 1350's, 60's and 70’s Beauchamp attended at the Royal Court as a personal adviser to the king, gaining ever-greater favours, rewards, responsibilities and incomes.

A knight yields on the battlefield

No doubt using his influence with the King, John Beauchamp obtained a grant to hold a fair at ‘Le Rode’ in Holt. The fair was to be held every 22 July, St Mary Magdalene’s feast day. Beauchamp served as a Justice of the Peace for long periods in both Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and later also in Gloucestershire. He sat on various Worcestershire commissions.

John Beauchamp retained and increased his trusted position in the Royal Court when the Black Princes' son, Richard II, succeeded to his uncles throne in 1377. Eight years later Beauchamp accompanied the king on his military expedition in to Scotland, for which he became a 'kings knight' or sir. The king was particularly impressed by the 'fine company of men-at-arms and archers' that were contributed by Beauchamp 'at very great expense'. In further recognition of his services, on 10 October 1387 Sir John was granted a peerage and barony - Lord of Beauchamp and Baron of Kidderminster. He was the first baron with remainder to his heirs male created 'by patent' , but baronies by writ also continued to be created long after this date.

.Bromley Tabard in Holt Church

These were turbulent times for having survived the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, provoked by the imposition of a poll tax, Richard II's desire to strengthen his power as monarch brought him into conflict with the leading nobles of England. This culminated in 1399 when Henry Bolingbroke (1366-1413) led an armed revolt against the king. Richard was dethroned and later murdered. Bolingbroke became king as Henry IV, ending Plantagenet rule and founding the rule of the House of Lancaster.

Beauchamp's fall from grace was dramatic, for within weeks of being granted his peerage and barony, the Kings forces were defeated in a skirmish at Radcot Bridge. As a result the kings favourites, including Sir John, were purged. Following imprisonment in Dover Castle then the Tower of London, Sir John was impeached by 'the Merciless Parliament' on 12 March 1388. Having survived numerous military campaigns and the Black Death that was ravaging England at the time, he was executed on Tower Hill on 12 May the same year.

At the time of his death Sir John Beauchamp of Holt, Lord of Beauchamp, Baron of Kidderminster, had manors, estates and properties throughout the midland shires and beyond. Holt was still however his principal manor and his lands included some in Little Witley. It is thought that John Beauchamp built Holt Castle.

Holt Castle

On Sir John's execution parliament expropriated all his lands and possessions, and leased them out to various parties. Holt manor was obtained by his distant cousin, Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

The fourteenth century had been one of famine, Black Death and constant warfare. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, the population of England had grown. Now agricultural output was inadequate to feed the population, particularly the town dwellers. The result was malnutrition and famine. The outbreak of a plague known as the Black Death, beginning in 1348, struck an already weakened population. Periodically returning, the plague claimed the lives of a third of the population in some regions of Europe.

The main conflict of the 14th century was between France and England. Through the 14th and 15th centuries, kings strove to strengthen their authority at the expense of the great feudal barons. Measures were taken to strip them of their independence. Monarchs also tried to restrict the rights of the papacy. Even within the Church, people influenced by new feelings of nationalism began to protest against the power of Rome.

John Beauchamp junior, son of Sir John Beauchamp was a ten year old minor at the time of his fathers death. An aunt looked him after until he joined the Earl's household in 1396. The following year, having attained full age he married Isabel Ferrers, niece of the Countess of Warwick. Unfortunately John neglected to seek the Earl's permission for the marriage, thereby forfeiting the Manor of Holt to the Earl, until he paid a fine of 250 marks. The Merciless Parliament reversed its earlier decision in 1398, returning all his fathers lands and title to John.

In the early medieval period, armies were built on personal duties and loyalties. Every powerful feudal lord exercised his right to raise and maintain an army of vassals, who owed him loyalty and service, particularly in time of war. From the 12th century onward, the obligation to perform military service was gradually replaced by a tax paid in money. This revenue enabled the wealthiest lords to hire mercenaries - professional soldiers who sold their services to the highest bidder.

As military engagements became more professional, the effectiveness of strategy gradually replaced the pure courage of the traditional knights. The increasing use of longbows and crossbows had, by the 14th century, made infantry more effective than knights, although knights continued to enjoy the highest social prestige. The increasing supremacy of the archer was no more evident than at Agincourt where Henry V's small English army massacred the French nobility in 1415.

Longbowmen

John Beauchamp fought alongside Richard II on only one occasion, in Ireland in 1399. On his return from this second military expedition to Ireland Richard found that his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, the son of John of Gaunt, had returned from and placed himself at the head of a formidable army. Bolingbroke captured Richard in Wales, and brought him to London, where on September 30, 1399, he formally resigned the crown. On the following day his abdication was ratified by Parliament, which then confirmed Bolingbroke as King Henry IV. Richard was secretly confined in Pontefract Castle, where he either died of starvation or was murdered in February 1400.

For having supported Richard in Ireland, John Beauchamp was stripped of his honours in 1400, but retained his estate. Other supporters of Richard were more obvious in their support of the deposed king, and no doubt suffered worse fates when they lead a doomed rebellion in 1400. John never managed, or didn't attempt, to win the favour of the Henry IV or his successor Henry V. Instead he became a locally important member of the Worcestershire gentry. He was elected to parliament in 1401, 1404 and 1414, not however attaining the rank of Knight of the Shire until his third election. He served as a Justice of the Peace from 1404, as under-sheriff of the county on several occasions, and sat on or managed several local and county commissions.

In 1420 Sir John Beauchamp died without male heir. At that time he held the manors of Holt and Hanley, near Tenbury, four more in Warwickshire, weirs and fisheries in Ombersley and several properties in the city of Worcester. In the absence of a male heir the barony became extinct. His twenty-year-old daughter, Margaret succeeded him, but Holt Manor was split in to three parts, each following a different female line of descent. Margaret married firstly John Pauncefoot and, secondly, John Wyshaw, who in 1428 was holding the manor for her.

The square fields to the south of Holt Castle were formed when the Deer Park was enclosed following the death of Sir John Beauchamp.

In the mid thirteenth century Walter de Beauchamp, Sheriff of Warwickshire, granted the manor of Great Witley to his deputy Hugh de Poher/Poer. In 1287 Little Witley manor was appended to Great Witley manor, under Hugh Cooksey of Upton Warren, as part of a dowry agreement on his marriage to Juliana le Poer, daughter of Hugh. Little Witley manor then followed the descendancy of Great Witley manor until the early twentieth century. In 1287 Great Witley manor passed to Walter Cooksey, then to his son Walter. It followed the descent of the Cookseys of Upton Warren until the death of Thomas (1498-9) when it passed to Robert Russell of Strensham, an heir through a female line. The manor then remained in Russell hands for over a hundred and fifty years. The Russells replaced the thirteenth century manor house at Great Witley with a grander edifice that was to later develop in to Witley Court.