Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Geoffrey (d.1093)
GEOFFREY (d. 1093), bishop of Coutances, came of a noble Norman family settled at Montbrai, or, as pronounced in English, Mowbray, in the arrondissement of St. Lô; he was brother of Roger of Mowbray, and his sister Amicia married Roger of Albini. He was consecrated bishop of Coutances at Rouen on 10 April 1048, and is described as tall, handsome, and prudent. At the council of Rheims in October 1049 he was accused of simony; he confessed that his brother had bought the bishopric for him, but declared that it was without his knowledge, and that when he found it out he tried to avoid consecration. He was pronounced guiltless, and followed Pope Leo IX, who presided over the council in person, on his journey back to Rome. In the following May he was present at the council in Rome which condemned Berengar of Tours. Geoffrey had business of his own in Italy. His predecessor, Bishop Robert, had begun to rebuild the cathedral of Coutances. There were no funds sufficient to finish the building, no books, no ornaments, and only five canons. Geoffrey journeyed to Apulia, for the victorious Robert Guiscard and his brothers came from Hauteville in the diocese of Coutances, and he was well known to many of their followers. He told the adventurers of his needs, and they gave him liberal gifts from the spoils taken in their Italian wars. With these he returned to Coutances, and at once began to build. He completed the fabric of his church, which was consecrated on 8 Dec. 1056 in the presence of Duke William, built an episcopal residence with a fine hall and stabling, and added to the number of canons. This church appears to have been laid in ruins by Geoffrey Harcourt in 1356, and the present church was built chiefly by Bishop Sylvestre de la Cervelle in the later years of the same century. In 1063 Geoffrey attended a council at Rouen held by his metropolitan, Maurilius, and the next year incited Turstin and his wife and their son Eudo to found the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Lessay. He joined in the invasion of England, and the night before the battle of Hastings listened to confessions and pronounced absolution of sins; he and the bishop Odo are said to have come with a host of clerks and some monks in order to fight by their prayers (William of Poitou, p. 201; Orderic, p. 501); the bishop Odo certainly used a carnal weapon the next day; nothing is known of any part which Geoffrey may have taken in the fight. He is said to have been better skilled in war than in clerical matters, more apt at leading harnessed warriors in battle than at teaching surpliced clerks to sing psalms (Orderic, p. 703). At the coronation of the Conqueror on 25 Dec. 1066, the Archbishop of York having first put the question in English to the assembled multitude whether they would have William to reign over them, Geoffrey repeated it in French to the Normans (ib. p. 503). He received a vast number of grants of lands in England; Orderic says that he held as many as 280 manors (ib. p. 703); his estates lay in various parts of the kingdom (Ellis, Introduction to Domesday, i. 400), but chiefly in the western shires; in 1086 he held seventy-seven manors in Somerset alone (Eyton). He is generally spoken of either by his christian name or by the title of his Norman see rather than by the name of his English residence, once at least in Domesday (Glouc. f. 165) as ‘de Sancto Laudo’ (Saint-Lô, the earlier seat of his bishopric), and he is described in the teste of a charter as ‘de Seynt Loth’ (Monasticon, i. 144).
