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The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 bishop
Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
 responsible for the diocese
Diocese

In many rites of the Roman Catholic Church and in Anglicanism, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bi...
 of Durham
Diocese of Durham

The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the Historic counties of England County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne....
 in the province of York
Province of York

The Province of York is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 14 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man....
. The Diocese is one of the oldest in the country and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
. The current Bishop of Durham is Nicholas Thomas Wright, appointed in 2003.

Other duties of the Bishop of Durham include (with the Bishop of Bath and Wells
Bishop of Bath and Wells

The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset....
) escorting the sovereign at the coronation
Coronation of the British monarch

The Coronation of the British Monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom and of the other Commonwealth realms is formally Crown and invested with regalia....
.
Title
He is officially styled The Right Reverend Father in God, (Name), by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Durham, but this full title is rarely used.






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The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 bishop
Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
 responsible for the diocese
Diocese

In many rites of the Roman Catholic Church and in Anglicanism, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bi...
 of Durham
Diocese of Durham

The Diocese of Durham is a Church of England diocese, based in Durham, and covering the Historic counties of England County Durham . It was created in AD 1000 to replace the Diocese of Lindisfarne....
 in the province of York
Province of York

The Province of York is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 14 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man....
. The Diocese is one of the oldest in the country and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
. The current Bishop of Durham is Nicholas Thomas Wright, appointed in 2003.

Other duties of the Bishop of Durham include (with the Bishop of Bath and Wells
Bishop of Bath and Wells

The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset....
) escorting the sovereign at the coronation
Coronation of the British monarch

The Coronation of the British Monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom and of the other Commonwealth realms is formally Crown and invested with regalia....
.

Title


He is officially styled The Right Reverend Father in God, (Name), by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Durham, but this full title is rarely used. In signatures, the bishop's family name
Family name

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
 is replaced by Dunelm, from the Latin name for Durham (the Latinised form of Old English Dunholm). In the past, bishops of Durham varied their signatures between Dunelm and the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 Duresm.

History


Origins


The line of bishops of Durham stretches back to the 10th century, when Aldhun, Bishop of Lindisfarne (995-1018), transferred his see to Durham.

The Bishop owes his unique position to the 7th and 8th century Kingdom of Northumbria
Northumbria

Northumbria is primarily the name of both a medieval petty kingdom of the Angles people, in what is now north east England and southern Scotland, and of the earldom which succeeded it when a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom became England....
, which stretched from the Humber
Humber

The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of northern England.The Humber is an estuary formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse, Yorkshire and the tidal River Trent....
 to the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh, and East Lothian to the south....
. Subsequently the Kingdom came under Danish
Danelaw

The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of Great Britain in which the laws of the "Danes" dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons....
 and English sovereignty and was transformed into an Earldom.

When William the Conqueror became king of England in 1066, he soon realised the need to control Northumbria to protect his kingdom from Scottish incursions. He gained the allegiance of both the Bishop of Durham and the Earl of Northumbria by confirming their privileges and acknowledging the remote independence of Northumbria.

To quell rebellions, William installed Robert Comine
Robert Comine

Robert Comine was very briefly earl of Northumbria. His name suggests that he originally came from Comines, Nord, then in the County of Flanders, and entered the following of William the Conqueror....
, a Norman
Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock....
 noble, as the Earl of Northumbria, but Comine and his 700 men were massacred in Durham. In revenge, the King raided Northumbria in the Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North

The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror, in the winter of 1069–1070 in order to subjugate Northern England and is part of the Norman conquest of England....
. Aethelwine, the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
 Bishop of Durham, tried to flee with Northumbrian treasures, but was caught and imprisoned. He later died in confinement, leaving his see vacant for William to the King to appoint William Walcher
William Walcher

William Walcher or just Walcher was the bishop of Durham from 1071, a Lotharingian, the first non-Englishman to hold that see and an appointee of William the Conqueror....
 as bishop of Durham in 1071.

Prince-Bishop


The King also appointed Waltheof, an Anglo-Saxon of the old Northumbria house, as the new Earl. Bishop William was on friendly terms with Earl Waltheof, who built a castle at Durham for the bishop. After another rebellion, Waltheof was executed in 1075 and in his place William Walcher was appointed Earl, becoming the first Prince Bishop. Walcher was well-intentioned but proved an incompetent leader. He was murdered in Gateshead
Gateshead

Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne, England, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. Gateshead town centre and Newcastle city centre are very close to one another, and together they form the urban core of Tyneside....
 in 1081.

King William Rufus divided the Earldom into two parts: the lands north of the rivers Tyne
River Tyne

The River Tyne is a river in England. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers, the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'....
 and Derwent
River Derwent, North East England

The River Derwent is a river on the border between County Durham and Northumberland in the north east of England. It broadens into the Derwent Reservoir , west of Consett....
 were ruled by the Counts of Northumberland, while the lands south of the rivers were put under the control of the Bishop of Durham.

