Durham

Who holds it

Name

Philip of Poitou (Philip of Poitiers)

Title

Bishop of Durham

Since

Named November 1195, elected January 1196, consecrated at Rome on 20 April 1197

Confidence

high

A royal clerk of obscure origin who went on crusade with Richard I in 1191, was with him in Cyprus and stayed with him through his German captivity; Richard made him archdeacon of Canterbury before March 1194. Papal confirmation of his election came on 13 April 1196 and he was ordained priest on 15 June 1196; he was consecrated at the Lateran on 20 April 1197 while in Rome on Richard's business. Before his consecration he obtained a licence for the Durham mint and made his nephew Aimeric archdeacon of Durham and of Carlisle.

He attended the German royal election of 1198 for Richard. At John's coronation (27 May 1199) he protested at the absence of the archbishop of York; John then used him in his dealings with Scotland. He is at war with his own cathedral monks under Prior Bertram over presentation to churches (Coldingham above all) and over his claim to sit in their chapter: Aimeric besieged monks in St Oswald's church and smoked them out by burning its doors, and Philip excommunicated the prior and the whole chapter and had the prior dragged from the altar on St Cuthbert's day.

The dates of these incidents are not pinned; they run through his episcopate. He dies on 22 April 1208, excommunicate, and the monks refuse him Christian burial.

What it holds

• The land between Tyne and Tees: Durham city and castle, Gateshead, Chester-le-Street, Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Stockton, Wearmouth and Weardale, under the bishop's own courts, coroners and officers
• The wapentake of Sadberge on the north bank of the Tees (Hart, Hartlepool, Greatham, Stranton, Elwick, Stainton, Elton, Long Newton, Egglescliffe, Middleton St George, Dinsdale, Hurworth, Coatham Mundeville, Sadberge, Coniscliffe, Gainford): bought from Richard I by Bishop Hugh du Puiset in 1189, still a separate county in some respects with its own sheriff, coroner and court of pleas
• Norhamshire and Islandshire on the Tweed, with Norham castle facing Scotland and Holy Island with its priory, a cell of Durham
• Bedlingtonshire, between the Blyth and the Wansbeck
• Crayke in Yorkshire, an old gift to St Cuthbert
• Allertonshire: the bishop's vill and soke of Northallerton, granted by William Rufus; it was still pleaded in Birdforth wapentake, and became a separate judicial liberty only in the 1270s. Puiset's castle there was destroyed on Henry II's orders about 1177-78
• Howdenshire: the soke of Howden on the lower Ouse, granted by William I
• The Durham mint, licensed to Philip before his consecration
• The bishop's forest of Weardale

How it was acquired

The core goes back to grants to St Cuthbert's church from 684 onward and to the community's settlement at Chester-le-Street (883) and Durham (995); Durham was left out of Domesday and of the danegeld, and charters of William II and Henry II record wide exemptions from royal taxes. Bishop Hugh du Puiset bought the manor and wapentake of Sadberge from Richard I in 1189. Norhamshire, Islandshire, Bedlingtonshire and Crayke are old St Cuthbert lands; Howden came from William I and Northallerton from William Rufus.

How things stand that morning

Philip holds the see and its temporalities and is in John's service; the crown does not contest the liberty. Inside it he is at open war with his cathedral monks, which weakens his hold on the priory's lands and churches. The Scottish border is quiet: William the Lion is pressing John for the northern counties by negotiation, not war.

Wealth

Rents and services of a large, compact lordship (surveyed for Bishop Puiset in the Boldon Book of 1183); the Durham mint; the bishop's boroughs of Durham, Gateshead and Darlington and his manor at the Tees crossing of Stockton; the forest of Weardale; fisheries on Tyne and Tees. The pilgrim offerings at St Cuthbert's shrine go to the monks, not the bishop.

