Hatfield As Bishop
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Durham E-Theses 'If the king had asked for an ass, he would have received his wish, this time: a study of the career of Thomas de Hateld, bishop of Durham (1345-1381), as a royal servant, 1336-1357. Barker, Nicholas Andrew How to cite: Barker, Nicholas Andrew (2003) 'If the king had asked for an ass, he would have received his wish, this time: a study of the career of Thomas de Hateld, bishop of Durham (1345-1381), as a royal servant, 1336-1357., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4016/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 A copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be pubUshed without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 'If The King Had Asked For An Ass, He Would Have Received His Wish, This Time': A Study of the Career of Thomas de Hatfield, bishop of Durham (1345-1381), as a Royal Servant, 1336-1357. Nicholas Andrew Barker, MA (Research) in Medieval History, University of Durham, 2003. 'The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without prior written consent and the information derived from it should be acknowledged.' Nicholas Andrew Barker, Medieval History, MA by Research, 2003 'If The King Had Asked For An Ass, He Would Have Received His Wish, This Time': A Study of the Career of Thomas de Hatfield, bishop of Durham (1345-1381), as a Royal Servant, 1336-1357. 'If the king had asked for an ass, he would have received his wish, this time.' [Chronicon Angliae, ed. E.M. Thompson, Rolls Series, vol. 64. (London, 1874), 20.] This was the reported reply of Pope Clement VI to his cardinals, after they had expressed reservations regarding Thomas de Hatfield's provision to the see of Durham in 1345. Whilst the authenticity of such a comment is clearly doubtful, it does provide a useful starting point from which to study Thomas de Hatfield's rise to Edward Ill's episcopate, and then assess his achievements up until 1357. Through a career in royal administration, Hatfield followed the typical path to the English episcopate, and by the time of his provision he was Edward's keeper of the privy seal. However, Clement's comment has indicated to historians that Hatfield's personal relationship with Edward and Anglo-Papal relations in the mid-1340s, were the dominant factors in the clerk's acquisition of Durham. Therefore, there is temptation to take this as a measure of Hatfield's unsuitability for the office. However, in this dissertation I hope to illustrate that this was not the case. Hatfield did establish a close relationship with the king, and this did subsequently play an integral role in his ascent to Durham's episcopal throne. Yet this was precisely because, as a royal servant, Hatfield showed himself entirely worthy of royal trust. His promotion was no unwarranted rewarding of an unworthy favourite and from 1345, until the end of this survey, the bishop continued to serve his king with zeal. Hatfield was a warrior bishop, the bishop Odo of his time, and hence, much of this thesis focuses on the part he played in Edward Ill's achieving, by 1357, of a dominant position in northern Europe, and how this was linked to his role as bishop of Durham. Contents Introduction 4 The Sources 10 Chapter I - Hatfield's path to the episcopal throne of Durham I 1337: Hatfield's entrance into Edward Ill's paid service 13 II 1338-44: Hatfield and Edward Ill's hopes for the chamber 17 III Hatfield's activities in the Low Countries, 1338-40 25 IV The crisis of 1340-41 32 V The pinnacle of his civil service career: Hatfield as privy seal keeper 37 VI Hatfield's pursuit of ecclesiastical patronage, pre-1345 40 VII Training for Durham: Hatfield's military career, pre 1345 56 Chapter II - 'If the king had asked me for an ass, he would have received his wish, this time.' Thomas de Hatfield's gaining of Durham's episcopal throne 62 Chapter III - Repaying Edward Ill's faith: Hatfield as bishop of Durham, 1345-57 I Consecration, counsel and the Scots: Hatfield in the second half of 1345 76 II 1346: Was Hatfield at the battle of Crecy? 79 III 1347: The Siege of Calais and Balliol's campaigning in Scotland 98 rv Organising the defence of the North, and the potentially divisive 102 effect of tensions between the sees of Durham and York V 1348-55: Hatfield's role in discussions for David II's release 108 VI Hatfield in France in 1355, the 'Burnt Candlemas' of 1356, and the 120 culminafion of a decade's hard work with the release of David II in 1357 VII Hatfield's justice: a source of tension with Edward III? 127 VIII A brief assessment of the 'disputes' over rights between master 131 and servant IX A brief assessment of Hatfield's activities as bishop post-1357, and 133 what they reveal about his role pre-1357 Chapter IV - Conclusion 136 Abbreviations 141 Bibliography 142 Importantly, Hatfield appears to have been in no way embarrassed by the support he received fi-om his monarch. In fact, in later life he was keen to visibly acknowledge both this debt and how he continued to see himself as a servant of the crown. Hatfield ordered a depiction of Edward Ill's crowned head and heraldic device, to be placed at the foot of the steps to the episcopal throne, which he had constructed and incorporated into his funerary monument. This provides a graphic depiction of how his path to the episcopal chair lay in his serving his king.' The highly sought afl:er 'flesh-pots'^ of Durham were a great reward for a royal servant. Yet Hatfield was in no sense receiving a retirement present, as his service of his king did not end upon his installation. However the king's purpose in raising Hatfield to the bishopric was rather different fi-om William Edington's, for example. Edington was provided as bishop of Winchester a few months after Hatfield was to Durham.^ Whilst Hatfield left Edward's civil administration once he had secured Durham,"* Edington spent almost 'his entire episcopal career as either treasurer or chancellor'.^ Durham and Winchester were two vastly different sees, and Edward had vastly differing agendas in securing them for two of his favourite clerks. By this period, Winchester held no great political or geographical significance. For Edington it represented a continuation, albeit the pinnacle, of his monarch's method of paying those in his civil service, by dispensing ecclesiastical patronage. Durham was very different: its location was all important. By the mid- fourteenth century the office of bishop of Durham had long since developed a very particular importance as a bulwark against the Scots. Hatfield was not merely being invited to sustain himself from the temporalities, as Edington surely was. Edward went to great lengths to secure Durham for Hatfield. This was because the bishop of Durham had a real job to do, and in Hatfield the king believed he had found a man more than capable of doing it. ' N.A. Barker, 'Death and the Bishop: the Salvation and memory of Thomas Hatfield (Bishop of Durham 1345-1381)' (BADissertation, University of Durham, 2001), 19. " Tout [Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval History of England, ill, (Manchester, 1928- 33), 436.] used this term when describing bishop Fordham's removal to Ely in 1388. ^ Edington was bishop from 1345-66 [Handbook of British Chronology, eds. P.M. Powicke and E.B. Fryde,2"'' ed., (London, 1961), 258.]. Hatfield was finally provided to Durham by Clement VI on 9 June 1345 and his last identificafion as keeper was on the 3"*. Tout wrongly suggests Hatfield remained keeper for sometime after his provision [Chapters, v, 20.]. As the title indicates, this thesis is Umited in its scope. Hatfield enjoyed a long pontificate, being bishop for just less than thirty-six years, having spent just under a decade in Edward Ill's civil service. Therefore this thesis is restricted to a consideration of Hatfield as a servant of the crown, trom 1337 until 1357. This incorporates [approximately] the decades that preceded and succeeded his provision to Durham. The choice to study Hatfield as a royal servant was not a difficult one. His service to his king is most striking in uniting his career before and after his provision. This was how Hatfield both became bishop and sought to justify this promotion, and it therefore facilitates the greatest insights into his life. Clearly as bishop of Durham Hatfield's role was mulfifaceted. He was the head of civil government in the palatinate of Durham, also its universal landlord, head of justice and its ecclesiastical head.