Nigel, Bishop of Ely
Encyclopedia
Nigel was an Anglo-Norman
Bishop of Ely
. He came from an ecclesiastical family; his uncle Roger of Salisbury
was a bishop and government minister for King Henry I
, and other relatives also held offices in the English Church and government. Nigel owed his advancement to his uncle, as did Nigel's probable brother Alexander
, who like Nigel was advanced to episcopal status. Nigel was educated on the continent before becoming a royal administrator. He served as Treasurer of England
under King Henry, before being appointed to the see
, or bishopric, of Ely in 1133. His tenure was marked by conflicts with the monks of his cathedral chapter
, who believed that Nigel kept income for himself that should properly have gone to them.
Following the accession of Henry I's successor, King Stephen
, Nigel remained as treasurer only briefly before his family was ousted from political office by the new king. Nigel rebelled and deserted to Stephen's rival Matilda
, but eventually reconciled with Stephen. Although he subsequently held some minor administrative posts, he never regained high office under Stephen. On the king's death, Nigel was returned to the treasurership by the new king, Henry II
. Nigel's second tenure as treasurer saw him return the administration to the practices of Henry I. He withdrew from much of his public work after around 1164, following an attack of paralysis. He was succeeded as treasurer by his son, Richard fitzNeal
, whom he had trained in the operations of the Exchequer
, or Treasury of England. Most historians, then and now, have felt that Nigel's administrative abilities were excellent; he is considered to have been more talented as an administrator than as a religious figure.
Nigel's date of birth is uncertain, but it is likely to have been some time around 1100. Historians occasionally refer to him as Nigel Poor or Nigel of Ely, but before his elevation to the episcopate he was commonly known as Nigel, the bishop's nephew, or Nigel, the treasurer. He was probably a Norman
by ancestry although he was brought up in England, which in 1066 had been conquered by the Duke of Normandy
, William the Conqueror
. Following William's death in 1087 his realm was divided between two of his sons. His middle son, William Rufus
, inherited the Kingdom of England
, and the Duchy of Normandy
passed to his eldest son, Robert Curthose. The youngest son, Henry
, received a grant of money, which he used to purchase a lordship in Normandy. The brothers fought amongst themselves for the next twenty years; the initial conflict was between Rufus and Robert, but after Rufus' death in 1100 Henry, who succeeded Rufus as King of England, also became involved. Eventually, in 1106, Henry captured Robert, imprisoned him for life, and took control of Normandy.
Nigel's uncle Roger of Salisbury, Bishop of Salisbury
, saw to Nigel's education at the school of Laon
in France, where he probably studied mathematics under Anselm of Laon
. It is likely that his father was Roger's brother Humphrey. Other students at Laon included William de Corbeil
, later Archbishop of Canterbury
, Robert de Bethune
, who became Bishop of Hereford
, Geoffrey le Breton
, future Archbishop of Rouen, and other men subsequently to hold bishoprics in the Anglo-Norman dominions.
When he took vows as a cleric is unrecorded, but Nigel held a prebend
, an ecclesiastical office in the cathedral, in the see of London
before holding one of the offices of archdeacon
in the diocese of Salisbury
, although which archdeaconry he held is unclear. Most modern historians believe that Nigel was brother to Alexander of Lincoln, later Bishop of Lincoln
, but this relationship is not specifically attested in the sources, which merely state that both were Roger's nephews. William of Malmesbury
, a medieval chronicler, considered both Alexander and Nigel to be well educated and diligent. Nigel attended the consecration of Bernard as Bishop of St David's
at Westminster
in 1115, and may have returned to England from Laon by 1112. From the time of his return until around 1120 he served as a royal chaplain and attested a number of royal charters.
In 1133, Roger of Salisbury secured the bishopric of Ely for Nigel. Ely had been without a bishop since 1131; after the two-year vacancy, King Henry made the appointment because he was settling outstanding business before leaving England to return to Normandy. At this time Henry also appointed Geoffrey Rufus
to Durham
, and Æthelwold
to the newly created Diocese of Carlisle
. Nigel was consecrated on 1 October 1133 at Lambeth
by William de Corbeil—who was by then Archbishop of Canterbury—possibly with the assistance of Roger of Salisbury. Nigel continued to hold the office of treasurer until 1136, when he was replaced by a relative, Adelelm
, although the historian C. Warren Hollister
placed his departure from the office in 1133 with his appointment to Ely. The Constitutio domus regis, or Establishment of the King's Household, may have been written by Nigel, or possibly for his use, and probably was composed around 1135.
Ely had until 1109 been an independent monastery, but its last abbot, Richard, had proposed to the king a plan by which the abbey would become a bishopric, presumably with the abbot himself as bishop. Richard died before the proposal could be put into operation, but in 1109, the custodian of the vacant abbey secured permission to make the change, and became the first Bishop of Ely. However, the administrative changes needed to make the abbey into a bishopric took longer, and were still unresolved at the time of Nigel's appointment. Regardless, Nigel was constantly at court, as shown by his appearance 31 times as a witness to charters during the last 10 years of Henry I's reign. This left little time for administration of his diocese, and Nigel appointed a married clergyman, Ranulf of Salisbury, to administer the diocese. Ranulf seems to have tyrannized the monks of the cathedral chapter, and Nigel appears to have done little to protect his monks from abuse. Later, during the early years of Stephen's reign, Nigel claimed to have uncovered a plot led by Ranulf to assassinate Normans. The exact nature of the conspiracy is obscure, and it is unclear what prompted it. The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis
claimed that Ranulf planned to kill all the Normans in the government and hand the country over to the Scots. After the discovery of the plot, Ranulf fled the country and Nigel made peace with the monks of his cathedral chapter. Another source of conflict with his monks was the desire of the cathedral chapter to enjoy the same "liberty" as a corporate body that the bishops did in the diocese. This liberty was a group of rights that the abbey had originally held, and had transferred to the bishop when the abbey became a bishopric. The rights included sake and soke
, or the right to command dues from the land, and the right to levy tolls. They also included the right to hold courts dealing with theft. Around 1135, Nigel conceded this point to the monks. Although he restored some of the lands that had been taken from the monks by Ranulf, the Liber Eliensis
(the house chronicle of the monks of Ely) continued to decry his administration of the diocese and the lands of the cathedral chapter, alleging that "he kept back for himself some properties of the church which he wanted, and very good ones they were". The chronicle contains a number of complaints that Nigel oppressed the monks or despoiled them.
