Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/103

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Langdale
97
Langdon

thousand foot and six hundred horse when they advanced into Lancashire about 15 Aug. 1648. At the battle of Preston on 17 Aug. his division was exposed almost entirely unsupported to the attack of Cromwell'a army and was routed after a severe straggle. Friends and enemies alike admitted that they fought like heroes, though some Scottish authorities attribute the defeat to the inefficiency of Langdale's scouts (ib. pp. 434, 436, 442; Clarendon, xi. 48, 75; Burnet, p. 453; Langdale's own narrative is printed in Lancashire Civil War Tracts, p. 267). Langdale accompanied Hamilton's march as far as Uttoxeter, fled with a few officers to avoid surrendering, and was captured on 23 Aug. near Nottingham (Life of Colonel Hutchinson, ii. 385). On 21 Nov. parliament voted that he should be one of the seven persons absolutely excepted from pardon, but he had escaped from Nottingham Castle about the beginning of the month, and found his way to the continent (Gardiner, iii. 510; Rushworth, vii. 1325). In June 1649 Charles II sent Langdale and Sir Lewis Dives to assist the Earl of Derby in the defence of the Isle of Man (A Declaration of Sir Marmaduke Langdale ... in vindication of James, Earl of Derby, 4to, 1649).

According tn the newspapers Langdale next entered the Venetian service, and distinguished himself in the defence of Candia against the Turks (The Perfect Account, 6-13 May 1653). When war broke out between the Dutch and the English republic, Langdale came to Holland, and made a proposal for seizing Newcastle and Tynemouth with the aid of the Dutch, giving them in return the right of selling the coal (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 149). Hyde now came into collision with Langdale, whom he describes as 'a man hard to please, and of a very weak understanding, yet proud, and much in love with his own judgment,' and very eager to forward the interests of the catholics (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 135, 181; Nicholas Papers, ii. 3). Though a large party in the north of England desired his presence to head a rising, he was not employed by the king in the attempted insurrection of 1668, and complained of this neglect. He was concerned, however, in the plot discovered in the spring of 1658 (Thurloe Papers, i. 716). Charles II created him a peer at Bruges, 4 Feb. 1668, by the title of Baron Langdale of Holme in Spaldingmore, Yorkshire (Dugdale, Baronage, ii. 475; Burke, Extinct Peerage, 1883, p. 314). Langdale's estates, however, had been wholly confiscated by the parliament, and he had been reduced to great poverty during his stay in the Low Countries. According to Lloyd his losses in the king's cause amounted to 160,000l (Memoirs of Excellent Personages, &c., 1668, p. 549). In April 1660 Hyde described him to Barwick as 'retired to a monastery in Germany to live with more frugality' (Life of John Barwick, p. 508). In April 1661 he begged to be excused attendance at the king's coronation on the ground that he was too poor (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660-1, p. 564). He died at his house at Holme on 5 Aug. 1661, and was I buried at Sancton in the neighbourhood (Dougdale, Baronage, ii. 476). A painting of Langdale was in 1868 in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Stourton. An engraved portrait, with an autograph is in 'Thane's Series.'

By his wife Lenox, daughter of John Rodes of Barlborough, Derbyshire, he left a son, Marmaduke (d. 1703), who succeeded him in the title, and was governor of Hull in the interest of James II when the town was surprised by Colonel Copley in 1688 (Reresby, Memoirs, ed. Cartwright, p. 430). The title became extinct on the death of the fifth Lord Langdale in 1777 (Collins, ix. 423; Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 314).

[Letters of Langdale are to be found among the Clareadon MSS., the Nicholas MSS., and in Correspondence of Prince Rupert. For pedigrees see Foster's Visitations of Yorkshire in 1584 and 1612, p. 129, and Poulson's Holderness, ii. 264.]

C. H. F.

LANGDON, JOHN (d. 1434), bishop of Rochester, a native of Kent, and perhaps of Langdon, was admitted a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, in 1398. Afterwards he studied at Oxford, and graduated B.D. in 1400; according to his epitaph he was D.D. He is said to have belonged to Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College (Wood, City of Oxford, ii. 269, Oxf. Hist. Soc.) According to another account he was warden of Canterbury College, which was connected with his monastery; but this may be an error, due to the fact that a John Langdon was warden in 1478 (ib. ii. 288). He was one of twelve Oxford scholars appointed at the suggestion of convocation in 1411 to inquire into the doctrines of Wycliffe (Wood, Hist. and Antiq. Univ. Oxf. i. 551). Their report is printed in Wilkins's 'Concilia,' iii. 339-49. Langdon became sub-prior of his monastery before 1411, when he preached a sermon against the lollards in a synod at London (Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Angl. p, 619). On 17 Nov. 1421 he was appointed by papal provision to the see of Rochester, and was conse-