Threats

• The feud with the cathedral priory, which the monks can carry to Rome and to the king
• Vacancy: at any bishop's death the king takes the whole liberty and its revenues
• The Scottish frontier: Norhamshire and Islandshire face Scottish Berwick across the Tweed
• The great baronies on the Tees (Barnard Castle, Hart and Hartlepool) were held of the crown until 1189 and look to the king as much as to the bishop

Advocates and rivals

No lay advocate. The cathedral priory under Prior Bertram, first among the bishop's barons, defends its own lands, churches and rights against Philip. The great lay tenants (the Balliols at Barnard Castle, the Bruces in Hart and Hartlepool, the Bulmers at Brancepeth, the Conyers at Sockburn, the Lumleys, the Hyltons) owe the bishop service, and the two Tees-side baronies inside Sadberge were held of the king until 1189.

The archbishop of York is Durham's metropolitan. The crown takes the whole liberty into its hands whenever the see is vacant, as it did in 1195-97. Across the Tweed lies the kingdom of Scotland, with Berwick a Scottish burgh.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. During 1200 (not pinned)Philip is among John's agents in the talks with Scotland that end with William the Lion doing homage to John at Lincoln on 22 November 1200.Depends on: John and William both preferring talks to war over Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland. Stopped by: A breakdown over the northern counties, or a Scottish raid.

Places of note

• Durham castle and cathedral: The bishop's castle beside St Cuthbert's cathedral and priory
• Norham castle: The bishop's border castle on the Tweed, built in 1121 by Ranulf Flambard and rebuilt in stone by Hugh du Puiset
• Auckland: The bishop's manor house
• Holy Island: Lindisfarne priory, a cell of Durham
• Sadberge: Head of the wapentake bought from Richard I in 1189
• Howden: The bishop's manor and the church whose parson is Roger of Howden, the chronicler

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Durham is among the best documented liberties in England (Boldon Book, Durham chronicles, the Victoria County History). The dates of the worst incidents in Philip's quarrel with the monks are not pinned.

On the map: The Tyne-Tees block follows the Tyne, the Derwent, the Pennine watershed and the Tees, which is the later county boundary and is good for 1200 (the area south of the Tees added to County Durham in 1974 is left out). Barnard Castle and Hartness are drawn inside the liberty, though their lords' subjection to the bishop was disputed later. The Yorkshire sokes are shown as districts around their centres.

Primary sources for England

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, Jocelin of Brakelond (about 1198 to 1203). An inside account of Bury St Edmunds under Abbot Samson, written while the events were fresh. Read online
• Chronicle of Melrose, Anonymous (monks of Melrose abbey) (about 1173 to 1270, in many hands; the 1200 entries are near contemporary). The main Scottish annal for the year, kept at a Cistercian house on the Tweed. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Chronicle of the Princes, Anonymous (Welsh translation of a lost Latin chronicle kept at Strata Florida) (Latin original to about 1282, compiled from contemporary annals; Welsh versions about 1300 and later). The native Welsh record of the year. Read online
• Chronicle; Deeds of the Kings, Gervase of Canterbury (Chronica about 1188 to 1199; Gesta Regum about 1199 to 1210). The Chronica stops in 1199, so for 1200 the witness is the briefer Gesta Regum, which notes John's peace with Philip, the coronation of Isabella at Westminster on 8 October 1200, and matters touching Canterbury: the archbishop Hubert Walter as chancellor, the cathedral priory's quarrel with him, and the Lambeth college dispute lately settled by the pope. Read online
• English Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, Ralph of Coggeshall (about 1200 to 1224, in stages). Short but independent entries for 1200 from a Cistercian house in Essex: John's levy on the Cistercians and the carucage, the peace with Philip, the king's new marriage and the queen's coronation, and the death of Hugh of Lincoln. Read online
• Flowers of History, Roger of Wendover (about 1220 to 1235 at St Albans). For 1200 Wendover is mostly Howden rewritten, so he is a second witness only where he adds St Albans material: a long account of Hugh of Lincoln's last months, death and funeral, and anecdotes about John's conduct toward the Cistercians and his new queen. Read online
• Images of History, Ralph de Diceto (about 1188 to 1202). A London view of the year from the dean of St Paul's, who knew the justiciar and the bishops personally. Read online

22 more in the sources library for The British Isles.