Richard of Ilchester

Richard of Ilchester (also Richard Hokelin, Tokeliv, Toclyve or Tokelin ; Richard Le Poer or Poore ) († December 21 or 22, 1188 ) was an English civil servant, diplomat and clergyman. Along with Ranulf de Glanville , Richard Fitz Nigel and later, from 1181, Hubert Walter , Ilchester was one of King Henry II's closest advisors and confidants . In 1173 he became Bishop of Winchester .

Origin and family

Richard was possibly born in Sock Dennis near Ilchester , Somerset , but certainly in the Diocese of Bath . In Sock Dennis he later owned a fiefdom from Robert de Beauchamp . Presumably he came from a knightly family from Somerset, but his exact origin is unknown. According to Bishop Gilbert Foliot , he was related to him, and the le Deneys family, a knightly family, was probably one of Richard's relatives. He may have been married before entering the clergy, but this is considered unlikely. He had at least two sons who were therefore out of wedlock. These, Richard and Herbert Poor , became clergy like him and also rose to become bishops.

Official in the service of King Henry II.

Start as the king's scribe

As a scribe in the service of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester , Ilchester came into contact with the future King Henry II during the anarchy . At the beginning of the 1150s he was in the service of King Henry II and was called Richard of Sock . In the 1160s he attested to numerous documents from the king, especially in Westminster , Winchester and Woodstock , but he accompanied the king several times to his French possessions. Through his work as a scribe, he came into contact with the royal chancellor Thomas Becket at the latest in 1159 . Probably through Becket's influence, Ilchester became archdeacon of Poitiers in 1162 or 1163 , where he later also became treasurer of the Diocese of Poitiers .

Leading supporter of the king in the conflict with Thomas Becket

Despite his previous collaboration with Becket, Ilchester was a royal official and relative of Bishop Gilbert Foliot, one of the most important supporters of Henry II in his dispute with Becket when he became Archbishop of Canterbury. At the end of 1163 the king sent him to France together with Bishop Arnulf von Lisieux , where they met Pope Alexander III. should seek his support in the dispute with Becket. However, their mission was unsuccessful as the Pope continued to side with Becket. In 1163 or early 1164 Ilchester is said to have traveled to the diocese of Poitiers in order to limit the influence of the ecclesiastical courts there. In southwest France he is said to have promulgated the controversial Constitutions of Clarendon and to ensure that they are observed. It is said that in 1164 he also informed Heinrich's mother, Empress Matilda , about her son's attitude to the conflict with the church. Then Ilchester belonged to an embassy that tried to win the support of the French King Louis VII in the conflict against Becket. Then he traveled again to negotiations with Pope Alexander III. On Pentecost Sunday in May 1165, he and John of Oxford attended the court day in Würzburg on behalf of the king . There he promised the assembled German princes that the English king would the antipope Paschal III. if he were to receive support in the conflict with Thomas Becket in return. In view of this anti-papal policy, only the influence of Ilchester's friend John of Salisbury has so far prevented his excommunication . As the conflict between Henry II and Becket came to a head, Ilchester was one of the royal officials who were excommunicated by Becket on June 12, 1166. The main reason for Ilchester's excommunication was his contacts with Archbishop Rainald von Dassel from Cologne , who was one of the most important supporters of the antipope. Ilchester's friend Ralph de Diceto advised him to bear the church sentence with humility, and the king prevented some Knights Templar from publicly embracing the excommunicated. Nevertheless, Ilchester remained in the service of the king and probably traveled again as envoy to Rome. Finally, in January 1168 or before, the ban on him was lifted, which he again owed to the influence of John of Salisbury and other friends.

On May 15, 1169, Ilchester took part in a meeting of clergy convened by Bishop Gilbert Foliot, which drafted a joint complaint against Becket. On May 29, 1169, on Ascension Day, Becket excommunicated Ilchester again. In 1170 Ilchester traveled to Caen, from where in June he accompanied the young Henry , the eldest son of Henry II, to England together with the bishops Henry II of Bayeux and Froger von Sées . There he was crowned co-king on June 14th in Westminster . Thereafter, at the beginning of October, Ilchester was with young Henry in Westminster, in mid-October with the king in Normandy and at the beginning of December 1170 again with young Henry in England. Then he went back to Normandy to inform the king of the course of the dispute between Becket, who had returned to England, and the bishops who had taken part in the coronation of young Henry. The conflict ended dramatically with the murder of Becket at the end of December 1170 by the king's knights. Ilchester now regretted that he had misunderstood Becket. Although he was a clergyman himself, Ilchester had served the interests of the king rather than the church. He had been one of the king's closest supporters in the conflict with Becket. Still, his reputation as a clergyman had suffered little. In 1173 he supported the building of a chapel dedicated to Becket in Portsea . When no successor to Becket as archbishop was found for several years, Ilchester mediated in March 1173 to prevent a major conflict over the choice of a new archbishop. He himself wanted the election of Roger I de Bailleul , the abbot of Bec , who refused the office.

