ltar, unfortunately,
has disappeared, but it is reputed to have cost a sum equivalent to
L7,000 of our money. Canon Freeman thus describes it: "Above, as it
should seem (for the entries are very obscure), was a canopy of
considerable extent, wrought with bosses internally. The whole seems to
have been surmounted by a figure of our Lord." With Stapledon building
seems to have been a favourite recreation; for though he gave most
largely both of time and money to the cathedral work, he found
opportunity to build and endow Harts Hall, Stapledon Inn--now Exeter
College--Oxford, and the "very fair" Essex House in London. In 1320 he
was created Lord High Treasurer by Edward II., and later in the same
year received from his sovereign the power of holding pleas of "hue and
cry" in the lands, tenements, and fees of the bishopric in the county of
Cornwall. The neglected condition of many of the parish churches in his
diocese distressed him, and almost his last public appearance in the
west of England was at Lawhitton, where he spoke severely on this matter
to his Dean and Chapter, and bade them see to it that in future there
should be no good cause of complaint. In the autumn of 1324 he set out
for France, accompanying the young Prince Edward, who was about to do
homage to the French king for the duchies of Aquitaine and Poitou. But
his "irreproachable integrity" made him unpopular, and his life was
threatened. On his return to England he saw that a crisis was at hand,
and almost immediately after his arrival Queen Eleanor landed on the
coast of Suffolk. Edward II., in a brief moment of wisdom, assigned to
the faithful bishop the government of London and retreated to Bristol.
But it was too late to effect a reconciliation or prevent a catastrophe.
With a firm hand Stapledon endeavoured to restore order and quiet, and
promulgated a decree by which all rebels were excommunicated. But the
citizens, wisely perhaps, sided with the conquerors, and the bishop died
a martyr to duty. The story is well told in the French chronicles quoted
by Dr. Oliver. "The Bishop of Exeter, riding towards his inn or hotel,
in Eldeanes-lane for dinner, encountered the mob, and, hearing them
shout Traitor, he rode rapidly to St. Paul's for sanctuary, but was
unhorsed, taken to Cheapside, stripped and beheaded. About the hour of
vespers, the same day, October 15th, the choir of St. Paul's took up the
headless body of the prelate and conveyed it to St. Paul's,