Bishop Langton's Palace

Abstract.   Bishop Walter de Langton built for himself a palace in the northeast corner of the Close and surrounded it with a crenellated wall with towers in the 1290s. This was a substantial, secure palace and dedicated to his king, Edward I. The great hall was 100 feet long and close-by was his own personal chapel. Around the palace was a large, walled garden. All was destroyed in the Civil War.

King Edward I, 1239–1307, reigned for 35 years, 1272–1307 and for the last twelve years had Bishop Walter Langton of Lichfield as his treasurer. This was a close partnership[1] in which both gained wealth. Langton used some of his wealth to develop Lichfield cathedral and build a new Bishop’s Palace.[2] The fabulous wealth Langton accumulated was set out in his trial records. The crown’s income from his confiscated property in one year alone, 1308, amounted to £2,400 and in 1318 Langton claimed £20,000 in compensation for his losses.[3] In 2011, a list was made of the 250 richest people that had lived in Britain since 1066 and Langton was 53rd with a calculated wealth of £11.099 billion in today’s currency.^[4] He owned land in eleven counties as well as many homes, palaces and a castle.[5]

Painting of Edward I in Westminster Abbey. It is thought to be a likeness of the king and painted between 1272 and 1307. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. Note the motifs at the top of the painting which have some resemblance to the nave wall decoration.

 

          Langton’s Lichfield palace was built on the east wall of the Close and possibly completed by 1299.[6] It had polygonal towers and turrets modelled on Caernarvon castle and was surrounded by its own wall giving maximum security.

 

Bishop’s Palace, circled, in 14th century

 

    Within the large main hall[7] were paintings depicting the life and triumphs of Edward I.  At the end of the 16th-century Erdeswick described 'a goodly large hall, wherein hath been excellently well painted, but now much decayed, the coronation, marriage, wars, and funeral of Edward I', with also some writing expressing the history.[8] Jackson[9] described the palace having paintings showing the ‘most memorable, transactions of Edward I and his court.  Harwood[10] described Langton’s palace as spacious and splendid with the great hall hundred feet long and fifty-six feet broad,[11] painted with the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral of Edward his patron. Beresford[12] said the paintings recorded the gallant behaviour of several noblemen and leaders against the Welsh and Scots with their portraits and banners of arms bravely portrayed before them. In contrast, Reeve[13] thought it likely that Edward’s crusades were represented in the quasi-hagiographical paintings and repeated in the paintings finished in 1324 and were once in the lesser hall at Westminster, which joined the Painted Chamber to St. Stephen’s Chapel. He dated the Lichfield paintings to 1311–12, and so they pre-dated the Westminster paintings. In 1643 at the start of the Civil War, three travellers described an entrance to the palace with some dozen stairs, a timber roof richly and curiously carved and much that was gilded (some of this decoration could have been added after Langton). It was recorded Master Walter was the carpenter and Master Hugh de la Dale the mason. The garden was constructed by Walter the gardener.

 

Plan of Langton’s Palace reconstructed from Plate XVI in The Reliquary, quarterly Archaeological Journal and Review, (London: 1866–67), 7, 254. Also from a drawing in the Bodleian Library, Tanner 217, f.42. Some of the features, such as some chimneys, were probably later additions. The layout was derived from Canon Henry Greswold’s drawing of 1685[14] and therefore it is uncertain how much of the palace was originally the building constructed by Langton. Tringham thinks the ‘Lady’s Chamber’ is problematical and might have been a lesser hall. The chapel was possibly at ground level. A treasury was mentioned, but is not shown on the drawing. Also missing is a bakery, granary, hay barn, saucery (separate room to prepare sauces), dovecot, and pinfold. The gateway on the south side must have been wide enough, possibly 14 feet, for a coach and horses to enter. The palace gardens had an herbarium and a pond. Water passed to the palace through lead pipes. Lead and tin were added to the roofing, though the outer buildings were probably thatched.

 

            Cox described the palace from a plan he possessed.[15] He stated the chambers with the porter’s lodge were 143 feet long, 24 feet wide and 20 feet high. They had floors of plaster and lead roofs. The inwards court had grass and gravel walks. The north-east tower had a lead roof and was 52 feet high, each face being 13 feet wide. Adjoining was a square room, 22 feet wide externally and 32 feet long with stone stairs up to the roof of the tower. Under it was a cellar built with timber. The bishop’s lodging room was 40 feet long and 32 feet wide and again had a cellar underneath and a roof of lead. The dining room was 63 feet long and 30 feet wide and also had a cellar and lead roof. Off the dining room was a second tower with each face 10 feet wide. Between this room and the great hall were two pantries separated by a great chimney. The great hall was 100 feet long and 56 feet wide and was richly decorated. On the south side were stairs into the passage under the Lady’s chamber, 36 feet wide and 63 feet long. From this could be assessed the kitchen and the chapel which was 50 feet long and 34 feet wide. The chapel extended outwards to form another tower. The brew house was 24 feet by 18 feet and tiled. The kitchen was 50 feet by 30 feet and had a tiled roof. The coach house was 22 feet by 12 feet and had folding doors into the courtyard. The stables were 48 feet by 22 feet and again had two doors into the courtyard.     

