Bishop Thomas Arundel's Household Accounts

CUL: EDR D/5/7a

mb [2] (6 July) (Hall expenses)

...

Cum domino in Iantaculo Rex & Regina Anglie Comes de Notyngham dominus Iohannes de Holand ffrater domini Regis ducissa Britannie Countissa Penebron cum aliis magnatibus dominabus & pueribus in multitudine copiosa
Dominus in Cena cum Rege apud Bernewelle
         ...ministrellis Regis lxvj s. viij d.... ...
  • Footnotes
  • Record Translation

    mb [2] (Hall expenses)

    ...

    With the lord (bishop) at lunch (or breakfast), the king and queen of England, the earl of Nottingham, Lord John Holand, the king's brother, the Duchess of Brittany, Countess Penebron with other magnates, ladies, and children in an abundant multitude.
    The lord at supper with the king at Barnwell
             ...to minstrels of the king, 66s 8d...
    ...
  • Endnote

    King Richard II (1367–1400) married Anne of Bohemia (1366–94), daughter of Emperor Charles IV, 20 January 1382. Thomas de Mowbray (1366–99), first duke of Norfolk, was created earl of Nottingham on 12 February 1383. John Holland (c 1352–99/1400), subsequently created thirteenth earl of Huntingdon in 1388, was half-brother to Richard by their mother, Joan of Kent (c 1326–85). Joan de Montfort (d. 1374), was married to John de Montfort (1339–99), duke of Brittany, and John Holland's sister. The 'Countissa Penebron' is likely Elizabeth Lancaster (1363–1426), daughter of John of Gaunt and wife of John Hastings (1372–89), thirteenth earl of Pembroke. John Holland and Elizabeth began an affair by 1385, and Elizabeth's marriage to John Hastings was annulled after she became pregnant by John Holland in 1385. She subsequently married John Holland in 1386. Although the purpose of this visit is unclear, Barnwell Priory was closely tied to King's College, Cambridge, and was a regular lodging for royalty visiting Cambridge and the college. Edward II stayed at Barnwell in both September 1315 and February 1326, while his wife Isabel stayed later the same year. On 9 September 1388, Parliament met at Cambridge, and Richard II and his court lodged at Barnwell Priory until the end of the session on 17 October (VCH: Cambridgeshire, vol 2, pp 234–249, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol2/pp234-249, accessed 9 September 2021).

  • Document Description

    Record title: Bishop Thomas Arundel's Household Accounts
    Repository: CUL
    Shelfmark: EDR D/5/7a
    Repository location: Cambridge

    Thomas Arundel (1353–1414), was the third son of Richard Fitzalan (c 1313–76), fourteenth earl of Arundel and ninth earl of Surrey, and Eleanor (d. 1372), daughter of Henry (c 1280–1345), second earl of Lancaster. At the age of seventeen Arundel received his first benefice in Taunton, Somerset, and was raised to the bishopric of Ely at the age of twenty, on 13 August 1373. During the same time (perhaps about 1369) he began his career at Oriel College, Oxford, leaving after his BA. Arundel's political career is best defined by his actions as lord chancellor, 1386–9 and 1391–6, in which role he mediated disputes between his older brother, Richard (1346–1397), the fifteenth earl of Arundel, and King Richard II over the rights and privileges of parliament, and played a leading role in Richard's deposition in favour of Henry IV in 1399. Arundel's political actions led to subsequent ecclesiastical appointments. On 3 April 1388 Arundel was translated to the archbishopric of York, and on 25 September 1396 to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Arundel was subsequently replaced by Roger Walden (d. 1406) in 1397, after which he was exiled and fled to Florence. In 1398 Boniface IX translated Arundel to the bishopric of St Andrew's; following Walden's deposition in 1399 by Henry IV, Arundel was restored to Canterbury, where he remained until his death on 19 February 1413/14. Throughout his ecclesiastical career, Arundel was dedicated to pastoral reform, acting when bishop of Ely as patron to a number of northern clergy, including Richard Scrope (c 1350–1405), future archbishop of York, John Neuton (c 1350–14), who became treasurer of York Minster, Henry Bowet (d. 1423), also later an archbishop of York, and Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton (c 1342–96), all of whom were employed in the Ely consistory court. Another mystic, Nicholas Love (d. 1424), wrote his Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ and presented it to Arundel, as archbishop of Canterbury, in 1411. Arundel's patronage was designed to combat Lollardry, which was just beginning to develop in the 1380s; indeed, Richard II's visit to King's Hall, Cambridge, when Arundel was raised to the bishopric of Ely may have been intended to combat heresy at the college (Jonathan Hughes, 'Arundel [Fitzalan], Thomas (1353–1414),' ODNB, accessed 9 September 2021; Nelson, Cambridgeshire, vol 1, pp 10–11).

    No account year is discernable.

    July 1383; Latin; parchment; 5 membranes, attached serially, mbs [1–2] written on both sides continuing from final membrane of the roll, all other membranes written on one side only; mb [1]: 360mm x 323–339mm, mbs [4–5]: 568 x 323–339; unnumbered; top of mb 1 damaged.

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