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The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, a canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: "In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed." Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
On 1st February 1261 Bishop Walter Stapledon was born to William Stapledon.
In 1308 Bishop Walter Stapledon (age 46) was appointed Bishop of Exeter.
In 1320 Bishop Walter Stapledon (age 58) was appointed Lord High Treasurer.
In 1322 Bishop Walter Stapledon (age 60) was appointed Lord High Treasurer.
On 15th October 1326 brothers [his brother] Richard Stapledon and Bishop Walter Stapledon (age 65) were beheaded in the street by a mob layal to Queen Isabella. His bro
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. With matters thus unfolding, the London mob, eager to please the queen and Roger de Mortimer, furiously seized and beheaded1 the late Lord Walter (age 65), Bishop of Exeter, on the 15th of October [1326], in the middle of the city. They also savagely killed certain others loyal to the king, solely because they had faithfully served him in his government. The bishop's head was sent to the queen, who was encamped with her army at Gloucester, and was offered as a kind of sacrifice pleasing to Dea, [the goddess] of vengeance. Furthermore, the people broke into the Tower of London and released all the prisoners, and by public edict of the queen, nearly all incarcerated persons throughout England were granted liberty. The exiled and outlawed were also recalled to peace, so that under the pretence of general clemency and mercy, public enthusiasm might burn more brightly for the coronation of the new king, one who would appear gentler than the old.
Hiis ita se habentibus, wlgus Londoniensis, regine et Rogero de Mortuo mari volens complacere, bone memorie dominum Walterum episcopum Exoniensem XV die Octobris in medio civitatis furiose captum decapitavit, quosdam quoque alios regi fideles, ea sola causa quod regis ministerio fideliter adeserunt, attrociter necuere. Capud vero episcopi regine apud Gloverniam suo exercitui incubanti, quasi sacrificium Deane bene placitum, optulerunt. Intrantes insuper turrim Londoniarum omnes incarceratos liberarunt, et ita per edictum pupplicum regine omnes fere incarcerati per totam Angliam dabantur libertati. Banniti quoque et fugitivi paci fuerunt revocati, ut, pretensis generali pietate et misericordia, in novi regis, vetere mitioris, coronacionem populi cupiditas excandesceret.
Note 1. William de Dene, Historia Roffensis [History of Rochester] (Anglia Sacra), 1.366.
Annales Paulini 316, Walsingham Historia Anglicana 1.182 and The Brut. See also Leland's Collectanea.
The lenient treatment, at a later date, of two of his murderers is thus described in the Annales Paulini 345.
And Annales Paulini 350.
Annales Paulini. 15th October 1326. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Exeter (age 65) came from one of his manors, and intending to pass through the city to the Tower of London, he entered by Newgate. Hearing the uproar and shouting of the people near the Church of St Michael ad Bladum, he became afraid and turned aside, fleeing to the Church of St Paul. But his pursuers, joined by others coming to meet him, like madmen, seized him at the north door of the church. They struck him on the head and pulled him from his horse, and dragging him cruelly through the churchyard, they took him into the marketplace of Westcheap. There, after stripping him in shameful fashion, they beheaded him, along with his two squires, John de Paddington and William Walle. Their naked bodies lay in the middle of the market all day, a horrific sight to all who looked upon it. The bishop's head was sent to the lady queen at Bristol. Later that day, after Vespers were sung at St Paul's, the lesser canons and vicars of that church, out of respect for his dignity, came with a cross and honorably recovered the bishop's body. They brought it into St Paul's Church, where it lay through the night. On the next day, it was carried to the Church of St Clement Danes, near the manor of the deceased bishop. This was the church to which he had secured perpetual patronage for his successors, the Bishops of Exeter, from the brethren of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Warwick, whom he had compensated with another church said to be worth twice as much. But the rector of St Clement's, ungrateful though he had been appointed by the same bishop, refused to allow the sacred burial of his body in the churchyard. So the body was taken to a nearby church of the Holy Innocents, which had been abandoned and entirely ruined, and there, without its head, the bishop was buried. Later, by the efforts of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, the body was exhumed and brought to Exeter, on the 17th of February, and reburied there.
Interim venit episcopus Exoniensis de quodam manerio suo, et, cum voluisset transisse per medium civitatis ad Turrim Londoniensem, intrans per portam de Neugate, et ad ecclesiam Sancti Michaelis ad bladum audiens hujusinodi tumultum et clamorem populi, timuit, et se divertit fugiendo ad ecclesia Sancti Pauli. At illi insequentes, et alii obviantes ei ut furibundi, apprehenderunt eum ad ostium ecclesia boriale; percusserunt in capite, et de equo traxerunt, et, sic per medium cimiterium eum crudeliter trahentes, in foro de Westchepe, ibi eum miserabiliter despoliantes decollaverunt cum suis duobus armigeris J. de Padingtone et W. Walle; et jacuerunt cadavera nuda per totmn diem in medio foro, horribile spectaculum cunctis intuentibus, Caput vero episcopi missum fuit domine regine apud Bristolliam. Eodem die corpus vero episcopi, post vesperas decantatas in ecclesia Sancti Pauli, minores canonici et vicarii ejusdem ecclesim cum cruce honorifice quaesierunt, propter statum sue dignitatis, et ad ecclesiam Sancti Pauli deportaverunt; et tota nocte illa in dicta ecclesia requiescens corpus, et in crastino ductum fuit ad ecclesiam Sancti Clementis Dacorum prope manerium dicti episcopi defuncti, cujus ecclesie perpetuam collationem successoribus suis ecclesiæ Exoniensis conferendam impetravit a fratribus ecclesiæ Sanctæ Sepulchræ Dominiæ de Warewick, et eos remuneravi de quadam alia ecclesia que valuit in duplum ut asserebatur. Et quia rector illius ecclesiæ, ut ingratus, eo quod promotus fuit ad eandem per dictum episcopum, sacre sepulturæ in suo cimiterio tradi non permisit, ductum fuit ad quandam ecclesiam Sanctorum Innocentium, que prope fuit prædictam ecclesiam Sancti Clementis, derelictam et omnino destrnctam, et ibidem fuit sine capite humatum. Sed postea, ex procuratione decani et capituli Exoniensis, dictum corpus exhumatum fuit ex prædicto loco et deportatum Exoniam, videlicet xiii kalendas Martii.