By Joan Russell
ady Alwara’s Gift
THE STORY OF HOW
ALVERSTOKE GOT THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY 1258AD
The Beginning of Alverstoke
Lady Alwara lived more than a thousand years ago. We think she may have come from the Gosport area. When Alwara was alive this area was called Stoc pronounced Stoke meaning a fenced settlement. The fence or ‘stockade’ was for protection from intruders. A look-out was kept for the approach of Viking invaders. Later these settlements were called ‘vills’ which is where the word village comes from.
The people living here were Saxon English. They lived in family groups of between ten and fifty adults and children. Their wooden houses rotted away because of the damp weather. They were already Christian. They built their church of stone and it was still there hundreds of years later.
Saxons paid taxes to their land-holders for the right to plough land. Sheriffs collected the taxes and made sure people obeyed the law. One man who held this land of Stoke was Leowine. He was High Sheriff to King Ethelred and fought by his side against the Viking invaders. Leowine was married to the Lady Alwara.
Living in Stoke
The best land for ploughing was divided into strips instead of fields. This system shared the good and the bad land between families. The land needed to be ploughed before the seed was scattered to grow corn. At harvest time the corn was gathered in and milled into flour for making bread. Hand mills were used until a wind or water powered mill was built nearby. The mill owner charged for milling corn.
Families in Stoke grew all their own food. As well as corn, they grew peas and cabbages and kept hens, pigs, cows and oxen which pulled ploughs. Food was stored, hoping it would last through winter. Bad weather meant poor harvests. When times were bad, some of the people starved in winter.
Some land was pasture for their animals. Other parts were woodland for gathering firewood and timber. Stoke had a harbor for ships to land goods. In winter, the marshes were full of wild fowl, such as geese. It was the landowner who held the right to hunt using the scope from Hunters Halt or to trap wild animals and birds. Families could not do this unless they had the landowner’s permission.
Lady Alwara’s Gift
Sheriff Leowine was killed in AD 1001 in a battle, against the Vikings, at Dean near Bishop’s Waltham. His widow Lady Alwara became the owner of Stoke. She decided not to keep the land and its income. She gave Stoke to the Prior and monks of St Swithun’s Priory at Winchester. 
Why did she make this gift? Alwara did this to make sure the monks would remember to pray for her husband’s soul. After her own death, Alwara expected to meet Leowine in Heaven.
The Priory owned other places called ‘stoke’ (e.g. Basingstoke). The monks added Alwara to Stoke and named her gift – Alwarestoke. The Priory was home for Benedictine monks. It had buildings to live, work and sleep in, a guest house for travellers and room for sick people. The Priory was named after the Saxon bishop Swithun. He became a saint and was said to perform miracles. The monks tried to be as good as Swithun.
The Saxons living in Alwarestoke paid their taxes to the Prior of the Priory.
The Norman Conquest
The south of England was invaded in AD 1066 by the Norman French from across the English Channel. The Saxon English led by King Harold were defeated at the Battle of Hastings.
The Norman leader was William Duke of Normandy. He declared himself King of England and was crowned William I at Westminster Abbey. We call him William the Conqueror. William and his nobles spoke Norman French and did not learn English.
The Normans called the Saxon places vills and the Saxon leaders were called villeins. All landholdings like Alwarestoke were now called manors after the French word ‘manoir’. All the English manors were given to William’s loyal nobles and bishops. These men became the lords of the manors. Although St Swithun’s Priory had owned Alwarestoke for sixty five years, King William took the manor away from the monks and gave it to his new Bishop of Winchester.
Taxes and Tributes
In return for getting land and manors, King William demanded heavy taxes from his lords and bishops. Where did this tax money come from? From the work and taxes of people living in the manors of course! They worked for the Normans without pay.
Farmland and the plough strips with crops were taxed more heavily.
Trading places, markets and shops were taxed.
All privileges were taxed.
There were new laws called Manorial Laws. Fines and punishments increased. King William and his lords of the manors demanded payment for every favour or permission they granted to people of Saxon birth or those of lower rank.
The English people were no longer free. Most of their chiefs and strong men were killed by William and his men during or after the battle at Hastings. William had destroyed the Saxon opposition.
The New Manorial Laws to be Obeyed by the Villeins
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Do not leave the manor or travel without permission
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Do not sell your strips of land to another man
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Villeins are forbidden to make wills and sons cannot inherit land
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Nobody is allowed to apprentice sons to trades or choose husbands for daughters unless the lord of the manor gives his permission
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Villeins must not sell any male animals (stallions, bulls, boars) without the lord’s permission
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Selling goods requires permission, the lord himself may want them
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Villeins are required to give tributes of produce to the lord of the manor
Remember, the villeins not only paid tax on their plough land, they also paid the lord of the manor for the permissions in the manorial laws.
When the King was fighting wars, the villeins had to give even more tax and more pigs! The villeins and their family groups became very poor.
How were Alwara’s People affected?
In AD 1086 King William decided to count everything he owned in England – including the people. In Alwarestoke there were 48 heads of households (who the Normans called villeins). There were also workers called serfs. Serfs were slaves and very poor in both Saxon and Norman times.
The Saxons were accustomed to meeting at the local court to settle disagreements. Now the lord bishop sent his bailiff to live in Alwarestoke. Bailiffs were responsible for organising the way work was done, deciding what was grown and who got which strips of land. Villeins lost control of their farming activities. Regardless of bad weather and illness amongst the people, the bailiff collected tax money for the lord and tributes of goods and produce.