The lands ruled by the bishops became known as the County Palatine of Durham
County Durham

County Durham is a Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in North East England England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the county is the town of Darlington....
, a defensive buffer zone between England and the Northumbria-Scottish borderland. Due to its strategic importance and its remoteness from London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, the County Palatinate became a virtually autonomous entity, in which the Prince-Bishop possessed the powers of a King. Specifically, the Prince-Bishops had the authority to

  • hold their own parliament
    Parliament

    A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
    s
  • raise their own armies
  • appoint their own sheriffs and justices
  • administer their own laws
  • levy taxes and customs duties
  • create fairs and markets
  • issue charters
  • salvage shipwrecks
  • collect revenue from mines
  • administer the forests
  • mint their own coins


For a period Carlisle
Carlisle

Carlisle is in the City of Carlisle, a district of Cumbria in North West England. It is located at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, River Caldew and River Petteril, south of the Anglo-Scottish border....
 was also placed under the bishop's jurisdiction, to protect the north west of England.

Durham's exceptional status reached its zenith by 1300, when Prince-Bishop Antony Beck remarked that:

"There are two kings in England, namely the Lord King of England, wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown, in sign of his regality in the diocese of Durham".


To ensure that episcopal functions continued to be performed while the diocesan bishop was playing his part in political affairs of state, suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop

A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop....
s were appointed. For instance, Bishop Thomas Langley
Thomas Langley

Thomas Cardinal Langley was a Dean of York, Bishop of Durham , and Lord Chancellor of England, two times and to three kings . In turn keeper of the King's signet and Lord Privy Seal before becoming de facto England's first Foreign Secretary....
 served as chancellor
Chancellor

Chancellor or chancellour is an official title used in countries whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman Empire....
 to the Kings Henry IV
Henry IV of England

Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . Like other kings of England, he also claimed the title of King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence the other name by which he was known, Henry Bolingbroke....
, Henry V
Henry V of England

Henry V was one of the most significant English warrior kings of the 15th century. He was born at Monmouth, Wales, in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle, and reigned as King of England from 1413 to 1422....
 and Henry VI
Henry VI of England

Henry VI was Kingdom of England 1422?1461 and then 1470?1471, and King of France as the de jure monarch from 1422 to 1429....
 and was frequently away in London and occasionally overseas.

Demise


In 1536 Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lordship of Ireland and claimant to the Early Modern France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII of England....
 greatly diminished the Prince-Bishop's secular authority, which was further reduced during and after the English Civil War
English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
.

After the Union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, the County Palatinate, originally founded to check Scottish incursions, increasingly became an anachronism.

The principality was finally abolished in 1836. In 1844 the Islandshire
Islandshire

Islandshire was a region in England, centred around Lindisfarne or Holy Island, including many villages on the mainland. It formed part of the Norham and Islandshires Rural District from 1894 until 1974, and now forms part of the Berwick-upon-Tweed ....
 exclave was transferred to the jurisdiction of Northumberland, while the Bishop's duty to maintain a major fortress overlooking the Tweed at Norham
Norham

Norham is a village in Northumberland, England, just south of the River Tweed and the border with Scotland.It is the site of the 12th century Norham Castle, and was for many years the centre for the Norhamshire exclave of County Durham....
 also came to an end. 1882 saw the Bishop lose the religious leadership for the whole of Northumbria when the Diocese of Newcastle
Diocese of Newcastle

The Diocese of Newcastle is a Church of England diocese based in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering the historic county of Northumberland . The area of Alston Moor in Cumbria also forms part of the diocese....
 was created. In 1971 the Courts Act
Courts Act 1971

The Courts Act 1971 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and Wales....
 modernised the English courts system and abolished the Palatinate courts.

Still, people born in Bedlington
Bedlington

Bedlington is a town in the Wansbeck district of Northumberland, to the north of the Tyne and Wear urban area. It lies north of Newcastle upon Tyne and northeast of the county town of Morpeth, Northumberland....
 or the other parts of old North Durham, had birth certificates issued with the County Palatine of Durham printed on them, and the North Durham satellite areas governed their areas as Urban District Councils still under the rule of Durham. This prevailed until 1974, when administrative boundaries where changed and all of these areas, and other "autonomous" towns connected to Durham, lost their independence.

Seals

To differentiate his ecclesiastical and civil functions, the Bishops used two or more seals: the traditional almond-shaped seal of a cleric, and the oval seal of a nobleman. They also had a large round seal showing them seated administering justice on one side, and, on the other, armed and mounted on horseback. That design was, and still is, used by monarchs as the Great Seal of the Realm
Great Seal of the Realm

The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom is a Seal that is used to symbolise the monarch's approval of important state documents....
.

Coat of arms

As a symbol of his palatine jurisdiction, the Bishop of Durham’s coat of arms was set against a crosier and a sword, instead of two crosiers, and the mitre above the coat of arms was encircled with a coronet, usually of the form known as a ‘crest coronet’ (and which is blazoned as a ‘ducal coronet’ though not actually the coronet of a duke). Although the jurisdiction was surrendered to the Crown in 1836, these heraldic symbols of their former power remain.

Bishop's Palace

The bishop's palace is Auckland Castle
Auckland Castle

Auckland Castle is a castle within Bishop Auckland in County Durham, England. The castle has a large, locally famous arch, which visitors must go under to enter the Bishop's Park....
 in Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in North East England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham City at the Confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless....
. Until the 1830s it was Durham Castle
Durham Castle

Durham Castle is a Normans castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. The castle stands on top of a hill above the River Wear on Durham's peninsula, opposite Durham Cathedral ....
.

See also



External links