1 Buchholzer, Laurence and Lachaud, Frédérique, ‘Le serment dans les villes du bas Moyen Âge (XIV^e-début XVI^e siècle)’, Histoire urbaine 39, 1 (2014), 7–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 11.

2 For more on the illustrations in this custumal, see Fleming, Peter, The maire of Bristowe is kalendar, Bristol Record Society, 67 (Bristol, 2015)Google Scholar, and Cuenca, Esther Liberman, ‘Town clerks and the authorship of custumals in medieval England’, Urban History 46, 2 (2019), 180–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For the different types of custumals and the dating of these manuscripts, see G. H. Martin, ‘The diplomatic of English borough custumals’, in Walter Prevenier and Thérèse de Hemptinne eds., La diplomatique urbaine en Europe au moyen age: actes du congrès de la commission internationale de diplomatique, Gand, 25–29 août 1998 (Leuven, 2000), 307–20.

4 The taking of civic oaths dates to ancient Greece and Rome, see Igor A. Makarov, ‘Towards an interpretation of the civic oath of the Chersonesites (IOSPE I2 401)’, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Serbia 20 (2014), 1–38, and Adam Ziolkowski, ‘Civic rituals and political spaces in republican and imperial Rome’, in Paul Erdkamp ed., The Cambridge companion to ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2013), 389–409.

5 Jacoba van Leeuwen, ‘Municipal oaths, political virtues and the centralised state: the adaptation of oaths of office in fifteenth-century Flanders’, Journal of Medieval History 31, 2 (2005), 187–8.

6 For more on civic rituals and oath-taking ceremonies, see Barbara Hanawalt, Ceremony and civility: civic culture in late medieval London (Oxford, 2017).

7 J. Horace Round, Commune of London and other studies (Westminster, 1899), 235, and James Tait, ‘The origin of town councils in England’, The English Historical Review 44, 174 (1929), 178–9.

8 There are over thirty civic oaths in Bristol's oldest custumal, called The Little Red Book, which is in the Bristol Archives (hereafter, BA) CC/2/1, fols. (E)r–v, 5r, 17v–21v, 48r–49r, 63r–65r, the earliest of which (dating to the mid-fourteenth century) are printed in Francis B. Bickley ed., The Little Red Book of Bristol, vol. 1 (Bristol, 1900), 15, 46–56. The six early fourteenth-century oaths for Scotland's four burghs can be found in Cosmo Innes ed., Ancient laws and customs of the burghs of Scotland: A.D. 1124–1424, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1868), 127–9. For an analysis of Bristol's oaths, see James Lee, ‘“Ye shall disturbe noe mans right”: oath-taking and oath-breaking in late medieval and early modern Bristol’, Urban History 34, 1 (2007), 27–38.

9 Steven A. Epstein, ‘Secrecy and Genoese commercial practices’, Journal of Medieval History 20, 4 (1994), 314; Paul Griffiths, ‘Secrecy and authority in late sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century London’, The Historical Journal 40, 4 (1997), 925–51; Ioanna Iordanou, Venice's secret service: organizing intelligence in the Renaissance (Oxford, 2019), esp. 47–50, for a comparison with Tudor England; Penny Roberts, Peace and authority during the French religious wars, c.1560–1600 (New York, 2013), esp. 83–5; Lisa Blank, ‘Two schools of secrecy: defining secrecy from the works of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Edward Shils and Sissela Bok’, in Susan L. Maret and Jan Goldman eds., Government secrecy: classic and contemporary readings (Westport, 2009), 60.

10 Michael Jucker, ‘Urban literacy and urban secrecy? some new approaches to an old problem’, in Georges Declercq et al. eds., New approaches to medieval urban literacy (Wetteren, 2008), 15–22.

11 Karma Lochrie, Covert operations: the medieval uses of secrecy (Philadelphia, 1999), 4.

12 Caroline M. Barron and Laura Wright, ‘Introduction’, in Caroline M. Barron and Laura Wright eds., The London Jubilee Book, 1376–1387: an edition of Trinity College Cambridge MS. O.3.11, folios 133–137, London Record Society, 55 (Woodbridge, 2021), 17–8. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to include the dozens of Jubilee Book oaths in my Civic Oaths database prior to the publication of this article.

