Savaric (4)

Back to considering what Savaric got up to during the time that he was actually in his diocese: I’ve slightly reconsidered his Acta and collected the names of forty places within the diocese, including various ‘confirmations’ where it’s not clear who, if anyone, might have first enacted something to be later confirmed or ratified. When a previous bishop or a named individual made the original grant which Savaric simply confirmed, I have omitted that place.

On this map, the places have been marked with red squares. I haven’t marked the actual names as they would be too small to read, though each place is, I think, assigned to its appropriate historical hundred. The larger area outlined in red is the hundred of Whitstone which Savaric, with the agreement of the convent of Glastonbury granted to one Robert Polayn and his heirs, the annual rent of 12d to be paid to the abbey’s kitchen.

Places mentioned in Savaric’s Acta

As now, Bath (& Wells) had three archdeaconries: there were archdeacons of Bath and of Wells, and the incumbent of the third, certainly into the 13th c., was referred to as the archdeacon ‘beyond the Parrett’ (de ultra Peret’ in Ramsey 208 or trans Perret in 246), perhaps a vague kind of ultima Thule lying somewhere beyond the known world, and having no important centre to rival Bath, Wells or Glastonbury. In 1291 this archdeaconry had four deaneries: Bridgwater, Dunster, Taunton and Cricket [St Thomas], all indeed beyond the Parrett.

The blue dots on the map follow the course of the river Parrett except in occasionally choosing to follow the limits of the adjacent hundred where it strays slightly to the north of the river (bits of North Petherton and Kingsbury Episcopi). Consequently, it also marks the proposed boundary of the Archdeaconry Beyond the Parrett. The blue ‘O’ marks the location of Wellington (not mentioned in the Acta at all).

By a coincidence, the 34 places north of the river seem to be divided equally between the archdeaconries of Bath and Wells (17 each, or perhaps 16 and 18); in contrast, beyond the Parrett there are only six: Carhampton, Old Cleeve, Wiveliscombe, Bishop’s Lydeard, Combe St Nicholas and Ilminster.

And here I will stop while I consider whether this proves anything.

 

Savaric (3)

It is easy to get sidetracked, so I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not preparing a full-length biography of Bishop Savaric (though there doesn’t appear to have been one). I’m trying to justify excluding the possibility that he had anything to do with the building of the Longforth manor house on his manor of Wellington; and then I’ll move on to people who might have done.

A 13th-c. manor house (though not Longforth, which is no more)

Canon CM Church (nb nominative determinism), erstwhile subdean of Wells, wrote, “Considering his long absence from the diocese, the heavy charges upon the revenues of the see in payment of Richard’s ransom, and the expenses incurred at Rome by his litigation, it is not likely that Savaric should have been a builder of the church [at Wells]” (1). And by the same token, unlikely to have built the manor house in remote Wellington, which there is no evidence that he ever visited?

As far as Savaric and Wellington are concerned, Frances Ramsey writes, “At Chard, a borough was almost certainly established on the accession of Bishop Jocelin in 1206, while the status of Wellington was similarly elevated by 1215 at the latest, suggesting that these places were not exploited to their full during Savaric’s episcopate,” English Episcopal Acta  X, Bath and Wells 1061-1205, (EEPA, X), ed. FMR Ramsey, p. xxx

A patchy itinerary has been constructed in EEPA, X, pp 210-212, indicating his known whereabouts during his episcopate, drawing on acta and contemporary chronicles.

Looking at his various travels, in Normandy, Germany, Italy and England, I would estimate that he spent no more than the equivalent of possibly 3-4 years in total in his diocese, and that spread out over the thirteen years of his episcopate; and much of that time was taken up with his dispute with the monks of Glastonbury. The only year when he was not recorded as having been either abroad or travelling somewhere in England was 1201. In that year there is the single reference: he witnessed a document in Wells on 1 December  (the abbot and convent of Muchelney made a gift of their church at Ilminster in ‘free almoin’ to the church in Wells).

