Henry Chichele

c.1362-1443. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1414. One of the able lawyer-bishops of the Middle Ages upon whom so much of the administration in church and state depended, he was the son of a Northamptonshire merchant, and furthered his career through the patronage of the house of Lancaster and of William of Wykeham. The latter had him educated at Winchester and his foundation at Oxford. After diplomatic missions abroad, Chichele became bishop of St. David's (1408) and went as a delegate to the Council of Pisa* (1409). He enjoyed the special favor of Henry V and became archbishop of Canterbury in 1414. After Henry's death, however, Pope Martin V and the powerful Bishop Beaufort attacked him for failing to extend papal authority in England against the Statute of Provisors, and his legatine authority was briefly suspended (1427-29). He supported education by promoting graduate clergy and founding All Souls College, Oxford (1438).