During my current research , I came across James Coterel again, in the aftermath of his post Halidon Hill pardon in July 1333.
Despite having being granted a pardon and having had his service in Scotland verified by justice Richard Willoughby and his clerks, James was outlawed again in the county of Lincolnshire the following November for non-appearance in court to answer for various felonies committed throughout the county.
James of course insisted that he had been granted a pardon and that the outlawry should be revoked.
The king issued a writ to justice Willoughby to inspect the indictments against James to determine if the alleged felonies were perpetrated before the 26th July 1333 (the date of the pardon) and if they had, then they should proceed to the annulment of the outlawry.
The outcome of the inspection is documented as such:
“It is found therein that the aforesaid James was indicted for felonies committed before the date of the granting of the aforesaid letters patent, and on that occasion and on no other was put in exigent and outlawed in the said county of Lincoln, it is considered that the aforesaid outlawry thus pronounced against the said James shall be revoked and entirely annulled, and that the same James shall be restored to the common law.”
Although Willoughby would not have examined the indictments personally, this was the second time that the court on which he sat had recognised the validity of the pardon that enabled James to avoid the consequences of his crimes. Whether Willoughby regarded the matter with indifference or private irritation is impossible to know. The royal writ left little room for discretion and the justices were simply required to determine whether the outlawry arose from offences covered by the pardon. Nevertheless, the irony is real. Only a short time earlier, James had been involved in the kidnapping and extortion of Willoughby himself.
What is interesting is that the pardon did not automatically erase every enrolled outlawry. James was required to petition the King and secure a formal review of the Lincolnshire proceedings before the outlawry could be overturned. Only then was he restored to the common law and readmitted to the King’s peace.