The itinerary lists eight separate occurrences when he was definitely in the diocese at some point during the year, six recording his presence in either Bath, Wells or Glastonbury (that for his enthronement). One of his acta, dated 2 February 1203, was signed at Chew Magna, where there had been an episcopal residence since the early days of the bishopric, and an episcopal manor house existed in 1171-72 (2). The other reference is more interesting: on 6 December 1198, according Adam of Domerham, Savaric issued his excommunication of William Pica, newly elected abbot of Glastonbury, from Mells. The manor of Mells had been held by Glastonbury Abbey since Domesday.

Glastonbury Abbey: How it might have looked

Abbot Henry had been called away to London (in connection with his election and forthcoming consecration as Bishop of Worcester), and Savaric was then in Bath. He summoned Prior Harold, with two of the Glastonbury monks and asked where their abbot was. On being told he was in London, Savaric responded (according to Adam of Domerham), “Absoluti estis ab eo, ego sum abbas vester.” (3). On the same day, says Adam, Savaric’s agents seized  the abbey  and from then on, the bitter dispute between monks and bishop raged until 1202.

Savaric’s presence in Mells (where the present 16th c. manor house is said to be on the site of a medieval monastic manor house) was clearly demonstrating his possession as self-proclaimed abbot. He was enthroned the following June.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but either the records of Savaric’s diocesan visitations have been lost or he was too busy on other business – King Richard’s, King John’s, the emperor Henry VI’s and, last but not least, his own – for purely pastoral duties. Although other manors and parishes are mentioned in the Acta (4), there is no indication that Savaric was actually in any of them at the time he signed the documents. Wellington was a village of no importance and Savaric had no reason to construct a substantial manor house there.

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1. CM Church, ‘ Some account of Savaric, Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, 1192-1205’, Archaeologia, 51, 1888, p 94.
2. Naomi Payne, The Medieval Residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury, PhD thesis, Bristol, 2003, p 97.
3. David Charles Standen, Libellus de rebus gestis Glastoniensibus,
   attributed to Adam of Damerham, a monk of Glastonbury, edited with introduction and critical notes, vol 1 p 60, PhD thesis, London n.d.
4. EEPA X, no. 250, a grant of the church of Wiveliscombe to the common fund of the church of Wells; no. 260, grant of the church of Bishop’s Lydeard to the common fund of the church of Wells, to mention the two parishes closest to Wellington.

 

 

Savaric or not? (2): His life c. 1145 – 1192

Savaric’s life prior to his consecration is no indication of his diocesan activity afterwards – and thus any possible link with the Longforth manor house at Wellington; but for the record (figures in brackets mark footnotes):

Relevant dates before his consecration in September 1192:

1145-50 Approximate date of birth.

1175 Nov/Dec: Instituted archdeacon of Northampton in Canterbury (earlier was archdeacon of Canterbury, and perhaps of Salisbury). He was well-connected, with two Bohun uncles who were bishops and a cousin who became one, so probably appointed to an archdeaconry while in his 20s: some were a lot younger (1). He was also a ‘kinsman’ of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, which served him well later.

1189 Dec: Third Crusade. King Richard left England. The chronicler Richard of Devizes says in his Chronicon that Archdeacon Savaric was one of those who accompanied Richard to Sicily: ‘ipse unus ex plurimis, qui regem Angliae ex Anglia prosecuti sunt in Siciliam’.

1190 7 August: The crusaders leave Marseille.

1190 23 Sept: They arrive in Sicily.

1190 Dec: Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, part of the crusade advance party, dies in Acre.

1191 March: Richard’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, arrives in Messina (escorting her son’s future wife, Berengaria of Navarre) at the end of March and leaves shortly after. King Richard grants letters patent to Savaric in Messina, ‘in matris regis praesentiam’, giving royal assent to his promotion for whichever vacant diocese he has been elected: ‘in quamlibet diœciesim vacantem foret electus promoveretur‘ (2).

1191 2 April: Walter of Coutances, with the crusaders in Sicily, is given a papal release from his crusader vows in order to return to England with Queen Eleanor, having been commanded by the king to return as his justiciar to oversee worrying events in England (3). They arrive back in Shoreham on 27 April. Savaric sends the king’s letters to the bishop of Bath, his cousin Reginald fitz Jocelin, in England: ‘Hos apices Savaricus misit cognato suo episcopo Bathoniae in Angliam’. Did he give them to Walter to deliver?

