Peter had been a royal chaplain before being nominated to the see of Lichfield. Nothing else is known of his background, although presumably he was a Norman, as were most of King William I of England's episcopal appointments.[2] He may have been a royal clerk of King Edward the Confessor,[3] although one charter of 1065 that lists his name is a forgery.[4] He was the custodian of the see of Lincoln, before his elevation to the episcopate.[5] He was consecrated after May 1072 and died in 1085.[1] Peter pillaged the abbey of Coventry, "forcing an entry into their dormitory and breaking into their strongboxes, robbing them of their horses and all their goods" and was censured by Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury, who chastised him that "it is neither your role or as a bishop nor within your power to do these things".[6][7] Peter was buried at Chester.[5] The historian Katharine Keats-Rohan suggests that he was the uncle of Regenbald, a royal clerk under King Edward and King William.[8]
Citations
^ abFryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 253
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.
Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (1999). Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066–1166: Domesday Book. Ipswich, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN0-85115-722-X.
