MORGAN, PHILIP

Bishop, lawyer, civil servant; b. Saint Davids Diocese, Wales; d. Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Oct. 25, 1435. A doctor of both canon and civil law at Oxford (by 1404), Morgan was employed first as one of Archbishop Thomas arundel's legal staff, becoming auditor of causes in the court of Canterbury. Like a number of colleagues, he passed into royal service and obviously won a high reputation as a diplomat. Between 1414 and 1417 he served on embassies to Holland, Burgundy, France, Aragon, and Germany. He accompanied King Henry V on his invasion of France and was appointed chancellor of Normandy in 1418. From 1422 until his death Morgan was an assiduous member of the privy council in England under henry vi. Morgan became bishop of worcester in 1419 by papal provision. In 1424, despite the crown's assent, Pope Martin V ignored his election to the archbishopric of York, but in 1426 translated him to ely. Despite his preoccupation with temporal affairs, as bishop Morgan won praise from the censorious Thomas Gascoigne for his measures to prevent benefices from being charged with pensions as the result of simonaical agreements [Loci e libro veritatum, ed. J. E. T. Rogers (Oxford 1881) 133].

Bibliography: j. tait, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 15:1057. a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to a.d. 1500, 3 v. (Oxford 1957–59) 2:1312–1313. r. l. storey, Diocesan Administration in the 15th Century (St. Anthony's Hall Publications 16; London 1959) 24–25.

[r. l. storey]