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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 14  1882  page 47

The Early History of Tenterden by Robert Furley, F.S.A.

   The right of the archbishop and the prior of Christchurch to make a warren at Appletre and Hibbene [Appledore and Ebony] is questioned. There is also a complaint that their tenants had withdrawn from the suits of the lath, and from the sheriff's tourn, to the loss of the King of thirty-six marks. "The jury know not by what warrant." These tenants were at this time the occupiers of the denes belonging to the manors of Aldington, Brook, etc. The manorial rights of the abbot of Battle are also referred to in respect of the dene of Chepperegge, belonging to the royal manor of Wye, then held by that abbey. Time will not permit me to dwell longer on these ancient records.
   During the reign of Edward I there were frequent struggles between him and his prelates and clergy. He wanted money to carry on a war against France, and demanded of his clergy a moiety of their goods, spiritual as well as temporal. The clergy mutinied, for they were then groaning under a double taxation, one imposed by the King, and the other by the Pope. Boniface issued a Bull excommunicating all rulers who should impose taxes on the Church, and all clergymen who should pay

them. Edward's anger became great when they informed him that it was out of their power to pay, and he put out of the pale of the law all who refused to contribute. A conference was appointed between the King and Archbishop Winchelsea, which took place in 1299 at Maidstone; and so determined was the King that the clergy should not escape, that on the primate's arrival in the county town the royal officers actually seized his horses. Most of the clergy at last submitted; but amongst those who still held out was "John, Vicar of the Church of Tenterden," and he with sixteen other Kentish rectors and vicars were excommunicated, arrested, and conveyed to the prison at Canterbury; and they only obtained their release by giving bail for their appearance.
   Edward I had selected for the companion of his son (the first Prince of Wales) a handsome youth of Gascony named Piers de Gaveston. As the boys grew up, dissipation cemented the attachment. The Prince, it is said, instigated by Gaveston, broke down a bishop's fence and killed his deer. The

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