An unheard-of action...

Yesterday I posted on the Evenwood agreement in June 1300, whereby Edward I mediated a violent dispute between Bishop Antony Bek of Durham and Prior Richard Hoton. This is the follow-up.

Although brokered by the king, the agreement was ineffective. Bek refused to hand back the priory estates he had taken over; the monks refused to withdraw their case against him. Both sides accused the other of bad faith.
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In August the pro-Bek faction asked the bishop to name a new prior in Hoton's place. He chose Henry Luceby, prior of Holy Island. Hoton would not leave the cathedral, so Bek resorted to force.

A private war blew up. Bek summoned Philip Darcy, constable of Durham castle, who came with a force of 300 lancers of Tynedale. These men attacked the cathedral on 20 August. It was bravely defended by Hoton and forty-six monks.

When assault failed, Darcy's men lay siege. Food quickly ran out. There were no latrines inside the cathedral, so Hoton's men had to relieve themselves inside the church, 'which was an unheard of action by Christians at that time'.

Four days into the siege, Darcy smashed into the cathedral and dragged Hoton out by force from his stall. He was imprisoned in the castle and in September, threatened with violence, resigned his position. His friends helped him to stage a dramatic escape, and he prepared to put his case before the king at the Lincoln parliament of 1301.

What happened at parliament is unclear, but it seems Bek stonewalled Hoton by throwing his weight behind Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury. Winchelsey was already at loggerheads with the king, and the combined pressure of two powerful clergymen meant the Durham issue was left unresolved.

Richard Hoton was determined to have justice. He continued to press his case, and in 1304 finally brought a wide range of accusations against Bek. These ranged from a failure to return books borrowed from the library, to more important matters that affected the king. For instance, Hoton alleged that Bek's men had assaulted a royal envoy on Holy Island, smashed the seals on his letters of protection and dragged him feet first from the church. Another envoy was thrown into prison, on the grounds that none should dare to carry royal letters within the bishopric of Durham; this threatened the bishop's franchise, and implied the king was a higher power.

Bek and the king were on a collision course. The final straw came when a Scottish knight in Bek's service declared that letters from the king were valueless within Durham, as the bishop was king within his liberty, and Edward the king without.