Bishop Henry Blois Champagne WINCHESTER

   Other names for Henry were Eudes and WINCHESTER Bishop.

   Ancestral File Number: 8XJ1-4N.

   General Notes:

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Henry, Son of Adela and Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, Died 1171."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch VIII
p181: [1129] "...Soon after died William Giffard, the bishop whom Henry had appointed before he was himself crowned, and in his place the king appointed his nephew, Henry of Blois, brother of Count Stephen, who was to play so great a part in the troubles that were soon to begin. About the same time we get evidence that Henry had not abandoned his practice of taking fines from the married clergy, and of allowing them to retain their wives."
ChIX p193: [1135] "...Having secured the support of London, after what can have been only a few days' stay, Stephen went immediately to Winchester. Before he could really believe himself king, he had to secure the royal treasures and more supportthan he had yet gained. Stephen's own brother Henry, who owed his promotion in the Church, as Stephen did his in the State, to his uncle, was at this time Bishop of Winchester; and it was due to him, as a contemporary declares, that the plan of Stephen succeeded, and the real decision of the question was made, not at London, but at Winchester..."
p195: "With this declaration of Hugh Bigod's, however, was coupled another matter more of the nature of a positive inducement to theChurch. Bishop Henry seems to have argued with much skill, and very likely to have believed himself, that if they should agree to make his brother king, he would restore to the Church that freedom from the control of the State for which it hadbeen contending since the beginning of the reign of Henry I, and which was now represented as having been the practice in the time of the grandfather, William the Conqueror. Stephen agreed at once to the demand...He swore to `restore liberty to the Church and to preserve it,' and his brother pledged himself that the oath would be kept. Besides the adhesion of the Church, Stephen secured at Winchester the royal treasure which had been accumulated by his uncle and which was not small,and the obedience of the head of the administrative system, Roger of Salisbury..."
p222: "...The ambition of Henry of Winchester to become primate of Britain was disappointed. He had made sure of the succession, and seems actually to have exercised some metropolitan authority; perhaps he had even been elected to the see during the time when his brother's position was in danger. But now Stephen declared himself firmly against his preferment...We are told that Henry's anger inclined him to favour the Empress against his brother, adn though it may not have been an actual moving cause, the incident was probably not forgotten when the question of supporting Matilda became a pressing one."
p223: "...In Stephen's mind this favour of the pope's was very likely balanced by another act of his which had just prededed it, by which Henry of Winchester had been created papal legate in England. By this appointment he was given supreme power over the English Church, and gained nearly all that he had hoped to get by becoming Archbishop of Canterbury..."
p274: "...Henry, Bishop of Winchester, made a formal demand of those who were representing the king that the archbishop should be released from all liability for the way in which he had handled the royal revenues as chancellor and treasurer, and this was agreed to. On the next Sunday but one, June 3, 1162, Thomas [Becket] was consecrated Archbishop at Canterbury by the Bishop of Winchester, as the see of London was vacant..."
p286: [1164] "...A dispute arose between the barons and the bishops as to who should pronounce [the judgement], each party trying to put the unpleasant duty on the other...The king interposed, and thesentence was pronounced by the aged Henry, Bishop of Winchester. Becket seems to have submitted without opposition..."

Ch XIV p298: "...Henry had crossed from Normandy early in September, 1171, had paid a brief visit to Winchester, whereHenry of Blois, once so powerful in Church and State, was now dying, and then advanced with his army through southern Wales into Pembrokeshire whence he crossed to Ireland in the middle of October..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p25: "Henry Bishop of Winchester..."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.11 8XJ1-4N Henry Eudes De CHAMPAGNE Born Abt 1101/1102 Blois Loir-Et-Cher France Died 8 Aug 1171 Winchester Hampshire England.