Davies, Richard G., 'The Episcopate and Political Crisis in England of 1386-1388', Speculum 51 (1976), 659-693

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Quick Summary

The bishops of England tried to play a moderating role during the political crisis of 1386-88 but were unable to exercise any decisive influence

  • The episcopate were willing to support attempts to counsel the king in 1386-88
  • Several bishops were involved either as partisans of their Lords’ Appellant or their political enemies
  • The episcopate was sympathetic to the aims of the Lords’ Appellant
Key Conclusion

Davies explores the role played by the episcopate (bishops) in the political crisis of 1386-1388: a crisis wherein the Lords’ Appellant – baronial opponents of Richard II – used parliament to destroy those who they believed wielded excessive influence over the king. The article concludes that the bishops were prepared to play a ‘moderating role’, but were unable to ‘exercise any decisive influence to avert extreme conflict in political affairs’. The majority of bishops held no ‘personal allegiance’ to either the appellants or their political opponents, but shared a concern to established ‘responsible government by the king’. Although willing to ‘lend their support to broad-based attempts to counsel the king’, the episcopate ‘shrank from extreme action against the king’ (p. 693).

Content Overview

Previous studies have not paid close attention to the bishops and their involvement in the crisis of 1386-88. During this conflict, several bishops were ‘involved as partisans of one or another faction’ (p. 659) and in consequence two bishops lost their bishoprics (Archbishop Neville of York and Bishop Rushook of Chichester), while another bishop was demoted (Bishop Fordham of Durham). Other bishops were translated (promoted from one diocese to another) at the behest of the Lords’ Appellant. The article also explores the withdrawal of the bishops from the judicial proceedings in the Merciless Parliament of 1388, and the pope’s acquiescence to the demands of the Lords’ Appellant.

Further Findings

Overall, Davies argues that the episcopate was ‘sympathetic in general terms to the complaints voiced by the appellants’, but at the same time ‘their support for the measures taken was probably uneasy and passive’. The bishops held a difficult position during a political crisis: on the one hand they had an obligation to ‘avoid involvement which might discredit the church’, yet, on the other, they had an obligation as ‘spiritual men’ and lords in parliament ‘to interest themselves in the affairs of the realm’. Davies also concludes that even those bishops were deeply involved in the political crisis – in particular Bishop Arundel of Ely – ‘were not at all careless of their spiritual responsibility’ (p. 693).

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