| Notes |
- From: 'Colleges: Wolverhampton, St Peter', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3 (1970), pp. 321-331:
Throughout the 13th century the royal chapels were struggling to establish their exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. The church of Wolverhampton secured this privilege with less difficulty than other royal chapels of the diocese. It owed its success principally to Giles of Erdington who first appears as Dean of Wolverhampton in 1224. Erdington made his career in the royal service and became one of the most distinguished of Henry III's judges. His legal skill is evident in the agreement he negotiated with the new Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Alexander Stavensby, immediately after the bishop's consecration in 1224. This formalized the traditional but unwritten privileges asserted earlier by Peter of Blois. It recognized the dean's right to appoint to the prebends in his church, institute his clergy, and correct them; it admitted the bishop's intervention only on neglect of correction and after an official admonition, and even then allowed him no right to procurations. On the other hand it recognized that the bishop was entitled to be received with honour, to celebrate, preach, and confirm in the church, and to hear difficult cases and appeals from the parish.
Under the protection of this agreement Wolverhampton enjoyed its privileges unchallenged during the episcopates of Stavensby and his successors until 1260 when Bishop Meuland attempted visitation. Erdington obtained a royal prohibition and in order to defend the agreement of 1224 invoked a papal bull which Henry III had obtained in 1245, exempting royal chapels from episcopal jurisdiction. The dispute ended finally in 1292 when the bishop recognized that all seven royal chapels of his diocese were exempt from ordinary jurisdiction and directly subject to Rome, and reserved only his right to be received with honour, to preach, ordain, consecrate, and confirm in them.
Erdington also defended the financial interests of the college. He had boundaries perambulated, transactions recorded, and property rights defended in the courts. In 1258 he obtained from the king the valuable grant of a weekly market and an annual fair to be held at Wolverhampton. He secured the goodwill of local landowners by concessions of privilege and of land and promoted good relations with the townsmen by granting his burgesses in 1263 the right to hold their burgages freely by hereditary title with the same privileges and liabilities as the burgesses of Stafford. Perhaps the last benefit the college received from Erdington was an endowment for the maintenance of a chaplain at Wolverhampton. He died probably at the end of 1268, after having held the deanery for at least 44 years.
|
Nielsen Hayden genealogy
- 1268
d. 20 Mar 1218, Worcester Priory, Worcester, Worcestershire, England