Life After Taking Vows in the Late Medieval Yorkshire

G. R. Boynton
University of Iowa
For presentation at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds 2005

We have just heard two interesting presentations -- both based on a close reading of texts. Since I have no comparable texts so I must read lives. I will begin by telling you about Agnes [Boynton, 2003].

Agnes le Scrope was born and raised in Bolton Castle. [put up picture] Her great, great grandfather [Vale, 2005], Richard first lord Scrope of Bolton, had been a right hand man of Edward III in both peace and war, and he was handsomely rewarded by the king. Bolton Castle was one result. The castle rises high above the gentle slope on which it was built. [put up picture] When Agnes, as a young girl, climbed to the parapet her family's realm stretched as far as eye could see. It is an awesome sight, and must have been even more so for a young girl. Her family was also rich in tradition of governing the realm. Even before her great, great grandfather, Le Scropes had been involved in running the country for generations. Her grandfather had fought at Agincourt and was killed at the seige of Rouen. The Le Scropes of Bolton and their cousins at Masham were, after the Nevilles and the Percies, among the wealthiest and most important families in the north of England. It was a heady atmosphere in which the young Agnes grew up.

Agnes' father died before she married, and her mother arranged the marriage. Agnes married first for wealth. She was the daughter of a very wealthy family, but would have to depend on her husband for the lifestyle of the rest of her days. She married Christopher of Sedbury. His family had been important in Yorkshire society for as long as had the Le Scropes -- though they were never as wealthy or as important. His father, also named Christopher, had been a second son who made his way with the benefit of reputation but without the benefit of inheritance. He created a family fortune as a public lawyer. He was, at one time or another, on retainer to the city of York and the Priory at Durham. He was a member of the commission of peace for the North Riding for most of his adult life, and served on many ad hoc commissions of the king. He was executor of the wills of some very rich Yorkshire citizens. And when Robert Neville became prince bishop of Durham, Christopher was appointed to almost all of the public offices of that county. He too died before Agnes and his son married. So Joan, his wife, and Elizabeth Le Scrope arranged the joining of the two families. Agnes brought stature to the marriage and Christopher, the son, brought the fortune accumulated by his father.

Christopher was still a young man when he died; he and Agnes had been married only about 10 years. And Agnes married a second time. This time she married for political connection. It was the decade of Gloucester. The north, including Agnes' brother and cousin, were rallying to his side. And Agnes married Richard Ratcliff who was one of the closest advisors of the Duke. Agnes brought stature and wealth to the marriage; afterward her husband was known as Ratcliff of Sedbury. And Richard Ratcliff brought his connection to the Duke.

When the duke became Richard III they packed their bags and moved to Westminster where her husband participated in the coronation of the king and helped him rule -- becoming immortalized in the doggerel "the cat, the rat, and Lovell our dog rule all England under the hog." It was not meant as a compliment, but it did indicate his -- the rat's -- leadership in the government. However, very soon he died on the field of battle with his lord.

Agnes and family packed their bags again and headed back to Sedbury. One might think that Agnes was little more than a 'trailing wife' in this episode of her life except -- Henry VII was quite magnanimous upon taking the throne. He extended pardons to many of the supporters of Richard III. Apparently, he thought he needed the men of the north to defend the realm from the Scots more than he needed their heads. One of the pardoned supporters was Agnes. She was the only woman pardoned, which suggests that she may have been a good deal more than a trailing wife.

At this point Agnes must have said to herself -- two men in my life is enough. I am going to be lord of the manor. And she took the veil. It was a vow of chastity administered by a bishop in a ceremony before or after a mass. She promised, as had her grandmother before her,

In ye name of God, amen. I, Elizabeth Scrop, late wife to my worshipfull lord, John newly lord Scrop and of Masham, avow to be chaste fro this tyme forward, in ye presence of you, worshipfull fadir, John be ye grace of God bisshop of Philopolen, be ye auctorite yt ye have of my reverent fadir in God, William archiebisshop of Yorc, primat of England, and legate of ye court of Rome; and I bihote to lefe stably in this avow duryng my life. And in wittenes hereof I with myne owne hand make this subscripcon +. [Raine, 1865, p. 333]

That was the vow of her grandmother. Taking the vow required only keeping a man out of your bed. The vowess need not change attire, give up property or take up residence in a religious house. The major change in Agnes' life was she took charge of the family fortune.

She managed the land -- including trading land, which was one of the favorite pasttimes of the late fifteenth century. She saw her son knighted. She arranged for his marriage as her mother had before her. She took her new family to the Corpus Christi celebration. The Corpus Christi Guild was the who's who of Yorkshire, and she made sure that the other families knew that they had been joined by a new family.

Then she retired to Marrick Priory. It was a small priory half way between Bolton Castle where she had grown up and Sedbury where her family was living. On her death she left her copy of The Pilgrimage of the Soul to the priory.

