Wimund was a

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 c ...

who became a seafaring warlord adventurer in the years after 1147. His story is passed down to us by 12th-century English historian

William of Newburgh William of Newburgh or Newbury ( la, Guilelmus Neubrigensis, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon de ...

in his ''Historia rerum anglicarum'', Book I, Chapter 24 entitled "Of bishop Wimund, his life unbecoming a bishop, and how he was deprived of his sight".

Wimund's origins

William records that Wimund was "born in the most obscure spot in England". He was educated at

Furness Abbey Furness Abbey, or St. Mary of Furness, is a former Catholic monastery located to the north of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The abbey dates back to 1123 and was once the second-wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monastery in the cou ...

, then in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, founded 1123–1127 by the future Stephen I of England. Wimund may have been a member of the party sent from Furness to found a house at

Rushen Rushen ( ; gv, Rosien), formally Kirk Christ Rushen, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man. It is located in the south of the island (part of the traditional ''South Side'' division) in the sheading of the same name. A ...

on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

by request of the Amlaíb mac Gofraid, the

King of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Nort ...

, in 1134. King Amlaíb granted the monks of Furness the right to elect the

Bishop of the Isles The Bishop of the Isles or Bishop of Sodor was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of the Isles (or Sodor), one of Scotland's thirteen medieval bishoprics. The bishopric, encompassing both the Hebrides and Mann, probably traces its origins as ...

, and it appears that Wimund was elected to the see during the time of

Thurstan :''This page is about Thurstan of Bayeux (1070 – 1140) who became Archbishop of York. Thurstan of Caen became the first Norman Abbot of Glastonbury in circa 1077.'' Thurstan or Turstin of Bayeux ( – 6 February 1140) was a medi ...

(II),

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 ...

. Thurstan died in early 1140, so that Wimund became Bishop of the Isles in the period 1134–1140. This was a very rapid rise for a young man of apparently obscure origins. However, as William of Newburgh relates, Wimund in time claimed to be the son of the

mormaer of Moray The title Earl of Moray, Mormaer of Moray or King of Moray was originally held by the rulers of the Province of Moray, which existed from the 10th century with varying degrees of independence from the Kingdom of Alba to the south. Until 1130 th ...

. William, and some later writers, doubted Wimund's claims. Modern historians have been more inclined to take this claim seriously. Some have proposed that Wimund was a son of

Óengus of Moray Óengus of Moray (''Oenghus mac inghine Lulaich, ri Moréb'') was the last king of Moray of the native line, ruling Moray in what is now northeastern Scotland from an unknown date until his death in 1130. Óengus is known to have been the son of ...

(died 1130), grandson of King Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin. However, his link with

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

has led to the supposition that Wimund was a son (possibly illegitimate) of

William fitz Duncan William fitz Duncan (a modern anglicisation of the Old French Guillaume fils de Duncan and the Middle Irish Uilleam mac Donnchada) was a Scottish prince, the son of King Duncan II of Scotland by his wife Ethelreda of Dunbar. He was a territoria ...

, son of King

Duncan II Donnchad mac Máel Coluim ( Modern Gaelic: ''Donnchadh mac Mhaoil Chaluim'';''Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim'' is the Mediaeval Gaelic form. anglicised as Duncan II; c. 1060 – 12 November 1094) was king of Scots. He was son of Malcolm III (Máel Col ...

. William held extensive lands in Cumbria through his mother, Octreda, daughter of Cospatrick of Northumbria, and is believed to have been Mormaer or Earl of Moray between Óengus's death in 1130 and his own death in 1147.

Bishop Wimund

The following is a summary of William of Newburgh's account of the life of Bishop Wimund. Wimund's bishopric of the Isles had its seat on the Isle of Skye. The ruins of

Snizort Cathedral Snizort Cathedral (Gaelic: ''Snìosort'') was a small cathedral church located on an island (St Columba's Isle, Gaelic: ''Eilean Chaluim Chille'') in the River Snizort, near the head of Loch Snizort on the Scottish island of Skye. Also referred ...

