Robert Burnell

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Robert Burnell (sometimes spelled Robert Burnel;<ref name=Harding159>Harding England in the Thirteenth Century p. 159</ref> c. 1239 – 25 October 1292) was an English bishop who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1274 to 1292. A native of Shropshire, he served as a minor royal official before entering into the service of Prince Edward, the future King Edward I of England. When Edward went on the Eighth Crusade in 1270, Burnell stayed in England to secure the prince's interests. He served as regent after the death of King Henry III of England while Edward was still on crusade. He was twice elected Archbishop of Canterbury, but his personal life—which included a long-term mistress who was rumoured to have borne him four sons—prevented his confirmation by the papacy. In 1275 Burnell was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells, after Edward had appointed him Lord Chancellor in 1274.

Burnell was behind the efforts of the royal officials to enforce royal rights during his term of office as chancellor, including the implementation of the Quo warranto procedures. He also helped with the legislative and legal reforms of Edward's reign. During Burnell's tenure the chancellor's office and records became fixed in London rather than travelling with the king. Burnell went abroad on diplomatic missions for Edward, and for a time governed Gascony. He continued to enjoy the king's trust until his death in 1292; one historian has suggested that Burnell may have been the most important royal official of the 13th century.

Early life

By 1198 Burnell's family had bestowed its name on Acton Burnell in Shropshire,<ref name=DNB>Harding "Burnell, Robert" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</ref> where Burnell was born<ref name=BHOPrebenHolme>Greenway "Prebends: Holme" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York</ref> probably in about 1239, as he was close in age to King Edward. His father was probably Roger Burnell, who died in about 1259. He had three brothers, two of whom died fighting the Welsh at the Battle of Moel-y-don in 1282; the third, Hugh, died in 1286. Hugh's son Philip was Robert's eventual heir. Burnell worked as a clerk in the royal chancery,<ref name=Chrimes134/>Template:Efn the office responsible for the writing of documents,<ref name=Dict66>Coredon Dictionary p. 66</ref> before moving to the household of Prince Edward, later King Edward I of England.<ref name=Chrimes134>Chrimes Introduction p. 134</ref> By 1257 Burnell was spending most of his time with the prince and the prince's household.<ref name=Edward23>Prestwich Edward I p. 23</ref> After Simon de Montfort's victory at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Burnell continued to serve Edward, and was named the prince's clerk in December 1264.<ref name=Studd183>Studd "Chancellors of the Lord Edward" Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research p. 183</ref> As a reward for his service, Burnell was given the prebend of Holme in the diocese of York some time before 1267, and was named Archdeacon of York in December 1270.<ref name=ArchDYork>Greenway "Archdeacons: York" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 6: York</ref> He also held the office of chancellor to Edward from the time of the Battle of Evesham in 1265 until 1270, when Edward left on crusade.<ref name=Studd183/>

Prince Edward tried to have Burnell elected to the Archbishopric of Canterbury in 1270, but was frustrated by the Canterbury cathedral chapter's members, who instead elected their prior, William Chillenden. Eventually Pope Gregory X set Chillenden aside and installed his own choice in the see, Robert Kilwardby.<ref name=Edward73>Prestwich Edward I p. 73</ref> Burnell did not accompany the prince on crusade in late 1270, although he had originally planned to do so. Instead, he was appointed one of the four lieutenants who looked after Edward's interests while the prince was away.<ref name=DNB/>Template:Efn Thus he was still in England when Henry III died in November 1272. Burnell acted as one of the regents of the kingdom until August 1274, when the prince, now king, returned from Palestine. During the regency Burnell supervised a parliament, dealt with raids on the Welsh Marches and resolved a trade conflict with Flanders.<ref name=Planta123>Prestwich Plantagenet England p. 123</ref> After the king's return to England Burnell was made chancellor.<ref name=Handbook85>Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 85</ref> The historian Richard Huscroft considers that Burnell gained valuable experience governing England during Edward's absence, ensuring Burnell's dominance in the English government after Edward's return.<ref name=Govern59>Huscroft "Robert Burnell and the Government of England" Thirteenth Century England VIII p. 59</ref>

Chancellor and bishop

On 23 January 1275 Burnell was elected to the see of Bath and Wells. He received the temporalities of the see on 19 March 1275 and was consecrated on 7 April 1275.<ref name=Handbook85/> Three years later Edward once more tried to secure the see of Canterbury for his favourite. Burnell was elected to the archbishopric in June or July 1278, but the election was quashed by Pope Nicholas III in January 1279.<ref name=Handbook233>Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 233</ref> King Edward sent a deputation,<ref name=Harding243/> including the eventual appointee, John Peckham, to secure Nicholas' confirmation of the election.<ref name=Jordan74>Jordan "English Holy Men" Cistercian Studies Quarterly p. 74</ref> The pope named three cardinals as investigators, and then appointed Peckham instead.<ref name=Harding243>Harding England in the Thirteenth Century p. 243</ref> The bishop's second failure to obtain the archbishopric was probably a consequence of his lifestyle, which included keeping a mistress.<ref name=DNB/> Edward made one final attempt to promote his friend to a wealthier see in early 1280, when Burnell was nominated to become Bishop of Winchester,<ref name=Handbook276>Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 276</ref> but Pope Nicholas III quashed the election<ref name=BHOWinch>Greenway "Winchester: Bishops" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)</ref> on 28 June 1280.<ref name=Handbook276/>

