Wealth of a Medieval Power Broker

In England’s far northeast, a commanding bishop built a chapel rivaling the grandest in Europe

- Daniel Weiss

In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, it was said that there were two kings in England: one in London, who wore a crown, and one in Durham, who wore a miter. The latter was Antony Bek, whose title, bishop of Durham, captures only a small portion of the power and influence he wielded. As bishop from 1284 until his death in 1311, Bek was head of the palatinate of Durham, a sort of independent state within a state. The palatinate had vast landholdings and was permitted to mint coins, collect taxes, raise armies, and administer justice. In return, it was tasked by the Crown with safeguarding its own territory in the far northeast of England against the persistent threat of Scottish invasion. In fact, Bek was as much military and diplomatic figure as a religious one. In 1270, before becoming a bishop, he went on crusade with the future King Edward I (r. 1272–1307), and in 1298 served as the monarch’s right-hand man in the Battle of Falkirk, foiling William Wallace’s attempt to win Scottish independence. Bek was later named patriarch of Jerusalem, making him the senior churchman in England. “Bek was a weather changer, a power broker, a man of great political and social influence,” says Chris Gerrard, an archaeologist at Durham University. “He was essentially the commander in chief in the north, with a lot of razzmatazz around him and a grand image of himself.”