Chichester Cathedral 1

20 OCTOBER 2014 H1 CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 1 Release date Version notes Who Current version: H1-Chichester-2014-1 20/10/2014 Original version DC, NK Previous versions: ———— This text is made available through the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs License; additional terms may apply Authors for attribution statement: Charters of William II and Henry I Project David X Carpenter, Faculty of History, University of Oxford Nicholas Karn, University of Southampton CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL Cathedral of the Holy Trinity County of Sussex : Diocese of Chichester Transferred from Selsey 1070 × 1075 The first half of the 1070s saw the seat of the bishop of Sussex move from Selsey, an exposed coastal location, to Chichester, some eight miles north. As with other cathedrals relocated at about this time, improving security was an important consideration. Ease of episcopal administration was of less concern: Chichester’s location close to the western boundary of the diocese remains inconvenient today. Roger de Montgomery is thought to have received his lands in Sussex, including Chichester, by December 1067, or soon afterwards (Mason, ‘Roger de Montgomery’, 2). The city heads the list of Roger’s Sussex lands in Domesday (DB, i. 23a; § 11. 1). It appears that Bishop Stigand used the existing minster of St Peter in Chichester as his cathedral — the nave of the cathedral served as the parish church of St Peter until the nineteenth century — but building work soon started. The new cathedral was consecrated in 1108, when Ralph Luffa was bishop. A fire of 1114 was devastating, but Ralph ‘was soon able to restore it thanks to the generosity of the king in particular’ (William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum II 96. 7, ed. Winterbottom, i. 323). Ralph died in December 1123. His successor was Seffrid, abbot of Glastonbury, nominated in February 1125 and consecrated in April of 20 OCTOBER 2014 H1 CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 2 that year. Seffrid was half-brother of Ralph d’Escures, archbishop of Canterbury from 1114 to 1122. The brothers had been monks of Sées, where Ralph became abbot. Seffrid remained bishop until he was deposed in 1145. The archive of Chichester cathedral is chiefly remarkable for its twenty-one pre-Conquest texts, edited by S. E. Kelly, Charters of Selsey, Anglo-Saxon Charters 6 (Oxford, 1998). These survive mainly as cartulary copies — only about 130 original medieval charters and deeds remain from the archives of the bishop and dean and chapter of Chichester. These include two Anglo-Saxon charters, one authentic, one a forgery, but there is nothing else before the late twelfth century. The archive was apparently in a poor state as early as 1616, and losses continued thereafter (Kelly, Charters of Selsey, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv; McCann, ‘Archives and antiquaries’, 190–92). The cartularies are also the most important source for the Anglo-Norman royal charters. The earliest of the Chichester cartularies, Liber Y, was compiled c. 1250–60, during the episcopates of Richard Wich (1244–1253) and John Climping (1253–1262). The section entitled ‘Regum’ contains all the known Anglo-Norman royal acts for Chichester. There are three acts of William II, eight of Henry I (the seven printed here and an act for Gilbert Chaillot), and four of Stephen. It also preserves the texts of eleven acts of Henry II, with brief notice of another, also for Gilbert Chaillot, and two duplicates. Most of the remaining Chichester cartularies and registers were compiled under the direction of William Reed (sometimes Rede), bishop of Chichester 1368–1385, who is chiefly remembered as an astronomer and mathematician. His library of at least 370 books, one of the largest in private hands at that time, was largely bequeathed to Oxford colleges at his death.1 Bishop Reed’s cartularies and registers have been investigated by J. T. Munby; they are the only source for much Chichester material, in particular most of the pre-Conquest documents, but there are no royal charters from 1066–1189 additional to those in Liber Y. Liber A, Episc. vi/1/1, which Munby called the ‘Prototype Cartulary’, was apparently the first of Reed’s cartularies to be compiled. It now contains only 46 folios, bound in some disorder. Munby has reconstructed its original contents from the surviving original arabic foliation and from cross references to it contained in Liber P, Episc. vi/1/5. His reconstruction shows that the royal charters of the twelfth century were copied at Liber A, old fols. 169–72. Liber A retains 1 For Reed’s library, see F. M. Powicke, The Medieval Books of Merton College (Oxford, 1931), 28–32. 