page_title: William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux
section_title: Rebuilds North Cadbury Church
hierarchical_section_title: William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux / Rebuilds North Cadbury Church
caption_attribution_description: North Cadbury Church (St. Michael), Somerset, 26 July 2015. 15th Century Perpendicular. The church was built by Lady Elizabeth Botreaux of adjacent North Cadbury Court in thanks for the safe return of her son from the French Wars (He survived the Battle of Agincourt); she intended to make it a collegiate church and when completed in 1423 it was very grand but for some reason it did not become a collegiate church. Pictured is
context_page_description: William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux was a prominent baron in Somerset and the south-west of England. He inherited from his father the barony by writ of Botreaux as well as substantial family landholdings which included a moiety of the feudal barony of North Cadbury, Somerset, in the parish church of which capital manor he was buried, as he requested in his will.
context_section_description: His grandmother Elizabeth Daubeny (d. 1433), wife of William de Botreaux, 1st Baron Botreaux (d. 1391) wished to found a college of priests in North Cadbury Church, possibly ex voto for the safe return of her grandson from the Agincourt campaign of 1415. Her son, the 2nd baron, had died aged only 27 in 1395, four years after the death of her husband the 1st Baron, thus her grandson was particularly important to her. She was licensed in 1417 to found a college of chaplains in the church. Papal approval was given in 1418 when the church was named St. Michael the Archangel. In 1423 royal licence was granted for Elizabeth, Lady de Botreaux and "Sir William de Botreaux" (who cannot have been her husband who died in 1391) to convert the parish church of North Cadbury into a college of seven chaplains and four clerks, one of the chaplains being in charge as rector of the college of St. Michael.  The chaplains were allowed to acquire property to the value of 100 marks, including the advowson of the church, and land whereon to build a manse. In 1454 Thomas Beckington (d. 1465), Bishop of Bath & Wells, established an inquiry into the constitution of this collegiate church and admitted a new rector. There is nevertheless still doubt as to whether the college was actually established, yet in 1548 the benefice of North Cadbury was stated as "commonly callyd a college and hathe ben tyme out of mynde".  Furthermore one witness said that "yt is written in the churche bookes 'the obitus Willmi. Botrax fundatoris hujus collegii'" ("The obiit of William de Botreaux, founder of this college") The surviving record of her intention states: "to establish therein a perpetual college of seven chaplains, one to preside and to be called the Rector of the College of St Michael the Archangel". She it was, probably with the approval of her grandson, who rebuilt the church in 1423 into the grand and imposing Perpendicular Gothic structure which survives today, in which she was buried. The chancel is unusually tall as it was designed to house stalls for the priests of the college. North Cadbury remained a sole rectory until 1966 when it was held with Compton Pauncefoot, Blackford, Maperton, North Cheriton, and South Cadbury with Sutton Montis. In 1975 the new Camelot parishes benefice was formed comprising North Cadbury, Compton Pauncefoot, Blackford, Maperton, North Cheriton, South Cadbury, and Yarlington.
caption: The "memorial to William de Botreaux and his wife Elizabeth" in the church
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