purveyancing

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purveyancing was the means of supplying the king and his court on progress with the provisions and services they needed at prices to be fixed by royal officers. Consequently the subject was lucky to be paid inadequately, if at all. Purveyancing for war supplies was an even heavier burden and a major grievance during the protracted warfare of Edward I's reign. Since the king could not have palaces and stores everywhere, purveyancing was the only way he could travel his realm. Magna Carta attempted to regulate it; Speculum regis of c.1331 declared it a cursed prerogative; the Ordainers of 1310 moved against it, and it was still a matter of loud complaint in the reigns of James I and Charles I. It was finally abolished during the Civil War.

J. A. Cannon

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