Winchelsey, Robert de

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Winchelsey, Robert de (d. 1313). Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in Kent, educated at Paris where he was rector and at Oxford where he was chancellor (1288), Winchelsey was a distinguished scholar and administrator. Though elected archbishop in 1293, he only returned from Rome after consecration in 1295. As an unyielding upholder of ecclesiastical independence, he obeyed Boniface VIII's bull Clericis laicos by refusing Edward I's request for clerical taxation (1296) until the pope compromised (1297). Winchelsey, with the barons, again confronted Edward at the Lincoln Parliament (1301), removing Walter Langton, the treasurer, which Edward never forgave. Suspended by Pope Clement V, Edward's former vassal (1306), Winchelsey went into exile. Restored (1307), he actively opposed Gaveston despite sickness, and was one of the lords Ordainers (1310).

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

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