The central England borough of Northampton, on the River Nene, an administrative center for the kingdom of Mercia in the eighth century, had become significant in the late eleventh century, when the Normans built town walls and a large castle under the stewardship of the Norman earl, Simon de Senlis.

Construction of the unusual round church of Saint Sepulchre had begun in 1100 on the orders of the Earl, who had just returned from the first Crusade.

Based on a plan of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, it is completed about 1110.

Today Northampton's oldest standing building, the Church of The Holy Sepulchre is one of the largest and best-preserved of England’s three remaining round churches.

The Assize of Northampton, largely based on the Assize of Clarendon of 1166, is among a series of measures taken by King Henry II of England that solidifies the rights of the knightly tenants and makes all possession of land subject to and guaranteed by royal law.

The assize, believed to have been passed at a council held in Northampton in January 1176, contains severe penalties for various offenses and gives the justices substantial powers at the expense of the sheriffs.

The assize is connected with the reorganization of itinerant justices and contains instructions for six groups of justices appointed to tour the country.

Later clauses deal with the introduction of important new legislation, chiefly the king's right to have certain cases brought into his court.

The assize is a strong response to a crime-wave being experienced at this time and gives additional powers to the authorities by creating new offenses that a judge can examine, including arson and forgery, and sets down new and severe punishments that can be handed down, including the removal of an offender's right hand.

Simon de Montfort had returned from France to England in 1263, at the invitation of the barons who were now convinced of the king's hostility to all reform and raised a rebellion with the avowed object of restoring the form of government which the Provisions had ordained.

Henry had quickly given in and allowed Montfort to take control of the council.

His son Edward, however, had begun using patronage and bribes to win over many of the barons.

Their disruption of parliament in October had led to a renewal of hostilities, which saw the royalists able to trap Simon in London.

With few other options available, Montfort had agreed to allow Louis IX of France to arbitrate their dispute.

Montfort had been prevented from presenting his case to Louis directly on account of a broken leg, but little suspected that the king of France, known for his innate sense of justice, would in January 1264 completely annul the Provisions in his Mise of Amiens.

The settlement had not presented a solution to the conflict, but rather a recipe for further problems.

The one-sided decision for the king and against the barons leaves Montfort with little choice but armed rebellion.

Hostilities star already in February, when Montfort's sons, Henry and another Simon, attack the possessions of Roger Mortimer in the Marches.

Henry summons the feudal army, and the royal forces win an important victory at Northampton, where the younger Simon is captured.

Edward had taken the crusader's cross in an elaborate ceremony on June 24, 1268, with his brother Edmund and cousin Henry of Almain.

Among others who have committed themselves to the Crusade are Edward's former adversaries—like the earl of Gloucester, who had taken the Cross in repentance and contrition for his past misdeeds, though the earl will not ultimately participate.

With the country pacified, the greatest impediment to the project is providing sufficient finances.

King Louis IX of France, who is the leader of the crusade, provides a loan of about seventeen thousand five hundred pounds.

This, however, is not enough; the rest has to be raised through a tax on the laity, which has not been levied since 1237.

Parliament in May 1270 had granted a tax of a twentieth, in exchange for which the king had agreed to reconfirm Magna Carta, and to impose restrictions on Jewish money lending.

Edward sails on August 20 from Dover for France.

Historians have not determined the size of the force with any certainty, but Edward probably brought with him around two hundred and twenty-five knights and all together less than a thousand men.

…is ratified by the English Parliament at Northampton on May 1.

Warwick and March, backed by a papal emissary who had taken their side and aided by treachery in the king's ranks, defeat a Lancastrian army at Northampton on July 10 and seize King Henry.

For the second time in the war, Henry had been found by the Yorkists abandoned by his retinue in a tent.

He had apparently suffered another breakdown.

With the king in their possession, …

The Northamptonshire Witch Trials result on July 12, 1612, in the hanging of four women and one man at Abingdon Gallows, Northampton, England.

These hangings may have been a precursor to the Pendle witch trials held in Pendle, Lancashire, that are to begin some weeks later, ending in executions in August of the same year.

Parliament, having learned of the King's actions in Nottingham, dispatches its own army northward under the Earl of Essex, to confront the King.

Essex marches first to Northampton, where he musters almost twenty thousand men.

Learning of the King's move westwards, ...

Northampton Guildhall, which stands on St Giles' Square in Northampton, England, is built to the design of Edward William Godwin, begun when he was only twenty-eight, between 1861 and 1864 in the Gothic Revival style.