Chancellor: William de Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, d 1197

Bishops and other ranking clergymen were often appointed to positions of government during the Medieval era, but the practice was not without controversy.  Members of the royal family and leading barons often believed that they had the right to positions of importance.  Further, churchmen in high offices were not only cloaked with royal authority, but also the authority of the church and never let anyone forget that fact.  It was common knowledge that some of these men had bought their way to power or used family connections to get where they were, adding to the resentment.  William de Longchamps, Chancellor and Justiciar under Richard I would experience all of the above.

William's family originated near Argenten in Normandy.  His father was a wealthy knight who owned land in both Normandy and England, as was common at the time.  William's mother was a member of the de Lacy family, which further aided her son's climb up the social ladder.  William was initially in service to Geoffrey, later Duke of York and biological son of Henry II before coming into the service of Henry II in his chancery office.  The chancery was in charge of copying and disseminating official documents and decrees.  Eventually, William transferred into the service of Henry II's son Richard, who was Duke of Aquitaine.  Richard named William Chancellor of Aquitaine.  In 1189, as Henry was dying with his surviving sons in revolt once more, William served as Richard's representative, negotiating with William Marshal who was acting on behalf of Henry.  By this time, William was one of Richard's closest advisors.

Richard became King of England in 1189 and William was able to by the office of Chancellor for 3,000 pounds.  The chancery charged a fee for the use of the Great Seal on public documents, which enabled William to recoup the money and accumulate his own nest egg.  Richard also made William Bishop of Ely.  Bishoprics often came with their own reward of manor lands, which provided further lucrative income.  In 1189, as Richard left for the Third Crusade, he named both William de Longchamp and Hugh de Puiset, Bishop of Durham jointly as Chief Justiciars of the kingdom.  This move alienated many barons and it definitely upset John, Richard's brother, who felt he had the right to be regent of the kingdom while Richard was away.  William did his best to enforce the laws, sending justices on regular rounds throughout the kingdom, but he and Hugh were unable to work together.  Richard made Hugh of Durham responsible for dispensing justice north of the River Humber and William oversaw matters to the south of the river.  William was eventually able to elbow Hugh out of power altogether and received powers as Papal Legate, or official papal representative in England.  Richard most likely paid Pope Clement III for the legateship on behalf of William, further raising hackles at home.

William made himself at home in his new authority.  He gave the City of London the right to elect their own sheriffs, and remit their yearly levies directly to the Exchequer.  He held Legatine counsels at Leicester and Westminster, and restored order in York, which had seen continued unrest due to the massacre of the Jewish population in 1190.  When William traveled, he did so with a large entourage of clerics and servants.  He also began the practice of the royal we in England.  Monarchs often used the third person, as did Popes and ranking clergy.  As the Pope's representative, William felt he had a right to use the we, but he was only inflaming jealousy with John and other barons.  It didn't help that William was perceived as a foreigner who was ignorant and unaccepting of English customs.  William was aware of John's resentment and began replacing the custodians of castles with people loyal to him.  Friction flared into open rebellion, as some of John's retainers refused to surrender their holdings.  Richard had to send the Archbishop of Rouen to negotiate a peace between John and William, who agreed to acclaim John as Richard's successor in the event of Richard's death.

Matters came to a head when William sent men to arrest Geoffrey, Richard's half-brother, who had been appointed Archbishop of York.  The forcible arrest of Geoffrey was too close to home for people who remembered Thomas Becket's martyrdom and turned public opinion against William de Longchamps.  Fed up, several other English prelates convened a trial on London Bridge on October 5, 1191, and ordered William to appear.  He refused and holed up in the Tower of London.  He was deposed as justiciar and excommunicated.  Longchamps fled London and tried to seek escape in Dover, but couldn't speak English so was unable to engage a ship to take him to the Continent.  He finally left on October 29, 1191.  William fled to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, the overlord of Leopold of Austria, who was holding Richard captive in Durnstein Castle.  William put his negotiating skills to work and brokered a deal to release Richard with a hefty ransom. 

When Richard returned to England in 1195, he rewarded William de Longchamps with the Sheriffdoms of Essex and Hertfordshire, but William was soon back at odds with Geoffrey of York and followed Richard to the Continent.  Richard used William on a series of diplomatic missions, but Geoffrey was becoming the senior diplomat and Hubert Walter was Chancellor.  William trailed Richard around Europe until his own death in 1197 at Poitier.   He was not missed by anyone except maybe for Richard.  Chroniclers and colleagues were acid in their critique.  He was described as a monster and a person with little virtue and a quest for fame.  Later historians have found the critique unfair, praising William as a capable administrator whose career was dominated by his ultimate failure.  In his spare time, William drew up a treatise on the laws of the Angevin portion of the Plantagenet empire that may have had some basis for Magna Carta.