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The Liberty of Whitby Strand: The Origins and Significance of a Jurisdictional Immunity

Pickles, Thomas
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Affiliation
University of Chester
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-09-06
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History and Archaeology
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Abstract
The medieval abbey at Whitby, North Yorkshire, controlled a jurisdictional immunity from royal administration, which was territorial and was known as the Liberty of Whitby Strand. Since Frederick William Maitland, historians have analysed such jurisdictional immunities as an index of royal authority and power. However, the surviving documentation for jurisdictional immunities means that it is often difficult to establish precisely when they were created or what franchises they included. Whitby Abbey claimed that the Liberty of Whitby Strand originated in a grant of King William I and this was accepted by the Victoria County History at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then, the Liberty has been almost completely ignored. This article revisits the evidence, suggesting that it is possible to pinpoint its origins with rare precision. It argues that the Whitby monks forged a series of charters to persuade King Richard I and King John to transform a narrower portfolio of franchises into the wider territorial Liberty. This article further considers the politics surrounding its creation under Richard and John, and its implications for our understanding of royal authority and power.
Citation
Pickles, T. (2025). The Liberty of Whitby Strand: The Origins and Significance of a Jurisdictional Immunity. The English Historical Review, 140(603), 283–309. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceae158
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal
The English Historical Review
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/628993
DOI
10.1093/ehr/ceae158
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PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0013-8266
EISSN
1477-4534
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceae158