Robert Mascall, A.D. 1404-1416, was employed as a foreign ambassador by Henry IV., who also made him his confessor. He attended the council of Constance in 1414.
Edmund Lacy, A.D. 1417-1420. This Bishop began to build the cloister connecting the cathedral with the Episcopal palace.
Thomas Polton, A.D. 1420-1421, was consecrated at Florence, and the next year was translated to Chichester.
Thomas Spofford, A.D. 1421-1448, Abbot of St. Mary's at York, to which post he returned on resigning his see in 1448. According to a papal bull he laid out 2,800 marks on the buildings of the cathedral,—probably completing the cloisters begun by Bishop Lacy. His pension on retiring was £100 per annum. The great west window of the cathedral was put up in his time by William Lochard.
Richard Beauchamp, A.D. 1448-1450. Son of Sir Walter, and grandson of Lord Beauchamp of Powick, he was a great architect in his day, although his chief work was done after his translation to Salisbury, when he was appointed by Edward IV. to superintend the works at Windsor which included the rebuilding of St. George's Chapel where he was[pg 101] buried. It is said he was the first Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.
Reginald Buller, A.D. 1450-1453, Abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, was translated to Lichfield. He was buried in Hereford Cathedral.
John Stanberry, A.D. 1453-1474, was a Carmelite friar at Oxford, and was chosen by King Henry VI. to be his confessor, and also first Provost of Eton. In 1448 he was made Bishop of Bangor, and five years later was translated to Hereford. After the battle of Northampton (July, 1460), he was taken prisoner and was incarcerated for some time in Warwick Castle. On his release he retired to the convent of his order at Ludlow, where he died in May, 1474. He was buried at Hereford, near his own Chantry Chapel, which still bears his name. He gave land from the garden of the bishop's palace for building a dwelling-house for the vicars choral, which was completed in 1475.
Thomas Mylling, A.D. 1474-1492, the next Bishop, was Abbot of St. Peter's, Westminster, where he had been a monk. King Edward IV. made him a Privy Councillor and gave him the see of Hereford in remembrance of his services to Elizabeth Woodville, whom he received into sanctuary when her husband had to fly to Holland. After his death his body was carried to Westminster, and the stone coffin is still there which is said to have enclosed his remains.
Edmund Audley, A.D. 1492-1502, a prebendary of Lichfield, of Lincoln, and of Wells, was Bishop of Rochester in 1480, translated to Hereford in 1492, and to Salisbury in 1502. The beautiful chantry chapel on the south side of the Lady Chapel, near the shrine of St. Thomas of Cantilupe, was founded by him. He also presented a silver shrine to the cathedral, and a pulpit at St. Mary's, Oxford, is said to be his gift.
Adrian de Castello, A.D. 1503-1504. He conducted the negotiations between Henry VII. and the Pope; and he was translated from Hereford to Bath and Wells, but never visited either see.