Summary. Bishop Walter de Langton built a sumptuous palace in the Close and surrounded it with a crenellated wall with towers in the 1290s. 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[5] as well as many homes, palaces and a castle.[6]
Langton’s Lichfield
palace was built against the east wall of the Close and possibly completed by
1299.[7] It
had polygonal towers and turrets modelled on Caernarvon castle and was
surrounded by its own wall giving maximum security. Langton built the
surrounding wall for his own security; it was equivalent to a castle.
 |
Bishop’s Palace, circled, in 14th century |
Within the large main hall[8]
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.[9] Jackson[10] described
the palace having paintings showing the ‘most memorable, transactions of Edward
I and his court. Harwood[11]
described Langton’s palace as spacious and splendid with the great hall hundred
feet long and fifty-six feet broad,[12]
painted with the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral of Edward his patron.
Beresford[13]
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[14]
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[15]
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.[16] 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,[17]
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.[18] 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.[19]
Edward also restored to the bishop and
cathedral the land of the forest of Cannock in 1290.[20] 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 many occasions.
[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]
Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem, Parliamentary Writs, i, 300.
[6] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, (1691), 442 and
447. See more on Langton in the post ‘Bishop Walter Langton.’
[7] 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.
[8]
Probably another example of architecture erected at Well’s cathedral and
adopted at Lichfield.
[9]
See VCH 14th century Canons of Lichfield Cathedral
[10]
J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral
of Lichfield, (London: 1805), 77.
[11]
T. Harwood, The History and Antiquities of the Church and City of Lichfield,
(London: 1806),11.
[12]
Reckoned to be the 5th or 6th largest hall in the country.
[13]
W. Beresford, ‘Lichfield Close in the Middle Ages,’ The Reliquary, quarterly
Archaeological Journal and Review, (London: 1866–67), 7, 249–255.
[14]
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.
[15]
Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Tanner 217, fol. 42.
[16]
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.
[17]
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.
[18]
T. Fuller, The Church History of Britain, (London: 1837), 1, 448.
[19]
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.
[20]
T. Harwood (1806), 125, referenced Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. Vol. III.
p. 236.
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