Kings Langley Royal Connections

After Eleanor’s death in 1290, Edward I took up residence in Ashridge. When he married Margaret of France in 1299, he returned to Langley. Following Edward of Caernavon’s investiture as Prince of Wales, in 1302 Edward I granted Langley to him. He kept it in his own hands until his death

Following his mother Eleanor’s death, Edward II established a Dominican Friary at Kings Langley in 1308. The palace remained his favourite residence until his death.

Edward III used Langley as his Seat of Government during the Black Death. His fourth surviving son Edmund de Langley was born here in 1341, the occasion being marked by a tournament. Edmund became the 1st Duke of York. Edmund, his wife Isabel of Castile and their three children spent many of their years at Kings Langley. Following their deaths, Edmund and Isabel were buried at the Friary next to their palace home. Their tomb was later moved to All Saints Church in the centre of the village, where it still stands.

During Edward III’s reign, considerable work was done on the bath house. Hot water was installed for cisterns and an oven in “a new kitchen for the stues”. A large area of hearths and a possible hot plate were discovered some distance East of the cellar. Also listed were a counting house, an organ and a camel! In 1368 the King installed a striking clock, made by John Belleyetere in the Belfrey of the Friary Church.

Richard II, son of the Black Prince was greatly attached to Langley as a boy. He held stately courts and issued proclamations from the palace of Langley Regis. Accounts for the years 1384-1388 during Richard II’s reign show  a large amount of work was done when “the aforesaid stue broken by the said Lord King” was repaired. Locks were also supplied “for a certain little gate between the Inner and Outer Courts and for the doors of the adjacent Church of the Friars Preachers to keep and exclude said Friars from the King’s Household”. In 1392 and 1396 he brought the court to the palace to celebrate Christmas.

Richard was often at Langley and came here from St. Albans following the Peasant’s Revolt, where he had been obliged to agree to cruel punishments, but here on his own manor, he was merciful. We know the names of local rebels who burnt houses behind the Saracen’s Head. They all appear to have prospered. Richard was deposed and died as a prisoner in Pontefract Castle – according to Shakespeare murdered on behalf of the usurper Henr IV. A scene in Shakespeare’s Richard II is set in the garden at Langley. Richard’s body was brought to the Friary at Langley for an ignominious burial. “ The great ones were not there, neither was there any crowd of common people, nor was there anyone to ask them (the Bishops of Chester and St. Albans) to dinner after their task” Hi body was later removed to Westminster by Henry V in 1414.

Ralph Verney was granted the Lordship of Langley Manor and may have built some accommodation for himself on the site. We have records of “Verney’s Lodgings” which must have been quite a large and habitable house. A survey of the Friary buildings in 1552 mentioned “a little Mansion called Verney’s Lodgings” and “three old and decayed buildings beyond repair”. These Lodgings are again mentioned as a “fayre lodging” occupied by the Countess of Bedford, but in 1591 Verneys’ Lodging is the name of a three acre field and the “seite of the manor” is reported as “decayed”.