13 These minor offices appear in London's custumal, printed and translated in H. T. Riley ed., Liber albus: the white book of the city of London (London, 1861), 272, 276. Pavers are referred to as ‘scaragers’ in the text. See Caroline M. Barron, London in the later Middle Ages: government and people, 1200–1500 (Oxford, 2004), 147–98, for a detailed discussion of London's officers, about whom she draws information from oaths.

14 These 40 categories of duties are: abjuration, admin justice, answer summons, arrest/ID malefactors, apprentices or indentures, assizes of bread, ale, etc., attach or distrain, attend court, attend council meetings, collect fines/profits, common pastures, conduct elections, defend king/queen's rights, empanel jury, enforce warrants/judgments, ensuring public safety/gaol, fine/penalty for neglecting duties, guard secrets/counsel, give counsel, inquests, inspect property/borough, inspect victuals/goods/trades, keep accounts or records, keep the peace, maintain/defend customs, not impede customs/profits, no retail/restrictions victuals/goods, oversee other officers, pay out expenses/deliver revenues, pay rents/debts/taxes, protect church property/revenues/services, protect widows/orphans, receive proper counsel, reject fees/overcharging/bribes, refusing office, restrictions on pleading/pledging, return writs, share prejudicial info, surveillance, and term limit/tenure.

15 These seven personal qualities are: competency; fairness; impartiality; loyalty to king or queen; loyalty to mayor or commons; obedience to superiors; and respectability.

16 John Walter, Covenanting citizens: the protestation oath and popular political culture in the English revolution (Oxford, 2016), 1–6.

17 Kent History and Library Centre Te/C1, fol. 29r. Bolded emphasis mine.

18 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘counsell’ and ‘preuieties’ can be interpreted in a variety of ways. In the context of the Tenterden oath, however, they refer to the private business or secret deliberations or advice among the Commons.

19 See, for examples, Graham Pollard, ‘The medieval town clerks of Oxford’, Oxoniensia 43 (1966), 44–76, and Stephen Alsford, ‘The town clerks of medieval Colchester’, Essex Archaeology and History 24 (1993), 125–35.

20 R. S. Ferguson and W. Nanson eds., Some municipal records of the city of Carlisle (Carlisle, 1887), 49–50. See also Cuenca, ‘Town clerks’, 189–93.

21 British Library Stowe MS. 850, fol. 121v.

22 Ibid.

23 Norfolk Record Office KL/C 9/1, fol. 4r. See also Kate Parker, ‘Politics and patronage in Lynn, 1399–1416’, in Gwilym Dodd and Douglas Biggs eds., The reign of Henry IV: rebellion and survival, 1403–1413 (Woodbridge, 2008), 210–27.

24 BA CC/2/7, fol. 165v; cf. BA CC/2/1, fols. 18r–19v.

25 Sarah Rees Jones, ‘Civic literacy in later medieval England’, in Georges Declercq, Marco Mostert, Walter Ysebaert and Anna Adamska eds., New approaches to medieval urban literacy (Brussels, 2013), 40.

26 Cheshire Record Office ZAO/1, fol. 5v.

27 For more on the politics in premodern Chester, see Jane Laughton, Life in a late medieval city: Chester, 1275–1520 (Oxford, 2008).

28 Walter Harte et al. eds., The description of the citie of Excester by Iohn Vowell alias Hoker, vol. 3 (Exeter, 1919), 835–6.

29 Changes to Exeter's governing council, in response to a ‘greate division’ among citizens about electing civic officials, were outlined by Bertie Wilkinson, The mediæval council of Exeter (Manchester, 1931), esp. 8–10.

30 There seems to have been occasional electoral disruptions in Exeter. For an example, see Maryanne Kowaleski, Local markets and regional trade in medieval Exeter (Cambridge, 1994), 117.

