Robert Neville (1427-1438) was the nephew of Henry IV.; after holding the see of Salisbury for ten years he was translated to Durham. He founded the monastery at Sunning.
William Ayscough (1438-1450), who has left little record of his life, met his death during a local rising in 1450, the year of the Jack Cade rebellion. On the feast of SS. Peter and Paul his church at Edingdon, near Westbury, one of his palaces, was attacked by a mob, who seized the bishop in the vestments wherein he had just said mass, and, dragging him to a hill-top near, there they stoned and beheaded him, stripping off his garments and dividing them among themselves for memorials. His body was afterwards interred at Edingdon. Possibly his scholarship, which separated him from his people, was the real cause of his unpopularity, which is, however, generally attributed to his frequent absence with King Henry VI., to whom he was Confessor.
Richard Beauchamp (1450-1481) was translated from the bishopric of Hereford. Son of Sir Walter, and grandson of Lord Beauchamp of Powick, he was sent on diplomatic missions to various courts, including Burgundy. In 1471 he was one of the signatories of the truce with the Duke of Brittany. In 1477 he became Dean of Windsor, and was appointed by Edward IV. master of the works then in progress, which included the rebuilding of St. George's Chapel. At Salisbury he left the great hall of the bishop's palace and his own superb chantry as memorials of his architectural skill. Elsewhere in this book is a fuller description of this beautiful tomb demolished by Wyatt. He himself was buried at Windsor; in an arch opposite his tomb was a missal carved in stone with a quaint inscription, beginning, "Who leyde this boke here." He is said to have been the first chancellor of the Order of the Garter, although Dr. Milner assigns that honour to William de Edingdon. Whether the first or not, he and his successors in the see held it by charter of Edward, until they were deprived in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1671 it was again awarded to the see of Salisbury, but passed, in 1836, with Berkshire to that of Oxford.
Lionel Woodville, or Wydville (1482-1484), nephew of Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., was appointed to the see in 1482. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, was beheaded in Salisbury market place just before the battle of Bosworth. Woodville is said to have died of grief occasioned by the downfall of the fortunes of his house on the accession of Richard III.
Thomas Langton (1485-1493) is best remembered as a patron of literature, for which he has been called a second Mæcenas, yet, despite the "fostering hand he always afforded to learned men," he was an opponent of Wicklif's heresies, and did his best to stamp them out in his see when they had gained a number of adherents.
John Blyth (1494-1499) was Chancellor of Ireland in 1499. An effigy, assumed to be his, is in the north transept.
Henry Dean, or Denny, or Syer (1500-1501), was translated to Canterbury shortly after his appointment to Salisbury. He is believed to have been one of the victims of the Great Plague, and to have died at Lambeth in 1503.
Edmund Audley (1502-1524) was Bishop of Rochester in 1480, translated to Hereford in 1492, and to Salisbury in 1502. His beautiful chantry still remains in its original position. St. Mary's, Oxford, contains a pulpit said to be his gift.
Lorenzo Campegio, Cardinal of St. Anastatius, was nominated by Pope Clement in 1524. He was sent to England to join Cardinal Wolsey in adjudicating upon the royal divorce. In 1535, when Henry VIII. disgraced Wolsey, Campegio was also deprived of his see by Act of Parliament. At Rome, however, he was regarded as Bishop of Salisbury until his death; and "for some time after" an independent succession was maintained by the Pope in two English bishoprics, namely, Salisbury and Worcester.
Nicholas Shaxton (1535-1539) was President of Gonville Hall, Cambridge, and for a while a sturdy supporter of the king. At the time of Latimer's resignation he also resigned in common with many other bishops. He was imprisoned, and in 1546 condemned to be burnt, for denying the real presence; but recanting became prominent as opponent of the reformers, preaching fiery sermons at the martyrdom of Anne Askew and others. After he resigned his see he became suffragan to the Bishop of Ely. He died at Cambridge in 1556.