Adam Orleton

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adam Orleton (* around 1275; † July 18, 1345 in Farnham Castle ) was an English clergyman, politician and diplomat. From 1317 he was Bishop of Hereford before he was Bishop of Worcester in 1327 and then in 1333 Bishop of Winchester .

Origin and education

Adam Orleton was probably not born in Orleton, after which he was named, but in nearby Hereford . Several Orletons lived in Hereford at the end of the 13th century, including William Orleton , who became mayor of the city. It is believed that the brothers John and Thomas Trillek , who later also became bishops, were nephews of Orleton. He was probably studying at Oxford . Before 1302 he obtained a master’s degree . In 1305 he did not need to serve as Rector of Wotton in Buckinghamshire for three years to continue his studies. Before 1310 he had earned the title of Doctor of Canon Law .

Advancement as a clergyman and service as a diplomat

Orleton is said to have been promoted by Edmund Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore , but this cannot be proven. Before 1302 he was part of the household of Robert Lewyse of Gloucester, Chancellor of the Diocese of Hereford . Orleton is mentioned for the first time as an official in the service of the Crown in 1307, although he probably served as a diplomat from the start. In that year he was a member of an embassy to the Curia in Avignon , which should promote the canonization of Thomas de Cantilupe . The embassy may also aim to induce the Pope to appoint the royal treasurer Walter Reynolds as Bishop of Worcester. Indeed, in February 1308 , Pope Clement V made Reynolds Bishop of Worcester, and in 1309 Orleton was part of Reynolds' retinue. In the same year Orleton belonged again to an embassy to the Curia , which achieved the lifting of the excommunication imposed by Archbishop Winchelsey of the royal favorite Piers Gaveston by the Pope. Orleton then had the task of organizing the accommodation of the English delegation during the Council of Vienne . To this end, he should convince the Pope to annul the ordinances issued in 1311 under pressure from an opposition to the nobility . Around this time, Clement V appointed him papal chaplain .

Orleton was an official of the Diocese of Winchester between 1312 and 1315 , although he often performed other duties. In 1313, for example, he represented Richard Swinfield , Bishop of Hereford, during a provincial synod , and in November 1313 he supported the knight Gilbert Middleton , who was supposed to settle a dispute between the ecclesiastical lecturers belonging to the Dominican order and the secular lecturers at Oxford University . From 1314 Orleton was the permanent representative of King Edward II at the Curia in Avignon . There Orleton negotiated with Pope John XXII. among other things further on the cancellation of ordinances and on the validity of armistices in the war with Scotland . In March 1317, he supported a royal embassy who negotiated with the Pope that the king could receive a loan from the proceeds of a tax levied in England to finance a crusade .

Political activity as a bishop

Appointment as bishop

By 1317, Orleton had received few benefices for his services compared to other clergymen . He had received the rectorates of Wotton in the Diocese of Worcester and Acle in the Diocese of Norwich , plus benefices to the cathedrals of Wells and Hereford . In Avignon, Orleton also served John XXII, who appointed him papal auditor and papal chaplain after 1314 . On May 15, 1317 the Pope appointed him bishop of the Diocese of Hereford , although Edward II urged the Pope to appoint the courtier Thomas Charlton as bishop. Orleton was ordained bishop in Avignon on May 22nd. At first the king was extremely angry about the appointment of his envoy in place of his candidate as bishop. Nevertheless, he gave Orleton in July 1317, one day after he had reached the king in Nottingham , the temporalities of the diocese and took him back into his favor.

Role during the Despenser War and the Earl of Lancaster Rebellion

In England, Orleton quickly became embroiled in the conflict between the king and the powerful Earl of Lancaster . He was one of the twelve bishops who actively worked on an understanding between the two adversaries. In April 1318 he was one of the six bishops who negotiated a draft agreement with Lancaster in Leicester , which then led to the Treaty of Leake in August . Orleton then became a member of the new permanent council of state that was formed under the treaty. In addition, Orleton continued to serve the king as a diplomat, and thanks to his rank as bishop he now often served as head of the embassies. After he had already traveled as envoy to France in June 1318, he served again as envoy at the papal court in Avignon in 1319, where he continued to press for the canonization of Thomas of Cantilupe. In February 1320 he returned to England with eight papal bulls , including two promulgating church punishments against the Scottish King Robert Bruce . In April 1320 Orleton was back in Avignon, where Thomas of Cantilupe was canonized on April 17th. On his return trip he met Edward II and Queen Isabelle when they were paying homage to the French king for the possession of Gascon in Amiens . In 1321 he traveled again to the French royal court to negotiate matters in Gascony, but when he returned to London in April 1321, the Despenser War began a little later , a rebellion of the Marcher Lords against the influence of the royal favorites Hugh le Despenser and his eponymous father Hugh le Despenser the Elder . As a clergyman, he did not openly take part in the rebellion, but in May he supported Roger Mortimer of Wigmore , with whom he had been in contact for a long time, with soldiers from his diocese.

