Roger Northburgh (died 1358) was a cleric, administrator and politician who was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1321 until his death. His was a stormy career as he was inevitably involved in many of the conflicts of his time: military, dynastic and ecclesiastical.
Origins and education
Northburgh was long supposed to derive his name from Norbury, Staffordshire, which was considered his birthplace. Sometimes his name has even been rendered as Norbury, as in the edition of his episcopal register by Edmund Hobhouse.Hobhouse, p.242 However, the identification is no longer accepted as certain. Norbury is, in any case, a very common toponym: even within Northburgh's diocese, there were several examples. Nothing definite is known of his background. He seems to have communicated in Norman French, which makes it likely, but still not certain, that he came from the landed class of French descent.
Northburgh is often said to have been educated at Cambridge University. His interest in the university around 1321 makes this plausible, but there is no direct evidence to support it. He must have acquired an adequate education in Latin to perform his ecclesiastical functions.
Royal servant
Northburgh appears as early as 1306–7, during the reign of Edward I, already employed in the royal wardrobe.Tout, Volume 2, p. 24 This was the recruiting ground from which senior figures in the royal government were drawn.Tout, Volume 2, p. 10 By 1310, under Edward II he was a wardrobe clerk on a wage of 7½d. per day.Tout, Volume 2, p. 286 However, the wardrobe was coming under great pressure from the powerful baronial opposition, the Lords Ordainers, and its funds reducing as they sought to reduce the independent power of the monarchy.Tout, Volume 2, p. 235 In 1311–12, Northburgh accompanied the king as he led an army to Scotland and then across northern England, while the Ordainers, dominated the south.Tout, Volume 2, p. 234
Keeper of the Privy Seal It is unclear at exactly what point Northburgh was given custody of the Privy Seal, although he definitely held the post by 18 September 1312 and continued in office until 1316.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 93 He was not given the formal title of Keeper of the Privy Seal until 1315,Tout, Volume 2, p. 287 apparently the first so-called, although the function had existed for some time. His keepership is regarded as decisive in constituting it as a separate office.Davies, p. 224 The administrators who worked under him, although at first numbered among the wardrobe clerks, became titled "clerks of the privy seal," thus constituting a separate staff for the first time.
The barons were determined to separate control of the privy seal from the court, which they saw as the source of the nation's ills, and Northburgh seemed ready to work with them.Tout, Volume 2, p. 292 Under the terms imposed on the king by parliament, Northburgh was compelled to work in London with his staff, separately from the rest of the Court, which kept its distance from the barons.Tout, Volume 2, p. 236 He was in London with three clerks during the autumn of 1312 and again, with his staff enlarged to four, for the early part of 1313, and yet again, with two assistants, from February to May.Davies, p. 153 During these absences, John of Reading, a clerk in the royal household forged the privy seal and a major scandal broke, tainting for a time senior members of the royal household whom he tried to implicate in his crime. However, his trial in February 1313 concluded that he was acting alone and he was hanged, despite benefit of clergy.Tout, Volume 2, p. 293 In the summer of 1313 Northburgh was reunited with the king for a time, accompanying him on a journey to France, but was away again in the early part of 1314.
Northburgh rejoined the king for the campaign of summer 1314 in Scotland, which was hampered from the outset by lack of resources. He and the two clerks accompanying him were captured at the Battle of Bannockburn in June, along with the seal itself, and his accounts of the administration of the wardrobe were lost.Tout, Volume 2, p. 237 Some of the king's debts were not paid for more than twenty years, as the records were missing. The king was forced to write from Berwick-upon-Tweed to every English sheriff to warn them that the seal was no longer under his control and not to act solely on its authority.Tout, Volume 2, p. 294 The logical problem of validating the letter itself was solved by using the seal of Queen Isabella, and this continued in use until mid-July, when a new privy seal came into use. Northburgh was probably soon at liberty again and acts issued on his initiative recommenced on 22 November.Tout, Volume 2, p. 295 He retained the seal and was with the court intermittently in the first half of 1315, but he was given leave of absence from July to October. He became Keeper of the wardrobe from 1 February 1316, after the previous keeper, William Melton, was elected Archbishop of York.Tout, Volume 2, p. 238 He was to hold the post until 1322.
Ecclesiastical preferment
Near the beginning of his political and ecclesiastical career, Northburgh is found in 1308 as a subdeacon, the lowest of the major orders of the Church, but already a rector in the Diocese of Carlisle, and securing papal permission to take a further benefice, valued at 50 marksRegesta 55: 1307-1308 in Bliss (1895) This was perhaps the rectory in the Diocese of Exeter that he was holding in 1313, when he next received leave to hold benefices in plurality.Regesta 60: 1312-1313 in Bliss (1895) The number extra was two, and Kingsford reports three possible candidates, all royal grants, including two in the Diocese of Lincoln.