Tributes were given at each season to the lord of the manor. According to the season of the year, our villeins gave quantities of their corn, pigs, hens and eggs. The manor bailiff also sent people to court for disobeying the laws. He was a trusted servant of the lord. These Manorial Laws continued for nearly four hundred years until after the Black Death.
The Arrival of Brother Andrew at St Swithun’s Prior
Alwarestoke did not always belong to the bishops of Winchester. After William’s death, another king returned Alwarestoke to St Swithuns. This made the bishops angry because they lost control of the haven and the taxes!
In the year AD 1258, there was a legal battle about money between the Bishop and the Priory. To support his case, the Prior went on a long and costly journey to Rome to see the Pope. He borrowed a lot of money. While he was away, the Bishop sent for a senior monk named Brother Andrew to act as prior.
Sadly the old Prior lost the expensive lawsuit and he was sent away. St Swithun’s Priory was unable to pay back the money and now in debt.
As was their right, the senior monks held an election to choose a new prior. Each monk voted for Brother Andrew. The Archbishop of Canterbury confirmed Andrew’s election as prior. Written records tell us that Prior Andrew did something very surprising and unusual. He wrote the “Charter of Liberty” for the villeins of Alwarestoke, making them free from the Manorial Laws.
The Liberty
Prior Andrew told the men they were to become tenants and pay rent in money instead of paying tax and giving tributes.
The total area of land in Alwarestoke measured about 2,000 acres.
Andrew set the rent for each acre of plough land at 4 silver pennies per year.
A better piece of land was worth 6 pence per acre, per year.
The Charter of Liberty not only freed the Saxon villeins, the Priory made more money in this way to help pay off the debt.
Getting control of what they grew and were able to make, must have put the families in a better position. They continued to obey the King’s Law and were only sent to the high court for serious crimes or for plotting against the king.
What did this mean for the Men of Alwarestoke?
Prior Andrew gave his tenants the right to make wills.
In exchange for a year’s extra rent, sons could inherit property and land.
The tenants could sell surplus produce to help pay the rent.
Andrew promised that each year, the tenants would have the right to choose three of their own men. From these men Andrew would make his choice of Manor Bailiff
The bailiff would continue to be a powerful man in the manor because he measured the land, collected the rents and ran the local court. The chosen man had to be trusted by the prior and the tenants.
Andrew’s Charter of AD 1258 proved that Alwarestoke was legally free. The charter was written in Latin on rolls of parchment and sealed with the Priory’s stamp. Andrew gave the men their own stamp with an image of himself. It was made of silver and measured 6cm in diameter.
The Common Seal of Alwarestoke
A matrix or stamp is needed to make a seal. The matrix is a hollow piece of metal e.g. silver. A design is worked into the metal. The chosen design is unique to the owner. The matrix is stamped (impressed) into warmed wax. When the wax is cold the design can be seen. This wax impression is the seal.
A seal proves ownership, may give permission, or make documents legal.
The Latin inscription in the impression of the Priory seal means –
“This is the seal of St Swithun’s belonging to the tenants of Alwarestoke”
The man seated on the bench is Prior Andrew. Holding a staff in his right hand shows he is a prior not a bishop. The book in his left hand is the Gospels.
The seal is called ‘common’ because it could be used by all of the rent-paying tenants of Alwarestoke.
The only Manor to be given Liberty?
Alwarestoke’s charter was expertly written in Latin by Andrew.
It was ‘enrolled’ in the Tower of London to make it legal.
No other charter like this has been discovered. Maybe other writers didn’t understand the importance of enrolling their documents.
Alwarestoke Manor was unique and lucky to have a legal document.
Rebellion and Riots in England
At this time, in the reign of King Henry III, the country was in turmoil. There were riots in Winchester, part of St Swithun’s Priory was burnt down and people were taking sides against each other. The lords were insisting that the king meet them to listen to their complaints. They complained that King Henry was spending too much money on wars and the building of Westminster Abbey. The meeting took place at Oxford. This was the beginning of our Parliament – a place for talking.
The King was taxing the lords so heavily they rebelled and refused to pay. The most powerful lords captured and imprisoned King Henry for a whole year.
There was so much unrest perhaps there were problems with goods being looted. Winchester was quite a long way from Alwarestoke to drive carts laden with goods. As we know, St Swithun’s Priory was in debt. Prior Andrew may have decided that raising income from rent was a more certain way to support the Priory.
The Departure of Prior Andrew
Giving the Charter of Liberty cost Prior Andrew his position at the Priory.
Someone told lies and informed against Andrew.
He was sacked and never got back his job.
For many years the monks pleaded for his return.
Neither the Pope nor the Bishop of Winchester took any notice.
Sadly Andrew and his friends were banned from the church community. They became wanderers, unwelcome in churches and priories all over England.
There is evidence in the old records of St Swithun’s Priory and in church records that this is what happened to Prior Andrew and his supporters.
What Became of the Charter and the Matrix of the Seal?
The Charter of Liberty was discovered in the ‘Rolls Room’ in the Tower of London. . This was after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. It was then translated into English by four educated men of Alverstoke. Copies of the charter were made. By this time people had gradually changed the name Alwarestoke into Alverstoke.
Two hundred years later, in Queen Victoria’s reign, one of the original copies of the charter still existed with the silver matrix of the seal. They were shown at a meeting in Winchester of the National Archaeological Society in 1845. Unfortunately, after this event the matrix for the seal was lost.
In 1887 the story of the Charter of Liberty was published in a book about our local history. More recently in the 1960’s Dr Leonard White quoted the text of Andrew’s Charter in Chapter 1 of his book “The Story of Gosport”. This book caused much excitement and enthusiasm for exploring local history.
