Hygeberht was Bishop of Lichfield from 779 to 803. He succeeded in having Lichfield elevated to an archbishopric. The rise in Lichfield’s status was unpopular with Canterbury. He petitioned the pope to have Lichfield returned to a simple bishopric. By the time he was demoted in 803 he was no longer even considered a bishop.
About Hygeberht in brief
Hygeberht was Bishop of Lichfield from 779 to 803. He succeeded in having Lichfield elevated to an archbishopric. The rise in Lichfield’s status was unpopular with Canterbury. After Offa’s death his distant relative Coenwulf became king. He petitioned the pope to have Lichfield returned to a simple bishopric. By the time he was demoted in 803 he was no longer even considered a bishop. Little is known of his background, although he was probably a native of Mercia. He was chosen by Offa to consecrate his son Ecgfrith as king, but was unable to get Jænberht to agree. Offa may have justified the move by suggesting he planned to allow the Frankish king Charlemagne to use a landing site in Kent if the latter decided to invade. An archbishop in Mercia would also reinforce the kingdom’s independence and free it from ecclesiastical dependence on Canterbury in the kingdom of Kent, which Offa had recently brought under Mercian control.
He is listed as an abbot at the council that oversaw the demotion of Lichfeld in 8 03. The date of his death is unknown. He may have been buried at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where he was buried in a sarcophagus with his wife and two children. He died in about 803, and was succeeded by his son, Ecg frith, who was consecrated as king in 779. HygeberHT’s elevation to archiepiscopal status was significant, as he promised to donate 365 mancuses each year to the papacy to provide for poor people in Rome and provide lights for St Basil’s. He also consecrated Ecg Frith after his death in 778. He was probably a Mercian by birth, but given his close ties to the kingdom, he was likely to have been a native of Mercia by birth. He witnessed an ecclesiastical claim on a church in Worcester.
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This page is based on the article Hygeberht published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
