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Sir Geoffrey de Langley, a Warwickshire knight, was studied within the context of a 'crisis' of the knightly class. This much respected, and much cited study, concluded that this family failed to achieve anything much of note and fell from history, due to lack of heirs.
Meanwhile, in Middleton, Lancashire, historians were trying to establish the beginnings of the local Langley family. Their most famous son is 'Cardinal' Thomas de Langley, Bishop of Durham. Thomas' parents seem to spring up from nowhere, as sheep farmers. Some built Agecroft Hall, but that now stands in Virginia, USA. Despite much hypothesis, nothing is confirmed with a primary source.
The Langley Cartulary was translated, and published, which confirmed the bride's pedigree, when Isabella de la Pole married Sir Walter de Langley, of Kent. In Shipton-under-Wychwood, a local historian published a history of the Langley family, wardens of Wychwood Forest.
But at no point, until now, has the possibility that all of this research tells the story of the same family, been explored.
Spurred on by the fact she knew for certain that the Langley family of Warwickshire had survived, the author tells the story of her journey from a chance internet search, through historical archives, abbeys, houses and cemeteries, deciphering manuscripts, and trying to understand Latin. Slowly drawing together the genealogical chart, she could then relate the tales of the monk driven to insanity by study, the babes in the wood, the murder of a young Oxford scholar and a long journey across Europe with a leopard.
The result is an easy-to-digest retelling of medieval history from the point of view of the knight, and his family. Studying the lives of those who work, those who fight and those who pray, she uncovers secrets, answers questions and provides a better understanding of what the period was like when one was not of high birth.