 

          The palace was mostly destroyed in the Civil War sieges of the Close,[16] and today nothing remains above ground. There was much looting of materials, lead, iron, glass, plaster and timber, after the War. Fuller, writing about 1643, speaks of it as the invisible castle now vanished out of sight.[17] In 1662, Bishop John Hacket chose to live in a house on the south side of the Close. Demolition of the palace began in 1685. The new palace was built on the north side of the Close using some of the stone from the old palace. There are mounds of earth on the east side of the back-garden of the new palace which clearly invite archaeological investigation.

 

In 1299, Edward I granted to Langton letters patent to raise tolls on goods brought into Lichfield for sale.  Seventy-four different items were listed for tolls and 'bales of any kind of merchandise exceeding 2s. in value'. The listed goods, Magnum Registrum, Document 292, range from corn to lampreys, from turves to taffeta, and from garlic to squirrel skins.[18]  Edward also restored to the bishop and cathedral the land of the forest of Cannock in 1290.[19]  In 1305 the first representatives of Lichfield were sent to Parliament. The influence of Edward on the development of the cathedral and Lichfield is clear, but not obvious. The enigma is there is no documented visit to Lichfield by the king; he must have been Langton’s guest on several occasions.

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[1] J. Britton, The History and Antiquities of the See and Cathedral Church of Lichfield, (London: 1820), 56, stated Langton enjoyed the esteem and confidence of Edward I.

[2] The name of palace does not appear until 1447–8. Before then it was a curia, or court.

[3] A. Beardwood, ‘The Trial of Walter Langton’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 54 (1964), 1–45. 29 and 32.  Also D. Lepine, ‘‘Glorious confessor’: the cult of S Chad at Lichfield Cathedral during the later Middle Ages’, Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society-Transactions, (2021), 52, 32.

[4] P. Beresford and W. D. Rubinstein, The richest of the rich. The wealthiest 250 people in Britain since 1066. (Petersfield: 2011), 117. Langton owned £50,000 about 1% of the net national income.

[5] H, Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, (1691), 442 and 447.See more on Langton in the post ‘Bishop Walter Langton- benefactor.’  

[6] It might not have been completed until 1314, when Langton visited Lichfield. VCH volume 14, suggests work began on the palace in 1304 and was completed by 1314.

[7] Probably another example of architecture erected at Well’s cathedral and adopted at Lichfield.

[8] See VCH 14th century Canons of Lichfield Cathedral

[9] J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield, (London: 1805), 77.

[10] T. Harwood, The History and Antiquities of the Church and City of Lichfield, (London: 1806),11.

[11] Reckoned to be the 5th or 6th largest hall in the country.

[12] W. Beresford, ‘Lichfield Close in the Middle Ages,’ The Reliquary, quarterly Archaeological Journal and Review, (London: 1866–67), 7, 249–255.

[13] M. M. Reeve, ‘The Former Painted Cycle of the Life of Edward I at the Bishop’s Palace, Lichfield,’ Nottingham Medieval Studies, 46 (2002), 70–83. Also M.M. Reeve, ‘The painted chamber at Westminster, Edward I, and the crusade.’ J. Viator (2006), 37, 194.  Also D. Lepine (2021), 33.

[14] Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Tanner 217, fol. 42.

[15] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain. (London: 1738), 307, noted his information came from an original drawing in Dodsworth’s MSS in the Bodleian, 1795.

[16] N. Tringham, ‘The palace of Bishop Walter Langton in Lichfield Cathedral Close’. In ed. J. Maddison, ‘Medieval Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield, The British Archaeological Association conference transactions for 1987, (1993), 13, 85–100.

[17] T. Fuller, The Church History of Britain, (London: 1837), 1, 448.

[18] From J. Gould. ‘Excavations at Wall, Staffordshire, 1964-6, On the Site of The Roman Forts, Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (1966), 8, 32.

[19] T. Harwood (1806), 125, referenced Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. Vol. III. p. 236.