Biography of Walter Manny 1st Baron Manny 1310-1372

Chronicle of Geoffrey the Baker of Swynebroke. In the same year [1337], the king wrote explanatory letters detailing the origins of the hostilities that had arisen between himself and the tyrant of France. He entrusted these to his loyal knight Walter de Mauny (age 27)¹ (called 'le Magne'), a Burgundian, to be delivered to the Counts of Hainault, Guelders, and Jülich. All of these pledged², through their sealed letters, friendship and fidelity to the king against all unjust adversaries. During the course of his embassy, the aforementioned Walter de Mauny, seeking to avenge the blood of two Englishmen³ who, while in search of fresh water by ship, had been murdered by the inhabitants of a certain island near Flanders, ordered all he found on that island to be put to the sword. This was carried out effectively, under his own direction. There also he captured the brother of the Count of Flanders, whom he brought to the King of England. The king received him graciously, honoured him with fine gifts, horses, and jewels, and then sent him back to Flanders at liberty.

Eodem quoque anno scripsit literas expositorias inicia inimiciciarum inter ipsum et tirannum Francie exortarum continentes, quas Waltero le Magne, militi suo fideli, Burgundinensi, tradidit deferendas comitibus Hannonie, Gelrie, et Iuliacensi; qui omnes amiciciam et contra omnes iniustos suos adversarios fidelitatem regi per eorum literas patentes compromiserunt. Prefatus Walterus le Magne, pro tempore sue legacionis vindicaturus sanguinem duorum Anglicorum, quos quesituros navibus aquas recentes indigene cuiusdam insule iyxta Flandriam necuere, omnes quos invenit in eadem insula iussit in ore gladii trucidari; quod effectualiter fuit impletum, ipso prestante. Ibidem eciam cepit germanum comitis Flandrie, quem rex Anglie sibi adductum, pulcris muneribus, equis, et iocalibus honouratum, Flandriam remisit cum libertate.

Note 1. Sir Walter Mauny, or Manny, was the son of a knight of Hainault, and was born at Valenciennes, thus being a fellow townsman of Froissart. He came to England in the train of queen Philippa. He was knighted in 1331, and rapidly rose to distinction, serving in the various campaigns of Edward's reign. He was summoned to parliament, as baron, in 1347; became K.G. in 1359; and died in January, 1372. He married Margaret, daughter of Thomas of Brotherton, earl of Norfolk.

Note 2. The formal agreement with the counts of Hainault and Guelders and the marquis of Juliers, to levy troops, is dated 24th May 1337. Fœdera, ii. 970. The principal ambassador, with whom however many others were associated, was Henry Burghersh or Burwash, bishop of Lincoln.

Note 3. Baker here simply follows Murimuth. The attack on Cadzand, an island at the mouth of the western Scheldt, which was held by Guy, bastard brother of Louis of Flanders, was the object of an organized expedition under the earl of Derby. The garrison was routed on the 10th November 1337.

Chronicle of Geoffrey the Baker of Swynebroke. 1343. In the nineteenth year of the king's reign, Henry, Earl of Derby¹, later created Duke of Lancaster, and the Earls of Devon (age 39) and Pembroke (age 23), as well as Lord Ralph Stafford (age 41); not yet Earl of Stafford but still a baron, and Lord Walter de Mauny (age 33), were sent to Gascony. There, having conquered walled towns and castles, they won many glorious battles with great bravery. The town of Aiguillon, which they captured by assault, was placed under the guardianship of Ralph of Stafford. Afterward, they moved against other towns, such as Bergerac, which due to its strength was called "the chamber of the French," and also Saint-Jean, La Réole, and many other large, strong, and well-fortified places, which they captured through great effort and perilous assaults. In these campaigns, the Duke of Lancaster fought in underground tunnels, which were being dug to undermine the towers and walls, and suffered fierce attacks from the valiant defenders, fighting hand-to-hand against the besieged. And, something unheard of before, he knighted both Gascon and English soldiers in those very tunnels. Indeed, by conquering towns, cities, castles, and fortresses numbering two hundred and fifty, he marched across a large part of Gascony and advanced as far as Toulouse. There, he invited the ladies of Toulouse and noble maidens, through letters, to dine with him, his fellow nobles, and Lord Bernard de Libreto¹, a loyal Gascon. But, with God's protection, he did no harm to the city or its inhabitants, except for instilling in them unbearable terror, as those who had been besieged later told me. The terror was such that even mendicant friars took up arms, and the Prior of the Carmelite order of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toulouse, bearing a silver banner with a golden image of the Virgin, led the citizens of his quarter from the walls. He raised his banner in defense³, and by this display, he stirred pious devotion in the duke and many in the army, though some mocked him as well.

