John of Sandford

John of Sandford († October 2, 1294 in Great Yarmouth ) was an English clergyman. From 1284 he was Archbishop of Dublin . He was the only Archbishop of Dublin during the 13th century who had spent most of his spiritual career in Ireland and had experience in ecclesiastical administration before he was ordained bishop.

origin

John of Sandford was an illegitimate child. He is traditionally referred to as a half-brother of Fulk of Sandford , although this is not mentioned in contemporary sources. If indeed he was a brother of Fulk of Sandford, then John was related to the Basset family of High Wycombe , Buckinghamshire . He may even have been an illegitimate son of Fulk.

Advancement as a clergyman

John presumably studied at Oxford University . After completing his master's degree , he entered the service of Fulk of Sandford, then Bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin , in early November 1267 as Vicar General . Fulk went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and left the administration to John, who continued this task until Fulk's death in 1271. In addition, he received a considerable number of spiritual benefices and benefits , which were detailed in a papal deed issued in 1284. Because he was actually not allowed to pursue a spiritual career due to his illegitimate birth, John received a dispensation from Pope Gregory X. , after which he was allowed to hold benefits with annual income of up to £ 500. The dispensation also allowed his ordination to be a bishop. Thanks to this dispensation, Sandford has benefited from St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, as well as treasurer of the chapter of Ferns Cathedral and parishes of Cavendish in Suffolk and Loughborough in Leicestershire . Up to now he had only been ordained a subdeacon . In 1275 he became dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, after which he resigned from the office of treasurer in Ferns.

Civil servant career

In addition to a career as a clergyman, Sandford had a long and impressive career as an official in the administration of the Lordship of Ireland . First he became Escheator of Ireland in September 1271 . As escheator, Sandford took on failed fiefs for the crown and passed them on. In addition, after the death of bishops, he was responsible for the administration and allocation of the temporalities of the Irish dioceses. The office of escheator was one of the most important government offices in Ireland. As an escheator, Sandford was a senior member of the royal council and the king's immediate representative to the Church in Ireland. In 1272 he accepted the oaths of allegiance from the Irish barons on behalf of the new King Edward I. With a few brief interruptions, Sandford served for fourteen years. During this long tenure he served across Ireland. Sandford acted very successfully and reliably. An inquiry into the administration of Ireland in 1284 confirmed Sandford's good conduct. The office of escheator was the only authority in Ireland to function properly, so no suggestions for improvement were made. After Sandford had given up the office of escheator in August 1285, the income of the crown quickly fell under his successor. But Sandford also managed to generate additional income for the crown. In 1282 he was to raise funds to finance the king's campaign in Wales . Not only did he manage to get £ 1,000 from the Barons, but he also helped the citizens of Dublin charter ships. These were loaded with food and supplies and sent to the Royal Army at Flint and Rhuddlan in Wales. From 1275, Sandford also served occasionally as a judge. He worked well with the Royal Justiciar Robert of Ufford and accompanied him on several campaigns to put down rebellions among the Irish people.

Elected Archbishop of Dublin

When Sandford became dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1275, the cathedral chapter found itself in a bitter argument with the monks of rival Holy Trinity Cathedral over the right to elect a new archbishop. Since the death of Fulk of Sandford in 1271, both chapters had elected rival candidates, but their election had not been confirmed. Neither chapter was ready to give in, so they had both sent their candidates to the Curia in Rome for a decision there. Apparently, despite his office, Sandford was not directly involved in the dispute, which finally ended in 1279 with the appointment of the Dominican John of Darlington . Instead, Sandford managed as dean to improve relations with Holy Trinity Cathedral significantly. Under his leadership, after the death of Darlington, the two chapters agreed to appoint a common administrator of the spiritualities of the archdiocese. After the two chapters received royal permission to elect a new archbishop, they entered into a unique agreement and unanimously elected Sandford before July 20, 1284. Then a total of five representatives from both chapters accompanied Sandford to Rome. They stood up for him when Pope Boniface VIII raised concerns about his illegitimate birth, renewed the election and achieved that the new Pope Gregory X confirmed the election on May 30, 1285. The representatives of the English king in Rome had also supported Sandford, and on August 6, 1285, the temporalities of the diocese were given to him. Back in Dublin, Sandford was ordained bishop on August 7, 1286 in Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Archbishop of Dublin

Activity as a clergyman

Little is known about Sandford's activity as archbishop. He probably had little time for his spiritual duties, because from 1285 to 1292 he was mainly an administrator and minister in Ireland. As a result, he was away from his diocese most of the time, although he spent a total of six years of his tenure in Ireland. Because of his secular offices, he neglected his spiritual duties, but he had already delegated many of his duties to spiritual representatives. Even before he took office, the ecclesiastical administration of the archbishopric and the ecclesiastical province had been in the hands of officials due to the long vacancy following the death of Archbishop Fulk of Sandford and the subsequent absence of Archbishop Darlington . Sandford himself had been one of these officials, and he presumably trusted that the officials would carry on spiritual affairs during his tenure.

