John of Chishall

Funerary monument of John Chishall. Depiction of Wenceslaus Hollar from the 17th century

John of Chishall (also Chishull ) (* before 1252 in Chishall ; † February 7, 1280 ) was an English clergyman. He held several high state offices, including from 1263 to 1265 and from 1268 to 1269 the office of royal chancellor . From 1273 he was Bishop of London .

Origin and advancement as a royal official

John of Chishall probably came from Essex , where he was probably born in Chishall , a village between Royston and Walden . Before 1252 he was rector of Isleham , Cambridgeshire , but in fact he served as royal official, presumably for Peter Chaceporc , Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. In 1253 and 1254 Chishall worked closely with Chaceporc, who appointed him his executor. In the 1250s, Chishall served King Henry III. also often as a lawyer in church disputes and as administrator of vacant abbeys. The king thanked him for his services in 1257 by donating the income to the parish of Upwell , Norfolk . At the end of 1259, Chishall accompanied the king as a clerk to France, where the Treaty of Paris was sealed. When the king was back in France in November 1262, Chishall briefly served as Keeper of the Great Seal . Before January 1263, perhaps even before July 1262, Chishall had been made Archdeacon of London.

Role in the war of the barons

From 1258 Heinrich III was. in conflict with a nobility opposition, in which the French King Louis IX. was involved. In January 1263 Chishall traveled to Paris with Imbert de Montferrand to receive a letter of reply from Henry III to the French king. to deliver, in which it was about the proposed settlement with the aristocratic opposition. At the end of 1263, Chishall was one of the clerks who wrote the letter from Heinrich III. in which the English king consented to the French king's attempt at arbitration in the conflict with the aristocratic opposition. Prior to November 1263, Chishall became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and that month served briefly as King's Treasurer . Instead, before the end of November, the King appointed him Chancellor of England. Chishall retained this office during the Second Barons ' War, which began a little later , until he was replaced by Thomas de Cantilupe on February 25, 1265 . In the War of the Barons in May 1264, the aristocratic opposition led by Simon de Montfort fought for power after the king came under their control at the Battle of Lewes . Montfort, the new ruler of England, appointed Chishall on February 7, 1265 to succeed John Mansel as provost of Beverley . In August 1265, the royal party defeated Montfort's army at the Battle of Evesham , in which Montfort fell. The civil war was thus decided in favor of the royal party. Henry III. himself confirmed Chishall's appointment as provost of Beverley in November 1265. When the Earl of Gloucester occupied London in the spring of 1267 in favor of the remaining rebels, the so-called disinherited , Chishall, as Archdeacon of London, published the excommunication that the papal legate Ottobono Fieschi had threatened peace breakers.

Renewed service as Chancellor and Treasurer

In the summer of 1268 Chishall was one of the royal ambassadors who were supposed to settle disputes in Montgomery, Welsh over the Treaty of Montgomery concluded the previous year with the Welsh Prince Llywelyn . Between August 17 and October 29, 1268, Chishall was elected Dean of London's St Paul's Cathedral . On October 30, 1268, the king reappointed him as Chancellor. He held this office until July 29, 1269. On February 6, 1270 he took over the office of King's Treasurer again. In this office he soon implemented a radical reform of the leadership of the Pipe Rolls before he resigned in June 1271. In autumn 1270 he accepted the oath of allegiance from the citizens of the City of London on behalf of the king .

Bishop of London

Election to bishop

When Henry of Sandwich , Bishop of London, died in late 1273 , neither the new King Edward I nor the new Archbishop Robert Kilwardby were in England. Thereupon the cathedral chapter used the unaccustomed freedom to choose a new bishop in free election. From Gascony , Edward I confirmed that the cathedral chapter was allowed to elect a new bishop, whereupon Chishall was elected the new bishop of the diocese of London on December 7, 1273 . As a precaution, Chishall himself traveled to Gascony to obtain confirmation of his election from the king. After receiving this, he also obtained consent from Archbishop Kilwardby, who also allowed Chishall to choose a bishop to ordain him. Chishall was ordained bishop on April 29, 1274 by Godfrey Giffard , Bishop of Worcester in the chapel of Lambeth Palace . On the same day Chishall took a boat across to London and was enthroned in St Paul's Cathedral. When he was promoted to bishop, he had resigned his previous spiritual offices.

Act as a bishop

Chishall was probably old or ailing when he took office. Little is known about his activity as a bishop. During his tenure, the Lady Chapel was built at the east end of St Paul's Cathedral. In 1276 he was one of the advisors who advised Edward I not to accept any further apologies from Prince Llywelyn, who still had not paid homage to the king as overlord. Chishall himself signed an exhortation from the English bishops to Llywelyn to honor the overdue homage. Since Llywelyn nevertheless did not pay homage to the king, the king subjugated Wales in a campaign in 1277 , in which the contingent of the diocese of London took part. In 1278 Chishall took part in the rededication of Norwich Cathedral , which was badly damaged in a revolt in 1272. After that, he almost never appeared in public. In 1279 , as dean of the Canterbury ecclesiastical province , he called a meeting of the bishops in Reading and as bishop a meeting of the clergy of the diocese of London to approve a tax of the clergy in favor of the king, but the new Archbishop John Pecham soon recognized that the Chishall was hardly was still able to exercise his office. In November 1279, Pecham issued a supplementary order for the nuns of Barking Abbey , openly criticizing Chishall's mild regulations. Then he immediately made a visit to St Paul's as Archbishop , which completely convinced him of Chishall's frailty. Shortly before Chishall's death, on February 2, 1280, Pecham handed the episcopal seal to the treasurer of St Paul's for safekeeping. On February 6, he authorized the treasurer , in coordination with the dean of the cathedral and with Fulk Lovel , archdeacon of Colchester , to act in place of the bishop. The next day Chishall died. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

literature

• CAF Meekings: The pipe roll order of 12 February 1270 . In: . JC Davies: Studies presented to Sir Hilary Jenkinson . Oxford University Press, London 1957, pp. 222-252

Web links

• TF Tout, Robert C. Stacey: Chishall, John of (d. 1280). 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
Nicholas of Ely	Lord Chancellor 1263-1265	Thomas de Cantilupe
Thomas Wymondham	Treasurer 1270-1271	Philip from Eye
Godfrey Giffard	Lord Chancellor 1268-1269	Richard Middleton
Henry of Sandwich	Bishop of London 1273–1280	Richard of Gravesend