, dedicated to Columba, are still visible near Skeabost. William of Newburgh writes that Wimund, " t content with the dignity of his episcopal office, he next anticipated in his mind how he might accomplish great and wonderful things; for he possessed a haughty speaking mouth with the proudest heart." However, Wimund's father, if he was indeed the son of William fitz Duncan, was alive for the first seven years at least of his time as a Bishop of the Isles. So long as his father was alive, Wimund need hardly " eignhimself to be the son of the earl of Moray and that he was deprived of the inheritance of his fathers by the king of Scotland" as William says. But William may be anticipating himself; Wimund's first conflict was not with his uncle King

David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland ...

, but with a fellow bishop, and there is no reason to suppose that these two conflicts were linked. During Wimund's episcopate, or shortly before its beginning,

Gille Aldan Gille (or Gilla) Aldan (Gaelic: "Servant of Saint Aldwin ), of Whithorn, was a native Galwegian who was the first Bishop of the resurrected Bishopric of Whithorn or Galloway. He was the first to be consecrated by the Archbishop of York, who at ...

was consecrated

Bishop of Whithorn The Bishop of Galloway, also called the Bishop of Whithorn, was the eccesiastical head of the Diocese of Galloway, said to have been founded by Saint Ninian in the mid-5th century. The subsequent Anglo-Saxon bishopric was founded in the late 7th ...

, probably by the agreement of

Fergus of Galloway Fergus of Galloway (died 12 May 1161) was a twelfth-century Lord of Galloway. Although his familial origins are unknown, it is possible that he was of Norse-Gaelic ancestry. Fergus first appears on record in 1136, when he witnessed a charter ...

and Archbishop Thurstan, and with the approval of

Pope Honorius III Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of impor ...

. The lands of the recreated Bishopric of Whithorn had probably been subject to the Bishops of the Isles, and for rival bishops to employ armed force to drive off their rivals was hardly unknown. Thus, rather than to gain his inheritance, Wimund's struggle with Gille Aldan was apparently an attempt to prevent his bishopric being partitioned in favour of a rival.Richard Oram, ''The Lordship of Galloway'', pp. 164-76. After being captured, he was blinded and

castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmac ...

and spent the rest of his life at the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

Byland Abbey Byland Abbey is a ruined abbey and a small village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, in the North York Moors National Park. History It was founded as a Savigniac abbey in January 1135 and was absorbed by the Cistercian orde ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

Notes

References

John of Fordun John of Fordun (before 1360 – c. 1384) was a Scottish chronicler. It is generally stated that he was born at Fordoun, Mearns. It is certain that he was a secular priest, and that he composed his history in the latter part of the 14th ce ...

, ''Chronicle of the Scottish Nation.'' Edited by

William Forbes Skene William Forbes Skene WS FRSE FSA(Scot) DCL LLD (7 June 1809 – 29 August 1892), was a Scottish lawyer, historian and antiquary. He co-founded the Scottish legal firm Skene Edwards which was prominent throughout the 20th century but disappeare ...

, translated by Felix J.H. Skene. Reprinted, Llanerch Press, Lampeter, 1993. * R. Andrew McDonald, ''Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings, 1058–1266.'' Tuckwell Press, East Linton, 2003. *

, ''Historia rerum anglicarum'', Book 1 Ch.24
"Of bishop Wimund, his life unbecoming a bishop, and how he was deprived of his sight"
Full-text online. *

Richard Oram Professor Richard D. Oram Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, F.S.A. (Scot.) is a Scotland, Scottish historian. He is a professor of medieval and environmental history at the University of Stirling and an honorary lecturer in history at the Univer ...

, ''David I: The King who made Scotland.'' Tempus, Stroud, 2004.
"Heard at Byland: Wimund’s Woes"
from

website, Retrieved Jan. 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wimund 12th-century Christian monks 12th-century Scottish bishops Bishops of the Isles Eunuchs Furness People of the Kingdom of the Isles