Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/67

Beaumont , iii. 581 ). According to the inscription on his tomb Louis de Beaumont was born in France. He seems to have come over to England in the reign of Edward I, and was appointed treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral about 1291 (''Fasti Eccles. Sariab, 344). In this capacity he seems to have drawn a rebuke on his head for neglecting to repair the church. About the same time he appears to have held the prebend of Auckland (Registr. Palatn. Dunelm.'' iii. cxvii). On the death of Richard Kellaw, bishop of Durham, in 1316, the king, the queen, the Earl of Lancaster, and the Earl of Hereford had each his own candidate for the vacant office. As the day of election came on, the church was filled with the above-mentioned nobles and their followers, as well as with the retainers of Louis de Beaumont and of his brother Henry. Threats passed freely to slay the elected bishop if the monks should dare to choose one of their own number. They, however, made choice of an outsider, the prior of Finchale, who would have been admitted to the office at once had not the queen with bare knees besought Edward to favour her kinsman Louis. The case was transferred to the pope (John XXII), who consented to quash the election in consideration of a fine so large that we are told it could hardly be paid in fourteen years. Next year John XXII despatched two cardinals to England for the sake of making peace between this country snd Scotland. Louis de Beaumont, who was a man given to much ostentation, determined to take advantage of this visit and be consecrated in their presence on St. Cuthbert's day. As the cardinals were on their road to Durham, accompanied by the Beaumont brothers, Gilbert de Middleton, warden of the Marches, swooped down upon them at the head of certain Northumbrian freebooters or 'savaldores' (1 Sept. 1317). The cardinals were merely stripped of their horses and forced to continue their journey on foot, but the Beaumonts were carried off to Morpeth and Milford respectively, nor were they liberated till a large sum of money had been paid as their ransom. Before the year was out Middleton was hanged, drawn, and quartered at London for his share in this offence, in the presence of the two cardinals whom he had robbed. The consecration of the new bishop took place next year, on 26 March 1318 (Annal Paulin. i. 282). From this time Louis de Beaumont's life seems to have been one of constant bickerings with all he came into contact with. He first quarrelled with the prior of St. Mary's, who had become security for the 3,000l. which the merchants had lent for the bishop's ransom, and so annoyed him with threats of litigation that the prior, who was a peaceable man, resigned his office in 1322. William de Gisburn, who was elected his successor, seems to have been frightened out of accepting a post that would bring him into constant communication with so sturdy a prelate. Next year Louis de Beaumont appears as supporting the claims of the archdeacon of Durham against the prior and chapter of St. Mary's, and threatening to accuse them before the pope of obeying neither their bishop nor archdeacon. Indeed, throughout his whole episcopacy, he seems to have shown a special spite against the monks of his own cathedral. A few years later (1328) he was embroiled with Archbishop Melton of York on similar grounds. Both claimed the right of visitation in Allertonshire — Louis apparently on behalf of St. Mary's chapter, the archbishop on his own. It was to no purpose that the bishop attempted to prevent the prior and chapter from coming to terms with the archbishop. Their love for their immediate spiritual head was hardly sufficient to make them ready at his pleasure to break the arrangement they had already come to with the archbishop, who accordingly made several attempts to enforce his right of visitation. But no sooner did he appear on the borders of Allertonshire than Louis called together a host of armed men from Northumberland and Tynedale — reckless soldiers prepared to take away the archbishop's life at a word from their chief. The bishop was careless how much he spent, whereas the archbishop, though wealthy, was parsimonious. Excommunication was followed by suspension, and these were met on the bishop's part by three appeals to the legates. Finally the question was settled by compromise (1331). At the end of 1332 the archdeacon of Northumbria died, and Louis appointed his nephew — a man who is described as being short and deformed — to the vacant office. A dispute as to visitation rights arose once more, and was again settled by a compromise to last only for the bishop's life. Of the career of Louis de Beaumont outside his diocese little is known. When the northern barons met at Pomfret under the Earl of Lancaster (May 1321), they deemed it right to lay their federation oath before the clergy of the province, who were summoned to meet at Sherburn in Elmet. Louis de Beaumont was present on this occasion, and it cannot be doubted that a man of his high birth and courage had much to do with the decision there arrived at — to render aid against the Scotch invasions, but to hold political matters over till the next 