31 For more on men involved in Exeter's elections, see Kowaleski, Local markets, 102–3.

32 Harte et al. eds., 833.

33 For a comparison with royal secretaries, see Florence M. G. Higham, ‘A note on the pre-Tudor secretary’, in A. G. Little and F. M. Powicke eds., Essays in medieval history presented to Thomas Frederick Tout (Manchester, 1925), 361–6.

34 Jeroen F. Benders, ‘The town clerks of Deventer and Zutphen (IJssel region, eastern Netherlands) from c. 1300 to the late fifteenth century’, Quærendo 41 (2011), 79–88, esp. 84–5.

35 W. Gurney Benham ed., The red paper book of Colchester (Colchester, 1902), 5.

36 R. H. Britnell, ‘Bailiffs and burgesses in Colchester, 1400–1525’, Essex Archaeology and History 21 (1990), 103–9.

37 For more on Colchester's government, see R. H. Britnell, Growth and decline in medieval Colchester, 1300–1525 (Cambridge, 1986), 115–30.

38 BL Stowe MS. 850, fol. 122r.

39 Richard Holt and Gervase Rosser eds., ‘Introduction: the English town in the Middle Ages’, in The medieval town, 1200–1540 (London, 1990; reprnt., 2014), 8–9.

40 Barron, London in the later Middle Ages, 312–55.

41 Jonathan McGovern, ‘The development of the privy council oath in Tudor England’, Historical Research 93, 260 (2020), 273–85, esp. 281.

42 For guarding counsel, in 15 out of 31 oaths for councillors; for dispensing counsel, in 26 out of 31 oaths for councillors. In some places, councillors and jurats were the same position, only the name of the position may have changed over time, see Edward Miller and John Hatcher, Medieval England: towns, commerce, and crafts, 1086–1348 (London, 1995; originally published 1978), 310; in other towns, especially on the Continent, they were discrete positions but may have had some overlap in terms of the duties required of them, see Alan Harding, Medieval law and the foundations of the state (Oxford, 2001), 58. By the fifteenth century in some towns, particularly in London, the Common Council had become a powerful institution. See Caroline M. Barron, ‘The government in London: the formative phase, 1300–1500’, London Journal 26, 1 (2001), 10–2.

43 W. Hudson and J. C. Tingey eds., The records of the city of Norwich, vol. 1 (Norwich, 1906), 122.

44 For more on Norwich's ruling council, see Ruth H. Frost, ‘The urban elite’, in Carole Rawcliffe and Richard Wilson eds., Medieval Norwich (London, 2004), 235–54, esp. 236–7.

45 On the powers of the borough council, see Britnell, Growth and decline in medieval Colchester, 118.

46 W. Gurney Benham ed., The oath book, or red parchment book of Colchester (Colchester, 1907), 38–9.

47 BL Stowe MS. 850, fol. 122v.

48 David Harry, Constructing a civic community in late medieval London: the common profit, charity and commemoration (Woodbridge, 2019), 3–8.

49 Michael Lobban, ‘Common law reasoning and the law of nations’, in Amanda Perreau-Saussine and James B. Murphy eds., The nature of customary law: legal, historical and philosophical perspectives (Cambridge, 2007), 257–9.

50 For an elegant summary on medieval civic hierarchies and role of mayors, see Susan Reynolds, ‘Medieval urban history and history of political thought’, Urban History 9 (1982), 14–23, esp. 15–6.

51 J. M. Guilding ed., Diary of the corporation: Henry VI to Elizabeth (1431–1602), vol. 1 (London, 1892), 268.

52 Ibid., 268.

53 For an explanation on mayoral ritual and the role of mayors, see Christian D. Liddy, Contesting the city: the politics of citizenship in English towns, 1250–1530 (Oxford, 2017), 86–121, esp. 94–109.

54 W. H. Stevenson ed., Records of the borough of Nottingham: 1485–1547, vol. 3 (London, 1885), 447.

55 For more on mayoral elections in London, see Hanawalt, Ceremony and civility, 52–80.

56 Lucy Toulmin Smith ed., The maire of Bristowe is kalendar, by Robert Ricart, town clerk of Bristol, Camden Society, New Series V (Westminster, 1872), 72–4.

