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John de Gray
Bishop of Norwich
Part of the fortifications at Athlone Castle, built under John de Gray's orders
Diocese	Diocese of Norwich
Appointed	about 7 September 1200
Term ended	18 October 1214
Predecessor	John of Oxford
Successor	Pandulf Masca
Other post(s)	Archdeacon of Cleveland Archdeacon of Gloucester Archbishop-elect of Canterbury Bishop-elect of Durham
Orders
Consecration	24 September 1200
Personal details
Died	(1214-10-18)18 October 1214 Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Poitou
Buried	Norwich Cathedral

John de Gray (died 18 October 1214) was a medieval English Bishop of Norwich, and the elected but unconfirmed Archbishop of Canterbury. He was employed in the service of John of England, even before John's coronation as king. For his services, de Gray was rewarded with a number of ecclesiastical offices, culminating in his pro forma election to Norwich in 1200. De Gray continued in royal service after his elevation to the episcopate, lending the king money as well as serving on diplomatic missions. In 1205 King John attempted to reward de Gray with a translation to the archbishopric of Canterbury, but a disputed election process led to de Gray's selection being quashed by Pope Innocent III in 1206.

Innocent then consecrated Stephen Langton as archbishop against John's wishes, which triggered a long dispute between the papacy and the king. The pope imposed various sanctions on England and John; at at one point de Gray was one of only two bishops still validly holding office in England. But in 1209 de Gray became governor of Ireland for John, and spent until 1213 attempting to impose royal government on the Anglo-Norman barons and the native Irish in that country. Recalled to England to help with a threatened invasion of England by the French, de Gray then travelled to Rome to secure a papal pardon after the final settlement of John and Innocent's dispute over the bishop's abortive elevation to Canterbury. After securing the pardon de Gray was appointed Bishop of Durham, but he died in October 1214 while returning to England from Rome before he could be installed at Durham.

In addition to his royal service, the bishop also built a palace in his diocese and several castles in Ireland. Although reviled by one contemporary writer as an "evil counsellor" to the king, modern historians have been more forgiving; one praised his intelligence and others stated that de Gray was one of the few men King John trusted throughout his life. De Gray's nephew, Walter de Gray, secured the office of Lord Chancellor with his uncle's help in 1205.

Early life

Although some describe de Gray as a native of Norfolk, he was likely descended from the Norman knight, Anchetil de Greye. De Gray was the uncle of Walter de Gray, later Archbishop of York. The elder de Gray was instrumental in securing the selection of his nephew as Lord Chancellor, as the elder de Gray was a surety for the younger de Gray's payment of a fine of 5,000 marks to secure the chancellorship.

De Gray had entered Prince John's (later King John) service by 1196, and was keeper of John's seal by 1198. After John's accession in 1199 he became Archdeacon of Cleveland in March 1200 and Archdeacon of Gloucester before April 1200. He also served as John's secretary, and frequently served as a deputy for the Lord Chancellor, Hubert Walter. Shortly after John's accession to the throne, de Gray travelled from the continent to England for a while, and for the first two years of John's reign was active in the royal chancery, sealing royal charters.

De Gray was elected Bishop of Norwich about 7 September, although the election was purely pro forma, as acknowledged by a contemporary writer Roger of Howden, who stated that the new bishop "succeeded to the bishopric of Norwich by the gift of King John". De Gray was consecrated on 24 September. His consecration took place together with that of the new Bishop of Hereford Giles de Braose at Westminster, at the conclusion of a provincial church council held by Archbishop Walter, which de Gray had been attending. Walter performed the consecration ceremony, held in a chapel of the monastery.

Bishop of Norwich

While bishop, de Gray often lent the king money, and on one occasion held the royal regalia as security for the repayment of a loan. Besides financial efforts, the bishop also served as a royal justice. In 1203 de Gray accompanied Archbishop Hubert Walter of Canterbury and several papal legates on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to King Philip II of France. Philip had demanded that John's niece Eleanor of Brittany or his nephew Arthur of Brittany be surrendered to the King of France along with all of John's lands on the continent, none of which John was prepared to concede. Philip invaded Normandy after the bishops returned to England.

In 1203 some of de Gray's knights were part of the garrison at the castle of Vaudreuil in Normandy, serving under the command of Robert FitzWalter. Although they had provisions and John was moving in support of the troops, in the summer of 1203 the garrison surrendered to Philip, shortly after a siege had begun. When King John abandoned Normandy in late 1203, effectively relinquishing control of the duchy to Philip, de Gray was one of his companions on the journey to the port of Barfleur, and went on to England with the king.

