Category: 14th Century - Meandering Through Time

Thomas Bytton Bishop of Exeter and the Wardship of John Arundell

11/4/2025

This last couple of days, I have been looking into the wardship of John Arundell, heir to the Cornish manor of Lanhurne, who was eight years old when his father died in 1306. As was the custom in days of yore, the guardianship of the young was granted to an individual whose job it was to take care of the ‘child’ until they turned twenty-one. The first of John Arundell’s guardians was Thomas Bytton, Bishop of Exeter.

Insignia of the Bishop of Exeter

Quite a bit of what we know about the 14th century bishops can be found in their registers; however, Thomas Bytton’s is missing, and this may account for the little we know about this man’s life and career. It would seem, from what is known, that he was a decent man and well thought of among his contemporaries. The clergy who, after his death, asked for the faithful within his dioceses ‘to pray for the soul of the good memory of Thomas, formerly Bishop of Exeter.’ In his will, he asked that one penny be given to 10,212 poor people.

Bytton was elected for the position of Bishop of Exeter in 1291 and consecrated on 16th March 1292 he held this position for sixteen years. He died on 21st September 1307 being John Arundell's guardian for under a year. His wardship was transferred to Walter Stapeldon.

Walter Stapeldon in a painting in the hall of Exeter College, Oxford.

The new Bishop of Exeter, unlike Bytton, was disliked during his time in the post on account of his corrupt and greedy ways. He was considered ‘beyond measure eager, and during his office greatly affected by wealth’, and this can be seen in his guardianship of Arundell. No sooner was he holding the wardship than he was selling off parts of his inheritance. One of the first to receive anything was his brother! A few years later, Stapeldon sold the wardship to a local noble, and later, having no real connection to the boy, was still attempting to make a profit from the arrangement of his marriage into his own family.

To cut Walter Stapeldon a bit of slack, he did have a lot to contend with once Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer arrived to overthrow Edward II.

Walter de Stapeldon - Bishop of Exeter

9/4/2025

Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter and twice Lord High Treasurer was born on the 1st February 1265 (1) in Stapeldon, Cookbury (2) in Devon. His father, William Stapeldon, a wealthy freeholder had previously moved to the parish and taken his name from the manor he farmed. Walter was the younger son. His elder son was Richard de Stapeldon, a judge and Justice of the Assizes. His daughters were Joan, who married Thomas Kaignes, Douce who married William Hereward, and a daughter who married John Prudhome.

Under the system primogeniture, the eldest son inherited the family estates and the youngest were required to make their own way in the world, either studying law or taking up a position within the church. Walter Stapeldon was educated at Oxford University, he is first mentioned there in 1286 where he is described as a ‘master’, this suggests that he had already graduated with a degree from the university. In 1300, he can be found in an official capacity under Thomas Bytton, Bishop of Exeter. Within five years he was a canon and precentor at Exeter Cathedral, and by 1306 he had graduated as a doctor of canon and civil law. These qualifications led to a career in royal service where he went on several diplomatic missions in Gascony. Following the death of Thomas Bytton in 1307, it was Stapeldon who was his successor. He was consecrated at Canterbury on the 13th October 1308 and enthroned at Exeter early in December. John Prince, in the Worthies of Devon, wrote of Stapeldon's enthronement "Before him Sir William Courtenay, Knt, his steward; after him followed abundance of gentlemen of place and quality. The whole street whereon he walked was covered with black cloth, which, as soon as he was passed over, was taken up again, and given to the poor. When he came to the entrance into the close of the cathedral, called Broadgate, he was received by the canons and vicars choral in their habits, who, singing the Te Deum as they went along, led the new prelate to the church with great pomp and solemnity, and placed him in the episcopal throne. Thus ended, they all hasten to a splendid feast, prepared by the bishop for abundance of nobility, clergy, and others, at the expense well near of one year's value of the bishoprick, which in those days amounted very high."

