Beaumont, will be bishop of Durham”’.^37 Accordingly, Edward wrote to
the pope, describing Louis as the best candidate available to protect the
see against the ravages of the Scots. This may well have been the decisive
factor in swinging John XXII’s judgement. The next month, the pope
quashed the election, and by February 1317, he had provided Louis into
the bishopric. Yet this was merely the beginning, and not the end of the
story. Just over six months later, Louis set out for his consecration at
Durham, in the company of his brother and two cardinals. On 1 Septem-
ber, however, the group was ambushed at Rushyford by a small posse of
knights, headed by Gilbert of Middleton and John of Lilburn. Although
the cardinals were quickly and apologetically released, the Beaumonts
were hustled off into captivity and languished there for more than a
month. This was the start of a significant break-down of law and order
in the surrounding area, which was brought to an end only when Gilbert
was lured into captivity and executed. It is telling that when Louis’s
consecrationfinally did take place, it was in the security of Westminster
Abbey. Although it used to be thought that all of this was a conspiracy
cooked up by the disappointed Lancaster with treasonable support from
across the border, it has been demonstrated that the Scots played no
part in the proceedings, and that the earl’s involvement was indirect or
unintentional at best. Even so, of course, it was strongly suspected that
Lancaster was behind it, and so the incident played its part in raising
tensions, once again, back towards fever pitch.^38
Louis’s episcopal career had thus started very badly. Maybe we should
not be surprised that he soon plunged into a series of acrimonious
disputes with the local cathedral chapter, born, perhaps, out of the fact
that he was well aware that he had not been their choice for the post.
Allegedly, things reached such a pass that the new bishop wrote to the
pope, insinuating that excessive luxury had driven the monks mad. Yet
Louis’s assertiveness was not merely confined to the chapter. He also
locked horns with his own metropolitan, the archbishop of York, con-
cerning a number of churches in Allertonshire, and the matter was not
settled without violence.^39 All in all, Bishop Beaumont left behind a
reputation that really speaks of the late medieval Church at its worst.
The only vice that he does not seem to have had is incontinence.
(^37) See Robert of Greystanes’chronicle inHistoriae Dunelmensis scriptores tres: Gaufridus de
Coldingham, Robertus de Graystanes et Willielmus de Chambre, ed. J. Raine (London,
1839), 98.
(^38) See M. Prestwich,‘Gilbert de Middleton and the Attack on the Cardinals, 1317’,in
Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser, ed.
39 T. Reuter (London, 1992), 179–94.
See Fraser’s article in theODNB.
150 Hubris and Nemesis (c. 1311–1356)