and his elder brother, Theobald II, Count of Champagne—and Henry's surviving legitimate child Matilda
, usually known as the Empress Matilda because of her first marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor
, Henry V
. King Henry's only legitimate son, William
, had died in 1120. After Matilda was widowed in 1125, she returned to her father, who married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou
. All the magnates of England and Normandy were required to declare fealty to Matilda as Henry's heir, but when Henry I died in 1135, Stephen rushed to England and had himself crowned before either Theobald or Matilda could react. The Norman barons accepted Stephen as Duke of Normandy, and Theobald contented himself with his possessions in France. Matilda, though, was less sanguine, and secured the support of the Scottish king, David
, who was her maternal uncle, and in 1138 also the support of her half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester
, an illegitimate son of Henry I.
After Stephen's accession, Nigel was at first retained as treasurer, but the king came to suspect him and his family of secretly supporting the Empress Matilda. The prime movers behind Stephen's suspicions against the bishops were the Beaumont family
, headed by the twin brothers Robert, Earl of Leicester
, and Waleran, Count of Meulan
, who wished to be the main advisors of the king. Roger, Alexander, and Nigel together held key castles, including Salisbury, Devizes, Sherborne, Malmesbury, Sleaford, and Newark. The Beaumonts alleged that Roger and his family were fortifying the castles they held in preparation for turning them over to Matilda. They urged the king to confiscate the castles before they were lost. Although the Gesta Stephani
, or Deeds of King Stephen, a medieval chronicle of the events of Stephen's reign, alleges that Roger was disloyal to Stephen, the evidence is against such action by Roger, as he had been an opponent of Matilda since 1126, when she was first put forward as her father's heir. Roger and his family also had been early supporters of Stephen's seizure of the crown after Henry I's death. The contemporary chronicler Orderic Vitalis felt that Roger's family were going to betray the king, but William of Malmesbury believed that the allegations were based on envy from "powerful laymen". Whatever Roger's position, Nigel's own position on Matilda is less clear, and it is possible that he was never as opposed to her as his uncle. No evidence survives that he was estranged from Stephen, however, as Nigel continued to witness charters throughout the first four years of Stephen's reign. According to the historian Marjorie Chibnall
, Nigel's family may have been caught up in a dispute between Henry of Blois
and the Beaumonts.
In 1139, supporters of Roger and his family brawled in public with some men who supported Alan of Brittany. The brawl may have been provoked by the Beaumonts, for Alan was often associated with them. At a court held at Oxford in June 1139, Stephen required Roger of Salisbury, Alexander of Lincoln, and Nigel to surrender their castles as a consequence of the brawl. When Roger and his family delayed, the king ordered their arrest. Nigel managed to escape arrest by fleeing to the castle of Devizes
, and the king followed and began a siege. The king threatened to hang Roger in front of the castle unless it capitulated, and Nigel, under pressure from Roger's wife, surrendered the castle after the siege had lasted three days. All three bishops then submitted and surrendered their secular offices and castles. They were, however, allowed to retain their dioceses. Nigel surrendered Newark Castle
and Sleaford Castle
, both of which had been constructed by Alexander. Stephen promptly gave Newark to Robert, Earl of Leicester, who was in turn excommunicated by Alexander of Lincoln.
Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, who was Bishop of Winchester
and papal legate
in England, called an ecclesiastical council at Winchester on 29 August 1139, and summoned the king to answer charges that he had unlawfully arrested clergy. The king refused to attend, and sent a representative instead. After meeting for a few days, the council was dismissed on 1 September without deciding anything except to appeal to the pope in Rome. In the end, the appeal never reached Rome. Part of the problem confronting the assembled bishops was that Stephen had not expelled Roger's family from their ecclesiastical offices, merely their secular ones. Stephen's representatives argued that the bishops had given up their castles and money voluntarily to avoid secular charges. The defence taken by the king was not novel; it had been used before by William I and William II against Odo of Bayeux and William de St-Calais, respectively.
Traditionally, the arrest of the bishops has been seen as a turning point in Stephen's reign, and the event that turned the ecclesiastical hierarchy against him. Recent historians have held a lively debate on the issue; a few still hold to the traditional interpretation, but most have decided that reactions in the English church were more ambivalent. One modern historian, David Crouch
, believes that the arrest of the bishops signalled the beginnings of the Anarchy
, not because of any alienation of the church, but through court politics, where Stephen showed himself incapable of manipulating the factions of his court. The ascendency of the Beaumonts was marked by the placement of one of their protégés, Philip de Harcourt
, as Chancellor.
Roger died in December 1139 while in the king's custody. After the death of his uncle, Nigel, then in East Anglia
, revolted. In January 1140, he fortified the Isle of Ely
, but was soon besieged and forced to flee. Even his own cathedral chapter refused to support him, and his revolt collapsed in January. Nigel took refuge at the court of Stephen's rival, the Empress Matilda, who had landed in England in the south on 30 September 1139 in a bid to take the throne. The revolt stood little chance of succeeding, for there were no supporters of Matilda close to East Anglia, and it is likely that Nigel reacted more out of fear and anger at his uncle's death than anything else. It appears likely that Nigel appealed to Pope Innocent II
at this time, for in October 1140 Innocent issued a papal bull
, or papal instruction, ordering the restoration to Nigel of the lands of his bishopric, and it appears that after the capture of Stephen, Matilda managed to restore Nigel to Ely briefly. In 1141, Nigel, along with his brother Alexander, was one of the supporters of Matilda who, after the capture of Stephen by Matilda's forces, reached an agreement with Henry of Blois to replace Stephen with Matilda on the throne. Ultimately, this agreement came to nothing when Matilda's chief supporter, her half-brother Robert of Gloucester, was captured and later exchanged for Stephen. Stephen's release meant that the king was free to send Geoffrey de Mandeville
against Nigel, and Nigel submitted to the king, probably in 1142.
, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who went to Rome around this time on separate business. While he was in Rome, Pope Lucius II
issued a number of rulings in Nigel's favor, ordering his restitution to Ely. He was then finally reconciled with Stephen by paying a fine of £200 and offering his son Richard fitzNeal as a hostage. While Nigel was at Rome, Ely was attacked by the king's forces. The monks sent to Geoffrey de Mandeville for aid, and Geoffrey came and occupied the Isle of Ely, while the king's forces occupied the lands of the diocese outside the Isle. Both occupying forces did damage to the lands of the diocese and the cathedral chapter. The monks, in the Liber Eliensis, complained that Nigel had taken items from the church to finance his trip to Rome, and that they were required to help contribute to the bribe when Nigel was reconciled with Stephen.
By 1147, Nigel was again witnessing Stephen's charters, and in 1153 or 1154 he was named in a grant of lands to St Radegund's priory in Cambridge. He assisted with the consecration of Hilary of Chichester
as Bishop of Chichester
in August 1147. He took part in shire courts in both Norfolk and Suffolk in 1150, and continued to assist with episcopal consecrations throughout the remainder of Stephen's reign. No records exist of him being involved with treasury affairs during this time. His witnessing of charters is sparse, and almost always in company with other bishops; this suggests that he was only at court for councils or other similar events. Nigel was a witness to Stephen's charter that left England to Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou
. When Henry succeeded Stephen, Nigel was present at the coronation.
. The king had to ask Nigel several times to return before the bishop agreed, and one reason for Nigel's reluctance may have been that he would have to work with Robert, Earl of Leicester, one of the Beaumonts, who had been responsible for turning Stephen against Nigel's family in 1139. Another of Nigel's colleagues in the administration was a layman, Richard de Lucy
, who served as a justice until 1178. Nigel was the only surviving minister of Henry I, and his knowledge of the Exchequer was needed to help reorganize the revenues of the king and restore administrative practices lost during Stephen's reign. The lone pipe roll to survive from Henry I's reign, for the year 1130, may be Nigel's own copy, brought with him to the Exchequer when he returned under Henry II. Nigel was able to increase the revenues compared to what had been collected under Stephen, but he was unable to quickly return them to the amounts collected under Henry I. It may have been Nigel who urged the king to attempt to recover estates that had been alienated during Stephen's reign.
The pipe roll for 1155–1156 has several entries which declare that Nigel was making decisions about monetary affairs and issuing writs, but later pipe rolls do not contain any such entries. It appears likely that after the initial reorganization of the Exchequer, Nigel's involvement lessened. He continued to be active, though, and obtained tax exemptions
and other privileges until his death in 1169. His son, Richard fitzNeal, who is the main source for information about Nigel's career in the Exchequer, stated that he fulfilled Nigel's treasury duties when Nigel was ill. Nigel continued to spar with Robert, the Earl of Leicester, and Richard fitzNeal relays a story about Nigel and Robert confronting each other at the Exchequer over traditional exemptions of the barons of the Exchequer
, or judges of the Exchequer. Among the reforms carried out by Nigel were the restoration of the "blanch farm" system, whereby a random sample of coins was assayed and any shortage was collected from the sheriff, and the restoration of collections from a swath of counties that had quit paying taxes during Stephen's reign. The most substantial change was the return to a unified system of finances, which in turn required a reconciliation of the two different systems in use by Stephen and Matilda. Despite Nigel's reinstatement to the Exchequer, and the nomination of his son as treasurer, Nigel did not enjoy the power that his uncle had wielded under Henry I. The exact date of Richard's appointment as treasurer is obscure, but it was sometime between 1158 and 1160, as he is securely attested as treasurer in 1160. The Liber Eliensis states that Nigel paid the king £400 to secure the office for Richard. Some historians have seen Nigel as Henry II's "minister of finance".
Nigel also served as a royal justice under Henry II. Although his relations with the government had improved, his relations with the monks of his cathedral chapter, which had never been good, continued to be marked by quarrels. In 1156, the English Pope Adrian IV
threatened to suspend Nigel from office unless the bishop restored all the lands that had belonged to the church when Nigel became bishop. The restitution was hampered by the absence of the king from England, and the dispute dragged on until finally it was resolved by Nigel pledging in front of Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, to restore the lands. By 1158, Nigel had managed to restore enough possessions that Adrian relaxed the conditions. Even this did not end the quarrels with the monks, as Nigel then named a married clerk as sacrist
of Ely, an action which was condemned by Thomas Becket
, the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Nigel did manage to secure a reduction in the assessment of knight's fees due from the diocese, from the 60 fees that were due under Henry I, to 40 in 1166.
Nigel died on 30 May 1169. In either 1164 or in 1166, or possibly both, he had been struck by paralysis, and after this he seems to have withdrawn from active affairs. He took little part in the disputes
between the king and Thomas Becket, although he did agree with his fellow bishops who opposed the king's attempt to reduce clerical benefits. He may have been buried at Ely, where a 12th-century marble slab possibly marks his tomb.
Nigel was a married bishop, and his son Richard fitzNeal was later Lord Treasurer and Bishop of London
. Another son was William, called William the Englishman. Richard, who wrote the Dialogus de Scaccario
, or Dialogue concerning the Exchequer about the procedures of the Exchequer, had been taught those procedures by his father. Nigel's uncle Roger had at least one son, Roger, who was King Stephen's chancellor; Adelelm, who succeeded Nigel as treasurer after his first term, was probably Roger's son also. Another relative was William of Ely
, who succeeded Richard fitzNeal as treasurer in 1196, although the exact relationship is unclear.