1191 10 April: The crusaders leave Sicily for Cyprus.

1191 8 July: The crusaders reach Acre (4).

1191 27 Nov. Reginald fitz Jocelin is elected archbishop by the monks at Canterbury. He recommends his cousin Savaric to the monks in Bath as his successor. Richard of Devizes says that Reginald: ‘venit disponere Bathoniensi ecclesiae, quam multum diligebat, magis ab ea dilectus. Fertur etiam quod de eligendo et sibi subrogando Savarico, Northamptoniae archidiacono, Prioris et conventus impetrarit assensum et perceperit cautionem.’

1191 Dec: Reginald, accompanied by Prior Walter of Bath, sets out for the ‘customary solemnities’ in Canterbury before his departure for Rome and his consecration.

1191 24 Dec: Reginald falls ill at his manor of Dogmersfield, Hampshire, and hands over the king’s letters to Prior Walter. He dies two days later.

1192 Early Jan: The crusaders reach Beit Nuba, near Jerusalem. Further progress being impossible at that time, many consider their vow (the penitential pilgrimage to Jerusalem) to have been fulfilled, and they return home. Possibly this was the point at which Savaric also left the crusade, though on the same basis it could have been in June when the crusade was again at Beit Nuba. If the later date, he would by then probably have heard of Reginald’s death and his own election.

1192: In Bath. Richard of Devizes again: ‘Walterus prior Bathoniae et suus sine clero (5) conventus elegerunt sibi in futurum episcopum Savaricum, archidiaconum Northamptioniae, absentem et adhuc casum cognati pontificis ignorantem; et licet clerus reniteretur obtinuerant.’ At the time of his election Savaric is apparently still out of the country, since he is not only absent from the proceedings in Bath but is also unaware of his cousin’s death; and, given the time scale, unlikely to have heard of Reginald’s election either.

1192 Walter of Coutances confirms Savaric’s disputed election on the basis of the king’s letters of assent.

1192 19-20 Sept: Savaric ordained, then consecrated, as bishop of Bath in Rome.

1192 9 Oct: Richard and the rest of the crusaders leave the Holy Land, having secured a temporary truce with Saladin.

1192 21/22 Dec: Richard is taken prisoner near Vienna by Duke Leopold of Austria. Bishop Savaric will play an important role in securing his release.

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1. On the subject of boy archdeacons, GG Coulton records this anecdote in Life in the Middle Ages: “A certain bishop, having received a gift of a basket of pears, asked of them who sat at meat with him, to whose custody he should commit them. His young nephew, to whom he had even then committed an archdeaconry, answered and said, “I will keep the pears.” To whom his uncle answered, “Thou rascal! ill wouldest thou keep them!” Then said a certain honest man who was there present, “O wretch! How hast thou dared to commit an archdeaconry of so many souls to this youth, to whom thou daredst not commit a basket of pears?” The bishop’s reply is not recorded. I didn’t manage to identify the source of the story.
2. By this time, news of archbishop Baldwin’s death three months earlier would have reached the king and his followers in Sicily. Reginald fitz Jocelin was then one of the longest serving bishops and had been active in public affairs. Did it pass through Savaric’s head that his cousin stood a good chance of succeeding to the archbishopric, thus leaving his own see vacant?
3. It was probably Queen Eleanor who brought news of the rebellion by Prince John, Richard’s brother; and that explained why Walter was then dispatched back to England along with her.
4. It may seem as if the crusaders took a very long time to reach the Holy Land, since they had set out in December 1189, but Richard carried out a lot of business en route, military and other, in France, Sicily and Cyprus.
5. Sine clero would refer to the absence of the canons of Wells, hence their objection to Savaric’s election. Et licet clerus reniteretur obtinuerant. Although the canons resisted, the monks’ decision prevailed.

Savaric or not? (1)

To recap: there were three bishops whose episcopates fell within the broad range ‘end of the 12th century beginning of the 13th’, the dates suggested by archaeologists for the start of construction on the Wellington manor house at Longforth:

• Reginald fitz Jocelin, Bishop of Bath (1174-1191);
• Savaric fitz Geldwin, Bishop of Bath, then Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury (1192-1205);
• Jocelin of Wells, Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, then Bishop of Bath (1206-1242)

My No.1 “choice” as possible builder of, or in some way being involved with, the construction of the manor house or “bishops’ residence” at Longforth is Jocelin, No. 2 is Reginald, and Savaric – unlikely.

