Walter Stapeldon

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Walter Stapeldon. Effigy on his funerary monument in Exeter Cathedral

Walter Stapeldon (also de Stapeldon or Stapledon ) (* before 1265; † October 15, 1326 in London ) was an English clergyman, diplomat and minister. From 1307 he was Bishop of Exeter .

Origin, training and advancement as a clergyman

Walter Stapeldon was born on February 1st. His exact year of birth is not known, but he was born in 1265 at the latest. Stapeldon came from a family of knighthood or gentry , his parents were William and Mabel Stapeldon from Stapeldon near Cookbury in northwestern Devon . His brother Richard later owned the Stapeldon estate and was a member of parliament . Walter also had two other brothers and three sisters. He studied at Oxford , where he received a master's degree . He is first mentioned in July 1286. In September 1294 he was principal of Aveton Gifford in Devon, and before 1298 he acquired real estate in Exeter , where he became Freeman in January 1300 . In August 1300, Bishop Thomas Bitton of Exeter appointed him his official . For his services he was given a position as a canon at Exeter Cathedral before 1301 . Before 1305 he became the Precentor of the Cathedral Chapter .

Bishop of Exeter

Elected Bishop of Exeter

In April 1306, Stapeldon became a Doctor of Both Rights . A little later he entered the service of the crown. In June 1306, King Edward I granted him protection from legal proceedings because he was traveling to Gascony , which was owned by the English kings, on behalf of the king . There he was probably involved in the installation of the Prince of Wales as Duke of Aquitaine . After the death of Bishop Bitton in September 1307, Stapeldon was elected by the Cathedral Chapter as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Exeter . The new King Edward II voted in favor of the election on December 3, but Richard Plympstoke , an old rival of Stapeldon, did not recognize the election and protested to the Roman Curia . In January 1308, however, he withdrew his objection so that the king could hand over the temporalities of the diocese to Stapeldon on March 16 . But Plympstoke now demanded the office of Archdeacon of Exeter, which Stapeldon refused. Plympstoke then sued in the Court of King's Bench . The lawsuit was dismissed in July 1308, but Stapeldon had to pay substantial court fees for the trial. Finally he was ordained bishop in Canterbury on October 13, 1308 and enthroned in Exeter in early December .

Service as diplomat and advisor to the king

Due to his legal training, Stapeldon also continued to serve the king as bishop. In 1310 he traveled back to Gascony on behalf of the Crown and in 1311 he took part in the Council of Vienne as the king's envoy . In November 1312 he was commissioned by the king to prepare the English response to French charges regarding Gascony, and in February 1313 he was commissioned, together with Thomas Cobham and the Earl of Pembroke , to represent the king before the French parliament . From May to July 1313 he was part of the king's entourage when he visited the French king Philip IV . Together with the Earls of Richmond and Pembroke, he conducted further negotiations in France. In 1315 he traveled with Pembroke again as envoy to Paris to negotiate with the new French king Louis X. , and in 1316 and 1319 he was also envoy to France, where he again had to clarify matters relating to Gascony, for which the French kings were supreme Feudal lords were. In 1318 he traveled to the Netherlands, where he possibly negotiated the marriage of the heir to the throne Eduard with Philippa of Hainault , a daughter of Count Wilhelm I of Hainaut .

Due to his work as a diplomat, Stapeldon had good contacts with the English royal court. He was regularly invited to parliaments from 1313 onwards . In September 1314 he opened Parliament in York on behalf of the king together with the Earl of Pembroke. At the beginning of Parliament in Lincoln in January 1316 he served as the king's representative, and in February 1316 and October 1318 he accepted petitions for the parliaments from Gascony. In 1315 he became a member of the Privy Council , where he apparently had considerable influence on the king due to his diplomatic experience. When in 1317 serious tensions arose again between the king and his cousin, the powerful Earl of Lancaster , Stapeldon took part in the meetings of the Privy Council. But he was not one of the bishops who led negotiations with Lancaster in 1318, which ultimately led to the Treaty of Leake and thus to the interim reconciliation between Lancaster and the king.

