2 January 1514 - William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, dies at Buckden Palace in Cambridgeshire. Smyth had held important clerical and political offices during the reign of Henry VII, certainly a demonstration of a legislative talent greatly valued by the king. Smyth was born in Lancashire around 1460 as a younger son of Robert Smyth of Peel Hall. As was traditional during the period young William was... brought up in the household of the local lord, in his case Sir Thomas Stanley, recently wedded to Lady Margaret Beaufort. It was an early connection that would serve William well throughout the remainder of his life. Perhaps owing to the patronage of Lord and Lady Stanley, William studied at the University of Oxford and graduated with as a Bachelor of Canon Law in 1476. Smyths fortunes were drastically changed in the summer of 1485 when Henry Tudor, victor of the Battle of Bosworth and the son of Lady Margaret Beaufort, acceded to the throne as Henry VII. William, as part of Lady Margarets affinity, suddenly found himself an integral part of the royal court and endowed with political and ecclesiastical positions. On 20th September 1485 he received the position of keeper of the hanaper in the Court of Chancery which afforded him a salary for life. On 24th September Smyth received the benefice of the deanery of Wimborne, Dorset, notable as the resting place of Lady Margarets parents. One month later he was made a Canon and prebendary of St Stephens Chapel in the Palace of Westminster. The following year he received a grant for the custody of two of Edward IVs daughters, although he transferred the payment to Lady Margaret who personally overlooked the custody. By 1492 Smyth studied and received a Bachelor of Civil Law degree at Oxford and on 1 October that year was appointed to the Bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield for which he was consecrated by the Kings chief advisor John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, the following February. On 6 November 1496 he was translated to the diocese of Lincoln. In 1493 Smyth was also appointed as a member of Prince Arthurs Council of Wales and the Marches, a prestigious and privileged political position demonstrating the Kings high opinion of his talents. After the princes death in 1502 it was Smyth who was selected to be appointed Lord President of the Council, a position which effectively provided Smyth with full jurisdictional authority and responsibility over Wales and the Marches. It was a position he would hold for the next decade. Between 1500 and 1502 he also concurrently held the title of Chancellor of Oxford University. By his death Smyth was a powerful and wealthy entity in his own right, a man greatly valued by Henry VII and who remained in the favour of the Beaufort/Stanley/Tudor family network for his entire life. He was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:27:35 +0000
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