Walkelin (died 1098) was the first

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

Life

Walkelin was of noble birth and related to

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

, whom he served as a royal chaplain.British History Online Bishops of Winchester
accessed on 2 November 2007 Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

he had probably been a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Rouen Cathedral Rouen Cathedral (french: Cathédrale primatiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Rouen) is a Roman Catholic church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each in ...

.Spear "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" ''Journal of British Studies'' p. 5 He took up office at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

in 1070, having been nominated on 23 May and consecrated on 30 May.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 276 A year later, in 1071,

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

Ealdred of Abingdon Ealdred, Abbot of Abingdon. Ealdred, also called Brihtwine, was a monk and provost at Abingdon before becoming abbot in 1066; he was later implicated in the conspiracy of Bishop Æthelwine of Durham, and was deposed in 1071. At first imprisoned i ...

, who was being held for support of insurrection, died in Walkelin's custody, and the following year he signed the Accord of Winchester, formulated in the city.

Nepotism

Walkelin made his brother

Simeon Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, son ...

the

Prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

of Winchester and then influenced Simeon being made

Abbot of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of north- ...

in 1082,British History Online Priors of Winchester
accessed on 2 November 2007 where he began the new

Ely Abbey Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The pres ...

in 1093 (the same year that Walkelin completed his cathedral at Winchester) before dying the following year. Walkelin also advanced his nephew

Gerard, Archbishop of York Gerard (died 21 May 1108) was Archbishop of York between 1100 and 1108 and Lord Chancellor of England from 1085 until 1092. A Norman, he was a member of the cathedral clergy at Rouen before becoming a royal clerk under King William I of Engla ...

.British History Online Archbishops of York
accessed on 2 November 2007

Cathedral builder

Walkelin began work on a new cathedral church, the current

Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...

, in 1079. His transepts and crypt, though little else, are retained in the present building. King William II granted Walkelin half a hide in the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

with license to search for and excavate stone for his new cathedral "throughout the plain and the forest: if the forest is sufficiently small that the horns of a deer may be seen passing through it"."per planum et silvam: si silva tantae parvitatis fuerit ut per eam transeuntes cornua cervi appareant."

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

also granted Walkelin as much timber for the building and its scaffolding from the Forest of Hempage Wood (on the Old Alresford Road in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

) as his carpenters could take in four days and nights. However, in the words of the Winchester

annalist Annalists (from Latin ''annus'', year; hence ''annales'', sc. ''libri'', annual records), were a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote th ...

: :"the Bishop collected an innumerable troop of carpenters and within the assigned time cut down the whole wood and carried it off to Winchester. oon afterwards the King passing by Hempage, was struck with amazement and cried out, "Am I bewitched or have I taken leave of my senses? Had I not once a most delectable wood upon this spot?" But when he understood what had happened, he was violently enraged. Then the Bishop put on a shabby vestment and made his way to the King's feet, humbly begging to resign the episcopate and merely requesting that he might retain his royal friendship and chaplaincy. The King was thus appeased, only observing, "I was as much too liberal in my grant as you were too greedy in availing yourself of it." The new cathedral was completed in 1093. Walkelin had :caused tstower ... to be made as it is still to be seen, ''(At the annalist's time, though the present tower is a later Norman construction)'' and rebuilt it, with its four columns, from the foundations in the middle of the choir. On 8 April that year, in the presence of nearly all of the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

s and

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

s of England, the monks removed from the

Old Minster The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral. Some sources say that the minster w ...

to the new one, "with great rejoicing and glory". On the feast-day of Saint Swithun (15 July), they processed from the new church to the old, and processed the feretrum of St. Swithun from it to the new church "with all honour". The next day, the bishop's men began demolishing the old church. Demolition work was complete within the year, except for one

porticus A porticus, in church architecture and archaeology, is usually a small room in a church. Commonly, porticus form extensions to the north and south sides of a church, giving the building a cruciform plan. They may function as chapels, rudimentary ...

and the great altar. The following year more relics "of St. Swithun and of many other saints" were found under that altar and transferred to the new church.

Reformer

Walkelin also reformed the monastic community there, as did all Norman bishops in their new dioceses. In the words of the

of Winchester: :"He greatly improved the Church of Winton in devotion, in the number of its monks and in the buildings of the house (monastery)."

Death

Walkelin died 3 January 1098, at Winchester, and was buried in the nave of his cathedral, "before the steps under the rood-loft (pulpitum), in which stands the silver cross of

Stigand Stigand (died 1072) was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 104 ...

, with the two great silver images; and he lies at the feet of

William Giffard William Giffard (died 23 January 1129),Franklin "Giffard, William" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' was the Lord Chancellor of England of William II and Henry I, from 1093 to 1101,Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 8 ...

is successor having over him a marble stone" under the following inscription: :Praesul Walklynus istic requiescit humatus – Walkelin lies buried beneath here :Tempore Willelmi Conquestoris cathedratus – cathedral-builder in the time of William the Conqueror.

Notes

Citations

References

British History Online Archbishops of York
accessed on 2 November 2007
British History Online Bishops of Winchester
accessed on 2 November 2007
British History Online Priors of Winchester
accessed on 2 November 2007 * * Spear, David S. "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066–1204" ''The Journal of British Studies'' Volume XXI Number 2 Spring 1982 p. 1-10

External links

* * * — The cathedral's construction

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walkelin Bishops of Winchester 1098 deaths 11th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown Burials at Winchester Cathedral Norman clerics given benefices in England