Louis de Beaumont (Bishop)

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Louis de Beaumont (also Lewis de Beaumont ) († September 24, 1333 in Brantingham , East Riding of Yorkshire ) was a bishop of the English diocese of Durham .

origin

Lewis de Beaumont came from the Beaumont family , a branch of the Brienne family , a respected family of the French nobility. He was the third son of Louis de Brienne and his wife Agnès, the heiress of the vice-county of Beaumont . He was thus a grandson of John of Brienne , the temporary king of Jerusalem and of his third wife Berengaria of León . Louis was thus a cousin of the English queens Eleanor of Castile and Isabelle de France . His older brother Henry de Beaumont moved to England and founded an English line of the Beaumont family, while his sister Isabel married the English nobleman John de Vescy . Both Henry and Isabel belonged to the court of King Edward II. The aristocratic opposition to the king demanded their removal from the royal court after the ordinances of 1311.

Career as a clergyman

Presumably Louis came to England before 1285. That year he became a canon in York . In 1291 he was treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral . Until 1308 he received further canon positions at Wells Cathedral , in Auckland and in Norton in the Diocese of Durham, but also in Le Mans in France . After the death of Bishop Richard Kellaw on October 9, 1316, there was a controversial election of a new bishop in the Diocese of Durham. The cathedral priory monks elected Henry Stamford , prior of Finchale , while the king wanted his court official Thomas Charlton to be elected. Thomas of Lancaster , the leader of the aristocratic opposition to the king, wanted to increase his influence in north-east England and, together with Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, supported first John Kynardsey and later John Walwayn , while Queen Isabelle proposed her cousin Louis de Beaumont as a candidate . The king may have wanted to accept the convention's election, but under the influence of his wife he eventually left Pope John XXII. the decision. This rejected the election of the convent and on February 9, 1317 appointed Louis de Beaumont as bishop.

Beaumont as Bishop of Durham

Abduction before the episcopal ordination

Beaumont was given the temporalities on May 4th , but his ordination as bishop was delayed by dramatic circumstances. In the summer of 1317, two papal legates , Cardinals Luca Fieschi and Gauscelin de Jean, were supposed to negotiate a peace between England and Scotland to end the long-running war for Scottish independence . Beaumont intended to be consecrated by them on September 4th, the feast day of the transfer of the bones of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne , Patron of Northumbria . When he together with the two cardinal legate and accompanied by his brother Henry de Beaumont, the keeper of the Scottish Marches was and during Sedisvakanz had managed the temporalities of the diocese of Durham, according to Durham traveled, he was on September 1 at Rushyford north of Darlington from Gunmen ambushed under the command of Gilbert Middleton , a knight of the royal household. The two Beaumont brothers were held captive at Mitford Castle and only released after paying a ransom. The two cardinals were robbed but were allowed to travel on to Durham. To do this, Middleton plundered the area around Durham and besieged Alnwick Castle and Tynemouth Priory . It was only through a trick that Mitford Castle could be conquered and Middleton captured. He was brought to London, charged with treason and, after conviction, executed in the presence of the two cardinals. Several members of Middleton's gang soon became part of the Earl of Lancaster's retinue, whose involvement in the incident was never proven. Beaumont was finally ordained bishop on March 26, 1318 at Westminster Abbey .

Defense against the Scots and relationship to the royal court

Beaumont became bishop at a time when northern England was frequently ravaged by Scottish raids as a result of the war with Scotland. The Bishop of Durham traditionally played a significant role in the defense of northern England, but the area of ​​the diocese was invaded relatively rarely, only Hartlepool was sacked in 1315 and large parts of the harvest were destroyed by the Scots in 1317. In order for the Scots to spare the area of ​​the diocese, the bishops paid eight ransoms to the Scots between 1311 and 1327. A total of between £ 4,266 and £ 5,333 are said to have been paid. Even before his consecration, Beaumont was ordered on July 30, 1317 to assist Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel , the then overseer of the Scottish Marches, with the deployment of the diocese in the defense against the Scots. In the next few years these calls were repeated until on February 10, 1323 the king sharply accused Beaumont of negligence and failure and made him responsible for the suffering of the population.

After the overthrow of Thomas of Lancaster in February 1322 and the confiscation of the lands from him and his followers, Beaumont tried to claim the right of regalia over the lands that were within his diocese. His claim to Silksworth was denied, but King Edward III. finally confirmed the possession of Felling , which he was able to transfer to his follower Thomas Surtees . When Queen Isabelle landed with a small army in south-east England in September 1326 to overthrow the rule of Edward II, Beaumont quickly supported his former patroness. He took part in the coronation of Edward III in 1327. part and subsequently tried to regain further episcopal privileges that his predecessors had lost. Indeed, in 1327 he was granted privileges for his possessions between the Tyne and the Tees , but subsequently fell out of favor with Queen Isabelle and her favorite Roger Mortimer , who exercised actual power in place of the underage king.

Serving as a bishop in the Diocese of Durham

Beaumont was attested by several chroniclers only to be mediocre, and he was also seen as greedy and wasteful. As bishop, he led a number of bitter quarrels with the monks of the cathedral chapter. First he required the prior Geoffrey Burdon to vouch for a £ 3,000 loan. Then he wanted to replace Burdon as prior. To achieve this, he carried out a visitation in 1322 , after which he made various accusations against the prior, so that on January 25, 1323 he resigned from his office. The monks elected William Gisburn as their new prior, who, however, resigned after a week's reflection. Then the monks elected William Couton , who was installed in office on May 3, 1323 by Beaumont. Now, however, an open dispute broke out over the legal responsibilities of the prior, which had been started in 1319 between Prior Burdon and Archdeacon Thomas Goldsborough. Beaumont sided with the archdeacon and is said to have accused the monks in a letter to the pope of not obeying either the bishop or the archdeacon. He threatened the monks to confiscate their benefices , but had to give in in 1325 and confirm the rights of the Cathedral Convention.

Beaumont led a similar dispute from 1328 with Archbishop William Melton of York. Beaumont claimed full control over churches in Allertonshire , which even led to violent clashes with followers of the Archbishop of York. Eventually a compromise was reached whereby the Church of Leake in the North Riding of Yorkshire was placed under the Bishop of Durham, but the Cathedral Chapter and the Archbishop of York could continue to receive income from Leake. The legal position of the prior of Durham in the archdeaconate of Northumberland was recognized in a compromise by Beaumont in 1331. In 1328 Beaumont made a renewed visit to the cathedral priory of Durham, where he wanted to dismiss three officials. Prior Couton objected, but although Beaumont could not make serious accusations, the three of them resigned. Beaumont then wanted to visit the churches subordinate to the cathedral priory, but refrained from doing so when the cathedral priory paid him 100 marks .

After his death, he was buried on October 6, 1333 in front of the high altar of Durham Cathedral.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Prestwich: Gilbert de Middleton and the attack on the cardinals, 1317 . In: Timothy Reuter: Warriors and churchmen in the high middle ages . Hambledon, London 1992, ISBN 1-85285-063-9 , pp. 180-181
  2. ↑ JR Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, second earl of Lancaster, second earl of Leicester, and earl of Lincoln (c.1278-1322). 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
  3. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 226.
predecessor Office successor
Richard Kellaw Bishop of Durham
1317-1333 		Richard de Bury
personal data
SURNAME Beaumont, Louis de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beaumont, Lewis de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-French clergyman, Bishop of Durham
DATE OF BIRTH before 1285
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1333
Place of death Brantingham