Archbishop John Stafford

E. F. Jacob

doi:10.2307/3678859

Archbishop John Stafford

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

E. F. Jacob

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The English bishops of the fifteenth century seldom arouse the historian's enthusiasm. They seem, like their registers, too concerned with ecclesiastical routine, too governmental and orthodox for any that might still expect to find elements of heroism in the later medieval Church. John Stafford is a fair example. He has suffered from the dislike of Thomas Gascoigne and in later times from the coolness of Bishop Stubbs. Gascoigne, who suspected his origins, charged him with begetting offspring by a nun;1 Stubbs, more anxious to be fair, concluded that ‘if he had done little good, he had done no harm.’2 Sir James Ramsay, who admitted his administrative ability, wrote of him as ‘a Beaufort partisan’,3 while Mr Kingsford was cautious and noncommittal.4 Now Stafford was one of Chichele's best lawyers and a close associate: he was also the successor strongly recommended to the pope by the archbishop, and in 1443 the succession to Canterbury was no passing matter.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 12 , December 1962 , pp. 1 - 23

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678859 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1962

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References

^{page 1 note 1} Loci e libro veritatum, ed. Rogers, J. E. Thorold (Oxford, 1881), p. 231. His bastardy is also referred to on p. 40.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 2} Constitutional History (5th edn., Oxford, 1903), iii, p. 148.

^{page 1 note 3} Lancaster and York (Oxford, 1892), ii, p. 55.

^{page 1 note 4} Dictionary of National Biography, liii, pp. 454–55.

^{page 1 note 5} C[alendar of] P[apal] L[etters], vii, p. 252.

^{page 1 note 6} Selwood Forest: Victoria County History, Wiltshire, iv, p. 414. Hutchins, J. (History of Dorset (London, 1774), i, p. 292) thought Southwick to be the Hampshire place.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 1} [The] Reg[ister of Henry] Chickele, ed. Jacob, E. F. (Oxford, 1938-1947), ii, pp. 620–24.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 1} C.P.L., vii, p. 252.

^{page 3 note 2} Listed in Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 (Oxford 1957–1959), iii, p. 1751.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 3} C.P.L., vii, loc. cit.

^{page 3 note 4} Emden, , op. cit., loc. cit.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 5} Snappe's Formulary, ed. Salter, H. E. (Oxf. Hist. Soc, lxxx, 1924), p. 184. It may have been as a representative of Oxford that he was placed in 1417 on the committee of the Canterbury Convocation appointed to consider methods of securing more effective promotion for University graduates; Reg. Chichele, iii, p. 37.Google Scholar

^{page 3 note 6} Reg. Chichele, iv, p. 110.

^{page 3 note 7} , iv, p. 641.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 3 note 8} Bodl. Lib., Tanner MS. 165, fo. 124.

^{page 4 note 1} Emden, , op. cit., iii, p. 1751.Google Scholar

^{page 4 note 2} C[;alendar of] P[atent] R[olls], 1416−22, p. 134.

^{page 4 note 3} , p. 174.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 5 note 1} Rymer, , Fædera (The Hague edn.), IV.ii.95.Google Scholar

^{page 5 note 2} , IV.iii.183.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 5 note 3} , IV.iv.28–30.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 5 note 4} The diplomatic documents are in Balfour-Melville, E. W. M., James I, King of Scots, 1406–1437 (London, 1936), pp. 96–98.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 1} Steel, A. B., The Receipt of the Exchequer (Cambridge, 1954), p. 166.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 2} Rot[uli] Parl[iamentorum], iv, pp. 275–76.

^{page 6 note 3} Steel, , op. cit., p. 168.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 4} Reg. Chkhele, i, pp. 326, 335.

^{page 7 note 1} Cotton, B.M.. MS. Cleopatra, C.iv, fos. 168^V–169^rGoogle Scholar

^{page 7 note 2} Fo. 121. Information kindly supplied by Dr Dorothy Sarmiento.

^{page 8 note 1} Cotton, . MS. Cleopatra, C.iv, fos. 152^r–153^v.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 1} , fos.173^r–173^v.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 9 note 2} [The] Reg[ister of John] Stafford, ed. Holmes, T. S., i (Somerset Record Soc, xxxi, 1915), p. 87.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 3} , p. 28.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 10 note 1} Reg. Stafford, p. 87.

^{page 10 note 2} , pp. 48 f.

^{page 10 note 3} On whom see The Register of Nicholas Bubwith, ed. Holmes, T. S., i (Somerset Record Soc., xxix, 1914), pp. lxxi–lxxiii.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 10 note 4} Reg. Stafford, p. 93.

^{page 10 note 5} Ibid., p. 94.

