Geoffrey Ridel (bishop of Ely)

Geoffrey Ridel (died August 1189) was the nineteenth Lord Chancellor of England, from 1162 to 1173.[1]

This article is about the Bishop of Ely. For other uses, see Geoffrey Ridel.
Geoffrey Ridel
Bishop of Ely
Electedlate April 1173
Term endedAugust 1189
PredecessorNigel
SuccessorWilliam Longchamp
Other post(s)Archdeacon of Canterbury
Orders
Consecration6 October 1174
Personal details
Died20 or 21 August 1189
BuriedEly Cathedral
DenominationCatholic
Lord Chancellor
In office
1162–1173
MonarchHenry II of England
Preceded byThomas Becket
Succeeded byRalph de Warneville

Ridel was probably the great-nephew of Geoffrey Ridel, who died in 1120 and was a royal justice. He was a royal clerk by about 1156, when he first starts witnessing charters.[2] He was a king's clerk before he was Archdeacon of Canterbury, which office he held by March 1163.[3] He performed the duties of the chancellor's office after Thomas Becket's resignation of the office, but no documents explicitly name him to the office.[4] He also served as a royal judge.[5] By 1165, Ridel was a baron of the Exchequer.[2]

During the controversy between King Henry II of England and Archbishop Thomas Becket, Ridel supported the king.[6] Ridel was one of the persons whom the Constitutions of Clarendon were addressed to, along with Richard de Luci and Richard of Ilchester.[7] Ridel went to Rome in 1164 to represent the king before the papal curia, and in 1166 opposed Becket once more. By 1169 he was urging King Louis VII of France to no longer give refuge to Becket.[2] Becket's supporters called Ridel the "archidiabolus",[8] or "our archdevil", a play on the office of archdeacon which Ridel held. Ridel also urged King Henry's son, Henry the Young King, to refuse to see the archbishop in 1170, telling the prince that Becket wished to disinherit the prince.[2]

After the controversy was resolved, Ridel was rewarded with a bishopric.[9] He was elected to the see of Ely in late April 1173 and consecrated on 6 October 1174[10] at Canterbury.[2] For a number of years previous to his election he had been the custodian of the see, and had received the episcopal revenues.[8] He resigned the chancellorship when he became a bishop.[11] He continued to be involved in governmental affairs, attending councils and escorting King Henry II's daughter Joanna to Provence when the princess was sent to Sicily to marry King William II of Sicily. He also continued to hold the office of baron of the exchequer at least as late as 1185.[2]

Ridel died on either 20 or 21 August 1189.[10][12] After his death, King Richard I of England confiscated his personal property,[13] because Geoffrey had died without a will.[14] The bishop's estate at his death included over 3000 marks in coins, as well as agricultural supplies and gold and silver plate.[15] He was buried in Ely Cathedral. During his time as bishop, he built much of the western transept of Ely Cathedral.[2]

Citations
  1. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 84
  2. Duggan "Ridel, Geoffrey" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  3. Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Canterbury: Archdeacons of Canterbury
  4. Warren Henry II p. 307
  5. Barlow English Church p. 256
  6. Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 401
  7. Knowles, et al. "Henry II's Supplement" English Historical Review p. 759
  8. Warren Henry II p. 535
  9. Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 220
  10. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 244
  11. Huscroft Ruling England p. 191
  12. Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Ely: Bishops
  13. Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 190 footnote3
  14. Turner "Religious Patronage" Albion p. 10
  15. Gillingham Richard I p. 115

References
  • Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1066–1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church. New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-50236-5.
  • Bartlett, Robert C. (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075–1225. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822741-8.
  • Duggan, A. J. (2004). "Ridel, Geoffrey (d. 1189)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23618. Retrieved 8 March 2008. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
  • Gillingham, John (1999). Richard I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07912-5.
  • Greenway, Diana E. (1971). "Canterbury: Archdeacons of Canterbury". Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300. Vol. 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces). Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 16 June 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
  • Greenway, Diana E. (1971). "Ely: Bishops". Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300. Vol. 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces). Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
  • Huscroft, Huscroft (2005). Ruling England 1042–1217. London: Pearson/Longman. ISBN 0-582-84882-2.
  • Knowles, M. D.; Duggan, Anne J.; Brooke, C. N. L. (October 1972). "Henry II's Supplement to the Constitutions of Clarendon". The English Historical Review. 87 (345): 757–771. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXVII.CCCXLV.757. JSTOR 562200.
  • Poole, Austin Lane (1955). From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087–1216 (Second ed.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. OCLC 233685139.
  • Turner, Ralph V. (Spring 1986). "Religious Patronage of Angevin Royal Administrators, c. 1170–1239". Albion. 18 (1): 1–21. doi:10.2307/4048700. JSTOR 4048700.
  • Warren, W. L. (1973). Henry II. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. OCLC 4274479.

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