Royal judge, administrator and tax officer

By the early 1160s, Ilchester had gained increasing influence over the king's jurisdiction. As a confidant of the king, he influenced the latter in favor of supplicants, receiving several spiritual benefices as a reward . As a judge in the second half of the 1160s, he was one of the most important officials in the royal administration in England. At Michaelmas 1165 he was one of the royal judges of the Court of Exchequer . From 1168 to 1169 he toured several counties in southern and central England and the Midlands as a judge . Because of his good relationship with the king, he continued to be sought out for assistance in disputes. In addition to these tasks as a judge and his service as the king's envoy, he took on numerous other tasks. From 1168 to 1169 he organized the collection of the special tax for the marriage of Mathilde , the king's eldest daughter. From Christmas 1166 until the election of a new bishop in 1173 he was responsible for the administration of the vacant Diocese of Lincoln . He entrusted this task to Herbert of Ilchester , who was believed to be his son and received an annual salary of £ 10. After the death of Richard Montagu , Ilchester took over the lucrative administration of his estates in April 1167, until 1178 or 1179 the heir of Montagu came of age. In the summer of 1171, after the death of Bishop Henry of Blois , he took over the administration of the Diocese of Winchester and Glastonbury Abbey . In addition, Ilchester was considered one of the leading officials in the royal financial administration, successfully demanding higher payments from the county 's sheriffs .

Bishop of Winchester

Act as a bishop

When the king gave several bishoprics to him in 1173 loyally serving clergy, Ilchester received the diocese of Winchester . The king is said to have written the famous letter to the monks of the cathedral priory of Winchester, in which he ordered them to hold a free episcopal election, in which they could only elect Richard, the archdeacon of Poitiers, as the only candidate. The choice of Ilchester was supported by respected clergymen such as his friends John of Salisbury and Gilbert Foliot. Apparently was Ilchester on Ascension Day, so on May 17, 1174 before his consecration as Bishop Winchester enthroned . He was ordained bishop in Canterbury on October 5 or 6, followed by a renewed enthronement in Winchester on October 13. With his elevation to bishop Ilchester resigned his previous spiritual offices. But even as bishop Ilchester continued to serve the king. However, he did not neglect his duties as bishop. During his absences he appointed qualified representatives and he is considered to be the first bishop in England to appoint a permanent representative, an official . As bishop he worked on the implementation of the compromise made with the Pope in Avranches in 1172 in order to further reconcile the king with the church. His long experience as a royal judge helped him carry out his occasional duties as a commissioned papal judge for ecclesiastical disputes. He also implemented the legal requirements issued by the popes in his diocese.

Furthermore civil servant, diplomat and judge in the service of the king

During the revolt of Heinrich's sons from 1173 to 1174 , the king first fought the rebellion in his French possessions. In mid-1174 the desperate justiciar Richard de Luci sent Ilchester to France to ask the king for urgent help. Ilchester reached the king in Bonneville on June 24th and was able to convince him to cross over to England quickly. After the rebellion was put down, Ilchester took part in an ecclesiastical council meeting in Westminster on May 18, 1175, where he was one of the main advisers of Archbishop Richard of Dover of Canterbury. On July 1, he attended the Royal Council meeting in Woodstock , where the election of a new Bishop of Norwich and the election of several abbots were discussed. When Cardinal Vibiano landed as papal legate in England at the end of July 1175 , Ilchester traveled to meet him and took the oath from him not to do anything to the detriment of England or the king. In August he prepared the departure of the king's daughter Johanna , who was traveling to her wedding with the King of Sicily. In late September 1175, Ilchester traveled to Normandy, where he likely took a leading role in reforming the financial administration. In June 1177 the king sent him to peace negotiations with the French King Louis VII. In September he took part in the court day of Henry II in Verneuil , then he testified with the Treaty of Ivry , which ended the war with France. On March 21, 1178, Ilchester returned to England after an absence of almost 18 months.

Last years and death

Because of his many obligations in the service of the king, Ilchester's absence was excused at the Third Lateran Council in Rome in March 1179. In 1179 he was one of the five chief judges appointed by the king for England. On March 5, 1180, he again belonged to an embassy that traveled to the French king, and on June 28, 1180 he took part in the renewal of the Treaty of Ivry. Before the end of September 1180 he had returned to England, where he sat in court on October 23 as Baron of the Exchequer . On February 21, 1182 the king visited him at his residence in Bishop's Waltham , Hampshire . There the king made a will and installed Ilchester as one of his executors. In 1182 and 1183 Ilchester again served as Judge and Baron of the Exchequer. On December 2, 1184, he took part in the council meeting at Westminster, at which Baldwin of Exeter was appointed the new Archbishop of Canterbury. On April 10, 1185 he was part of the King's entourage at Dover . There he took over the care of the Hospital of St Cross near Winchester from the Knights Templar , whose places for the poor and needy he increased to 213. After that, Ilchester appears less and less. At the end of April 1186 the king visited his old confidante again in Marwell . After his death in late 1188, Ilchester was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

literature

• VD Oggins, RS Oggins: Richard of Ilchester's inheritance . In: Medieval Prosopography, 12 (1991), pp. 57-122
• Charles Duggan: Richard of Ilchester, royal servant and bishop . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 16 (1966), pp. 1-21
• Charles Duggan: Bishop John and Archdeacon Richard of Poitiers: their roles in the Becket dispute . In: Raymonde Foreville: Thomas Becket. Actes du colloque internat. De Sédières, 19-24 août 1973. Beauchesne, Paris 1975, pp. 72-83

Web links

• John Hudson: Ilchester, Richard of (d. 1188). 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. ↑ 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

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry of Blois	Bishop of Winchester 1173–1188	Godfrey de Lucy