Taking the veil was a turning point in her life. A turn toward independence; independence from the cultural norm of re-marriage. Women of property were expected to re-marry when their husbands died. Twice seems to have been enough for Agnes, and independence in running the family fortune was the result.

I want to see in this story the texture of social life -- the institutions of family, economy, religion, and state in which men and women negotiated their lives.

First, taking the veil.

Agnes was not unique in taking the veil, but it was quite an unusual act. In the nineteenth century James Raine searched the records of the bishops of the north of England making a list of women recorded as taking the veil [Raine, 1865]. The first he found occurred in 1338; the last in 1526. During those 188 years 128 women became vowesses, as they were called, which is considerably less than one per year. There were high and low points during the period. [put up graph] During the fourteenth century a woman became a vowess, on average, every fourth year. The first half of the fifteenth century that increased to one every third year. There was a big increase in the second half of the fifteenth century when the average became one and one half women taking the veil per year. And that dropped to just below one a year during the first quarter of the sixteenth century.

It was an unusual act that was, obviously, closely connected with the piety of the age. However, if Agnes can become our paradigmatic case its consequences reached across family, economy and state, as well.

If independence -- independence from cultural norms, indendence to manage one's own affairs -- was involved in taking the veil what would have led women to take this step?

Agnes' total experience, first in her family at Bolton and then at Sedbury, was being in the middle of managing estate and realm. Her families were deeply involved in managing both. Surely, some of that 'rubbed off,' and when it came time to marry again or establish her independence that 'rubbing off' predisposed her to independence.

That is a supposition, of course; to justify the supposition I need to find other women who experienced the same family environment of managing estate and state who then chose independence.

P. H. Cullen (1996) examined the stature of the families of women who took the veil. He found no peasants; it took wealth to get a bishop to hear your vow of chastity. However, his finding was based on examining the stature of the family these women married into. He did not look at the families into which they were born. Since I am looking for predisposition, experiences of childhood are likely to be very important. So I am looking for women with childhood experiences that might predispose them to independence.

Agnes's grandmother was such a woman. Elizabeth Chaworth le Scrope was born and grew up in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire where her family had held land for more than 250 years.

By the time her ancester, the first Thomas, was summoned to join the lords and advise Edward I the family could count four earlier generations. And Thomas joined one of the outstanding who's who in the western world -- the complete peerage [Complete Peerage].

Between the first Thomas and the fourth Thomas, her father, the family did the work of the realm and doubled its wealth. Her father married twice and managed to double the wealth one more time. By this point they were one of the wealthiest gentry families in the land with many manors in Derbyshire and Nottingshire to which were now added manors in Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and Buckinghamshire. It was a far flung estate through which the family moved overseeing the economy of their properties [Payling, S. J.].

But her father was equally involved in governing England. In 1401 he was made a knight of the royal body with an annual annuity of 40 marks which would continue through at least 1439. This seems to have meant work: he served in the campaigns against the Welsh and the Scots for Henry IV, then under Henry V at Agincourt. The work was not limited to warring, however. He was quite active in local government. He was a member of parliament on at least eight occasions, served five terms as sheriff, and was a justice of the peace for over fifty years.

It was not all work, either; there was learning as well. Elizabeth learned the history of England from the Chaworth Roll. [show top of roll] It was a 21 foot long history of England commissioned by the second Thomas in about 1320. At the top of the roll was a wheel of fortune surrounded by maps of England. "In the text inscribed inside the wheel, Lady Fortune says ‘Let me be called Lady Fortune: I govern everyone, rich and poor, and all people are under my command. Some I wish to raise up, others I reduce to poverty. […] No-one will escape death.’" [Fogg, 200]

That was followed by a king by king history of the country. [show kings] It "provides a succinct overview of English history seasoned with tales of traitors, piety, battles, saints, sinners and incidents of divine intervention." It seems to have been a precursor of the contemporary horrible histories. The Storming Normans, The Terrible Tudors, The Vicious Victorians, Cruel Kings and Mean Queens, Dark Knights and Dingy Castles, and many more were written by Terry Deary for precocious 8 to 10 year olds. By making fun of history he makes history fun. The same critical humor was the fun of the Chaworth Roll.

What is now called the Chaworth Roll was one of four commissioned by the second Thomas. He had one made for each of his daughters. It was the daughters of the family who were to learn that kings suffered the same foibles as ordinary human beings, that kings could become the objects of fun, and that kings were subject to the same Lady Fortune as were they. The daughters were expected to read and write and learn the history of their land. And along the way to be able to place themselves with respect to kings who were just human beings -- not on a pedestal or shrouded in mystery.

Efficacy is the word we would use today to describe these experiences of managing an estate, a state, and how history was learned.

Did other women have these same experiences? Certainly. Women who married men of wealth were born into and raised in families of wealth. There was only one Chaworth roll, but efficacy growing out of the experiences of managing estate and state was common among women of wealth.

