Support or Scourge? Archbishop William Melton and the Tradition of Loyal Opposition to the English Crown, 1317-1340

This lecture will examine Archbishop William Melton’s record as prelate in terms of his relationship with two successive kings of England, Edward II and Edward III, and the sometimes-ambivalent support that he provided to their regimes. Very much concerned with the defence of the North of England, Melton could be critical of policies that detracted from this responsibility. In particular, he gave support to the idea that Edward II, who was deposed and murdered in 1327, supposedly lived on, and this vantage point allowed him to construct his criticisms of royal policy as a form of ‘loyal opposition’.

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