In 1294, Stapeldon can be found as rector of Aveton Gifford in Devon, and he appears in several records in connection with his home country and the neighbouring County of Cornwall. As Bishop of Exeter Stapeldon he was granted several wardships - an appointment as guardian of fatherless minors of English nobles. One young man was eight year old John Arundell of Lanhurne in Cornwall whose father had died between 1306 and 1309. Arundell's wardship had been granted to Stapeldon in 1309, an he was quick to sell some of his charges land. One of the first recipients was his brother Richard who received an acre of land and the advowson of the Church of St Columba in the town of St Columb Major, and Stapeldon himself would later recieve, in the form of a 'gift' the whole of the town itself.

In 1311/12, a case was brought against Stapeldon by Thomas Lercedeakne and heard at the Court of Kings Bench by William de Bereford. The case was most certainly linked to the wardship of Arundell. This plea mentioned selling the wardship for £100 and certain lands that went with it, it is likely that a promise had been made, monies paid and then Stapeldon attempted to renay on the deal or extract more money. Stapeldon lost the case and was forced to 'remit and quitclaim' costs. Just over a year later Walter Stapeldon did sell the wardship of John Arundell to the aforementioned Thomas Lercedeakne for £100 (3) Wardships were a lucrative business, and Stapeldon made one last attempt to profit from this family. In 1316 he tried twice, unsuccessfully, to marry John Arundell to his own niece Joan Kaignes (4)

On the 12th November 1320, after being made Lord Treasurer of England in the September, the king granted him the power of hue and cry (5) in the county of Cornwall. The king's favour also brought him the lordship of the Hundred of Budleigh in which he was able to grant two new fairs in in the town of Crediton and one in Ashburton, Chudleigh and Clist, and it is written of him that there is ‘ample testament to his dilgence in visiting he diocese, and how attentive he was to the adminstration of holy orders’ (6) One of his last duties in the West Country was in September of 1324 when he was at Lawhitton (7) where, on the 9th August, he addressed the Dean and Chapter of Cornwall, stressing the need to enforce standards and order within the church. He also pointed out the neglected state of several of the parish churches, ordering the clergy to look into the substantial repairs needed. At the same time, he granted the village a Wednesday market.

Exeter College, Oxford founded by Walter Stapeldon in 1312

Walter Stapeldon was ‘anxious for the enlightenment of the public mind and the extension of the circle of knowledge.’ For this purpose, he purchased Hart Hall (referred to as Stapledon Hall) in Oxford to house twelve poor students. Later it became Exeter Collage, here his intention was to educate clergy for his diocese, and during the first centuries the college drew students from mainly Devon and Cornwall.

On a national level Stapeldon’s star was on the rise. He is known to have attended parliament, missing no sittings between 1313 and his death. In 1315 he was appointed to Edward II’s council and was one of the king’s most loyal supporters, and despite many of the country’s bishops disliking both Hugh Despencers, Walter Stapeldon was not one of them. Kathryn Warner (8) writes of Stapledon ‘Bishop Walter was sometimes seen in the 1320s merely as a creature of the two Hugh Despensers’ which she says was ‘unfair and inaccurate’ he was, she continues ‘too intelligent and able to be merely a yes-man of the king and his over-mighty chamberlain Hugh the Younger.’

Walter Stapeldon’s support of the king and his favourites was ultimately his undoing. One of his early connections with the Isabella and Mortimer affair was in 1323 when he was ordered by the king to take over from Stephen Segrave, 3rd Baron Segrave, under whose watch rebel Roger Mortimer escaped from the Tower of London. Mortimer eventually fled to France, followed a year later by Isabella. Walter Stapeldon was disliked by Edward’s queen, and blamed when the king deprived her of money, and confiscated all her land's property, which included Cornwall. Stapeldon unpopular in London too, and in July 1325, he was dismissed as Lord Treasurer of England and replaced by William Melton. He was accused, justly I think, of avarice and corruption (9) He was ultra modum cupidus et durante officio suo uehementer dives effectus (beyond measure eager and during his office greatly affectd by wealth) Despite that, and maybe to get him out of the way, Edward ordered that he accompany Isabella and Edward, Prince of Wales, later Edward III, to France on his behalf to do homage to the new French king, Charles IV. It was while Isabella was in France that history tells us that she conspired with the exiled Roger Mortimer to overthrow her husband. Isabella and Mortimer’s invasion of England would lead to riots in the capital, the capture and execution of the Despencers, the abdication of Edward II and the gruesome death of Walter Stapeldon.

