HENRY OF NEWARK

Archbishop of York; d. Aug. 15, 1299. He was probably a native of Newark, Nottinghamshire, England, and related to several other contemporary clerics of the same family name. Henry began his career c. 1270, becoming clerk to King edward i shortly afterward. From then on his advancement was steady, the reward of unspectacular, unremitting service to King and Church. He held the living of Barnby, Nottinghamshire, in 1270, received a prebend in St. Paul's, London, in 1271, and on the death of Abp. walter giffard in 1279, was named a guardian of the temporalities of York. In 1218 he became archdeacon of Richmond, with a prebend in York, where in 1290 he was installed as dean. On May 7, 1296, he was elected archbishop of york, but the wars prevented him from appearing before Pope boniface viii. However, his election was confirmed, the temporalities granted (1297), and the pallium sent from Rome, and he was finally consecrated by the bishop of Durham on June 15, 1298. His steady advancement in the Church was accompanied, and perhaps explained, by his lifelong service to King and State. Thus, in 1277 he was at Rome on a mission for Edward; in 1281 he arbitrated in a dispute with subjects of the Count of Holland; in 1283 he was deputed to fix the dues owing to the crown by the northern knights and to collect subsidies in the Diocese of Durham for the Welsh wars; he was a commissioner at Norham, where Edward gave judgment among the claimants to the Scottish crown; in 1296 he was one of those appointed to treat with the Counts of Gelderland and Holland; and in 1297 he called a synod to consider the king's demand for a subsidy. Summoned to Parliament, he became a member of the Council of the Prince of Wales. He was buried in his cathedral church. He appears to have been a man of great competence and wise judgment, faithful in his duties, unambitious, conciliatory, and generous.

Bibliography: w. h. dixon, Fasti Eboracenses: Lives of the Archbishops of York, ed. j. raine (London 1863) 349–353. j. leneve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541, ed. h. p. f. king et al. (London 1962–) 2:49, 365; 3:104, 122, 137, 214, 428. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 14:310–311.

[j. h. baxter]