John Mansel

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John Mansel (also Mansell or Maunsell ) († before February 7, 1265 ) was one of the important officials, advisers and diplomats of the English King Henry III. who, among other things, served as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal .

origin

Mansel's origin is uncertain. According to Matthew Paris he was the illegitimate son of a country pastor, according to a papal letter of 1259 his father was of noble descent, but despite his ordination as a deacon he had married a woman and had a child with her, John Mansel. He later repented of his behavior, divorced, and became a priest again. This illegitimate parentage may explain Mansel's striving to own and secure his position.

Service as a royal official

From when Mansel served the king is uncertain, at least he already served as a young man as a royal civil servant and is mentioned for the first time in July 1234 as an officer of the treasury who received tax money. He kept receipts until October 1236, after which he managed the king's wine stores in Southampton . However, he was still responsible for incoming payments, because a large part of the income from the tax of the thirteenth levied in 1237 was recorded by him. In 1238 he accompanied an English army that King Henry III. in support of his brother Emperor Frederick II. in the Lombardy had sent. Presumably he served as paymaster , but also took an active part in fights himself, where he distinguished himself for his bravery. He also served as a royal official abroad in October 1239 and August 1240, although the place or region is not known. At this point he had already begun amassing administrations of lands whose inheritance was underage or whose owners had fallen out of favor and vacant ecclesiastical offices. In 1241 he received a benefice from Thame Abbey , which was also claimed by Bishop Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln. Mansel renounced Thame and was compensated by the King with other benefices in London and Kent, including the office of Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral .

From 1242 to 1243 Mansel accompanied the king to Gascony during the Saintonge War , where Mansel again actively participated in the fighting. In July 1242 he was able to capture Pierre Orige , the seneschal of the Count of Boulogne, in a battle at Saintes . In November 1242 the king appointed him provisional administrator, in February 1243 also officially Seneschal of Gascony . Shortly afterwards, however, he had to end his military career after a stone thrown by the defenders shattered his leg during the siege of the Vérines monastery . Master Pierre de Montibus , Peter of Savoy's doctor , saved his life, but Mansel remained impaired for life. In September 1243 Mansel returned to England with the king. Because of his injury, the king felt an obligation to him. The court poet Henry d'Avranches wrote a poem about Mansel's leg, and stories of Mansel's bravery were widespread.

Rise to the king's advisor

Over the next few years, Mansel's influence on the king increased. In 1244 he became a member of the royal council, which he remained until 1263. In 1245 he was essentially concerned with the organization of the campaign against Prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd in Wales and with the necessary diplomatic negotiations. From November 8, 1246 to August 28, 1247 and from August 17, 1248 to September 8, he served as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal , after having briefly held the Great Seal in Gascon. From 1247 to 1248 he negotiated unsuccessfully for the heir to the throne Eduard to marry a daughter of Duke Heinrich von Brabant . In November 1249 he fell seriously ill at Maidstone and did not recover until March 1250, when he took a crusade vows with the king and other members of his household . In June 1250 he was hosted in Holborn a famous feast for the General Chapter in the Dominican Order . In October 1250 he was commissioned with Peter Chaceporc to inform the Cathedral Convention of Winchester of the king's wish to elect Aymer de Lusignan , the king's half-brother, as the new bishop of Winchester .

Mansel's influence on the king had grown so much that Matthew Paris named him the king's most important advisor and secretary for the period between 1244 and 1258. Mansel also used his influence for personal concerns. For example, when the judge Henry of Bath was accused of corruption in 1251 , he obtained the king's pardon from the king. Similarly, his influence saved the official Philip Lovel , whom he himself had taken into the service of the king, from charge. Lovel was accused of accepting bribes from Jews and giving them tax breaks in return. Mansel managed to get the Scottish government to stand up for Lovel, who escaped prosecution, regained the king's favor and became Lord Treasurer in 1252 . Mansel did not overexert his influence. When he and Bishop William Button of Bath and Wells were to decide in 1251 a dispute between the abbot and the convent of Westminster Abbey over the division of their property, he negotiated a compromise, although he was on good terms with the abbot.

