William Warelwast

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William de Warelwast^[1] (d.1137) was a Norman cleric, who was an administrator for William I of England. He became Bishop of Exeter, consecrated in 1107.^[2]

He acted as an envoy to the Papacy, for William II of England^[3][4], heading off excommunication for William^[5], and often for Henry I of England^[6][7][8]

In his diocese he started a new cathedral:

But if the history of the see has its birth with Leofric, the story of the cathedral begins with the appointment in 1107 of Warelwast as bishop. This noteworthy man was a nephew of the Conqueror and chaplain to both William II and Henry I. Inheriting to the full the Norman passion for building, he pulled down the Saxon edifice and began to erect a great Norman cathedral in its stead. The transeptal towers attest the magnificence of his scheme.^[9]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Warelwast is present-day Véraval, in the commune of Hautot-le-Vatois, Arrondissement of Le Havre.[1]
2. ^ 11 August 1107.[2]
3. ^ In 1195, to Pope Urban II, Concise Dictionary of National Biography.
4. ^ [3]:William extricated himself from his difficulty with considerable address. He sent two clerks of his chancery to Italy, Gerard, afterwards Bishop of Hereford and Archbishop of York, and William of Warelwast, afterwards Bishop of Exeter. They were instructed to acknowledge Urban, and to obtain from him the pallium. Urban was glad to grant the terms in order to receive acknowledgment from a powerful monarch, and he sent Walter of Albano to England along with William's messengers, as bearer of the pallium.
5. ^ A. L. Poole, Domesday to Magna Carta (2nd edition 1955), p.177.
6. ^ PDF, p.5: in 1103, to Pope Paschal II, in the dispute with Anselm of Canterbury.
7. ^ Hume’s History of England[4]: The king, however, seized all the revenues of his see; and sent William de Warelwast to negotiate with Pascal, and to find some means of accommodation in this delicate affair.
8. ^ [5]
9. ^ Percy Addleshaw, Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See: [6]