Nicholas of Ely

Nicholas of Ely († February 12, 1280 ) was an English clergyman and politician. Just before the Second Barons' War, he served as royal chancellor and treasurer . From 1266 he was Bishop of Worcester , from 1268 until his death Bishop of Winchester .

origin

The origin of Nicholas of Ely is unknown. He is first mentioned on August 6, 1249 under Bishop Hugh of Northwold as Magister Nicholas as Archdeacon of Ely . He held this office until 1266, so that he was named after Ely. On October 31, 1252, the Pope allowed him to take on two other ecclesiastical offices, and in July 1257 he was named papal chaplain .

Role during the Barons' rebellion against King Henry III.

In the conflict between King Henry III. and a nobility opposition that emerged in 1258, Nicholas of Ely was at the center of the political scene. On October 18, 1260, the king appointed him royal chancellor with the consent of the State Council and personally presented him with the state seal. As Chancellor, he achieved that an annual fee of 400 marks was paid for this office for the first time , from which the Chancellor had to provide for his officials. But only about six months after Ely's appointment, the king complained that the State Council, consisting mainly of supporters of the aristocratic opposition, had, contrary to his wishes, appointed unsuitable candidates to the offices of justiciar , treasurer and chancellor. The State Council replied to this accusation that a five-member committee, bound to secrecy, had selected the ministers. After the king was finally released by Pope Alexander IV on his oath of compliance with the Provisions of Oxford , he dismissed Ely as Chancellor on July 12, 1261. Just two days later, however, he certified that he had done a good job as Chancellor, and in September 1262 he gave Ely three roebucks that had been shot in the royal woods. In the spring of 1263 the aristocratic opposition, led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , regained greater influence, and before May 6, Ely was appointed royal treasurer to succeed John de Caux , who died in March . He only held this office until July 19, when he was reappointed Chancellor. In the presence of Montfort, who had taken over the management of the State Council, he received the state seal again. On September 18, the king left Westminster and traveled to France. The royal seal remained in Ely's custody, but, with a few specific exceptions, he was not allowed to use it in the king's absence. As a result, Ely was practically incapable of acting as Chancellor until the King returned to England on October 8th. Between October 17 and 28, a number of government deeds in Windsor were sealed with only the small state seal and not the large seal. Presumably Ely didn't want to use the big seal as long as it remained unclear whether the king or the council of state won the ongoing power struggle. After November 2, 1263, the big seal was used again, but before the end of the month Ely was again dismissed as Chancellor.

Rise to Bishop of Worcester

Although Ely was clearly a supporter of the aristocratic opposition, he had not completely lost the king's benevolence. In August 1265 the supporters of the king had decisively defeated the supporters of the rebels at the Battle of Evesham and thus decided the Second War of the Barons. On May 9, 1266, Ely was elected bishop of the Diocese of Worcester . Already on June 8th the king approved the election and on June 18th the temporalities of the Diocese of Worcester were handed over to Ely, giving up his previous spiritual offices. Ely was ordained bishop by Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury on September 19 and enthroned in Worcester Cathedral on September 26 . Previously, on August 31, 1266, he was commissioned by the king to draft a peace plan with five other barons and clergy to finally end the Second Barons' War. This six-member committee selected six additional members. The peace plan developed by this committee, the Dictum of Kenilworth , was announced on October 31st.

Bishop of Winchester

Appointment as bishop

After the death of Bishop John Gervase at the papal court, Pope Clement IV appointed Ely as the new bishop of the Diocese of Winchester on March 2, 1268 . On May 2nd he was given the diocesan temporalities and on May 27th he was enthroned in Winchester Cathedral. Although he had already pledged obedience to the Archbishops of Canterbury when he was enthroned as Bishop of Worcester , he repeated this pledge in Winchester, which was unusual.

In the service of the English kings

Although the war of the barons ended with the king's victory in 1267, Ely, as bishop, reinforced the garrisons of the episcopal castles Taunton and Farnham until 1272 , as raids by rebel groups continued. Ely testified in 1270 when the heir to the throne Edward entrusted his children to his uncle Richard of Cornwall before he set out on the crusade . After Walter Giffard , Archbishop of York and Lawrence of St Martin , Bishop of Rochester, Ely was the third of the signatories to appear after the death of Henry III. sent a letter to Edward in Palestine. Together with Godfrey Giffard , Bishop of Worcester and Walter of Bronescombe , Bishop of Exeter, he traveled to Paris in 1274 to meet Edward, who was returning home. In 1278 he was in Winchester when the Scottish King Alexander III. paid homage to the English king for his possessions in England.

Serving as Bishop of Winchester

In contrast to other English bishops of his time, Ely did not keep a register of documents , but numerous pipe rolls of the diocese have been preserved from his tenure . These show that Ely conscientiously performed his duties as bishop. Like many of his predecessors, however, Ely also had conflicts with the monks of the Winchester Cathedral Priory over their rights and income. In the course of this conflict Ely deposed the prior, which led to violent clashes in Winchester until 1274. Thereupon Ely imposed the interdict on the city . Despite numerous attempts at mediation by the Abbots of Glastonbury and Reading , the Provincial Prior of the Dominican Order , royal judges such as Antony Bek and finally King Edward I himself, the dispute could only be settled under Ely's successor, John de Pontoise .

In May 1273 Ely and Bishop Walter of Bronescombe handed over the pallium to the controversial new Archbishop Robert Kilwardby of Canterbury . He received Kilwardby when he was visiting his diocese, as well as King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile . He supervised the collection of church taxes in his diocese and carried out visitations himself. In 1269 he was given permission to extend the fair held on the feast of St. Aegidius in Winchester by eight days. Apparently he sponsored the Cistercian Abbey of Waverley in Surrey , which had sympathized with the aristocratic opposition during the Barons' War. In Waverley he consecrated John de Breton on June 2, 1269 in the presence of seven other bishops as Bishop of Hereford. In 1274 he spent Maundy Thursday in Waverley, eating together with the monks in the refectory at his own expense . On September 21, 1278 he consecrated the monastery church. After his death, he was buried in Waverley on February 16, 1280. His heart was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Ely's executor, Hugh Tripacy, gave Waverley the Curridge estate in Berkshire . The income from this estate was used to finance masses for the salvation of Ely in Waverley from 1310 onwards.

Web links

• Helen M. Jewell: Ely, Nicholas 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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ RF Treharne: The baronial plan of reform, from 1258 to 1263 . University Press, Manchester 1971, ISBN 0-7190-0397-0 , p. 262
2. ^ Richard H. Britnell: The Winchester pipe rolls and medieval English society. Boydell, Woodbridge 2003. ISBN 1-84383-029-9 , p. 179
3. ^ Richard H. Britnell: The Winchester pipe rolls and medieval English society. Boydell, Woodbridge 2003. ISBN 1-84383-029-9 , p. 157
4. ^ Richard H. Britnell: The Winchester pipe rolls and medieval English society. Boydell, Woodbridge 2003. ISBN 1-84383-029-9 , p. 179

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry of Wingham	Lord Chancellor of England 1260–1261	Walter of Merton
John de Caux	Lord high treasurer 1263	Henry
Walter of Merton	Lord Chancellor of England 1263	John of Chishall
Walter de Cantilupe	Bishop of Worcester 1266-1268	Godfrey Giffard
John Gervase	Bishop of Winchester 1268–1280	John de Pontoise