Nigel (–1169) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman and administrator who served as Bishop of Ely from 1133 to 1169. He came from an ecclesiastical family; his uncle Roger of Salisbury was a bishop and government minister for King HenryI, and other relatives also held offices in the English Church and government. Nigel owed his advancement to his uncle, as did Nigel's probable brother Alexander, who, like Nigel, was advanced to episcopal status. Nigel was educated on the continent before becoming a royal administrator. He served as Treasurer of England under King Henry, before being appointed to the see, or bishopric, of Ely in 1133. His tenure was marked by conflicts with the monks of his cathedral chapter, who believed that Nigel kept income for himself that should properly have gone to them.
Following the accession in 1135 of Henry's successor, King Stephen, Nigel remained as treasurer only briefly before his family was ousted from political office by the new king. Nigel rebelled and deserted to Stephen's rival Matilda, but eventually reconciled with Stephen. Although he subsequently held some minor administrative posts, he never regained high office under Stephen. On the king's death in 1154, Nigel was returned to the treasurership by the new king, HenryII. Nigel's second tenure as treasurer saw him return the administration to the practices of HenryI. He withdrew from much of his public work after around 1164, following an attack of paralysis. He was succeeded as treasurer by his son, Richard fitzNeal, whom he had trained in the operations of the Exchequer, or Treasury of England. Most historians assess that Nigel's administrative abilities were excellent, and he is considered to have been more talented as an administrator than as a religious figure.
Background and early life Nigel's date of birth is uncertain, but it is likely to have been sometime around 1100.Hudson "Nigel" Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyKnowles Episcopal Colleagues pp. 9–12 Historians occasionally refer to him as Nigel PoorBrett English Church p. 110 footnote 4 or Nigel of Ely, but before his elevation to the episcopate he was commonly known as Nigel, the bishop's nephew, or Nigel, the treasurer. He was probably a Norman by ancestry although he was brought up in England,Spear "Norman Empire" Journal of British Studies p. 6 which in 1066 had been conquered by the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 15–19 Following William's death in 1087 his realm was divided between two of his sons. His middle son, William Rufus, inherited the Kingdom of England, and the Duchy of Normandy passed to his eldest son, Robert Curthose.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 64–65 The youngest son, Henry, received a grant of money, which he used to purchase a lordship in Normandy.Hollister Henry I pp. 47–49 The brothers fought amongst themselves for the next twenty years; the initial conflict was between Rufus and Robert, but after Rufus' death in 1100 Henry, who succeeded Rufus as King of England, also became involved. Eventually, in 1106, Henry captured Robert, imprisoned him for life, and took control of Normandy.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 65–70
Nigel's uncle Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, saw to Nigel's educationCantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 298 at the school of Laon in France,Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 293 footnote 122 where he probably studied mathematics under Anselm of Laon. It is likely that his father was Roger's brother Humphrey.Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 24 Other students at Laon included William de Corbeil, later Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert de Bethune, who became Bishop of Hereford, Geoffrey le Breton, future Archbishop of Rouen, and other men subsequently to hold bishoprics in the Anglo-Norman dominions.Hollister Henry I p. 432
When he took vows as a cleric is unrecorded, but Nigel held a prebend, an ecclesiastical office in the cathedral, in the see of London before holding one of the offices of archdeacon in the diocese of Salisbury,Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces): Bishops: Ely although which archdeaconry he held is unclear.Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 4: Salisbury: Archdeacons of Salisbury Most modern historians believe that Nigel was brother to Alexander of Lincoln, later Bishop of Lincoln,Barlow English Church p. 88 but this relationship is not specifically attested in the sources, which state merely that both were Roger's nephews.Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 274–275 William of Malmesbury, a medieval chronicler, considered both Alexander and Nigel to be well educated and diligent. Nigel attended the consecration of Bernard as Bishop of St David's at Westminster in 1115, and may have returned to England from Laon by 1112.Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 49 footnote 74 From the time of his return until around 1120 he served as a royal chaplain and attested a number of royal charters.Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants pp. 828–829
Under Henry I Nigel first became Treasurer in the reign of HenryI,Barlow English Church p. 79 and seems to have held that office from around 1126.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 103Green Government of England p. 263Hollister "Origins of the English Treasury" English Historical Review p. 271 He was already a receiver, or auditor and administrator, in the treasury of Normandy,Coredon Dictionary p. 235 and he served as treasurer for both realms,Chibnall Anglo-Norman England p. 125 moving with the king and court between England and Normandy.Karn "Nigel" Historical Research p. 302 The date of his appointment is unclear, as until he became a bishop, royal charters listed him as "nephew of the bishop" (Roger of Salisbury) rather than by any office he held. In 1131, though, he was listed in a papal letter as "Nigel, the treasurer", which securely establishes that he held the office at that date.
