Roger Northburgh

Roger Northburgh († November 22, 1358 ) was an English civil servant and clergyman. From 1321 he was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield .

Origin and education

Roger Northburgh came from a family that may have come from Norbury in Staffordshire , but this is controversial. Maybe he was studying at Cambridge . He graduated as a Master of Arts , where he was also referred to as a Magister .

Promotion as a royal official

In 1310 and 1311 Northburgh served as an official of the wardrobe , which was responsible for the private rooms of the king, but also administered some of his finances. Possibly as early as March, but no later than September 1312 he became Keeper of the Privy Seal . From March 1312 he was a constant companion of King Edward II until he was absent from the court for six months from November 1312. Possibly this happened in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinances , the reforms at the royal court passed under pressure from a noble opposition. According to the Ordinances, the responsibilities between the Wardrobe and the Privy Seal should be separated, whereby the office of the Keeper of the Privy Seal changed from a court to a state office. The king increasingly used the privy seal when sealing documents without the consent of the Privy Council . During Northburgh's absence, the Privy Seal was forged by an officer, but Northburgh continued to have the king's trust. In the summer of 1314 he accompanied the king on his campaign to Scotland. He got into Scottish captivity at the Battle of Bannockburn after the king fled the battlefield. The Scots also captured the Privy Seal and numerous documents from the king. After paying a ransom, he was released in November 1314. On February 1, 1316 he resigned from the office of Keeper of the Privy Seal when the king appointed him administrator of the wardrobe. The historian Tout described Northburgh at the time as a member of a middle party that wanted to mediate in the conflict between the king and the Earl of Lancaster . Northburgh's position in the conflict is uncertain, however, and recent historians generally question the existence of a middle party, referring to its members only as more moderate supporters of the king. As administrator of the wardrobe, Northburgh took part in the 1318 parliamentary assembly in York , which decided important reforms of the royal budget under the Treaty of Leake . He was confirmed as administrator of the wardrobe. In 1319 he took part in the unsuccessful siege of Berwick . After the withdrawal of the English army, he tried together with Badlesmere , the Chamberlain of the Household, to organize the defense of the Scottish Marches in Northampton , until John Cromwell and Robert de Umfraville, 8th Earl of Angus, took over this task . In 1320 and 1321 Northburgh was temporarily entrusted with the management of the large seal , among other things he sealed the letter in 1320 with which the king protested against the appointment of Rigaud de Asserio as Bishop of Winchester by the Pope. Several times, including the end of 1320, Northburgh was a member of delegations negotiating with Scotland.

Advancement as a clergyman

Accumulation of benefices

As was customary in his time, the king did not reward his officials with a fixed salary, but with spiritual benefits . In July 1315, Northburgh was to receive a benefice at Lincoln Cathedral , which he did not accept, but in November 1315 he accepted another, apparently more profitable benefice at the same cathedral. At the suggestion of Pope John XXII. In 1317 he became dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London , and in 1317 he received further benefices and the office of archdeacon of Richmond . Between 1321 and 1326, Northburgh is said to have been Chancellor of Cambridge University , but for which he would have had little time due to his other offices. It is possible that he had never held this office, but had only campaigned for the university in 1321 with the king.

Bishop under Edward II.

After the death of Bishop Langton , the king allowed the election of a new bishop for the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield on November 22, 1321 . The election was difficult, however, because within the diocese, the Lichfield Cathedral Chapter and Coventry Cathedral Priory fought over the right to vote. In addition, the king asked the Pope to appoint his favorite Robert Baldock as bishop. The Pope refused, however, and Northburgh was elected bishop instead on December 14, 1321. It was at this time that the king put down the Earl of Lancaster's rebellion . Since Northburgh was therefore initially needed at the royal court, he appointed Master Ralph Holbeach as his commissioner for the diocese on April 12, 1322 in Pontefract . On the same day the king gave him the temporalities . On April 20, Northburgh in Rothwell appointed Stephen Blound to be its administrator, while on April 22, he entrusted Bishop Gilbert of Annaghdown with his ministerial representation. On May 6, Northburgh appointed Geoffrey Blaston as his vicar general , and the following day he confirmed the office of Holbeach at Bosworth . On June 27, Northburgh at Halesowen Abbey was consecrated by Bishop Cobham of Worcester and five other bishops. On August 31, he pledged obedience to Walter Reynolds , Archbishop of Canterbury . It is possible that John Stratford , who was at the papal court in Avignon on behalf of the king in 1323 , tried on behalf of the king to ask the pope to elevate Northburgh to cardinal status. However, this is unsecured and did not happen. However, the king was extremely angry about Baldock's appointment as bishop, which is why other bishops fell out of favor with him. Northburgh continued to enjoy the king's confidence. In 1323 he asked him to confiscate the estates of Stratford, who had been appointed the new Bishop of Winchester by the Pope in place of Baldock. When the king feared an invasion of England by his opponents, he instructed Northburgh to assist in the establishment of mobiles in his diocese.

