The Court of Edward II

‘To subject the north of the country to his rule’: Edward III and the ‘Lochindorb Chevauchée’ of 1336

“…78 Although Edward I did not 'conquer' northern Scotland, his two expeditions in the area probably lingered in the collective English memory. 79 His second campaign in particular, in 1303, perhaps served as a template for Edward III's own plans for settling his Scottish problem. Edward I had led his armies through northern Scotland to demonstrate his ability to unleash destruction against his Scottish enemies, wherever their location.…”

Royal charter witness lists and the politics of the reign of Edward IV

“…10 It was for this reason that charters were witnessed while letters patent were not. 17 While kings had come as a matter of course to grant and delegate authority and powers elsewhere, for example to their officers of state or in creating or enlarging palatine powers, in doing so they were curtailing the sovereign authority of the crown which underpinned the entire political system. 11 The letter patent was more flexible than the charter and by the fifteenth century the latter was going the way of the Anglo-Saxon charter which itself had been superseded for most purposes by the writ: while Edward II had issued an average of forty-eight charters per year and Richard II had issued an average of thirteen and a half, Edward IV issued an average of only five annually.…”