Henry Burghersh

Henry Burghersh (* 1292, † December 4, 1340 ) was an English bishop and chancellor and took in his late years important diplomatic tasks for the English king Edward III.

Life

Henry Burghersh was the son of Robert de Burghersh († 1305) and a nephew of Bartolemew de Badlesmere. He attended in France.

On May 27, 1320 was due to the influence of his uncle Pope John XXII. appointed bishop of Lincoln, notwithstanding the fact that the local chapter had already appointed another successor for the vacant bishopric. He received his ordination on July 20, 1320. After the execution of Badlesmere in 1322 Castle Hersh's property was confiscated by the English King Edward II and asked the Pope to remove him from office. In early 1326 his possessions were restored but what Burghersh however, did not stop, in the aftermath Isabella of France, to support the wife Edwards, publicly in their ultimately successful efforts to oust her husband.

He served Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, who exercised de facto government affairs for the still underage king from 1327 to 1328 as Lord Treasurer and then to 1330 as chancellor. His candidacy for the seat of the Archbishop in Canterbury suggested, however, fails and 1330, after the overthrow of Isabella he was initially dismissed and imprisoned all offices. But he could soon secure his release and served Edward III. 1334-1337 again as Lord Treasurer. During this time he gained the trust of the young King and was the face of growing tensions between France and England to the advocates of a confrontational course against the French crown. From 1337 he was appointed by Edward III. repeatedly entrusted with highly sensitive diplomatic missions to Flanders. So he was partly due to the emergence of the Anglo -Flemish alliance with the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1340, and accompanied the expedition Edwards to Tournai. He died in the same year in Ghent.