RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



was John de Warefeld, who had for some time 

 belonged to Edward's household,' and in 

 August 1315 became his confessor.' 



The king in March 13 12 gave the brothers 

 700 marks for building expenses,* and in the 

 summer of that year the conventual church 

 was dedicated and a cemetery consecrated.' 

 Possibly, however, the church was not yet 

 finished, for the body of Piers Gaveston, who 

 was killed about this time,*" was not buried 

 there until the end of 1314,"^ when the ceremony 

 took place with much state, the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury and four bishops as well as many 

 other ecclesiastics taking part in the funeral 

 rites." 



In October 131 1 the king increased the 

 annual income of the house to ^£150 to provide 

 for fifteen friars added since the foundation,*' 

 so that his grant in September 1312 of 500 

 marks during pleasure may have been intended 

 for building purposes.** He gave the friars in 

 June 1315 a house with closes in his manor of 

 Langley *^ and leave to take wood for fuel and 

 other necessaries from Chipperfield Wood 

 (Chepervillewode).** During some years of 

 scarcity he also supplied them with corn.*' 



The king, however, felt that this state of 

 dependence on the Exchequer was unsatis- 

 factory, and wished to endow them per- 

 manently. To overcome the difficulty that 

 friars-preachers could not own property he 

 proposed to found a house of Dominican nuns, 



' Rev. C. F. R. Palmer, op. cit. 



' Ibid. ; Wardrobe Accu. (Exch. K.R.), bdle. 376, 

 no. 7, fol. 4. 



* Ca/. Pat. 1307-13, p. 453. 



' The Bishop of Lincoln's commission to the 

 Bishops of Bath and Ely is dated 29 July 13 12 

 (Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Memo. fol. 227 d.). 



*" Trokelowe and Blaneforde, Chron. et Annales 

 (Rolls Ser.), 77. His anniversary was kept 1 8 July 

 (Wardrobe Accts. bdle. 376, no. 7, fol. 5). 



** The London Chronicler {Chron. of reigns of 

 Edw. I and Edui. II [Rolls Ser.], i, 232) imagined 

 that the church was built by Edward II to receive 

 Gaveston's body. 



^^ Trokelowe and Blaneforde, op. cit. 88. For this 

 occasion 23 tuns of wine, price £6^, were delivered by 

 the king's butler to John de Becoles, friar of the 

 convent of Langley (Wardrobe Accts. bdle. 376, 

 no. 7, fol. 1 1 5 d.). 



^^ Cal.Pat. 1307-13, p. 397. 



** Ibid. 515. The patent, however, says, 'for their 

 sustenance until the king shall give further order for 

 their status.' 



*' ' The dwelling-place of our manor of Langley ' 

 (ibid. 1313-17, p. 297). Possibly this is a formal 

 grant of the priory buildings. 



'* Ibid. The prior and convent when presented 

 at the manorial court in 1400 for cutting down 

 wood here and selling it claimed to be owners of 

 Chipperfield Wood (Ct. R. [Gen. Ser.], portf. 177, 

 no. 51, m. 3, 7). 



*^ Cal. Close, 1318-23, p. 70. 



who were to hold lands in trust for the brothers, 

 and in 1318 he sent two friars to the pope for 

 his authorization.** Robert de Duiield, the 

 second Prior of King's Langley and the king's 

 confessor, had been dispatched in October 1316 

 to the master of the order,** apparently on the 

 same errand, but nothing was done in the 

 matter for years. 



The drawback to allowances is shown in the 

 complaint of the friars to Edward HI in 1345 2" 

 that owing to the irregularity of the payments 

 from the Exchequer they had not wherewith 

 to live, carry on the works they had begun, and 

 pay their debts. On this occasion, at their 

 request, the money due to the king from the 

 alien priory of Harmondsworth was assigned 

 to them in part payment. 



Edward HI seems to have been as much 

 interested in the house as his father had been. 

 In 1346 he granted the friars part of a quarry 

 in Shotover for their works,^* and in 1347 gave 

 them leave to enlarge the ditch round their 

 close 3 ft. in breadth and 2,000 ft. in length.^^ 

 He gave them in April 1358 the fishery of his 

 water of King's Langley with permission to 

 have a weir in that water, and free entrance 

 and exit to and from the weir through his park ^ ; 

 also the head of a stream in Abbots Langley 

 with leave to dig up his land in making an 

 aqueduct underground to their house.^* In 

 January 1361-2 he gave them, moreover, ,£20 

 a year during pleasure to their new work.^* 

 Personal feeling seems to have prompted his 

 grant in 1358 of 4 tuns of wine a year,^' and the 

 gift in 1377 of forty mazers, one of which was 

 called the Edward." The wish of Edward II 

 was at last carried out in 1 349, and a house of 

 Dominican sisters founded, which, although 

 at Dartford in Kent, was regarded as the 

 complement of Langley priory ^ ; and in 

 December 1356 the prioress and nuns had 

 licence to acquire in mortmain property to the 

 value of £300 for the sustenance of themselves 

 and the friars of King's Langley.^' Here 

 the brothers possibly owed something to the 



18 Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), ii, 359-*5o. 384- 

 He wrote also to the master of the order in 1 3 1 8, 

 asking him to have seven sisters ready to send when 

 required (ibid. 361). 



19 Cal. Close, 1307-13, P- 438- 



20 Anct. Pet. no. 1 2 196. 



'1 CaL Pat. 1345-8, P- 45- 

 M Ibid. p. 428. 



23 Pat. 32 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. ig. 



24 Ibid. m. 20. 



25 Ibid. 37 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 37. 



28 Cal Pat. 1358-61, p. 30. The quantity was 

 unusually large as judged from the wardrobe accounts. 

 2? Pat. 51 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23. 



28 The pope's confirmation was asked m Nov. 

 1349 {Cal. Papal Pet. 187). 



29 Cal. Pat. 1354-8, p. 486. 



447 