Stapeldon’s death, on the 15th October 1326, was a horrific one. It appears he returned home from France in fear of his life, and in London he encountered a mob as he was riding home along Eldeadanes Lane with his steward John Padyinton and his nephew William Walle (10) Shouts of ‘traitor’ could be heard above the noise, terrified, the three men rode at speed to St Paul’s Cathedral but did not make it through the door because they were recognised All three were captured and pulled from their horses, striped and beheaded (11) Walter Stapeldon’s head was presented to Isabella at Gloucester and bodies buried in ‘rubbish outside the new episcopal residence, afterwards called Exeter House, then in the process of erection’ (12) John Leland, the Tudor antiquary translated a French chronicle, written by William de Pakington in which he wrote "but after xi. weeks, at the request of Queue Isabel's lettres, the bishop's body was carried to the church thereby, ajid after to Excestre, and the two esquires' bodyes were carreyed to St. Clement's Chirch, and there buried."

It was at Exeter Cathedral that Stapeldon was finally laid to rest.

Walter Stapeldon was a generous benefactor of Exeter Cathedral, and his magnificent tomb can be seen in the cathedral to the left of the alter. Another spectacular piece of religious art, the eighteen metre high Bishops Throne, made of oak felled in Devon was commissioned by Stapeldon in 1312.

Footnotes
1  His own deed, dated Exeter, 25th February, 1323, states that his birthday occurred on the first of that month: ''prout ex parentum relatione didicimus."
2  Devon - W G Hoskins – p375 - Manor of Stapeldon, now a farmhouse, on the site of a 13th 14th century manor house.
3  Letters Patent - Westminster, the fifth Ides of March, in the eight year of the reign of King Edward (11th March 1314/15)
4  Register of William Stapeldon - p34
5 Statute of Winchester 1285 - Anyone who witnessed a crime shall make hue and cry, and that the hue and cry must be kept up against the fleeing criminal from town to town and from county to county, until the felon is apprehended and delivered to the sheriff.
6 Itinerary - Register of Walter Stapeldon - P547
7 Lawhitton anciently had been the occasional residence of the Bishops of Exeter - In 1261 there were some substantial religious buildings.
8  Edward II: The Murder of Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, 15 October 1326
9 Vita Edwardi Secundi
10  Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association – The Memoir of Walter Stapeldon -p450
11  ‘He was clubbed or hammered over the head (percusserunt in capite) and 'cruelly dragged' half-conscious through the churchyard into Cheapside, where a butcher whose name was apparently Robert of Hatfield beheaded him with a bread-knife' Kathyn Warner
12  Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association – The Memoir of Walter Stapeldon -p450

John Segrave - 2nd Baron Segrave

1/4/2025

John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave, was an English military commander who fought in campaigns in Wales and in the first Scottish Wars of Independence. His most important role was his involvement with the execution of William Wallace.

John Segrave - Sable, a lion rampant, argent, crowned.

Wallace was handed over to Segrave following his capture, and he had escorted him to London and been put at the head of the special commission to try him. He was also responsible for Wallace's custody during his imprisonment, had pronounced the sentence of treason against him and had attended his execution in London in the summer of 1305.

Trial of William Wallace at Westminster Hall - William Bell Scott

These were cruel times, and men like Wallace, who was deemed to be a traitor, met a barbaric death. His death was a punishment, but it was also a message. This message was the fate of his body, which was divided into quarters and despatched to Scotland for his supporters to see, and it was Segrave's job to transport Wallace's limbs to be displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth.

