the laity also voted a grant. A later assembly of merchants agreed a levy on wealthy townsmen. Treasurer As the war went on, Northburgh was drawn further into government and into a developing constitutional crisis. On 11 June 1340 he was appointed by letters patent as commissioner, with three others, to requisition ships in the Port of London and elsewhere and fit them out for war, in readiness for assembling them as a fleet on the River Orwell. He was again appointed Treasurer on 21 June. His efforts on the king's behalf were handsomely rewarded by a grant of £200 on 6 July. As Treasurer, he was part of an administration dominated, in the absence of the king, by John de Stratford, now Archbishop of Canterbury, and containing several other Stratford family members. Northburgh seems to have been a welcome addition to the administration, a veteran administrator who shared many of Stratford's values and attitudes. However, the king was becoming increasingly irritated by delays and deficiencies in the resources reaching him during his campaigns in Flanders and this came to a head while he was at Ghent in October and November 1340. He detached himself by agreement from his allies, sent a delegation to Pope Benedict II to express his feelings about Stratford, and embarked at Sluys. He arrived by surprise with a coterie of mainly military men, of whom William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, a brother of the Earl of Hereford, was the most prominent. He then carried out a coup against his own administration, removing and in some cases arresting, judges and officials whom he identified with Stratford's rule. Northburgh was called to the Tower of London on 1 December, together with Robert de Stratford, the Archbishop's brother, Bishop of Chichester and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Both were summarily dismissed, although neither was arrested. John de Stratford escaped to Canterbury Cathedral, from which he continued to preach and to denounce royal intrusions on ecclesiastical privilege. Northburgh and both Stratfords arrived at the parliament convened on 23 April 1341, armed with a safe conduct and determined to take up their seats. They were prevented for a week by two members of the royal household: Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, the steward, and John Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Knayth, the chamberlain. They persisted and were strongly supported by John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey,