Two Halves
Across the 13th and 14th centuries, Coventry’s Benedictine cathedral-priory was both a spiritual powerhouse and a territorial lord, with markets, rents, and jurisdiction. Yet the same period saw the rise of civic institutions and merchant guilds that challenged monastic lordship. The transformation from “Priors’ Half” and “Earl’s Half” into an incorporated city in 1345, followed by the 1355 Tripartite Indenture, cannot be understood without the priory’s role as landlord, court-holder, and diocesan chapter within the Coventry and Lichfield see.
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Priory Estates, Markets, and Growth
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By Henry III’s reign the monks were consolidating estates that underpinned a market economy. In 1227 they secured a weekly market at Southam, adjusted in 1239, anchoring their revenues.[i] These rights helped Coventry grow into a hub for wool and finished cloth, its size and importance exceeding those of its neighbouring towns.[ii] Within the diocese, Coventry’s chapter alternated episcopal elections with Lichfield from 1228 onward.
Through the 13th and early 14th centuries the city remained divided between Prior and Earl. Tensions mounted as townsmen pressed for autonomy. As Coventry’s townsmen grew wealthier and resentful of priory control, Queen Isabella’s acquisition of Cheylesmore in 1330 gave them crucial support. Her challenge to the priory’s rights laid the groundwork for two centuries of urban prosperity.[iii] In 1348 she founded a new suburb, confirmed by her grandson the Black Prince and later by Edward III, showing royal involvement in the civic challenge to monastic power.[iv]
It wasn’t just royal rivalries occurring in the 14th century, soon after Henry Irreys became prior in 1322, a bizarre conspiracy unfolded; townsmen of Coventry hired John de Nottingham, a self-styled necromancer, to kill the king, the prior, and others using wax effigies. One victim, Richard Sowe, reportedly died after such rituals, but the accused were acquitted. Charges of simony, perjury, and sorcery were then brought against Prior Henry, leading Pope John XXII to order an inquiry in 1324. The case ended in Henry’s favour, and he soon resumed his office.[v]
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Incorporation
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In 1345 Edward III issued Coventry’s Charter of Incorporation, creating a mayor, bailiffs, and community with powers of justice and civic government.[vi] Though priory estate rights endured, the corporation could now negotiate on near-equal terms. The charter of incorporation (1345) was the first in English municipal history.[vii] This new civic authority, alongside emerging guilds, signalled the beginning of merchant dominance in city politics.[viii]
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Guilds and the Priory
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The Merchant Guild of St Mary (1340), the Guilds of St John (1342) and St Katherine (1343) established a lay presence in Coventry’s religious and civic life. Though at first competing with the priory, they came to complement it, sponsoring pageantry, endowing chantries, and shaping civic identity while the priory maintained its cathedral liturgy. In 1364 these guilds united as the Holy Trinity Guild, confirmed by 1392 as Coventry’s leading civic and religious body. [ix] The priory’s sponsorship of the Corpus Christi plays embodied Coventry’s blend of mercantile energy and sacred authority, making the city ‘very famous for the pageants…upon Corpus Christi day.’[x]
Conflict culminated in 1355 with a settlement between Isabella, the priory, and the civic body. The prior renounced claims over Earl’s-men and certain jurisdictions; Isabella reduced priory dues; and urban courts passed under civic control.[xi] The priory’s authority was henceforth confined largely north of the Sherbourne, while the incorporated community held the market zone.
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From Two Halves to a Civic Commonwealth
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By the later 14th century, power in Coventry had shifted decisively. In 1355, the Tripartite Indenture resolved the long-standing administrative disputes between the two halves of Coventry, uniting them into a single civic identity. The agreement was made between Queen Isabella, together with the mayor and commonalty of the Earl’s Half, and the prior representing the Priory’s Half.[xii] The priory retained rents and manorial rights but initiative in markets, policing, and negotiation with the Crown lay with the guild-backed corporation. The cathedral remained Coventry’s leading religious centre, even as guilds and merchants came to define the city’s civic success.
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[i] HMSO. (1903). Calendar of charter rolls, vol. 1: Henry III, 1226–1257. His Majesty’s Stationery Office. Centre for Metropolitan History. (2003). Gazetteer of markets and fairs in England and Wales to 1516. Centre for Metropolitan History.
[ii] Phythian-Adams, C. (1979). Desolation of a city: Coventry and the urban crisis of the late Middle Ages (p. 20). Cambridge University Press.
[iii] Stephens, W. B. (Ed.). (1969). The city of Coventry: Social history to 1700. In A history of the county of Warwick: Volume 8, the city of Coventry and borough of Warwick. Victoria County History. British History Online
[iv] Alcock, N. W. (2008). Queen Isabella’s new suburb in Coventry in 1348. Midland History, 33(2), 146–164.
[v] Page, W. (Ed.). (1908). Calendar of papal letters, volume II (p. 237). In A history of the county of Warwick: Volume 2. Victoria County History. British History Online.
[vi] Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Charter of Incorporation, 1345 (facsimile and translation, Coventry).
[vii] Phythian-Adams, C. (1979). Desolation of a city: Coventry and the urban crisis of the late Middle Ages (p. 21). Cambridge University Press.
[viii] Stephens, W. B. (Ed.). (1969). The city of Coventry: Social history to 1700. In A history of the county of Warwick: Volume 8, the city of Coventry and borough of Warwick. Victoria County History. British History Online.
[x] Stephens, W. B. (Ed.). (1969). The city of Coventry: Crafts and industries, Medieval industry and trade. In A history of the county of Warwick: Volume 8, the city of Coventry and borough of Warwick. Victoria County History. British History Online.
[xi] Dugdale, W. (1656). The antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated (p. 116). London.
[xii] Stephens, W. B. (Ed.). (1969). The city of Coventry: Social history to 1700. In A history of the county of Warwick: Volume 8, the city of Coventry and borough of Warwick. Victoria County History. British History Online.
xii Smith, F. (1945). Coventry: Six hundred years of municipal life. The Corporation of the City of Coventry.