Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

Rowland Lee (''or'' Leigh; c. 1487 – 28 January 1543) was an English clergyman who served as

Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Mid ...

1534 __NOTOC__ Year 1534 ( MDXXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 15 – The Parliament of England passes the '' Act Respecting t ...

– 43 and also as Lord President of the Marches under

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

Life

His family hailed from

Isell Isel is a dispersed settlement and area in the valley of the River Derwent within the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is an ecclesiastical parish within the civil parish of Blindcrake. Nearby are the hamlets of Setmurthy, Su ...

, Cumberland, and he was educated at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

. After being

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform var ...

as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

Leigh obtained several

livings Livings is a surname of English origin. People with that name include: * Henry Livings (1929–1998), English playwright and screenwriter * Martin Livings (born 1970), Australian author * Nate Livings Nathaniel Joseph Livings (born March 16, 1982 ...

under the patronage of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figu ...

; despite Wolsey's fall he rose high in the esteem of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...

and of

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the kin ...

by pursuing the policy of suppressing the monasteries, and is believed to have been rewarded by officiating at Henry's secret marriage to

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

in January 1533. Whether so or not, Bishop Leigh took a lead part in preparing for the

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

proceedings against

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...

, before in January 1534 being elected as

(the last to hold that title), or

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

, as the see was otherwise known, pledging at his consecration the new oath to the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

as sovereign head of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

rather than to the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

; he was consecrated a bishop on 19 April 1534, by

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by

John Longland John Longland (1473 – 7 May 1547) was the English Dean of Salisbury from 1514 to 1521 and Bishop of Lincoln from 1521 to his death in 1547. Career He was made a Demy at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1491 and became a Fellow. He was King Henry ...

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and N ...

; and Christopher Lord, suffragan bishop of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

and

Bishop of Sidon The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sidon was a bishopric in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th and 13th centuries. Establishment Before the arrival of the crusaders to Syria in the late 11th century, the Orthodox bishops of Sidon had been suffraga ...

. Perceval, Arthur Philip. ''An Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession: With an Appendix, on the English Orders.'' second edition (London: Rivington, 1841
p. 188
He served as a

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

to the royal household advocating the legality of Henry's marriage with Queen Anne until May 1534 when he was appointed Lord President of the

Council of Wales and the Marches The Court of the Council in the Dominion and Principality of Wales, and the Marches of the same, commonly called the Council of Wales and the Marches () or the Council of the Marches, was a regional administrative body based in Ludlow Castle w ...

. As the Lord President, under the direction of

, he set out to bring law and order to the Welsh regions. What ensued was a reign of terror, in which Leigh decided the best way to deal with the 'lawless' Welsh was to convict and hang without impunity. It is claimed that Bishop Leigh hanged 5,000 Welshmen in his five years; probably an exaggeration, but in any event indicates the character of the man described as a "great despiser of Welshmen" by Dafydd Jenkins. Leigh was also disliked among the

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest c ...

for giving them scant respect, despite being related to them; he once boasted to have hanged "Five of the best blood in the county of Shropshire". The "Hanging Bishop" was said to be disappointed and incensed when the first Act of Union was enacted in 1536, as he believed the Welsh could not be trusted as part of England. Leigh died at

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'S ...

, and was buried there in St Chad's Church.

References

External links

Lichfield and Coventry Diocese @ www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Attribution

* * 1480s births 1543 deaths People from Cumberland Alumni of the University of Cambridge Archdeacons of Cornwall 16th-century English bishops Bishops of Lichfield {{UK-RC-bishop-stub

Life

See also

References

External links

Attribution