20 OCTOBER 2014 H1 CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 3 old fol. 169 (now fol. 24), which has the three acts of William II and 000, Regesta 1769; but old fols. 170–72 have been lost. It is clear from the reconstruction and comparison of Liber A, old fol. 169, with another of Reed’s cartularies, Liber B, Episc. vi/1/2, fol. 23, that the charters once in Liber A, old fols. 169–72, were laid out in very similar manner and order to those now in Liber B, fols. 23–6.2 A list of royal charters, under the heading ‘Carte regum Angl(ie)’, appears in Liber A, new fol. 4v. It includes four pre-Conquest documents, the three acts in the name of William, the eight of Henry I, four of Stephen, and ten of Henry II, plus two duplicates.3 Underneath is written ‘Originalls lost’, in a hand perhaps of the second half of the seventeenth century. The charters copied in Liber B, fols. 23–6, follow the list precisely, with the exception of the last two acts of Henry II, which are transposed.4 The lost Liber Ӕ (Davis 249), discussed at Ctl. Chichester, p. xi, left the cathedral during the seventeenth century. Called variously ‘Bishop Sherburne’s Chartulary’, ‘The Leiger Book’ and ‘Magnus Liber Evidentiarum’, it is said to have contained over 400 pages, written mainly in the hand of John Stilman. John Swayne, chapter clerk, made abstracts from it in Liber K, Cap. i/12/2, pp. 167–324 in the first half of the seventeenth century. A list of the contents of fols. 1–137 was made by William Paule, bishop of Oxford 1663–1665, who had been a canon of Chichester in 1637–1642 and 1660–1662. His list was copied after his death into Statute Book B, Cap. i/1/2, fols. 24–6 and recopied to ‘Dr Hayley’s book’, Cap. i/12/3, pp. 238–57, where it is noted that ‘the original, ’tis thought, was gotten into the hands of Sir Richard Farrington’, to which has been added later, ‘but quaere, for the 2 The folios have been re-written for Liber B, rather than re-used. Liber A, old fol. 170r, must have opened with a continuation of 000, Regesta 1769, unfinished on fol. 169v, but Liber B, fol. 24r starts immediately with another charter. There is no trace of the old arabic foliation of the prototype cartulary in Liber B, fols. 24–26: the pages have been trimmed, but the positioning of the later roman foliation, itself partly lost in trimming, does not allow for an earlier foliation. The only significant difference between the reconstructed prototype cartulary and Liber B, fols. 24–26 comes from a reference at Liber P, fol. 199v, to two charters of Henry II (H2/589, 594), on fol. 170, corresponding to Liber B, fol. 24. The charters are actually found on fol. 25, but the discrepancy may be the result of scribal error in Liber P. 3 The two acts of Henry II present in Liber Y but omitted in the list are H2/859, 945 (Ctl. Chichester, nos. 97–8), for Hugh Sturmi, called in one act Hugh fitz Esturmi. 4 It appears from a deletion of a rubric on fol. 25v that the scribe of Liber B at first intended to follow the list exactly, but for some reason changed his mind and transposed the two acts. 20 OCTOBER 2014 H1 CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 4 descendants of that Farrington deny it after their best enquiries’.5 Bishop Paule’s list includes a reference to ‘Carta Bonifacii Cantuariensis de inspectione regiarum cartarum Willelmi Rufi, Henrici primi, et Henrici — de terris extra murum et portam ciuitatis, et de cemiterio (quidni sancti Michaelis) datis ecclesiae Cicest’’ located on fol. 27 (Cap. i/1/2, fol. 24r, col. 95; Cap. i/12/3, p. 240). Swayne’s transcripts copy W2/000, H1/000, H1/000, Regesta 460, 614, 617, referencing them to this folio (Cap. i/12/2, pp. 273–4).6 In 1338 Robert de Stretford, bishop of Chichester, had eighteen documents inspected and confirmed, including three charters of Henry I, one of Stephen, and two of Henry II. All these acts appear in the cartularies. The inspeximus also contains a charter of King John, and eight acts of Henry III, as well as two deeds of John count of Eu and an act of Bishop John [Climping or Langton] (CalCh, iv. 439–42, no. 40). The resulting engrossment was itself enrolled on several occasions under later kings (see apparatus for 000, Regesta 1405 below), and was copied into three of the later cartularies, Liber A, Liber B, and Liber E. The final sources are the records of a dispute of 1253–4 between the dean and chapter and the king about the ownership of certain land in Chichester. Two of William II’s acts and two of Henry I’s were enrolled in records of the proceedings: details are given below at 000, 000, Regesta 614, 617.

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