Family rewards and favors

The king rewarded him richly for his services. In 1244 he was able to acquire Wepham and Bilsington in Kent , where he founded an Augustinian priory . Despite restrictions on the accumulation of offices, he acquired additional benefices in Chichester and other dioceses. In 1246 he was appointed Dean of Wimborne Minster and in 1247 provost of Beverley Minster in Yorkshire . In 1251 he was appointed papal chaplain and in 1256 the king made him Chancellor of the Exchequer of York, one of the richest benefices of the kingdom. Matthew Paris had already called him the richest clergyman in England because of his previous offices and benefices and estimated his annual income at 4,000 marks .

Mansel also looked after his family. In 1245 he achieved that his nephew of the same name, John Mansel, received the parish of the royal church in Lugwardine in Herefordshire . In 1251 his nephew went to study abroad and on his return he became a close associate of his uncle. He married his two sisters favorably, and they received rich gifts from King Heinrich. His sister Emma married the future knight Alard the Fleming , their daughter Joan married Henry Huse , who belonged to the Mansels household in the 1260s. Mansel's other sister Claricia married the knight Geoffrey of Childwick . When St Albans Abbey charged him with property disputes , Matthew Paris claimed that no judge wanted to take over the trial for fear of Mansel's influence, so the abbey eventually had to compromise with Childwick.

Activity as a diplomat

After the failure of Simon de Montfort as lieutenant in Gascony , the king primarily entrusted Mansel with negotiations with the local nobility and with Castile . In 1253 he was head of the English embassy, ​​which negotiated the marriage of the heir to the throne Eduard with the Castilian princess Eleanor and King Alfonso X's renunciation of his claims to Gascony. Mansel was supported by William Button, the Bishop of Bath, who was later replaced by Peter D'Aigueblanche , the Bishop of Hereford, but Mansel and his confidante John Clarel had the main part in the negotiation success . Mansel subsequently served the king as diplomatic advisor. He carried out several missions himself, and wrote detailed instructions for other embassies.

Mansel's role, which he had in the negotiations with the Pope about the claim to the throne of the Kingdom of Sicily , is unclear. Around 1253 Pope Innocent IV offered the throne claim to the kingdom ruled by the Hohenstaufen to Heinrich's younger son Edmund . Since Mansel was ambassador to Castile at that time, it is unlikely that he was involved in accepting this ludicrous proposition, but he was certainly there when King Henry accepted the Pope's offer in Gascony in March 1254. As a result, he supported the so-called Sicilian adventure , even if other royal councils such as Bishop Walter de Cantilupe openly rejected it.

Mansel played a major role in the negotiations that led to the election of Henry's brother Richard of Cornwall as Roman-German king . In 1256 he prepared the mission of Robert de Walerand and Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford , when they traveled to Germany for negotiations. The next year he accompanied Richard de Clare on his next trip to Germany. In the 1250s he also traveled frequently on diplomatic missions to the Scottish royal court, including disputes between Henry's daughter Margaret of England and her husband, the Scottish King Alexander III. had to settle.

Relationship to the reform movement of the barons and to the aristocratic opposition

When the English barons forced the king to agree to a reform of the government in 1258, Mansel belonged as one of three royal confidants to the fifteen-member council of state, which was to advise the king according to the Oxford Commission . At first he worked closely with the other council members. His confidante John Clarel was sent to Rome to negotiate better terms for the Sicilian line to the throne. Mansel himself was entrusted with the administration of Tickhill , a confiscated castle from Bishop Aymer de Lusignan , who had to leave England. In August 1258, Mansel traveled again to Scotland. In September his nephew John Mansel received a benefice in Fenton in northern England, which quickly led to an argument with the Pope, who had promised it to another applicant. Hugh Bigod , who served as royal counsel from 1258 to 1260 , complained frequently about Mansel, who nonetheless continued to be a leading figure on the Council of State through the summer and fall of 1259. He was actively involved in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris and in the agreements on the dowry of Eleanor of England , who had married Simon de Montfort. But Mansel only reluctantly agreed to the transfer of royal goods to Eleanor, which led to an increasing opposition between Mansel and the supporters of Simon de Montfort.

