ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER
Our Archdeacon was not destined to remain such for any great time. On November 29, 1386, there passed away during a meal-time[ 52] at his manor house of la Neyte, near Westminster, our great builder, Abbot Nicholas Litlington, to whom we owe the south and west sides of the Great Cloister, the Little Cloisters, Jerusalem Chamber, the Abbot's Dining Hall, and much besides of the present Deanery, and the great Missal.[ 53] The vigour of Litlington's character can be realized from what we have seen of the fight which he maintained through William Colchester for the privileges of the Abbey, but Colchester must have witnessed a more remarkable proof of the old man's pluck. In the Liber Niger (f. 87) there is a record to the effect that a threatened invasion of our shores by the French King in 1386 caused the Chapter of the Convent to come to the unanimous opinion that the old Abbot and two of his monks, John Canterbery and John Burgh, should don full armour and proceed as far as the coast, on the ground that it was lawful to do so for the defence of the realm.[ 54] It is astonishing that Litlington should have contemplated such an enterprise at his age, for we have a letter in Norman French, not dated, but clearly referring to this period, in which he excuses himself on the ground of "age et feblesse" for not coming to the Abbey "en propre persone" to bring to the King the famous ring of St. Edward. But Litlington's possession of armour cannot be doubted. There remains a schedule[ 55] of his effects at his death, which shows that those which passed into the hands of his successor consisted chiefly of various accoutrements, and included six hauberks; a helmet called a "pisanum"; seven others called basnetts with ventailles or vizors; a "ketelhat"; a pair of steel gloves; some "leg-harneys"; fore-braces and back-braces; and four lance-heads.
Though general opinion pointed to his election in Litlington's stead, Colchester was in some danger of disappointment. He had spent so much time abroad—a very large proportion of the preceding nine years—being engaged all the time in a cause which brought him into collision with the preferences of the Court, that it is not wonderful if the King desired the election of another. We can thus easily credit the statement of a Westminster chronicler,[ 56] whom the Dean of Wells believes to have been the rival candidate himself, that, when the vacancy occurred, the King wrote thrice to the Prior and Convent urging them to find their new Abbot in Brother John Lakyngheth, the very Treasurer whom we have seen in the act of paying to William Colchester the sums required for his long journeys and his legal costs, perhaps with a keen satisfaction at thus facilitating his rival's absence. But the Convent had made up its mind, and within a fortnight[ 57] of Litlington's decease, Colchester was elected Abbot by compromission; that is to say, the Brethren chose a committee of five or seven of their number and entrusted to them the choice of the best man. Richard II. was angry, and refused for a while to receive the nomination. We have the request[ 58] of the Prior and Convent to the King, written in French, but not bearing any date, to give his consent to their choice of "daunz William Colchestre un de lours commoignes en abbe et pastoure." The letter was written at a time when Richard could be said to have "graciousement accroiez votre roial assent al election auantdite," and when it was only necessary to petition him to make formal announcement of it to the Pope. But there was considerable delay also on the part of the Pope, who wanted to quash the election and to appoint by "provision."[ 59] But the King's ambassador intervened, and the bulls of confirmation were issued September 1, 1387. Colchester was installed October 12, and made a great feast to his friends on St. Edward's Day. His temporalities had been restored September 10.[ 60] All this places Richard's attitude towards him in some doubt, especially as, on November 10, the King, who walked barefoot from Charing to the Abbey precincts, was there received by Colchester and his Brethren vested in copes. Almost immediately there arose a difficult question about sanctuary, as to which the reader may be again referred to the Polychronicon.[ 61] Words almost fail the scribe as he pictures the reverence and love of the King for the Church. "There is not a Bishop on the bench," he says, "who displays as much zeal for the Church's rights."
Thus it came to pass that King and Court alike poured upon the Abbey the benefits of their generosity in spite of Colchester's election, and in the case of the Court the gifts came quite as readily from Richard's enemies as from his friends. Within three months of Colchester's installation, on December 1, 1387, a deed[ 62] was executed whereby the Abbot and Convent bound themselves to observe the anniversary of Thomas of Woodstock, Richard's uncle and at that time his fierce enemy, and of Eleanor de Bohun, his wife, in return for a splendid gift, which included vestments of cloth of gold, broidered with their initials, silver-gilt vessels for the altar, a silver-gilt thurible adorned with images of the saints, and two silver candlesticks formed of angels bearing the heraldic shields of the houses of Essex and Hereford.[ 63]
Richard's own gifts to the church during Colchester's time were even more magnifical. On May 28, 1389, there was a royal grant, witnessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and many others, conveying to the Convent a richly adorned chasuble of cloth of gold, two tunicles, three albs, the orphreys bearing representations of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. John Baptist, St. Edward the Confessor, St. Edmund the King, and "a certain Abbess." In 1394, after the death of his beloved Queen, Anne of Bohemia, came Richard's grant of £200 yearly to maintain an anniversary for her, and for him when he should depart hence;[ 64] which was followed in 1399 by his grant to the Abbey of manors and lands in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, and Berkshire,[ 65] whence an equivalent in rents would be derived in perpetuity. To this gift the Dean and Chapter owe the advowson of Steventon, Berkshire, which they still retain. On the other side, it may be admitted that Richard made use of the Abbey's resources; we have his note of hand for a loan of £100, dated September 11, 1397.[ 66] To what extent he fostered that building of the Nave, which our documents speak of as the New Work, has been told in detail elsewhere.[ 67] It comes to this, that Colchester's effigy in stained glass looks into the Nave from a window which probably dates from Henry III.'s time, but it faces towards Purbeck pillars which were the work of one of our Abbot's most zealous officers, Peter Coumbe. The portion of the triforium above his window is also due to Henry III., but in his old age Colchester may well have seen the workmen busy with the erection of the corresponding section of the clerestory.