Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/197

 the archbishop of Canterbury came to their aid, by asserting a similar claim for his own see; and Henry had to dismiss them without any promise of submission to either.

On their return home Richard and the other heads of the Scottish church sent a deputation to Rome to plead their cause, with the result that the pope forbade the archbishop of York to exercise jurisdiction in Scotland, and the Scottish bishops to yield obedience to him, till the question should be settled by the apostolic see; and in 1188 Clement III exempted the Scottish church from all foreign jurisdiction except that of Rome. According to Fordun, Richard died on 28 March 1177, but the chronicle of Melrose gives 1178 as the year of his death, and that of Holyrood 1179. He was held in great honour by his countrymen as a wise man and a good bishop, as an illustrious pillar of the Scottish church, and the successful defender of its independence.

[Fordun's Hist.; Wynton's Chron.; Chron. of Melrose; Dalrymple's Annals; Wilkins's Concilia; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils; Keith's Scottish Bishops; Robertson's Scotland under Early Kings; J. Robertson's Preface to the Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ Statuta; Martin's St. Andrews; Lyons's St. Andrews; Bellesheim's Hist. of the Catholic Church of Scotland.] 

RICHARD (d. 1184), archbishop of Canterbury, a Norman by birth and of humble parentage, received the monastic habit in early life at Christ Church, Canterbury, and after his schooldays were over was admitted a monk there. Archbishop Theobald made him one of his chaplains, and in that office he was associated with Thomas Becket, afterwards archbishop. His high character and affability led to his appointment as prior of St. Martin's, Dover, in 1157 (, ii. 397; Monasticon, iv. 530). When Archbishop Thomas returned to England in December 1170, he sent Richard on a mission to the younger king Henry at Winchester. Richard was not well received by the courtiers, who tried to prevent him from seeing the young king; and when at last he obtained an audience, he was sent back without any satisfactory answer (Memorials of Becket, i. 115, iii. 482).

After Thomas Becket's murder, on 29 Dec. 1170, the see of Canterbury remained vacant for two years and a half. Disputes arose as to the right of election [see under, (d. 1200)]. At length, on 3 June 1173, letters having come from the king and the cardinal-legates urging an election, a meeting was held in St. Catharine's Chapel, Westminster, between the bishops and the monks, who insisted that the choice should fall on one of their own body. Both Odo, prior of Canterbury, and Richard, prior of Dover, were proposed. The monks supported Odo, who represented the party of Becket; but Gilbert Foliot [q. v.], bishop of London, and the other bishops declared for Richard, who was elected accordingly. The justiciar, who was present, gave the royal assent, and Richard, as archbishop-elect, took the oath of fealty to the king ‘saving his order,’ nothing being said as to his observance of ‘the customs of the kingdom,’ or, in other words, the constitutions of Clarendon (, i. 369). His election, though represented as the act of the chapter (, p. 37), and though no doubt to some extent a compromise, was evidently a defeat for the monks, and was probably due to the wish of the king conveyed through the justiciar; for Henry was, of course, anxious not to have an archbishop who would carry on Becket's policy.

Richard was solemnly received at Canterbury on the 8th, but his consecration was forbidden by the younger king, who appealed to Rome, on the ground that the election had been made without his consent. The bishops-elect, whose consecration was stopped in like manner, the chapter of Christ Church, and others sent messengers to Rome to answer the appeal. Richard himself went to Rome shortly afterwards, accompanied by Reginald FitzJocelin [q. v.], bishop-elect of Bath. At Rome Richard was strongly opposed by the young king and his father-in-law, Louis VII of France, who had a powerful party in the Roman court. They alleged that the election was simoniacal, and that Richard had sworn fealty without the usual qualification (saving his order), both which charges he disproved, and, further, that he was of illegitimate birth. Alexander III at last confirmed Richard's election on 2 April 1174, consecrated him at Anagni on the 7th, and gave him the pall, the legatine office, and a letter confirming the primacy of his see (, i. 388–90; Gesta Henrici II, i. 69, 70).

Richard embarked at Astura on 26 May, landed at Genoa, and on 23 June, having arrived at St. Jean de Maurienne, joined Peter, archbishop of Tarantaise, in consecrating his companion, Reginald, to the see of Bath. On 8 Aug. he met the elder Henry on his landing at Barfleur. The king received him with good humour, made him dine with him, and bade him go on to England (ib. p. 74). He entered London on 3 Sept., and while he was there heard of the burning of his cathedral, which took place on the 5th, when Conrad's choir was totally