Thurstan of Bayeaux

Thurstan (or Turstin) of Bayeaux (c.1070 - 1140) was the son of a priest (this was before Anselm disallowed priests in England to marry). Born at Bayeaux, his father became a canon at St. Paul's in London by 1104.

Thurstan was a clerk under Kings William Rufus and Henry I. For a time he was Henry's almoner, responsible for distributing alms to the poor.* Henry selected Thurstan as the next Archbishop of York after the death of Thomas II of York. Thomas had refused to recognize Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury as his superior, and got his pallium from a papal legate and not bestowed on him by Canterbury. This was part of the Canterbury-York dispute.

In Thurstan's case, Anselm had been succeeded by Ralph d'Escures, who likewise would not support Thurstan's elevation to archbishop unless Thurstan professed obedience to Canterbury. This Thurstan would not do.

To be clear, he did not need to. Henry decided to quash the Canterbury-York controversy at the 1116 Council of Salisbury by ordering Thurstan to submit to d'Escures. Thurstan resigned the archbishopric instead of submitting. Meanwhile, however, Pope Paschal had sent him and the king letters that supported Thurstan against Canterbury. Thurstan's resignation was ignored. The next two popes repeated Paschal's orders, and in October 1119 Thurstan was in Reims being consecrated by Pope Calixtus II, even though Calixtus had earlier told King Henry that he would not consecrate Thurstan until the king gave his consent.

Henry was outraged, and vowed that Archbishop Thurstan would not set foot in England. Thurstan stayed on the continent with Calixtus. He also visited Henry's favorite sibling, his sister Adela of Normandy. Adela helped convince Henry to reconcile with Thurstan. Calixtus had also threatened interdict on England (no sacraments could be administered to the faithful) if Henry did not comply. When Adela retired from active life and entered the monastery of Marcigny at Easter 1120, Thurstan escorted her. A year later he ws recalled to England. (I can't help thinking Adela had a large hand in changing her brother's mind.)

One of Thurstan's more controversial moves was to make a bishop out of a man who was obscure of birth, boastful of his (fictitious) parentage, haughty and materialistic. Thurstan wanted to create more bishops to oversee more dioceses in northern England. One of these was Wimund, who was made Bishop of the Isles, including the Hebrides and the Isle of Mann. When Thurstan created a bishop for galloway, Wimund objected because he felt he had jurisdiction over Galloway. Wimund did more than object: he decided to compensate for the loss of revenue by losing Galloway that he became essentially a pirate, a story I told here.

Thurstan eventually resigned his position on 21 January 1140 in order to fulfill a lifelong goal of becoming a Cluniac monk at Pontefract. He died there on 6 February, after a two-week retirement.

Two years earlier, he had been essential in raising an army against the Scots. For the story of the Battle of the Standard, you'll have to come back tomorrow.

*The United Kingdom still has a Lord High Almoner.

The Bishop Pirate

William of Newburgh tells the story of a bishop whose actions were contrary to what was expected by a man of God. More recent research offers hypotheses for why a bishop might turn into a pirate and the scourge of Scotland.

"born in the most obscure spot in England," Wimund was educated at Furness Abbey. He was tall and fair, and had a good speaking voice, but had a proud heart and expected to accomplish great things. He claimed to be the son of the Earl of Moray, which seemed unlikely, but more recent theories are that he was possibly the illegitimate son of Óengus of Moray, who became Earl after Wimund was born, or possibly the illegitimate grandson of King Duncan II.

At some point Furness is asked to create a sister abbey at Rushen on the Isle of Man, part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The well-spoken Wimund was made Bishop of the Isles by Thurstan, Archbishop of York. While bishop, according to Newburgh, at some point he started claiming that he wa deprived of his proper inheritance by the King of Scotland. He gathered supporters, promised them to share in his successes and riches, and embarked on a career of descending on

...the provinces of Scotland, wasting all before him with rapine and slaughter; but whenever the royal army was dispatched against him, he eluded the whole warlike preparation, either by retreating to distant forests, or taking to the sea; and when the troops had retired, he again issued from his hiding-places to ravage the provinces.

Unable to stop Wimund's reign of terror, bought him off by giving him Furness and the territory around, giving him some feudal opportunity to collect taxes, etc. Those who suffered under him, however, did not appreciate this. They waited until they could find him separated from his men, captured him, castrated him, and blinded him.

He was forcibly retired to Byland Abbey, where William of Newburgh resided. He had no regret for his actions, however. In Newburgh's words:

Afterwards he came to us at Byland, and quietly continued there many years till his death. But he is reported even there to have said, that had he only the eye of a sparrow his enemies should have little occasion to rejoice at what they had done to him.

If you want to read his story according to Newburgh, you can find it here.

His success in piracy was probably because his attacks were in the Kingdom of the Isles, a series of locations far enough apart that it wasn't easy for the king to send troops to deal with him, as opposed to on the Scottish mainland. We will look at the geography and history of the Kingdom of the Isles tomorrow.