Role during the fall of Edward II and during the reign of Mortimer and Isabelle

Despite his previous sponsorship by Edward II, Northburgh quickly supported the invasion of Queen Isabelle , who landed in September 1326 with Roger Mortimer and an army in England to overthrow the rule of Edward II. After the overthrow of the king, he and other bishops took the oath from Mortimer on January 13th and 20th, 1327, the privileges of the City of London and the rights of the new King Edward III. to protect. From March 2, 1328, he served as treasurer , but already on May 20, 1328 he resigned when he traveled to France for negotiations with Bishop Adam Orleton . At the end of May they reached Paris, where they were before the new French King Philip VI. represented the claim to the throne of Edward III, who was the son of Isabelle de France and a nephew of the previous king, to the French throne. To what extent Northburgh the rule of Isabelle and Mortimer, who replaced the underage Edward III. actually held power in England, or whether he supported the ultimately failed rebellion of Henry of Lancaster at the end of 1328 is unknown.

Political activity under Edward III.

However, after Edward III. In October 1330 Mortimer overthrew and executed in a coup d'état, Northburgh was again active in politics, even if he did not take any more offices. During the parliament of 1333 he discussed the king's policy with other prelates and barons. In early 1334 he attested to a royal charter in York that granted merchants from Coventry duty-free. In May 1337 he was called to a council in Stamford to discuss the financing of the beginning war with France . The assembly recommended that the king monopolize the English export of wool. During Parliament in March 1340, Northburgh was commissioned to draft laws according to various petitions, for which Parliament granted a tax on the ninth part of the movable property. On June 21, 1340 he was reappointed treasurer. However, even he failed to meet the king's constant demands for money and supplies for the war in France. When Edward III. Surprisingly returned to England from the Netherlands at the end of November 1340, he accused Chancellor Robert Stratford and his predecessor, Robert's brother John Stratford, of failure. Like Robert Stratford as chancellor, Northburgh was released as treasurer on December 1, but because of their status as bishops, unlike many other officials, they were left free. When the King refused to allow the Stratford brothers to attend Parliament in 1341, Northburgh and other bishops advocated their right to participate. With that he sealed the end of his political career. Although he still took part in the parliament of 1343, which enforced the repeal of the laws passed in 1340, as well as the parliament of 1344, where he and other bishops asked the king in vain to end the war with France, but his political influence on the He had lost King.

Spiritual activity

As a bishop, Northburgh appeared to administer his diocese efficiently and dutifully. After he had only accepted his office with a time delay because of his service to the king, he carried out a first priestly ordination on September 15, 1322 in Southam . On September 27, 1322 he made a visit to the cathedral priory of Coventry. Despite the reservations of the canons of the Lichfield Cathedral Chapter, they received him on October 4, 1322. In Lichfield, on October 8, 1322, he appointed Master William Weston as his official, for this purpose he prepared a visit to the Archdeaconate of Stafford . When there was resistance to his orders in Abbots Bromley and Cheswardine , he excommunicated the residents of the places. However, he had to interrupt his visit to the deanery of Stafford and Newcastle when the king called him to his court because of a Scottish attack. In his diocese he threatened agitators, thieves of ecclesiastical property and violators of ecclesiastical rights severe church punishments. According to his register of documents , he also tried to monitor the spiritual discipline of the monasteries in his diocese. He also threatened monks who violated their religious rules and apostate monks and nuns severe church punishments. Indeed, he deposed the prior of Arbury Priory in Warwickshire , where he subsequently provided for him materially. He carried out several visitations in his diocese, verifiable in 1331, 1338 and from 1347 to 1348. Even as a bishop, Northburgh maintained his contacts with the cathedral chapter of Lincoln. He supported the Curia in calling for the Cathedral Chapter to canonize John Dalderby , a former Bishop of Lincoln. After his death, Northburgh was buried in Lichfield Cathedral.

Nortburgh promoted the careers of several relatives as a bishop. In 1340 he made his nephew Michael Northburgh Archdeacon of Chester . The degree to which Peter , Master Roger, and William Northburgh , who received benefices at Lichfield Cathedral during his tenure as bishops, were related to him is unknown.

Web links

• Roy Martin Haines: Northburgh, Roger (d.1358). 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. ^ Kathleen Edwards: The social origins and provenance of the English bishops during the reign of Edward II . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 9 (1959), p. 69.
2. ^ Andy King: The English and the battle of Bannockburn (act. 1314). 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
3. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 147.
4. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 229.
5. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 251.

predecessor	Office	successor
Walter Langton	Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry 1321–1358	Robert Stretton