Burnell was the chief and most influential of Edward I's advisers during the first half of his reign.<ref name=Edward138>Prestwich Edward I p. 138</ref> As part of his duties Burnell spent most of his time in attendance on the king. He heard many requests and petitions from those who desired patronage or other advancements, and was diligent and active in dealing with routine business.<ref name=Edward233>Prestwich Edward I p. 233</ref> Burnell played a leading role in the legislation introduced by King Edward. The king's major legislative acts mainly date to Burnell's tenure of the office of chancellor, from 21 September 1274 until Burnell's death in 1292.<ref name=DNB/><ref name=Handbook228>Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 228</ref> Burnell was instrumental in the enforcement of royal writs and enactments, including the Statutes of Westminster, enacted in 1275, 1285, and 1290. Those of 1275 attempted to deal with the usurpation of royal rights.<ref name=Plantagenet124>Prestwich Plantagenet England pp. 124–126</ref> Keeping the peace in the realm and the extension of royal jurisdiction to cover rape was dealt with in the statutes from 1285, along with a number of other issues.<ref name=Three20>Prestwich Three Edwards pp. 20–21</ref> The last statute, from 1290, regulated land law, the result of pressure from the magnates, the leading laymen of England.<ref name=Plantagenet124/>

During Burnell's time in office Edward and his royal officials made great efforts to reassert royal rights that were felt to have been usurped by the king's subjects. These efforts were made under writs of Quo warranto,Template:Efn which asked the recipient what royal grant or warrant gives the recipient the authority to exercise a right or a power. They were first issued in 1278, after earlier attempts to recover royal rights through parliament unintentionally resulted in too much work for that body.<ref name=Plantagenet124/> Through these writs, attempts were made to enforce the rule that the only correct way to receive a privilege or grant of land was through a written charter, which might have deprived most of the magnates of England of their lands and rights. Most lands at that time were held not by documentary grants, but by the force of custom. By the 1290s the government was forced to back down and permit rights as they had been allowed from "time out of mind".<ref name=Clanchy3>Clanchy From Memory to Written Record p. 3</ref>

The distinction between the king's personal household department of the Wardrobe and the governmental department of the Chancery, which was headed by the chancellor, disappeared almost entirely during Burnell's period of office.<ref name=Chrimes140/> The Wardrobe had developed as a less formal department for the collection and distribution of money, but under Edward had effectively become a treasury for warfare.<ref name=Saul115>Saul "Government" Companion to Medieval England pp. 115–118</ref> There was no rivalry between the holders of the Great Seal,<ref name=Chrimes140/> the official seal of government and used for formal documents,<ref name=Dict143>Coredon Dictionary p. 143</ref> and the Privy Seal,<ref name=Chrimes140>Chrimes Introduction p. 140</ref> used to authenticate the king's less formal letters.<ref name=Dict227>Coredon Dictionary p. 227</ref> During Burnell's time in office the king only used a Privy Seal warrant, or an informal set of instructions for the chancellor to issue a letter from the Chancery under the Great Seal, when the king and Burnell were apart; after Burnell's death the number of Privy Seal warrants increased greatly.<ref name=Edward233/>Template:Efn

Edward had such trust in his chancellor and the chancellor's clerks that Burnell and the clerks were allowed to dispense with the hanaper system,<ref name=Lyon362/><ref name=Chrimes145/> which required fees for sealing charters to be paid into the hanaper department of the Chancery for disbursal.<ref name=Dict148>Coredon Dictionary p. 148</ref> Robert and his clerks were permitted to enjoy the profits from the fees of their office.<ref name=Lyon362>Lyon Constitutional and Legal History pp. 362–363</ref><ref name=Chrimes145>Chrimes Introduction p. 145</ref> Burnell was also responsible for the decision to force the Court of Chancery to settle in London, rather than following the king and his court around the country. A Chancery memorandum of 1280 records that the chancellor, along with the other ministers, now had the duty of sorting the many petitions that came into the government and only passing on the most urgent to the king.<ref name=DNB/>

As bishop, Burnell had a wall built around the cathedral at Wells, which helped to improve the security of the cathedral and its outlying buildings. He left the court each year at Lent, when he returned to his diocese and attended to its affairs. Peckham appointed Burnell to be his deputy when the archbishop went to Wales in 1282. It was probably Burnell who suggested a compromise in 1285 over the jurisdictions of the royal and ecclesiastical courts, which allowed royal officials to return cases involving only religious matters to the church courts.<ref name=DNB/>

