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.
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.
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