Anno Domini MCCCXLV, regis XIX, Henricus comes Derbie, postea dux Lancastrie creatus, et comes Devonie et comes Pembrochie et dominus Radulfus, nondum comes Staffordie set baro, et dominus Walterus de Magne Vasconiam destinantur; ubi, conquisitis villis muratis et castris, multa gloriosa certamina fortiter vicerunt. Villam Daguiloun per insultum adquisitam deputabant custodie Radulphi Staffordie. Postea diverterunt se ad alias villas, ut Brigerak, vocatam pre sua fortitudine 'cameram Francorum,' et ad villam sancti Iohannis et de la Ruele et alias multas grandes et fortes et bene munitas, quas magnis laboribus et insultibus periculosis adquisierunt. Ibi dux Lancastrie, militans in fossatis subterraneis que pro diruendis turribus et muris effodiebantur, graves a virilibus defensoribus insultus paciebatur, et manualiter contra obsessos dimicavit, et, quod antea fuit inauditum, in eiisdem fossatis milites tam Vascones quam Anglicos effecit. Quippe villas, civitates, castra et fortalicia ducentas l. conquirendo, magnam partem Vasconie et usque Tolosam transequitavit, ubi dominas Tolosanas et virgines nobiles per suas literas ad convivandum secum et suis comitibus et domino Bernardo de Libreto, Aquitannico fideli, invitavit. Set, civitatem Deo conservante, nihil eius incolis malefecit, nisi quod terrorem intollerabilem, ut obsessi mihi retulerunt, eiis intulit; ita quod, religiosis mendicis ad arma compulsis, prior Carmelitarum beate Marie Tolose, sub vexillo argenteo ymaginem auream beate Virginis habente, de quarterio sui incolatus civibus prefectus, ostendens suum vexillum ad muros, per armorum errancias descriptum ducem ad devocionem piam et quam plures de exercitu, atque nonnullos ad derisionem, provocavit.

Note 1. Henry of Grosmont (age 33) succeeded as earl of Lancaster, 22nd September 1345, and was created duke on the 6th March, 1352. Hugh Courtenay succeeded as earl of Devon in 1341; died in 1377. Laurence de Hastings was created earl of Pembroke, 12th October 1339; died in 1348. Ralph de Stafford succeeded as baron Stafford in 1308, and was created earl on the 5th March, 1351; died in 1372.

Baker is very confused as to the capture of the different places. Bergerac was first taken on the 24th August 1345, Aiguillon, early in December, La Réole, in January 1346. The Saint-Jean-d'Angely was not taken till September 1346. Derby did not go near Toulouse, although it is not impossible that some incursion was made thither. Baker says that he had his information from persons who were besieged there; but he was quite capable of confusing events, and he is most probably referring to the expedition of 1349.

Note 2. Bernard, sire d'Albret; died 1358.

Note 3. This seems to mean: by the procession of his banner, on which the picture of the Virgin stood for his armorial device.

