Richard Peche

Richard Peche († October 6 or 7, 1182 in Stafford ) was an English clergyman. From 1161 he was Bishop of Coventry .

Origins and promotion to Bishop of Coventry

Richard Peche was most likely an illegitimate son of Robert Peche . His father served at the court of King Henry I of England and became Bishop of Coventry in 1121. He gave his son the lucrative office of Archdeacon of Coventry , although he was probably still a child . Robert Peche died in 1126, and Richard was not mentioned again as archdeacon until 1140. In 1161 he was nominated Bishop of Coventry. Although neither monks of the Cathedral Priory of Coventry nor the canons of the Cathedral Chapter of Lichfield have objected to his election, his election as bishop as the son of one of his predecessors was still highly controversial. The chronicler Ralph de Diceto relied on Ivo of Chartres to justify the choice. Whether Richard was elected at the behest of King Henry II is unknown, but the king is said to have made no objections. Richard was ordained bishop on April 18, 1161. According to various sources, the consecration was carried out by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury or by his brother, Bishop Walter of Rochester . Since Archbishop Theobald is said to have died on the same day, the consecration was probably carried out by Bishop Walter.

Bishop of Coventry

In the conflict between the new Archbishop Thomas Becket and King Henry II, Bishop Richard held back and did not support the Archbishop, for which the historian David Knowles severely criticized him. In June 1170 he took part in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of Henry the Younger , the eldest son of Henry II, as co-king , which was sharply condemned by Becket, who lived in exile. On the other hand, Richard worked diligently for his diocese. Above all, he succeeded in reorganizing the diocese's finances. The ten documents of Lichfield Cathedral that have survived from his tenure contain several donations for the benefit of the cathedral and the cathedral chapter. At the beginning of May 1181, the king commissioned him to go to Dublin with Baron John FitzRichard to take control of the city after the justiciar Hugh de Lacy was recalled . In Ireland, however, they did not take action against Hugh de Lacy, and in the winter of 1181 or 1182 he returned to England with John FitzRichard. Richard is considered, arguably wrongly, the founder of the Augustinian canons' priory at Stafford, which was dedicated to the canonized Thomas Becket. Shortly before his death in 1182, Richard retired to this priory as a canon.

Web links

• MJ Franklin: Peche, Richard (d. 1182). 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. ^ David Knowles: The episcopal colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket. University Press, Cambridge 1970, p. 15
2. ^ Everett Uberto Crosby: The king's bishops: the politics of patronage in England and Normandy, 1066-1216. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-137-30776-7 , p. 263
3. ↑ Frederick Soup: John (d. 1190). 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
Walter Durdent	Bishop of Coventry 1161–1182	Gerard Pucelle