History of corn milling .. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SOME FEUDAL MILLS. 43
Court and ; Henry IIL, with the concurrence of various ^„^^,U^„,.„„
r ^ '
SHREWSBURY
'^ i« 1
members of his council, seems to have retahated upon abbey
the monks by peremptorily quashing their pending '.
action, and permitting their spoliation in the interests o^'i "^^^^^^^^^
of the burgesses, who were then in high favour with the
1267.
sovereign. This punishment having been decided
upon, Henry, on September 23, 1267, '*
graciously
remitted to the said abbot and convent all the rancour
and indignation which he had conceived against them
by occasion of the trouble of the realm ; and pardoned
all the transgressions which they are said to have done
against him by adhering to S. [Simon], quondam Earl
of Leicester "
; and at the same time he extracted from
them for a purely formal favour ;^700 (present value).
It is, thus, quite clear by whose influence it was that
the monks had agreed in August to the one-sided
so-called compromise. The historians say ''the suit
must have terminated in their favour, for the words of
Henry's charter to them are express ;
but the discreet
ecclesiastics probably saw that the spirit of the age
was too far advanced to make it prudent for them to
press in its full rigour a monopoly
that it was not the ''
so hateful." It is
patent spirit of the age " that
was adverse to the monastic mills, but the spirit of the
burgesses of Shrewsbury. The ''spirit of the age"
advocated the then beneficial scheme of the wealthy
and powerful providing a sufficiency of properly
equipped mills throughout the country. In virtue of
that spirit the kingdom was filled with such feudally
supported mills ; and prince and squire, monk and
secular, even Henry III. himself, carefully maintained
them, and insisted upon their tenants using them.
What the discreet ecclesiastics really did see when
they agreed to give up their rights was the menacing
figure of Henry III. in the background of their
rebellious neighbours.