William de Corbeil

William de Corbeil was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Educated as a theologian, he taught briefly before serving bishops of Durham and London as a clerk and subsequently becoming an Augustinian canon. He was elected to the See of Canterbury as a compromise candidate in 1123, the first canon to become an English archbishop.

About William de Corbeil in brief

William de Corbeil was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Educated as a theologian, he taught briefly before serving bishops of Durham and London as a clerk and subsequently becoming an Augustinian canon. He was elected to the See of Canterbury as a compromise candidate in 1123, the first canon to become an English archbishop. He succeeded Ralph d’Escures who had employed him as a chaplain. Throughout his archbishopric, William was embroiled in a dispute with Thurstan, the Archbishop of York,. Pope Honorius II appointed William the papal legate for England, giving him powers superior to those of York. Towards the end of his life William was instrumental in the selection of Count Stephen of Boulogne as King of England, despite his oath to the dying King Henry I that he would support the succession of his daughter, the Empress Matilda. Although some chroniclers considered him a perjurer and a traitor for crowning Stephen, none doubted his piety. He appears to have been among the trepidation among the monks in the election, as he was at least a canon, if not the chapter that the monk, Ernulf, and Ralph d’Escures had been elected to an English or Norman see since 1091. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, the list contained no monks, and William was chosen from a short list of the three unsuccessful candidates; the names of the other candidates are unknown. He is also known as a builder; among his constructions is the keep of Rochester Castle.

All that is known of his parents or ancestry is that he had two brothers, Ranulf and Helgot; his brothers appear as witnesses on William’s charters. He was educated at Laon, where he studied under Anselm of Laon,. William was present at the translation of the body of Saint Cuthbert in 1104. His name appears high in a list of those who were present at an event, implying that he may have held an important position in Ranulf Flambard’s household, but appended to his name is “subsequently archbishop”, suggesting that his inclusion could have been a later interpolation. In 1118, William entered the Augustinian order at Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate, a house of canons rather than monks. Subsequently, he became prior of a Augustinian priory at St Osyth in Essex, appointed by Richard de Beaumis, Bishop of London, in 1121. Although most contemporaries would not have considered there to be much of a distinction between monks and canons, William’s election can still be considered a striking break with tradition. The monks of the cathedral chapter and the bishops of the kingdom disagreed on who should be appointed. The bishops insisted that it should not be a clerk, but Canterbury’s monastic cathedral chapter preferred a monk, and insisted that they alone had the right to elect the arch Archbishop.

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