^{page 10 note 6} E.g. ibid., no. 379, p. iii.

^{page 10 note 7} E.g. ibid., no. 676.

^{page 11 note 1} ‘He (Beaufort) was driven from office on 14 March 1426, and with him went his colleague, John Stafford, the treasurer, as part of the compromise negotiated by Bedford and the other lords in the Parliament of Bats.’ McFarlane, K. B., ‘At the deathbed of Cardinal Beaufort’, Studies in Medieval History presented to F. M. Powicke (Oxford, 1948), p. 419.Google Scholar On the council's order to the treasurer to agree with Beaufort on the value of the jewels to be pledged, cf. , pp. 416−18.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 11 note 2} Proc. and Ord. Privy Council, iii, p. 199.

^{page 11 note 3} , p. 200.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 11 note 4} Present in convocation: Reg. Chichele, iii, pp. 173,175,179,183,185,189, 191, 196, 201, 210, 212, 226, 256; as royal envoy in convocation, , iii, pp. 91, 103, no, 233, 247, 259, 282–83.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 12 note 1} See footnote 4 on previous page.

^{page 12 note 2} Rot. Parl., iv, p. 481.

^{page 12 note 3} , v, p. 66.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 12 note 4} , v, p. 128.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 13 note 1} Especially , iv, p. 419; v, p. 3; v, p. 35 (on the throne).Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 13 note 2} P.R.O., S.C.i/44/8. TRANS. 5TH S.—VOL. 12—B

^{page 14 note 1} S.C.i//44/13.

^{page 14 note 2} C.i/15/I.

^{page 14 note 3} C.i/16/317.

^{page 14 note 4} C.i/15/4.

^{page 14 note 5} C.i/15/30. In this case the chancellor is asked to implement the findings of the court of Arches which excommunicated the defendant ‘with book, belle and candille’. Lord Grey of Ruthin took no notice, hence the action. The plaintiff ‘is not of poure ne dare sue for common lawe against the said Sir Henry because of his grete supportacion’.

^{page 14 note 6} C.I/16/287.

^{page 14 note 7} C.I/16/298a.

^{page 14 note 8} [Official] Corresp[ondence of T.] Bekynton, ed. Williams, G. (Rolls Series, 1872), i, p. 147.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 9} , p. 149.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 15 note 1} Corresp. Bekynton, ii, pp. 75–76.

^{page 15 note 2} Lambetb Palace Lib., Reg. Stafford, fo. I^r.

^{page 15 note 3} Reg. Stafford, fo. I^v.

^{page 15 note 4} , fo. 4^V.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 16 note 1} An interesting one is that of James, Fiennes (treasurer 1449, 1st lord Say and Sele) as steward, drawing £20 annually from the manor of Otford, and £20 from Aldington. This was a royal job: Considerantes quam valde et sinceriter prefatus Jacobus per literas regias et viva sue celsitudinis voce ad dictum qfficium extitit nobis recommissus. Reg. Stafford, fo. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 2} Signis tamen et signetis quibuscumque dictorum defunctorum nobis et cancellario nostro specialiter reservatis, , fo. 5^V.Google ScholarIbid.

^{page 16 note 3} Fos. 42^r–42^v.

^{page 16 note 4} Fo. 5^V (25 August 1443).

^{page 17 note 1} Reg. Chichele, iii, pp. 283–84.

^{page 17 note 2} Reg. Stafford, fo. 24.

^{page 17 note 3} Fos. 45–47.

^{page 17 note 4} On this important man, who became collector in 1450 and was, to Gascoigne's disquiet, made S.T.P. at Oxford, cf. Johannes, Haller, Piero da Monte (1941), pp. 83^*, 91^*, and letters 98, 102, 119, 121, 131, 133; Corresp. Bekynton, i, pp. 160, 174, 178, 185.Google ScholarWylie, refers to his ‘naturalisation’ in 1437: The Reign of Henry V, i (Cambridge, 1914), p. 193, n. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 18 note 1} The surname identified on the strength of later testimony (Reg. Morton, fo. 237^V) by Churchill, I. J., Canterbury Administration (London, 1933) i, p. 24.Google Scholar

^{page 19 note 1} Wilkins, , Concilia, iii, pp. 541–44.Google Scholar

^{page 19 note 2} What are the ‘registers’= Separate registers of the provincial assemblies? Nothing survives in the register of Stafford itself.

^{page 20 note 1} One of the passages from the register printed by Wilkins, , Concilia, iii, P. 557.Google Scholar

^{page 23 note 1} C.P.R., 1446–1452, p. 388.

^{page 23 note 2} , pp. 338–74.Google ScholarIbid.

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