Archbishop-elect

King John's attempt to force de Gray's election as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1205 was the beginning of the king's long quarrel with Pope Innocent III. After Hubert Walter's death in July 1205, the selection of a successor was hindered by doubts about what the proper procedure should be. King John postponed a decision while delegations from both the bishops of England and the monks of the cathedral chapter went to Rome to seek guidance from the pope. The bishops of the province of Canterbury claimed the right to a say who who was elected, as whoever was chosen would be their superior. According to canon law, it was the monks of the cathedral chapter who had the right to elect the new archbishop. Balanced against these claims, the king also had a say in the election, as the archbishop was a major tenant-in-chief and was traditionally one of the main royal advisors.

While the delegations from the various parties were in Rome, the monks of Canterbury decided to secretly elect one of their own, Reginald, as archbishop; Reginald was sent to Rome to join the delegation. When King John discovered that the monks had elected someone without any regal input he forced the monks to elect de Gray as archbishop. Some stories have the election of Reginald taking place before the sending of the first delegation to the papal curia. Another source, Gervase of Canterbury, has the king telling the chapter they could choose their own nominee after six months, while the king secretly sent envoys to Rome to secure the election of de Gray. A further story, coming from Roger of Wendover, stated that the monks elected Reginald before Walter was even buried, and that only a small portion of the cathedral chapter – the younger ones – participated in the election. Wendover wrote in the 1230s and was not a monk of Canterbury, therefore it is unlikely he is recording a true account.

De Gray was postulated to Canterbury on 11 December 1205, which meant that Innocent was faced with two different candidates for the office. The pope, however, decided to try to compromise, and both Reginald and de Gray's nominations were quashed by the pope about 30 March 1206. Innocent's reason for invalidating de Gray's election was that any election was invalid if an earlier one was still under appeal to the papacy. The monks then elected, with Innocent's approval, Stephen Langton. Although both the monks and the pope accepted Langton, John did not approve of Langton as archbishop, and Innocent's consecration of Langton in 1207 led to an eight-year struggle between John and Innocent over the rights of the king to secure the election of his choice as archbishop. John refused to allow Langton to enter England and exiled the Canterbury monks. Innocent placed an interdict on England in 1207 and John countered by confiscating the income and estates of any clergy who enforced the papal interdict. Innocent then excommunicated John in 1209, but John was not concerned until 1213. The struggle led to the exile of many of the English clergy and the king also imposed large financial demands on the church in England. By 1209, de Gray and Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester, were the only English bishops not in exile or dead.

In Ireland

By 1209 de Gray was in Ireland serving as the king's governor, an office sometimes referred to as justiciar for Ireland. One possible reason for his appointment was to save him from being accused of ignoring the interdict on England. As a bishop, it was de Gray's ecclesiastical duty to enforce the interdict, but by going to Ireland, which was not under interdict, he could continue to serve the king without angering the papacy. De Gray's chief policy in Ireland was to extend English rule, to which end he was involved in battles on the River Shannon and in Fermanagh. He also replaced the Irish coinage with English, and attempted unsuccessfully to make English laws applicable in Ireland. De Gray's term of office in Ireland took place during a time of change in Irish governmental practices.

When the king was persecuting William de Braose in 1209, Braose was given shelter by William Marshall on Marshall's Irish lands. When de Gray demanded that Marshall surrender Braose to him as a traitor, Marshall refused, and told de Gray that since Marshall held some lands from Braose, it would be an act of treason for him to surrender his lord to an outside authority. Marshall's refusal does not seem to have embittered de Gray towards him, as three years later the bishop was praising Marshall in a letter to the king.

John led an expedition to Ireland in 1210 in an effort to bring the Anglo-Norman barons under control. He opened talks with the native Irish kings, and some accounts state that his negotiations were so successful that the native Irish submitted to him. However, the historian Seán Duffy has argued that this was not the case, and that the native Irish nobility were just as resistant to the king as the Anglo-Norman barons. After John's return to England he ordered de Gray to build three new castles in Connacht, one of them at Athlone. Connected with the castle building were two military invasions of Connacht by the royal government – one from Meath and Leinster and the other from Munster. De Gray left Ireland in 1211 to visit Wales, and his deputy while he was gone was Richard de Tuit.