Foreign service

Burnell was active in the king's foreign policy, especially towards France, Scotland and Wales, and undertook a number of diplomatic missions to those countries. Burnell served as the royal spokesman on several of these occasions, one of them being at Paris in 1286 when he made a speech detailing the history of English–French relations since the Treaty of Paris of 1259. The speech was a prelude to discussions, successfully concluded, involving the homage that Edward owed to King Philip IV of France, for Edward's land in France.<ref name=Edward323>Prestwich Edward I p. 323</ref> Burnell was employed in Gascony during the late 1280s, helping to administer that duchy and to reorganise its government. He showed himself sensitive to the Gascon desire for independence and did not attempt to impose the same systems of government that were used in England. The historian Michael Prestwich therefore argues that the first half of Edward's reign was the period when Gascony enjoyed its most successful government under the Plantagenets.<ref name=Edward311>Prestwich Edward I p. 311</ref> Later, in June 1291, Burnell gave two speeches at the great council of English and Scottish nobles in Norham to decide the succession to the Scottish crown. Edward had been asked to mediate an end to the crisis over the succession, or the Great Cause as it was known in England.<ref name=Edward365>Prestwich Edward I p. 365</ref>

In Welsh affairs, Burnell attended a number of councils dealing with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Wales, and in 1277 he escorted Llywelyn to Westminster, where Llywelyn pledged homage to Edward. Burnell was present during Edward's conquest of Wales in the 1280s; he witnessed documents in Rhuddlan in 1282, and subsequently at Conwy and Caernarfon.<ref name=DNB/>

Sometime before 1290 Burnell vowed to go on crusade to help reinforce the crusader city of Acre, which was threatened by Muslims in the late 1280s, but he never fulfilled his obligation.<ref name=Tyerman236>Tyerman England and the Crusades p. 236</ref>

Death and legacy

Burnell died in Berwick, on 25 October 1292. His body, without his heart, is interred in the nave of Wells Cathedral; his heart was buried at Bath Abbey.<ref name=BHOBath>Greenway "Bishops" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 7: Bath and Wells</ref> Although he was usually busy with royal business, Burnell managed to expand his bishopric and provide for his relatives.<ref name=DNB/> He amassed great wealth, and acquired numerous estates in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Somerset, Kent, Surrey and elsewhere. At his death, he owned 82 manors over 19 counties, most of them his personal property rather than that of the diocese of Bath and Wells.<ref name=Moorman169>Moorman Church Life p. 169</ref>

A ruined building minus a roof and with crumbling walls. Some of the walls are crenelated. The walls are build with red stones in the middle and grey stones as edging on the tops and corners

Ruins of the house built by Burnell at Acton Burnell

Even after he became a bishop Burnell kept a mistress, Juliana. Rumours circulated that they had four sons, and that he had a number of daughters, all of which Burnell denied.<ref name=Prestwich136>Prestwich Edward I p. 136</ref> He kept a magnificent household, sufficient for him to be able to host a parliament at his home in Acton Burnell in autumn 1283.<ref name=Powell208>Powell and Wallis House of Lords p. 208</ref> He married off a number of young female relatives, rumoured to be his daughters, to noblemen.<ref name=Moorman167>Moorman Church Life p. 167</ref> Amabilla Burnell married a member of a royal justice's family, and a Joan Burnell was the subject of a guarantee to the bishop that the son of William of Greystoke would marry her. A William Burnell was dean of Wells Cathedral, and was named as one of the bishop's executors. Robert Burnell's eventual heir was his nephew, Philip.<ref name=DNB/>

Burnell built extensively at Acton Burnell Castle, and large parts of his house have survived. It was substantially different in plan from the older hall-style houses, which had the private quarters at the back of a large hall. At Acton Burnell the bishop's quarters were well away from the building's main public spaces, and included a latrine. The house was not quite a castle, but it was designed to have some defensive capability.<ref name=Platt83>Platt Castle p. 83</ref> The overall form of the structure was of a fortified hall-house, much like the Norman-era hall-keeps.<ref name=Castles209>Pettifer English Castles p. 209</ref> He also built the chapel and great hall in the Bishop's Palace in Wells.<ref name=Chapel>"Bishop's Palace Chapel Wells, UK" Palace Trust</ref>

Burnell was a dominant figure during the first part of Edward's reign, and he controlled most aspects of royal administration.<ref name=Govern59/> He was involved not only in domestic issues but also in foreign relations,<ref name=Govern70>Huscroft "Robert Burnell and the Government of England" Thirteenth Century England VIII p. 70</ref> a responsibility he retained for two decades after Edward's return to England in 1274.<ref name=Should108>Huscroft "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Nottingham Medieval Studies pp. 108–109</ref> Huscroft argues that he may have been the most important royal administrator of the 13th century.<ref name=Should97>Huscroft "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Nottingham Medieval Studies p. 97</ref>