Robert Passelewe

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Robert Passelewe (also Robert Papelew ) († June 6, 1252 in Waltham ) was an English clergyman who served as a high-ranking official and temporary member of the government in the service of King Henry III. was standing. In 1244 he was elected Bishop of Chichester , but the election was not recognized by the Pope.

Origin and family

Robert Passelewe came from a gentry family , probably from Buckinghamshire . He had two brothers, one of whom Hamo temporarily served as sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk . His other brother Simon also served as a royal official and judge. A sister of his married William of Holwell , who was temporarily Sheriff of Hertfordshire . Their son also became a clergyman, and Passelewe later provided him with a profitable benefice .

Promotion as a civil servant in the service of Peter des Roches

Passelewe entered the service of the English government before 1214 when he was sent to Flanders during the Franco-English War in 1214 . He was promoted by Bishop Peter des Roches , who was royal justiciar . Perhaps as early as 1216, but certainly before 1218, Passelewe was also in the service of the papal legate Guala . After he had left England in December 1218, Passelewe traveled frequently to Rome to bring Guala installments of his pension, which he was entitled to from the income of the English Church. When Passelewe traveled to Rome again in the spring of 1222, des Roches commissioned him, Pope Honorius III. to ask the then 15-year-old King Heinrich III. to be declared of legal age. Before May 14, 1223, Passelewe returned from another trip to Rome and was able to deliver the Pope's declaration to Des Roches, who was then a member of the Regency Council. This exacerbated the bitter power struggle between des Roches and the then Justiciar Hubert de Burgh for supremacy in the Regency Council. The service for des Roches eventually earned Passelewe the enduring enmity of de Burgh. Against the wishes of Archbishop Stephen Langton and von de Burgh, des Roches and other opponents of de Burgh sent Passelewe again to Rome in December 1223, where he should ask the Pope for support against de Burgh's policy and request the sending of a papal legate for England. The Pope declined to support de Burgh's opponents, but sent his nuncio Otto to England to investigate the political situation. As a result, des Roches almost entirely lost his influence on the Regency Council until he finally left England.

Dismissed as a follower of Falkes de Bréauté

In addition to his service for des Roches, Passelewe had been in the service of Falkes de Bréauté , a powerful baron from at least 1222 , but who had to go into exile in 1224 after a failed rebellion against the king. As a result, Passelewe's property was also confiscated, which also had to leave England. Passelewe accompanied Falkes to Rome, where he asked the Pope to lift Falkes' excommunication . To this end, he asked the Pope to work to ensure that he and Falkes were pardoned in England. The letter of complaint that Falkes presented to the Pope was most likely written by Passelewe. However, while Falkes died in exile in the summer of 1226, Passelewe could through the intercession of Honorius III. got his property back in England in the spring of 1226.

Member of the government of Peter des Roches and discharged again

Despite the restitution of his possessions, Passelewe remained in disgrace with the king after his supporters des Roches and Falkes were overthrown, as Hubert de Burgh continued to largely determine English politics. Only when Peter des Roches returned to England in 1232 and subsequently de Burgh was overthrown as Justiciar, Passelewe was able to return to the royal court. Des Roches had considerable influence on the new government, and from January 1233 Passelewe was one of the most important members of the new government, alongside Peter de Rivallis and the new justiciar Stephen of Seagrave . As head of the Exchequer , he served as the representative of Treasurer Peter de Rivallis, and as chief judge he was responsible for the taxation of Jews in England. Passelewe enriched himself considerably in his offices. He was entrusted with the management of a number of royal estates, eight of which had previously belonged to de Burgh. To this end, he took over some lucrative guardianship administrations and extorted high payments from the Jewish communities. Widespread opposition finally arose against the arbitrary rule of the von des Roches government. Royal finances were on the verge of collapse under the leadership of the overwhelmed de Rivallis, and open rebellion against the government broke out in the Welsh Marches under the leadership of the Earl of Pembroke . The rebel Richard Siward plundered on April 26, 1234 Swanbourne , the family estate of Passelewe in Buckinghamshire and burned it down. Finally, under pressure from the bishops, at a council meeting in Gloucester in May 1234 , the king dismissed Passelewe and the other members of the des Roches government. When Passelewe received news of his dismissal in London, he fled to the sanctuary of the Temple after May 26th , so that he could avoid having to answer directly before the king. Most of the estates he had acquired since 1232 were confiscated.

