Stephen de Fulbourn (died 3 July 1288) was an English-born cleric and politician in thirteenth-century

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

: he was

Justiciar of Ireland The chief governor was the senior official in the Dublin Castle administration, which maintained English and British rule in Ireland from the 1170s to 1922. The chief governor was the viceroy of the English monarch (and later the British monar ...

, and

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ) is an Episcopal polity, archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Cathol ...

1286–88. He was a member of the Order of Knights Hospitallers.

Biography

A native of the village of

Fulbourn Fulbourn is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, with evidence of settlement dating back to Neolithic times. The village was probably established under its current name by 1200. The waterfowl-frequented stream after which it was named lies i ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, he apparently did not attend

University A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, but made a reputation as a skilled financier. De Fulbourn was translated to

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

by a

Papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

dated 12 July 1286, having previously been

Bishop of Waterford The Bishop of Waterford was a medieval prelate, governing the Diocese of Waterford from its creation in the 11th century until it was absorbed into the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in the 14th century. After the creation of ...

and Preceptor of

Clerkenwell Priory Clerkenwell Priory was a priory of the Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, in present Clerkenwell, London. Run according to the Augustinian rule, it was the residence of the Hospitallers' Grand Prior in England, ...

, a foundation of the

Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

. He was succeeded at Waterford by his brother

Walter de Fulburn Walter de Fulburn, or de Fulbourn (died 1307) was a leading English-born statesman and cleric in medieval Ireland, who held the offices of Bishop of Waterford, Bishop of Meath and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was born in the village of Fulbour ...

, who was

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

1283-1288. He served as

Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, and chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695. After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Brit ...

from 1274–77 and

from 1281-88. ''The History of the Popes'' states that his appointment took place:

''after a long contest between the rival claims of two other candidates, who had been severally elected by different portions of the Chapter of Tuam. Fulburn was an Englishman, and a member of the Order of
Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...
; he twice filled the office of
Lord Justice of Ireland The Lords Justices (more formally the Lords Justices General and General Governors of Ireland) were deputies who acted collectively in the absence of the chief governor of Ireland (latterly the Lord Lieutenant) as head of the executive branch o ...
. He held the see of Enachdune (Annaghdown) as well as that of Tuam; but not without serious opposition from a rival,
John de Ufford John de Ufford (died 20 May 1349) was chancellor and head of the royal administration to Edward III as well as being appointed to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Early life His family held the estate of Offord Dameys, Huntingdonshire. His bro ...
, who had been elected Bishop and had received the King's confirmation of his appointment.''

According to Otway-Ruthven, his tenure as Justiciar was plagued by accusations of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

and inefficiency. How much truth there was in the charges is difficult to say: the activities of Stephen and his brother Walter, who acted as his Deputy, prompted an official inquiry in 1284, during which numerous charges and grievances were aired, including debasing the

coinage Coinage may refer to: * Coins, standardized as currency * Coining (mint), the process of manufacturing coins * '' COINage'', a numismatics magazine * Tin coinage, a tax on refined tin * Coinage, a protologism or neologism In linguistics, a neolo ...

by the issue of inferior

pennies A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...

, and ransacking

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle () is a major Government of Ireland, Irish government complex, conference centre, and tourist attraction. It is located off Dame Street in central Dublin. It is a former motte-and-bailey castle and was chosen for its position at ...

for its valuables. Despite the serious nature of these charges, he remained Justiciar until his death. He was a man of considerable financial acumen, which was then the reason for making him Treasurer, and his success at moneymaking is not in itself proof that he was corrupt. The moving force behind many of the charges was

Nicholas de Clere Nicholas de Clere, or le Clerk (died 1303) was an English-born Crown administrator in the late thirteenth-century Ireland. He was a skilled financier who achieved high Government office, becoming Lord Treasurer of Ireland, but he faced serious cha ...

(or le Clerk), his successor as Treasurer. Nicholas was himself accused of corruption a few years later, and died in prison, having been unable to prove his innocence, or pay his debts to the

English Crown This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself king of the Anglo-Sax ...

. Some of the charges against him almost certainly originated with Stephen's relatives, seeking revenge (Stephen himself had died three years earlier). Envy of the Fulbourn brothers' wealth and power no doubt played a part in the campaign against them: in 1285 the King received a report complaining that the brothers "were everything, and without them there is nothing". Stephen gave his name to the

steeping Steeping is the soaking of an organic solid, such as leaves, in a liquid (usually water) to extract flavours or to soften it. The specific process of teas being prepared for drinking by leaving the leaves in heated water to release the flavour ...

, a debased form of the sterling silver penny. The steeping was outlawed by Edward I.''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "scalding, ''n.¹''. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1910. Stephen was certainly a very wealthy man, whatever the origin of his fortune, as shown by the

inventory Inventory (British English) or stock (American English) is a quantity of the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying ...

of his possessions made after his death. The list of valuables was considered particularly striking in a man who had taken a

vow of poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse

. The valuables included rich items made of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, furs, fifteen horses, silk shoes and luxurious foodstuffs like

figs The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

and

almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the sh ...

. De Fulbourn received possession of the

temporalities Temporalities or temporal goods are the secular properties and possessions of the church. The term is most often used to describe those properties (a '' Stift'' in German or ''sticht'' in Dutch) that were used to support a bishop or other religious ...

of the Archdiocese of Tuam in September 1286. He died in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

on 3 July 1288 and was buried in

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Irish: ''Ardeaglais Theampall Chríost''), is the cathedral of the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough, United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the e ...

. His

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...

was Alexander of London, clerk.''Red Book of the Irish Exchequer''

References

* http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ejournals/101014/101014.pdf * http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005B/ * http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005C/ * https://archive.org/stream/fastiecclesiaehi04cottuoft#page/n17/mode/2up {{DEFAULTSORT:de Fulbourn, Stephen Archbishops of Tuam 13th-century English clergy People from Cambridgeshire Justiciars of Ireland 13th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Ireland Bishops of Waterford 1288 deaths Year of birth unknown Lords Lieutenant of Ireland