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Murage was a medieval toll for the building or repair of town walls in England, Wales and Ireland.
| This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(January 2015) |
Murage was a medieval toll for the building or repair of town walls in England, Wales and Ireland.
The term murage, while having this specific meaning, could also refer to other aid for walls or to the walls themselves. It is generally applied to defensive town walls but can also refer to flood defences and sea walls. The tax was taken in many towns in Ireland and in English possessions in France. [1]
This was granted by the king by letters patent for a limited term, but the walls were frequently not completed within the term, so the grant was periodically renewed. Such grants sometimes specifically state that they were to be taken for the repair and maintenance of walls. In the later Middle Ages, many places had a vested[ clarification needed ] collection of murage.
The earliest grant was for Shrewsbury in 1218. (Actually, the grant is dated 26 June 1220.) [2] Other towns receiving early grants included Bridgnorth, Stafford, Worcester, Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol. Many of these places were in the west of England, and were particularly at risk from Welsh incursions.
Since the king's writ did not run in Wales, it is perhaps surprising that several Welsh towns also obtained murage grants. The first was for Hay on Wye in 1232, the year after the town was burnt by Llywelyn the Great. Other towns in Wales or the Welsh Marches having such grants included Oswestry, Radnor, Abergavenny, Carmarthen, Monmouth, Knighton, Montgomery, and Clun. Clun is now fully in England and Knighton partly so. However few such grants were made after 1283, after the completion of the Edward I's Conquest of Wales. A possible reason why the king's writ applied in the context of trade in Wales was that many merchants would be based in England and elsewhere and Welsh towns would need to show royal consent to tax powerful English of foreign merchants.[ clarification needed ]
Some of the walls were probably enclosing towns for the first time. Others, such as at Worcester, were extensions to walls in order to bring suburbs inside the town, or to fund the repair of existing walls, as was the case at Canterbury, to which murage was granted in 1378, 1379, 1385, 1399 and 1402.
In the Lordship of Ireland, murage was used to build walls around Dublin (1221), Galway (1270), Trim (1289–90), Fethard (1292), Castledermot (1275), Kilkenny, Drogheda, Youghal, Dundalk, Naas and many other places; as much of Ireland was not under royal control, cities loyal to the King needed walls to protect them from Gaelic Irish raiders. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] In Dublin there was a major scandal over murage in 1311–12, when it emerged that none of the funds collected for murage had actually been spent on repairs to the city walls.
"Ye Olde Murenger House", a public house in High Street, Newport, South Wales, dated to about 1530, takes its name from the collector of this toll. [8]
Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere was an English soldier, diplomat, member of parliament, landowner and nobleman. He was the son and heir of Sir Gunselm de Badlesmere and Joan FitzBernard. He fought in the English army both in France and Scotland during the later years of the reign of Edward I of England and the earlier part of the reign of Edward II of England. He was executed after participating in an unsuccessful rebellion led by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster.
Knighton is a market town and community on the River Teme, straddling the border between Powys, Wales and Shropshire, England. It lies in the traditional county of Radnorshire. Originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement, Knighton is located on Offa's Dyke, the ancient earthwork that divided the two countries. It later became a Norman defensive border town.
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Muragh was a tax levied historically in Britain and Ireland for the construction or maintenance of town walls. The term derived from Old French, ultimately from Latin murus meaning a wall. Muragh, also referred to as murage, was generally a term used for the tax meant for the repairs of the defensive walls that enclosed towns in historical England, Wales, Ireland. Beginning as a defence against Viking raids, the tax continued through the Middle Ages before declining in the 17th century, as many town walls ceased to be regarded as important militarily after the English Civil War.
Hugh de Mapenor was a medieval Bishop of Hereford. Although educated and given the title of magister, or "master", the details of his schooling are unknown. Mapenor was a clerk for Giles de Braose, his predecessor as bishop. Later, Mapenor served as Dean of Hereford before being elected as bishop against the wishes of King John of England. During his short episcopate, he supported John's son and successor King Henry III of England, and was active in his diocese, as a number of surviving documents show. He also served as a diplomat for the king.
Pavage was a medieval toll for the maintenance or improvement of a road or street in medieval England, Wales and Ireland. The king by letters patent granted the right to collect it to an individual, or the corporation of a town, or to the "bailiffs and good men" of a neighbouring village.
Pontage was a toll levied for the building or repair of bridges dating to the medieval era in England, Wales and Ireland.
Margaret de Badlesmere, Baroness Badlesmere was a Anglo-Norman noblewoman, suo jure heiress, and the wife of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere.
Isabella Mortimer, Lady of Clun and Oswestry was a noblewoman and a member of an important and powerful Welsh Marcher family. Although often overshadowed in modern historiography by her better-known parents, she is now known to have played an important part in her family's struggles against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and to have helped to secure the frontline at Shropshire in the run-up to English conquest of Wales. She was the wife and widow of John III FitzAlan, baron of Clun and Oswestry and de jure earl of Arundel. After a lengthy widowhood, she married for a second time and largely disappeared from the records.
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William Devereux, was an important Marcher Lord, and held Lyonshall Castle controlling a strategically vital approach to the border of Wales. The castle's significance was heightened by the rebellion of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales. With strong family ties to the politically powerful families of Cantilupe and Giffard, his support was strongly sought after by Henry III and Simon de Montfort throughout the Second Barons' War.
Ye Olde Murenger House is a 19th-century pub with a mock Tudor front on High Street, Newport, Wales. It replaced a 17th-century pub, the Fleur de Lys, on the same site. It is named after the medieval job of a murenger, a person who collected tolls for the repair of the town walls, and is Grade II listed due to its historic interest to the immediate area.
John Devereux, Lord of Munsley, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman living during the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. The Devereux were a prominent knightly family along the Welsh Marches during the thirteenth century, and played an integral role in attempts to control the Welsh Marches during the thirteenth century.
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