Nigel was active in draining the Fens
, the swampy land around Ely, to increase the agricultural lands around his bishopric. He also fortified the Isle of Ely with stone defences, probably starting around 1140. The remains of one castle on Cherry Hill in Ely probably date to Nigel's fortifications. Early in his time as bishop he was active in recovering lands of the church that had been granted to knights by his predecessors, and soon after his consecration he ordered an inquest made into the lands actually owned by the diocese and cathedral chapter. The bishop spent most of his life in debt, but in the year he died he managed to clear it with his son's help. The monks of his cathedral chapter did not like the fact that they were required to pay for the bishop's appeals to Rome to recover his see, or pay for regaining the king's favour. Their dislike of their bishop is evident in the Liber Eliensis. The art historian C. R. Dodwell wrote of Nigel's efforts:
Most historians have seen Nigel as an administrator, not a religious bishop. The historian David Knowles wrote that Nigel "had devoted all his energies and abilities to matters purely secular; in the department of financial administration he was supreme, and more than any other man he helped to ensure the continuity and development of the excellent administrative practice initiated under Henry I". The historian W. L. Warren said that "Stephen probably paid dearly for the dismissal of Bishop Roger of Salisbury and Bishop Nigel of Ely, for the expertise of the exchequer was lodged in their expertise." Whatever Nigel's administrative talent, his ecclesiastical abilities are generally held to be low; the Gesta Stephani says of both him and Alexander that they were "men who loved display and were rash in their reckless presumption … disregarding the holy and simple manner of life that befits a Christian priest they devoted themselves so utterly to warfare and the vanities of this world that whenever they attended court by appointment they … aroused general astonishment on account of the extraordinary concourse of knights by which they were surrounded on every side."
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
Bishop of Ely
Bishop of Ely
The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
. He came from an ecclesiastical family; his uncle Roger of Salisbury
Roger of Salisbury
Roger was a Norman medieval Bishop of Salisbury and the seventh Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England.-Life:...
was a bishop and government minister for King Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
, and other relatives also held offices in the English Church and government. Nigel owed his advancement to his uncle, as did Nigel's probable brother Alexander
Alexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...
, who like Nigel was advanced to episcopal status. Nigel was educated on the continent before becoming a royal administrator. He served as Treasurer of England
Lord High Treasurer
The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Act of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third highest ranked Great Officer of State, below the Lord High Chancellor and above the Lord President...
under King Henry, before being appointed to 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...
, or bishopric, of Ely in 1133. His tenure was marked by conflicts with the monks of his cathedral chapter
Cathedral chapter
In accordance with canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese in his stead. These councils are made up of canons and dignitaries; in the Roman Catholic church their...
, who believed that Nigel kept income for himself that should properly have gone to them.
Following the accession of Henry I's successor, King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
, Nigel remained as treasurer only briefly before his family was ousted from political office by the new king. Nigel rebelled and deserted to Stephen's rival Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
, but eventually reconciled with Stephen. Although he subsequently held some minor administrative posts, he never regained high office under Stephen. On the king's death, Nigel was returned to the treasurership by the new king, Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
. Nigel's second tenure as treasurer saw him return the administration to the practices of Henry I. He withdrew from much of his public work after around 1164, following an attack of paralysis. He was succeeded as treasurer by his son, Richard fitzNeal
Richard FitzNeal
Richard FitzNeal Richard FitzNeal Richard FitzNeal (or FitzNigel; circa (c. 1130 – 10 September 1198), sometimes called Richard of Ely, was a churchman and bureaucrat in the service of Henry II of England.-Life:...
, whom he had trained in the operations of the Exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...
, or Treasury of England. Most historians, then and now, have felt that Nigel's administrative abilities were excellent; he is considered to have been more talented as an administrator than as a religious figure.
Background and early life
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
by ancestry although he was brought up in England, which in 1066 had been conquered by the Duke of Normandy
Duke of Normandy
The Duke of Normandy is the title of the reigning monarch of the British Crown Dependancies of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. The title traces its roots to the Duchy of Normandy . Whether the reigning sovereign is a male or female, they are always titled as the "Duke of...
, William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
. Following William's death in 1087 his realm was divided between two of his sons. His middle son, William Rufus
William II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
, inherited the Kingdom of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
, and the Duchy of Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
passed to his eldest son, Robert Curthose. The youngest son, Henry
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
, received a grant of money, which he used to purchase a lordship in Normandy. The brothers fought amongst themselves for the next twenty years; the initial conflict was between Rufus and Robert, but after Rufus' death in 1100 Henry, who succeeded Rufus as King of England, also became involved. Eventually, in 1106, Henry captured Robert, imprisoned him for life, and took control of Normandy.
Nigel's uncle Roger of Salisbury, Bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...
, saw to Nigel's education at the school of Laon
Laon
Laon is the capital city of the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-History:The hilly district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance...
in France, where he probably studied mathematics under Anselm of Laon
Anselm of Laon
Anselm of Laon was a French theologian and founder of a school of scholars who helped to pioneer biblical hermeneutics.Remembered in the century after his death as "Anselmus" or "Anselm", his name was more properly "Ansellus" or, in Modern French, "Anseau."Born of very humble parents at Laon...
. It is likely that his father was Roger's brother Humphrey. Other students at Laon included William de Corbeil
William de Corbeil
William de Corbeil or William of Corbeil was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Very little is known of William's early life or his family, except that he was born at Corbeil in the outskirts of Paris and that he had two brothers...
, later Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Robert de Bethune
Robert de Bethune
Robert de Bethune was a medieval Bishop of Hereford. The son of a knight, he became a teacher before becoming a canon, a type of monk, by 1115. He was elected prior of Llanthony Priory in the middle 1120s, and was named bishop by King Henry I of England in 1130...
, who became Bishop of Hereford
Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.The see is in the City of Hereford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert which was founded as a cathedral in 676.The Bishop's residence is...
, Geoffrey le Breton
Geoffrey Brito
Geoffrey Brito was a native of Brittany who became Archbishop of Rouen in the Middle Ages. He served as archbishop from 1111 to 1128....
, future Archbishop of Rouen, and other men subsequently to hold bishoprics in the Anglo-Norman dominions.
When he took vows as a cleric is unrecorded, but Nigel held a prebend
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...
, an ecclesiastical office in the cathedral, in the see of London
Diocese of London
The Anglican Diocese of London forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.Historically the diocese covered a large area north of the Thames and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north and west. The present diocese covers and 17 London boroughs, covering most of Greater...
before holding one of the offices of archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
in the diocese of Salisbury
Diocese of Salisbury
The Diocese of Salisbury is a Church of England diocese in the south of England. The diocese covers Dorset and most of Wiltshire and is a constituent diocese of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Salisbury and the diocesan synod...
