John Salmon

John Salmon OSB († July 6, 1325 in Folkestone ) was an English religious who served as a diplomat and royal minister. From 1299 he was Bishop of Norwich .

origin

John Salmon came from a family that had worked as goldsmiths for Ely Priory since the 12th century . He was a son of Salomon and Alice and was probably born in Meldreth , Cambridgeshire . His father worked as a wealthy goldsmith in Ely, and he also owned land outside the city. John had at least two younger brothers.

Rise to Bishop of Norwich

Salmon entered the Ely Cathedral Priory as a monk. Before 1291 he was elected prior . On May 19, 1298, a majority of the monks of Ely elected him bishop, but King Edward I disregarded this. Instead, on July 12, the king appointed his chancellor, John Langton , for whom only a minority of monks had voted, as bishop. Thereupon both the supporters of Salmon and Langton turned themselves to the Curia , whereupon both elections on June 5, 1299 were declared invalid. Pope Boniface VIII appointed Ralph of Walpole , the previous Bishop of Norwich, as the new Bishop of Ely, while he appointed Salmon as Bishop of the Diocese of Norwich . On November 15, 1299 Salmon was ordained a bishop. The Pope allowed Salmon to borrow the large sum of 13,000  florins . It is unclear whether Salmon had to use this money to pay the costs of the dispute or whether he had to pay the money directly to the Pope for his appointment.

Loyal supporter of King Edward II.

While Salmon was never in the service of Edward I as bishop, his son and successor Edward II commissioned him to travel to France as envoy just a few months after his accession to the throne. Together with the Earl of Lincoln , the Earl of Pembroke and other envoys, he was to conduct the final negotiations there about the king's marriage to the French princess Isabelle . From the end of November 1307 the embassy was in France. In mid-January 1308, the ambassadors traveled to Dover , where they received the king and escorted him to Boulogne to his wedding . In March 1309 Salmon traveled together with the Earl of Pembroke, Bishop Walter Reynolds , who was also royal treasurer , and other envoys to Avignon to see Pope Clement V , whom they called to revoke the excommunication of the exile of the royal favorite Piers Gaveston imposed by Archbishop Winchelsey could move. With this Salmon had inflicted another defeat on the archbishop, with whom he was also in dispute over questions of canon law. In July 1309 he participated in the Parliament of Stamford in part, during the Gaveston was formally called back. Salmon was named one of the Lords Ordainers in March 1310 to work out a program of reform for the government, and in late 1311 he was appointed auditor of accounts of foreign merchants along with Hugh Courtenay . Nevertheless, Salmon remained a loyal supporter of the king, with whose rule many barons were dissatisfied. In November 1310 the king granted him the privilege of paying £ 200 in lieu of soldiers for the war with Scotland . At the end of 1310 he traveled on behalf of the king to Gascogne , which belonged to the English kings , where he stayed for several months. In September 1311 he took part in negotiations with France over the English possessions in France in Périgueux . Back in England, the king sent him in March 1312 to the meeting to which Archbishop Winchelsey had invited the prelates and magnates in London. During the meeting, Salmon took the stand of the king, who defended Gaveston's return. In September 1312, Salmon, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and the Earl of Richmond were negotiating to prevent the Earl of Lancaster , a bitter opponent of the king's policies, and other oppositionists from appearing with an armed entourage to Parliament and before the king. In October 1312 he was supposed to issue letters of protection for royal officials from Gascony, who had to appear before the Parlement in Paris.

