Lawrence Booth
Encyclopedia
Lawrence Booth was Prince-Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor
of England, before becoming Archbishop of York
.
family of Booth
which remained seated at Dunham Massey
until the middle of the eighteenth century, Lawrence Booth started out reading both civil
and canon law
at Pembroke Hall
, Cambridge
, becoming a Licentiate
. He was elected Master
of his college in 1450, a post he held until his death, and later was also appointed Chancellor
of the University of Cambridge
. Whilst at Cambridge, he started a movement for both a School for the Arts and a School of Civil Law, and is believed to have produced his first miracle.
Outside Cambridge, Booth's career also advanced quickly. In 1449, he was appointed a Prebendary
of St. Paul's Cathedral and, on 2 November 1456, became Dean
of the Cathedral. He was also a Prebendary of York Minster
and of Lichfield Cathedral
. From 1454 to 1457 he was Archdeacon of Richmond
.
Booth's activity was not confined to the Church
; he was also active in the Government
. He became Chancellor to Queen Margaret
and, in about 1456, he became Keeper of the Privy Seal, and in that same year on 28 January he was also appointed one of the tutors and guardians of the Prince of Wales
. He was Lord Privy Seal
until 1460.
On 25 September 1456, Booth was installed as Bishop of Durham. This was both an important ecclesiastical appointment, and an equally important civil one, as the Bishop of Durham enjoyed civil authority over a large area of northern England almost until the reign of Queen Victoria
.
Although from a Lancastrian
family, he cultivated relations with the Yorkists, and after the fall of Henry VI
Booth adapted himself to the new status quo. He submitted himself to Edward (the former Earl of March, now King) in April of 1461, and by the end of June, Booth was beating back a raid led by the Lords Ros
, Dacre
and Rugemont-Grey
who brought Henry VI over the border to try to raise a rebellion in the north of England. Edward named him his confessor. Although he temporarily lost control of the See
of Durham
, it was restored to him in 1464, when he made submission to King Edward IV
, and he was never imprisoned. He took an active part in Edward's government thereafter and on 27 July 1473 was made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
, which office he held until May of 1474. In October 1473 he led a delegation to Scotland to formally sign the marriage treaty between the newborn son (later James IV of Scotland
) of James III
and Edward's third daughter Cecily
.
In 1476, Booth was translated to the Archdiocese of York, following on from where his half-brother had been until his death in 1464. He was the only Bishop
whom Edward IV inherited that was ever promoted to higher office. He was Archbishop until his death on 19 May 1480, and was buried beside his brother in the Collegiate Church of Southwell, which both he and his brother had generously endowed.
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
of England, before becoming Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
.
Life
A scion of the ancient CheshireCheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
family of Booth
Booth Baronets
There have been three Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Booth, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. One creation is extant as of 2010...
which remained seated at Dunham Massey
Dunham Massey
Dunham Massey is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The parish includes the villages of Sinderland Green, Dunham Woodhouse and Dunham Town, along with Dunham Massey Park, formerly the home of the last Earl of Stamford and owned by the National Trust...
until the middle of the eighteenth century, Lawrence Booth started out reading both civil
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
and canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
at Pembroke Hall
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, becoming a Licentiate
Licentiate
Licentiate is the title of a person who holds an academic degree called a licence. The term may derive from the Latin licentia docendi, meaning permission to teach. The term may also derive from the Latin licentia ad practicandum, which signified someone who held a certificate of competence to...
. He was elected Master
Master (college)
A Master is the title of the head of some colleges and other educational institutions. This applies especially at some colleges and institutions at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge .- See also :* Master A Master (or in female form Mistress) is the title of the head of some...
of his college in 1450, a post he held until his death, and later was also appointed Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. Whilst at Cambridge, he started a movement for both a School for the Arts and a School of Civil Law, and is believed to have produced his first miracle.
Outside Cambridge, Booth's career also advanced quickly. In 1449, he was appointed a Prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
of St. Paul's Cathedral and, on 2 November 1456, became Dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
of the Cathedral. He was also a Prebendary of York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
and of Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
. From 1454 to 1457 he was Archdeacon of Richmond
Archdeacon of Richmond
The Archdeacon of Richmond is an archdiaconal post in the Church of England. It is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Chester.-History:It was created around the year 1088, and was endowed by Thomas, Archbishop of York. It had the valuable impropriations of Easingwold, Bolton, Clapham, and...
.
Booth's activity was not confined to the Church
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
; he was also active in the Government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
. He became Chancellor to Queen Margaret
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou was the wife of King Henry VI of England. As such, she was Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471; and Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453...
and, in about 1456, he became Keeper of the Privy Seal, and in that same year on 28 January he was also appointed one of the tutors and guardians of the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
. He was Lord Privy Seal
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
until 1460.
On 25 September 1456, Booth was installed as Bishop of Durham. This was both an important ecclesiastical appointment, and an equally important civil one, as the Bishop of Durham enjoyed civil authority over a large area of northern England almost until the reign of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
.
Although from a Lancastrian
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
family, he cultivated relations with the Yorkists, and after the fall of Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
Booth adapted himself to the new status quo. He submitted himself to Edward (the former Earl of March, now King) in April of 1461, and by the end of June, Booth was beating back a raid led by the Lords Ros
Thomas de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros
Thomas de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros of Helmsley was a follower of the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses.-Family:...
, Dacre
Humphrey Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre
Humphrey Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre of Gilsland , was an English soldier, Cumberland landowner and peer.He remained loyal to the House of Lancaster when Henry VI was deposed by Edward IV and fought on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton of 1461, after which he was attainted...
and Rugemont-Grey
Rugemont Castle
Not to be confused with Rougemont Castle in ExeterRugemont Castle was a castle in the village of Ridgmont, in the county of Bedfordshire, England.....
who brought Henry VI over the border to try to raise a rebellion in the north of England. Edward named him his confessor. Although he temporarily lost control of the See
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
of Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, it was restored to him in 1464, when he made submission to King Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
, and he was never imprisoned. He took an active part in Edward's government thereafter and on 27 July 1473 was made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This evolved into one of the Great Officers of State....
, which office he held until May of 1474. In October 1473 he led a delegation to Scotland to formally sign the marriage treaty between the newborn son (later James IV of Scotland
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
) of James III
James III of Scotland
James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...
and Edward's third daughter Cecily
Cecily of York
Cecily of York, Viscountess Welles was an English Princess and the third, but eventual second surviving, daughter of Edward IV, King of England and his queen consort, née Lady Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers.-Birth and Family:Cecily was born in Westminster Palace...
.
In 1476, Booth was translated to the Archdiocese of York, following on from where his half-brother had been until his death in 1464. He was the only Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
whom Edward IV inherited that was ever promoted to higher office. He was Archbishop until his death on 19 May 1480, and was buried beside his brother in the Collegiate Church of Southwell, which both he and his brother had generously endowed.