Henry of Lexinton

Henry of Lexinton († August 8, 1258 in Nettleton , Lincolnshire ) was an English clergyman. From 1253 he was Bishop of Lincoln .

Origin and advancement as a clergyman

Henry was a younger son of Richard of Lexinton and his wife Matilda. The family was named after Laxton in Nottinghamshire, formerly called Lexinton, where his father, a member of the gentry , owned property. Henry studied at an unnamed college. Already between 1212 and 1214 he had received the income from the parish church of Stapleford in Nottinghamshire. Before 1237 he was a canon in Southwell in Nottinghamshire, in addition, he was appointed treasurer of the 1241 Salisbury Cathedral appointed. He gave this office in 1245, instead he was Dean of Lincoln Cathedral .

Bishop of Lincoln

On December 30, 1253, Lexinton was elected bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln . Since King Henry III. was staying in Gascony at the time, Lexinton traveled to south-west France, where Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury confirmed the election on March 28, 1254 . On April 1, the diocesan temporalities were given to him , and on his return to England he was ordained bishop on May 17, 1254 in Lambeth . Little is known of his brief tenure. In 1255 he had the body of Hugh of Lincoln, allegedly murdered by Jews, buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where the tomb quickly became an important pilgrimage destination.

A dispute between Lexinton and Oxford University was reported during Parliament in the spring of 1257 , but neither the content nor the outcome of the dispute has been recorded. After the death of his brother John in early 1257, Henry of Lexinton inherited extensive holdings in northern England. He died the following year and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral. His heirs were William of Sutton and Richard of Markham , the sons of his sisters Elizabeth and Cecily.

Web links

Robert C. Stacey: Henry of Lexinton (d.1258). 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
Robert Grosseteste	Bishop of Lincoln 1253–1258	Richard of Gravesend

personal data
SURNAME	Lexinton, Henry of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English clergyman, Bishop of Lincoln
DATE OF BIRTH	12th century or 13th century
DATE OF DEATH	August 8, 1258
Place of death	Nettleton (Lincolnshire)