Chronicle of Geoffrey the Baker of Swynebroke. But eventually, it violently invaded Gloucester, then Oxford, then London, and finally all of England, so that scarcely one in ten of either sex survived. As graveyards became insufficient, open fields were chosen for the burial of the dead. The Bishop of London¹ purchased a plot called 'Nomanneslond' in London, and Lord Walter de Mauny acquired a place called 'the new churchyard,' where he founded a religious house for the burial of the dead. Court proceedings in both the King's Bench and Common Bench necessarily ceased. Few nobles died, among them Lord John de Montgomery², captain of Calais, and the Lord of Clisteles, both of whom died in Calais and were buried with the friars of the Blessed Mary of Carmel in London. The number of common people who perished was beyond counting, and likewise the multitude of religious and other clerics—known only to God—passed away.

Set tandem Gloverniam, immo Oxoniam atque Londonias, et finaliter totam Angliam tarn violenter invasit, quod vix decimus utriusque sexus superfuerat. Cimiteriis non sufficientibus, campi eligebantur mortuorum sepulture. Episcopus Londoniensis emit illam croftam 'Nomanneslond' vocatam Londoniis, et dominus Walterus de Magne illam que vocatur 'þe newe chierche hawe,' ubi fundavit domum religiosorum ad sepeliendum morientes. Placita in bancis u regio et communi necessario cessavere. Pauci proceres moriebantur, de quibus erant dominus Johannes de Montgomurri, capitaneus Calesie, et dominus de Clisteles, in Calesia mortui et apud fratres beate Marie de Carmelo Londoniis sepulti. Wlgus innumerum, et religiosorum atque aliorum clericorum multitudo soli Deo nota, migravere.

Note 1. Stow, Survey of London, ed. 1754-5, ii. 60: 'Ralph Stratford, bishop of London, in the year 1348, bought a piece of ground called No Man's Land, which he inclosed with a wall of brick and dedicated for burial of the dead; built thereupon a proper chapel, which is now enlarged and made a dwelling-house. And this burying-place is become a fair garden, retaining the old name of Pardon Church-yard.' Sir Walter Manny purchased an adjoining piece of land of more than thirteen acres, the site of the Charterhouse which he founded in 1371. Stow says that he had seen a stone cross which stood in Manny's cemetery, bearing an inscription which recorded the burial of 50,000 victims of the plague.

Note 2. He died in 1348, for John Beauchamp was appointed captain of Calais on the 1st January, 1349. Owing to the transposition of words in the Bodleian MS. (or, at least, in the MS. which he used) Stow (Annales, 386) has made 'Lord Clisteles ' captain of Calais. Who this Clisteles was, does not appear. He was, however, probably of the family of the lords of Ghistelles in Flanders. Wulfart de Ghistelles was in Edward's service, and was the officer who captured Poix in the Crécy campaign. The name is not found in the list of persons buried in the church of the White Friars, in Stow's Survey (i. 742). There is however an Elianor Gristles, or Gistles, who may have been one of his family. Bourgeois de Valenciennes, 225: When King Edward of England had stayed at Poissy for about six days and saw and understood that he was enclosed by the waters of the Somme and that the king (of France) was not coming toward him to fight or otherwise, he held a council and resolved to depart from Poissy. Then the Earl of Warwick and Lord Godfrey of Harcourt and their division set out first, riding ahead, and King Edward of England and his host followed, with the rearguard behind them, marching in ordered formations. They burned and pillaged the town of Poissy upon leaving, but the abbey was spared. The host then marched through the Beauvais region, where they did great damage, burning the suburbs of Beauvais and much of the surrounding area. They came upon the abbey and the town of Beaupré, which they burned, along with Marseilles and all the towns as far as Poix. They burned that town as well, but the castle would not surrender. Then Lord Wulfart of Ghistelles assaulted the castle of Poix with a great number of archers, and those within the castle defended themselves vigorously. There was a fierce assault, with many wounded and killed. In the end, the castle was taken by force, then destroyed and burned, and all those inside were killed. The English then departed, having taken the spoils and prisoners from the town; the gain was theirs.