of the English army was crushingly defeated by the Scots. Henry was
among those who accompanied King Edward in hisflight from the
field.^34 Naturally enough, so humiliating a failure opened the way for
the king’s enemies–above all, Thomas of Lancaster–to assert them-
selves in England. An‘Ordainers’revanche’duly followed over the
course of the next few years. For his part, Henry was stripped of the
lordship of Man, and lost the reversion of various other valuable territor-
ies.^35 Nonetheless, there were limits to what Edward’s opponents could
do. Henry was not removed from‘the king’s counsel’, perhaps because
his skill and experience in war were needed more than ever before. Even
during the dark days of 1315–16, for example, Henry was appointed as
commander of the eastern march, principally to protect northern Eng-
land against the Scots.^36
All of this provides a context for the Durham episcopal election of
1316 – 17 and its even more remarkable aftermath. Durham was, of
course, an exceptionally important bishopric. This was a product not
only of the incumbent’s role as the ruler (‘prince-bishop’) of the County
Palatine of Durham, but also of the strategic significance of the lordship
in question, so close to the Scottish border. On the death of the previous
incumbent in the autumn of 1316, there were a large number of candi-
dates for the post, promoted by a range of different interest groups.
Whilst it is not surprising that there were several‘baronial’candidates
(including one put forward by the earl of Lancaster), it is interesting, at
least, that the king and the queen made different choices–and that Louis
of Beaumont, Henry’s brother, was Queen Isabella’s candidate, rather
than King Edward’s. The election took place on 6 November, and the
result was impatiently awaited in the cathedral itself by a small gathering,
including Thomas of Lancaster and Henry. In the event, however, the
monks courageously disappointed everyone, selecting one of their own:
Henry of Stamford, the prior of Finchale. Whilst King Edward seems to
have been prepared to accept the prior, the queen would have none of it.
Indeed, we are told, she nagged the king so ferociously that he changed
his mind:‘“if you love me, you will act so that my kinsman, Louis of
(^34) A hostile chronicler states that Edward, Henry and the others acquired‘everlasting
shame’, fleeing from the battlefield ‘like miserable wretches’ (The Chronicle of
35 Lanercost, 208–9).
Calendar of the Fine Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 22 vols. (London, 1911–62),
36 ii, 243–4.
For this appointment in context, see Phillips,Edward II, 251.
The Coming of the Hundred Years’War 149