Æthelric (or Ethelric; died 1072) was Bishop of Durham from 1041 to 1056 when he resigned.[1]
Æthelric was a monk at Peterborough Abbey before Bishop Eadmund of Durham brought him to Durham to instruct the Durham monks in monastic life.[2] Æthelric was consecrated as bishop on 11 January 1041[1] at York.[Note 1] Æthelric may have owed his advancement to Siward, Earl of Northumbria, who later restored Æthelric to Durham after Æthelric was forced to flee during a quarrel with the Durham monks.[2] Two reasons are given for why Æthelric resigned his see.[5] One story has it happening after a scandal in which he appropriated treasure hoard that was discovered at Chester-le-Street in the process of replacing the old church with a new one.[6] Æthelric allegedly sent the money to his former monastery of Peterborough to finance some building work there.[7] Another reason given was that Æthelric was unable to protect the diocese against locals encroaching on its rights. Æthelric also resigned within a year of the death of Earl Siward, who had been one of the bishop's main supporters.[5] His brother, Æthelwine, who had helped Æthelric to appropriate the treasure, succeeded Æthelric as bishop.[6]
Æthelric retired to Peterborough Abbey, where he remained until the Norman Conquest.[8] He was arrested by the King William I of England after May 1070, and died in captivity at Westminster,[8][9][10] on 15 October 1072.[1]
Notes
^In Manuscript D of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is commented that he was consecrated as the Archbishop of York and became the Bishop of Durham after being deprived of this title.[3] He is listed as archbishop in the 1961 edition of the Handbook of British Chronology but not in later editions.[4]
Citations
^ abcFryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 216
Fletcher, R. A. (2003). Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-516136-X.
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
Kapelle, William E. (1979). The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and Its Transformation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN0-8078-1371-0.
Mason, Emma (2004). House of Godwine: The History of Dynasty. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN1-85285-389-1.
Powicke, F. Maurice; Fryde, E. B. (1961). Handbook of British Chronology (2nd ed.). London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society.
Stafford, Pauline (1989). Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN0-7131-6532-4.
