who effectively ruled in partnership with the queen, is not known. However, he was made Treasurer on 2 March 1328, although he left the post on 20 May of the same year. He was one of several Treasurers who served for only very short periods because they moved to other work. In his case, this was an embassy to France, which set out in May. It is possible that he never actually took over the functions of Treasurer, as his predecessor, Henry Burghersh, was still acting in the post until at least late April, possibly July. Northburgh accompanied Adam Orleton, then Bishop of Worcester, arriving in Paris at the end of May, to press the claims of Edward III to the French throne after the death of his uncle, Charles IV of France. They were too late and Philip of Valois was crowned. This was a prelude to the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War. Northburgh remained politically active after Edward III took control of his own realm in 1330. He attended the Parliament of 1333 and was one of a group of bishops and nobles appointed to discuss royal activities. On 2 March, probably of 1334, he was with the king at York and was a witness to a privy seal writ freeing the merchants of Coventry of the obligation to pay a range of tolls. The City of London's corporation duly noted the document and agreed the Coventry merchants should no longer pay murage, the toll intended to pay for the city's fortifications. Northburgh's prominence among the witnesses may suggest he had been an advocate for the merchants of his own diocese. When the king moved to assert his claim to the French throne in 1337, Northburgh was active in supporting the venture. He attended an assembly at Stamford in May to discuss financing the war, including the imposition of a royal wool monopoly. In August the king sent out writs to sheriffs and bishops ordering that assemblies of clergy and laity be held in each county to hear his case for the war against the king of France. Northburgh's summonses to the assemblies are recorded in his register. The following month he held a great diocesan assembly of clergy and a simultaneous assembly of Staffordshire laity at Stafford. Each archdeaconry appointed a specific monastery and its head to act as collectors for the tax on clergy, while