So, efficacy was not enough. There were many more women with these experiences than took the veil. Something more was required.

Taking the veil was exceptional; it was not standard operating procedure. So how did the women who did it imagine themselves doing it? How could this become an imagined facet of their lives?

Perhaps, like Agnes, they knew someone who had already done it. If it was good enough for grandmother, maybe it is good enough for me -- Agnes may well have thought.

And that sends me on a search through wills to find connections between the women taking the veil [note].

This is a list of six women ordered by the date they took the veil.

We already know that Elizabeth and Agnes were grandmother and granddaughter. Otherwise there seems to be no connection between them -- other than they all took the veil.

If you reorganize the list as a family tree based on the connections between the women, rather than based on the name of a man, you get a picture that looks like this. [show picture]

Thomas Chaworth had a daughter Elizabeth [1] who married John le Scrope. She took the veil, after having a family, when he died. She had a daughter, Elizabeth [2], who married a Bolton le Scrope. Elizabeth [2] had a daughter Agnes who married, had a family, and took the veil when her husband died.

Thomas Chaworth had another daughter, also named Elizabeth, who married William Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth had a daughter, Joan, who married, had a family, and took the veil when her husband died.

William Fitzwilliam was the son of John Fitzwilliam and brother of Nicholas Fitzwilliam. Nicholas' wife Margery took the veil when he died.

And back to Agnes. Agnes was the granddaughter in law of Thomas whose son Henry had an heir William who had an heir Robert. Robert married Margaret del See. They had a family, he died and Margaret took the veil. She had a daughter Isabel who married Brian Tunstal the stainless knight. When he died at Flodden she took the veil.

And there are more in this network. I just cannot get them all onto a single page.

Another four women taking the veil:

Again there is no apparent connection between them, but they were related. [show routh picture] William Routh had two sons: Brian and John. Brian died shortly after his only child was born and Joan, his wife, took the veil. John's daughter, Alice, married Ralph Gascoigne. She took the veil after he died.

The connection to Ralph Gascoigne adds a third of the women, Alice Saville. [show routh-gascoigne picture] Ralph's father was William Gascoigne who was the brother of Alice who married John Saville. Alice Saville took the veil when her husband died.

And Alice Saville's husband leads to Joan Pilkington. [show routh-gascoigne-pilkington picture] Edmund and Robert Pilkington were brothers. Robert Pilkington's wife, Joan, took the veil after his death. Edmund's son, Thomas, had a daughter, Margaret, who married Thomas Saville. Margaret Saville was the mother of John Saville who was the husband of Alice. The Alice who was also the daughter of William Gascoigne.

How could these women imagine taking the veil for themselves? They knew someone who had already done it. Networks of relations feed the imagination.

There are more -- more family experiences that have been examined and more relations traced. And there is much more to be done before the story will be complete.

Taking the veil brought freedom from some of the normal constraints of society to the women who took the vow. It brought freedom to negotiate the institutions of society on one's own terms. Cullen, in "Vowesses and Female Lay Piety," focussed on taking the veil and piety. Erler, in "Three Fifteenth-Century Vowesses," focussed on taking the veil and managing businesses in London. I would rather put the focus on the opening up of possibilities and how the women were able to constitute their lives to their own liking.

Agnes put together her own version of family, economy and piety. She managed the family fortune. And some time after her son was old enough to inherit she retired to Marrick priory to reflect on the life she had put together for herself and contemplate the life she expected to be stretching out in front of her.

As I lay in a Seint Laurence nyght slepynge in bed, me bifel a ful mervaylous dreme which I shal reherse. Me thought that I hadde longe tyme trauailed toward the holy cite of Ierusalem and that I hadde made an ende and fully finished my flesshly pilgrimage, so that I myght no ferther trauayle vpon my food, but nede muste I leue behynde me my flesshly careyne.

The first lines of her The Pilgrimage of the Soul.

***********

Boynton, G. R. (2003) Agne's story is fully documented at
http://www.boyntons.us/yorkshire/people/sedbury/agnes/agnes01.html

The Complete Peerage, pp. 153-54

Cullum, P. H. (1996) Vowesses and Female Lay Piety in the Province of York, 1300-1530, Northern History, 1996, pp. 21-41.

Erler, Mary C. (1994) "Three Fifteenth-Century Vowesses," in Barron, C. M. and Anne F. Sutton, Medieval London Widows 1300-1500, The Hambledon Press, pp. 165-84.

Fogg, Sam (2005) description of the roll by the auction house.

Note: the relations between women taking the veil are based on volumes I through VI of Testamenta Ebor and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies. I have not figured out a satisfactory way to cite the specific passages.

Payling, S. J. (2005) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on line.

Raine, James, ed. (1865) Testamenta Eboracensia. A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York. vol. III. published for the Surtees Society, vol. 45

Vale, Brigette (2005) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on line.