Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corbridge, Thomas of
CORBRIDGE, THOMAS of (d. 1304), archbishop of York, was probably native of the little town of Corbridge on the Upper Tyne, near Hexham. He became a doctor of divinity (Rishanger, p. 194, Rolls Ser.), but at what university seems to be unknown. Dr. Stubbs (Act. Pont. Ebor. col. 1728) also declares him to have been an incomparable professor of all the liberal arts. He became prebendary of Oswaldwick in York Minster (Le Neve, iii. 206), but resigned it in 1279, when he was made chancellor of the cathedral on Wickwaine's elevation to the archbishopric. In 1280 he was appointed with the archdeacon of Richmond to inquire into the election of Robert of Scarborough to the deanery. In 1281 he was sent to Rome on cathedral business at the expense of Archbishop Wickwaine. On 16 June 1290 he was made sacrist of St. Sepulchre's Chapel, York, and gave up the chancellorship on the condition that he should not be annoyed or molested in his office, the previous occupant of which, Percival de Lavannia, an Italian nominee of the pope, had left everything in confusion. But Corbridge soon found such troubles on the manors of his new benefice, that he took advantage of a stipulation he had insisted on to resume his post of chancellor, which, however, had been already occupied by Thomas of Wakefield. An unseemly dispute ensued, in which Archbishop Romanus upheld Wakefield, while the dean and chapter vigorously supported Corbridge. The latter went to Rome to urge his claims on the curia, but failed to win his case. He had already incurred sentence of excommunication (27 July 1290). The remission of the sentence in March 1291 probably points to his submission. Wakefield seems to have held the chancellorship until his death in 1297, and even then the appointment of Robert of Riplingham was in complete disregard of Corbridge's claims (Le Neve, iii. 164). He retained, however, the sacristy and also the stall of Stillington. His favour with the chapter led to his election by a majority as archbishop on 12 Nov. 1299 in succession to Henry of Newark. On 16 Nov. Edward I gave his consent (Pat. 27 E. I, m. 2, in Le Neve, iii. 104). Corbridge proceeded to Rome for his pallium, and was there consecrated bishop by Boniface VIII himself. The pope insisted, however, on a surrender of the archbishopric into his own hands, and on reappointing Corbridge of his own authority. He also nominated his own grandnephew to Corbridge's vacant preferments.
Little of great importance happened during Corbridge's tenure of the archbishopric. His episcopal register, though copious enough in its entries, testifies by the singular absence of public documents of general interest the personal insignificance or want of influence of the archbishop. His name is rarely found in the state papers of the period, and still less in the chronicles. In 1301 he attended the parliament of Lincoln, and in 1302 those of Westminster and London. In 1303 he sent his contingent against the Scots. The northern war brought the king and court a great deal to York, and on several occasions Corbridge was involved in disputes with Edward. In his quarrels with the provost of Beverley, who wished to settle the question of the visitation of that church in the English courts, while Corbridge wanted to have it decided at Rome, Edward strongly took the side of Beverley. Again in 1304 Corbridge resented Edward's attempt to force John Bush, one of his clerks, into his own old preferment, now vacant apparently by Francesco Gaetani's resignation. The king completely disregarded the appointment of Gilbert Segrave, favoured both by pope and archbishop. John Bush won his suit in the royal courts, which adjudged that the benefices were in the royal gift. The temporalities of the see were seized upon by the king, and remained in his hands until the archbishop's death. Under Corbridge's prelacy the chronic feud with the archbishop of Canterbury with reference to the right of the northern primate to bear his cross erect within the southern province involved him in more than one dispute with Archbishop Winchelsea. The equally interminable feud with York's only powerful suffragan, the Bishop of Durham, was also continued. Corbridge wrote a strong letter to Bishop Antony Bek [see Bek, Antony I], remonstrating against his extraordinary conduct in besieging the prior and convent of Durham, cutting off their supplies, and stopping their water. We do not learn that he obtained much satisfaction. It was probably much easier to compel the weak bishop of Whithern to cause the restoration to Alexander, son of Robert Bruce, of the goods of his church of Carnmoel, stolen while he was at his studies at Cambridge. Corbridge showed, as his dealings with Durham and Beverley prove, a commendable zeal for the interests of his see. He also vindicated the old right of the archbishop to coin money. He manifested his strictness by forbidding tournaments and duels during Lent. His papal leanings came out in his quarrels with the king. He was, however, a friend of Edmund, earl of Cornwall, and was left in that noble's will the legacy of a ring of gold. He provided fairly for his kinsfolk, several of whose names appear in the documents of the period. He died in disgrace at Laneham in Nottinghamshire on 22 Sept. 1304. He was buried at Southwell on 29 Sept. beneath a blue marble slab close to the pulpit. The effigy is now destroyed.
[All that is known of Corbridge is to be found collected in Canon Raine's biography of him in Fasti Eboracenses, pp. 353–61, the main authorities for which are the life in Stubbs's Act. Pontif. Ebor. cols. 1728–9, and Corfield's MS. Register, extracts from which are given. Several of his letters from the same source are printed in Canon Raine's Letters from the Northern Registers (Rolls Series). Other facts come from Prynne's Records, vol. iii.; Parliamentary Writs, i. 89, 112, 114, 367, 370; Wilkins's Concilia; ii. 255, 264; Abbreviatio Placitorum, pp. 251–2; Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, ed. Hardy, iii. 104, 163, 206, 212; MS. Cotton Vitellius A. ii.; Godwin, De Præsulibus (1743), pp. 684–5.]