Geoffrey (archbishop of York)

Geoffrey[a] (c. 1152 – 12 December 1212) was an illegitimate son of King Henry II of England who became bishop-elect of Lincoln and archbishop of York.[11][f] Henry II had eight children from his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, including the future kings Richard I and John of England.[19] He also held a prebend,[10] an income from land owned by a cathedral chapter,[20] in the diocese of London, but there is little evidence that he executed the duties of either office.[10] Another potential problem was Geoffrey's illegitimacy, which normally disbarred a person from holding ecclesiastical office, but that was dealt with by the granting of a papal dispensation.The campaign resulted in the capture of William the Lion, the King of Scots, at the Battle of Alnwick and also helped to compel Hugh du Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, to pledge fealty to Henry II.He subsequently went to study at Tours, where he probably befriended Peter of Blois, a medieval poet and diplomat who dedicated a later work on St Wilfrid to Geoffrey.[10] Geoffrey formally resigned the see of Lincoln on 6 January 1182,[27] at Marlborough in England, rather than be ordained as Pope Lucius III had ordered.[33] Following the declaration of war on Henry by Prince Richard and King Philip II of France in 1187, Geoffrey was given command of a quarter of the English royal army.[34] Richard named Geoffrey Archbishop of York on 20 July 1189,[35] within days of taking the throne; the formal election took place on 10 August.[10] What happened with the vacant archbishopric of York after Richard took the throne, and why, as well as the exact chronology of events, is complicated by the contradictory nature of the main contemporary accounts.[35] Richard probably gave York to Geoffrey in the hope of forcing him to become a full priest, and thus eliminate a potential rival for the throne.[10] Walter's election to York was supported by Richard's mother, Eleanor, whom a chronicler claimed hated Geoffrey as the product of one of her husband's affairs.[10][j] In early 1190 Geoffrey ordered a halt to religious ceremonies in the cathedral and excommunicated Henry Marshal and Burchard in retaliation for a dispute during an earlier church service.Although Hugh du Puiset, who was Justiciar, was hampering Geoffrey's attempts to collect revenue for the earlier fine, Richard insisted on immediate full payment.The dispute was settled once more when the pope stepped in and ratified Geoffrey's election, thus enabling a reconciliation between the king and the archbishop at Tours in June.Further appeals to Rome led to an eventual settlement in October 1192, when the bishop finally acknowledged Geoffrey's authority over Durham.[54] Geoffrey long faced opposition from some members of his cathedral chapter led by Henry Marshal, Burchard du Puiset, and Roger of London.Charges of simony, extortion, and neglect of his duties were lodged against Geoffrey, who in return excommunicated the ringleaders more than once, and locked the canons out of church.Geoffrey also faced difficulties with his appointees to the office of Dean of York; his first choice, his half-brother Peter, was opposed by the cathedral chapter.[55] Later that year Geoffrey began to quarrel with Hubert Walter over the primacy of England, which Canterbury claimed and York disputed.[10] After John succeeded Richard in 1199, he decided to restore Geoffrey to the archiepiscopal estates, but continued to receive the income until the archbishop returned from Rome.[10] Although his archiepiscopate was mainly marked by the conflicts in which he engaged, Geoffrey also managed to institute some administrative reforms in his diocese, creating the office of chancellor.Although Walter Map declared that Geoffrey was "full of faults and devoid of character",[14] he remained loyal to his father until Henry's death.[62] Another historian, J. C. Holt, stated that Geoffrey was through his career "a perpetual source of danger, quarrelling now with de Puiset, now with the Yorkshire sheriffs, ever ready to attack the judicial and fiscal superiority of the Crown.His military abilities, displayed in the rebellion of 1173–1174, as well his custody of castles near Tours, would have also fed into Richard's disquiet over Geoffrey's possible intentions.[65] The historian Ralph Turner said of Geoffrey that "he sought power and wealth despite the handicap of his birth" and that he had "inherited the bad temper of the other Plantagenets".After the king's death it passed through several royal owners, regarded as a relic of the saint, before reaching the University Library at Leiden in 1741.