Archbishop of Lichfield (Hygeberht)

            Abstract. Following King Offa’s success at removing enemies, making money and building a Christian church. He persuaded the pope to convert the bishop of Lichfield into the Archbishop of middle England (London to the Humber) for 12 or 14 years from 787. In the following year he had his son made co-king in a remarkable coronation.

    Bishop Berthun of Lichfield died in 777 or 779 and was succeeded by Bishop Higbert in 779.[1] In 787, he was raised to be archbishop, now signing himself as Hygeberht, and continued to be prelate of much of Southumbria (apparently from the Thames to the Humber [2]) until 799 when he was demoted. He died around 803. He was succeeded by Bishop Ealdwulf[3] (or Adulphus) at some time in the years 799 to 801. Therefore, there was an archbishop for the northern part of Southumbria based at Lichfield for 12–14 years.

           

Hygeberht in a floor roundel in the presbytery.

 

Hygeberht signature on a charter, the third name, in 787. From BL Cotton MS Augustus II 97 

             Reasons for transference of clerical power from Canterbury to Lichfield are uncertain. Offa became the king of Mercia in 757 and continued, like Æthelbald his predecessor, to overpower other Anglo-Saxon (now known as Englisc or Early Medieval) kings and warlords until unopposed. By the 770s, he ruled over most of England from the River Ribble southwards.

 

Offa’s dioceses

He began import/exporting through Chester and London and became wealthy. Coins were issued and taxation became widespread.

 

Offa penny found at Elford. Courtesy of Yorkcoins.com

     Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor of west and central Europe (Francia), called him his dearest brother. Trade was negotiated between Francia and Mercia in goods, cloaks and stones were mentioned, and people especially scribes. At one time, both rulers had a silver coin of similar size and parity to enable this commercial enterprise. Offa began to see himself as equivalent to Charlemagne and wanted the same standing. This included having his son Ecgfrith anointed co-ruler and securing his royal hereditary.[4] Archbishop Jænberht of Canterbury, is thought to have resisted this unusual protocol and Offa therefore by-passed him. Despite Offa having control over Kent, he was not free to arrange a consecration of his son.[5] With Pope Hadrian’s permission Offa elevated his bishop to archbishop in 787 and in 788 had a coronation of his son, probably then aged around 17. After this, Ecgfrith witnessed at least two of Offa's charters as ‘Ecgfrith king’ or ‘Ecgfrith king of the Mercians’. After Offa's death and Ecgfrith’s early death[6] his distant relative Coenwulf became king, and he petitioned the pope to have Lichfield returned to a bishopric. The pope agreed to do so in 802 and it was confirmed at the council of Clovesho in 803; by which time Hygeberht was no longer even considered a bishop. He was listed as an abbot at the council that oversaw the demotion of Lichfield in 803.[7]

             More reasons have been given to explain the events. Offa was the first English king to hold a Council in 786 with papal legates attending and approving how Offa was generously giving to the church. This gained Pope Hadrian’s support for Offa’s request for a third archbishop; Canterbury and York[8] remained, but Lichfield might have had pre-eminence. Consequently, Hygeberht, probably a Mercian, officiated at the coronation of his son and heir in 788. It was the first coronation in England with a king being holy oil-anointed and probably the first ceremony with a religious element in the making of a king. It must have been opulent and unprecedented.[9] Maybe, Offa thought his kingship needed further confirmation[10] and this was a way of continuing his royal lineage.[11]     

 

Offa on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral. He is looking southwards to Rome whilst holding his Archbishop’s mitre.

             The new archbishop of Canterbury appointed in 793 was consecrated by Archbishop Hygeberht. When Offa had Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, executed in 794, Hygeberht, with Offa's permission, buried the body in Lichfield cathedral in the presence of his clerks and deacons.[12]

            There are other aspects. A letter to the papacy (Pope Leo III) written by Coenwulf, who succeeded Offa's son Ecgfrith to the Mercian throne, claimed that Offa's motives were his dislike of Jænberht the archbishop and of the men of Kent; there was a personal enmity.[13] Furthermore, Jænberht supported the Kentish king Egbert II, who appeared not to be a firm supporter of Offa's. This might say more about Coenwulf who was only distantly related to Offa; and later goes on to crush Kent.[14] In 798, Alcuin writing from the Palace School of Charlemagne in Aachen to Æthelheard, the new (792) Archbishop of Canterbury, suggested that it would be good if the unity of the southern English church could be restored, given that it was apparently torn asunder not out of reasonable motives but out of a desire for power by Offa.

            Offa died on 29 July 796, but his place of burial is unknown. It would be reasonable to think Archbishop Hygeberht officiated at his funeral just as he had for King Ethelbert two years previously. If so, it would be reasonable to assume this also was in Lichfield Cathedral.

[1] At a Mercian council he attended that year at Hartleford he was styled electus praesul or bishop elect. H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. (1691), 430 calls him Higberthus.

[2] Phrase used by M. W. Greenslade,  'Lichfield: History to c.1500', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, (London, 1990), 4-14. 

[3] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum  Book 4, 311 (Cambridge: 1125), 467 has Ealdwulf being elevated to archbishop. Also, in William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the kings of England. From the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen, c. 1090-1143; trans. J. Sharpe, 1769-1859; J. A. Giles, 1808-1884, (1887), “Yet rebellious against God, he (Offa) endeavoured to remove the archiepiscopal see formerly settled at Canterbury, to Lichfield, envying forsooth, the men of Kent the dignity of the archbishopric: on which account he at last deprived Lambert, the archbishop, worn out with continual exertion, and who produced many edicts of the apostolical see, both ancient and modern, of all possessions within his territories, as well as of the jurisdiction over the bishoprics. From pope Adrian, therefore, whom he had wearied with plausible assertions for a long time, as many things not to be granted may be gradually drawn and artfully wrested from minds intent on other occupations, he obtained that there should be an archbishopric of the Mercians at Lichfield, and that all the prelates of the Mercians should be subject to that province.” 80.

[4] In 781, Charlemagne had his two sons oil anointed by the pope.

[5] Perhaps as early as 786 the creation of a Mercian archbishopric was being discussed at Offa's court.

[6] Some think his death might not have been natural. One Chronicle stated he was seized with a malady.

[7] The Decree of the church council at Clofesho abolishing the archbishopric of Lichfield is known from Cotton MS Augustus II 61. The list of witnesses begins with two names: Æthelheard of Canterbury, who signed as archbishop, while Ealdwulf attested this decree as bishop.

[8] In 735, the papacy elevated another Anglo-Saxon bishopric to an archbishopric when Ecgbert became the first Archbishop of York.

[9] See the post on the Second Cathedral. A large basilical shaped church would have been appropriate for this grand occasion. The order of service is unknown. The next order for a coronation is thought to have been written in the mid-9th century and the second was for the coronation of Edward the Elder, reigned 899‑924, in the year 900. These services were disregarded in 1066, but reimagined for the coronation in 1953.

[10] Unlike predecessors, Offa’s ancestry was not directly linked with earlier kings.

[11] See N. Brooks, The early history of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. (Leicester Uni. Press: 1984), 118–126.

[12] See note 2.

[13] The enmity between Offa and Jænberht raises the possibility that it was Jænberht who started the rumour that surfaced in about 784 that Offa planned to dethrone the pope, as part of a plan to discredit Offa in the Papal Curia and ensure that any suggestion from the Mercian king about changing the arrangement of bishoprics should fall on deaf (or enraged) ears. From N. Brooks, see note 5.

[14] He requested the pope centre the archbishopric in London, but this was refused.