16 January 1127 A.D. Richard de Beaumis (I) Dies—53rd Bishop of London;
Elected 24 May, 1108; Consecrated 26 July 1108; Died in Office
Richard de Beaumis
(died 1127)
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Richard de Beaumis
|
|
Diocese
|
|
Elected
|
24 May 1108
|
Term ended
|
1127
|
Predecessor
|
|
Successor
|
|
Orders
|
Ordination
|
14 June 1108
|
Consecration
|
26 July 1108
|
Personal details
|
Died
|
probably 16 January 1127
|
Denomination
|
Catholic
|
Richard
de Belmeis (or de
Beaumais) (died 1127) was a medieval
cleric, administrator and judge, probably of Shropshire origins, who became Bishop of London in 1108.
Contents
Identity
Richard's toponymic byname is
given in modern accounts as de Belmeis. Occasionally the form de Beaumais is encountered. This is based on the modern
spelling of the village from which they perhaps originated: Beaumais-sur-Dive, which is east ofFalaise, in the Calvados region of Normandy.[1] The attribution is now regarded as not fully
proven.[2] It is made up of two very common French toponym elements, meaning “attractive estate”: there is a
village called Aubermesnil-Beaumais elsewhere in Normandy.
Whatever the form of his name,
Richard is easily confused with his namesake and nephew, Richard de Belmeis II, who was also a 12th-century Bishop of London. Tout believed that Richard
I was surnamed Rufus,[3] which seems to be based on a further confusion.
There certainly was a Richard Ruffus, but the name is now generally reserved
for an Archdeacon of Essex a brother of Richard Belmeis II and thus another nephew of Richard Belmeis
I.[4] A further, later, Richard Ruffus may have been a
son of the archdeacon.[5] The family tree below attempts to clarify the
relationships, which are still not beyond doubt.
Background and early life
Richard's background seems to
lie in the lower reaches of the Norman landowning class. He is thought to be
the Richard whom the Domesday enquiry found holding the very small manor of Meadowley, due west
of Bridgnorth in Shropshire.[2][6]This he held as a tenant of Helgot, who held it of Roger Montgomery, the great territorial magnate who dominated the Welsh Marches. Meadowley was 6 ploughlands in extent and was populated by just five families:
3 slaves and 2 bordars.[7] However, there were evidently signs of revival in
Richard's hands. In Edward the Confessor's time it had been worth 30 shillings, but it had sunk to only 2 shillings
by the time Richard acquired it, since when it had risen again to 11 shillings.
Richard also held three hides hides worth of land as a tenant of Helgot at Preen, to the north-west of Meadowley. Here he let a
hide to Godebold, a priest who was a crony of Earl Roger.[8] Godebold at this time was much wealthier than
Richard and held a large number of properties that had been intended as prebends of the collegiate church of St Alkmund in Shrewsbury.
Richard seems to have become steward of Earl Roger and appears as a witness in charters,
both genuine and spurious, granted by Roger and his son, Hugh to Shrewsbury Abbey,[9] and in one is described as dapifer for Shropshire.[2] Richard also seems to have been employed in Sussex, where the Montgomery earls had substantial
holdings.
Viceroy of Shropshire
Richard seems to have avoided
entanglement in the revolt of Robert of BellĂŞme, 3rd Earl of
Shrewsbury and consequently emerged in Henry I's favour. Probably in autumn 1102, Henry ordered Richard, Robert of Falaise
and all the barons of Sussex to secure for Ralph de Luffa, the Bishop of Chichester, lands near the town of Chichester.[10] It seems, therefore, that Richard was not in
Shropshire at that time, but in Sussex. He was sent to Shrewsbury late in 1102,
after Henry had dealt with Robert of BellĂŞme's Welsh allies,[9] imprisoning Iorwerth ap Bleddyn, a powerful Welsh leader who had played a prominent but equivocal part in
events. Henry continued to treat Shropshire as a marcher lordship but was determined not to install another earl who
might threaten the monarchy.[11] At Christmas, Henry ordered Richard to help secure
some land for the Abbey of Saint-Remi, which had a daughter house at Lapley Priory in Staffordshire and estates in Shropshire.[10] This indicates that he was fully in charge of
Shropshire by the end of the year.
