The reluctant archbishop

I’d like to thank Rania and Koby for remembering Geoffrey, the Archbishop of York, yesterday, for I admittedly did not. So I thought I’d make it up to him by posting about him today. I discovered something interesting about him last night. I’d always heard that he died on December 12th, 1212, as both Rania and Koby posted. But according to Marie Lovatt, the author of his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he most likely died on December 18th in 1212. He died in exile and even in death he proved loyal to his father. Henry had wanted to be buried at Grandmont, but after his death at Chinon, that was not possible and he was buried instead at Fontevrault Abbey—and thank heaven for that! But Geoffrey was buried at the Grandmontine house of Notre Dame du Parc outside Rouen which had been founded by Henry in 1156.
Geoffrey’s career as Archbishop of York was a remarkably turbulent one, filled with feuds and tension and chaos. But as his Oxford biographer points out, his main faults were impetuosity and a lack of judgment, not the worst of sins. As compensation for ignoring him yesterday, I am going to share a passage from A King’s Ransom which pertains to him. So here is Geoffrey, as seen through Eleanor’s eyes. (I am giving all this background history for the benefit of new readers because this is his first appearance in Ransom.)
* * *
Eleanor leaned back in her seat, studying Geoff covertly through half-closed eyes. He’d been raised at her husband’s court and she’d made no objections, believing that a man should assume responsibility for children sired in and out of wedlock. But their relationship had soured when she and her sons had rebelled against Henry, for Geoff had never forgiven any of them for that. Richard had honored all of Henry’s deathbed promises and approved Geoff’s elevation to the archbishopric of York, even though all knew that he did not have the temperament for a Church career and Geoff himself had never wanted to take holy vows. Few had expected him to stir up so much turmoil, though, in his new vocation. He’d feuded bitterly with the Bishop of Durham, even excommunicating him. He’d clashed with Longchamp and antagonized York’s cathedral chapter by trying to get his maternal half-brother elected as Dean of York. He’d horrified his fellow prelates by having his archiepiscopal cross carried before him in other sees than his own, and then offended Hubert Walter by challenging the primacy of Canterbury over York. Eleanor had lost track of all those he’d excommunicated, including a priory of nuns. She’d always known that he’d inherited his fair share of the Angevin temper, but he’d never been so unreasonable or so belligerent in the past, and she could only conclude that York’s archbishop was a very unhappy man…. Seeing Geoff glance in her direction, she discreetly lowered her gaze, thinking it was a shame that Harry had been so stubbornly set upon making Geoff into what he was not, could not be, and never wanted to be.
* * *