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Historical person

Walter de Stapledon

c. 1261–1326

Walter de Stapledon was an English bishop, royal administrator and scholar who became closely identified with the government of Edward II. Born in Devon in the thirteenth century, he pursued an ecclesiastical career and was elected Bishop of Exeter in 1307, taking possession of the see the following year. Stapledon served the crown on diplomatic and financial business and twice became Treasurer of England, placing him at the centre of a monarchy increasingly weakened by faction, military failure and opposition to royal favourites.

Stapledon also invested heavily in ecclesiastical and educational institutions. He supported the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral and founded a scholarly house at Oxford that developed into Exeter College. His loyalty to Edward II proved fatal during the invasion led by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer in 1326. As royal authority collapsed, Stapledon remained in London and became a visible target of popular anger against the regime. A mob seized and killed him in October 1326. His body was eventually buried with honour in Exeter Cathedral, where his monument survives.

Michael Jecks’ Dispensation of Death brings Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, into Edward II’s royal household when Baldwin and Simon investigate murder amid the king’s faction-ridden court. The Bishop Must Die moves Stapledon to the centre of the danger in 1326: as treasurer and a conspicuous representative of Edward’s government, he becomes the target of threats while Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer prepare their invasion and opposition to the regime turns violent.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Walter de Stapledon (1 series)

Last Templar Mysteries in Order

by Michael Jecks 32 books 4.2(20,880)

The Last Templar Mysteries follow Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, a survivor of the suppression of the Knights Templar, and his friend Simon Puttock, a Devon bailiff. Most of the sequence is set between 1316 and 1327, when the two men investigate deaths in villages, monasteries, ports and cathedral…

All books in this series