CITY OF DURHAM 



fallen upon flocks and herds, followed by such a 

 famine that grain of aU kinds was sold at starva- 

 tion rates. The chronicler even says that 

 women ate their own babes, so famished were 

 they. But the Scots knew that some oases 

 remained, and that wealth was stored up in 

 Durham, so that at the end of June 1315 they 

 threw themselves right into the county and 

 made, it would seem, for Durham. The city 

 was probably fuU of refugees, and of driven 

 flocks and herds, but bishop and prior were 

 away, and perhaps it was useless to try anything 

 like a siege. The Scots rushed off to Bearpark, 

 where the prior was, and surrounded the park. 

 Prior Burdon got the alarm and managed to 

 flee on horseback in the direction of Durham, 

 the Scots in hot pursuit, and although they 

 failed to catch him they seized his carriage 

 and equipage with practically all the contents 

 of the house at Bearpark.^" Glutted with 

 booty, Brus made o5 to Chester-le-Street. 

 The men of Durham conferred together and 

 hastily carried out a house-to-house visitation 

 of the city and neighbourhood in order to 

 purchase a truce from the Scots. This was not 

 the first occasion on which the commonalty of 

 the bishopric tried to arrange truces. Other 

 instances can be quoted, but this coUeaion has 

 the interest of being carried through by the 

 Durham members of the community.*"^ There 

 was little respite, for next year on St. Swithun's 

 day so vast a flood came that all the lands 

 adjacent to streams were flooded, carrying off all 

 the crops in indiscriminate ruin, breaking down 

 mills, bursting the dams, rushing into the 

 houses, as the waters rose, and drowning men, 

 women and children. Once more murrain, 

 pestilence, and general want fell upon the city 

 and neighbourhood. 



The threatening cloud did not lift for some 

 time. The Scots had been not merely aggressive 

 but insolently overbearing since 1 3 14, when the 

 battle of Bannockburn was fought. The 

 minority of David of Scotland gave the English- 

 men new hope, and at Dupplin in 1332 the 

 English took heart of grace. Next year when 

 the king was on his way to the great triumph of 

 Halidon Hill he stopped at Durham, where a 

 quaint episode described by the chronicler took 

 place. As our authority is Graystanes himself, 

 who in that very year was elected to be Bishop of 

 Durham, it may be presumed that his tale is 

 true. He records that Edward HI was being 

 entertained by the prior. After nearly a week 

 had passed, Queen Philippa arrived and drove 

 to the monastery gate, and made her way to 

 the prior's house. After supper she went to 



w Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 96. 

 ^* See the whole matter explained by Lapsley, 

 op. cit. 122. 



bed, and then one of the monks plucked up 

 courage to tell the king of the traditions of the 

 abbey and St. Cuthbcrt's dislike to the presence 

 of women. At the king's suggestion the queen 

 threw a cloak over her and made her way across 

 the Palace Green to the castle." A requisition 

 had already been made for baggage carts, and 

 these had been concentrating at Durham,^' 

 whence the move was made northwards towards 

 Berwick, near which the English revived at 

 Halidon Hill the success of Dupplin. 



Bishop Bury succeeded Beaumont in 1333. 

 This celebrated lover of books made Durham 

 not merely the resort of men of learning, but a 

 home of books. Chiefly impressive to the poor 

 were his bountiful gifts of money, for he had a 

 regular scale of largess to be distributed when- 

 ever he drove between Durham and Auckland, 

 or Durham and Newcastle. His first appearance 

 in the city was in June 1334, when he was 

 enthroned by Prior Cowton within the cathedral. 

 Afterwards he gave a great banquet in the castle 

 hall, at which a brilliant assembly was present — 

 Edward HI and Queen Philippa, the king's 

 mother, Isabel of Boulogne, David H King of 

 Scotland, the two archbishops, John Stratford 

 of Canterbury and WiUian la Zouche of York, 

 five bishops, seven earls with their wives, all 

 the great men north of Trent, many knights and 

 squires, several abbots, priors and monks, and 

 also an innumerable throng of the commonalty 

 of the bishopric.'* 



It is during Bury's episcopate that we get a 

 little group of references to St. Margaret's 

 chapel in the Old Borough, which may indicate 

 some extension in that direction. St. Margaret's, 

 since its foundation in the 12th century, had 

 been a chapel of ease to St. Oswald's. Various 

 documents suggest that the parishioners were 

 not quite content with the subordinate position 

 of the chapelry. In 1343 Prior Fossor became 

 cognizant of the fact that a baptismal font had 

 been erected without any reference either to the 

 bishop or to the prior, who was patron of St. 

 Oswald's. The prior had it removed, to the 

 great indignation of the people in the Old 

 Borough, who made a bitter complaint to the 

 bishop in the castle. He tried to mediate, and 

 ordered a parish meeting within the chapel to 

 discuss the question whether the font should 

 remain against the will of the monastery, or 

 on the express understanding that it was by the 

 prior's grace. In the end the font was allowed 

 to remain on condition that there should be no 

 prejudice to the prior's rights.'* The bishop 



'- Hist. Dundm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 117. 



^^ Cal. Close, 1333-7, P- i°o ; ^'''- ^'"- i330-4> 

 p. 446. 



'* Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 128. 



'' The documents are printed in Dean Kitchin's 

 Richard d'Aungcnilk of Bury (Surt. Soc). 



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