Mediator between the King and the Earl of Lancaster

Salmon continued to be a loyal supporter of the king. From August 30 to September 1, 1315, he attended the Lincoln council meeting at which the king discussed the political situation with Lancaster and other magnates, and served as a spokesman for the king during the Lincoln Parliament in February 1316 across from Lancaster. In Lincoln he was also appointed a member of the Privy Council and a member of a commission to improve the organization of the royal household. In early 1317 he belonged again to an embassy led by the Earl of Pembroke, which went to Avignon to the newly elected Pope John XXII. traveled. There they negotiated financial support from the Pope for the English king and peace with Scotland. On May 11th he reached London again with Bishop John Hotham of Ely. In England the relationship between the King and Lancaster had again deteriorated so much that Lancaster stayed away from a council meeting that was held in Nottingham in July 1317. There was even a threat of an armed conflict between the king and Lancaster, which is why Salmon and other bishops traveled to Lancaster at Pontefract Castle in the autumn of 1317 to discuss the king's politics. With several other bishops, Salmon negotiated with Lancaster in Leicester in April 1318 , and in July and August 1318 he took part in the final negotiations with Lancaster, which led to the conclusion of the Treaty of Leake on August 9 , with which a settlement between Lancaster and the King should be scored. He then became a member of the Council of State, formed under the Treaty of Leake, and in October 1318 he became a member of a new commission to reform the royal budget. Probably until the spring of 1319 he was then a member of the State Council of the king's entourage. In April 1319 he was with Pembroke and Walter Norwich in Great Yarmouth , where ships were loaded with equipment for a campaign to Scotland.

Service as royal chancellor, last years and death

In January 1320, Salmon succeeded John Hotham as royal chancellor, his appointment being made without the consent of the barons, as prescribed by the ordinances. In June 1320 he accompanied Edward II to France, where he paid homage to the French King Philip V for Gascony in Amiens . During the open rebellion of Lancaster , the king appointed him one of the six counselors who would accompany him at all times. After the suppression of Lancaster's rebellion in March 1322, Salmon was a key member of the government. After the failure of the king's campaign in Scotland in 1322, Salmon was a member of the English delegation, which concluded a thirteen-year armistice with Scotland in May 1323. Due to his poor health, Salmon resigned from the office of chancellor in early June 1323. Nevertheless, the king commissioned him in July 1324 and again in December 1324 to negotiate with France, with which the war of Saint-Sardos had come. On behalf of the king, he traveled to France, where he negotiated an armistice on May 31, 1325. He died on the return journey from France. He was buried in Norwich Cathedral.

Activity as a clergyman

Salmon's career, during which he rose as a monk to bishop and then minister, is unusual for his time. His register of documents from his tenure as bishop is only partially preserved. Because of his diverse services to the king, he was rarely in his diocese. In 1304 there was a violent dispute between Salmon and Archbishop Winchelsey, who carried out a visit to the Diocese of Norwich. Salmon claimed the annates and other income of the churches of his diocese as common law , which the archbishop rejected. After complaints before the archbishop's court in 1304 and 1305 were unsuccessful, Salmon traveled to the Curia himself in 1306, where Pope Clemens V decided the dispute in Salmon's favor in August. In 1308 he himself made a visit to the cathedral priory. In Norwich, Salmon had the magnificent great hall of the bishop's palace rebuilt, plus a two-story ossuary chapel in the cathedral cemetery, which was consecrated to John the Evangelist . In 1309 he ordered the construction of a reliable clock, which was completed before 1325. He is also considered a sponsor of what would later become Clare College in Cambridge. He appointed two of his younger brothers archdeacons of his diocese.

Web links

• MC Buck: Salmon, John (d.1325). 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

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. 65
2. ↑ Jeffrey Denton: Robert Winchelsey and the Crown 1294-1313. A study in the defense of ecclesiastical liberty . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-89397-6 , p. 47
3. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 25
4. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 94
5. ↑ Jeffrey Denton: Robert Winchelsey and the Crown 1294-1313. A study in the defense of ecclesiastical liberty . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-89397-6 , p. 257
6. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 44
7. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 92
8. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 181
9. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 95
10. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 208
11. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , 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. 92
13. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 226
14. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 179
15. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 183
16. ↑ Jeffrey Denton: Robert Winchelsey and the Crown 1294-1313. A study in the defense of ecclesiastical liberty . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-89397-6 , p. 48

predecessor	Office	successor
Ralph of Walpole	Bishop of Norwich 1299-1325	Robert Baldock
John Hotham	Lord Chancellor 1320-1323	Robert Baldock