[8] 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[6] and continued in office until 1316.

[12] 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.

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.

[3] 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.

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.

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.

There had already been a three-year wrangle over the position,[29] with the king initially favouring John Sandale, while the pope provided Vitalis de Testa, and Richard Newport was elected.

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.

The parliament of 1318, convened on 20 October at York, came after a reconciliation between the king and Lancaster, who had dominated the political scene since Bannockburn.

[47] The Lichfield canons decided to appeal to Pope John XXII over the issue, initiating a case that was to drag on for twelve years.

[46] He decreed a forty-day indulgence to pilgrims who visited the Abbey's most important relic, the head of St Barbara, so long as they also made a gift and said both the Lord's Prayer for the king and queen and the Hail Mary in English.

The Deanery, another key post in the administration, was occupied by Stephen Segrave,[60] who was absent at the Roman Curia,[61] at that time based in Avignon.

Northburgh's proposal to visit the chapter itself led to a protest from Dean Segrave, who claimed exclusive rights to discipline the canons.

The king's invasion of Scotland had ended in an ignominious retreat and some parishes had to be exempted from visitation because their men had been called away to help resist a Scottish counter-invasion.

The Bishop's steward, probably Blound, presumed to test the weights and measures used by the canons and was brought before the chapter, where Segrave abused both him and Northburgh.

[46] He too was keen to uphold the established order at the cathedral, but his commitment to the post did not last long: he exchanged it with John Garssia in 1328 for a canonry at Lleida.

Moreover, absenteeism and poor management had wasted resources, allowing the fabric of the building and the liturgical vestments to deteriorate alarmingly.

After visiting Farewell Priory, very close to Lichfield, in 1331, Northburgh had a good deal to say about enforcing better discipline and segregation from lay people,[69] but was compelled to have his decrees translated from the customary Latin into Norman French to ensure there was no excuse of incomprehension for the nuns.

Old habits continued and, a year after his retirement, Chetwynd fell out with his successor and raided the abbey with a gang of armed men to seize goods, necessitating a royal intervention to restore order.

Northburgh had to intervene in the case of Elizabeth la Zouche, who, with another canoness, deserted White Ladies Priory, near Brewood, in 1326.

When he visited White Ladies in 1338, Northburgh reprimanded the prioress, Alice Harley, for financial mismanagement and extravagance, including her expenditure on clothes.

[78] However, Polesworth Abbey in Warwickshire seems to have had a special relationship with the Bishops, Northburgh included, through most of the 14th century and enjoyed unusual favour.

Northburgh had forced Thomas, the rector, to swear to pay the abbess two thirds of his income as a pension before allowing him to be inducted.

However, she had got judgement against Thomas in the secular courts, claiming that the pension was a charge on the rectory instituted by Walter Langton, Northburgh's predecessor.

Moreover, the Chancellor and Bruer had delegated their powers to Roger le Mareschall, the prebendary of Dernford,[83] and he and Bernard refused to take the matter further.

Each archdeaconry appointed a specific monastery and its head to act as collectors for the tax on clergy, while the laity also voted a grant.

On 11 June 1340 he was appointed by letters patent as commissioner, with three others, to requisition ships in the Port of London and elsewhere and fit them out for war, in readiness for assembling them as a fleet on the River Orwell.

However, the king was becoming increasingly irritated by delays and deficiencies in the resources reaching him during his campaigns in Flanders and this came to a head while he was at Ghent in October and November 1340.

[98] He detached himself by agreement from his allies, sent a delegation to Pope Benedict II to express his feelings about Stratford, and embarked at Sluys.

[100] John de Stratford escaped to Canterbury Cathedral, from which he continued to preach and to denounce royal intrusions on ecclesiastical privilege.