RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



St. Albans' manor of Sandridge. On 20 Novem- 

 ber 1419 he received the bishopric of Lichfield 

 by papal provision,*' and in 1420 resigned the 

 abbacy. 



John Bostock, or Wheathampstead, Hey- 

 worth's successor,** was a remarkable per- 

 sonaUty. Whatever may be thought of his 

 learning, of his capabilities there can be no 

 question. The friendship of Humphrey Duke of 

 Gloucester for him, whether literary or political, 

 is in itself evidence of his ability. Pedant as he 

 seems in his letters,** he was undoubtedly a 

 clever man of the world, who succeeded to an 

 extraordinary degree in making St. Albans 

 attractive to the great and influential. Duke 

 Humphrey visited the monastery frequently : 

 he came on Christmas Eve 1423 with his wife 

 Jacquehne of Hainault and 300 retainers,^" 

 remaining until after the Epiphany ^^ ; in 1426 

 he spent three days here on his way to 

 Leicester *^ ; in 1427 he offered at the shrine on 

 recovering from an illness,^ and that year kept 

 Christmas splendidly at the abbey '* ; in 1428 

 he made a short stay here ** ; and in 1 43 1 his 

 second duchess, Eleanor Cobham, was received 

 into the fraternity with some of her relatives 

 and attendants.^' The Duke and Duchess of 

 Bedford with a train of 300 persons were enter- 

 tained here in 1426 on the Festival of St. 

 Alban " ; Queen Joan came in 1427 for wor- 

 ship,** and Queen Katharine and the httle king 

 in 1428 stayed for nine days at Easter *' ; Henry 

 Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, visited the 

 abbey in 1424, 1426, as cardinal in 1428 and 

 twice in 1429 '" ; and in September 1430 the 

 Duchess of Clarence was at St. Albans.*^ Visits 

 from the Earl of March, '^ the Countess of 

 Westmorland, «3 the Bishop of Lichfield, «* Sir 



" Cal. Papal Letters, vii, 134. 



** He was then prior. 



^' Many of these are printed in Appendix E of the 

 Reg. of St. Albans (Rolls Ser.), ii, 365-475. 



*" Chron. Rerum Gestarum in Mon. S. Albani, 

 printed in Amundesham, Annales Mon. S. Albani 

 (Rolls Ser.), i, 4-5. 



51 Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, fol. 147. On this 

 occasion he became a chapter-brother. 



'^ Amundesham, Annales, i, 8. 



*' Ibid. 12-13. 



" Ibid. 19. 



'5 Ibid. 25. 



»« Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, fol. 1 54. It is re- 

 lated that she was once cured of a toothache by the 

 intercession of St. Alban, and the duke in gratitude 

 offered a golden tooth at the shrine. 



*' Amundesham, Annales, i, I o. 



58 Ibid. 16. 



»»Ibid. 21. 



""Ibid. 5, 11,28, 34. 



«1 Ibid. 54. 62 Ibid. 5. 



*' She came on a pilgrimage in 1428 with her son 

 and his wife (ibid. 24). 

 M Ibid. 50-1, 55, 57. 



William Babington, the chief justice,** are also 

 mentioned. The Earl of Warwick was laid up 

 here in 1428 and made Hberal acknowledgement 

 of the attention he received ; he was admitted 

 to the fraternity ** Hke many others,"' for the con- 

 ferring of this honour was as much used as 

 hospitality to increase the abbey's well-wishers."* 

 It is a tribute to Wheathampstead's literary 

 reputation that he was one of those chosen to 

 represent England at the Council of Pavia- 

 Siena in 1423 "' and that of Basle in 143 1 '" ; 

 and that he was asked in 1427 to compose the 

 letter from the EngHsh clergy to the pope.'^ 

 While in Italy the abbot seized the opportunity 

 to go to Rome,'* where he procured certain 

 bulls,'^ and so established himself in the pope's 

 favour that the Bishop of Lincoln decided to 

 cease his attack in the Council on the abbey's 

 exemption.'* The question was afterwards 

 raised in other quarters. The Archbishop of 

 Canterbury took umbrage in 1424 at the non- 

 appearance of the priors of the cells of St. 

 Albans at his visitations, and the letting of 

 tithes of appropriated churches to laymen 

 without his leave.'* As part of the campaign 

 against the abbey Wheathampstead was made 

 collector of the tenth in Hertfordshire and 

 Buckinghamshire, but while obtaining the 

 revocation of the appointment from the chan- 

 cellor, he very sensibly went to see the arch- 

 bishop '" and managed to disarm his hostiUty. 



A similar difficulty with the Bishop of Nor- 

 wich was settled less easily. The bishop in 



"5 While he was here in 1437 the abbot asked his 

 advice about the questions between himself and the 

 Abbot of Westminster (Amundesham, ^»»<7/if/, ii, 127). 



"" Amundesham, Annales, i, 22, 67. 



«' Ibid. 65-9 ; Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, fol. 136 d., 

 I47d., i5od., 155. 



"* Many handsome gifts must have been re- 

 ceived from chapter-brothers and sisters. Duke 

 Humphrey in 1436 gave elaborate altar frontals and 

 vestments, 25 cloths of gold and a great silver-gilt 

 tabernacle (Amundesham, Annales, ii, I 87-90). Mar- 

 garet Duchess of Clarence presented2 silver-gilt censers, 

 frontals and splendid vestments (Cott. MS. Nero, 

 D vii, fol. 152 d.). 



"' Amundesham, Annales, i, 99. 



'" Ibid. 275. The royal licence to him to take 

 j^400 in bullion with him was not granted until 

 6 May 1433 {Cal. Pat. 1429-36, p. 267). 



'1 Amundesham, Annales, i, 17. 



" He fell seriously ill here, and the pope sent 

 him plenary indulgence (Amundesham, Annales, i, 

 148-50). 



" Among them one for the use of a portable altar 

 at the abbey's houses of London and Oxford, where 

 the chapels were not yet consecrated (ibid. 161). 



'*Ibid. 73-81. 



'5 Ibid. 1 9 5-6. 



'" To show him Archbishop Reynolds's letter of 

 1 31 8 declaring the Abbot of St. Albans not subject 

 to the archbishop (ibid. 200). 



399 



