Nicholas I (bishop of the Isles)

This article is about the twelfth-century bishop. For other people named Nicholas, Bishop of the Isles, see Nicholas, Bishop of the Isles (disambiguation).

Nicholas (fl. 1147–1152) was a twelfth-century Bishop-elect of the Isles. There is no evidence that he was ever consecrated.

Career

Nicholas' ecclesiastical predecessor, Wimund, Bishop of the Isles appears to have used his elevated position to violently seek the inheritance of an Earl of Moray in the late 1140s. Wimund's warring against the Scots eventually forced David I to cede him lands near Furness, before Wimund's capture and mutilation in 1152. It is likely that Wimund's campaigning led to the abandonment of his diocesan see, and posed a serious problem to the authority of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (died 1153). A letter from Óláfr to the chapter of York suggests that the king unsuccessfully attempted to have Nicholas consecrated as Bishop of the Isles by Robert de Ghent, Dean of York (died c.1158). The fact that Óláfr interacted with the dean suggests that the correspondence dates between the 1147 deposition of William fitz Herbert, Archbishop of York (died 1154) and the 1152 consecration of Henry Murdac, Archbishop of York (died 1153). Óláfr's inability to have his man consecrated may have been due to the Wimund episode being unresolved at the time. According to the twelfth-century Chronica Roberti de Torigneio and the thirteenth-century Flores historiarum, Henry Murdac consecrated John, a Benedictine monk from Normandy, as Bishop of the Isles in 1152.

References

Primary sources

• Anderson, AO, ed. (1908). Scottish Annals From English Chroniclers, A.D. 500 to 1286. London: David Nutt – via Internet Archive.
• Coxe, HE, ed. (1841). Rogeri de Wendover Chronica, sive Flores Historiarum. Bohn's Antiquarian Library. Vol. 2. London: English Historical Society – via Internet Archive.
• Haddan, AW; Stubbs, W, eds. (1873). Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 2, pt. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press – via Internet Archive.
• Howlett, R, ed. (1889). Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores. Vol. 4. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office – via Internet Archive.
• Giles, JA, ed. (1849). Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History. Bohn's Antiquarian Library. Vol. 1. London: Henry G. Bohn – via Internet Archive.
• Munch, PA; Goss, A, eds. (1874). Chronica Regvm Manniæ et Insvlarvm: The Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys. Vol. 2. Douglas, IM: Manx Society – via Internet Archive.
• Oliver, JR, ed. (1861). Monumenta de Insula Manniæ; or, A Collection of National Documents Relating to the Isle of Man. Vol. 2. Douglas, IM: Manx Society – via Internet Archive.
• "PoMS, H1/13/3". People of Medieval Scotland, 1093–1314. n.d. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
• "PoMS Transaction Factoid, No. 7592". People of Medieval Scotland, 1093–1314. n.d. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
• Raine, J, ed. (1894). The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops. Vol. 3. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office – via Gallica.

Secondary sources

• Beuermann, I (2014). "No Soil for Saints: Why was There No Native Royal Martyr in Man and the Isles". In Sigurðsson, JV; Bolton, T (eds.). Celtic-Norse Relationships in the Irish Sea in the Middle Ages, 800–1200. The Northern World: North Europe and the Baltic c. 400–1700 AD. Peoples, Economics and Cultures (series vol. 65). Leiden: Brill. pp. 81–95. ISBN 978-90-04-25512-8. ISSN 1569-1462.
• McDonald, RA (2007). Manx Kingship in its Irish Sea Setting, 1187–1229: King Rǫgnvaldr and the Crovan Dynasty. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-047-2.
• Oram, RD (2011). Domination and Lordship: Scotland 1070–1230. The New Edinburgh History of Scotland (series vol. 3). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1496-7 – via Google Books.
• Watt, DER (1994). "Bishops in the Isles Before 1203: Bibliography and Biographical Lists". The Innes Review. 45 (2): 99–119. doi:10.3366/inr.1994.45.2.99. eISSN 1745-5219. ISSN 0020-157X.
• Woolf, A (2003). "The Diocese of the Sudreyar". In Imsen, S (ed.). Ecclesia Nidrosiensis, 1153–1537: Søkelys på Nidaroskirkens og Nidarosprovinsens Historie. Tapir Akademisk Forlag. pp. 171–181. ISBN 978-82-519-1873-2 – via Academia.edu.
• Woolf, A (2004). "The Age of Sea-Kings, 900–1300". In Omand, D (ed.). The Argyll Book. Edinburgh: Birlinn. pp. 94–109. ISBN 1-84158-253-0.