Head of Administration of Ireland

After the death of Justiciars Stephen de Fulbourn in July 1288 agreed to Sandford and Baron Geoffrey de Geneville to Guardians for Ireland. Shortly thereafter, Sandford was appointed royal administrator for Ireland by the Irish Privy Council. Sandford held the office briefly but successfully. At first he was faced with two pressing problems: on the one hand, there were more and more rebellions of the Irish people against English rule in different parts of the country; on the other hand, the English administration was increasingly inefficient and the officials were corrupt. This led to increasing distrust and dissatisfaction with the government among the population. Sandford saw the urgency of these problems and tried hard to resolve them. Since a list of his numerous trips to different parts of Ireland and his accounts from the years 1288 to 1290 have been preserved, it can be traced what work he did. His accounts show that Sandford and his entourage were almost constantly in Ireland. He tried to solve the rebellions of the Irish not only militarily, but also diplomatically. Towards the end of the 13th century, English rule in Ireland was unstable and endangered, as the Gaelic Revival threatened not only areas on the edge of the island, but also core areas of English colonization. Of particular concern was the resurgence of the conflict in Laois and Offaly , where John Fitz Thomas Fitzgerald , the new Lord of Offaly , came under increasing pressure from the rebels. In 1288, Sandford raised a feudal army on behalf of the king and launched a large-scale attack on the rebels in central Ireland. The resulting war lasted for over a year. In the course of the campaign, Sandford established an outpost system which, at its greatest extent , stretched from Athlone to Kilkenny . This war, led by Sandford, went well beyond the previous campaigns and efforts that the English governors had waged against the Irish attacks. Sandford probably waged the war, at least in part, because of his friendship with Fitzgerald. On the other hand, the Irish rebellions in central Ireland had become such a great threat to English colonization that could only be countered by an elaborate and costly campaign. During his campaign, Sandford also tried to counter popular dissatisfaction with local officials. To do this, he declared that he would hear complaints about royal officials at certain places and at certain specified times in order to bring justice to the table. Since Sandford also took over the office of Chancellor of Ireland from April 1289 , he was able to implement his decisions quickly. In 1290 Sandford held a parliament each in Dublin and Kilkenny .

Sandford had bought land for himself in Ireland. In April 1279 he received from John de Bohun the estate of Ballymaden near Dublin as well as land and a castle in Castlecomer in Kilkenny as a fief. In November 1279, Bohun received royal permission to sell all of his land in Ireland to Sandford. The Justiciar Robert of Ufford gave Sandford about 35 carucates of land in Roscommon on the basis of royal permission to give away desolate estates . Around the same time, Sandford acquired lands in Connacht from Richard Fitzjohn , son of the former Justiciar John Fitz Geoffrey .

Replacement at your own request

Although his loyalty to the king was beyond doubt, Sandford was exhausted by his travels and campaigns, so he asked King Edward I to take care of Irish affairs himself. In addition, he complained that he had not received any compensation for his expenses for his offices. Therefore he had to go into debt with Italian merchants. The king replied that due to other problems such as the unresolved succession to the throne in Scotland, he did not have time to deal with the problems in Ireland, but he promised that a new justiciar would compensate him financially as soon as possible. In fact, a little later, the king appointed William de Vescy as the new justiciar, replacing Sandford as head of administration. But he kept the office of chancellor until March 9, 1291. He tried to point out to the Crown the repercussions of the king's neglect of Irish concerns, but he was quick to see that his requests fell on deaf ears.

Service to the King in England and other activities

After Sandford was relieved of his secular offices in Ireland, he traveled to England. In June 1292 he was at Reading , where he promised forty days of indulgence for all visitors to the Church of St Mary and St James. In the autumn of 1292 he took part in the decisive negotiations over the claims of the candidates for the Scottish throne in Berwick. After John Balliol was appointed the new King of the Scots, he testified to his oath of allegiance to the English king in Norham . In May 1293, Sandford took part in the ordination of William March as Bishop of Bath and Wells. An incident occurred when on the way back from the ceremony there was a violent argument between men in his entourage and those of William of Louth , the Bishop of Ely. In September 1293 Sandford married the king's daughter Eleanor and the Earl of Bar . In 1294 he traveled with Bishop Antony Bek of Durham as envoy to Germany to persuade King Adolf of Nassau to form an alliance against France. The embassy was able to successfully complete its mission with the sealing of an alliance treaty in Nuremberg . After returning to England, Sandford fell seriously ill and died of the consequences. The canons of St Patrick's Cathedral asked for his body to be repatriated, which was finally interred in Dublin Cathedral on February 20, 1295.

rating

In the 19th century, historian James Ware praised Sandford as a prelate known for his education and wisdom. According to medieval documents, however, his organizational skills, his loyalty to the crown and his eagerness to represent the interests of the king in Ireland were his strengths. He had succeeded in fighting the growing rebellions in Ireland in a very short time. His contemporaries believed that he would have pacified the important region of central Ireland forever. But this was not the case, because Sandford's outpost system could only be maintained with constant high financial outlay. These high costs could not be spent in the long term, so that new rebellions broke out in Central Ireland in the 1290s.

Web links

• Ronan Mackay: Sandford (Sanford), John of (Dictionary of Irish Biography)
• Margaret Murphy: Sandford, John of (d.1294). 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. ^ Geoffrey J. Hand: The rivalry of the cathedral chapters in medieval Dublin . In: Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , 92 (1962), p. 200.

predecessor	Office	successor
John of Darlington	Archbishop of Dublin 1284–1294	Thomas de Chadworth (elect)