Why not Savaric? He served as Bishop of Bath from 1192, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury from 1195 until his death in 1205. His episcopate was marked by two features. The first (which I deal with here), the amount of time he spent, not simply outside the diocese, but outside the country. There were two versions of a Latin verse epitaph describing him, both meaning approximately the same thing. His contemporary, Ralph of Coggeshall (fl. 1207-1226), records the epitaph as:

Notus eras mundo, per mundum semper eundo,
Et necis ista dies est tibi prima quies.

[You were well-known to the world, Widely travelling without cease;
This your death-day is for you, Your first day of restful peace.]

In the first 10 years of his episcopate following his consecration in Rome in September 1192, Savaric was recorded as being in Italy, Germany and France, sometimes for extended periods. There were visits to the pope in Rome (1196, 1198/99, 1205);  he was in Hagenau, Alsace, and in Worms (1193) and he attended a conference in Mainz, Germany (1194), where he was among those sent to arrange Richard I’s ransom and release from imprisonment; in 1194(?) he was appointed Henry VI’s imperial Chancellor of Burgundy; in Burgundy in 1199, he was sent by the emperor – Savaric was said to be his cousin – to England to treat with King Richard, offering him restitution for his imprisonment and ransom (for which Henry had been excommunicated); and he was with the king in Tours (1195) and Rouen (1197).

Savaric also was in the king’s service in England and was out of the diocese in 1198, when he was Richard’s envoy in his dispute with his half-brother, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York; in 1199, at King John’s coronation in Westminster; in 1201, in Lincoln at King John’s court).

Considering the time it took to travel, for instance to Rome, any journey there including whatever business he had to carry out must have taken him out of the country for several months. The length of his absences on the ‘shorter’ journeys must have depended on how protracted his business was, but were also likely to run into months rather than weeks.

1192: September, Consecration in ROME
1193: April, HAGUENAU, Alsace, negotiating K. Richard’s release
June, WORMS, Germany
September, back in BATH
1194: in MAINZ. ?Made Chancellor of Burgundy by emperor, Henry VI, his ‘kinsman’
1195: March, in TOURS with King Richard
1196: May/June, in ROME, confirming his possession of Glastonbury Abbey
1197: Proctors are administering the abbey on his behalf
In BURGUNDY, sent by emperor to England to offer restitution to King Richard
October: in ROUEN with KIng Richard
1198: August, in England
November, in his manor of MELLS, Somerset
To ROME
1199: April, returns to England (death of King Richard)
June, enthroned in GLASTONBURY
1200: May, in WESTMINSTER, at king’s coronation
In LINCOLN at King John’s court
1201: In WELLS
1202: August, pope’s judges-delegate apportion Savaric’s Glastonbury revenues, manors etc following restoration of abbey to him
1205: Goes to ROME
August, dies in SIENA – Senes la Vieille.

For a large part of this time, Savaric had either been serving the king, in England, Germany or France (Richard from 1193 to 1199, then John from 1200) or acting as an envoy for the Emperor). For much of the rest of the time he was making representations to the pope on his own behalf. In the next blog I’ll look at what he was doing when he wasn’t per mundum eundo.

Medieval travel: Per mundum eundo

A biographical note on Bishop Savaric

It’s easy to get sidetracked when you find things  you’re not looking for. I was skimming through what I could find out about Savaric that had made me dismiss him as a likely builder of the Wellington manor house at Longforth. I’m not sure ‘biographical’ is quite the right word here as this is not exactly about Savaric’s life. He died, according to the various sources I found, in Siena or Civitavecchia; but either way it was somewhere called Senes la Vieille or Scienes la Vieille. It sounds more like France than Italy, but I could find nowhere in my French gazetteer which looked at all likely (Estienville?). Having probed a bit further, there is still one question I can’t answer: why did anyone think this was Civitavecchia (other than that ‘la Vieille’ means ‘Vecchia’)? There may be a better answer but until I know for sure I can only be 99.9% certain that he died in Siena.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti,The Allegory of Good Government: Siena or metaphorical Siena

In 1205, Savaric set out on one of his frequent visits to Rome to lay some contentious issue before the Pope for settlement. On this occasion he was accompanying Peter des Roches, recently elected Bishop of Winchester whose election had been disputed (as Savaric’s own had been in 1192). Peter had supported Savaric in his battles with the monks of Glastonbury and now Savaric was supporting him when his election was opposed by the archdeacons of Winchester.

