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Biography of Bishop Henry Woodlock -1316

On 23rd January 1305 Bishop Henry Woodlock was elected Bishop of Winchester.

On 30th May 1305 Bishop Henry Woodlock was consecrated Bishop of Winchester at Canterbury Cathedral [Map].

Coronation of Edward II and Isabella

On 25th February 1308 King Edward II of England (age 23) was crowned II King of England at Westminster Abbey [Map] by Henry Woodlock, Bishop of Winchester. Isabella of France Queen Consort England (age 13) was crowned Queen Consort England.

Piers Gaveston 1st Earl Cornwall (age 24) carried the Royal Crown.

William Marshal 1st Baron Marshal (age 30) carried the Gilt Spurs.

Humphrey Bohun 4th Earl Hereford 3rd Earl Essex (age 32) carried the Royal Sceptre.

Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 27) carried the Royal Rod.

Thomas Plantagenet 2nd Earl of Leicester, 2nd Earl Lancaster, Earl of Salisbury and Lincoln (age 30) carried the sword Curtana.

Roger Mortimer 1st Earl March (age 20) carried the table bearing the Royal Robes.

Thomas Grey (age 28) and Robert Fitzwalter 1st Baron Fitzwalter (age 61) attended.

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Adam Murimuth Continuation. 25th February 1308... both he and the queen were crowned by the Bishop of Winchester, Henry, by the commission of Lord Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury. And present at the said coronation were Charles (age 13), the brother of the queen (age 13), who later became King of France, Duke of Brittany, Henry (age 33), Count of Luxembourg, who later became Emperor, and Peter de Gavestone (age 24), who nobly appeared, surpassing all, incurred the envy and hatred of all. Also, Louis (age 31), the brother of the King of France (age 39), was there.

... tam ipse quam ipsa regina fuerunt coronati per episcopum Wyntoniensem Henricum, ex commissione domini Roberti archiepiscopi Cantuariensis. Et dicte coronationi interfuerunt Karolus, frater regine, qui postea fuit rex Francie, dux Britanniæ, Henricus comes Luceburgiæ, qui postea fuit imperator, et Petrus de Gavestone, qui nobiliter apparuit omnes transcendens, invidiam et odium omnium incurrebat. Item, Lodowycus, frater regis Francis, fuit ibidem

Thomas Walsingham [-1422]. In the same year, on the sixth day before the Kalends of March1 [25th February 1308], that is, on the Feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle, the King and Queen were, with the greatest solemnity, magnificently crowned at Westminster by the Bishop of Winchester, acting under the commission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was in exile. On the day the King was to be crowned, in the presence of Charles and Louis, counts and uncles of the Queen, of John, Duke of Brabant, and Margaret, Duchess, the Count of Savoy, and many other nobles, the earls and barons of the realm of England discussed the state of the kingdom, and requested of the King the removal of Piers Gaveston from the realm. But the King was unwilling to consent. Therefore, the earls proposed to prevent the royal coronation. When the King became aware of this, he promised in good faith that he would do for them in the next Parliament whatever they might ask, only that the coronation should not be delayed. Meanwhile, the King sent for the regalia of Saint Edward from the monks’ church there, intending that after Mass he would return to the palace and sit down to the banquet. By right, the Chancellor of the realm and the Treasurer, if they were priests, ought to carry before the King the chalice of Saint Edward with the paten. But the King, instead of giving them to those to whom they belonged, voluntarily distributed portions of the regalia of Saint Edward, namely the cross, the sceptre, the rod, the spurs, and the swords. But the crown of Saint Edward he entrusted to Piers to carry in his defiled hands, for which reason, and not without cause, both people and clergy were indignant. The crowd was so tightly packed that a certain knight, John de Blakewell, who had long been an enemy of that church, died without the sacrament. Nor did the violence of the people spare either the King to be crowned or the bishops who were to crown him. And so, with great haste and almost without reverence, this solemnity was completed. On that day, the Mass in the church was finished after the ninth hour (mid-afternoon), and the banquet in the palace at night.

