Sir John Langstrother (died 1471) was

Treasurer of England The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in ...

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

of the

Knights of St John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

in England, and Preceptor of Balsall. A son of Thomas Langstrother of Crosswaite, he was by 1463 a councillor of the Yorkist king

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

. He was an administrator of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and on 9 March 1469 was unanimously chosen as Prior of England, the Order's chief officer in the kingdom. Following the defeat of Edward's supporters by the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation c ...

on 26 July 1469 at the

Battle of Edgecote Moor The Battle of Edgcote (also known as the Battle of Banbury or the Battle of Danes Moor) took place on 24 July 1469, during the Wars of the Roses. It was fought between a Royal army, commanded by the earls of Pembroke and Devon, and a rebel forc ...

he was appointed

Lord High Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in ...

by the short-lived regime of the

Duke of Clarence Duke of Clarence is a substantive title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the British Royal Family. All three creations were in the Peerage of England. The title was first granted to Lionel of Antwerp, the second son ...

and Warwick, but was dismissed by Edward when he regained power in mid-September. He was reinstated in October 1470 as Treasurer and

Warden of the Mint Warden of the Mint was a high-ranking position at the Royal Mint in England from 1216 to 1829. The warden was responsible for a variety of minting procedures and acted as the immediate representative of the current monarch inside the mint. The role ...

after the temporary re-accession of Henry VI, who had been restored with the help of Clarence and Warwick. Langstrother's tenures as Lord High Treasurer and Warden of the Mint occurred during the

Great Bullion Famine The Great Bullion Famine was a shortage of precious metals that struck Europe in the 15th century, with the worst years of the famine lasting from 1457 to 1464. During the Middle Ages, gold and silver coins saw widespread use as currency in Eur ...

and the Great Slump in England. After the Yorkist victory at the

Battle of Tewkesbury The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England. King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster ...

on 4 May 1471, where he had shared command of the Lancastrian centre, he sought

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of Nor ...

but was taken out and executed in Tewkesbury town centre two days later. He was buried in the Order's hospital of St John at

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

References

External links

* Bedford, William Kirkpatrick Riland, 1826–1905; Holbeche, Richard, b.185
archive.org
''The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem; being a history of the English Hospitallers of St. John, their rise and progress'' (1902) London F.E. Robinson and co 15th century in England People of the Wars of the Roses 15th-century English people Lord High Treasurers of England People executed under the Yorkists Priors of Saint John of Jerusalem in England Year of birth unknown 1471 deaths {{England-politician-stub

See also

References

External links