Invereted Shield of Stephen Segrave

John Segrave's came from a long line of important English Barons. His father had been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Evesham and his great grandfather, Stephen Segrave was Chief Justicar and Controller of the Tower of London during the reign of Henry III.

Death of a Kings Favourite

22/11/2020

On the 22nd November in 1392 Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, a favourite of Richard II, died near Louvain in Belgium. He had received the Earldom of Oxford when he was nine years old and was knighted along with the king, Henry, the Earl of Derby, the future Henry IV and Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock.

Robert de Vere benefited greatly from his friendship with the king, he was given his own rooms in Richard's castles, granted estates, gifts and other nobles' inheritances. He was also given the title Marquess of Dublin, yet he never set foot in Ireland. However, he is mostly remembered for his opposition to the Lords Appellant, a group of nobles who sort to bring the king to task over his reliance on his favourites, at Radcote Bridge.

Robert de Vere's forces were soon surrounded and after a short clash of weapons, de Vere was quick to realise the danger of his position and abandoned his men, leaving many of them to the mercy of their enemy and made his cowardly escape by crossing the river, supposedly in disguise, and headed to the Netherlands.

A year later, in what has come to be known as the Merciless Parliament he was found guilty of treason and a death sentence was passed in his absence.

Robert de Vere spent the rest of his life in exile, thus avoiding the executioner's blade. His death left Richard II bereft. Three years later, on the anniversary of his death, the king had de Vere's embalmed body brought back to England for burial in the Priory at Earl's Colne, in Essex.

William Wallace

22/8/2020

On the 5th August in 1305, Scottish knight John de Menteith, turned William Wallace over to John Seagrave, 2nd Baron Segrave, following information received from Wallace's servant Jack Short.

According to Walter Scott in his "The Lord of the Isles",

William Waleis in nomen that master was of theves
Tiding to the king is comen that robbery mischeves
Sir John of Mentest sued William so nigh
We tok him when ween'd last, on night, his lemam him by
That was through treason of Jack Short his man
He was encheson so that Sir John so him ran
Jack's brother he had slain, the Waleis that is said
The more Jack fain to do William that braid

Wallace was taken to London and put on trial in Westminster Hall for the crime of high treason on August 23, 1305. He maintained, however, that “I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject.”

William Wallace was executed on the 23rd of August, he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was placed on London Bridge. His limbs were carried to Scotland by Segrave to be displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth.

Death of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

20/7/2020

On this day in 1398 the death of Roger Mortimer, the 4th Earl of March aged twenty-four.

Roger Mortimer was killed in a skirmish in Ireland fighting against two of the country's rebellious clans, rashly riding out alone towards the enemy he was hacked to death. Mortimer was considered heir presumptive to Richard II.

However, the Mortimer History Society writes:

"Richard II identified Roger as the heir to the throne, apparently in an attempt to thwart the claims of Henry of Lancaster (the future Henry IV). In so doing Richard was ignoring both the accepted rules of succession and the entailment of the throne drawn up by Edward III*. It filled the Mortimers with false hope. Richard never officially recognised the Mortimers as having a claim; in fact, he placed them in an inferior position to his uncles in the order of precedence, and pointedly refused to acknowledge Roger as his heir in 1394. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Roger would be the next king if Richard died childless."

Mortimer was buried at Wigmore Abbey, which incidentally is now owned by John Challis who played Boycie in the television series Only Fools and Horses.

I wonder how different history would have been if he had lived?

St Columb Major - The Arundell Charter

19/7/2020

In 1333 Cornish born John Arundell had aided Edward III by supplying the king with troops at Battle of Halidon Hill on the 19th July of that year.

This battle was the result of Edward's support of Edward Balliol's claim to the throne of Scotland. Edward III's actions had broken the terms of the Treaty of Northampton, which he had agreed to three years earlier.

