The year 1319

 Summary. In 1319, 76-year-old Bishop Walter de Langton visited Lychefeld to see projects he had financed. The extended cathedral and fortified Close had a magnificent palace. A new shrine for Chad needed blessing.

Prior to 1319

Walter de Langton was born in West Langton[1] or Church Langton, Leicestershire, in 1243. He said he was the son and heir of Simon Peverel, [2]  whose family had ruled from Peveril Castle in Derbyshire. The Peverels had family links to landowners in Dudley, Tutbury and Northamptonshire. Family members were in the church; an uncle had been Dean of York in 1262 and then elected archbishop in 1265 only to be rejected by the pope. In 1281–2, Walter became the clerk of the wardrobe in Edward I’s royal chancery, and in 1290 was made Bishop of Ely and then keeper of the wardrobe. During this time, he obtained many ecclesiastical preferment's, bringing him wealth. Langton had been clerk to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and treasurer of the exchequer, and in 1295, he became the treasurer and retained it until 1307, bringing him more wealth. In 1296, he became Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, [3] with his enthronement delayed until 1299. He now used his considerable wealth to enhance the cathedral building, The Close and the approaches to the cathedral.[4]

AI enhanced statue of Walter de Langton from the middle tier, right side, of the west front.

There was another side to his rise in power. In 1307, he had been falsely accused of committing adultery over two years and then murdering the woman’s husband. He was also charged with misappropriating funds, communicating with the devil, committing trespass, misbehaving to gain money and concealing his felonies. He was imprisoned in the Tower, then Wallingford and finally York prison for more than a year.[5] He was imprisoned again in 1311 for a short time, but later exonerated from all his wrongdoings. By 1319, he had been accepted back by the king, Edward II, but had lost much of his power. However, he retained his considerable wealth, owning 11 large houses, at least three palaces, including one very large palace in the Strand, London, one castle and much land.[6]

1319 History with an imagined narrative.

In January 1319, Bishop Langton, aged 76, made a visitation to churches, and many Priories,[7] in the diocese around Lychefeld. On Thursday 12 January he stayed overnight in his palace by the cathedral.

AI rendition of Langton arriving in Lychefeld on horseback.

AI rendition of travelling down Dam Street to the cathedral. Langton obtained a licence, April 20, 1299, to strengthen and crenellate the boundary walls of The Close. In 1317, Edward II ordered The Close to be securely defended on his behalf.

AI rendition of entering the southeast postern gate. The Dam Street causeway was earlier than the Bacon – Bird Street causeway, 1310, and there is no evidence with a link to Langton. But he could have improved it when adding the walls. The banner above the gate is that for the Angevin empire.

AI rendition of Langton and outriders entering The Close. The twin semi-octagonal towers at the Dam Street entrance were incomplete in 1319, taking another 3 or 4 years to have massive oak doors fitted and later a drawbridge and portcullis (around 50 years later). It was a postern gate, that is secondary to the main gate and used only with permission.

          Entering The Close would reveal the work being done on the east end of the cathedral.[8]  Work on the Lady Chapel started around 1315, and was completed by 1336, but dates are uncertain.[9]

AI rendition of possibly the 4th year on building the Lady Chapel.

            The riders moved towards the gate in the wall surrounding the bishop’s palace; this inner wall increased security. The palace was built against the east wall of The Close and had octagonal towers and turrets. It was 320 feet long and 160 feet wide, and possibly completed by 1299.[10]

AI rendition of the three riders entering the grounds of the palace. The arms above the door are thought to have been Walter de Langton’s, but the colours are guessed. The house at the end of the wall belonged to the vergers and they would control the gates. It meant the cathedral staff lived outside the confines of the palace.

Layout of the palace is known from Henry Greswold’s drawing of 1685.[11] It is unclear how much of the palace in the drawing was originally present in 1299. The ‘Lady’s Chamber’ is problematical and might have been a lesser hall. The chapel might have been at ground level. A treasury is not shown on the drawing. Also missing is a bakery, granary, hay barn, saucery (a room to prepare sauces), dovecot, and pinfold. The gateway on the south side might have been widened for carriages. The gardens had an herbarium and a pond. Water passed to the palace through lead pipes.[12] Lead and tin were added to the roofing, though the outer buildings were probably thatched. Size, dimensions and architecture were similar to the Bishop’s Palace at Wells, 1275-92.

AI rendition of the 1685 layout of the palace.

The palace in 1319 might look like this, if loosely based on the palace at Wells Cathedral.

AI rendition of the original palace. Below the chapel were cellars, a kitchen and brewhouse. The tower would have rooms for lodging.  Staff lived in rooms against the wall on the right. 

