Thomas Percy (bishop, around 1332)

Thomas Percy (also Thomas de Percy ; * around 1332 ; † August 8, 1369 ) was a bishop of the English diocese of Norwich .

Origin and career as a clergyman

Thomas Percy came from the Anglo-Norman family Percy . He was born the fifth son of Henry Percy, 2nd Baron Percy and his wife Idonea of ​​Clifford, a daughter of Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford . As a younger son, he was chosen for a spiritual career. After studying at Oxford , he became a canon in Chester-le-Street in the Diocese of Durham in June 1351 . Because of his youth, he needed a papal dispensation for his benefices , which he received through the intercession of Queen Philippa , Queen Mother Isabelle, and the Earls of Lancaster and Arundel .

Henry of Grosmont, 4th Earl of Lancaster , the brother-in-law of his eldest brother Henry Percy , led an English delegation to the papal court in Avignon at the end of 1354 , where they negotiated with France. When William Bateman , Bishop of Norwich, who was also part of the delegation , died in Avignon in early January, Lancaster seized the opportunity to meet Pope Innocent VI. to ask for his 23-year-old relative, Thomas Percy, to be appointed as the new Bishop of Norwich. The Pope agreed to the request and on February 4, 1355 appointed Percy as the new bishop. On April 14, 1355, Percy received the temporalities and on January 3, 1356 he was ordained a bishop.

Act as a bishop

Despite his origins in a noble family and despite his youth, there is no sign that Percy, by the standards of the time, was not a competent and conscientious bishop. His diocese of Norwich in Norfolk was completely outside the sphere of influence of his family, but he supported his brother Henry politically whenever possible. On February 1, 1362 he was present in Westminster when King Edward III. confirmed an alliance treaty with Castile . Presumably because of his youth, however, he did not receive any secular offices. With the exception of one parliament , he was petitioner from 1363 until his death in parliament.

In Norwich, he helped redesign the cathedral's choir windows . He may have died of the plague that broke out again in England the year he died . Apart from dispositions for close relatives, his will is noteworthy. Apart from disposals for close relatives, he donates his fortune for the poor and also for the servants of his household.

Web links

• JMW Bean: Thomas Percy (ca. 1332-1369). 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
• Thomas de Percy on thepeerage.com , accessed February 9, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
William Bateman	Bishop of Norwich 1355-1369	Henry Despenser