Simon Sudbury

Simon Sudbury[lower-alpha 1] (c. 1316[1] – 14 June 1381) was Bishop of London from 1361 to 1375, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his death, and in the last year of his life Lord Chancellor of England. He met a violent death during the Peasants' Revolt.

Simon Sudbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
Primate of All England
Appointed4 May 1375
InstalledUnknown
Term ended14 June 1381
PredecessorWilliam Whittlesey
SuccessorWilliam Courtenay
Other postsBishop of London
Orders
Consecration20 March 1362
Personal details
Bornc. 1316
Died14 June 1381 (1382)

Life

The son of Nigel Theobald, Sudbury (as he later became known) was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, studied at the University of Paris, and became one of the chaplains of Pope Innocent VI,[2] one of the Avignon popes, who in 1356 sent him on a mission to Edward III of England.

In 1361 Sudbury was made Chancellor of Salisbury[2] and in October that year the pope provided him to be Bishop of London, Sudbury's consecration occurring on 20 March 1362.[3] He was soon serving Edward III as an ambassador and in other ways. On 4 May 1375 he succeeded William Whittlesey as archbishop of Canterbury,[4] and during the rest of his life was a partisan of John of Gaunt.

In July 1377, following the death of Edward III in June, Sudbury crowned the new king, Richard II at Westminster Abbey, and in 1378 John Wycliffe appeared before him at Lambeth, but he only undertook proceedings against the reformer under great pressure.

In January 1380, Sudbury became Lord Chancellor of England,[5] and the insurgent peasants regarded him as one of the principal authors of their woes. Having released John Ball from his prison at Maidstone, the Kentish insurgents attacked and damaged the archbishop's property at Canterbury and Lambeth; then, rushing into the Tower of London, they seized the archbishop himself. So unpopular was Sudbury with the rebellious peasants that guards simply allowed the rebels through the gates, the reason being his role in introducing the third poll tax.

Death

Sudbury was dragged to Tower Hill and, on 14 June 1381,[4] was beheaded after seven or eight blows to his neck. His body was afterwards buried in Canterbury Cathedral, though his head (after being taken down from London Bridge) is still kept at the church of St Gregory at Sudbury in Suffolk, which Sudbury had partly rebuilt.[2] With his brother, John of Chertsey, he also founded a college in Sudbury; he also did some building at Canterbury. His father was Nigel Theobald, and he is sometimes called Simon Theobald or Tybald.

In March 2011 a CT scan of Sudbury's mummified skull was performed at the West Suffolk Hospital to make a facial reconstruction,[6] which was completed in September 2011 by forensics expert Adrienne Barker at the University of Dundee.[7]

Arms

Sudbury's coat of arms was a talbot hound sejeant within a bordure engrailed, as is visible sculpted in stone on a wall in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral.[8] The town of Sudbury uses a talbot hound sejeant in its arms in allusion to him.[9]

Notes
  1. Also called Simon Theobald of Sudbury and Simon of Sudbury

Citations
  1. Walker, Simon (2004). "Sudbury, Simon (c. 1316–1381)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (revised 2008 ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  2. Neale, John Preston (1825). Views of the most interesting collegiate and parochial churches in Great Britain. Longman. pp. 35–36.
  3. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 258
  4. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 233
  5. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 86
  6. "Skull scan for Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Theobald". BBC Online. 17 March 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  7. "Face of Simon of Sudbury revealed by forensic artist". BBC Online. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011. Page includes illustrations of face.
  8. See image
  9. See image of Sudbury town arms

References
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
Political offices
Preceded by
Richard Scrope		 Lord Chancellor
1380–1381		 Succeeded by
Hugh Segrave
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Michael Northburgh		 Bishop of London
1361–1375		 Succeeded by
William Courtenay
Preceded by
William Whittlesey		 Archbishop of Canterbury
1375–1381

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sudbury, Simon of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 19.

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