also the king's candidate to become a cardinal. John de Stratford also claimed that this was one of the aims of his protracted mission to Avignon, from which he emerged as Bishop of Winchester in 1323. However, when the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield became vacant late in 1321, Northburgh was not the king's preferred candidate. Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield Elevation to episcopacy Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, died on 9 November 1321 and the king issued a licence to elect the new bishop on 22 of the month. However, there was disagreement between the secular clergy of the chapter at Lichfield Cathedral and the Benedictine monks of the chapter at Coventry Cathedral, over whether they were to be equal partners in the election: a position agreed during the time of Bishop Roger Weseham (1245–56), although the dispute stretched back to the tortuous election process following the death of Geoffrey de Muschamp in 1208. The Lichfield canons decided to appeal to Pope John XXII over the issue, initiating a case that was to drag on for twelve years. The king wrote to the Pope requesting that he provide Robert Baldock, then keeper of the privy seal, to the see. The Coventry chapter, however, went ahead with the election, choosing their own prior, Henry, who is identified with Henry of Leicester by Fasti Ecclesiae. All of these moves proved futile, as the Pope provided Northburgh to the vacant see on 14 December, apparently without reference to the other candidates, and wrote to the king, the Archbishop, the chapters, the clergy and the people of the diocese, informing them of the appointment on 19 January 1322: in May the unfortunate Baldock was promised a canonry and prebend at Salisbury Cathedral. The spring of that year was marked by the revolt of Thomas of Lancaster and the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March. Hence, it not surprising that Northburgh had to wait until 12 April to be invested with the temporalities. From this point Northburgh began to take control of the diocese, although he was forced to assemble a team of deputies, as he had not yet set foot in either of the diocesan centres. He appointed Master Ralph Holbeach as his commissary-general, dealing with appointments among other matters. Holbeach was forced to act quickly, responding to recent political events. He installed in the prebend of Gaia Major William of