, although which archdeaconry he held is unclear. Most modern historians believe that Nigel was brother to Alexander of Lincoln, later Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
, but this relationship is not specifically attested in the sources, which merely state that both were Roger's nephews. William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
, a medieval chronicler, considered both Alexander and Nigel to be well educated and diligent. Nigel attended the consecration of Bernard as Bishop of St David's
Bishop of St David's
The Bishop of St David's is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St David's.The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St David's in Pembrokeshire, founding St David's Cathedral. The current Bishop of St...
at Westminster
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
in 1115, and may have returned to England from Laon by 1112. From the time of his return until around 1120 he served as a royal chaplain and attested a number of royal charters.
Under Henry I
Nigel first became Treasurer in the reign of Henry I, and seems to have held that office from around 1126. He was already a receiver, or auditor and administrator, in the treasury of Normandy, and he served as treasurer for both realms, moving with the king and court between England and Normandy. The date of his appointment is unclear, as until he became a bishop, royal charters listed him as "nephew of the bishop" (Roger of Salisbury), rather than by any office he held. In 1131, though, he was listed in a papal letter as "Nigel, the treasurer", which securely establishes that he held the office at that date.In 1133, Roger of Salisbury secured the bishopric of Ely for Nigel. Ely had been without a bishop since 1131; after the two-year vacancy, King Henry made the appointment because he was settling outstanding business before leaving England to return to Normandy. At this time Henry also appointed Geoffrey Rufus
Geoffrey Rufus
Geoffrey Rufus was a medieval Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England.-Life:Rufus' parentage and upbringing is unknown. The circumstances around his acquisition of the nickname "Rufus" have not been discovered either. He was a royal clerk before being named the tenth Lord Chancellor and...
to Durham
Diocese of Durham
The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the historic County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne...
, and Æthelwold
Æthelwold of Carlisle
Æthelwold was the first Bishop of Carlisle in medieval England.-Life:...
to the newly created Diocese of Carlisle
Diocese of Carlisle
The Diocese of Carlisle was created in 1133 by Henry I out of part of the Diocese of Durham, although many people of Celtic descent in the area looked to Glasgow for spiritual leadership. The first bishop was Æthelwold, formerly the king's confessor and now prior of the Augustinian priory at...
. Nigel was consecrated on 1 October 1133 at Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
by William de Corbeil—who was by then Archbishop of Canterbury—possibly with the assistance of Roger of Salisbury. Nigel continued to hold the office of treasurer until 1136, when he was replaced by a relative, Adelelm
Adelelm (Lord High Treasurer)
Adelelm was Lord High Treasurer of England and nephew of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. He was also archdeacon of Dorset and later Dean of Lincoln.-References:...
, although the historian C. Warren Hollister
C. Warren Hollister
Charles Warren Hollister was an American author and historian, "one of the best medieval generalists in the world" A professor emeritus, he was one of the founding members of the University of California Santa Barbara history department...
placed his departure from the office in 1133 with his appointment to Ely. The Constitutio domus regis, or Establishment of the King's Household, may have been written by Nigel, or possibly for his use, and probably was composed around 1135.
Ely had until 1109 been an independent monastery, but its last abbot, Richard, had proposed to the king a plan by which the abbey would become a bishopric, presumably with the abbot himself as bishop. Richard died before the proposal could be put into operation, but in 1109, the custodian of the vacant abbey secured permission to make the change, and became the first Bishop of Ely. However, the administrative changes needed to make the abbey into a bishopric took longer, and were still unresolved at the time of Nigel's appointment. Regardless, Nigel was constantly at court, as shown by his appearance 31 times as a witness to charters during the last 10 years of Henry I's reign. This left little time for administration of his diocese, and Nigel appointed a married clergyman, Ranulf of Salisbury, to administer the diocese. Ranulf seems to have tyrannized the monks of the cathedral chapter, and Nigel appears to have done little to protect his monks from abuse. Later, during the early years of Stephen's reign, Nigel claimed to have uncovered a plot led by Ranulf to assassinate Normans. The exact nature of the conspiracy is obscure, and it is unclear what prompted it. The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis was an English chronicler of Norman ancestry who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. The modern biographer of Henry I of England, C...
claimed that Ranulf planned to kill all the Normans in the government and hand the country over to the Scots. After the discovery of the plot, Ranulf fled the country and Nigel made peace with the monks of his cathedral chapter. Another source of conflict with his monks was the desire of the cathedral chapter to enjoy the same "liberty" as a corporate body that the bishops did in the diocese. This liberty was a group of rights that the abbey had originally held, and had transferred to the bishop when the abbey became a bishopric. The rights included sake and soke
Soke (legal)
The term soke ), at the time of the Norman Conquest of England generally denoted "jurisdiction", but due to vague usage probably lacks a single precise definition....
, or the right to command dues from the land, and the right to levy tolls. They also included the right to hold courts dealing with theft. Around 1135, Nigel conceded this point to the monks. Although he restored some of the lands that had been taken from the monks by Ranulf, the Liber Eliensis
Liber Eliensis
The Liber Eliensis is a 12th-century English chronicle and history, written in Latin. Composed in three books, it was written at Ely Abbey on the island of Ely in the fenlands of eastern Cambridgeshire. Ely Abbey became the cathedral of a newly formed bishopric in 1109...
(the house chronicle of the monks of Ely) continued to decry his administration of the diocese and the lands of the cathedral chapter, alleging that "he kept back for himself some properties of the church which he wanted, and very good ones they were". The chronicle contains a number of complaints that Nigel oppressed the monks or despoiled them.
Stephen's early reign
Following King Henry's death in 1135, the succession was disputed between the king's nephews—StephenStephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
and his elder brother, Theobald II, Count of Champagne—and Henry's surviving legitimate child Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
, usually known as the Empress Matilda because of her first marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
, Henry V
Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry V was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor , the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. Henry's reign coincided with the final phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had pitted pope against emperor...
. King Henry's only legitimate son, William
William Adelin
William , surnamed Adelin , was the son of Henry I of England by his wife Matilda of Scotland, and was thus heir-apparent to the throne. His early death without issue caused a succession crisis.William was born in Winchester...
, had died in 1120. After Matilda was widowed in 1125, she returned to her father, who married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou
Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou
Geoffrey V , called the Handsome and Plantagenet, was the Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine by inheritance from 1129 and then Duke of Normandy by conquest from 1144...
