Benefice / Charter Example

Baron Opal · Jan 26, 2007

The players in my campaign have recently saved a noble from some economic and political hardship. In return they asked for, and received, some land. After reviewing my Magical Medieval Society book, they have received either a benefice or perhaps a charter for a town on the frontier. Does anybody know where in the 'net I can look at some examples of benefices so that I can write one up for my players?

(I buy Ptolus, and then they want land on the frontier. Sheesh, the nerve I tell ya.)

Byrons_Ghost · Jan 26, 2007

Their land could always contain a portal to Ptolus...

It would certainly be an interesting answer to the question, "Where are all these evil underground humanoids coming from?"

As for links, I got nothin'.

Tonguez · Jan 26, 2007

The only real life one I know of is the Charter of the Preston Guild Merchant (look up the history of the Preston Guild) problem is thats a trade charter for an established city

I thought a benefice only applied to priests (I could be wrong)

Actually iirc a lot of the Puritan settlements in the US were Charter colonies which might better fit what you want - try looking up the founding of those settlements for possible sources

Patryn of Elvenshae · Jan 26, 2007

Tonguez said:
Actually iirc a lot of the Puritan settlements in the US were Charter colonies which might better fit what you want - try looking up the founding of those settlements for possible sources

Thanks for the hint, Tonguez!

You can find the Rhode Island (technically, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) charter here: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ri04.htm

jgbrowning · Jan 26, 2007

Baron Opal said:
The players in my campaign have recently saved a noble from some economic and political hardship. In return they asked for, and received, some land. After reviewing my Magical Medieval Society book, they have received either a benefice or perhaps a charter for a town on the frontier. Does anybody know where in the 'net I can look at some examples of benefices so that I can write one up for my players?

Here's some charter examples: http://paleo.anglo-norman.org/wsussex.html

Check out each link in the left window with an * by it. Then click on "transcription" below the image of the actual charter. These should give you plenty to work up some versimilitude for your game. Benefices can apply to anyone, benficium and feodum being used interchangably for a significant time period. That said, if I'm remembering properly, the term moved to apply more specifically to priests during the later medieval periods.

joe b.

rebarton2 · Jan 27, 2007

Beneficia were originally mostly grants of land (early middle ages) but quickly came to be seen as any sort of grant of wealth/favor. Hence by the later middle ages a priest's collection of rights could be seen as a benefice.

For original documents, check out the excellent academic site:

feudalism texts

[scroll down to the section on feudalism, and then the subsection on fiefs. It'd be worth reading the commentaries/reviews of Susan Reynolds' book to gain some insight on how conflicted scholars are about the ubiquity and nature of fief-granting and fief-holding]

For some other good examples, the following may be useful:
more grants of lands and rights

Geleg

Baron Opal · Jan 27, 2007

Thanks guys, this is exactly what I wanted.

rebarton2 · Jan 27, 2007

town charters

note, too, that charter has a very broad range of meanings. In a basic sense it referred to any document granting, conveying, or describing rights of any sort, whether in land, income, tax privileges, etc.

When you ask about a 'town charter' you are referring to a specific kind of document in which a ruler (usually) grants specific privileges to a pre-existing urban agglomeration. The ruler would define in the charter the extent of those privileges. Usually the townsmen sought to gain a limited degree of self-government and internal judicial authority; in return for generous payments, the ruler might grant such privileges.

Such documents are extremely common for western europe beginning circa 1100. For one such charter, along with other documents describing how ephemeral such privileges could be, see:

http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/beauvaisdossier.htm

Charters to found new towns (as in a wild-west, or wilderlands sense) are pretty rare, although it is not uncommon to find a political ruler granting a charter of sorts to a 'burg' which has grown up around a castle or in a suburb.

It is also clear that rulers could rescind town charters, which meant that the town would henceforth be under the direct rule of that political figure. Here's a nice example:

http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/etampescommune.htm

Geleg

jgbrowning · Jan 27, 2007

rebarton2 said:
Charters to found new towns (as in a wild-west, or wilderlands sense) are pretty rare, although it is not uncommon to find a political ruler granting a charter of sorts to a 'burg' which has grown up around a castle or in a suburb.

Geleg

A cool book I'm reading about this now is New Towns of the Middle Ages: Town Plantation in England, Wales and Gascony by Maurice Beresford. Great book, lots of maps and examples. Bastide is a good word to do a google search over.

joe b.

rebarton2 · Jan 27, 2007

yeah, an excellent book. The bastides are a very interesting phenomenon. one of the exceptions to the rule that most medieval towns were, in fact, former roman civitates.

I translated a bunch of those town charters and documents for a course I teach on towns in th e middle ages - but I confess that my interests are primarily 5th-13th centuries (a bit before the period of the bastides).

Now we could also talk about new towns that disappeared ... like Dorestad and Quentovic. Interesting stuff, there.

Geleg