Wainwright, Sandy The Life and Times of a Medieval Knight

Sir Geoffrey De Langley and Family

Sir Geoffrey de Langley, a knight from Warwickshire, was investigated in connection with a crisis of knighthood. This highly respected and widely cited study concluded that this family had achieved nothing remarkable and disappeared from history due to a lack of heirs. Meanwhile, historians in Middleton, Lancashire, attempted to research the origins of the local Langley family. Their most famous son is Cardinal Thomas de Langley, Bishop of Durham. Thomas' parents seem to have come out of nowhere, as sheep farmers. Some built Agecroft Hall, which now stands in Virginia, USA. Despite many hypotheses, nothing is confirmed by primary sources. The Langley Cartulary was translated and published, confirming the bride's lineage when Isabella de la Pole married Sir Walter de Langley of Kent. In Shipton-under-Wychwood, a local historian published a history of the Langley family, the stewards of Wychwood Forest. Until now, however, no one has considered the possibility that all this research tells the story of the same family. Spurred on by the certainty that the Langley family from Warwickshire had survived, the author recounts the story of her journey, which began with a chance internet search and took her through historical archives, abbeys, houses and cemeteries, where she deciphered manuscripts and tried to understand Latin. Slowly, she pieced together the family tree and was then able to tell the stories of the monk who was driven mad by his studies, the babies in the forest, the murder of a young Oxford scholar and a long journey through Europe with a leopard. The result is an easy-to-understand retelling of medieval history from the perspective of the knight and his family. By examining the lives of those who work, fight and pray, she uncovers secrets, answers questions and provides a better understanding of what life was like at that time for people who were not of high birth.