Chaucer, the Customs, and the Hainault Connection

Chaucer, the Customs, and the Hainault Connection ThomasJ. Garbaty University ofMichigan Te long yms ofservice which Geoffrey Chaucer dedicated ro rhe crown were interrupted seriously at only one point. On December 4, 1386, he turned over the rolls of his offices of controller of Customs and Petty Customs to Adam Yardley and Henry Gisors, respectively. He was officially unemployed until the king proclaimed his majority in 1389. Why did Chaucer leave the Customs? With the help of Robert 1. Baker's customs history 1 and a fresh look at theLife-Records,2 we may find a possible answer to this question and, in the process, even an important key to Chaucer's political survival. In 1275, Parliament permitted Edward I to levy duties on export wool, woolfells, and hides, and officials were placed in the several ports to collect the required dues. The English Customs administration can be said to date from this time. There were three officials: the tronager, who weighed the wool; the collector, who took in the money, kept the books, or rolls, and placed one half (foil) of his cocket seal on the rolls; and, finally, the controller, who personally kept the counter rolls and who by using the other half of the cocket seal validated a customs receipt to the Exchequer. The controllerships were born under an evil star. Early on, the crown used them for patronage, and in 1331 the controllers were first accused by the Exchequer ofnot serving personally in the ports, a most serious charge, for absenteeism went against the nature of the office, which required constant personal service, allowing for neither deputy nor trustee. Accord­ ing toBaker, "At most, only one ofthe controllers at London appointed up to the end ofEdward III's minority supervised the collection ofcustoms or 1 Robert L. Baker, "The English Customs Service, 1307-1343: A Study of Medieval Administration," Transactions ofthe American Philosophical Society 51, no. 6 (1961). 2 Martin M. Crow and Clair C. Olson, eds., Chaucer Life-Records (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). 95 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS wrote his own rolls."3 At Newcastle, Hull, and Southampton absentee controllers had their rolls written by deputies. Since the government under Edward II never rigorously required personal service as Edward I specified in 1275, the controllerships were ineffectual safeguards for the Treasury. Attempts at reform started with W illiam Airmyn, bishop of Norwich. The Ordinance of May 12, 1331, specifically demanded: Because of the great damages which our lord the king has received because his customs of wool, hides and woodfells were not collected diligently... nor the controllers did not remain at their office personally as the king intended, and that fraud proceededfrom thecontrollersor theirdeputies, thatcontrollersmust remain in person even for supervision of the weighing of the wool.4 Reform depended on the government's using men loyal to the interests of the crown, who depended on the king for their livelihood, and these were king's yeomen and king's clerks. However, since experience had shown that these civil servants, because of their manifold other duties, could not give consistent personal service, on May 12, 1331, the treasurer and council commissioned controllers who were residents of the ports to which they were assigned. From 1333 the personal service requirement became an integral part ofall future commissionsfor controllers, not even amended by royal license to appoint a deputy. Later the Walton Ordinances ofJuly, 1338, stated that controllers were to be elected locally by town officials. But now the danger was that the controllers would become puppets ofthe town oligarchs. In fact, in Chaucer's time many of the collectors were the town oligarchs, and the Walton changes were soon discarded. In 1339, Westmin­ ster again selected the controllers, and in 1340 exemptions from the personal service clause became more and more frequent. The Hull control­ ler was allowed a deputy whenever his other duties required it. Absen­ teeism was given official approval.5 Periodically all controllers were sweptfrom office. This happenedin 1331 under the bishop of Norwich, again in 1341, and to some extent also in 1386. In 1341 all controllers except those in Yarmouth, Ipswich, and London were to be replaced by men who had not...