John de Gray

John de Gray , also John Gray (* before 1198; † October 18, 1214 in Saint-Jean-d'Angély ) was Bishop of Norwich and Justiciar of Ireland .

Origin and career as a clergyman

De Gray came from the Norman de Gray family . He was probably born as the younger son of Anchetel de Gray in Norfolk and served from February 1198 at the latest in the entourage of Prince Johann Ohneland . After King Richard's death , his brother Johann Ohneland became King of England in 1199. De Gray became archdeacon of Cleveland on March 4, 1200 and archdeacon of Gloucester on April 11th . Before September 7, 1200, he was elected Bishop of Norwich to succeed John of Oxford and consecrated on September 24, along with Giles de Braose , Bishop of Hereford , by Archbishop Hubert Walter in Westminster Abbey .

Advisor to the King and candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury

De Gray mainly continued to serve the king in his chancellery. Probably in December 1203 he and Archbishop Hubert Walter went on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to King Philip II of France to end the war over John's possessions in France . On October 2nd, 1205 he acquired the title of chancellor for his nephew Walter de Gray and vouched for the accompanying sum of £ 5,000.

After Hubert Walter's death, de Gray was the king's candidate as the new Archbishop of Canterbury . At the king's request, de Gray was elected archbishop on December 11, 1205, but a group of Canterbury monks had previously chosen their prior, Reginald, as the new archbishop. The dispute over the validity of the elections became Pope Innocent III. presented for the decision, which instead of the two opposing candidates on January 20, 1207 installed his own candidate Stephen Langton as the new archbishop. King John did not accept this decision, which is why the Pope imposed the interdict on England in 1208 . De Gray remained next to Peter des Roches , the Bishop of Winchester, as the only English bishop on the side of the king. However, he did not stay in his diocese, but was appointed Justiciar of Ireland by the king in 1208 as the successor to the hapless Meiler FitzHenry . As a supporter of the excommunicated king since 1209 , de Gray was also excommunicated.

Justiciar of Ireland

In Ireland, de Gray faced not only the resistance of the native Irish rulers, but also that of the warring Anglo-Norman nobles. He introduced coins based on the English model in Ireland and tried in vain to bring traditional Irish law into line with English feudal law. Because of the continued resistance of the Anglo-Norman barons, King John finally undertook a campaign to Ireland in 1210 to assert his authority on the island. After Johann had left the island again, de Gray began building three castles in Connaught and built an important bridge over the Shannon between Meath and Connacht at Athlone . This enabled an Irish-English army, with the support of Donnchadh O'Brien , King of Munster , to invade Connacht and force Cathal Chrobderg , King of Connaught to hold his son Turlough hostage. In 1212 de Gray attacked Northern Ireland and built Clones Castle in Monaghan . However, after defeating the residents of Fermanagh , he was defeated by Chief Cormac mac Art Ó Melaghlain of Brefni , who stole his war chest from him. Although he remained officially legal counsel of Ireland until the appointment of Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, on July 23, 1213, he returned to England in October 1212 at the latest. When the threat of a French invasion of England loomed in 1213, over 500 knights from Ireland followed him and William Marshal to the south of England to support the king.

Lifting of excommunication and death

In Dover on May 13, 1213, he witnessed how the king offered the papal legate his kingdom as a fief. This enabled the excommunication of the king and the interdict over England to be lifted. In July 1213 he accompanied William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury as an envoy to Emperor Otto . De Gray, however, had been exempted from the Pope's general amnesty. He therefore traveled on to Rome, where he received absolution from the Pope personally on October 21, 1213. Gray was now to become bishop of the rich diocese of Durham . The monks of the cathedral priory, however, wanted to elect Richard Poore , the dean of Salisbury, as the new bishop. By order of the Pope, de Gray was eventually elected while Poore became the new Bishop of Chichester . Both were consecrated together by Archbishop Stephen Langton. Gray never got around to taking office as Bishop of Durham . In the summer of 1214 he accompanied the king on his unsuccessful campaign to France and was in Rochefort on June 17th . However, he did not return to England, but died in October in south-west France. He was buried in Norwich Cathedral.

Aftermath

Despite his frequent absence from his diocese, de Gray maintained as Bishop of Norwich a close collaboration with the cathedral priory and made concessions to this in the distribution of the income from the parishes. He was considered an educated man and one of the most capable men in royal administration. Because of his support for the king during the interdict, the medieval chronicler Matthew Paris counted him among the king's poor advisers . De Gray was a sponsor of Kings Lynn , who received a royal charter under him . He built an episcopal palace in Gaywood near the city .

literature

• Thomas Andrew Archer: Gray, John de (d.1214) , in: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume XXIII . Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1890
• Roy Martin Haines: Gray, John de (d. 1214). 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. ^ John T. Appleby: Johann "Ohneland". King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 152
2. ^ John T. Appleby: Johann "Ohneland". King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 188
3. ^ Ian Atherton: Norwich Cathedra. Church, city, and diocese, 1096-1996 . Hambledon, London 1996. ISBN 1-85285-134-1 , p. 294
4. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 195.

predecessor	Office	successor
John of Oxford	Bishop of Norwich 1200–1214	Pandulf
Hubert Walter	Archbishop of Canterbury (Elekt) 1205–1206	Stephen Langton
Richard Poore	Bishop of Durham 1214	Morgan