Nigel (bishop)

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Nigel (* around 1100; † May 30, 1169 ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman who served as the first royal treasurer from the 1120s to 1136 . From 1133 he was also Bishop of Ely . Under King Henry II he took over the office of treasurer again from 1154 to around 1159.

Origin and family

Nigel's exact year of birth is unknown. His father was believed to be Hugh , a brother of Bishop Roger of Salisbury . The future Bishop Alexander von Lincoln was probably his brother. Although Nigel was a clergyman, he had two illegitimate sons. Little is known of his son, who was named William the Englishman . Richard Fitz Nigel , his other son, born around 1130, succeeded him as Treasurer and later Bishop of London.

Schematic representation of the family of Bishop Nigel

Ascent to bishop

Like his presumed brother Alexander, Nigel was a student of Anselm von Laon . In 1115 he took part in the episcopal ordination of Bernard of St Davids in Canterbury . When he himself was ordained a priest is unclear, but later he received a benefice at London's St Paul's Cathedral , and his uncle Roger appointed him archdeacon of Salisbury . In 1126 he is mentioned for the first time as a witness to a royal document. In total, he attested to over 30 documents during the reign of King Henry I. Although he was always named as the nephew of Bishop Roger until 1133, he soon took on important tasks in the royal administration himself. Presumably in the mid-1120s, he received the newly created office of royal treasurer. He may also have been the author of the Constitutio domus regis , a description of the royal household from the 1130s. The king rewarded his services by having him elected bishop of the Diocese of Ely in 1133 . On October 1, 1133, Nigel was ordained bishop in Lambeth by Archbishop Wilhelm von Corbeil .

Bishop of Ely

Bishop in the service of the king

After his ordination, Nigel remained in the service of the king in London and probably continued to hold the office of treasurer until 1136, when his relative Adelelm took over the office. However, he hardly cared about the administration of his diocese, but commissioned Ranulf, a former monk of Glastonbury Abbey, with this task. Yet his diocese benefited from its senior bishop. Nigel first ordered a registration of the possessions of the diocese. Subsequently, with the support of Pope Innocent II , King Henry I and later his successor Stephan von Blois, he reclaimed properties of the church that other barons had wrongly appropriated. But now there were difficulties in Ely through Ranulf's administration. This allegedly could not prevent the further embezzlement of church properties, so he led a violent two-year dispute with the monks of the cathedral priory until 1137. Subsequently, he is said to have supported a conspiracy to assassinate the Normans in England and bring England under Scottish rule. Nigel learned of this conspiracy and warned the other Norman bishops and barons. Ranulf then fled while Nigel reconciled with the monks of the cathedral priory.

Role during anarchy

From supporter to opponent of Stephan von Blois

Nigel initially supported Stephan von Blois ' claim to the throne when he rose to the rank of King of England in place of Heinrich's daughter Matilda after the death of Henry I at the end of 1135 . Nigel's uncle Roger got Alexander to remain royal chancellor and Nigel treasurer. In February 1136 Nigel accompanied the king when he visited York and Durham to consolidate his position in northern England. Then he accompanied the king again on the way south. In April he witnessed a royal charter at Oxford . In 1137 he was part of Stephan's entourage when he was translating to Normandy . However, the influence of Nigel and his family also brought them numerous opponents, most notably Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester , his twin brother Waleran de Beaumont and other members of the Beaumont family. They accused Nigel of plotting a conspiracy in favor of Stephen's cousin Matilda. According to Gesta Stephani , Nigel and his brother Alexander were not humble priests, but greedy and ruthless magnates who surrounded themselves at court with a splendid entourage. When the king arrested Roger of Salisbury and Alexander at his court in Oxford on June 24, 1139, Nigel was still on the way to the court. He found out about the arrest and fled to Devizes Castle , one of his uncle's castles. Stephan tried to force Nigel to give up by deliberately mistreating his prisoners. However, he fled to Ely , whereupon he was declared the king's enemy. He holed up on the Isle of Ely , where he was attacked by royal troops. Roger of Salisbury died in December 1139, and Nigel now went on to fight the king and his followers openly. Finally, at the end of 1139, King Stephen himself tried to conquer the difficult-to-access Ely. With the help of boats and a specially made bridge, Ely was finally captured, but Nigel was able to escape with only three companions. The king transferred the administration of the diocese of Ely to Aubrey de Vere . From May 1140 Geoffrey de Mandeville and perhaps Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke, took over this task. Nigel joined in Gloucester Matilda, who now wanted to enforce her claim to the throne by force. Presumably he sent messengers to Rome to complain to the Pope about his expulsion. Innocent II actually issued a bull on October 5, 1140 , in which he demanded the reinstatement of Nigel as bishop.

Reinstatement as bishop and renewed expulsion

In the war of succession to the throne, the so-called anarchy , Nigel initially remained a supporter of Matilda. He was in Winchester on March 3, 1141 , when Matilda ceremoniously entered the cathedral . He then belonged to Matilda's entourage when she moved to London via Oxford. Although Stephan was captured, she could not enforce her rule and had to retreat to Oxford. Matilda reinstated Nigel as bishop. However, after she had to release the king in November 1141 in exchange for her captured brother Robert of Gloucester , the king sent Geoffrey de Mandeville, who he had meanwhile elevated to Earl of Essex, and the Earl of Pembroke against Bishop Nigel. Thereupon Nigel submitted and was pardoned by the king. Nigel's next actions during the War of Succession are uncertain. In March 1143 he attended a royal council in London. There he had to justify himself on charges brought by an officer named Vitalis whom Nigel had dismissed for simony . A little later he apparently wanted to rejoin Matilda when he was surprised and pillaged by royal knights in Wareham . Geoffrey de Mandeville then occupied the Isle of Ely again.

