Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/30

 Elegy upon the Death of the Honourable Madam——,' 1694.  MORGAN, PHILIP (d. 1435), bishop successively of Worcester and Ely (1426), was a Welshman from the diocese of St. David's, who at some date before 1413 had taken the degree of doctor of laws, probably at Oxford (, De Præsulibus, p. 267, ed. Richardson;, Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 213; Anglia Sacra, i. 537). He first appears in public life as a witness to Archbishop Arundel's sentence upon Sir John Oldcastle on 25 Sept. 1413 (Rot . Parl. iv. 109; Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p. 442). If he was not already in the royal service, he had not long to wait for that promotion. In the first days of June 1414, when Henry V had just broached his claims upon the French crown, Morgan was included with another lawyer in the embassy appointed to go under Henry, lord Le Scrope of Masham, to conclude the alliance, secretly agreed upon at Leicester a few days before (23 May) with John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy (, Histoire de Charles VII, i. 132; Fœdera, ix. 136-8). He was apparently sent on ahead with a mission to the count of Holland, brother-in-law of Duke John, but had rejoined the others before they met the duke at Ypres on Monday, 16 July (ib. ix. 141;, Itinéraires de Philippe le Hardi et de Jean sans Peur, p. 410). For over two months they remained in Flanders, and were entertained by the duke at Ypres, Lille, and St. Omer. The Leicester convention was converted into a treaty (7 Aug.) at Ypres, and supplemented by an additional convention (29 Sept.) at St. Omer (ib. pp. 410-12;, i. 134). On his return, Morgan was sent (5 Dec. 1414) to Paris with the Earl of Dorset's embassy charged to press Henry's claims, continue the negotiations for his marriage with Katherine, and treat for a final peace (Fœdera, ix. 186-7;, Issues of the Exchequer, p. 336). In the middle of April 1415 and again at the beginning of June he was ordered to Paris to secure a prolongation of the truce with France (Fœdera, ix. 221, 260; Ordinances of the Privy Council, ii. 153). The day before Henry sailed for France (10 Aug.) Morgan was despatched as his secret agent to the Duke of Burgundy, in whose dominions he remained until December (Fœdera, ix. 304;, i. 134; , Lancaster and York, i. 241). He was rewarded (2 Jan. 1416) with the prebend of Biggleswade in Lincoln Cathedral (, Fasti, ii. Ill; Rot. Parl. iv. 194). In February he was consulted by the council upon foreign affairs, and he was the chief agent in securing (22 May) the renewal of the special truce with Flanders which the Duke of Burgundy had concluded with Henry IV in 1411 (Fœdera, ix. 331, 352; Ord. Privy Council, ii. 191, 193;, i. 138).

Sigismund, king of the Romans, having now come to England in the hope of mediating a peace between France and England in the interests of the council of Constance, Henry consented (28 June) to send ambassadors, of whom Morgan was one, to treat for a truce and for an interview in Picardy between the two kings (ib. i. 263; Fœdera, ix. 365-6;, König Sigismund und Heinrich der Fünfte, p. 113). A truce for four months was concluded at Calais in September in the presence of Henry and Sigismund by Morgan, together with Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and Sir John Tiptoft (Fœdera, ix. 384;, i. 267; , i. 241; cf. Fœdera, ix. 375; , i. 139-41). In December Morgan and others were sent to secure an alliance with Genoa, whose ships had been assisting the French (Fœdera, ix. 41415). They were also commissioned to treat with Alfonso of Arragon, the princes of Germany, and the Hanse merchants (ib. ix. 410, 412-13). He went on a further mission to the last-named in February 1417 (ib. ix. 437). In November Morgan took part in the futile negotiations at Barneville, near Honfleur, in February 1418 was ordered to hold musters at Bayeux and Caen, and on 8 April was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Normandy (ib. ix. 543, 571, 594;, i. 276-7). He was the spokesman of the English envoys in November in the negotiations at Alencon, in which the dauphin was offered Henry's assistance against Burgundy at the price of great territorial concessions (Fœdera, ix. 632-645;, i. 284-92).

Morgan had fairly earned further advancement, and the see of Worcester falling vacant in March 1419, he was elected (24 April) by the monks. Pope Martin V thought good in the interests of the papacy to specially provide him to the see by bull, dated 19 June (, iii. 60). He made his profession of obedience to Archbishop Chicheley on 9 Sept., received the temporalities on 18 Oct., and on 3 Dec. was consecrated in the cathedral at Rouen along with John Kemp [q.v.] by the Bishops of Evreux and Arras (ib.;, Registrum Sacrum, p. 64; Fœdera, ix. 808). Meanwhile