The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Longechampe : This great baronial name is not written in Domesday; but appears in England within the next twenty years. Henry I. granted to Hugh de Longchamp the castle and manor of Wilton in Herefordshire, to hold by the service of two men-at-arms in the Welsh wars: and the gift was confirmed to his son, Hugh II., by Henry II., the year after his accession. The next heir, Henry de Longchamp, Sheriff of Hereford in 1190, and of Worcester in 1195, married Maud, sister of William de Cantilupe, and died in 1211. "Whereupon," continues Dugdale, "the said William gave 500 Marks and five Palfreys for the Wardship and Marriage of his heir, viz., Henry; of whom I can say no more, than that he took to Wife Joane, the Widow of Thomas Birkin, and had Issue by her one sole Daughter and Heire, call'd Maude, married to Reginald Grey, Justice of Chester, by which means the Lordship of Wilton came first to that Family."

There was another Henry de Longchamp, seated in Hampshire, who "answered for his relief as a Baron" in the time of Henry III.; but the line ended with his son of the same name; and his grand-daughter Alice, the wife of Roger de Pedwardine, succeeded.

William de Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, Coeur de Lion's famous Chancellor and Justiciar, and his brother Osbert, who, in the time of his power was for some years Sheriff of York, Norfolk and Suffolk, claimed no kinship to the baronial house. They were of humble origin, the grandsons of a serf in the diocese of Beauvais. But "Longchamp possessed great worldly wisdom and talent for business, and his low birth was, in truth, a proud commendation."—Sir Francis Palgrave. He had gained the absolute confidence of the King, who, on leaving England for the Crusade of 1189, appointed him and Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, joint regents of the Kingdom. He was to govern the South, while Pudsey was to bear rule over "as much of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria as remained to England." It was a breach of good faith as regarded the latter, who had been appointed sole Justiciar in succession to Ralph de Glanville, and had bought his promotion by the sacrifice of a vast sum of money. "Richard's Presence Chamber was a market overt, in which all that the King could bestow, all that could be derived from the bounty of the Crown, or imparted by the royal prerogative, was disposed of to the best chapman. Hugh Pudsey purchased the Earldom of Northumberland, together with the Lordship of Sadberge. For the Chief Justiciarship he paid, at the same time, the sum of 1,000 marks."—Ibid. Longchamp, for his part, gave 3,000 marks for the Chancellorship, was entrusted with the custody of the Tower of London, and appointed Legate by Pope Clement. Being thus all-powerful in Church and State, he assumed the government of the entire kingdom; and when Pudsey, armed with a fresh Royal mandate, sought to re-establish his usurped authority, feigned concession, and courteously invited his brother Bishop to meet him at Tickhill Castle. Pudsey came without suspicion, and was instantly seized by Longchamp, who exclaimed, "As sure as my Lord the King liveth, thou shalt not depart until thou hast surrendered all the castles which thou dost hold." Nor was he set at liberty till he had unconditionally given up the whole of his new possessions. Longchamp's rival was thus disposed of; and all the royal castles—"the bones of the kingdom," as they are termed by the chronicler—placed in his keeping. He ruled unopposed, but his rule proved arbitrary rapacious, and unpopular. "He is represented as tyrannizing equally over clergy and laity. 'Had he continued in office,' said his enemies, "the kingdom would have been wholly exhausted, not a girdle would have remained to the man, nor a bracelet to the woman, nor a gem to the Jew.'" He steadily opposed Prince John and his party, and it was through their influence that he was at last disgraced and deposed from his high place, and compelled to surrender the keys of the Treasury and the Tower. Furthermore, he had to cast down his legate's cross in Canterbury Cathedral, and was thrown into prison until he had taken a vow to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. From thence he made his way to the coast, and endeavoured to obtain a passage to France, shielding himself from the hatred of the populace in the disguise of a woman. Nor did this avail him; for as he walked along the shore thus attired, carrying a web of cloth on his arm, he was detected and very roughly handled by the Dover fishwives. He was, however, rescued from their hands, and permitted to embark and return to his native country.

A brother of the Bishop, Osbert de Longchamp, was, "in the time of his power," for some years Sheriff of Norfolk, York, and Suffolk; but Dugdale tells us nothing of his posterity.