Submission to King Stephen

Perhaps as early as the March council meeting in London, or on a later occasion, Nigel was accused by the king of having wrongly given church property to knights, to which he would have called for a revolt against the king. Nigel then appropriated parts of the church treasure. He bought the approval of the monks of the cathedral priory for this with the cession of the village of Hadstock , which they had long claimed. Then Nigel traveled to Rome to ask the Pope again for support. Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury and Gilbert Foliot , Abbot of Gloucester Abbey , wrote letters to the Pope on behalf of Nigel. The new Pope Lucius II finally enacted several cops in May 1144 to bolster Nigel's claims. Nigel then returned to Ely. Shortly after his return, his adversary Geoffrey de Mandeville died. After lengthy negotiations, Nigel and the King reached an agreement in Ipswich . After this, Nigel had to pay the king £ 200 and hold his son Richard hostage before he was reinstated as bishop. In order to receive the requested money, Nigel apparently turned again to the cathedral chapter, to which he again confirmed the possession of Hadstock. After that, Nigel no longer actively participated in the controversy for the succession. In 1147 and 1148 he witnessed Stephen's documents, and in 1150 he took part in a meeting of the barons of Norfolk and Suffolk which had been convened by the king. At the end of 1153, he testified to Stephan's document by appointing Heinrich Plantagenet , Matilda's son, as his successor.

Resurgence under Heinrich II.

On December 19, 1154, Nigel took part in Heinrich Plantagenet's coronation. This entrusted him again with the office of treasurer. Due to the years of succession controversy, the royal financial administration had not collapsed completely, but was in considerable disorder, so that Nigel had to reorganize it. It is said that around 1159 Nigel paid the king £ 400 to hand over the office of treasurer to his son Richard. He praised the work of his father in his work Dialogus de Scaccario , which describes the work of the treasury. As treasurer, Nigel actually managed, through persistent reclaims, that numerous barons returned royal goods to the crown that they had acquired during the succession dispute. Nigel served as royal judge until 1163, and on September 29, 1159, he was named the first of the judges before whom waivers against the Treasury were to be made. The king rewarded his achievements, among other things with the enfeoffment of returned goods in Gloucestershire .

The presumed funerary monument for Nigel in Ely Cathedral. It was made in the middle or end of the 12th century and shows an angel protecting a small naked figure.

Act as a bishop

However, Nigel continued to have a bad relationship with his cathedral priory. One of the main points of contention was the respective claims to church goods that were scattered or given to third parties. On February 22, 1156, Pope Hadrian IV issued a bull threatening Nigel with suspension if he did not return the monks of the cathedral priory within three months of the goods they had owned when he took office. Apparently Nigel could not satisfy all of the monks' demands, because in another bull the Pope repeated his demands. Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury also supported Nigel in favor of the cathedral priory. On the intercession of the king, the archbishop and other bishops, the pope finally withdrew the threat of suspension, requiring that Nigel swear in the presence of the archbishop that he would continue to seek restitution of the goods. Nigel's relationship with the Cathedral Priory was further strained when Nigel appointed a married official to be the sacristan of Ely. The new Archbishop Thomas Becket also admonished him for it.

Last years and death

At the ordination of Becket archbishop on June 3, 1162, Nigel had taken part, also at the council meeting of Clarendon in January 1164. After a stroke or two in the fall of 1164 or in the spring of 1166, however, he remained paralyzed and could no longer exercise his offices . He also no longer played an active role in the king's quarrel with Archbishop Becket, and apparently did not take a clear position. Although Becket authorized him together with Bishop William Turbe of Norwich, Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk to excommunicate , on the other hand, Bishop Gilbert Foliot of London probably asked Nigel in June 1166 to send a letter of protest from the bishops against Becket to the Pope seal. Apparently Nigel spent his final years sick in Ely, where his son Richard had taken over the administration of the diocese. He was buried in Ely Cathedral. On the north side of the choir of the cathedral there is a marble funerary monument that is attributed to him.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ C. Warren Hollister: The origins of the English Treasury. In: English Historical Review , 93 (1978), p. 266
  2. ↑ Karn, Nicholas: Nigel, Bishop of Ely, and the Restoration of the Exchequer after the 'Anarchy' of King Stephen's Reign . In: Historical Research , 80 (2007), p. 302
  3. ↑ Craig M. Nakashian: The Political and Military Agency of Ecclesiastical Leaders in Anglo-Norman England: 1066-1154. In: Journal of Medieval Military History, Vol. 12, 2014, p. 78
predecessor Office successor
Office newly created Lord High Treasurer
1120s – 1136 		Adelelm
Hervey Bishop of Ely
1133–1169 		Geoffrey Ridel
Hervey Lord High Treasurer
1154 – around 1159 		Richard Fitz Nigel
personal data
SURNAME Nigel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Treasurer of England and Bishop of Ely
DATE OF BIRTH around 1100
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1169