John le Breton
John le Breton (also John le Bretun or John Brito ) († before May 12, 1275 ) was an English clergyman. He served as royal clerk and judge and became Bishop of Hereford in 1269 .
Rise in the service of the heir to the throne Eduard
The origin of John le Breton is unclear. Presumably he was that John le Breton, who was sheriff of Herefordshire from May 1254 to April 1257 and constable of Abergavenny Castle and steward of the reign of Abergavenny , a reign of the heir to the throne Lord Edward in the Welsh Marches in June 1257 . During the Anglo-Welsh War from 1256 he was only able to pull together 35 men-at-arms and 700 foot soldiers to repel Welsh attacks at Llandovery , so that the adjacent Marcher Lords had to bear the brunt of the fighting. From 1258 King Heinrich III was. in conflict with a nobility opposition, and there is evidence that Breton traveled to France in October 1259 on behalf of the king and the heir to the throne. In the spring or early summer of 1260 he was in the household of the heir to the throne, and after the latter had fallen out with Roger of Leybourne , Breton rose to steward the household of the heir to the throne. In November 1261 he was commissioned to supply and strengthen the castles belonging to the heir to the throne in England and Wales. Presumably he had already become a canon at Hereford Cathedral , whose Bishop Peter D'Aigueblanche was one of the king's supporters in the conflict with the aristocratic opposition. Bishop D'Aigueblanche and the Canons of Hereford were targeted by rebel attacks at the start of the Barons' Second War in 1263, and there is no evidence of Breton during this period. Only after the decisive victory of the royal party in the Battle of Evesham did the king put Breton back under his protection in September 1265. In July 1266 he was appointed Judge of the King's Bench for an annual salary of £ 40. Between January and September 1268, Breton also served as a traveling judge in Yorkshire .
Bishop of Hereford
In January 1269, Breton was elected bishop by the Hereford Cathedral Chapter and consecrated on June 2nd. When he was elected bishop, he ended his service as a judge. He was one of the highest-ranking former servants of the new King Edward I, who traveled to France to meet him in July 1273 when the king returned from his crusade . However, he did not attend the king's coronation in September 1274 and died a few months later.
Breton as a legal scholar
According to tradition, Breton was still involved in the laws that Edward I passed. The first of these laws, the first Statute of Westminster , was ratified by the king in his first parliament shortly before Breton's death. It cannot be proven whether Breton was actually still involved in this law, which primarily regulated local administration. At the end of the 13th century, Breton was also mentioned as the author of the book le Bretoun , the third extant comprehensive account of English law. Breton cannot possibly be the author of the oldest surviving edition of this book, as it contains laws that were only enacted in 1290. Breton may have been mistaken for Judge Henry de Bracton , the alleged author of the book De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae . On the other hand, le Bretoun is not written in Latin, but in French, the language of the English knights who served as judges in the counties. It does not contain an introductory legal history, but is structured much more practically with the description of the various judicial offices and the tasks of a coroner, which speaks for an original authorship of Breton.
Web links
- Alan Harding: Breton, John le (d. 1275). 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
- ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 430
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Peter D'Aigueblanche |
Bishop of Hereford 1269-1275 |
Thomas de Cantilupe |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | John le Breton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | John le Bretun; John Brito |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English clergyman, civil servant and judge, Bishop of Hereford |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 13th Century |
| DATE OF DEATH | before May 12, 1275 |