For some years from 1315 the king made persistent efforts to equip his faithful servant Northburgh with further ecclesiastical benefices to provide a steady income in keeping with his status. Initially he tried to place Northburgh in canonries with lucrative prebends at various cathedrals. On 11 June 1315 the king granted him the prebend of Wistow in the Archdiocese of York.Jones Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 6: Northern province (York, Carlisle and Durham): Prebendaries of Wistow This was already the subject of a succession battle that had gone on for two years. The king was forced to make the grant again on 10 December, allowing Northburgh to ease out John Nassington, the victor of the earlier struggle, in the following year. On 26 July 1315 the king granted Northburgh the prebend of Farndon-cum-Balderton in the Diocese of Lincoln.King Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 1: Lincoln Diocese: Prebendaries of Farndon-cum-Balderton This attempt proved unsuccessful as the prebend was already occupied by an absentee Italian cleric. However the grant of the prebend of Stoke, also in Lincoln Diocese, on 1 November 1315 proved more fruitful. The incumbent, possibly the same Italian cleric, proved vulnerable here, as the prebend had been declared vacant during the reign of Edward I, and he was canonically removed by the bishop on 29 July 1316.King Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 1: Lincoln Diocese: Prebendaries of Stoke
In March 1316 papal approval was given, at the king's request, for Northburgh to be provided to a canonry at Wells CathedralRegesta 65: 1316-1317 in Bliss (1895) and a long list is given of the benefices he already occupies, including two not already noted: a parish church in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and a prebend of Beverley Minster. However, the provision seems never have happened: this was a period of interregnum for the papacy and there is no subsequent mention of Northburgh among the canons of Wells. Also 1316 the king attempted to present Northburgh to the prebend of Blewbury in the Diocese of SalisburyHorn Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 3: Salisbury Diocese: Prebendaries of Blewbury However, the right of presentation was contested here and the subsequent series of legal challenges dragged on for ten years, leaving Northburgh empty handed. Further confusion attended the king's presentation of Northburgh to the prebend of Piona Parva in the Diocese of Hereford in 1317. In this case the king himself unaccountably granted the position to Roger Nassington concurrently. Northburgh emerged victorious but in 1318 exchanged the prebend for that of Yatesbury in the Diocese of Salisbury, which he held until he became a bishop.Horn Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 3: Salisbury Diocese: Prebendaries of Yatesbury Northburgh was also successfully inserted into an unidentified prebend of the Diocese of St David's, where he is attested on 14 March 1317.Jones Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 11: the Welsh Dioceses (Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, St Davids): Unidentified Prebendaries
These were relatively small income streams. However, the king also briefly attempted to make Northburgh Dean of St Paul's, with what serious hope of success is unclear. There had already been a three-year wrangle over the position,Horn Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 5: St Paul's, London: Deans of St Paul's with the king initially favouring John Sandale, while the pope provided Vitalis de Testa, and Richard Newport was elected. However two contenders dropped out of the race by acquiring bishoprics: Sandale became Bishop of Winchester and Newport Bishop of London. Northburgh was imposed by royal grant at some time in early 1317, as the pope complained in May that he had illegally taken charge and requested the king to protect the interests of Vitalis.Regesta 66: 1316-1317 in Bliss (1895) Northburgh also briefly acquired the St Paul's prebend of Newington by royal grant on 1 January 1317.Horn Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 5: St Paul's, London: Prebendaries of Newington However, Vitalis emerged victorious in 1318 and Northburgh seems to have abandoned hope of an economic or power base in the capital. He settled for being Archdeacon of Richmond, a post to which he was appointed by royal grant of 29 May 1317. On 24 September of that year he made his profession of loyalty to William Melton, whose consecration as Archbishop of York had been greatly delayed, and remained in post until he became a bishop.Jones Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: Volume 6: Northern province (York, Carlisle and Durham): Archdeacons: Richmond The powerful and wealthy Archdiaconate of Richmond, dominating much of the north-west of England, was able to act in most respects as a diocese in its own right,McCall, p. 1. with its own consistory court and complete control of institutions to benefices.
With his promotions, the king tried to ensure that the emoluments of previous occupants of the offices passed to Northburgh. For example, a letter under the privy seal was sent to the Abbess of Wilton ordering her to transfer a pension paid to Ralph de Stoke, previous keeper of the wardrobe, to the new man.Davies, p.152
Keeper of the wardrobe
Tout saw Northburgh as part of a "middle party," between the king and his most redoubtable opponent, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, which formed during 1317-18 and attempted to win the king's trust for the moderate, reforming baronial opposition, centred on Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere and Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of PembrokeTout, Volume 2, p. 204-5 Davies had already expressed a similar view.Davies, p. 442 The idea that there was any such party is now generally rejected, but there was certainly a considerable number of churchmen who sought to mediate the disputes. As keeper of the wardrobe, Northburgh had great responsibilities in the area of royal finances and corresponding opportunities to seek compromise reforms.