ABSTRACT
To understand the influence which Thomas of Woodstock could bring to bear on the affairs of the realm, it is necessary to survey his propertied wealth, its locations, the inherited local influence which was one of its most important appurtenances and the ties which he formed through the personal and administrative services required by a magnate. In 1397 Richard acted as if he had special reason to fear the reactions of the servants of Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick. In 1368 Thomas of Woodstock was holding the lordships of Me11c, Chizee and Civray in Poitou: letters patent of the Black Prince gave full power to his brothers Lancaster and Cambridge and to his cousin Arundel to receive Thomas’s homage for them. In 1391 Gloucester had received considerable favours from the Crown, which Richard’s anxiety to appease him and Lancaster may have expedited.
