Geoffrey Ridel

The title of this article is ambiguous. On the Anglo-Norman judge, see Geoffrey Ridel (judge) .

Geoffrey Ridel († August 20 or 21, 1189 in Winchester ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman. From 1162 to 1173 he was royal chancellor , after which he was bishop of Ely .

origin

Nothing is known about the exact origins of Geoffrey Ridel, about his youth and his education. He was likely a great-nephew of the royal judge Geoffrey Ridel . He would have been related to his grandson, Geoffrey Ridel of the same name , a landowner from Northamptonshire . According to a document issued before May 1173, he was also related to Galiena , a daughter of William Blund . When she married Robert de Lisle , she gave Ridel property in Exning , Suffolk .

Chancellor of King Heinrich II.

Promotion to Chancellor

Ridel was considered self-confident and ambitious. Under Thomas Becket , who was royal chancellor from 1155, Ridel was one of the leading officials in the royal chancellery . As a reward he received several spiritual benefices , including in 1161 the income from the Church of Woolpit in Suffolk. In 1162 Becket became Archbishop of Canterbury and resigned as Chancellor. He was succeeded by Ridel, who was appointed Archdeacon of Canterbury in early 1163 as a reward .

Role in conflict with Thomas Becket

After King Henry II and his former chancellor Becket fell out, Ridel supported the king as a loyal official against his predecessor. In 1164 Ridel represented the king before the curia . On August 15, 1166, he turned back to Pope Alexander III in favor of the king . In 1169 he urged the French King Louis VII to drive Becket, who was living in French exile, from France. Thereupon he was excommunicated by Becket on Ascension Day 1169 . This ecclesiastical sanction was temporarily lifted on September 1, 1169 in Bur-le-Roi by the two papal nuncios Vibiano and Graziano . After another attempt to reconcile the king and Becket had failed, Ridel's excommunication was renewed in October 1169 because he had influenced the king in the negotiations to the disadvantage of Becket. Nevertheless, Ridel continued to make a career in the service of the king. Before September 1165 he became Baron of the Exchequer , at the end of 1169 royal judge and in the same year administrator of the vacant Diocese of Ely . He remained a bitter opponent of Becket, who referred to him as Archdevil , alluding to his office as archdeacon . Even during the negotiations in Fréteval in July 1170 , which led to the interim settlement between the king and the archbishop, he continued to oppose Becket. After Becket then returned to England, Ridel insisted in October 1170 on his possessions, which were due to him as Archdeacon of Canterbury. Together with Archbishop Roger of York and the Bishops Gilbert of London and Jocelin of Salisbury , he announced to young Henry , the recently crowned son of Henry II, that Becket would depose him. In December 1170 he achieved that the young Heinrich Becket did not receive. Ridel was with the king in Normandy when Becket was murdered by the king's knights on December 29, 1170. Ridel's enmity with Becket led the chroniclers Roger von Hoveden and Nigel of Canterbury to rate him negatively to the end.

Bishop of Ely

Election to bishop

Ridel stayed with the king in France until the summer of 1171. Two years later, around May 1, 1173, Ridel was elected Bishop of Ely. The young Heinrich appealed to the Pope against this election, accusing Ridel of complicity in Becker's murder and other offenses. Bishop Gilbert of London, however, sat down with Richard of Dover , the successor of Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury, for the election of Ridel. Richard of Dover finally consecrated Ridel on October 6, 1174 in Canterbury, along with other newly elected bishops, including Richard of Ilchester as bishop. On October 13, Ridel was enthroned in Ely .

Bishop in the service of the king

As bishop, Ridel resigned his previous spiritual offices and the office of royal chancellor. He continued the rebuilding of Ely Cathedral . During his tenure, the later rebuilt western part with the striking western tower was built. To do this, he made various decorations of the cathedral, including the shrine of St. Etheldreda .

Above all, however, Ridel was often still actively in the service of the king. From May 11 to May 18, 1175, he participated in the Provincial Synod of Westminster . On October 6, 1175 he testified to the Treaty of Windsor , which Henry II concluded with the Irish King Ruaidhrí Ua Conchobair . During a synod in Westminster from March 14 to 18, 1176, he defended the primacy of Canterbury against Archbishop Roger of York so vehemently that the archbishop accused him of assault. Ridel had to swear before the king on August 15 in Winchester that he had not assaulted the archbishop. In July 1176 he forced Cardinal Vibiano, who was traveling through England to Scotland, to swear not to violate the rights of the English crown there. At the end of 1176, he and Archbishop Richard von Dover accompanied the king's daughter Johanna , who was traveling to her wedding with King Wilhelm II of Sicily, to Saint-Gilles in Provence. Before Christmas 1176 he was back in England, where the king gave him the Honor of Eye . In January 1177 he was one of the prelates whom the king commissioned to transform the Waltham collegiate monastery into an Augustinian priory. He then accompanied Archbishop Richard of Dover when he traveled as an envoy to Count Philip I of Flanders . In March 1177, he testified to the mediation of Henry II, with which this proved a dispute between the kings of Castile and Navarre . In June the king sent him to the young King Henry and the French King Louis VII. On July 12, 1177 he was again with the king in Stansted , as well as at Christmas 1178 in Winchester.

Judge in the service of the king

In addition to these frequent services as royal envoy, Ridel continued to serve as a judge. In 1179 he was commissioned, along with Bishop Richard of Ilchester and other judges, to review the royal jurisdiction throughout England. Ridel traveled to the Midlands . Between 1180 and 1185 he served frequently in Westminster as a judge at the Regis Curia or as Baron of the Exchequer. In February 1182 the king appointed him one of his executors. On September 5, 1186, Ridel witnessed the wedding of the Scottish King William I to Ermengarde de Beaumont in Woodstock , and on September 14, he attended the royal council in Marlborough . At Christmas 1186 he was at the royal court at Guildford .

death

In 1189 Ridel served as a judge in Lincolnshire , Derbyshire and Cambridgeshire , to June 4 he took part in the meeting of Henry II with the French King Louis VII in La Ferté-Bernard . He was back in England before Henry II's death on July 6th. He was already sick when he went to Winchester to meet the new King Richard I. He died there before Richard's coronation. He was buried in Ely Cathedral. Leaving no will, his fortune, including £ 3,200 in cash, jewelry, horses, clothing and supplies fell to the king. When his successor William de Longchamp was enthroned on January 6, 1190, it was found that Ridel's tomb had been opened and that his bishop's ring had been stolen.

Web links

• AJ Duggan: Ridel, Geoffrey (d. 1189). 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
Thomas Becket	Lord Chancellor of England 1162–1173	Ralph de Warneville
Nigel	Bishop of Ely 1174–1189	William de Longchamp