According to multiple sources, Savaric died on 8 August either in Civitavecchia or Siena. The original DNB article, written by William Hunt about 100 years ago, stated: “He died at Civita Vecchia (Senes la Vieille, said also to be Siena) on 8 Aug.” The current ODNB is non-committal as to the precise place: “Savaric died on 8 August 1205 at ‘Scienes la Vielle‘ …”. The tradition had been to offer the two alternatives: the Rev CM Church, subdean and Canon Residentiary of Wells, wrote in 1887: “We know nothing of his last years 1204-5, except his death in a foreign land – at Senes la Vieille – either Siena or Civita Vecchia – Aug. 8, 1205.”

I have two arguments for Siena:

• Siena was on the pilgrim route between Canterbury and Rome, known as the Via Francigena. Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, took this route in 990, and detailed it in the Itinerario Sigerici. From Lucca (XXVI Luca), key stages were to San Gimignano (XIX Sce Gemiani), to San Quirico d’Orcia (XII Sce Quiric.), Acquapendente (IX Aquapendente), Montefiascone (VII Sce Flaviane), thence close  to Viterbo (VI Sce Valentine). By the time they went through Vetralia and La Storta, Civita Vecchia had been left behind over on the coast, and Rome was in sight. Between San Gimignano and San Quirico was stage XV – Seocine, identified as Siena, the Roman Saena Iulia.
• Senes la Vieille would have been an Anglo-Norman form, probably found in contemporary records of Savaric’s death in England; and Senes la Vieille was the French name for Siena, certainly into the 15th century. Among the various redactions of the Grandes Chroniques, that of Nicole Gilles, published in 1536, records details of Charles VIII’s campaign in Italy. In 1496, he set out for Rome to meet with Pope Alexander VI. On his return: De Viterbe le roy passa a Senes la Vieille ou luy vindrent nouvelles que le duc dorleans avoit gaigne la ville de Novarre, & estoit dedans oultre le gre de Ludovic & ses alliez. De Senes la Vieille le roy alla a Pise, de Pise a Lucques …

The Via Francigena near San Quirico

Viterbo, Siena, Pisa, Lucca – that is the Via Francigena, and Senes la Vieille is Siena. When heading south, King Charles had come through Florence, thence to Senes la Vielle, sainct Clerico (San Quirico), Aigue Pendente (Acquapendente), Montflacon (Montefiascone) to Viterbe (Viterbo).

Why would travellers from England to Rome pass through Civitavecchia? Unless, of course, they decided to make the return journey by sea, leaving from Rome’s port – Civitavecchia … One could conjure up all sorts of reasons why they might do that – saddle soreness, invitation to travel in someone’s yacht, but sea travel was not particularly comfortable in those days, so that can probably be ruled out. The dates tend to suggest that Savaric died on his way to Rome, rather than on his way back, since Peter was confirmed and consecrated on September 25, and Savaric would surely have stayed in Rome for that, had he been alive.

PS But Ralph of Coggeshall wrote: Obiit Savarinus, Batoniensis episcopus, qui cum eodem Petro Romam perrexerat, et ejus consecrationem tam apud senatores quam apud cardinales multipliciter procuraverat: sed mox in ejus reditu a curia vitam illaudabiliter terminavit.

The verbs perrexerat and procuraverat suggest Savaric took charge of the whole matter in the curia on Peter’s behalf – but in that case he must have left Rome before the consecration which took place seven weeks after his death. I haven’t yet managed to identify the exact document(s) which give the place where he died as ‘Senes la Vieille’.

Anyway, Ralph gives Savaric’s epitaph as:

Notus eras mundo, per mundum semper eundo,
Et necis ista dies est tibi prima quies.

Very appropriate. I shall mention it again later.