Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Norwich, Ralph de
NORWICH, RALPH de (fl. 1256), chancellor of Ireland, one of King John's clerks, was sent to Ireland as the king's messenger in May 1216, and having returned to England with a message from Geoffrey de Marisco [q. v.], the justiciary, was on the accession of Henry III detained by the government in order that he might give information as to Irish affairs (Fœdera, i. 175), and in December was forgiven a debt to the crown of one hundred shillings (Sweetman, Calendar of Irish Documents, i. No. 737). He was sent back to Ireland on the king's business in February 1217, and was employed there on exchequer affairs in 1218 (ib. Nos. 761, 829). Probably in 1219 he was sent by the Bishop of Winchester and the chief justiciary [see Burgh, Hubert de, d. 1243] on a message to the Archbishop of York [see Grey or Gray, Walter de], whom he found at Scroby, Yorkshire, and was paid two marks for his expenses (Royal Letters, Henry III, i. 39). He was this year sent back to Ireland with another messenger, ten marks being paid to the two. Stormy weather delayed his return to England in the spring of 1220 (Close Rolls, i. 407, 413, 420). When he came back he was granted a yearly salary of twenty marks until the king should bestow on him a benefice of greater value. He was employed in managing the duty on wool, and received the guardianship of the lands of certain great lords, but these guardianships appear to have been nominal, for in each case the lands seem to have passed almost at once out of his hands. Returning again to Ireland in September, he was engaged in exchequer business there in 1221, and on coming back to England received seven marks over and above the five marks usually allowed him for expenses. In 1224 he received the rectory of Acle, Norfolk, and in 1225 that of Brehull, Oxfordshire (Foss), and about this time was jointly with Elyas de Sunning a justice for the Jews (ib.) He held a canonry in St. Patrick's Church, Dublin, in 1227 (Chartulary, St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, i. 41; Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, ii. 192), and in 1229 received the custody of the bishopric of Emly, with instructions to use the revenues in the king's interest in the dispute between the king and John, who claimed to be bishop-elect (Documents, i. Nos. 1589, 1650, 1692). In 1229 he was commissioned to advise the archbishops and bishops of Ireland with reference to the collection of the sixteenth levied on ecclesiastical benefices, and to bring the sum collected over to England. He accordingly brought two thousand marks to the king from Richard de Burgh (Documents, Nos. 1699, 1781). He was appointed a justice of the king's bench, and was one of the judges who heard the case between the burgesses and the prior of Dunstable (Annals of Dunstable, an. 1229). Notices of him as acting as justice in England occur until 1234 (Foss). In 1231 it was reported that he was dead, and his death is recorded under that year in the ‘Annals of Dunstable.’ In order to protect his lands in Ireland from sequestration he obtained a writ from the king declaring that he was alive and well. In 1232 he attested the king's statement of the proceedings taken against Hubert de Burgh, and in 1233 was one of the justices appointed to receive Hubert's abjuration of the kingdom (Fœdera, i. 208, 211). On 9 July 1249 the king appointed him his chancellor in Ireland, with an allowance of sixty marks a year until a more liberal provision should be made for him (Documents, i. Nos. 2998, 3000). Geoffrey de Cusack, bishop of Meath, had exercised his rights as bishop without having previously obtained the royal assent to his promotion, and Ralph, who had accepted a benefice from him in 1254, received the king's command to vacate it (ib. ii. No. 352). The king having made over the lordship of Ireland to his eldest son, Edward, in 1256, Ralph sent back the seal of his office. Another chancellor was appointed shortly afterwards (ib. Nos. 500, 552). He was in this year elected archbishop of Dublin, and the election was approved by the king, but his proctors at the papal court are said to have played him false. Pope Alexander IV quashed the election, reproved the electors for choosing a man of wholly secular life and engaged in the king's business, and appointed Fulk of Sanford, archdeacon of Middlesex, to the archbishopric by bull. Ralph was a witty man, of sumptuous habits, and from his youth more skilled in the affairs of the king's court than in the learning of the schools (Matthew Paris, v. 560).
[Foss's Judges, ii. 433, leaves Ralph at 1234; Dugdale's Origines, p. 43, and Chron. Survey; Sweetman's Documents, Ireland, i. Nos. 737, 761, 829, 922, 972, 1589, 1650, 1699, 1781, 2998, 3000, ii. Nos. 352, 500, 513 (Rolls Ser.); Royal Letters, Hen. III, i. 39, 99, 108, ii. 135 (Rolls Ser.); Rymer's Fœdera, i. 145, 208, 211 (Record ed.); Rot. Litt. Claus. i. 298, 343, 351, 407, 413, 420, 423, 430, 431, 631, ii. 47, 62 (Record publ.); Chartularies, St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, i. 41 (Rolls Ser.); Ann. Dunstapliæ, ap. Ann. Monast. iii. 122, 126 (Rolls Ser.); M. Paris's Chron. Maj. v. 560 (Rolls Ser.); Ware's Works, i. 321, ed. Harris.]