After the king took military action against the rebels from autumn 1321, Orleton also formed an alliance with the Earl of Hereford . However, the divided rebels could be defeated by the king by March 1322. The king had numerous leaders executed, including his cousin Lancaster. At the end of January 1322, when the king reached Hereford , he had accused Orleton of supporting the rebels. However, while the king asked the Pope to suspend Bishops John Droxford and Henry Burghersh and send them into exile, Orleton was not further accused and was able to take part in Parliament in York in May 1322 , with which the king consolidated his victory. Orleton's relationship with the king was strained, but in May 1323 Orleton hoped that the king would soon fully forgive him. However, when the rebel Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, who had surrendered in January 1322, was able to escape from the Tower of London in early August 1323 , the king had Orleton's involvement in the Despenser War investigated. In February 1324, Orleton was charged before Parliament at Westminster for having supported the Mortimer rebellion with horses, men and weapons. Orleton denied the allegations, stating that as a bishop he was not under royal but spiritual jurisdiction. The king then handed it over to Archbishop Walter Reynolds' supervision. In Hereford, the king had the allegations examined by a jury made up of Orleton's declared opponents. Henry of Lancaster , brother of the executed Earl of Lancaster, tried to defend Orleton, but the king confiscated the temporalities of Orleton's diocese in March 1324 and kept them under his administration. Despite the king's urging for an ecclesiastical conviction of Orleton, this trial was delayed by other bishops while the king ordered the sale of cattle, supplies and items from Orleton's property from October 1325.

Role during the reign of Isabelle and Roger Mortimer

When Queen Isabelle and Mortimer landed in southeast England in September 1326 to overthrow the king, Orleton, along with Henry Burghersh, was among the bishops who immediately openly supported the rebellion. As early as October he joined the rebels in Oxford and delivered a sermon in which he defended the queen's invasion and brought charges against the Despensers. After Edward II was captured while on the run in November, Orleton took the great seal into custody . Orleton was in Hereford when Hugh le Despenser the Younger was sentenced to death. He achieved that Robert Baldock , the royal chancellor captured together with the king and despenser , should answer as a clergyman not before a secular, but before a spiritual court . He took him to London, where Baldock was badly mistreated by a mob and thrown into prison, where he died as a result of his injuries. What part did Orleton have in the abdication of Edward II and in the settlement of the successor to Edward III? could not be exactly clarified. During parliament in January 1327, he spoke out in favor of the removal of Edward II. In January 1327 he was a member of the delegation that brought the overthrown king to Kenilworth Castle to abdicate. On January 28, 1327 he was appointed the new treasurer , and on February 1 he attended the coronation of Edward III. part. As early as March 1327, however, he resigned the office of treasurer, because he traveled as an envoy to France and to the curia in Avignon . There he informed the French king and the Pope about the change of throne in England. To do this, he achieved that Edward III. received papal dispensation for marrying his cousin Philippa of Hainault . In Avignon, John XXII appointed him. on September 28, 1327 as Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester , not least because the temporalities of the Diocese of Hereford were still devastated by the pillage under Edward II. However, this change was initially resolutely rejected by the government ruled by Mortimer, because in Worcester, Wulstan Bransford , a bishop whose election had already been confirmed by the king and archbishop, had already been elected.

Orleton apparently quickly regained the favor of Edward III, who in early 1328 approved the appointment of Orleton as Bishop of Worcester. As a result, Orleton was given the diocese on March 2, 1328. When with the death of the French King Charles IV. In 1328 the Capetians died out in direct line, Philip VI. from the House of Valois French king. Thereupon Orleton and Bishop Roger Northburgh of Lichfield were sent to France in May 1328 to assert the claim to the throne of Edward III, who had been a nephew of Charles IV. On his return he was enthroned as bishop in Worcester on June 19, 1328 . In January 1330 he traveled again with Bishop William Airmyn of Norwich for negotiations in France, also in April to negotiate a marriage alliance between England and France. On May 8, 1330 he sealed the Convention of Bois de Vincennes , in which outstanding payments from the English to the French, but also the failure to hand over castles in southwestern France to the English and other issues were recorded. Because of his frequent and long diplomatic missions, Orleton was no longer involved in the rule of Mortimer, and when the young King Edward III. In October 1330 Mortimer overthrew and took over government, no charges were brought against Orleton.

Activity during the reign of Edward III.