Henry allowed Richard to take
effective control of the county as a royal agent. He was described by Ordericus Vitalis as thevicecomes or “viscount” of Shropshire,[12] a term sometimes translated as Viceroy.[3][13] It is possible that he was addressed on occasion as
the Sheriff of Shropshire. He had a reputation as an expert on legal
matters.[10][14] Hence he served as thejusticiar for the king at Shrewsbury, where his brief also
included oversight of Welsh affairs.[15] He was given substantial holdings in the county to
support him in appropriate style. The priest Godebold had been succeeded by a
son, Robert, and it seems likely that he had supported the rebels, as his
estates were turned over to Richard.[16] Other estates he acquired wereTong and Donington, both of which had been
retained as demesne by the Montgomery earls themselves.[13]
Bishop of London
Election and consecration
He was elected to the see of London and invested with its temporalities on 24 May 1108.[17] The date is known from Eadmer, the contemporary historian and biographer of Anselm, who places Richard's
election at Pentecost:[18] 24 May in that year, according to the Julian
Calendar, in which Easter was on 5 April. It appears that he had so far been ordained only as adeacon. Ordination as a priest was required before he
could proceed to ordination as
a bishop. Eadmer makes clear that he
was priested with many others by Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at his manor of Mortlake. Anselm had only recently returned from a long
exile after he and the king came to a resolution of their Investiture Controversy, and it seems that there was a backlog of
ordinations. Eadmer does not give a date as such but says that Anselm carried
out these ordinations during jejunio quarti mensis - the “fast of the fourth months,” i.e. the Ember Days, which were the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
following Pentecost. Eyton reasoned that the ordination would therefore have
been on 27, 29 or 30 May. However, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicani gives the probable date as 14 June 1108,[1] nevertheless citing Eadmer as evidence.
What followed made clear that
Richard was essentially a royal nominee, not really known, much less congenial,
to the Anselm and the supporters of Gregorian Reform. Eadmer says that the king went to embark for
Normandy and waited until he received a blessing from Anselm, who then became
very ill and was confined to his quarters.[19] The king then sent William Giffard, the Bishop of Winchester and William Warelwast, the Bishop of Exeter, who had taken opposite sides in the investiture
dispute, to urging Anselm to look after his son and the kingdom and to make
sure that Richard was soon ordained bishop at Chichester. The reason he gave
was that Richard was a man of great ability for whom he had important business
in the far west of the country. Anselm did expedite Richard's consecration as a
bishop, which took place on 26 July 1108.[1] However, he demurred at using Chichester Cathedral, preferring instead to use his own chapel at Pagham, assisted by the bishops of Winchester, Chichester
and Exeter, together with Roger of Salisbury, the Bishop of Salisbury.[20]
The Primacy dispute
One of Richard's concerns was
to promote the interests of the Archdiocese of Canterbury, of which his own see formed a part. In 1109,
during a vacancy at both Canterbury and York, he refused to take part in
the long-delayed consecration of theThomas, archbishop-elect of York, until a profession of subordination to
Canterbury had been obtained.[2]
Episcopal business
Richard took part in settling
numerous ecclesiastical and secular matters of his day, including the
establishment of the Diocese of Ely, the consecration of St Albans Abbey and the disposal of the Beauchamp inheritance.[2]
Welsh affairs
Richard's best-documented
interventions in Wales date from the period immediately after his elevation to
the episcopate in 1108.[2] Richard's meddling in the complex dynastic politics
of Wales was not always successful and Lloyd comments that “Bishop Richard was
cynically indifferent to the crimes of Welshmen against each other.”[21] The imprisonment of Iorwerth had left a partial
power vacuum in Powys, which his brother Cadwgan ap Bleddyn was unable to fill.[22] Initially these were precipitated by Owain ap Cadwgan's abduction of Nest ferch Rhys in 1109, which had profound repercussions across
Wales, as she was both the wife of Gerald de Windsor, the most powerful Norman baron in South Wales and
the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last Welsh ruler of Deheubarth.[23] The widespread sense of outrage created a coalition
of Welsh leaders against Owain and Cadygan. Richard was able to use this
groundswell to send his forces and their allies across Central Wales, driving
Owain and Cadwgan back into Ceredigion, then further into exile in Ireland. Richard
partitioned the fugitives' land among his allies and in 1110 Iorwerth was
released from seven years' captivity to create a new centre of power and
authority.