. All the magnates of England and Normandy were required to declare fealty to Matilda as Henry's heir, but when Henry I died in 1135, Stephen rushed to England and had himself crowned before either Theobald or Matilda could react. The Norman barons accepted Stephen as Duke of Normandy, and Theobald contented himself with his possessions in France. Matilda, though, was less sanguine, and secured the support of the Scottish king, David
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
, who was her maternal uncle, and in 1138 also the support of her half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester
Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul"...
, an illegitimate son of Henry I.
After Stephen's accession, Nigel was at first retained as treasurer, but the king came to suspect him and his family of secretly supporting the Empress Matilda. The prime movers behind Stephen's suspicions against the bishops were the Beaumont family
House of Beaumont
The Norman family of Beaumont was one of the great baronial Anglo-Norman families which became rooted in England after the Norman conquest.Roger de Beaumont, lord of Pont-Audemer, of Beaumont-le-Roger, of Brionne and of Vatteville, was too old to fight at Hastings, staying in Normandy to govern...
, headed by the twin brothers Robert, Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester was Justiciar of England 1155–1168.The surname "de Beaumont" is given him by genealogists. The only known contemporary surname applied to him is "Robert son of Count Robert"...
, and Waleran, Count of Meulan
Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester , was the son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, and the twin brother of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester...
, who wished to be the main advisors of the king. Roger, Alexander, and Nigel together held key castles, including Salisbury, Devizes, Sherborne, Malmesbury, Sleaford, and Newark. The Beaumonts alleged that Roger and his family were fortifying the castles they held in preparation for turning them over to Matilda. They urged the king to confiscate the castles before they were lost. Although the Gesta Stephani
Deeds of King Stephen
Deeds of King Stephen or Acts of Stephen or Gesta Stephani is a mid-12th-century English history by an anonymous author about King Stephen and his struggles with his cousin Matilda of England, also known as the Empress Maud...
, or Deeds of King Stephen, a medieval chronicle of the events of Stephen's reign, alleges that Roger was disloyal to Stephen, the evidence is against such action by Roger, as he had been an opponent of Matilda since 1126, when she was first put forward as her father's heir. Roger and his family also had been early supporters of Stephen's seizure of the crown after Henry I's death. The contemporary chronicler Orderic Vitalis felt that Roger's family were going to betray the king, but William of Malmesbury believed that the allegations were based on envy from "powerful laymen". Whatever Roger's position, Nigel's own position on Matilda is less clear, and it is possible that he was never as opposed to her as his uncle. No evidence survives that he was estranged from Stephen, however, as Nigel continued to witness charters throughout the first four years of Stephen's reign. According to the historian Marjorie Chibnall
Marjorie Chibnall
Marjorie Morgan MacCallum Chibnall is an English historian, medievalist and Latin translator.Born at Atcham in Shropshire in 1915, she is an Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge , and had previously taught at the University of Southampton and the University of Aberdeen as well...
, Nigel's family may have been caught up in a dispute between Henry of Blois
Henry of Blois
Henry of Blois , often known as Henry of Winchester, was Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey from 1126, and Bishop of Winchester from 1129 to his death.-Early life and education:...
and the Beaumonts.
Arrest of the bishops
Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The town is about southeast of Chippenham and about east of Trowbridge.Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops, with a large open market place where a market is held once a week...
, and the king followed and began a siege. The king threatened to hang Roger in front of the castle unless it capitulated, and Nigel, under pressure from Roger's wife, surrendered the castle after the siege had lasted three days. All three bishops then submitted and surrendered their secular offices and castles. They were, however, allowed to retain their dioceses. Nigel surrendered Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire
Newark Castle, in Newark, in the English county of Nottinghamshire was built by Alexander, consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in 1123, who established it as a mint. His rebuild here was probably the model for that at Sleaford Castle, also built by Alexander....
and Sleaford Castle
Sleaford Castle
Sleaford Castle is a medieval castle in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. Built by the Bishop of Lincoln in the early 1120s it was inhabitable as late as 1555 but fell into disrepair during the latter half of the 16th-century...
, both of which had been constructed by Alexander. Stephen promptly gave Newark to Robert, Earl of Leicester, who was in turn excommunicated by Alexander of Lincoln.
Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, who was Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
and papal legate
Papal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
in England, called an ecclesiastical council at Winchester on 29 August 1139, and summoned the king to answer charges that he had unlawfully arrested clergy. The king refused to attend, and sent a representative instead. After meeting for a few days, the council was dismissed on 1 September without deciding anything except to appeal to the pope in Rome. In the end, the appeal never reached Rome. Part of the problem confronting the assembled bishops was that Stephen had not expelled Roger's family from their ecclesiastical offices, merely their secular ones. Stephen's representatives argued that the bishops had given up their castles and money voluntarily to avoid secular charges. The defence taken by the king was not novel; it had been used before by William I and William II against Odo of Bayeux and William de St-Calais, respectively.
Traditionally, the arrest of the bishops has been seen as a turning point in Stephen's reign, and the event that turned the ecclesiastical hierarchy against him. Recent historians have held a lively debate on the issue; a few still hold to the traditional interpretation, but most have decided that reactions in the English church were more ambivalent. One modern historian, David Crouch
David Crouch (historian)
David Crouch is an English historian, and Professor of Medieval History at the University of Hull. Crouch's main focus is on the social and political history of the period from 1000 to 1300, primarily in England...
, believes that the arrest of the bishops signalled the beginnings of the Anarchy
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
, not because of any alienation of the church, but through court politics, where Stephen showed himself incapable of manipulating the factions of his court. The ascendency of the Beaumonts was marked by the placement of one of their protégés, Philip de Harcourt
Philip de Harcourt
Philip de Harcourt was a medieval Lord Chancellor of England and Bishop of Bayeux. He was also unsuccessfully elected to be Bishop of Salisbury.-Life:...
, as Chancellor.
Roger died in December 1139 while in the king's custody. After the death of his uncle, Nigel, then in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, revolted. In January 1140, he fortified the Isle of Ely
Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely now in Cambridgeshire, England but previously a county in its own right.-Etymology:...