Eodem anno, sexto Kalendas Martii, die videlicet Sancti Matthiæ Apostoli, Rex et Regina cum solemnitate maxima apud Westmonasterium ab Episcopo Wyntoniensi, commissione Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis exulantis, magnifice coronatur. In die quo Rex debebat coronari, coram Karolo et Lodewico Comitibus, patruis Reginæ, Johanne Duce Brabantiæ, et Margareta Ducissa, Comite Sabaudiæ, et multis aliis nobilibus, tractaverunt Comites et Barones regni Angliæ de statu regni, petieruntque a Rege amotionem Petri de Gaverstone a regno; sed Rex noluit consentire. Ideirco proposuerunt Comites coronationem regiam impedire. Quod Rex intelligens, promisit bona fide se facturum illis in Parliamento proximo quicquid peterent, tantum ne coronatio differatur. Interim, Rex misit post Regale Sancti Edwardi in ecclesia monachorum ibidem, in quo post Missam est in palatium reversurus, et ad prandium est sessurus. Cancellarius regni et Thesaurarius de jure portare debent calicem Sancti Edwardi cum patena, si presbyteri fuerint, ante Regem: tradidit autem Rex non quibus debebat, sed voluntarie portiunculas Regalis Sancti Edwardi, puta crucem, sceptrum, virgam, calcaria, et gladios; sed coronam Sancti Edwardi tradidit Petro ad portandum manibus inquinatis, ex quo non immerito indignati sunt populus atque clerus. Fuit autem ibi tanta compressio populi, ut quidam miles, Johannes de Blakewelle, qui ab antiquo hostis illius ecclesiæ fuerat, sine viatico expiraret. Sed nec Regi coronando, nec Episcopis, ipsum coronaturis, pepercit violentis populi. Et ideo, cum festinatione nimia, et quasi sine reverentis, fuit ista solemnizatio consummata. Illo die, Missa in ecclesia din post nonam, et prandium in palatio de nocte, sunt finita.

Note 1. The sixth day before the Kalends of March is the 24th of February. However, 1308 was a leap-year. At the time, rather than add an extra day to February, the calendar inserted a second 24th of February, which was known as the "bisextus" or "twice sixth". In a leap year the Church held that St Matthias's Feast Day, usually the 24th of February, was held on the "twice sixth" i.e. the 25th of February in the modern calendar.

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On 25th November 1313 Bishop Gilbert Segrave (age 47) was consecrated as Bishop of London by Bishop Henry Woodlock.

On 28th June 1316 Bishop Henry Woodlock died at Farnham Castle, Surrey [Map]. He was buriedt at Winchester Cathedral [Map].

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. The final Mass was celebrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was the Bishop of Durham, and he performed the burial rites. His ministers at the altar were two bishops: the Bishop of Winchester1, who read the Gospel, and the Bishop of Lincoln2, who read the Epistle. And so the most mighty, most prudent, and wisest king was laid to rest among his ancestors, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and the thirty-fifth of his reign.3

Ultimam autem missam celebravit patriarcha Jerosolimitanus, qui erat Dunolmensis episcopus, et officium sepulturæ peregit. Erantque ministri ejus ad altare duo episcopi, Wintoniensis scilicet qui evangelium, et Lincolniensis qui epistolam perlegerunt. Appositusque est ad patres suos rex fortissimus, prudentissimus, et sapientissimus, anno atatis suze sexagesimo octavo, et regni sui tricesimo quinto.

Note 1. Henry Woodlock, alias Merewell, formerly Prior of St. Swithun's, Winchester.

Note 2. John d'Aldreby.

Note 3. This terminates the portion of Guisborough given in MS. Lansdown, 239. After quinto, in a contemporary hand, is written,

Here end the three books compiled by Lord Walter of Guisborough, canon of Guisborough, concerning the deeds of the English from the coming of William the Bastard, the Conqueror, up to the death of the most valiant King Edward the First after the Conquest.

Expliciunt tres libri compilati a domino Waltero Guisborought canonico de Gyseburne, de gestis Anglorum ab adventu Willelmi Bastardi Conquæstoris usque ad mortem strenuissimi regis Edwardi primi post conquæstum. MS. C, C. C. Cant. 250, concludes the reign of Edward I at fol. 136, b, and continues the history of Edward II on the following page (f.137, a.) thus, "Liber Quartus. De Coronatione Regis Edwardi Secundi et Martyris."

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