Walter Skirlaw (born Swine parish,

Holderness Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...

, brought up at

Skirlaugh Skirlaugh is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately north-east of Kingston upon Hull, Hull city centre on the A165 road. Origi ...

; died 1406) was an English bishop and diplomat. He was

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 ...

from 1388 to 1406. He was an important adviser to

Richard II of England Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father die ...

and

Henry IV of England Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of F ...

Life

Skirlaw was

Archdeacon of the East Riding The Archdeacon of the East Riding is a senior ecclesiastical officer of an archdeaconry, or subdivision, of the Church of England Diocese of York in the Province of York. It is named for the East Riding of Yorkshire and consists of the eight rura ...

from 1359 to 1385 and

Archdeacon of Northampton The Archdeacon of Northampton is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Diocese of Peterborough. As such she or he is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within its six rural deaneries: Brackley, Brixworth, Daventry, ...

from 1381. In 1382, he was given custody of the privy seal, filling the office of

Lord Privy Seal The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...

, which office he held until 1386.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' He was elected

Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West M ...

on 28 June 1385, and consecrated on 14 January 1386. Then he was translated to be

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

on 18 August 1386. On 3 April 1388, he was once again transferred, this time to the see of Durham. He would have become

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 ...

in 1398, but Richard II over-ruled the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

, insisting on

Richard le Scrope Richard Scrope may refer to: * Richard Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton (c. 1327–1403), English soldier and courtier, builder of Bolton Castle *Richard Scrope (bishop) (c. 1350–1405), Archbishop of York * Richard Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Bo ...

. Skirlaw was employed on diplomatic missions to Italy in 1381–3, to Calais to negotiate with the French in 1388, and to the Scots. He died on 24 March 1406. Skirlaw is described as "a munificent prelate. He built bridges at

Shincliffe Shincliffe is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. The parish population (according to the 2011 census) was 1,796. It is situated just over to the south-east of Durham city centre, on the A177 road to Stockton. Shincliffe is ...

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

, and

Yarm Yarm, also referred to as Yarm-on-Tees, is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It was previously a port town before the industry moved down the River Tees to more accessible settlements ne ...

; a refuge tower, a beautiful chapter-house (now in ruins) at

Howden Howden () is a market and minster town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, which lies across the Ri ...

; and was a large contributor to the expense of building the central tower of York Cathedral". During his episcopacy much was added to

Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

, including its

cloisters A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

. He is portrayed in the east

stained-glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

, which he had made.York Minster: The Great East Window
accessed on 7 September 2007

Notes

Citations

References

Archdeacons of Northampton

Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield
* Bygate, J. E. ''Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham''

* ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''
Durham Cathedral Historical Survey

* * Glynne Jarratt ''The Life of Walter Skirlaw: Medieval Diplomat and Prince Bishop of Durham'' 2004
A History of the County of East Riding: Swine Parish
* McKisack, May ''The Fourteenth Century''
Secrets of Hylton Castle

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skirlaw, Walter 1406 deaths People from Holderness Bishops of Durham Bishops of Bath and Wells Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield Archdeacons of the East Riding Archdeacons of Northampton 14th-century English Roman Catholic bishops 15th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Lords Privy Seal Year of birth unknown Clergy from Yorkshire