, but was soon besieged and forced to flee. Even his own cathedral chapter refused to support him, and his revolt collapsed in January. Nigel took refuge at the court of Stephen's rival, the Empress Matilda, who had landed in England in the south on 30 September 1139 in a bid to take the throne. The revolt stood little chance of succeeding, for there were no supporters of Matilda close to East Anglia, and it is likely that Nigel reacted more out of fear and anger at his uncle's death than anything else. It appears likely that Nigel appealed to Pope Innocent II
Pope Innocent II
Pope Innocent II , born Gregorio Papareschi, was pope from 1130 to 1143, and was probably one of the clergy in personal attendance on the antipope Clement III .-Early years:...
at this time, for in October 1140 Innocent issued a papal bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
, or papal instruction, ordering the restoration to Nigel of the lands of his bishopric, and it appears that after the capture of Stephen, Matilda managed to restore Nigel to Ely briefly. In 1141, Nigel, along with his brother Alexander, was one of the supporters of Matilda who, after the capture of Stephen by Matilda's forces, reached an agreement with Henry of Blois to replace Stephen with Matilda on the throne. Ultimately, this agreement came to nothing when Matilda's chief supporter, her half-brother Robert of Gloucester, was captured and later exchanged for Stephen. Stephen's release meant that the king was free to send Geoffrey de Mandeville
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex
Geoffrey de Mandeville II, 1st Earl of Essex was one of the prominent players during the reign of King Stephen of England. His biographer, the 19th-century historian J. H...
against Nigel, and Nigel submitted to the king, probably in 1142.
Stephen's later reign
In 1143, Nigel became involved in a quarrel with the powerful Henry of Blois. Charges of depriving a priest of a church, giving church property to laymen, and encouraging sedition were brought against Nigel, and he was forced to go to Rome to defend himself, only reaching Rome in 1144. He did not return to his diocese until 1145. He probably accompanied Theobald of BecTheobald of Bec
Theobald was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1139 to 1161. He was a Norman; his exact birth date is unknown. Some time in the late 11th or early 12th century Theobald became a monk at the Abbey of Bec, rising to the position of abbot in 1137. King Stephen of England chose him to be Archbishop of...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who went to Rome around this time on separate business. While he was in Rome, Pope Lucius II
Pope Lucius II
Pope Lucius II , born Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso, was pope from March 9, 1144, until his death Feb 15, 1145. His pontificate was notable for the unrest in Rome associated with the Commune of Rome, and its attempts to wrest control of the city from the papacy.-Early life:Gherardo Caccianemici...
issued a number of rulings in Nigel's favor, ordering his restitution to Ely. He was then finally reconciled with Stephen by paying a fine of £200 and offering his son Richard fitzNeal as a hostage. While Nigel was at Rome, Ely was attacked by the king's forces. The monks sent to Geoffrey de Mandeville for aid, and Geoffrey came and occupied the Isle of Ely, while the king's forces occupied the lands of the diocese outside the Isle. Both occupying forces did damage to the lands of the diocese and the cathedral chapter. The monks, in the Liber Eliensis, complained that Nigel had taken items from the church to finance his trip to Rome, and that they were required to help contribute to the bribe when Nigel was reconciled with Stephen.
By 1147, Nigel was again witnessing Stephen's charters, and in 1153 or 1154 he was named in a grant of lands to St Radegund's priory in Cambridge. He assisted with the consecration of Hilary of Chichester
Hilary of Chichester
Hilary was a medieval Bishop of Chichester in England. English by birth, he studied canon law and worked in Rome as a papal clerk. During his time there, he became acquainted with a number of ecclesiastics, including the future Pope Adrian IV, and the medieval writer John of Salisbury...
as Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
in August 1147. He took part in shire courts in both Norfolk and Suffolk in 1150, and continued to assist with episcopal consecrations throughout the remainder of Stephen's reign. No records exist of him being involved with treasury affairs during this time. His witnessing of charters is sparse, and almost always in company with other bishops; this suggests that he was only at court for councils or other similar events. Nigel was a witness to Stephen's charter that left England to Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
. When Henry succeeded Stephen, Nigel was present at the coronation.
Return to the Exchequer
After the accession of Henry II, Nigel was summoned to reorganize the Exchequer, or treasury, that was responsible for the production of the government's financial records, including the Pipe RollsPipe Rolls
The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records kept by...
. The king had to ask Nigel several times to return before the bishop agreed, and one reason for Nigel's reluctance may have been that he would have to work with Robert, Earl of Leicester, one of the Beaumonts, who had been responsible for turning Stephen against Nigel's family in 1139. Another of Nigel's colleagues in the administration was a layman, Richard de Lucy
Richard de Luci
Richard de Luci was first noted as Sheriff of the County of Essex, then he was made Chief Justiciar of England.- Biography :His wife Rohese, who is named in several documents, was a sister of Faramus of Boulogne...
, who served as a justice until 1178. Nigel was the only surviving minister of Henry I, and his knowledge of the Exchequer was needed to help reorganize the revenues of the king and restore administrative practices lost during Stephen's reign. The lone pipe roll to survive from Henry I's reign, for the year 1130, may be Nigel's own copy, brought with him to the Exchequer when he returned under Henry II. Nigel was able to increase the revenues compared to what had been collected under Stephen, but he was unable to quickly return them to the amounts collected under Henry I. It may have been Nigel who urged the king to attempt to recover estates that had been alienated during Stephen's reign.
The pipe roll for 1155–1156 has several entries which declare that Nigel was making decisions about monetary affairs and issuing writs, but later pipe rolls do not contain any such entries. It appears likely that after the initial reorganization of the Exchequer, Nigel's involvement lessened. He continued to be active, though, and obtained tax exemptions
Taxation in medieval England
Taxation in medieval England was the system of raising money for royal and governmental expenses. During the Anglo-Saxon period, the main forms of taxation were land taxes, although custom duties and fees to mint coins were also imposed. The most important tax of the late Anglo-Saxon period was the...
and other privileges until his death in 1169. His son, Richard fitzNeal, who is the main source for information about Nigel's career in the Exchequer, stated that he fulfilled Nigel's treasury duties when Nigel was ill. Nigel continued to spar with Robert, the Earl of Leicester, and Richard fitzNeal relays a story about Nigel and Robert confronting each other at the Exchequer over traditional exemptions of the barons of the Exchequer
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer
The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" of the English Exchequer of pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who presided in the equity court and answered the bar i.e...
