At the period when this prelate lived, England was struggling to free itself from the shackles of its Norman and Angevin rulers. The feudal system had been introduced at the Conquest, which constituted the king the absolute master of the land; the barons were his vassals, holding their lands by tenures of military service, and the great mass of the people were either vassals of the barons, holding portions of land by knight's service, or were mere serfs, excepting some merchants and traders in the cities and towns, who enjoyed a modified species of freedom, for which special charters were granted by kings. The citizens of London have ever been famous for the bold and resolute way in which they have preserved and defended the liberties and immunities granted in such charters, and when Basset became their bishop they gladly welcomed him as one who would not be backward in lending them his countenance and assistance in any attempted invasion of their chartered rights.

Beyond this permissive freedom, however, they aimed at something further; the notion that kings were not the masters, but the servants, of the sovereign people had been bruited abroad, and the initiative had been taken by the barons, who revolted against the tyranny of John, and extorted from him the Magna Charta, in which they were backed by the Londoners and the merchants of other large towns; but the peasantry and labourers were too much down-trodden in serfdom to make any assertion of their natural rights, and it was not until more than a century afterwards that they, under Wat Tyler, Jack Cade, and other leaders, began to put forth the strange notion that they also were men with natural rights, which they ceased not to reiterate, until a couple of centuries afterwards they established their claims at Marston Moor and Naseby and Worcester.

Thurstan Basset came to England at the Conquest, whose descendant Ralph (temp. Henry II.,) by his great abilities raised the family to distinction and wealth, and was the author of many salutary laws, notably that of Frank Pledge. From him issued three baronies by writ, those of Basset of Sapcoate, 1264-1378; Basset of Drayton, 1264, in abeyance 1390; and Basset of Welden, 1299-1410.

Thomas, his second son, was founder of the Wycombe branch, whose eldest son, Gilbert, had issue by Egeline, daughter of —— Courtney, three sons—Gilbert, Fulco, and Philip—all of whom succeeded to the paternal estates, one after the other.

Fulco was born at the end of the 12th century, was brought up to the Church, and became Provost of Beverley, 1206-1238; Rector of Cottesbrook, Northants, which he resigned, 1239; Dean of York, 1239-1242; Bishop of London, 1241-1258, but not consecrated until 1244, in consequence of a vacancy in the See of Canterbury. He died of the plague, 1258, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

In the year 1250, he had a warm altercation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, relative to metropolitical visitation, to which the archbishop had an undoubted right, but which Basset denied. "Comming to London, Boniface (the archbishop) tooke a small occasion to defoce the bishop with fowle and reprochfull speeches, and being resisted by the Dean and Chapter of Paules (who had appealed from his visitation to the Pope), he made no more adoo but excommunicated them every one." The next day he proceeded to the priory of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, telling the sub-prior and monks, who came in their copes to meet him, that he had come to visit them, who replied very respectfully that "they knew their bishop (whose only office it was) to be a very sufficient man in his place," and that, "although they were sorry to disappoint him, they could not recognise any other." "This answere so enraged this lusty Archbishop, as not being able to containe his anger within any bounds of discretion, he ranne violently to the Sub Prior, strucke the poore old man downe to the ground, kicked him, beate him and buffeted him pitifully, tore his coape from his backe, rent it into a number of pieces, and when he had so done stamped upon it like a madde man." His followers also fell upon the monks, and a general fight took place; but the Londoners hearing of the fray took up cudgels in behalf of their bishop and prior, when the archbishop took to flight, and got safely across the ferry to Lambeth. "If they (the Londoners) could have met with him, they would surely have hewen him into a thousand peeces." As soon as he got home he excommunicated the whole of the inmates of the priory, and along with them Bishop Basset. Appeals on both sides were made to Rome, the Dean of St. Paul's going thither, followed by the archbishop. A great deal of bribery took place, the Pope pocketing the proceeds from both parties alike, and delaying his decision in order to exact more money, which seems not to have been spared. At length he gave judgment that the archbishop had the right of visitation all through his province, but for the unseemly brawling and fighting in Smithfield he condemned him to rebuild, at his own cost, Lambeth Palace, which was then in a dilapidated condition.

Although he was ever zealous and earnest in his defence of the people against kingly and priestly tyranny, and supported the barons in this and the preceding reign, it was in his old age, when verging upon the grave, that Basset especially made a display of that bravery and sturdy English love of freedom and hatred of oppression which entitles him to the designation at the head of this chapter.

King Henry and the Pope had conspired together to levy a tax on the English clergy, and share the plunder. Rustand, the Pope's legate, with this view, convoked a meeting of the clergy of London, and made his demand in the name of the Pope. Basset rose and replied, in unmeasured terms, on the illegality and oppressive nature of the exaction, finishing by saying that rather than submit to so intolerable a demand he would lose his head, and in this he was backed by his clergy, who passed an unanimous resolution to ignore any such claim altogether. The legate laid his complaint before the king, who sent for the bishop, abused him with vile and menacing language, and threatened him with deprivation and Papal censure. Basset listened meekly to all the king had to say, but when he left his presence he said to those who he knew would carry it to the king, "He may remove my mitre, if it so pleases him, but he will find a helmet beneath it, and he may take away my crosier, but that is easily replaced with a sword."

M. Paris says of him, "He was a noble and honourable man, and, excepting his last slip, the anchor of the whole kingdom, and the shield of stability and defence." Weever also says, "As he was a man of great lineage, and also of ample—both temporal and ecclesiastical—possessions, so he was a prelate of an invincible, high spirit; stout and courageous to resist those insupportable exactions which the Pope's legate, Rustandus, went about to lay upon the clergie."

In the year 1256 he commenced the erection of the church of St. Faith, under St. Paul's cathedral, founded a charity in St. Paul's for the repose of his soul, and bequeathed to the cathedral a golden apple, two carved chests for relics, some vestments, and a few manuscripts.