Thirteenth-century England was a special place and time to be a bishop. Like their predecessors, these bishops were key members of the regnal community: anointers of kings, tenants-in-chief, pastors, counsellors, scholars, diplomats, the brothers and friends of kings and barons, and the protectors of the weak. But now circumstance and personality converged to produce an uncommonly dedicated episcopate-dedicated not only to its pastoral mission but also to the
defence of the kingdom and the oversight of royal government. This cohort was bound by corporate solidarity and a vigorous culture, and possessed an authority to reform the king, and so influence political
events, unknown by the episcopates of other kingdoms.These bishops were, then, to place themselves at the heart of the dramatic events of this era. Under King John and Henry III-throughout rebellion, civil war, and invasion from France, and the turbulent years of Minority government and Henry's early personal rule-the bishops acted as peacemakers: they supported royal power when it was threatened, for the sake of regnal peace, but also used their unique authority to reform
the king when his illegal actions threatened to provoke his barons to rebellion. This changed, however, between 1258 and 1265, when around half of England's bishops set aside their loyalty to the king
and joined a group of magnates, led by Simon de Montfort, in England's first revolution, appropriating royal powers in order to establish conciliar rule.Bishops in the Political Community of England, 1213-1272 examines the interaction between the bishops' actions on the ground and their culture, identity, and political thought. In so doing it reveals how the Montfortian bishops were forced to construct a new philosophy of power in the crucible of political crisis,
and thus presents a new ideal-type in the study of politics and political thought: spontaneous ideology.
Thirteenth-century England was a special place and time to be a bishop. Like their predecessors, these bishops were key members of the regnal community: anointers of kings, tenants-in-chief, pastors, counsellors, scholars, diplomats, the brothers and friends of kings and barons, and the protectors of the weak. But now circumstance and personality converged to produce an uncommonly dedicated episcopate-dedicated not only to its pastoral mission but also to the
defence of the kingdom and the oversight of royal government. This cohort was bound by corporate solidarity and a vigorous culture, and possessed an authority to reform the king, and so influence political
events, unknown by the episcopates of other kingdoms.These bishops were, then, to place themselves at the heart of the dramatic events of this era. Under King John and Henry III-throughout rebellion, civil war, and invasion from France, and the turbulent years of Minority government and Henry's early personal rule-the bishops acted as peacemakers: they supported royal power when it was threatened, for the sake of regnal peace, but also used their unique authority to reform
the king when his illegal actions threatened to provoke his barons to rebellion. This changed, however, between 1258 and 1265, when around half of England's bishops set aside their loyalty to the king
and joined a group of magnates, led by Simon de Montfort, in England's first revolution, appropriating royal powers in order to establish conciliar rule.Bishops in the Political Community of England, 1213-1272 examines the interaction between the bishops' actions on the ground and their culture, identity, and political thought. In so doing it reveals how the Montfortian bishops were forced to construct a new philosophy of power in the crucible of political crisis,
and thus presents a new ideal-type in the study of politics and political thought: spontaneous ideology.
1: Bishops and the Political Community
2: Kingship and Royal Power in Political Thought
3: Bishops as Peacemakers
4: Episcopal Unity and Royal power
5: The English Bishops and the Revolution of 1258
6: Montfortians and Royalists
7:1: Justifying the Montfortian regime: The Mise of Amiens and
Negotiations with the Papal Legate
7:2: Justifying the Montfortian regime: Song of Lewes and the
Parliament of January 1265
8: The Aftermath of the Battle of Evesham
S. T. Ambler undertook her doctoral research at King's College
London, with joint supervision at University College London, and
received her PhD in 2012 after a year as Thornley Fellow at the
Institute of Historical Research. Afterwards she worked on the
AHRC-funded Breaking of Britain Project, and from 2013 to 2015 as
Senior Post-Doctoral Research Associate on the AHRC's Magna Carta
Project at the University of East Anglia. While at King's she
taught Medieval
British History and since 2013 has taught courses on the Crusades
and Norman and Plantagenet England at the University of East
Anglia. She has published articles in Historical Research and
English
Historical Review.
Ambler's book is a welcome contribution to the study of British
church history
*Mark Clavier, Anglican and Episcopal History*
Ambler's work is good, nuanced, and well argued, and fits into the
current trends of the historiography with its sympathetic focus on
the bishops as men operating within multiple spheres. It
contributes well to the discussions around episcopal roles within
the political community of thirteenth-century England
*Melissa Julian-Jones, Speculum*
an excellent book, bold in its range and persuasive in its
reasoning.
*J.R. Maddicott, Journal of Ecclesiastical History*
Treating politics as an aspect of episcopal pastoral care and the
oversight of the latent sinfulness of rulership in the century of
the wider pastoral revolution, Ambler offers an innovative reading
of English politics during a dramatic period ... offers a
stimulating and provocative interpretation and approach which
merits serious attention not only for the book's specific analysis
of 13th-century England, but as a model for applications more
widely across succeeding centuries, during which England's bishops
continued to be a significant influence, and were often active and
important participants, in national political life.
*Robert Swanson, Reviews in History*
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