Fulk basset

Fulk Basset († May 21, 1259 in London ) was a bishop of the English diocese of London .

origin

Fulk Basset was the second son of Alan Basset from Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and his wife Alice de Gray, whose identity is not clear. His father was one of King John Ohneland's most loyal barons . After the death of his older brother Gilbert , who was followed a few weeks later by his only son, Basset inherited his father's estates in 1241.

Church career

As early as 1223, Basset received his first rich benefice in Howden in Yorkshire . In 1227 he received a papal dispensation for another benefice and became provost of Beverley . There is no evidence that he was involved in the rebellion of his brothers Gilbert and Philip Basset , who, along with Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, rebelled against the government of Peter des Roches in 1233 , but in 1234 Basset received the king's permission to to collect a special levy from his vassals and tenants to settle his debts. With this income he might be able to repair damage caused by the rebellion of his brothers. Basset became the owner of further benefices, but in 1238 he traveled to Pope Gregory IX. and repentantly gave him two benefices, which he held without papal dispensation and whose duties he did not perform himself. Nevertheless, in 1239 Basset became Dean of York and in December 1241 he was elected by the canons of St Paul’s as the new Bishop of London. In doing so, the canons opposed King Henry III's request . who hoped to make Peter D'Aigueblanche , a relative of his wife, who was previously Bishop of Hereford, bishop of the richer Diocese of London. However, the king confirmed Basset's choice on January 28, 1242 and gave him a considerable amount of venison to celebrate his episcopal ordination. However, since the office of Archbishop of Canterbury was vacant , the transfer of the temporalities was delayed until March 16, 1244, and Basset was not consecrated until October 9, 1244. Previously, from 1242, the temporalities had been administered by Ralph Dayrell , the income flowed into the royal treasury.

Acting as Bishop of London

Spiritual work

Even though Basset was not a trained theologian, he was a correspondent of the learned Franciscan Adam Marsh and interested in spiritual questions. The chronicler Matthew Paris also saw in him as a level-headed and careful man a suitable candidate for a bishopric. In order to improve the exercise of the office of the bishops, the new Pope Innocent IV instructed the metropolitans to teach new bishops who had not studied. Also Boniface of Savoy , the new Archbishop of Canterbury, was instructed by the Pope to teach Basset before his ordination.

As a bishop, Basset proved to be an active administrator of his diocese. A copy from the 14th century of the register of files from his time in office has been preserved, which contains information about files on the individual parishes, but also on the monasteries in his diocese. Even if this directory was probably started before Basset's tenure, it is clear that he placed great emphasis on the continuation of the directory. In addition, Basset issued detailed rules for pastoral care in his diocese.

Relationship with the Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury

Basset's claim to the rights of his diocese and the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury occasionally brought him into conflict with the crown. In 1249 the king warned him and Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln not to appoint the papal candidate, Master Robert of Gloucester, to his office in the Church of Enford , Wiltshire , as the king was claiming the right to fill these benefices. He received a similar tip in 1256 when he should not pronounce the excommunication over Roger, the abbot of Gloucester Abbey , as this was still pending proceedings before the royal courts and before the court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Despite these points of contention, King Henry III. very kind to the bishop. In 1244 and 1247, Basset was granted guardianship, his absence from court hearings in the counties was excused or trials against him were delayed. Furthermore, he often received gifts from the king, especially game, wine and the right to log in the royal forests.

In return, Basset was initially a reliable supporter of the king. In 1244 he was commissioned to negotiate peace with Henry III , the Scottish King Alexander II . to escort to Newcastle . In 1245 he took part in the First Council of Lyon , where he was one of the six bishops who agreed to collect 6,000 marks for the support of the Pope. Basset did this unwillingly, and in 1246 he supported the clergy of his diocese when they resisted the Pope's request to leave a third to half of the income from their benefices to the Pope for three years. He also got into a heated argument with Archbishop Boniface of Savoy when Basset advised the canons of St Paul's in 1250 to turn to the king about the archbishop's attempts to pay an official visit to the cathedral . The archbishop then excommunicated him. At times Basset considered organizing the resistance against the archbishop in a targeted manner, since he asked the abbot of St Albans for support and met with other bishops in Dunstable , but eventually he gave up this venture. In 1251 he submitted to the archbishop, who gave him absolution . Perhaps he took this step because of the fear that the king, who supported the archbishop, might take revenge on him, but also on his family. That year the king had dismissed judge Henry of Bath , whose wife was related to Basset, on corruption charges, and allegedly the king threatened that other members of the Basset family could also be punished.

Scroll during the Nobility Rebellion 1258

In 1252 Basset was one of the bishops who opposed the tithe the king wanted to raise on the income of the clergy to finance his crusade. The king was particularly angry that Basset would only pay this fee if the king himself confirmed the Magna Carta again . The king was reconciled with his bishops, whom he met in London in 1253. At that time, however, Basset was more on the side of the church reformers than on the side of the king. Two years later, Basset opposed the Pope's demands, whereupon the king was again angry with him. Nevertheless, there was no break with the king, who forgave him in June 1255 because of his services. In 1257 Basset was appointed one of the administrators of the lands of Richard of Cornwall , the king's brother, who traveled to Germany to be crowned Roman-German king. In the same year, Basset was also admitted to the royal council. Although Basset was also close to the aristocratic opposition in 1258, the king named him as one of his candidates who were to work out a reform program for the government in the Council of 24 . After this program, the Provisions of Oxford , was passed by Parliament in June 1258, Basset did not belong to the new 15-member Council of State that had de facto taken over the government. In 1259, Basset and other bishops opposed the royal officials John Mansel and Henry Wingham when they tried to collect from the clergy the tithe that the Pope had granted the king to finance the Sicilian adventure . To what extent Basset actually supported the goals of the aristocratic opposition cannot be clarified, since he fell ill with the plague and died. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral on May 25, 1259.

His heir became his younger brother Philip . It is possible that Fulk of Sandford , Archbishop of Dublin, was an illegitimate son of his.

Web links

• RM Franklin: Basset, Fulk (d.1259). 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

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger Niger	Bishop of London 1241–1259	Henry Wingham