Research Notes:

King John confirmed "manerium…de Ofsprig" to "Petro de Stok…qui exient de filia Aumaric Despensatoris ux sua" by charter dated 1 May 1205. ¹

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[In] 1207...Geoffrey de Lucy undertook to pay 3000 marks `for having to wife Juliana, the widow of Peter de Stokes, with all her land ...', his 103 pledges included the earls of Salisbury and Oxford, the bishop of Norwich, and leading royal servants like Robert de Vieuxpont, William de Briouze and Walter de Lacy, guaranteeing sums of between forty and 100 marks, while many of his lesser sureties undertook to pay between ten and twenty marks if Geoffrey defaulted.

Since Geoffrey de Lucy had specifically made his fine for the land as well as the person of his wife, under the Windsor ordinance all his sureties risked having their estates sequestrated if payment was not made, helping to explain why Clause 9 placed restrictions on the demands that could be made of sureties, and also why some men paid to avoid or reduce them - the earl of Arundel, who had accepted responsibility for 100 marks of Geoffrey's debt, was recorded as owing a good palfrey (the equivalent of about twenty marks in cash) and a Norwegian goshawk to be quit of being a pledge (de plegiagio) for forty marks, thus reducing his liability to have his lands seized in the event of Geoffrey's defaulting on his debt....

After the death of the Berkshire landowner Roger de St John, around 1213, Geoffrey de Lucy undertook to pay 300 marks for the wardship and marriage of Roger's heir, on condition that whatever had been taken from the estate should be allowed him as part of the fine. The sheriff of Berkshire proceeded to account for £35. 2s. 9d. from the dead man's chattels, which he had taken even though there is no clear evidence that Roger owed anything to the crown when he died....

King John himself acknowledged the distinction between will and law, and equated the latter with judgment, when in 1213 he ordered the justiciar to make inquiry as to whether Geoffrey de Lucy had been disseised of the Kentish manor of Newington `by our will or by the judgment of our court'....

Perhaps it is not surprising that a government which so often had recourse to violent methods, and spoke in angry and aggressive terms, should sometimes have become confused about its own intentions. It was noted above how in 1213 John himself found it necessary, or advisable, to order the justiciar to investigate whether Geoffrey de Lucy had been disseised of the Kentish manor of Newington `by our will or by judgment of our court', suggesting that he had overlooked, or forgotten, his own charter of 1204 granting the manor to Geoffrey... ²

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Sep 1218, Hertford

Geoffrey de Lucy and Juliana, his wife, sued the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem in England (the Knights Hospitallers), for the advowson of the Church of Wiginton, as the right of Juliana. The pleading gives this pedigree:—

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