In November 1259 he accompanied the king to Paris, where the peace treaty with France was signed. At the beginning of 1260 he planned together with Peter of Savoy , Richard of Cornwall and Robert de Walerand how they could gradually restore the power of the king. After the fifteen-member Council of State broke up in December 1260 due to internal disputes, Mansel's nephew John Mansel was sent to Rome in January 1261 to obtain the repeal of the King's oaths on the Provisions of Oxford from Pope Alexander IV . In February Mansel withdrew with the King to the Tower of London to await further developments in the conflict. In May the king made him Constable of the Tower . After the King publicly announced in Winchester on June 12th the cancellation of the Provisions of Oxford by the Pope, Mansel himself traveled to Winchester and brought him back to the Tower, where they stayed from June 22nd to July 30th. After that, the king's supporters had apparently decided the power struggle against the aristocratic opposition under Montfort clearly. Mansel negotiated further with the aristocratic opposition, which finally recognized the repeal of the Oxford Commission in the Kingston Agreement of November 21st. The king's victory seemed final when the new Pope Urban IV confirmed his predecessor's decision in May 1262 in a bull addressed to Mansel and others and declared the commission null and void.

Last years and death

In July 1262, the king felt so secure in his rule that he traveled to France again. Mansel followed him in late August. In France, however, he received such disturbing news from England that he implored Heinrich to end his visit and return to England. However, the king fell ill and did not travel back to England together with Mansel until the end of December. In the spring of 1263, Mansel estates were attacked and looted by rebels seeking revenge for his involvement in the cancellation of the commission. Together with the king he withdrew again to the tower, but eventually fled across the Thames on a ship to France. The rebels took over the government again in July 1263, and Mansel's properties were confiscated and handed over to Simon Montfort the Younger .

When the king in September 1263 with Montfort and the French King Louis IX. Negotiated in Boulogne about the validity of the commission, Mansel traveled there and asked for his possessions to be returned. When it seemed in November that the king would regain his power, he revoked the granting of the goods to Montfort the Younger and handed their management over to royal trustees. However, Mansel remained in exile, as Dover Castle remained in the hands of the rebels and he did not want to come under the control of the rebels. In January 1264 Mansel stayed at the court of the French king and also took part in the Mise of Amiens . However, this arbitration by the French king led to the open war of the barons in England, which the rebels under Montfort were initially able to win at the Battle of Lewes . Mansel joined Queen Eleanor, Archbishop Boniface of Savoy , Peter of Savoy, William de Valence and other supporters of the king who were temporarily planning an invasion of England from their French exile. However, these plans were never carried out. Mansel died in exile in France in early 1265. On February 7, news of his death had reached England, where the ruler Montfort appointed his youngest son Amaury to succeed Mansel as treasurer of York.

heritage

Mansel's will could only be carried out after the victory of the king's followers at the Battle of Evesham on August 3, 1265. In November they were given free disposal over his lands, but his heirs did not receive it. Mansel's sister Emma, ​​who survived him, was allowed to keep the goods he had given her during his lifetime. His nephew John Mansel died within a year, leaving his property to his niece Amabillia of Ripon. Most of Mansel's possessions, which he had received from the king as a reward for his services, probably reverted to the Crown after his death.

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personal data
SURNAME Mansel, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maunsell, John; Mansell, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England
DATE OF BIRTH 12th century or 13th century
DATE OF DEATH before February 7, 1265