The Stamford Council of April 1327

This assembly of prelates and barons has been largely overlooked. The agenda comprised two principal items: the urgent necessity to raise money for military action against the Scots, who were later to make a laughing stock of the English at Stanhope Park, even endangering the life of the young Edward III, who is said to have wept from shame and exasperation and, secondly, the question of the queen's marital status. The successful invasion of Queen Isabella with a group of exiles, supported by a contingent of Hainaulters, had left unresolved problems. The incarcerated Edward of Caernarvon remained a potential focus of rebellion. His deposition had been partly engineered by two lawyer-bishops, Adam Orleton and John Stratford, but churchmen remained in a quandary as to how the queen could justify the failure to uphold her matrimonial vows. Allegedly her husband was likely to inflict serious injury upon her, but it was notorious that she enjoyed an intimate relationship with Mortimer, husband of Joan de Joinville. Archbishop Reynolds, who had played a vacillating role in the deposition, was now concerned to quell ‘slanderous rumours’ by claiming that the magnates had dissuaded the queen from approaching her husband. He called for prayers and granted a forty-days' indulgence, encouraging the comprovincial bishops to do likewise, while the bishop of London, as dean of the province, was instructed to threaten excommunication of those slandering the queen. Although external peace came in 1328 with the unpopular Scottish treaty, the internal situation deteriorated into a conflict between Mortimer and Henry of Lancaster.