William de Blois (Bishop, Lincoln)

William de Blois († May 10, 1206 ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman and Bishop of Lincoln .

Origin and advancement as a clergyman

William's origin is unknown. Presumably he came from Blois in France, after which he was named. As a master's degree he taught in the schools of Paris before he came to Durham as a clergyman in the household of Bishop Hugh de Puiset . Since Bishop Hugh was a nephew of King Stephen of Blois and his brother Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, William came into Hugh de Puiset's household because of his origins from Blois. William testified numerous documents for the bishop, in return he became rector of the parish church of St Nicholas in Durham, which was under the church patronage of the bishop. In the late 1180s, William had moved to the household of Bishop Hugo of Lincoln . However, he seemed to continue to maintain close ties to Durham, for he was standing at the deathbed of Hugh de Puiset when he died in 1195. Before 1189 William deputy was dean and 1196 Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral has become.

Bishop of Lincoln

After Bishop Hugo von Lincoln died on November 16, 1200, King John Ohneland tried in vain to have one of his confidants elected as the new Bishop of Lincoln. Since the income went to the king during the diocese's vacancy , the king is said to have prevented the election of a new bishop for more than two years. Shortly before July 6, 1203, the cathedral chapter finally elected William as the new bishop. On August 24, 1203, William was ordained bishop in Canterbury by Bishop William de Ste Mère-Église of London, who represented Archbishop Hubert Walter , who was sick .

As a member of his predecessor's household, William could easily follow up on the work of his predecessor. In his household there were almost exclusively clergymen whose name came from the diocese and whom he probably already knew from his previous activities in Lincoln. The only known exception was his relatives of the same name, William de Blois , whom he appointed Archdeacon of Buckinghamshire . William himself proved to be a hardworking administrator. 86 certificates have survived from his short term of office. To this end, he mediated in 1204 in a dispute between Saer de Quincy , the canons of Newnham and the monks of St Neots Priory over the rights to the church of Eynesbury in Huntingdonshire . After his death in 1206, William was buried in Lincoln Cathedral. Despite his brief tenure, he was remembered in Lincoln as an educated theologian with a friendly demeanor , as evidenced by John Schalby's early 14th-century book on the Bishops of Lincoln.

Web links

• David M. Smith: Blois, William de (d.1206). 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
Hugo of Lincoln	Bishop of Lincoln 1203–1206	Hugh of Wells