De Gray also faced resistance from the northern Irish, and in 1212 he led a campaign against Áed Méith. Connected with this campaign, de Gray constructed castles at Cáer Uisce, Belleek, and at Clones. These castles served as bases for raids against the Ua Néill territory in the north. A naval campaign was also launched, but to no avail. De Gray suffered a defeat at the hands of Cormac O'Melaghlin in 1212 at Fircal, Offaly. De Gray left Ireland in 1213, although he continued to hold the office of governor for a time, but by July 1213 he had been replaced by Henry de Loundres, the Archbishop of Dublin.

Episcopal affairs and later career

As bishop, de Gray settled a long running dispute between the monks of his cathedral chapter and the bishops. He also allowed the monks of his cathedral chapter the right to appoint and replace the clergy of the dependent churches of the cathedral. De Gray was the addressee of a 1203 missive from Pope Innocent III decrying the continuing practice of some secular clergy being married, in contravention of canon law. In more secular matters, he granted the town of Bishop's Lynn (now King's Lynn) the right to hold a weekly market as well as two fairs per year. He also built a palace at Gaywood.

De Gray's ability to raise money made him useful to King John. In 1213, de Gray mustered 500 knights during a period when King Philip II was threatening to invade England, bringing this force over from Ireland along with mounted men-at-arms to support the king in England. In May 1213, John and Innocent finally resolved the dispute over Langton's election to Canterbury, and part of the settlement was that John gave Ireland and England to Innocent and received them back from the pope, making John a papal vassal. The settlement was sealed with a treaty, and de Gray was one of the witnesses to the document. After John settled with the papacy, de Gray was not included in the general pardon, and had to go to Rome to receive a pardon. While in Rome, the bishop was named as one of the guarantors of a new financial arrangement dealing with feudal payments for England between the king and the pope that lowered the lump sum that must be paid prior to the lifting of the interdict by Innocent. After obtaining a pardon, Innocent recommended de Gray's election as Bishop of Durham in 1213; but de Gray died while returning to England at Saint-Jean-d'Angély in Poitou on 18 October 1214. He was buried in Norwich Cathedral, but the tomb does not survive.

Besides encouraging his nephew's career, de Gray also took into his household two of Hubert Walter's household clerks – David and Robert of Ruddeby. Another clerk employed by de Gray was Robert de Bingham, who was in the bishop's household during the papal interdict on England and went on to become a teacher of theology at Oxford, and Bishop of Salisbury in 1228.

Besides de Gray's ability to raise large sums of money for John, de Gray remained close to John for the rest of the bishop's life. Sidney Painter, a historian and biographer of John, said of de Gray that he was "probably the only man whom John trusted absolutely and without reservation for the whole period of their association". Ralph Turner, another medievalist and biographer of John, called de Gray "one of John's greatest favourites". A third biographer of John, W. L. Warren, described de Gray as "one of the best brains of the royal administration". Matthew Paris, a medieval writer, called him an "evil counsellor"; Paris also blamed much of the difficulties of John's later reign on de Gray's failed election to Canterbury.

Notes

1. It appears that de Gray left England after July 1208, as he was a witness to royal charters constantly from January through July 1208, when he disappears from royal documents.
2. Besides these castles and the earlier ones, in 1213, five more castles were either refurbished or built on de Gray's orders – at Clonmacnoise, Durrow, Birr, Kinnitty, and Roscrea.

