William Airmyn

William Airmyn (also Ayreminne , Ayermin or Ayermine ) († March 27, 1336 in London ) was an English official and clergyman. From 1325 he was Bishop of Norwich .

Origin and advancement as a civil servant

William Airmyn was a son of Adam Airmyn and his wife Matilda . He probably came from the hamlet of Airmyn near Selby in Yorkshire . In April 1300 he was first mentioned as a lawyer in the royal chancellery . King Edward I rewarded his services by proposing spiritual benefits to him in July 1304 and October 1306 . Airmyn represented St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury during Parliament in Carlisle in January 1307 . During the reign of Edward II.he continued to serve in the royal chancellery. After Walter Reynolds became royal chancellor in 1310 , Airmyn took over much of the daily chores in the chancellery. For his services he received canon positions at a total of six English cathedrals up to 1310 as well as other charities. On behalf of the king, he spent six months at the papal curia in Avignon in 1312, and at the request of the king in October 1312 he received a papal dispensation for his accumulation of clerical offices. In 1316 Airmyn was hired to keep records for Lincoln Parliament . His chronological report became the model for further reports in the 1330s. In August 1316 Airmyn succeeded Adam Osgodby, also from Yorkshire, Keeper of the Rolls . Later he was also referred to as Vice Chancellor , special official of the king and secretary of the chancellery. In May 1317 he was commissioned with two royal judges to divide the inheritance of the Earl of Gloucester among his three sisters. In the Battle of Myton , a skirmish in the war with Scotland , Airmyn and his brother Richard Airmyn were captured in Scotland in September 1319 . He and Richard were quickly released after paying a ransom of 2,000 marks , and as early as November 1319 he was a member of the English legation, which concluded a two-year armistice with Scotland. He was then a member of the English legation which negotiated an extension of the armistice in March 1321, and in May 1323 he was a member of the legation which eventually reached a long-term armistice with Scotland.

Appointment as Bishop of Norwich and break with Edward II.

In February 1322, Edward II urged Pope John XXII. to appoint his favorite Robert Baldock as bishop of the next English diocese to be occupied. At the same time, the king recommended Airmyn for other ecclesiastical offices. Airmyn resigned as Keeper of the Rolls in May 1324 when he succeeded Robert Baldock, who was appointed Chancellor, Keeper of the Privy Seal . In the spring of 1325 Airmyn was a member of the legation that negotiated an armistice on May 31, 1325 in the war with France . With the support of the King and Queen Isabelle , Airmyn was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Carlisle on January 7, 1325 . Airmyn now resigned from his position as Keeper of the Privy Seal, but the Pope canceled the election and instead appointed John Ross as the new Bishop of Carlisle. However, the Pope promised to raise Airmyn to bishop shortly, and on July 19, 1325 he appointed him bishop of the Diocese of Norwich . But since this bypassed Robert Baldock, the angry king confiscated the diocese's temporalities . Airmyn was still in France at the time, and he has now been accused of seeking contact with King Charles IV of France, Queen Isabelle's brother. The king claimed that Airmyn was only made bishop by the pope through the influence of Charles IV and Isabelle, but the king was apparently also angry about the terms of the peace treaty that Airmyn had negotiated, which he himself confirmed in June 1325. Airmyn then asked the Pope for help in appeasing the king's wrath. He himself returned to England before December 1325, but in early 1326 he did not answer the king's call to appear at court. After the king ordered the arrest of two of his brothers in March 1326, he fled to France again.

Role in the fall of Edward II and service under Edward III.

Airmyn now supported the invasion of Queen Isabelle and Roger Mortimer when they landed with an army in England in September 1326 to overthrow the rule of Edward II. He was late October in Bristol , where the heir to the throne Edward the regent was proclaimed. On November 30th was entrusted with the leadership of the large seal until January 28, 1327 a new royal chancellor was appointed. At the beginning of December 1326 the temporalities of his diocese were handed over to him, and in February 1327 the income of the diocese from the period December 1325 to November 1326 was reimbursed to him. In January 1327, Airmyn was among the prelates who swore an oath in the London Guildhall in support of the heir apparent Edward and Queen Isabelle, and in early February he attended the coronation of Edward III. part. Airmyn soon returned to serving the new government as a diplomat. In March 1327 he reached another agreement with France, and in March 1328 he negotiated the peace treaty with Scotland . In the negotiations on the homage of Edward III., Which this the new French King Philip VI. for his south-west French possessions, and Airmyn played an important role in the negotiations that followed at Agen in 1331. He then took part in the negotiations on the marriage of Eleonore , a sister of the king, with Count Rainald II of Geldern , which took place in 1332. From April 1, 1331 to March 29, 1332 he served as treasurer , and until 1335 he still took on diplomatic tasks. He died in his London townhouse and was buried in Norwich Cathedral.

Others

During his service to the Crown, Airmyn had acquired properties in Durham , Yorkshire and Lincolnshire . The income from these estates had made him a wealthy man, so that in November 1334 he was able to lend the king 1,000 marks for the cost of the war with Scotland .

Based on Airmyn's administrative experience, he is believed to have been the author of Modus tenendi parliamentum , a representation of the course of the English parliaments, which was probably written at the beginning of the 1320s.

literature

• John Robert Maddicott: Airmyn, William . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 246.
• JL Grassi: William Airmyn and the bishopric of Norwich . In: English Historical Review 70 (1955), pp. 550-561

Web links

• MC Buck: Airmyn [Ayreminne], William (d. 1336). 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. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 352
2. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , p. 373
3. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , p. 480
4. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 532
5. ^ VH Galbraith: The Modus Tenendi Parliamentum . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , 16 (1953), p. 84

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert Ayleston	Lord Seal Keeper 1324-1325	Henry Cliffe
Robert Baldock	Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1326-1327	Henry Burghersh
William Melton	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1331–1332	Robert Ayleston
Robert Baldock	Bishop of Norwich 1325–1336	Thomas Hempnall
Adam Osgodby	Master of the Rolls 1316-1324	Richard Airmyn