William Knight (bishop)

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William Knight
Archdeacon of Richmond
Archdeacon of Chester
King's Clerk
In office
1526–1528
MonarchHenry VII
Preceded byRichard Pace
Succeeded byStephen Gardiner

William Knight (1475/76 – 1547

Henry VIII of England, and Bishop of Bath and Wells
.

Knight was sent to Rome in 1527 to try to get Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. He rebuilt Horton Court in Gloucestershire using ideas from Italian architecture.

Life

Born in London, he entered

Sir Edward Howard to Spain, and, after storms and sickness, reached Valladolid 18 February 1513. He had received a commission authorising him and John Stile to treat with Ferdinand II of Aragon about the defence of the church. Knight remained at Valladolid till June 1513.[3]

On 3 April 1514 he was at

Sir Edward Poynings. In July he seems to have visited Switzerland. He received, on 14 July 1514, a grant of arms;[4] in the grant he is described as prothonotary.[3]

In May 1515 Knight is styled chaplain to the king; in the same year he became dean of the collegiate church of Newark, Leicestershire. On 7 May he was appointed ambassador with Sir Edward Poynings to

Bergen-op-Zoom on 29 May. He remained in Flanders during the rest of 1515, and found himself short of money. In February 1516 the treaty had been concluded.[3]

He probably came to England in 1516, as he was in that year collated to the prebend of Farrendon-cum-Balderton in

clerk of the closet he was at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520; and seems to have been made prebendary of Llanvair in Bangor Cathedral in the same year.[3]

On 10 June 1520 he was commissioned, with

archdeacon of Huntingdon. About August 1526 he became secretary to the king.[3]

In 1527, though he complained that he was old and losing his sight, Henry decided to send him to Rome to promote his divorce;

Monterotundo (4 December 1527), and when he entered Rome all he could do was to send in his letters of credence with a note of what the king wished. On 19 December 1527 Knight, while still in Italy, was made canon of Westminster. By the end of December, Henry Jerningham wrote that the secret of Knight's negotiation had not been well kept, and that the Emperor had written to the pope accordingly. Full instructions were then sent to Knight, with a commission to Wolsey and another, which, if signed by the pope, would have empowered them to settle the divorce. On 1 January 1528 the Pope had been set free, and Knight visited him at Orvieto. Cardinal St. Quatuor (to whom two thousand crowns were given) had made some alterations in the commission, and the pope signed it. Knight arrived in London in February 1528 and admitted the failure of this embassy.[3]

He went (13 December 1528) on another mission with William Benet to

archdeacon of Richmond on 7 December until 1541.[3]
[5]

In February 1532 Hacket and Knight were appointed to treat with the emperor's commissioners about commerce; the embassy did not bear much fruit. Knight held at this time the rectory of

Romald Kirk, Yorkshire. On 30 January 1535 Knight was a commissioner for collecting the ecclesiastical tenths, and on 15 October 1537 was present at the christening of Edward VI.[3]

On 29 May 1541 he was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells, in succession to John Clerk, and he resigned all his other preferments. At Wells Thomas Fuller relates that he built a market cross with the assistance of Dean Woolman. He died in 1547 at Wiveliscombe, Somerset, and was buried in Wells Cathedral next to Sugar's Chapel, where a pulpit which he had erected and which bears his arms served as a monument. He was a patron of Henry Cole. When in London Knight lived in a house in Cannon Row, Westminster, afterwards (1536) assigned, in accordance with an act of 27 Henry VIII, to the bishops of Norwich. By his will he left money to Winchester and New Colleges.[3]

References

  1. ^ Richard Clark, ‘Knight, William (1475/6–1547)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005
  2. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Kandruth-Kyte
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Knight, William (1476-1547)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. ^ Party per fess or and gules, an eagle with two heads displayed sable; on its breast a demi-rose and a demi-sun conjoined into one, counterchanged of the field.
  5. ^ Jones, B. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: volume 6: Northern province (York, Carlisle and Durham): Archdeacons: Richmond. Institute for Historical Research.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain"Knight, William (1476-1547)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State
1526–1528
Succeeded by
Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Bath and Wells
1541–1547
Succeeded by