Stratford

The Stratfords were a landed family of Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire whose fortune came through the Church. John de Stratford was born around 1275, studied civil law at Oxford, and became Bishop of Winchester in 1323.

He joined Queen Isabella's party against Edward II, helped draw up the charges that forced the king's abdication in 1327, and under Edward III served three times as Lord Chancellor before being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1333.

His quarrel with Edward III in 1340, when he resisted the king's attempt to punish him outside parliament, helped establish that peers should be judged only in full parliament; he died in 1348 and was buried at Canterbury. His brother Robert became Bishop of Chichester and also Chancellor of England, and a nephew, Ralph, became Bishop of London.