Friendly Foreigners

International Warfare, Resident Aliens and the Early History of Denization in England, c.1250-c.1400

Bibliographic Data

ID9738346
AuthorsBart Lambert (0000-0002-4921-9420, Durham University, corresponding author), W M Ormrod (0000-0003-0044-726X)
Year2015
Volume130
Issue542
Pages1-24
Publication date2015-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/ceu344
OpenAlexW2076639889
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Friendly Foreigners practice. 2 But, since civil and canon lawyers had been operating in the royal writing offices since at least the 1340s, we may reasonably question whether the internal culture of the Chancery was sufficient to prompt a significant legal change two generations later. 3 Similar problems of timing and agency arise when trying to establish the possible link with early parliamentary legislation. The statute De natis ultra mare ('Of those born beyond the seas'), promulgated in 1351, determined that persons born abroad to English parents should be guaranteed the same status and rights as native-born subjects of the Crown. Because it makes such rights conditional on proof of the individual's allegiance to the king, this parliamentary statute is often held to constitute the vital precedent for the similar specification in later grants of denization. 4 Again, however, the statute provides no explanation of the date when, and form in which, letters of denization were actually enshrined in the diplomatic of the Chancery. arlier commentators, puzzled by the absence of an obvious primum mobile in the 1380s, took refuge in what Alice Beardwood called the 'antecedents' of denization and in the notion of a long, organic development over the course of the previous century. 6 Two distinct types of Chancery document have been identified as providing possible precedents for fully-fledged letters of denization. Firstly, and very exceptionally, there were royal statements, issued as early as 1295, that declared certain highly favoured individuals, as a matter of royal discretion, to have rights as 'pure English' (Anglicus purus). 7 Secondly, there were grants, traced back as far as 1252, to individuals who had already been admitted as citizens and burgesses of particular English towns and who sought confirmation of this status from the monarch in order to pursue their interests across the realm. Demand for these rights increased after 1303, in order that privileged aliens could achieve exemption from higher rates of customs duties. This type of grant was generally restricted to defining the individual's fiscal rights and obligations, which came to be the same as those enjoyed by denizens (velut indigena). They became an almost routine element of the Chancery's business in the course of the fourteenth century, and were offered without discrimination to members of a wide range of national 2. Kim, Aliens in Medieval Law, p. 52 and n. 87. 3

Alien · Allegiance · Context (archaeology · Political science · Politics · Realm · Subject (documents · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Medieval History and Crusades

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