Even after the fall of Roger Mortimer, Orleton continued to serve the crown as a diplomat. In 1331 he was back in France, where the Treaty of Paris was signed in March , in which Edward III. pledged to pay homage to the French king for his south-west French possessions . Orleton was an important member of the high-ranking embassy that traveled from London to France in November 1332 to negotiate a common crusade , an alliance and further a marriage between the two ruling houses. The negotiations were unsuccessful, but Orleton stayed in France until February 22, 1333, before traveling to the Curia in Avignon. There John XXII appointed him. on December 1, 1333 as bishop of the rich diocese of Winchester . Orleton returned to England in January 1334, but Edward III. again refused to consent to Orleton's move as bishop. Orleton has been charged with bribery and even treason. Only on September 23, 1334 did he hand over the temporalities of the diocese to him, but Orleton had now lost the favor of the king. It was not until March 1336 that he was invited to a parliament as Bishop of Winchester, with which he was then rehabilitated. On July 21, 1336, he left London for the last time for an embassy to France. The negotiations were unsuccessful as the French stuck to their alliance with Scotland , and war between England and France was imminent.

Spiritual work

Despite his frequent activity as a politician and diplomat, Orleton was a conscientious administrator whenever possible, as evidenced by the records of the three dioceses he led. Immediately after his arrival as bishop in Hereford, he began a visit to his diocese, which he had to interrupt again due to his work as a diplomat. In a letter to Thomas Cobham , the bishop of the neighboring diocese of Worcester, Orleton complained that he had not found the time to brief his officials and deputies and then asked Cobham to supervise his officials during his absence. Nevertheless, Cobham also looked after his diocese during his diplomatic missions abroad and, for example, sent written instructions from France. It was only when he became blind and frail as an old man that he could no longer exercise his office as bishop.

There was bitter opposition between Orleton and Archbishop John Stratford of Canterbury, although both had been actively involved in the ousting of Edward II. Stratford protested with a slanderous appeal against Orleton's appointment as Bishop of Winchester, whereupon he wrote the so-called Responsiones in his defense . When there was a serious conflict between Edward III in 1340. and Archbishop Stratford came, is said to have published the offensive, so-called Libellus famosus , according to the chronicler Stephen Birchington Orleton . This accusation is unlikely to be true, although Orleton likely actually resented his old rival.

rating

Contemporary chroniclers described Orleton as cunning, planning and ruthless, although he would have cared more about the political situation and his power than the concerns of his dioceses. John XXII. recognized his abilities, and Orleton thanked the Pope friend of his, following the orders of the Pope rather than those of the Crown. Together with Archbishop Stratford, he played a key role in ensuring that the change of throne of 1327 went so smoothly. For this and other reservations, Orleton was unduly defamed. The contemporary chronicler Geoffrey Baker accused Orleton of having planned the long-term removal of Edward II. He invented a letter that Orleton should have written to the king's guards at Berkeley Castle , who then murdered the deposed king. Baker also claimed that Orleton condoned Chancellor Baldock's death. However, these allegations are unsubstantiated. At the time of the alleged murder of Edward II, Orleton had been in France for five months. At the end of the 19th century, William Stubbs Orleton, confidante of Roger Mortimer and TF Tout, described him as selfish and scandalous. According to Tout, he would have prepared Mortimer's escape and planned a conspiracy to overthrow the king. Orleton continued to be a political bishop in the 20th century, although he mainly served as a diplomat and was only particularly politically active between 1324 and 1327 and 1341.

literature

  • GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), pp. 33-47, JSTOR 3678827 ; doi: 10.2307 / 3678827 .
  • Roy Martin Haines: Adam Orleton and the diocese of Winchester . In: Journal of Ecclesiastical History , 23 (1972), pp. 1-30
  • Roy Martin Haines: The church and politics in fourteenth-century England: the career of Adam Orleton, c.1275-1345 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1978, ISBN 0-521-21544-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kathleen Edwards, The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Vol. 9 (1959), p. 67
  2. ↑ a b G. A. Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 34
  3. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 214
  4. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 215
  5. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 226
  6. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 105
  7. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 304
  8. ↑ GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 398
  9. ↑ GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), JSTOR 3678827 ; P. 39
  10. ↑ a b G. A. Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 41
  11. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 155
  12. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 166
  13. ↑ a b c G. A. Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 43
  14. ↑ GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 47
  15. ↑ GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 36
  16. ↑ GA Usher: The career of a political bishop: Adam de Orleton (c. 1279-1345). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 22 (1972), p. 46
  17. ^ Roy Martin Haines: Orleton [Hereford], Adam (c. 1275-1345). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  18. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 93
  19. ^ Roy Martin Haines: The church and politics in fourteenth-century England: the career of Adam Orleton, c.1275-1345 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1978, ISBN 0-521-21544-7 , p. 199
predecessor Office successor
John Stratford Lord High Treasurer
1327 		Henry Burghersh
Richard Swinfield Bishop of Hereford
1317-1327 		Thomas Charlton
Thomas Cobham Bishop of Worcester
1327-1333 		Simon Montagu
John Stratford Bishop of Winchester
1333-1345 		William Edendon
personal data
SURNAME Orleton, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman, politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH around 1275
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1345
Place of death Farnham Castle