Served as treasurer and role during the Despenser War

At the beginning of 1320 Edward II reorganized his government. After appointing Bishop John Salmon as the new Chancellor and Robert Baldock as Keeper of the Privy Seal , he named Stapeldon Treasurer on February 18, 1320 . However, contrary to the provisions of the Ordinances of 1311, which he was supposed to observe under the Treaty of Leake , the king did not vote the appointments with Parliament. In June 1320 Stapeldon accompanied the king back to France, where he paid homage to the French king Philip V for his French possessions. After the Marcher Lords rebelled against the royal favorite Hugh le Despenser in the spring of 1321 , Stapeldon and nine other bishops tried to mediate peace between the king and the rebels in the summer of 1321. After the king had to agree to the exile of Despenser and his father of the same name under pressure from the rebels , Stapeldon resigned his office as treasurer on August 25 and returned to his diocese. Therefore, he did not take part in the meeting of bishops on December 1st in London, which Archbishop Reynolds called at short notice, to approve the return of the Despensers from exile. When the king asked him in writing for his consent to the return of the Despensers, Stapeldon advised the king in early 1322 to have this matter discussed and approved by a parliament. The king was so annoyed about this contradiction by Stapeldon, whose support the king was so far certain of, that he summoned Stapeldon to his court. The king was now taking military action against the rebels and their allied Lancaster. In March 1322 he beat them decisively in the Battle of Boroughbridge . During the following parliament in York in May 1322, the despensers' return was officially approved.

Renewed service as treasurer

During Parliament in York, Stapeldon was reappointed Treasurer on May 9, 1322. After the king's campaign to Scotland, which began in August 1322, had ended in defeat, Stapeldon took part in the negotiations for an armistice with Scotland. This was closed in May 1323 and was limited to thirteen years. After the captured rebel Roger Mortimer of Wigmore escaped from the Tower of London in August 1323 , the reliable Stapeldon replaced the previous commander Stephen Segrave as Constable of the Tower . Stapeldon had previously taken on the archiving of government documents, which were then stored in the tower. This connection certainly contributed to the fact that as a clergyman he was given the military post of Constable of the Tower. However, the king was so unsure of the loyalty of his military that he instructed Stapeldon to seek admission to the Tower as treasurer. Only after he was admitted should he inform Segrave of his replacement. In November, Stapeldon was replaced as a constable.

As treasurer, Stapeldon had to try to raise the costs of putting down the rebellion of the Marcher Lords and the Earl of Lancaster, of the war with Scotland and of the Saint Sardos war with France. This is why Stapeldon urged the Treasury to collect fees and process documents more quickly. As a result, attempts were now being made to collect debts from several magnates that their ancestors had incurred with the crown 100 years ago. Corresponding orders, which obviously went back to Stapeldon, issued the government in June 1323 in Cowick and in May 1324 in Westminster . In view of the tight finances, the king was nevertheless dissatisfied with the slow administration, so that he finally placed the treasury under the administration of Roger Beler in June 1324 . Stapeldon initially rejected this administrative reform, then tried to delay its implementation. The king then reprimanded him sharply and sent him to his diocese in July 1324, where he was supposed to supervise the preparations for the war with France. In September 1324, the king confiscated Queen Isabelle's possessions , most of which were in the area of ​​the Diocese of Exeter. This reduced the Queen's income considerably, for which she obviously blamed Stapeldon.