Renewed promotion as an official in the service of the king

In 1235 Passelewe offered the payment of 600 marks in order to regain the favor of the king, and from 1240 to 1241 he applied again to be allowed to serve the crown. But not until the spring of 1242, shortly before Henry III. set out on a campaign to south-west France in May , Passelewe was appointed sheriff of Hampshire . To this end, he was assigned the supervision of the new Westminster Abbey building . Over the next eight years he rose again to become an important member of the royal government. From 1244 to 1245, he organized and directed an infamous review of royal forest sovereignty . With the help of Geoffrey de Langley , Passelewe imposed heavy fines and charges on those accused of violating the borders and the rights of the royal forests. His victims included numerous forest judges, including John de Neville , who was deposed as chief forest judge in southern England and sentenced to pay a heavy fine. From February 1246 Passelewe himself served as the chief forest judge in southern England. During these years Passelewe also examined the allocation of other offices and took over the lucrative administration of vacant abbeys several times.

Advancement as a clergyman, renewed dismissal as an official and death

Already in November 1242 Passelewe received a benefice at London's St Paul's Cathedral , which the king could award, since the diocese of London was under royal administration after the death of Bishop Roger Niger . When the Diocese of Chichester was under royal administration after the death of Bishop Ralph de Neville , Passelewe was appointed Archdeacon of Lewes in March 1244 . In April 1244 he was elected Bishop of Chichester by the Chichester Cathedral Chapter, but the election was not recognized. The king was very angry about the rejection of his candidate, and possibly as compensation he Passelewe in 1245 the income of the Church of St James in Northampton . As a sheriff and forest judge, Passelewe was able to lock up criminals and have them punished, which is why clergy in the 13th century were considered unsuitable for the exercise of these offices. However, Passelewe apparently had no qualms about exercising his secular offices despite his status as a clergyman. This aroused the anger of numerous reform-minded clergymen, including Bishop Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln. Presumably it was Passelewe's office as sheriff of Hampshire, which is why Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury rejected his election as Bishop of Chichester. He commissioned Bishop Grosseteste to check Passelewe's theological knowledge. Passelewe did not pass this test, whereupon Pope Innocent IV's election as bishop was declared invalid. When Passelewe served as a forest judge in 1245, Grosseteste considered him unsuitable as a pastor. He therefore refused to give him the Church of St James in Northampton. This time, however, Passelewe was able to convince Archbishop Bonifatius to appoint him as pastor despite the objections of Grosseteste. In December 1246, Passelewe received a benefice in the then vacant diocese of Salisbury . It was not until December 1249 that he was ready to be ordained a priest when Hugh of Northwold , Bishop of Ely, wanted to give him the Church of Dereham , Norfolk. This office had previously been held by the royal official Jeremy of Caxton , and the king wanted to hand the benefice to his half-brother Aymer de Lusignan . When Passelewe received the benefice, the angry king dismissed him in 1249 as sheriff of Hampshire and in April 1250 he was replaced as forest judge by Geoffrey de Langley. Although he was able to reconcile with the king at Christmas 1250, his service for the king was over. The king allowed him in October 1251 to appoint his brother Hamo as his heir and forgave him and Hamo all debts that were still outstanding from his offices. He died in an unspecified Waltham , probably in Essex.

Passelewe was friends with the poet Henry d'Avranches , who wrote a poem for him.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 210
  2. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 304
  3. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 331
  4. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 224
  5. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 445
  6. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 304
personal data
SURNAME Passelewe, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Papelew, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman and official
DATE OF BIRTH around 12th century
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1252
Place of death Waltham