Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mansel, John
MANSEL or MAUNSELL, JOHN (d. 1265), keeper of the seal and counsellor of Henry III, was the son of a country priest (Matt. Paris, v. , v. 129), a circumstance which probably explains the allegation that he was of illegitimate birth (Placita de quo warranto, p. 749). Weever, however, says that he had seen a pedigree showing his descent from Philip de Mansel, who came over with the Conqueror (Funerall Monuments, p. 273), and Burke makes him a descendant of Henry Mansel, eldest son of Philip (Dormant and Extinct Peerage, p. 354), but these statements are opposed to the known facts. Mansel was brought up from early youth at court (Fœdera, i. 414), but the first mention of him is on 5 July 1234, when he was appointed to reside at the exchequer of receipt and to have one roll of the said receipt (Madox, Exchequer, ii. 51). The office thus created seems to have been a new one, and was probably that of chancellor of the exchequer, which is first spoken of by name a few years later. Soon after Easter 1238 Henry III despatched a force under Henry de Trubleville to aid the Emperor Frederick in his warfare with the cities of northern Italy. Mansel accompanied the expedition, and distinguished himself at the capture of various cities during the summer and in the warfare with the Milanese. After his return to England Mansel was in 1241 presented to the prebend of Thame by a papal provision, and in despite of the bishop, Robert Grosseteste. Grosseteste was highly indignant at the infringement of his rights, and Mansel rather than create trouble withdrew his claim, and obtained in recompense the benefices of Maidstone and Howden. Next year Mansel accompanied the king on his expedition to France, and distinguished himself in the fight at Saintes, on 22 July, when he unhorsed Peter Orige, seneschal of the Count of Boulogne. In the spring of 1243 Mansel was present at the siege of the monastery of Vérines, in the department of Charente-Inférieure; he again distinguished himself by his vigour and courage, and was severely wounded by a stone hurled from the wall. On his recovery after a long illness he rose yet higher in the royal favour, and in 1244 the king made him his chief counsellor. He had returned to England with the king in September 1243.
On 8 Nov. 1246 Mansel received custody of the great seal, which office he held till 28 Aug. 1247, when he surrendered it to go on an embassy for the king (Rot. Pat. 31 Hen. III, m. 2). He does not appear to have held the title of chancellor, for Matthew Paris speaks of him simply as ‘having custody of the seal to fill the office and duty of chancellor’ (iv. 601). The object of Mansel's foreign mission was to treat for a marriage between the king's son Edward and the daughter of the Duke of Brabant; the negotiations proved futile, and in 1248 Mansel returned to England. On 17 Aug. 1248 he again received custody of the great seal, and held it till 8 Sept. 1249. In October of the latter year he was taken ill, it was said from poison, at Maidstone. On 7 March 1250 he took the cross along with the king and many nobles. In June he was one of the entertainers of the general chapter of the Dominicans then being held in London.
As the foremost of the royal counsellors Mansel was employed by Henry to obtain the bishopric of Winchester for his half-brother Aymer [q. v.] in September 1250. His influence with the king enabled him to intercede successfully in behalf of Henry de Bathe [q. v.] and of Philip Lovel [q. v.], though in both cases his application was at first refused. He also interceded for Richard of Croxley, abbot of Westminster, and was appointed, together with Earl Richard of Cornwall, to arbitrate between the abbot and his convent. In these cases Mansel was acting on behalf of men who had been his colleagues in public life; more questionable was his support of his brother-in-law, Sir Geoffrey Childewike, in his quarrel with the abbey of St. Albans, which dispute was through his influence decided against the abbey (Matt. Paris, v. 129, 234; Gesta Abbatum, i. 315–20). Mansel himself was at this time (1251–2) engaged in a dispute with the abbey of Tewkesbury as to the tithes of Kingston Manor, he being then rector of Ferring, Sussex. The quarrel was decided by the arbitration of the bishop of Chichester (Ann. Mon. i. 147–9). In the autumn of 1251 he was employed on a mission to treat for peace with Scotland and arrange a marriage between Alexander III and Henry's daughter Margaret. In 1253 he accompanied the king to Gascony, and on 15 May was sent with William de Bitton, bishop of Bath and Wells, to treat with Alfonso of Castile; in this commission he is described as the king's secretary (Fœdera, i. 290). The object of the mission was to arrange for a marriage between the king's son Edward and Alfonso's sister; the mission was unsuccessful, but a second one in February 1254, in which Mansel also took part, fared better, and the treaty was signed on 1 April. In the following October Mansel was present at Burgos, on the occasion of Edward's marriage to Eleanor of Castile. During these negotiations he had obtained from Alfonso a charter renouncing any rights that he had in Gascony, and also the grant of certain liberties for pilgrims going to Compostella. In September 1255, Mansel and Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, were sent to Edinburgh to inquire into the treatment of the young queen Margaret. This delicate mission was successfully performed, and Margaret and her husband were released from the tutelage of Robert de Ros and John de Baliol (Cat. Docs. Scotl, i. 381-8). As a consequence of his negotiations with the pope, Henry III had agreed to go to Apulia and prosecute his son Edmund's claims in person. For this purpose he desired a free passage through France, and on 24 Jan. 1256 Mansel was sent to treat with Louis IX (Fœdera, i. 335). On 30 Jan. Henry wrote a long letter to Mansel with reference to the affairs of Gascony and Castile, giving him full authority to decide the matter on account of his great knowledge of the subject (Shirley, ii. 110-11). In June Mansel was sent with the Earl of Gloucester to Germany, to negotiate with the electors as to the choice of Richard of Cornwall to be king of the Romans. After much bargaining and bribery their object was accomplished by the election of Richard on 13 Jan. 1257 (Ann. Mon. iv. 112). Mansel was back in England in time for the Lent parliament on 25 March. In June he was appointed, with Simon de Montfort and others, to treat with the pope as to Sicily, but does not appear to have left England (Fœdera, i. 359-60). During the summer both of this and the following year he was engaged in the north of England and in Scotland on missions to arrange the dispute between Alexander III and his rebellious subject' (ib. i. 347, 376; Cal. Docs. Scotl. i. 2131, 2133; Chron. de Mailros, p. 184). In January 1258 he held an examination of the civic officers of London at the Guildhall, and deposed several aldermen (Lib. de Ant. Legibus, pp. 30-7, Camden Soc.; Ann. Lond. in Chron. Edw. I and II, i. 50).
When at the parliament of Oxford in June 1258 Henry had to assent to a new scheme of government, 'the provisions of Oxford,' Mansel was named one of the royal representatives on the committee of twenty-four, and was likewise a member of the council of fifteen, having previously been one of the two royal electors appointed for its choice. In March he was associated with the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester and others in the mission to France, which led to the abandonment of the English king's claims on Normandy. In May he was employed with the Earl of Gloucester to arrange the marriage between Henry's daughter Beatrice and John of Brittany (Fœdera, i. 382, 386). In October he was with the queen at St. Albans, and in the following month accompanied the king to France (cf. Shirley, ii. 152, 155). When Edward quarrelled with his father in 1260, Mansel and Richard, earl of Gloucester, were the only royal counsellors who were admitted freely to the kind's presence. In August 1260 the temporalities of Durham were entrusted to Mansel during the vacancy of the see, and while in charge of the bishopric he entertained the king and queen of Scotland in October (Flores Hist. ii. 455; Cal. Docs. Scotl. i. 2204).
Mansel is said to have advised Henry to withdraw from 'the provisions' (Ann. Mon. iv. 128), and in March 1261 Henry was compelled to dismiss him from his council. Mansel took refuge in the Tower, but when in May he learnt of the removal of the baronial justiciar and chancellor by the king, he left London by stealth and joined Henry at Winchester. Mansel was apparently alarmed for the consequences of Henry's action, and by his advice the king then came to London; no doubt he was Henry's adviser in his subsequent vigorous action with regard to the appointment of the sheriffs.
On 5 July he was one of the arbitrators to decide all grounds of dispute between the king and the Earl and Countess of Leicester (Shirley, ii. 175). In November he was one of the arbitrators appointed to decide the dispute as to the appointment of the sheriffs (Ann. Mon. iv. 129). On 1 Jan. 1262 the council charged Mansel with having stirred up strife between the king and his nobles, but Henry on the same day addressed a warm letter of defence to the Roman curia (Fœdera, i. 414). It was through Mansel's exertions that in the following month a papal bull was obtained, securing for Henry the fullest release from all his obligations (Shirley, ii. 206). In July he went over with the king to France as keeper of the great seal, but resigned the office on 10 Oct., and after that date is again called the king's secretary. He returned to England with the king on 20 Dec. When open war broke out in the following spring, Mansel was one of the chief objects of the barons' wrath. After sheltering for some time in the Tower, he proceeded stealthily with the king's son Edmund to Dover, and thence on 29 June crossed over to Boulogne, Henry of Almaine, then a supporter of De Montfort, pursuing him in hot haste. All his lands in England were bestowed on De Montfort's son Simon. Mansel never returned to England; he was present at the Mise of Amiens on 23 Jan. 1264, and in February was acting for Henry in his negotiations with Louis IX. After the battle of Lewes he was one of the royalists who endeavoured to collect a force for the invasion of England (Lib. de Antiquis Legibus, pp. 67-69; Chron. Edw. I and II, i. 64). He died in France in great poverty, about the feast of St. Fabian, 20 Jan. 1265 (ib. i. 66; Chron. de Mailros, p. 214).