Role in the fall of Edward II and assassination

During a parliament, Stapeldon was replaced as treasurer on July 3, 1325. He may have been accused of greed and enrichment, but he may have been released so that he could accompany the Prince of Wales Edward to France. Instead of Edward II, he was supposed to pay homage to the French King Charles IV for Gascony after the end of the war of Saint Sardos . In September the Prince of Wales paid homage to the French king. At the French court, Stapeldon asked Queen Isabelle to return to her husband in England. Isabelle had previously brokered peace with her brother, the French king, but now she refused to return to England. The reason she openly cited the influence of Hugh le Despenser on her husband. When the French king also took his sister under protection, Stapeldon feared for his own safety and fled back to England to convey the news of his wife's refusal to Edward II. The queen and heir to the throne, however, remained in France. Before October 29th, Stapeldon was back in England, and to mark the opening of the next Parliament, he delivered a sermon in the Tower of London on November 18th. After the murder of Roger Beler in January 1326, he took over the administration of the treasury again.

In December 1325, Queen Isabelle had written a letter reprimanding Stapeldon for not paying for her household in France. Again she complained that Hugh le Despenser's hostility towards her was responsible for her exile in France. Eduard II now feared an invasion by Roger Mortimer and his other opponents from France. Stapeldon agreed to defend south-west England, but when Mortimer and his allied Isabelle landed with an army in south-east England in September 1326 , he returned to London. As an ally of the Despensers, he was extremely unpopular in the city, and the former Mayor Chigwell claimed that he was responsible for the trials that had been held in the city in early 1321, in violation of the privileges of the City of London. An angry mob ransacked Stapeldon's London townhouse and burned it down. When Stapeldon and a small escort appeared in front of his house despite warnings, the mob seized him and dragged him to Cheapside , where his head was cut off with a bread knife. The head was sent to the Queen, who eventually ordered Stapeldon's body to be buried in Exeter Cathedral , which finally happened on March 28, 1327.

Stapeldon's grave monument

Spiritual activity

Despite his frequent activity in the service of the crown, Stapeldon had performed his office as bishop conscientiously. He made frequent visitations in the area of ​​his diocese, in addition he succeeded in increasing the income from the possessions of the diocese considerably. As bishop, he contradicted the Crown's claim that the collegiate church of St Buryan in Cornwall was a royal free chapel , and insisted on his right as dean of the royal free chapel of Bosham in the diocese of Chichester . Stapeldon contributed significantly to the construction of Exeter Cathedral, so that he is considered the second founder of the cathedral. Not only did he donate considerable sums of money for the building himself, but in his first order as bishop in 1310 obliged all beneficiaries in his diocese to also donate money for the building. His contribution to the building was recognized by the fact that he was buried next to the high altar after his death.

Stapeldon actively promoted education and scholarship. In 1326 he planned to set up a school at St John's Hospital in Exeter. Of all the bishops during the reign of Edward II, he granted the most leave of absence to clergymen who wanted to study at a university. In 1314 he founded Stapeldon Hall in Oxford , where twelve poor students from the Diocese of Exeter could study. He was present at the foundation and in 1316 issued the first statutes of the institution, which had remarkably democratic features in the election of fellows and in the election of the rector by the fellows. His foundation continues as Exeter College , Oxford.

literature

  • Mark Buck: Politics, finance and the church in the reign of Edward II: Walter Stapeldon, treasurer of England . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1983, ISBN 0-521-25025-0

swell

  • FC Hingeston (ed.): The register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, (AD 1307-1326). G. Bell, London 1892 (digitized version) .

Web links

Commons : Walter de Stapledon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kathleen Edwards, The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 9 (1959), p. 59
  2. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 61
  3. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 64
  4. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 86
  5. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 763
  6. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 95
  7. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 254
  8. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 209
  9. ^ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 52
  10. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 132
  11. ^ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 99
  12. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 142
  13. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 143
  14. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 155
  15. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 156
predecessor Office successor
Thomas Bitton Bishop of Exeter
1307-1326 		James Berkeley
Walter Norwich Lord High Treasurer
1320-1321 		Walter Norwich
Walter Norwich Lord High Treasurer
1322-1325 		William Melton
personal data
SURNAME Stapeldon, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Stapeldon, Walter; Stapledon, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman and minister
DATE OF BIRTH February 1 before 1265
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1326
Place of death London