57 A parallel situation is described for royal government in Jonathan M. Elukin, ‘Keeping secrets in medieval and early modern English government’, in Gisela Engel, Brita Rang, Klaus Reichert and Heide Wunder eds., Das geheimnis am beginn der europaschen moderne (Frankfurt am Main, 2002), 111–29.

58 R. S. Ferguson and W. Nanson eds., Some municipal records of the city of Carlisle (Carlisle, 1887), 48.

59 Ibid., 47–8.

60 BL Stowe MS. 846, fol. 53v.

61 Niall J. Byrne ed., The great parchment book of Waterford: liber antiquissimus civitatis Waterfordiae (Dublin, 2007), 44–5.

62 W. H. Black and G. H. Hills eds., ‘Hereford municipal records and customs of Hereford’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 27 (1871), 462–3.

63 Ibid.

64 See, for examples, Kowaleski, Local markets and regional trade, 81–119; Heather Swanson, Medieval artisans: an urban class in late medieval London (Oxford, 1989), 150–71; Christian D. Liddy, Contesting the city, 20–50.

65 Christian D. Liddy, ‘“Sir ye be not king”: citizenship and speech in late medieval and early modern England’, The Historical Journal 60, 3 (2017), 591.

66 Hugh R. Watkin ed., Dartmouth, vol. 1, Parochial Histories of Devonshire 5 (1935), 190.

67 Arthur F. Leach ed., Beverley town documents, Selden Society XIV (London, 1900), 14–5.

68 Jennifer I. Kermode, Medieval merchants: York, Beverley and Hull in the later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1998), 328–9.

69 Leach ed., Beverley town documents, 14–6, 32, 41, 46, 48–50.

70 Innes ed., Ancient laws and customs of the burghs of Scotland, vol. 1, 127–8.

71 Francis B. Bickley ed., The little red book of Bristol, vol. 1 (Bristol, 1900), 51.

72 Southampton Archives Services (SAS) SC 2/1/1, fol. 9r; Paul Studer ed., The oak book of Southampton of c. A.D. 1300 (Southampton, 1911), 22.

73 SAS SC 2/1/1, fol. 14v. See also Charles Gross ed., The gild merchant: a contribution to British municipal history, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1890), 213–34.

74 See, for examples, John J. LaRocca, ‘Time, death, and the next generation: the early Elizabethan recusancy’, Albion 14, 2 (1982), 103–17; M. C. Questier, ‘Loyalty, religion and state power in early modern England: English Romanism and the Jacobean oath of allegiance’, The Historical Journal 40, 2 (1997), 311–29; and Edward Vallance, Revolutionary England and the national covenant: state oaths, Protestantism and the political nation, 1553–1682 (Woodbridge, 2005), esp. 51–60.

75 Harte et al. eds., The description of the citie of Excester, vol. 3, 828.

76 Ibid.

77 Susan Royal, Lollards in the English reformation: history, radicalism, and John Foxe (Manchester, 2020), esp. 187–210.

78 J. Michael Gray, Oaths and the English reformation (Cambridge, 2012), 5.

79 On policing in medieval towns, see Samantha Sagui, ‘The hue and cry in medieval English towns’, Historical Research 87, 236 (2014), 179–93.

80 Riley ed., Liber albus, 269–70; Sutton, A. F., ‘Civic livery in medieval London: the serjeants’, Costume 29, 1 (1995), 12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Byrne ed., The great parchment book of Waterford, 46.

82 Kern-Stähler, Annette and Nyffenegger, Nicole, ‘Introduction: secrecy and surveillance in medieval and early modern England’, in Kern-Stähler, and Nyffenegger, eds., Secrecy and surveillance in medieval and early modern England, Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature (SPELL) vol. 37 (Tübingen, 2020), 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Sylvia Tomasch, ‘Surveillance/History’, in Kern-Stähler and Nyffenegger eds., Secrecy and surveillance in medieval and early modern England, 21–42.

83 Davis, James, Medieval market morality: life, law and ethics in the English marketplace, 1200–1500 (Cambridge, 2012), 290–1Google Scholar.