Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eustace (d.1215)
EUSTACE (d. 1215), bishop of Ely, ecclesiastic and statesman, ‘vir multæ scientiæ et discretionis’ (Annal. Winton. ii. 66), ‘vir literatura tam humana quam divina insignis’ (Matt. Paris, ii. 585), was of unknown origin. He secured the confidence of Henry I and of Richard I. He became vice-chancellor and keeper of the royal seal, and ultimately chancellor (Gervas. Cant. i. 544; Annal. Winton. u.s.) He was also dean of Salisbury. At that period all the chief posts in the church of York and its suffragan sees were, as a rule, employed to provide for royal officials. During the suspension of Geoffrey, archbishop of York [q. v.], by the pope, in 1195, Richard appointed Eustace in 1196 treasurer of York, on the death of Bouchard de Puiset, and in the same year gave him the enormous and lucrative archdeaconry of Richmond. In 1197 Richard appointed Eustace bishop of Ely, advancing him at the same time to the chancellorship (Annal. Margam. p. 123). He was elected bishop 10 Aug. 1197 at Vaudreuil. His consecration by Archbishop Hubert took place in St. Catherine's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, 8 March 1198 (Matt. Paris, ii. 446, 521; Hoveden, iv. 12, 14; Diceto, ii. 159). A few weeks previously he represented the king at the election of the emperor at Cologne, 22 Feb. 1198. When consecrated, Eustace was commissioned by Richard, in company with the Bishops of Durham and Winchester, to propose terms of reconciliation with Archbishop Geoffrey of York (Hoveden, iv. 66). One of Richard's last acts was to send him as his chancellor to remonstrate with Philip Augustus of France on alleged infringements of the five years' peace (ib. p. 80). He was present at the coronation of John on 27 May 1199 (ib. p. 90), as well as at his third coronation together with his queen Isabella at Canterbury, 1201 (Annal. Burton. i. 206). The next year he was one of the judges-delegate appointed by Innocent III to mediate in the controversy between Archbishop Hubert and the monks of Canterbury respecting the collegiate church commenced by Hubert at Lambeth (Hoveden, iv. 126; Annal. Winton. ii. 77). On 22 Nov. of that year (1200) Eustace witnessed the homage rendered by William of Scotland to John for his English fiefs at Lincoln (Hoveden, iv. 141). His high reputation for learning and wisdom is shown by his frequent employment in important ecclesiastical causes. In 1201, when Archbishop Geoffrey refused to recognise Honorius as archdeacon of Richmond, Innocent delegated him to examine the matter (ib. p. 177). He was (1 Sept.) one of the papal commission to inquire into the reported miracles of St. Wulstan of Worcester (Annal. Wigorn. iv. 391); in 1203 he was made arbitrator in the dispute between the monks of Evesham and their abbot (Chron. Evesham, p. 129), and in 1206 papal commissioner, in conjunction with the Bishop of Rochester, to examine the claims of the vale of Evesham for exemption from episcopal jurisdiction (ib. pp. 191, 192, 222). When in 1203 John was summoned by Philip as his overlord to render an account of the death of his nephew Arthur, the Bishop of Ely was sent with Archbishop Hubert to settle the terms of his safe-conduct to and from the French court (Gervas. Cant. Gest. Reg. ii. 95; Matt. Paris, ii. 658). He was one of the three prelates selected in 1208 by Innocent to endeavour to pacify John, and induce him to accept Stephen as primate, and to threaten him on his refusal with an interdict of his whole kingdom and his own excommunication. John proving contumacious, Eustace and his brethren on the following Passion Sunday, 24 March 1208, pronounced the interdict, and immediately escaped across the Channel. The chroniclers of the day are very severe upon the bishops for thus ‘fleeing when they saw the wolf coming,’ instead of laying down their lives for the flock, and ‘living in luxury beyond the seas when they should have opposed themselves as a wall to protect the house of God’ (Wendover, iii. 223; Matt. Paris, ii. 253; Annal. Waverl. ii. 260). An ineffectual attempt towards the end of the year was made by Eustace, together with the Bishops of London and Worcester, at the instance of the archbishop, to come to terms with John. They crossed the Channel and vainly waited eight weeks for an interview (Annal. Waverl. ii. 261). Eustace took part with the same bishops in other similar attempts the following year. At Canterbury they met the bishops who remained faithful to John and other leading personages and discussed the way of reconciliation. Terms were agreed upon, but John refused to ratify them. John having shown some symptoms of yielding in fear of the threatened excommunication, Eustace and his brethren crossed again to Dover in October with the archbishop himself under a safe-conduct. John came to meet them as far as Chilham Castle, and offered impossible terms, when the bishops returned to France to prepare to issue the long-delayed excommunication (ib. ii. 263). This was sent by them at the pope's command to the bishops remaining in England, with instructions that it should be published throughout the realm. The bishops, ‘like dumb dogs,’ shrank from publishing the edict, while a like apprehension withheld Eustace and his companions from endeavouring to compel them (Matt. Paris, ii. 526; Wendover, iii. 228). After the failure of Pandulf's mission Eustace accompanied Langton on a mission to Rome to press for severer measures. The pope formally pronounced sentence of deposition on John, and sent Pandulf with the English bishops to make Philip the offer of the crown (Wendover, iii. 228, 243; Matt. Paris, ii. 535–6). This measure brought John to abject submission, and on the landing of Eustace and the bishops in Pandulf's train at Dover on 13 May 1213, the king tendered his deed of resignation, in which he promised to reimburse Eustace and the other exiled prelates for their confiscated estates and other pecuniary losses. The removal of the interdict was deferred till these promises had been exactly fulfilled (Wendover, iii. 260). This being at last done and the payment actually made, the interdict was raised (29 June), and Eustace and the other exiled prelates having once more crossed the Channel met the now humbled king near Porchester and proceeded with him to Winchester, where, in the chapter-house of the cathedral, he received absolution on 20 July 1213 (ib.; Matt. Paris, ii. 550; Annal. Dunst. iii. 37). In all the tangled events and in the various councils of this stirring period Eustace took a leading part. On 1 Nov. 1214 he gave the pontifical benediction to William of Trumpington on his election as abbot of St. Albans (Matt. Paris, ii. 583; Wendover, iii. 260). In the same year he became one of John's sureties to his discontented barons that he would grant them a charter, in conjunction with the archbishop and William Marshal (Wendover, iii. 296). He died on a visit to the abbey of Reading on 3 Feb. 1215, and was buried in his cathedral church, to which he had added a new ‘Galilee.’ Whether this was the western porch, which now goes by that name, or some other portion of the fabric, considerations of architectural style render questionable.
[Matthew of Paris; Hoveden; Diceto's Monastic Annals; Roger of Wendover (see references in the article); Godwin, De Præsulibus, i. 254; Le Neve's Fasti.]