Mansel acquired an ill-name as the holder of numerous benefices; he is said to have had as many as three hundred, so that 'there was no wealthier clerk in the world.' Even in 1252 his annual rents were estimated at four thousand marks (Matt. Paris, v. 355), and another estimate puts them as high as eighteen thousand (Chron. de Mailros, p. 214). On 20 Aug. 1256 he entertained Henry and Eleanor, the king and queen of Scotland, and many nobles at a magnificent banquet, such as no clerk had ever given (Matt. Paris, v. 575). His chief preferments, with the dates of his appointment, were: chancellor of St. Paul's, 24 May 1243; dean of Wimborne Minster, 13 Dec. 1246; provost of Beverley, 1247; according to Dugdale he had resigned it by 1251, but he is still styled provost in 1258 (Monast. Angl. vi. 1307, 492-3; cf. Fœdera, i. 335); treasurer of York, January 1256. At various times he held prebends at London, Lincoln, Wells, Chichester, York, and Bridgnorth in Shropshire; he also held the benefices of Hooton, Yorkshire (Chron. de Melsa, ii. 112), Wigan, Howden, Ferring in Sussex, Sawbridgeworth in Dorset, and Maidstone in Kent. He is said to have refused more than one bishopric. The Melrose chronicler relates how when he had on one occasion obtained a fair benefice of 20l., he exclaimed 'This will provide for my dogs,' He founded a priory for Austin canons at Bilsington, near Romney in Kent, in June 1253, according to his charter, but in 1 258 according to Matthew Paris (v. 690-1; Dugdale, Monast. Angl. vi. 492-3). It is not clear that he is the John Mansel whom John of Pontoise, bishop of Winchester (d. 1305), in his bequest to the university of Oxford, desired to be held in remembrance (Munimenta Academica, i. 82, ii. 371, Rolls Ser.) As rector of Wigan he obtained the first charter for that town on 26 Aug. 1246.
Mansel incurred much odium as having been Henry's chief adviser during the long era of his unpopularity, and also on account of his vast accumulation of preferment. An ecclesiastic only from the custom of his time, he was no doubt more at home in the council chamber or even the battle-field than in the church. But whatever his demerits, he must certainly have been a capable and diligent administrator. He served his master with unswerving loyalty, and was a true friend to many of his colleagues.
In the inquisition of Mansel's estates held after his death it was reported that his nearest heir was unknown; there is, however, a reference to a cousin Amabilla de Rypun (Col. Gen. i. 118). According to the statements in Burke, Mansel married Joan, daughter of Simon Beauchamp of Bedford, and left three sons: Henry, ancestor of the extinct baronets of that name and of Baron Mansell of Margam; Thomas, ancestor of Sir Richard Mansel of Muddlescombe, Carmarthenshire; and a third from whom descend the Maunsels of Limerick (Dormant Peerage: Baronetage: Landed Gentry). But it is extremely unlikely that an ecclesiastic in Mansel's position should have contracted any sort of marriage. More probably there has been some confusion with a namesake; another John Mansel is known to have held lands at Rossington, Yorkshire, in the reign of Henry III.
[Matthew Paris; Annales Monastici; Gervase of Canterbury; Chron. Edward I and II; Flores Historiarum; Shirley's Royal and Historical Letters (all these are in the Rolls Ser.); Rishanger's Chronicle and Liber de Antiquis Legibus (Camd. Soc); Melrose Chronicle (Bannatyne Club); Rymer's Fœdera (Record ed.); Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Foss's Judges of England, ii. 391-7; Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, i. 135; Bridgeman's History of Wigan Church, i. 4-30 (Chetham Society); other authorities quoted.]