Or as when the Prior of
Wymondham impleads William de Calthorp for interfering with his
foldage at Burnham; Calthorp replying that the Prior had no right to
foldage, and that he (Calthorp) had the right to pull the fold down.
In these cases, of course, there would be a general gathering and a
riot, for every one's interest was at stake; but it was not only when
some general grievance was felt that people in those days were ready
for a row.
It really looks as if nothing was more easy than to collect a band of
people who could be let loose anywhere to work any mischief. One man
had a claim upon another for a debt, or a piece of land, or a right
which was denied--had the claim, or fancied he had--and he seems to
have had no difficulty in getting together a score or two of roughs
to back him in taking the law into his own hands. As when John de la
Wade in 1270 persuaded a band of men to help him in invading the
manor of Hamon de Clere, in this very parish of Tittleshall, seizing
the corn and threshing it, and, more wonderful still, cutting down
timber, and _carrying it off_. There are actually two other
cases of a precisely similar kind recorded this same year, one where
a gang of fellows in broad day seems to have looted the manors of
Dunton and Mileham; the other case was where a mob, under the
leadership of three men, who are named, entered by force into the
manor of Dunham, laid hands on a quantity of timber fit for building
purposes, and took it away bodily! A much more serious case, however,
occurred some years after this when two gentlemen of position in
Norfolk, with twenty-five followers, who appear to have been their
regular retainers, and a great multitude on foot and horse, came to
Little Barningham, where in the Hall there lived an old lady,
Petronilla de Gros; they set fire to the house in five places,
dragged out the old lady, treated her with the most brutal violence,
and so worked upon her fears that they compelled her to tell them
where her money and jewels were, and, having seized them, I conclude
that they left her to warm herself at the smouldering ruins of her
mansion.
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