John Sherwood (or Shirwood; died 1494) was an English churchman and diplomat.

Life

Sherwood was the son of the common clerk John Shirwod of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and his first wife, Agnes. He graduated M.A. at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

in 1450.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' He learned Greek from the scribe Emmanuel of Constantinople, in 1455; for which he was later commended in a letter from

Richard III of England Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

Pope Innocent VIII Pope Innocent VIII ( la, Innocentius VIII; it, Innocenzo VIII; 1432 – 25 July 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death in July 1492. Son of th ...

.Jonathan Hughes, ''Arthurian Myths and Alchemy: The Kingship of Edward IV'' (2002), p. 239. He was a papal lawyer, and then a diplomat, when he became the first permanent English ambassador, resident from 1479 in Rome. He built up a noted classical library, and gained the support of George Neville,

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

. Sherwood was

Archdeacon of Richmond The Archdeacon of Richmond and Craven is an archdiaconal post in the Church of England. It was created in about 1088 within the See of York and was moved in 1541 to the See of Chester, in 1836 to the See of Ripon and after 2014 to the See of ...

in 1465Jones
Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541: volume 6: Northern province (York, Carlisle and Durham): Archdeacons: Richmond
'' and later became

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

, in 1484. He was nominated on 29 March 1484, with Richard III on the throne, and probably was consecrated on 26 May 1484. Despite knowing of the

Princes in the Tower The Princes in the Tower refers to the apparent murder in England in the 1480s of the deposed King Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. These two brothers were the only sons of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville sur ...

, through their physician, he did nothing for them. He visited Rome twice more as ambassador: in 1487, with

Thomas Linacre Thomas Linacre or Lynaker ( ; 20 October 1524) was an English humanist scholar and physician, after whom Linacre College, Oxford, and Linacre House, a boys' boarding house at The King's School, Canterbury, are named. Linacre was more of a schola ...

and William Tilly of Selling; and in 1492-3, when he died there. Sherwood died on 14 January 1494.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 242

Citations

References

* Allen, P.S., "Bishop Shirwood of Durham and his library", ''English Historical Review'' 25 (1910), 445–56. * * Harris, Jonathan, "Greek scribes in England: the evidence of episcopal registers", in ''Through the Looking Glass: Byzantium through British Eyes'', ed. Robin Cormack and Elizabeth Jeffreys (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 121–6. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherwood, John Bishops of Durham 15th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Archdeacons of Richmond 1494 deaths Medieval English diplomats Year of birth unknown Ambassadors of England to the Holy See 15th-century diplomats