However, Richard ordered one
of his allies, Madog ap Rhiryd, to surrender some English criminals whom he was
sheltering,[24] alienating him from the new order. When Owain
returned from exile, Madog immediately defected to his side and accompanied him
in pillaging along the border. This led to hostilities with Iorwerth, who kept
his bargain with Richard and the king, driving the outlaws from his realms.[25] However, Owain continued his depredations from
further west and Madog returned to corner and kill Iorwerth, driving him at
spear-point into his blazing home. Richard dealt with each disaster by
restoring relations with the perpetrators. Initially he reinstated Cadwgan in
power, accepting Owain's return. When Madog murdered Cadwgan, Richard responded
by granting substantial lands to him.[21] Owain seems to have sidestepped the local conflict by
making contact with the king personally.[26] Succeeding his father in Powys, he was able in 1113
to blind Madog in revenge for his father's murder and to survive a full-scale
royal invasion in the following year.[21] Eyton comments on Richard's part in these events:
“The grossest treachery seems to have pervaded this part of his policy.”[26]
Death
He died in 1127, with his
death being commemorated on 16 January, so he probably died on that date. On
his deathbed, he confessed that he had lied about his tenure of a manor,
previously testifying that he held it in fee, when in reality he had it under a
lease.[27]
Family
Family tree
The Belmeis family: an ecclesiastical
dynasty[show]
4.
^ Jump up
to:a b c "Archdeacons of Essex", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 12-14
(accessed 16 December 2014)
5.
^ Jump up
to:a b "Prebendaries of Twiford", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 80-82,
(accessed 16 December 2014)
14.
Jump up^ Williams English and the Norman Conquest p. 157
15.
Jump up^ Crouch Reign of King Stephen p. 55
17.
Jump up^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 258
27.
Jump up^ Crouch "Troubled Deathbeds" Albion p. 34
29.
^ Jump up
to:a b "Archdeacons of London", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 8-12,
(accessed 16 December 2014)
32.
^ Jump up
to:a b "Deans of St Paul's", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 4-8, (accessed
16 December 2014).
33.
Jump up^ "Prebendaries of Pancratius", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 69-70,
(accessed 16 December 2014)
34.
Jump up^ "Prebendaries of Holbourn", in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300:
Volume 1, St. Paul's, London, ed. Diana E Greenway (London, 1968), pp. 53-55,
(accessed 16 December 2014)
References
Crouch,
David The Reign of King Stephen: 1135–1154 Harlow, Essex: Longman Pearson 2000 ISBN 0-582-22657-0
Crouch,
David (Spring 2002). "The Troubled Deathbeds of Henry I's Servants: Death,
Confession, and Secular Conduct in the Twelfth Century". Albion 43 (1): 24–36. doi:10.2307/4053439. JSTOR 4053439.
-
-
Fryde,
E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
A T
Gaydon, R B Pugh (Editors), M J Angold, G C Baugh, Marjorie M Chibnall, D C
Cox, Revd D T W Price, Margaret Tomlinson, B S Trinder (1973). A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 2, Institute of Historical Research, accessed 9 December
2014.
-
-
-
-
-
Further reading
No comments:
Post a Comment