Langton dismounted. He would have had a good number of horses. 

                                         Langton meeting the staff.

Langton entering his Great Hall.

The palace was described as spacious and splendid with the great hall hundred feet long and fifty-six feet broad, painted with the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral of King Edward I, his patron. The Queen described Langton as 'the king's right eye.’[13] The hall is thought to have been the 5th or 6th largest in the country. The kitchen was accessed by stairs in the southern corner going down to ground level.

Langton in the Great Hall, His diners could be family drawn from across the Midlands.

 

          Early on Friday 13 January, he visited the cathedral to see his new shrine to St Chad. He met the Dean, John de Derby, who had held the post for 29 years, 1280-1319. John died on October 12 and was buried in the cathedral. 

AI rendition of Bishop Langton meeting Dean Derby outside the Deanery, for what could have been the last time they meet.

The bishop greeted many canons and chantry priests waiting at the west door. One could have been Walter’s brother, Robert, who held the prebend of Handsacre, and before that Flixton and Stotfold. The west front of the cathedral was probably unfinished and might not have had spires on the towers.[14] Niches were filled with gilded statues and the niches painted red. It is thought the cathedral was not completed until the late-1330s.

AI rendition of the bishop being met by all the priests and acolytes of the cathedral. This image is the earliest known of the cathedral, and was published in 1655. To the left can be seen the half-timber, half-brick old library later destroyed in the Civil War. The green is painted foliage, but the amount present is questionable. Most likely there were many small angels sculpted, if like at Wells and Salisbury.

Around 1303, Langton gave £2120 to Paris stonemasons to make a monument for Chad’s new shrine in the retroquire. On the stone plinth was set a model of the cathedral in silver and gold, and could have been in place behind the high altar by 1307- 8. A Lichfield Muniment Inventory of 1345 estimated its value at £2000 (£2.1 million today). It was decorated with 6 rubies, 5 sapphires, 15 large emeralds, 16 pearls and many small stones. Some jewels were set in an image of Chad. It is unclear which relics were kept in the casket within the confines of the model cathedral, and which were still in St Chad’s Head Chapel.[15]

AI rendition of Bishop Langton blessing his new shrine to Chad probably in a small chapel behind the high altar. The gilded roof is a conjecture based on Becket’s tomb having one. It would have been raised or lowered by a rope or chain. The shrine had railings around it.

After this ceremony Langton leaves Lychefeld for Tame worth or Tamworth.[16]

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[1] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain, (London: 1738), 233.

[2] Until recently, he was said to be of lowly birth and loosely connected with the Peverel family. See J. Blackwell Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register’, Unpub. thesis, University of Nottingham, 1992, 198.

[3] His consecration by Béraud de Got, cardinal-bishop of Albano, took place on 23 December 1296, at Cambrai, where he was engaged in peace negotiations with the papal nuncios. On his return he made his profession of obedience to the archbishop before the high altar at Canterbury.

[4] For a fuller account of the early years of Langton see the post, ‘Bishop Walter Langton - local benefactor.’

[5] J. B. Stone, A history of Lichfield cathedral, from its foundation to the present time. with a description of its architecture and monuments. with photographic illustrations, (1870). 22.

[6] 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.

[7] J. B. Hughes, ‘The episcopate of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, calendar of his register," Thesis for Nottingham Univ. (1992) Vol. 1, 283.  His visitations in January 1319 were: Monday 9th at Sandwell Priory, 11th at Canwell Priory and Shenstone, 12th at Farewell Priory staying overnight at Lichfield, 13th at Tamworth, 14th at Harlaston, passing through Lichfield and staying at Clifton Campville, 15th at Burton Abbey, 16th at Barton-under-Needwood, staying at Tatenhill and on 17th ending at Tutbury Priory.

[8] In his will Langton, bequeathed £860 13s 3d towards completing the Lady Chapel, and it is thought this was sufficient, but it is unclear.

[9] In 1336, William de Heywood and Robert Aylbrick were admitted as custodians of the fabric of the chapel of the Blessed Mary. This is taken to indicate the Chapel was now being used.

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

[12] Water had been piped to The Close from 1140-70.

[13] N. Denholm-Young, The liber epistolaris of Richard de Bury, (Roxburghe Club Oxford: 1950) 317. He was appointed the principal executor of the king’s will.

[14] Two friars minor from Clonmel, Ireland, were on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and saw the cathedral in 1323. They kept a diary and described the three towers. This is ambiguous and might or might not include the spires.

[15] The shrine was not in place in the Lady Chapel entrance until around 1360. Langton would see it in a small chapel at the end of the squared choir-presbytery.

[16] In 1319 the king gave Tamworth charters confirming the townspeople certain rights.