archdeacon of Taunton 17 April 1205, and seems to have retained his office until his death, c. 1217. His main function was to command the Cinque Ports and to be generally responsible for the king's navy.
The appended table will show the tentative results of the present enquiry:
| Archdeacon of Wells c. 1076–c. 1090 Benselin | ||
| Archdeacons of Bath
c. 1094–c. 1120 Girbert | ||
Wells c. 1146 Eustace |
Bath c. 1146 Martin |
Taunton c. 1146 Hugh de Tournai |
APPENDIX C
The Early Career of John Cumin, Archbishop of Dublin
The importance of the primacy of John Cumin, the first English archbishop of Dublin and the immediate successor of St Laurence O'Toole, is duly recognised by the writers of Irish history. The conquest of Ireland had proceeded apace since the first Normans landed in 1167. King Henry the Second, jealous from the outset of the exploits of the invaders and dreading their possible assertion of independence, had himself spent six months in the country from October 1171 to April of the following year. In 1176 Strongbow died, and the next year Henry created his son John, then in his tenth year, 'Lord of Ireland'. Hugh de Lacy was appointed viceroy: his rule was strong and peaceful; but Henry, thinking perhaps that he was becoming too powerful, recalled him for a brief period in 1181. In November 1180 the last Celtic archbishop of Dublin had passed away, and the king determined to take the opportunity thus offered of appointing in his place a faithful official of his own, one of his 'new men', and so creating a fresh power in the conquered territory which should counterbalance the Dower of his nobles. In September 1181 some of the Dublin clergy met the king at the abbey of Evesham, and John Cumin, 'his clerk and a member of his household', was given them as their new archbishop.[1]
A curious error has prevailed as to John Cumin's antecedents: for it
- ↑ 'Clericus et familiaris suus', Gesta Henrici II (Rolls Series), i. 280.