Citations

1. ^ Quoted in Haines "Gray, John de (d. 1214)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. ^ Haines "Gray, John de (d. 1214)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
3. ^ Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York: Archdeacons of Cleveland
4. Harding England in the Thirteenth Century p. 236
5. Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: volume 2: Monastic cathedrals (northern and southern provinces): Worcester: Archdeacons of Gloucester
6. ^ Warren King John pp. 160–162 Cite error: The named reference "Warren160" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
7. Young Hubert Walter p. 149
8. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 261
9. Quoted in Warren King John p. 160
10. Cheney Hubert Walter p. 65
11. Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 260
12. Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 162
13. Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 169 and footnote 251
14. ^ Jones King John and Magna Carta pp. 35–37
15. Harding England in the Thirteenth Century p. 266
16. ^ Lyon Constitution and Legal History pp. 306–307
17. ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 195–196
18. Knowles "Canterbury Election" English Historical Review pp. 212–215
19. ^ Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 240
20. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 232
21. Turner King John p. 116
22. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 161
23. Richardson "Norman Ireland" Irish Historical Studies p. 145 and footnote 1
24. ^ Wood "Office of Chief Governor" Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy p. 219
25. ^ Warren King John pp. 195–196
26. Otway-Ruthven History of Medieval Ireland p. 83
27. Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England pp. 408–409
28. Gillingham Angevin Empire p. 55
29. Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 295
30. Warren King John p. 201
31. ^ Duffy "John and Ireland" pp. 241–242
32. Orpen "Athlone Castle" Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries p. 261
33. Orpen "Athlone Castle" Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries p. 266
34. Turner King John p. 108
35. Harper-Bill "John and the Church" King John p. 294
36. Cheney From Becket to Langton p. 121 footnote 7
37. Cheney From Becket to Langton p. 137
38. ^ Powell and Wallis House of Lords in the Middle Ages p. 121
39. Warren King John p. 204
40. ^ Warren King John p. 212
41. Vincent Peter des Roches p. 92
42. Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: volume 2: Monastic cathedrals (northern and southern provinces): Durham: Bishops
43. Young Hubert Walter p. 58
44. Vincent Peter des Roches p. 83 and footnote 203
45. Turner King John p. 46
46. Quoted in Turner King John p. 46
47. Turner King John p. 61

References

• Barlow, Frank (1988). The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216 (Fourth ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49504-0.
• Cheney, C. R. (1956). From Becket to Langton: English Church Government 1170–1213 (Reprint ed.). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
• Cheney, C. R. (1967). Hubert Walter. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. OCLC 1097086.
• Duffy, Seán (1999). "John and Ireland". In S. D. Church (ed.). King John: New Interpretations. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-947-8.
• Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Gillingham, John (2001). The Angevin Empire (Second ed.). London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-74115-3.
• Greenway, Diana G. (1971). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: volume 2: Monastic cathedrals (northern and southern provinces): Durham: Bishops. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
• Greenway, Diana G. (1971). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: volume 2: Monastic cathedrals (northern and southern provinces): Worcester: Archdeacons of Gloucester. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
• Greenway, Diana G. (1999). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York: Archdeacons of Cleveland. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
• Haines, Roy Martin (2004). "Gray, John de (d. 1214)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11541. Retrieved 8 November 2007. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |format= (help)
• Harding, Alan (1993). England in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052131612x. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Harper-Bill, Christopher (1999). "John and the Church of Rome". In S. D. Church (ed.). King John: New Interpretations. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-947-8.
• Huscroft, Richard (2005). Ruling England 1042–1217. London: Pearson/Longman. ISBN 0-582-84882-2.
• Jones, J. A. P. (1971). King John and Magna Carta. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-31463-1.
• Knowles, M. D. (1938). "The Canterbury Election of 1205–6". The English Historical Review. 53 (210): 211–220. doi:10.1093/ehr/LIII.CCX.211. JSTOR 554203.
• Lyon, Bryce Dale (1980). A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England (Second ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-95132-4.
• Orpen, Goddar H. (1907). "Athlone Castle: Its Early History, with Notes on some Neighboring Castles". Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland: 257–276. JSTOR 25507617.
• Otway-Ruthven, A. J. (1993). History of Mediaeval Ireland. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-216-1.
• Poole, Austin Lane (1955). From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087–1216 (Second ed.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821707-2.
• Powell, J. Enoch (1968). The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. OCLC 463626. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Powicke, Sir Maurice (1960). The Loss of Normandy 1189–1204: Studies in the History of the Angevin Kingdom (Second ed.). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-5740-X.
• Richardson, H. G. (1942). "Norman Ireland in 1212". Irish Historical Studies. 10 (10): 144–158. JSTOR 30006629. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Turner, Ralph V. (2005). King John: England's Evil King?. Stroud, UK: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-3385-7.
• Vincent, Nicholas (2002). Peter des Roches: An Alien in English Politics 1205–1238 (Reprint ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52215-3.
• Warren, W. L. (1978). King John. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03643-3.
• Wood, Herbert (1921–1924). "The Office of Chief Governor of Ireland, 1172–1509". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature. 36: 206–238. JSTOR 25504230.
• Young, Charles R. (1968). Hubert Walter: Lord of Canterbury and Lord of England. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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