Richard FitzNeal
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Richard FitzNeal or FitzNigel, sometimes called Richard of Ely (ca. 1130 – September 10, 1198) was a churchman and bureaucrat in the service of Henry II of England.
In 1158 Nigel, Bishop of Ely paid Henry II to appoint his natural son, Richard FitzNeal, as his treasurer. Richard was the great nephew of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, who had organized the exchequer under Henry I, when it was separated from the Chamberlain's office in the king's household. Henry II, who was an astute judge of character and inspired great loyalty, was well served by Richard, who held the post of Lord Treasurer at the head of Henry's exchequer for the next forty years. Concurrently Richard was Dean of Lincoln, a major administrative position in an important English diocese. In 1184 he was made prebendary of Aylesbury [1]
In 1177 Henry II asked him to write a book about his work. The book, Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer (Dialogus de Scaccario), is the first administrative treatise of the Middle Ages, a unique source of information on royal finances and the methods of collecting them in the twelfth century. Its preface instructs the novice in governance that it is not the function of the exchequer officials to decide on the merit of royal policy, merely to execute it. The secular bureaucracy is the instrument of the king's will, and the royal power ebbs and flows according to whether his treasury is full or empty.
As well as being treasurer, FitzNeal was rewarded with the position of bishop of London from 1189 until his death in 1198. The Diocese of London ranks third in honour in the Church of England after the Archdioceses of Canterbury and York.