On this day in 1333 at Berwick on Tweed, for this service to the crown, John Arundell was rewarded with the granting of a charter which gave his manor of St Columb Major the right to hold a market every Thursday, also granted was the right to hold an annual fair on the ‘day and the morrow of the Feast of St Columba the Virgin.' This charter was issued at Berwick on Tweed by Edward III and signed John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, Edward III younger brother

The text of the charter reads:

Roll 7th, Edward the Third. For Sir John de Arendel, the king to the same, health.

Know ye, that we of our especial grace, have granted and, by this our charter, have confirmed to our beloved and faithful John de Arendel, that he and his heirs, for ever, may have a market every Thursday at his Manor of St Columb Magna, and a fair every year, on the eve and on the day and the morrow of St Columba the Virgin, to these being witness..........given by our hand at Berwick on Tweed, the 23rd day of July 1333 at the battle of Halidown Hill, the 19th day of July 1333.

By writ of our Privy Seal.

St Columb Major's Charter, courtesy of Denise and Phil Tremain

The growth of the Cornish market town of St Columb Major owes much to the Arundell family. Known as the Great Arundells they were a powerful and noteworthy family. You can read more about them here:

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/scoboryo-of-st-columb-major.html

William of Hatfield

8/7/2020

Born in the February of 1337 was William of Hatfield the second son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, he would only live for five months, he died on the 8th July and his body would be laid to rest in York Minster.

The golden statue or weeper of William can be seen on the tomb of his father Edward III in Westminster Abbey.

William's older brother was Edward the Black Prince, he had predeceased their father. Both his death and that of his father and brother would leave the country in the hands of various family members notably Richard II - child monarch, John of Gaunt - an ambitious and lustful protector and Henry of Bolingbroke - a murderous would-be monarch.

The seeds of the Wars of the Roses were set!

King John of France in Lincolnshire

25/6/2020

In 1356, under a scorched earth policy, Edward the Black Prince headed a raiding party that made its way across France, the point of which was to undermine the French King John II by attacking the population rather than the king himself. It was at Poitiers, that John eventually caught up with the marauding English prince. Following a clash of arms, the French army soon found themselves surrounded and many of the frightened French soldiers fled the field. The king, despite being dressed in the same clothing as his personal guard, was captured.

At first, he was taken to Bordeaux and then to England where he was held in various castles up and down the country. Although John was a prisoner he was afforded the privileges of a royal monarch. He purchased horses, he kept pets, he paid for his own astrologer and was able to listen to music played to him by his own band of minstrels.

One of the castles in which the French king stayed was Somerton in Lincolnshire, a large sandstone building built towards the end of the 13th century by the Bishop of Durham.

While staying at Somerton he was under the watchful eye of a member of the Deincourt family whose main residence was Blankney just a few miles away. While in 'captivity' John ordered wine from Bordeaux that came into Lincolnshire via the inland port of Boston. Also, Lincoln saw large amounts of sugar, spice and fabrics arrive at Brayford Pool that no doubt was shipped along the River Witham and transported by land to the castle.

However, all good things come to an end and it was on this day that the French king waved goodbye to the Daincourts at Somerton and left to begin his seven-day journey to the Tower of London in order to discuss the subject of his ransom.

Marriage of Richard Fizalan to Eleanor of Lancaster

25/6/2020

The Arundel Tomb can be found in the north aisle of Chichester Cathedral, on top are the effigies of Richard Fitzalan and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.

Eleanor was the great-granddaughter of Henry III and Richard Fitzalan was a wealthy and important noble during the reign of Edward III, their marriage on the 5th February in 1344 was a love match I believe. With Fitzalan, she gave birth to seven children, the second, John, was my 19th great grandfather.

Richard, Eleanor's eldest child and heir to the earldom of Arundel, claim to fame, apart from carrying the crown of England at the coronation of Richard II, was his membership of the Lords Appellant, a group of men who disagreed with Richard's rule and his reliance on favorites - Fitzalan would lose his head over it.

Thankfully, Eleanor was long gone by that time as was Richard.

The proof of the love between Eleanor and her husband defies time and lies in the request Richard Fitzalan made in his will -

"near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed."

Eleanor was the great-granddaughter of Henry III and my 20th great grandmother