New Years Eve of Everdon

Silvester of Everdon († March 1254 ) was an English clergyman. From 1246 he was Bishop of Carlisle .

Origin and advancement in the service of the king

New Year's Eve of Everdon came from the village of Everdon in Northamptonshire . All that is known of his family is that he was related to the Thrupp family (also Thorp ), which was important in Everdon . Everdon became a clergyman and appointed vicar in Everdon in 1219 . Before 1229, however, he had entered the service of Chancellor Ralph de Neville . His service in the royal chancellery was rewarded with numerous benefices . In 1245 he was finally appointed Archdeacon of Chester .

Keeper of the Great Seal and election as bishop

When in 1242 King Heinrich III. set out on the campaign to south-west France , he had the great seal carried with him. As a substitute, Everdon carried the Exchequer's seal during this time . Everdon temporarily served as Keeper of the Great Seal in 1244 and 1246 , but he was never officially appointed royal chancellor . From this time Everdon belonged to the close household of the king who, for example, gave him robes in 1243. Everdon personally apparently remained a pious clergyman, who had apparently made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1235 . When he was elected bishop of the Diocese of Carlisle in 1246 , he initially did not want to accept this election, since he refused to receive a high spiritual office as reward for his services to the king. Apparently, the king himself finally convinced Everdon to accept the office. Henry III. also gave him liturgical vestments and on December 8, 1246 gave him the temporalities of the diocese. Everdon was finally ordained a bishop on October 13, 1247.

Bishop of Carlisle

Everdon left the royal court as bishop and conscientiously took care of the administration of his northern English diocese. He successfully settled several disputes in Carlisle, above all in 1249 the lengthy dispute with his cathedral chapter over the distribution of the goods of the diocese between the bishop and the canons . Everdon made sure that the parish vicars received adequate income. From 1251 to 1252 he served as a traveling judge in the service of the King in Yorkshire , Nottinghamshire , Derbyshire , Warwickshire and Leicestershire . Apparently he served more as a symbolic figure, because he did not take part in all negotiations himself and was not allowed to pass judgments alone, but only together with other more experienced judges. In May 1253 he took part in Parliament at Westminster . He belonged to a delegation of the English bishops, the Heinrich III. asked that the privileges of the church, especially the right to free election of bishops, be respected. Thereupon the king mocked the bishops, since the members of the delegation had only received their office thanks to the favor of the king, and Everdon in particular was previously only the lowest of his officials. Despite this incident, Everdon did not lose the king's favor. When he was on his way to the royal court again in March 1254, he had a riding accident near Northampton , of which he died a few days later.

literature

• Henry Summerson: The king's clericulus: the life and career of Silvester de Everdon, bishop of Carlisle, 1247–1254 . In: Northern History, 28, pp. 70-91 (1992)
• CML Bouch: Prelates and people of the lake counties: a history of the diocese of Carlisle, 1133-1933 , Wilson, Kendal 1948

Web links

• Henry Summerson: Everdon, Silvester of (d. 1254). 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 Mauclerk	Bishop of Carlisle 1246–1254	Thomas de Vipont