, or judges of the Exchequer. Among the reforms carried out by Nigel were the restoration of the "blanch farm" system, whereby a random sample of coins was assayed and any shortage was collected from the sheriff, and the restoration of collections from a swath of counties that had quit paying taxes during Stephen's reign. The most substantial change was the return to a unified system of finances, which in turn required a reconciliation of the two different systems in use by Stephen and Matilda. Despite Nigel's reinstatement to the Exchequer, and the nomination of his son as treasurer, Nigel did not enjoy the power that his uncle had wielded under Henry I. The exact date of Richard's appointment as treasurer is obscure, but it was sometime between 1158 and 1160, as he is securely attested as treasurer in 1160. The Liber Eliensis states that Nigel paid the king £400 to secure the office for Richard. Some historians have seen Nigel as Henry II's "minister of finance".
Nigel also served as a royal justice under Henry II. Although his relations with the government had improved, his relations with the monks of his cathedral chapter, which had never been good, continued to be marked by quarrels. In 1156, the English Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV , born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.Adrian IV is the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair...
threatened to suspend Nigel from office unless the bishop restored all the lands that had belonged to the church when Nigel became bishop. The restitution was hampered by the absence of the king from England, and the dispute dragged on until finally it was resolved by Nigel pledging in front of Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, to restore the lands. By 1158, Nigel had managed to restore enough possessions that Adrian relaxed the conditions. Even this did not end the quarrels with the monks, as Nigel then named a married clerk as sacrist
Sacristan
A sacristan is an officer who is charged with the care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.In ancient times many duties of the sacristan were performed by the doorkeepers , later by the treasurers and mansionarii...
of Ely, an action which was condemned by Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Nigel did manage to secure a reduction in the assessment of knight's fees due from the diocese, from the 60 fees that were due under Henry I, to 40 in 1166.
Death and legacy
Becket controversy
The Becket controversy or Becket dispute was the quarrel between Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and King Henry II of England, from 1163 to 1173...
between the king and Thomas Becket, although he did agree with his fellow bishops who opposed the king's attempt to reduce clerical benefits. He may have been buried at Ely, where a 12th-century marble slab possibly marks his tomb.
Nigel was a married bishop, and his son Richard fitzNeal was later Lord Treasurer and Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
. Another son was William, called William the Englishman. Richard, who wrote the Dialogus de Scaccario
Dialogue concerning the Exchequer
The Dialogus de Scaccario, or Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, is a mediaeval treatise on the practice of the English Exchequer written in the late 12th century by Richard FitzNeal...
, or Dialogue concerning the Exchequer about the procedures of the Exchequer, had been taught those procedures by his father. Nigel's uncle Roger had at least one son, Roger, who was King Stephen's chancellor; Adelelm, who succeeded Nigel as treasurer after his first term, was probably Roger's son also. Another relative was William of Ely
William of Ely
William of Ely was an English churchman and the fifth Lord High Treasurer of England. He was a relative of Richard FitzNeal and supposed descendant of Nigel, Bishop of Ely, both previous Lord High Treasurers. He was appointed a Canon of St. Paul's just before being nmade Lord High Treasurer in 1196...
, who succeeded Richard fitzNeal as treasurer in 1196, although the exact relationship is unclear.
Nigel was active in draining the Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
, the swampy land around Ely, to increase the agricultural lands around his bishopric. He also fortified the Isle of Ely with stone defences, probably starting around 1140. The remains of one castle on Cherry Hill in Ely probably date to Nigel's fortifications. Early in his time as bishop he was active in recovering lands of the church that had been granted to knights by his predecessors, and soon after his consecration he ordered an inquest made into the lands actually owned by the diocese and cathedral chapter. The bishop spent most of his life in debt, but in the year he died he managed to clear it with his son's help. The monks of his cathedral chapter did not like the fact that they were required to pay for the bishop's appeals to Rome to recover his see, or pay for regaining the king's favour. Their dislike of their bishop is evident in the Liber Eliensis. The art historian C. R. Dodwell wrote of Nigel's efforts:
When .... Nigel ... needed to raise money in order to repair his own political fortunes, he stripped down, sold, or used as security, a quite astounding number of Ely's monastic treasures. These numbered Crucifixes of gold and silver from the Anglo-SaxonAnglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
past, and they included an albAlbThe alb , one of the liturgical vestments of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and many Protestant churches, is an ample white garment coming down to the ankles and usually girdled with a cincture. It is simply the long linen tunic used by the Romans...
with gold-embroidered apparels, given by St Æthelwold, and a chasubleChasubleThe chasuble is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian Churches that use full vestments, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, as well as in some parts of the United Methodist Church...
, given by King Edgar, which was almost all of gold. A gold and bejewelled textile covering ... was sold to the Bishop of Lincoln, Alexander, who took it with him to Rome as a gift of particular splendour. It is a biting commentary on attitudes of the Anglo-Norman episcopy to Anglo-Saxon artAnglo-Saxon artAnglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of a large Anglo-Saxon nation-state whose...
, that it was left to the pope to point out that such an artistic heirloom should never have left Ely in the first place and to order its return.
Most historians have seen Nigel as an administrator, not a religious bishop. The historian David Knowles wrote that Nigel "had devoted all his energies and abilities to matters purely secular; in the department of financial administration he was supreme, and more than any other man he helped to ensure the continuity and development of the excellent administrative practice initiated under Henry I". The historian W. L. Warren said that "Stephen probably paid dearly for the dismissal of Bishop Roger of Salisbury and Bishop Nigel of Ely, for the expertise of the exchequer was lodged in their expertise." Whatever Nigel's administrative talent, his ecclesiastical abilities are generally held to be low; the Gesta Stephani says of both him and Alexander that they were "men who loved display and were rash in their reckless presumption … disregarding the holy and simple manner of life that befits a Christian priest they devoted themselves so utterly to warfare and the vanities of this world that whenever they attended court by appointment they … aroused general astonishment on account of the extraordinary concourse of knights by which they were surrounded on every side."