In 1133, Roger of Salisbury secured the bishopric of Ely for Nigel. Ely had been without a bishop since 1131; after the two-year vacancy, King Henry made the appointment because he was settling outstanding business before leaving England to return to Normandy. At this time Henry also appointed Geoffrey Rufus to Durham, and Æthelwold to the newly created Diocese of Carlisle.Hollister Henry I p. 464 Nigel was consecrated on 1 October 1133 at Lambeth by William de Corbeilwho was by then Archbishop of Canterburypossibly with the assistance of Roger of Salisbury.Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 144–145 Nigel continued to hold the office of treasurer until 1136, when he was replaced by a relative, Adelelm,Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 244 although the historian C. Warren Hollister placed his departure from the office in 1133 with his appointment to Ely. The Constitutio domus regis, or Establishment of the King's Household, may have been written by Nigel, or possibly for his use,Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 112 and probably was composed around 1135.
Ely had until 1109 been an independent monastery, but its last abbot, Richard, had proposed to the king a plan by which the abbey would become a bishopric, presumably with the abbot himself as bishop. Richard died before the proposal could be put into operation, but in 1109, the custodian of the vacant abbey secured permission to make the change and became the first Bishop of Ely. However, the administrative changes needed to make the abbey into a bishopric took longer, and were still unresolved at the time of Nigel's appointment.Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 75–76 Regardless, Nigel was constantly at court, as shown by his appearance 31 times as a witness to charters during the last ten years of HenryI's reign. This left little time for administration of his diocese, and Nigel appointed a married clergyman, Ranulf of Salisbury, to administer the diocese. Ranulf seems to have tyrannized the monks of the cathedral chapter, and Nigel appears to have done little to protect his monks from abuse.Kealey Roger of Salisbury p. 144
Later, during the early years of Stephen's reign, Nigel claimed to have uncovered a plot led by Ranulf to assassinate Normans. The exact nature of the conspiracy is obscure, and it is unclear what prompted it.Kealey Roger of Salisbury pp. 167–168 The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis claimed that Ranulf planned to kill all the Normans in the government and hand the country over to the Scots. After the discovery of the plot, Ranulf fled the country, and Nigel made peace with the monks of his cathedral chapter.
Another source of conflict with his monks was the desire of the cathedral chapter to enjoy the same "liberty" as a corporate body that the bishops did in the diocese. This liberty was a group of rights that the abbey had originally held, and had transferred to the bishop when the abbey became a bishopric. The rights included sake and soke, or the right to command dues from the land, and the right to levy tolls. They also included the right to hold courts dealing with theft.Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 26–27 Around 1135, Nigel conceded this point to the monks.Miller Abbey and Bishopric of Ely pp. 199–200 Although he restored some of the lands that had been taken from the monks by Ranulf, the Liber Eliensis (the house chronicle of the monks of Ely) continued to decry his administration of the diocese and the lands of the cathedral chapter, alleging that "he kept back for himself some properties of the church which he wanted, and very good ones they were". The chronicle contains a number of complaints that Nigel oppressed the monks or despoiled them.Fairweather Liber Eliensis pp. 366–367
Stephen's early reign Following King Henry's death in 1135, the succession was disputed between the king's nephewsStephen and his elder brother, Theobaldand Henry's surviving legitimate child Matilda, usually known as the Empress Matilda because of her first marriage to Emperor Henry V. King Henry's only legitimate son, William, had died in 1120. After Matilda was widowed in 1125, she returned to her father, who married her to Geoffrey, the count of Anjou. All the magnates of England and Normandy were required to declare fealty to Matilda as Henry's heir, but when HenryI died in 1135, Stephen rushed to England and had himself crowned before either Theobald or Matilda could react. The Norman barons accepted Stephen as Duke of Normandy, and Theobald contented himself with his possessions in France. Matilda, though, was less sanguine, and secured the support of the Scottish king David, who was her maternal uncle, and in 1138 also the support of her half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of HenryI.Huscroft Ruling England pp. 71–73