Geoffrey appears to have accompanied William on his visit to Normandy in March 1067, for he was present at the dedication of the church of Jumièges on 1 July (Gallia Christiana, xi. 870). He took a prominent part in putting down the revolt in the west of England in 1069, leading a force raised from Winchester, London, and Salisbury to the relief of the castle of Montacute, which was besieged by the men of Somerset and Dorset. He slew some of the besiegers, put the rest to flight, and mutilated his captives (Orderic, p. 514). Worldly as he was, he lived on terms of friendship with the holy Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester, and tried to persuade him to dress more handsomely (Anglia Sacra, ii. 259). He presided at the trial of the suit between Archbishop Lanfranc and Bishop Odo on Pennenden Heath in Kent in 1071, representing the king and acting as his justiciar (ib. i. 335); the title was not as yet ‘definitely attached to a particular post’ (Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 346). On 8 April 1072 he attended the king's council at Winchester, where the dispute between the archbishops of Canterbury and York was heard, was present at the adjourned hearing at Windsor, and attested the decree in favour of Canterbury, being described as ‘bishop of Coutances and one of the nobles of England’ (Vita Lanfranci, p. 304). In 1075 he was present at an ecclesiastical council which Lanfranc held in St. Paul's, for, as it is explained, though his bishopric lay over sea, he was assigned a place in the council because he had large estates in England (ib. p. 305). When Ralf of Wader, earl of Norfolk, and Roger, earl of Hereford, made an insurrection in this year, Geoffrey joined Odo of Bayeux in leading an army against Ralf; they advanced to Cambridge, and, in common with the other leaders on the king's side, cut off the right foot of each of their captives (Florence, ii. 11; Orderic, p. 535). Geoffrey laid siege to Norwich in company with Earl William of Warren, and received the capitulation of the town. In 1077 he was present at the dedication of St. Stephen's at Caen, and in 1080 attended a provincial council at Lillebonne. He wrote to Lanfranc apparently on behalf of some English ladies who had taken refuge in nunneries for fear of the Frenchmen, and was informed by the archbishop that in such cases ladies were not to be compelled to adopt a religious life (Epp. Lanfranci, No. 35). Either at this time (Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv. 676) or possibly in 1088, when his nephew, Robert of Mowbray, was earl, he for a while governed Northumberland (Monasticon, iii. 546; Dugdale, Baronage, p. 56; Hinde, Hist. of Northumberland, p. 92). He attended the funeral of the Conqueror in September 1087. When the Norman lords in England rebelled against Rufus in 1088, Geoffrey took part in the movement, and in company with his nephew Robert went to Bristol; they harried the neighbouring country, and brought their booty into the castle. William of Eu also acted in conjunction with them (Peterborough Chronicle; Florence, ii. 24). Geoffrey was probably the constable of Bristol Castle, and received the king's dues from the town (Domesday, f. 163; Freeman, William Rufus, i. 40). He perhaps built the castle, which is said to have been exceedingly strong at this time, though it was afterwards strengthened by Robert, earl of Gloucester, and the outer wall of the town may also be set down as his work. He seems to have been included in the general pardon which the king granted to the greater Norman lords, and in the following November attended the king's court at Salisbury, where charges were preferred against William, bishop of Durham. There he urged that the prelates should withdraw and determine the question whether the bishop ought to be called upon to plead before he was restored to his bishopric. He spoke on behalf of the privileges of the clergy, but was overruled by Lanfranc (Monasticon, i. 247). At a later stage of the hearing one of Geoffrey's men made a claim against the Bishop of Durham, declaring that the garrison of his castle had taken two hundred cattle belonging to his lord (ib. p. 248). It is said that when Duke Robert sold the Cotentin to his brother Henry, Bishop Geoffrey refused to acknowledge the new count, declaring that his church should own no lord save him who was owned by the church of Rouen, and that frequent frays took place between the men of the bishopric and Henry's barons (Gallia Christiana, xi. 872; Recueil des Historiens, xii. 644 n.) He died at Coutances on 3 Feb. 1093, in the presence of Odo of Bayeux and other prelates who had come to visit him, and was buried in his cathedral church. He left his English estates to his nephew, Robert of Mowbray, earl of Northumberland.
[Freeman's Norman Conquest, vols. iii. and iv.; Gallia Christiana, xi. 870; Bessin's Concilia Rotom. Prov. i. 40, 49; Orderic and William of Poitou, ed. Duchesne; Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Ser.); Florence of Worcester (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Wace's Roman de Rou; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontiff.; B. Lanfranci Opera, ed. Giles; Anglia Sacra; Dugdale's Monasticon and Baronage, p. 56; Planché's Conqueror and his Companions, ii. 25; Gally Knight's Architectural Tour in Normandy, p. 100.]