Text this colour is a link for Members only. Support us by becoming a Member for only £3 a month by joining our 'Buy Me A Coffee page'; Membership gives you access to all content and removes ads.
Text this colour links to Pages. Text this colour links to Family Trees. Place the mouse over images to see a larger image. Click on paintings to see the painter's Biography Page. Mouse over links for a preview. Move the mouse off the painting or link to close the popup.
Around 1292 Robert de Stratford was born to Robert de Stratford.
In 1331 Robert de Stratford (age 39) was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Between 23rd July 1337 and 18th August 1337 Robert de Stratford (age 45) was elected Bishop of Chichester.
In March 1338 Bishop Robert de Strafford (age 46) was appointed Lord Chancellor which office he held until July 1338.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. King Edward, having crossed the sea, entered England1, removed his ministers, namely the chancellor2, treasurer3, and others4, and in their place appointed, at his own pleasure, not clerics but laymen. He also began certain undertakings, as will appear in what follows, led by the counsel of certain supporters; and for this reason John, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to him in French a letter5 containing the following.
Rex Edwardus, mari transito, Angliam intravit, ministros suos, videlicet cancellarium, thesaurarium, et alios, amovit, non clericos immo seculares ad placitum suum substituit, nonnulla, ut in sequentibus patebit, fautorum ductus consilio inchoavit, unde et Johannes Cantuariensis archiepiscopus ei literam in Gallico scripsit, talia continentem.
Note 1. Edward arrived at the Tower of London on Thursday, the 30th of November [1340], about midnight. Claus. 14 Edward III p.2, m.12, d.; Rymer, Fœdera, 2.1141.
Note 2. Robert Stratford (age 48), Bishop of Chichester.
Note 3. Roger de Northburgh, Bishop of Litchfield Coventry.
Note 4. Among these were Lord Nicholas de la Beche, Constable of the Tower; Andrew Aubrey, Mayor of London; Lord Thomas Wake; Sir John Stonore, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench; Michael Wath, Henry Stratford, and Robert Chickwel, Clerks of the Chancery; and Philip Thorp, Clerk of the Exchequer.
Note 5. A copy of this letter in the original French form will be found in Rymer, 2.1143.
Become a Member via our 'Buy Me a Coffee' page to read complete text.
On 9th April 1362 Bishop Robert de Strafford (age 70) died.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. At dawn, the king immediately summoned1 the chancellor, the treasurer, and the justices then present in London. He at once intended to send the Bishop of Chichester [the chancellor] and the Bishop of Coventry [the treasurer], stripped of their offices, to Flanders as pledges for money. But the Bishop of Chichester explained to the king and his council the danger of the canon law that threatened those who imprisoned bishops. So the king allowed them to leave the Tower. However, the senior justices: Sir John de Stonore, Sir Richard de Willoughby, Sir William de Shareshull, and especially Sir Nicholas de la Beche, who had previously been the constable of the Tower of London, and Sir John Molyns, knight; likewise, the merchants Sir John de Pulteney, William de la Pole, and his brother Richard; and the senior clerks of the chancery: Sir John de St. Paul, Michael de Wath, Henry de Stratford; and of the Exchequer, Sir John de Thorp, and many others, he ordered to be thrown into various prisons. He did not release them until his anger, which he had conceived over the withholding of money that ought to have been sent for the siege of Tournai, had subsided.
Statim in aurora misit rex pro cancellario, tesaurario, et iusticiariis tunc Londoniis existentibus, et statim episcopum Cicestrensem cancellarii dignitate et episcopum Coventrensem ab officio tesaurarie absolutos voluit misisse in Flandriam impignorandos pro pecunia; set Cicestrensis exposuit sibi et suis periculum canonis qui imminet episcopos incarcerantibus, et sic ipsos turrim exire permisit. Iusticiarios vero maiores, scilicet dominum Iohannem de Stonore, dominum Ricardum de Wyleby, dominhum Willelmum de Scharesheolle, et precipue dominum Nicholaum de la Beche, qui prius fuit custos turris Londoniarum, et dominum Iohannem Molyns militem; item, mercatores dominos J de Pulteney, Willelmum de la Pole, et Ricardum fratrem eius; et clericos cancellarie maiores, videlicet dominos Iohannem de Sancto Paulo, Michaelem de Wath, Henricum de Stratford, et de skakkario dominum Iohannem de Thorp et alios quam plures, iussit diversis carceribus mancipari. Nec eos absolvit quousque sua melancolia concepta de pecunie detencione, quam ad obsidionem Torneacensem debuerant misisse, fuerat sedata.
Note 1. Robert Stratford, bishop of Chichester and brother of the archbishop, was chancellor; Roger de Northburgh, bishop of Coventry, treasurer. John Stonore was chief justice of the Common Pleas; he was restored 9th May 1342. Richard Willoughby and William de Shareshull were justices of the Common Pleas. Nicholas de la Beche, constable of the Tower, became, in 1343, seneschal of Gascony. Michael Wath was Master of the Rolls, 13341337; and was succeeded by John of St. Paul, 1337-1340. Foss, Judges of England, 3.